Tennessee

Tennessee Titans’ plan to fix decades-long receiver mess underway. How much more help is needed?

Published

8 months ago

April 10, 2024

Tennessee Titans’ plan to fix decades-long receiver mess underway. How much more help is needed?

Here are two simple facts that seem to matter a great deal to the Tennessee Titans:

One, last season’s Cincinnati Bengals — led by then-offensive coordinator and new Titans coach Brian Callahan — had at least three wide receivers on the field for 84.8% of their offensive snaps.

Secondly, the Titans only have two proven wide receivers on roster as their voluntary offseason program begins.

The Titans, as they always seem to be, are in search for help at wide receiver. Signing free agent Calvin Ridley to a four-year contract worth $92 million is an obvious move in the right direction, especially with veteran DeAndre Hopkins back to line up opposite him. This pairing gives the Titans a venerable duo. But beyond Hopkins and Ridley, the receiver room is a collection of unknowns and role players. Callahan isn’t shy about his opinion that the Titans need to add or identify a player who can be relied upon to contribute when the offense runs three-receiver sets.

“We have to have someone emerge for us at the slot-position receiver when we’re in 11 personnel,” Callahan said Wednesday, referring to formations with one running back, one tight end and three receivers on the field, the personnel grouping the Bengals lined up in for 76.8% of their snaps last season.

Callahan brought up three internal candidates to fill that slot role: Kyle Philips, Mason Kinsey and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine. Westbrook-Ikhine is the most experienced of the bunch; he’s caught 53 passes for 755 yards and five touchdowns from the slot over the past three seasons, leading the Titans in slot yards in 2022. Philips was drafted to be the traditional slot option but he’s only played in 13 games over his first two injury-addled seasons. And Kinsey only has two career catches, having spent most of the last four years on the Titans’ practice squad.

One player who Callahan interestingly didn’t mention is Treylon Burks, the 2022 first-round NFL Draft pick who’s dealt with repeated injuries, too. Burks has only lined up in the slot in 26% of his pro snaps, but he took 77% of his college snaps at Arkansas from the slot, so there’s experience there.

Offensive coordinator Nick Holz thinks pigeonholing any receiver into one role means a crisis of imagination. Slot receivers in 2024 don’t all look and play like Wes Welker did in 2007. The NFL’s two leading receivers out of the slot in 2023 were Dallas’ CeeDee Lamb (6-foot-2, 200 pounds) and Detroit’s Amon-Ra St. Brown (6-foot, 202). Cincinnati’s Tyler Boyd (6-2, 203) was the NFL’s fourth-most-targeted slot receiver last year.

“The thing for us is we don’t just want to play (Hopkins and Ridley) on the outside either,” Holz said. “We just started putting in our formations (Tuesday) and we’ve got guys who are moving all over the field. I don’t think we just want to sit those guys on the outside by themselves.”

The Titans have roughly five months to figure out their third option, whether that means devoting a first- or second-round draft pick to the position, adding a third veteran in free agency or developing an in-house player.

But when talking about the Titans’ historic struggles at receiver, it’s important to acknowledge the issue hasn’t exactly been depth. It’s been a lack of top-end production. Think of it this way: The Titans have had 18 wide receivers gain at least 1,000 yards since 2000, more than 23 other teams including pass-first behemoths led by future Hall of Fame quarterbacks for the New England Patriots, Indianapolis Colts, Kansas City Chiefs and Green Bay Packers. But they’ve only had 10 total 1,000-yard seasons from receivers, the fourth-fewest in the league ahead of only Baltimore, Cleveland and the New York Jets.

There’s nothing stopping the Titans from using a top-10 pick on a receiver like LSU’s Malik Nabers or Washington’s Rome Odunze, just as there’s no reason the Titans can’t sign a big-name free agent still on the market like Odell Beckham Jr., Allen Robinson or even Boyd. But in all likelihood, the pressure to produce as top-end receivers is going to fall on Ridley and Hopkins, or perhaps Burks in a best-case scenario.

