The Tennessee Titans are spending training camp trying to forge an identity, and the early signs are not subtle.
Once the pads came on Monday, practice got chippy. The trench work turned into a two-day dustup, with the temperature rising enough on Tuesday that punches were thrown.
On Monday, Jeffery Simmons and J.C. Latham were jawing.
On Tuesday, Simmons mixed it up with new center Austin Schlottmann and eventually threw a punch that got him kicked out of practice.
None of that should come as a shock to anyone who has watched Simmons over the years. He plays with an edge, carries himself with a gruff demeanor, and that approach has made him a four-time team captain. In a month, he’ll be a five-time team captain.
That edge has never been a problem for his production. If anything, it helps make him harder to deal with on the field because he gets under the skin of offensive linemen and forces them to react.
What matters more for Tennessee is that the offense appears willing to answer back this time. Last season, when Azeez Al-Shaair hit Cam Ward helmet-to-helmet after the play, the offensive line had a chance to stand up for its quarterback and didn’t. Instead, the group walked back to the sideline like a team that had already checked out.
Schlottmann may bring a different kind of attitude to that unit, and there’s a sense that Latham could finally lean into the enforcer role he was built for coming out of Alabama.
The language coming from the top has been clear, too. Robert Saleh has been pushing “fast and violent” since he was hired, and he’s made it plain that the message isn’t only for the defense.
That’s why the early camp skirmishes feel like more than just noise. Simmons has long been the player bringing the fire, but this year Tennessee looks like it may have more than one group willing to meet that tone head-on.
Saleh handled Simmons’ outburst the right way by punishing him, and the bigger takeaway is that the Titans’ offense is no longer absorbing the physicality and the trash talk without pushing back. Guys like Schlottmann and Latham are showing that they’re ready to respond.
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