Wednesday was a weird day for the Tennessee Titans‘ revamped receiver corps. Really, really weird.
The Titans hosted the Seattle Seahawks for their first of two joint practices Wednesday. DeAndre Hopkins didn’t practice, still dealing with his knee injury. Neither did Tyler Boyd; he’s day-to-day with a bruised foot. That left Calvin Ridley as the only healthy veteran starter, and the first thing Ridley said about his practice after walking off the field was “not that good day.”
Meanwhile third-year receiver Treylon Burks absolutely cooked budding star cornerback Devon Witherspoon a couple of times before leaving the field with cramps, rookie Jha’Quan Jackson made the two best plays of the day and the player who caught the most total passes was probably tight end Nick Vannett, a nine-year pro known way more for his blocking ability than his pass-catching acumen.
Again. Weird day. A day made even weirder when looking at why Ridley thinks it was so weird.
“My energy, it wasn’t there,” Ridley said. “I just wasn’t finishing, running hard enough. The ball would come out and I’d be like (expletive). It’s out there. I’ve just got to run full speed the whole time.”
Let’s unpack what went right and wrong for quarterback Will Levis and all the Titans’ pass catchers in Wednesday’s joint practice, starting with Ridley’s bizarre day.
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Will Levis, Calvin Ridley, Riq Woolen and getting in rhythm
Witherspoon gets most of the attention in the Seahawks’ secondary, but Woolen was the star of the show Wednesday. He continually knocked Ridley out of rhythm, using his 6-foot-4 frame to disrupt the star receiver’s timing. Woolen broke up a pass intended for Ridley on a crossing route on their first 1-on-1 rep of the morning, setting a tone that continued throughout.
But on the two plays that mattered most, the two go routes balls Levis heaved in Ridley’s direction, Ridley beat Woolen deep both times. Ridley got open. Still, both of the passes fell incomplete. On the first one, Ridley flipped his shoulders twice tracking the ball in the air, never seeming to figure out how to take advantage of his inside leverage and get to a football that landed just inches from his fingers. The second one was a little more straightforward; Levis says he overthrew it. But Ridley still seemed to be in range of the ball.
“You’re slow some days,” Ridley says. “You come out some days and you run fast. It’s not about being slow every day. I’ve got this. We’ve just got to run and get there. It’s literally right there. A little bit more strain, that’s really it.”
Ridley said he’s not concerned about being out of rhythm with Levis. He reiterated three times that he thinks he and Levis have their connection down. He said he “promises” the two have their rhythm figured out. He wasn’t exactly being dismissive about the day, but he carried a tone of believing one bad practice isn’t an end-all, be-all issue to be worried about.
Rhythm, after all, takes time.
“Yeah, it could take a while but that’s why we’re out here working,” Ridley said. “I think we have way more than enough time. We’ve been here. I’ve been with them, traveling with (Levis). We’re going to nail it. We’re going to get it down pat. I’m not worried about it at all.”
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Otherwise … not bad for Will Levis, Titans receivers
Want to talk about setting a tone? Burks lined up against Witherspoon for the first 1-on-1 rep of the day and ran a go route, knocking through the former top-five pick for an easy touchdown. A couple plays later, Levis and Burks connected on another 1-on-1, this one a slant against veteran CB Michael Jackson. Levis and Burks linked up two more times in a third-down 11-on-11 period and Burks got open deep on his last rep of the day but pulled up short. with a cramp and wasn’t able to make the play.
Elsewhere, rookie sixth-round pick Jha’Quan Jackson took two short crossing routes for long, long touchdowns. The first, in 7-on-7, Jackson caught a pop pass on a quick slot slant from quarterback Mason Rudolph and ran roughly 60 yards for the score. The next, in 11-on-11, Jackson scored a 75-yard touchdown, running about 65 of those yards after the catch on a crossing route where he sped through and past the secondary to make his play.
“Coach Tyke (Tolbert) always has going down the line and running through the catch instead of slowing down,” Jackson said. “You learn when you’re playing football you’ve got a lot of guys who are fast. If you run through the catch instead of slowing down, you can break arm tackles. If I would’ve slowed down through it, somebody probably would’ve tackled me. If I’m going full speed, nobody is touching me.”
With Boyd out, third-year slot option Kyle Philips took the main share of starter reps. He made some nice plays, ranging from catching a skinny post in traffic in an early team period to getting open on a pivot route underneath when the team was trying to move downfield in the last drill of the day. Nick Westbrook-Ikhine made some plays with the first- and second-team units, and undrafted rookie Bryce Oliver continues to make some impressive contested catches with the twos and threes.
But let’s think about things this way: The Titans’ starting cornerbacks (L’Jarius Sneed and Chidobe Awuzie) have practiced three combined times this training camp. The San Francisco 49ers didn’t feature their starting DBs in the preseason opener. Wednesday was supposed to be the first time these Titans receivers could be tested against A1-caliber defensive backs. The end result was two of three starters not practicing, one of their replacements not finishing the day and the player brought in to be the No. 1 target admitting he just wasn’t running hard enough.
Like Ridley says, there’s still time. It’s certainly not an indictment on an offense to have a bad day or to not be ready for September in the middle of August. But the Titans showed some imperfections Wednesday that need to be cleared up.
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Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.
