Yesterday was the day Titans fans have been waiting months for, the first day of training camp, signaling the start of football season. Not much noteworthy occurred, which is why I didn’t get this written last night, considering some other obligations.
Friday’s practice did not start out well. When I drove up, I noticed a lot of fans walking and did not see the shuttle bus which was supposed to transport fans from the parking lot to the practice fields behind Baptist Sports Park. After parking and then chatting for a few minutes with another fan, I began making the trek on foot myself.
Before leaving the lot, I noticed a sign that was disturbing for two reasons. The sign read, “Please do not leave pets in your vehicle. Titans Security”. Or something like that. First, I wondered why the sign didn’t say children, invalids or the elderly instead of pets. Isn’t human life more important than Fido? I also thought it was curious that Titans Security was nowhere to be seen, except for one guy in the field directing drivers where to park. They’re usually under a small tent near the corner, which was uninhabited yesterday. Maybe they didn’t want to be the bearers of bad news about the absence of the shuttle bus.
After a half-mile walk to arrive at the practice fields, I was disappointed to see the players in shorts. I had been hoping for a fully-padded practice, which I now understand won’t happen until Tuesday afternoon.
I don’t pay much attention to those mainstream media reports that say certain players looked good in OTAs and minicamps. That doesn’t mean much when the pads aren’t on. The players won’t be playing touch or flag football this fall and their “accomplishments” without pads aren’t really a reliable indicator of how they’ll do when the pads will be on.
By the same token, watching unpadded or partially padded practices in person isn’t the same as watching the padded ones, which include full-contact work.
Yesterday’s practice was in “shells” (helmets, shoulder pads and shorts) so there was at least a little contact.
Because the shuttle bus wasn’t running, I missed the always-exciting stretching period at the start of practices. Punt coverage was underway, with the gunners trying to down punts inside the 5-yard line. Biren Ealy had a difficult time with that, screwing up several opportunities when either he, the ball, or both, crossed the goal line.
After that, the players broke up into their position groups and I moved on to watch the running backs, primarily because they were close to the fence on the middle field. Nothing too exciting there, just some blocking drills. New running backs coach Earnest Byner was encouraging his charges.
I then moved to watch the d-linemen, who were nearby. Jim Washburn had them working in one-on-two drills. Listening to Wash made it feel just like training camp again. It just wouldn’t be the same without him. A man standing next to me with two kids placed his hands over the younger one’s ears, but a little too late to prevent the kid from hearing Wash cuss one of his players. It wasn’t the first time that happened, but for each time it did, Wash probably also had a “way to go” for someone. I don’t put much stock into Wash praising anyone, especially after hearing him give a “way to go” to Randy Starks on several occasions in previous years.
I ran into Jeff, a friend who tailgates with me and runs another Titans website. We noticed that Tony Brown had really bulked up. I used to think of him as a tweener between DT and DE, but with his extra bulk he looks to be a solid 300 pound DT now.
I intended to move on down the fence to watch the o-line but practice then went to 11 on 11s, back on the far field. Jeff and I continued to chat and I noticed that David Stewart also looked a lot larger than last year. He dwarfed a few of the other guys in his vicinity and was the biggest man on the field by more than a little over Michael Roos, who’s listed at 6’7″ and 315#.
Albert Haynesworth signed his tender yesterday and should be on the practice field today, when he’ll take over from Stewart as the largest man on the field. The Titans have listed Big Al at 320 pounds for several years, which is a joke, and Big Country at 318. Both look to be much larger. I’d guesstimate Stewart at around 325 or maybe even 330 and Albert will probably show up today at around 350. He’s probably weighed as much as 375 in his career and probably hasn’t been at 320 since high school. But he claims to be in shape. We’ll see.
LenDale White didn’t look out of shape or overweight, but he didn’t look great either. Somewhere in between, a different type of tweener. He did have a little bit of a paunch on him, but nothing that shouldn’t go away in a few weeks.
That reminds me — there was a time when the purpose of training camp was to get the players in shape for the season. Hence the name. That was long ago, however, back in the day when most players had to have regular jobs in the offseason. Now, players are expected to stay in shape year-round, and especially when they report to camp. Any player who shows up out of shape probably won’t remain on the team much longer. Unless their name is Albert Haynesworth or LenDale White.
Most of the 11 on 11 work saw a lot of swing passes and slants. Reynaldo Hill made the play of the day when he jumped a route to take the ball the other way for a “pick-six”.
The first practice with full pads isn’t supposed to happen until Tuesday afternoon, as noted above, and the practice schedule calls for only four two-a-days, one of which will be just special teams work, which shouldn’t be fully padded. It looks like Jeff Fisher will be taking it easy on the guys in this year’s edition of training camp.
I plan on attending several practices a week and will write a little about that. I believe Drexel plans on doing the same, so we’ll continue to have some training camp coverage for you here on Total Titans.
If any of you attend a practice and would like to report on it, we’ll be happy to use your report as a guest article. Simply email your report to one of us and we’ll get it posted. (Click on our names, which appear on our home page with each article, or click Info in our author boxes to get our addys.) Please note that your submission will be subject to being edited for typos, spelling, grammatical or other errors, as well as being edited for content. Your photos will also be welcomed. Thanks for sharing with us!
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
