Second day in a row at Titans practice for your boy, and it had me thinking I could do this every day. Damn day job. Somebody start advertising with us. Buy a shirt. Let’s get some real “walk away from the day job” cash flow going.
Attendance seemed about on par with yesterday, which was a bit of surprise to me given all of you sinners ought to have been at church. But, alas – here we are. The confines of Saint Thomas Sports Park. Practice kicked off at 9:50AM, and the playlist was just as random as it was yesterday. Quick shout out to Post Malone, but otherwise, it was a weird mix of contemporary music and like….Adelphia Colosseum era hokey football songs. Jock jams, if you will….anyway….on to football.
Notes from Titans Practice (8/12/18)
No fights today, as practice was rather uneventful in that regard this morning. The pace was a little different, as the units went back and forth from team drills to positional drills and back and forth, as opposed to yesterday’s flow of knocking out all the positional work at once then knocking out all of the team drills at once.
Since I spent the bulk of yesterday afternoon with the defensive and offensive line, my photographer (read: overly dedicated girlfriend I don’t deserve) and I decided to catch the linebackers and defensive backs today. Again, that’s the beautiful thing about the set up at Saint Thomas Sports Park. There’s really not a bad seat in the house. And, thankfully, there was a nice breeze blowing most of the morning.
Quick note: Can I just say that Jon Robinson has an A+ Nike game?
Offense
*Taywan Taylor dropped an easy pass at the start of team drills. Can’t say that I noticed #13 all that much today. Go ahead and sound the alarm, Titans Facebook – his roster spot must be in jeopardy.
*Another practice that has me a little concerned about Marcus Mariota. He lobbed a pretty bad interception to Adoree Jackson that was intended for Darius Jennings. Later, he missed Dion Lewis in the flat. He did throw one away at one point, and that was pretty entertaining to watch. Someone in the stands was happy with that souvenir.
He looked a lot better in red zone drills, when he hit Delanie Walker for a couple of touchdowns, the second of which sent Walker up to the fence, high-fiving fans in the process. But, then he missed Jonnu Smith down the field in the two-minute drill on what would’ve been a sure touchdown. Smith was open by a step with no one in front of him, and Ocho just flat out overthrew him. He did send one deep for Corey Davis, who made an impressive grab.
As a quick aside while we’re talking about Davis, after practice, I told him to stay healthy because we need him, to which he replied, “oh, I will.” Just a nice little way of wishing him luck, but FUCK the old dude who jumped my shit afterwards, turning around and shouting, “OH DON’T YOU WORRY BUDDY HE’S HEALTHY.”
Sit down, old man! I’m just wishing the dude well. I know he’s healthy. Fucking people out there ready to get their ass whooped defending players. And, to quote Alan from The Hangover, best believe I will strike an old man in public.
*Today, David Fluellen got the bulk of the #3 running back work, and made a few nice plays. I like him better than Wadley at this point, though I do understand by this point, what you see is what you get with Flu Season. Wadley has more upside and potential.
*Luke Falk had a hell of a pass to Deontay Burnett, who sprung wide open after completely beating his man. Later in practice, Burnett got open over the middle, caught the ball, and carried it downfield, drawing “this mothafucka fast” from Brynden Trawick. During two-minute drills, he had another nice catch and got out of bounds to stop the clock. He continues to have a nice camp.
*The ‘man of the morning’ was undoubtedly Derrick Henry, who was catching everything Mariota threw his way and catching it smoothly. Don’t know if he’s put in extra work in that regard or not, but he looks like a much more confident and capable receiver than he did a year ago. He also had a run that drew a bunch of “OOOOOOOOOOOOO”s from the crowd. The guy looks like he’s ready to put on a bona fide beastly season.
*Cameron Batson continues to get valuable reps and make the most of it. He caught a hell of a lob downfield from Falk. Later in team drills, he caught a pass on a screen, but was smothered right away.
*Tajae Sharpe showed out today, ran a nice little out route that garnered a reception. Later, he laid out to haul one in. Sharpe may have had the play of the day when he caught a deep pass and ran out of bounds during the two-minute drill, leaving one second on the clock. The offense kicked a field goal “to win the game.”
*Nick Williams dropped a pass uncontested and wide open. Can’t help but wonder how much drops like that factor into roster cuts? I mean, it’s one play, right? But, then again, this receiver race is tight. Every mistake counts. We’ll see. Later in the day, he caught a nice screen pass and put a shifty move on the defense that amounted to a nice gain.
*Blaine Gabbert started the day decently – so much so that I actually wrote down, “#7 lookin’ good” in my notebook. But, then he threw one into the dirt during red zone drills. He also fumbled a snap in team drills that was ugly. Not sure what happened, but Mike Vrabel was shouting, “get me a new center and quarterback” afterwards. He finished his day by throwing an atrocious pick to Demontre Hurst (who made a couple nice plays today). All of the quarterbacks stuck around after practice to work on things. But, believe me, folks – I’ll take this year’s quarterback situation over last year’s eight days a week.
*Ryan Succop was perfect in field goal drills, even nailing one from 58 yards out.
*LUKE STOCKER SIGHTING! Dude made a nice catch out in the flat.
*Darius Jennings made a nice contested catch.
Defense
*Another day, another LeShaun Sims PBU. These defensive backs, as a whole, are just nasty, and it’s a deep unit, too. Logan Ryan and Kendrick Lewis also recorded PBUs. Though they didn’t get any takeaways, I did notice good coverage from Trey Caldwell, who completely smothered Jordan Veasy and caused an incompletion, and Kalan Reed, who was all over Devin Ross in two-minute drills.
Malcolm Butler also put a hell of a lick on Walker during two-minute drills that jarred the ball loose. Finally, Jackson continued his strong camp by jumping a route and intercepting a pass at the goal line intended for Smith.
*The first team DL today was Austin Johnson, Jurrell Casey, and DaQuan Jones. The run defense looked good today, in news that should surprise exactly no one.
*Wesley Woodyard can break down the sprinkler. Unless, of course, that was some sort of signal to the rest of the defense….I don’t know….it looked to me like he was doing the sprinkler and the man can dance.
*Will Compton was working with Woodyard as first team ILB, with Daren Bates and Jayon Brown making up the 2nd team. Brown is having an excellent camp, and seems vastly improved as an all-around linebacker, so yeah – I’m a little surprised to see the veteran Compton running alongside #59. Yesterday, I wondered if Bates was a little shaken up, possibly even injured. But, he was playing hard today and laid a nice little hit on Dalyn Dawkins at one point.
*Derrick Morgan was getting some one-on-one work in with one of the Titans coaches after positional drills.
*Harold Landry came out to do some individual work after practice.
*Final note: who the fuck plays “Mr. Brightside” and “Ocean Avenue” at a football practice? We need to hold the playlist man accountable.
The next Titans practice takes place WITH the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Saint Thomas Sports Park on Wednesday, August 15th from 9:50AM-Noon.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Alabama Crimson Tide football, the WWE, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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