On top of the already reported injuries, a few other players did not participate as they received rest days. Those players include Jurrell Casey, Sharif Finch, and Malcolm Butler. Each of those players are expected to be back out on the practice field tomorrow.
The theme of today’s practice was red zone work. Early on, the team split up into some one on one drills where the defensive backs were matched up against the wide receivers for passes coming from within the 10-yard line. In that drill, we saw a couple athletic catches from Tajae Sharpe and Taywan Taylor both climbing the ladder to reach the ball. What really stuck out was the quickness of receiver Nick Williams who not once, but two times fooled his defender and found himself wide open. On the first of the two escapes, he was being covered by Adoree Jackson who got caught up in his own feet and stumbled onto the ground.
In the one team non-red zone drill. Corey Davis dropped a pass on a beautiful deep ball from Marcus Mariota. Defensively we saw some good work from the linebackers as Will Compton and Robert Spillane both charged into the backfield to stop runners.
After that period, the team split off into individual work. One of the best images of the day would have been seeing Jon Robinson line up as a dummy wide receiver for a drill with the secondary. Sadly, Robinson’s stint on the field was during a period where film was not allowed so no one was able to capture the moment on camera.
Red zone work started with 7 on 7 drills which is usually beneficial for the offense because there is no pass rush coming to disrupt the quarterback. Today, the defense showed good coverage skills without the help of a pass rush. The first defense team had success keeping the first team offense’s production to a minimum. When the second and third teams took the field, they had help from Kevin Byard shouting out from the sidelines the routes they should expect to have to cover.
During the 7 on 7 drill, Jayon Brown showed tight coverage ability on a handful of different targets. Kendrick Lewis jumped a route on a Marcus Mariota pass that should have been intercepted, but he bobbled the ball and was not able to come down with the INT. Linebacker, Nate Palmer forced a turnover by coming in behind tight end, Tim Semisch, and punching the ball out for a fumble. The offense did finish on a high note though with a couple of touchdown passes to wrap up the drill. The last one going to rookie out of Tennessee, Ethan Wolf, which drew great applause from much of the Nashville crowd.
In the next period of practice, Johnathan Cyprien hit the ground hard on a safety blitz play. He was away from the ball, so many reporters did not get a look at what exactly happened although the injury appeared to be lower body. Cyprien exited the field on his own power and was taken straight to the training room. After practice, Mike Vrabel said the safety is still being evaluated.
On one of the final red zone drills of the day, we got to see 11 on 11 action. Adoree Jackson flashed the athleticism he was drafted for when he swatted away a fade route pass to Corey Davis in the back of the endzone. A player with one of the toughest tasks of the day was linebacker Daren Bates who covered players ranging from Delanie Walker all the way to Dion Lewis and many others in between. He adapted well though and was able to keep the ball out of his man’s hands for much of the drill.
A player that hasn’t received a ton of attention, but is quietly moving his way up the ranks is defensive end Matt Dickerson. Dickerson began training camp taking reps with the third team. He quickly moved up to primarily second team reps and today even got in with the first team on a handful of plays.
Titans training camp resumes tomorrow at Saint Thomas Sports Park at 9:55 AM. Keep up with Titans Radio social media for live practice and press conference coverage and we’ll have a recap up tomorrow afternoon as well.
