The Titans headed into last weekend\u2019s opener armed with a pair of receivers who had totaled a combined seven 1,000-yard NFL seasons.<\/p>\n
But neither Calvin Ridley nor Tyler Lockett provided nearly enough impact in the team\u2019s one-score loss at Denver.<\/p>\n
The former didn\u2019t make the most of his opportunities. The latter hardly got any.<\/p>\n
Bottom line: The Titans are going to need far better from the two vets than a combined four catches for 27 yards if the team is ever going to discover the end zone, a destination that proved unreachable in Week 1.<\/p>\n
Though Ridley accounted for all the production between the two on Sunday, the contest still proved a forgettable one for the seven-year pro, who is in the second season of a four-year, $92 million contract.<\/p>\n
Blanketed for much of the contest by Broncos All-Pro cornerback Patrick Surtain, Ridley did shake loose often enough to be targeted by Ward eight times.<\/p>\n
But he averaged just 6.8 yards on his four receptions and \u2014 even worse \u2014dropped two passes, including a critical shot over the middle as the Titans were trying to rally for a late tying score.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was frustrated,\u201d Ridley said. \u201cPracticed good, had a good camp, expected to play good \u2026 I was ready to play. I mean, I didn\u2019t expect to do that at all \u2014 at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was also the strange screen attempt near the end of the first half, when Ridley, Lockett and Chig Okonkwo \u2014 all bunched near the right sideline \u2014 moved forward in a blocking formation.<\/p>\n
One of those pass-catchers \u2014 likely Ridley, based on the play call \u2014 was supposed to be a pass catcher. But Ward had to throw the ball away.<\/p>\n
\u201cMan, I\u2019m not sure [what happened on that play],\u201d Ridley said. \u201cI\u2019m moving on from that game. It was a bad game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The good news for Ridley is there are 16 more games this season and, considering he suffered only one multi-drop game in 2024, things are likely to get better in the production department.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe communicate about drops, about incomplete balls, everything,\u201d Ward said. \u201c[But] I’m not going to get on them guys for dropping the ball. I’m going to throw a pick at some point in the season, so bad plays are going to happen … I\u2019m not really worried about that. Them boys are going to catch the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lockett, meanwhile, was a forgotten man, as the 11-year veteran was targeted just once during his 33 snaps \u2014 and the pass fell incomplete.<\/p>\n
The contest marked just the second time in the last five years Lockett failed to haul in at least one pass, though those two goose-egg games have come in his last six outings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think every receiver expects targets, but you can\u2019t control all those types of things,\u201d Lockett said. \u201cYou just got to play. There\u2019s so many different, intricate things that have to happen to get the ball, whether it\u2019s running the right routes, us getting open or the line being able to block. So you need a lot of things to work out in your favor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Did Lockett feel he was creating enough separation to have been targeted more often during the opener?<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, there were some [plays] \u2026 where of course I was open, [and] I was able to find open voids or create separation,\u201d Lockett said. \u201cBut there were other things that played into it, so I wasn\u2019t able to get it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been in the league for so long, man, I understand how it is. Sometimes you\u2019re going to get a lot of targets. Sometimes you\u2019re not. But you just got to be able to put the wins [against coverage] on film and just go about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old Lockett isn\u2019t the receiver he was a few years ago, when he recorded four straight 1,000-yard seasons in Seattle from 2019-22.<\/p>\n
But he certainly seems to have the kind of veteran expertise to provide Ward with a viable option moving forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are some times where I was used to getting 10-12 targets a game, and there\u2019s times where you might not get anything like that,\u201d Lockett said. \u201cBut \u2026 you keep trying to show up, and when your chance comes, you\u2019re able to make hay with it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Titans headed into last weekend\u2019s opener armed with a pair of receivers who had totaled a combined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061],"tags":[4048,231,7,6,490,526,394,2411,527,2864,5134],"class_list":{"0":"post-359876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennessee-titans","8":"tag-calvin-ridley","9":"tag-denver","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-patrick-surtain","13":"tag-tennessee","14":"tag-tennessee-titans","15":"tag-tennesseetitans","16":"tag-titans","17":"tag-tyler-lockett","18":"tag-ward"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115186579812037592","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}