On a hot and sunny day in Nashville, Titans training camp officially got under way. The fans were out and about, the energy was high, everyone was happy to be there. The pads don’t come on until Saturday, but the team was flying around the field today.
Taylor Lewan, as reported, was there, but did not participate in team drills. After practice, Coach Vrabel elaborated on why that was. To sum up, the team wanted to make sure Lewan was caught up on all his individual drills that he missed during his brief holdout, and they don’t want to put him into team drills until he feels ready. To fill that hole during team drills, we saw a lot of Kevin Pamphile playing left tackle today.
Undrafted rookie free agent Robert Spillane continues to climb up the ranks, with as good a performance you can have in the 1v1 tackling drills, and he got a lot of reps with the second team today. Another linebacker, Will Compton was taking reps with the first team as the competition at linebacker continues to ramp up.
The defense won the day today, as the offense is still working to get where it wants to be. Malcolm Butler made a play exactly like the one that put him on the map in the Super Bowl, this time jumping in front of Corey Davis’s slant route at the last second to rip the ball out of his hands and come away with the interception, punting the ball into the air out of celebration. He later said he had to get Davis back for the catch Corey had on him in the playoffs this past season. Logan Ryan added another interception later on the same type of play, reading where Mariota was going before anyone else could react.
This isn’t to say the offense didn’t look pretty good too. Michael Campanaro showed off his wheels and flew by Logan Ryan a couple times in a one on one drill, and Corey Davis made a great catch over Adoreé Jackson during the same drill. To end the practice, Davis one-upped himself. In the back of the endzone, Corey stuck a hand up and plucked the ball out of the air over Jackson again, this time in full team drills.
With the exception of the couple of slant route interceptions, Mariota looked sharp. Blaine Gabbert had a few bad balls mixed in as well, but a little inconsistency doesn’t come as a surprise at the beginning of training camp in a new offensive system.
Coach Vrabel was asked about wide receiver Rishard Matthews after practice. Matthews still isn’t practicing, but is out on there with his teammates taking mental reps. Vrabel said that he’s most concerned about making sure Rishard isn’t getting frustrated with having to miss time. The head coach added that when Rishard is physically ready, he’ll be out on the field. There was no clarification as to exactly what is wrong with Matthews.
Finally, after practice Jurrell Casey was asked about his national anthem protests that made headlines last week. Casey said that social justice is major issue for him and his wife and he still plans to continue his protest by holding up a fist at the END of the anthem. Jurrell did emphasize that he means to show no disrespect to the flag which is why he will do his protest following the song. In terms of protests, Casey may have found a middle ground as he is still able to protest his cause that is so important to him and his family while also doing everything he can to show respect for the flag and the men and women that have served.
