The Tennessee Titans got training camp rolling Wednesday with the acclimation period, and Jeffery Simmons wasted no time sounding like a veteran who understands exactly where the work begins and ends in early July.
Simmons, one of the team’s most experienced players, said he isn’t spending much energy worrying about how many reps he’s stacking up yet. For him, the first days of camp are about settling in, not chasing a specific workload.
"I'm just trusting the process on that," Simmons says, laughing. "It's (reps) not one of the things I'm focused on right now, especially in training camp; it's not one of the things to where I'm like, 'hey, coach, I know you said that in the meeting about the four plays and get off the field.'
The way we play, the way we practice, I might not even want over four plays in a row because it's a standard and the expectation that they expect out of us on the D-line. I had three plays today, three plays back-to-back, and I'm like, alright, it's just the first day, so to be focused on how many plays I'm going to do in a row, at this point, right now I don't think that's my focus.
Eventually, we'll get there, but it's trusting the process, and with his style on defense, he may be right."
That answer fits the bigger picture for Simmons, who is adjusting to a new head coach and a new defensive scheme while trying to keep his game at the level Titans fans are used to seeing. The process, as he put it, is the point.
He also came away from the day encouraged simply by being back on the field with the group.
"It's football. Like I said, I told the guys, we know the rules.
We know it's the acclimation period to where there's so much we can do, can't really have so much contact, DBs can't really jump for the ball, we're trying to take care of each other. It's still just great to get out there with all the guys.
JFM (John Franklin-Myers), you know, Jermaine (Johnson), all of our new guys to be able to get these reps, mental reps- it's a lot of mental reps, even when it's not full-speed- so it felt great to be out there."
Wednesday’s session was just the start. The next two days are expected to follow the same format, with the team still in the non-contact phase. Then Saturday changes the tone: the pads come on for the Titans’ first full-contact practice, and that session is open to the public.
That’s the day when the new coaching staff will begin to show more of what it has in 2026.
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