Wednesday was a strange day for the Tennessee Titans’ newly formed receiver group. Really strange.
The Titans hosted the Seattle Seahawks on Wednesday for the first of two joint practices. DeAndre Hopkins did not practice as he is still dealing with a knee injury. Neither did Tyler Boyd; he is living 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 leaving the field was “not such a good day.”
Meanwhile, third-year receiver Treylon Burks slammed rising star cornerback Devon Witherspoon several times before leaving the field with cramps, freshman Jha’Quan Jackson made the two best plays of the day, and the player who caught the most passes overall was probably tight end Nick Vannett, a nine-year pro known far more for his blocking skills than his pass-catching instincts.
Again. Strange day. A day made even stranger when you consider why Ridley thinks it’s so strange.
“My energy wasn’t there,” Ridley said. “I just wasn’t able to run fast enough. The ball came out and I was like (expletive). It’s out there. I just have to run full speed the whole time.”
Let’s analyze what went right and wrong for quarterback Will Levis and all of the Titans’ receivers during Wednesday’s joint practice, starting with Ridley’s bizarre day.
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Will Levis, Calvin Ridley, Riq Woolen and get into the rhythm
Witherspoon gets most of the attention in the Seahawks’ secondary, but Woolen was the star of the show Wednesday, repeatedly throwing Ridley off rhythm and using his 6-foot-4 frame to disrupt the star receiver’s timing. Woolen intercepted a pass intended for Ridley on a lateral route on their first 1-on-1 replay of the morning, setting a tone that continued throughout the game.
But on the two crucial plays, the two go-route balls Levis threw Ridley’s way, Ridley was faster than Woolen both times. Ridley had space. Still, both passes were incomplete. On the first, Ridley turned his shoulders twice while chasing the ball in the air and never seemed to figure out how to use his inside advantage and get to a football that landed inches from his fingers. The second was a little easier; Levis says he threw it too far. But Ridley still seemed to be within reach of the ball.
“Sometimes you’re slow,” Ridley says. “Sometimes you come out and run fast. It’s not about being slow every day. I can do it. We just have to run and get there. It’s literally right there. A little bit more effort, that’s it, really.”
Ridley said he wasn’t worried about being out of rhythm with Levis. He reiterated three times that he believed he and Levis had their connection under control. He said he “promises” the two have found their rhythm. He wasn’t exactly dismissive of the day, but he did say that a bad workout wasn’t something to worry about.
After all, rhythm takes time.
“Yeah, it might take a while, but that’s what we’re working for,” Ridley said. “I think we have more than enough time. We’ve been here. I’ve been out with them, with (Levis). We’re going to get it done. We’re going to get it done perfectly. I’m not worried about it at all.”
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Otherwise … not bad for Will Levis, Titans receiver
Want to talk about setting the right tone? Burks lined up against Witherspoon for the first 1-on-1 rep of the day and ran a go route, breaking through the former top-five pick for an easy touchdown. A few plays later, Levis and Burks connected on another 1-on-1, this time against veteran CB Michael Jackson. Levis and Burks connected two more times in an 11-on-1 period on third down, and Burks got wide open on his final rep of the day, but stopped due to cramping and couldn’t make the play.
Elsewhere, rookie Jha’Quan Jackson, drafted in the sixth round, took two short crossing routes for long, long touchdowns. On the first, on 7-on-7, Jackson caught a pop pass on a quick slot slant from quarterback Mason Rudolph and ran about 60 yards for the touchdown. On the next, on 11-on-11, Jackson scored a 75-yard touchdown, running about 65 of those yards after the catch on a crossing route where he raced through and past the secondary to make his play.
“Coach Tyke (Tolbert) always has me running down the line and running through the catch instead of slowing down,” Jackson said. “In football, you learn that you have a lot of fast guys. If you run through the catch instead of slowing down, you can break arm tackles. If I had slowed down on that, someone probably would have tackled me. If I run full speed, nobody touches me.”
With Boyd out, third-year slot option Kyle Philips took over the bulk of the starting lineup. He made some nice plays, from catching a narrow post in the scrum in an early team stretch to running free on a pivot route underneath as the team tried to advance down the field in the final practice 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 on the twos and threes.
But let’s look at it this way: The Titans’ starting cornerbacks (L’Jarius Sneed and Chidobe Awuzie) have practiced a total of three times this training camp. The San Francisco 49ers did not use their starting DBs in the season opener. On Wednesday, those Titans receivers were scheduled to be tested for the first time against A1-caliber defensive backs. The end result was that two of three starters did not practice, one of their backups did not finish the day, and the player they wanted to target as their No. 1 receiver admitted he just didn’t run fast enough.
As Ridley says, there’s still time. It’s certainly not an indictment of an offense if it has a bad day or isn’t ready for September in mid-August. But the Titans showed some deficiencies on Wednesday that need to be addressed.
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Nick Suss is the Titans reporter for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at [email protected]. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @nicksuss.
