Graves getting tough on receivers

New receivers coach Fred Graves is getting tough on his charges and I’m liking what I’m hearing.
Last week Paul Kuharsky blogged that three of the Titans receivers might be a little too soft for Graves. Courtney Roby, Jonathan Orr and Justin Gage were the ones named.
An article by Kuharsky on Sunday related the news he is throwing bricks at the receivers as one of several new drills he’s putting them through.
Not that these are “new” drills; they’ve been around for a while, although they’re probably new to most of the Titans’ receivers.
Maybe not to Roydell Williams, whose position coach at Tulane was Trooper Taylor, who’s now at the University of Tennessee, where he throws bricks and other things at his guys. I don’t know if Taylor did that to Williams at Tulane or not.
What I’m liking most about Graves is the way he’s putting the receivers through some tough work.

“(Graves) doesn’t give us a breather at all so right now we’re kind of mad, like, ‘Man, we can’t get a break or whatever,'” Brandon Jones told the Tennessean.

The reason I like this is because Tennessee is very thin and unproven at the position. David Givens probably won’t play at all this year. Jones is the only other receiver who’s semi-proven, and he has only 50 catches to show for 18 games in his two years in the league. Roby, Williams, Orr and Gage have barely done diddly-squat so far. Add in the three rookie draft picks and the sum of the parts of the position group is decidedly unimpressive.
I’m hoping what Graves is doing will help thin the herd and improve the survivors. It’s one position group I plan on keeping an eye on at training camp.
For more background on Graves, check out this article I wrote on him after Jeff Fisher hired him earlier this year.