THE BIG QUESTION: Tennessee Titans may have set up Will Levis for greatness in Year 2 — or made huge mistake

Callahan likes to say teams can’t have enough receivers who are fast, explosive and physical. Expect the Titans to keep adding receivers throughout the offseason based on that catchphrase alone. But don’t let the impulse to add depth distract from the fact that the best receiving corps almost always earn that title because of how good their No. 1 and No. 2 options are, not the No. 3 and beyond.

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.

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Titans RB Out vs. Texans

Published

2 hours ago

November 22, 2024

Press Room

The Tennessee Titans are finishing up their practice runs before facing the Houston Texans in Week 12, but there is a key player on the offense who won’t be making the trip to the Lone Star State.

According to team reporter Jim Wyatt, running back Tyjae Spears has been ruled out for the team’s game against the Texans as he has yet to clear the league’s concussion protocol.

Spears, a second-year pro out of Tulane, has been bit many times by the injury bug this season. The Week 12 contest will mark Spears’ fourth game missed this season.

So far this season, Spears has ran the ball 43 times for 161 yards and a touchdown.

With Spears out, starting running back Tony Pollard will continue to have a bulk of the carries while Julius Chestnut and Josh Kelley handle backup duties.

Also out for the Titans is offensive tackle Leroy Watson IV. Linebacker Jack Gibbens and cornerback L’Jarius Sneed are also ruled out on the injury report, but both of them will be placed on injured reserve.

Kickoff between the Titans and Texans is set for 12 noon CT on Sunday inside NRG Stadium.

Make sure you bookmark Tennessee Titans on SI for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more!

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Tennessee must see through Gov. Bill Lee’s new try at expanding school vouchers | Opinion

Published

10 hours ago

November 22, 2024

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Tennessee must see through Gov. Bill Lee’s new try at expanding school vouchers | Opinion

Vouchers are the school’s choice, not school choice.
Vouchers allow discrimination on special needs kids and any family who doesn’t fit the school’s “values.”

Caleb Hemmer
| Guest columnist

As expected, Gov. Bill Lee and his Republican supermajority in the legislature have filed their latest version of a statewide voucher proposal.

Once again, this new version is jam-packed with all kinds of seemingly nice things tacked on to try and distract people from the fact that this is all a scam designed to defund public education. Lee and his voucher scammers want you to pay attention to the long overdue teacher raises and the newly-dedicated funding source for school construction projects promised in the bill.

But let’s face it − if they were really serious about the proposals, they would have already done them. They wouldn’t have to tie them to a bait-and-switch scheme to designed to undermine public education and make out-of-state billionaire voucher backers happy.

Vouchers aren’t improving student school test scores

Here’s what’s underneath all the pretty packaging. Here’s what Governor Lee is not telling you about his voucher scam:

First of all, Lee wants you believe that he wants to expand vouchers statewide because of the success of the pilot program. However, the pilot program is not a proven success.

In fact, Lee’s own handpicked education commissioner had to admit before the Senate Education Committee this past January that the academic scores of the students in the voucher program, well, in her own words: “aren’t anything to write home about.”

In fact, according to the Department of Education’s annual report on the pilot program, the “exceeded expectations” scores for the state’s participating Education Savings Accounts schools only grew by an average of 0.4% in math and 1.2% in English Language Arts − and far less than the margins of public schools.

So since, the test scores aren’t dramatically improving, the governor wants to direct your attention to how the parents currently enrolled the program are satisfied with it. But again, let’s look at who those parents really are.

Vouchers do not cover the cost of the average private school

The average price of a private school in Nashville is estimated to cost around $12,000. In Memphis, it’s a little under $10,500. So, if you wanted to send to your child to a private school, you’re still going to have to be able pay thousands of additional dollars a year just for tuition.

That doesn’t include transportation or any other needs.

So, the people Lee claims he really wants to help − the working people who are struggling to put food on the table − are still priced out.

For example, according to a 2023 Time magazine article, in Arizona more than 75% of new voucher applicants had never actually attended public school before and not to mention the uncontrolled $1.4 billion hole vouchers caused in Arizona’s budget.

Vouchers leave out the most vulnerable students

Finally, as the governor gives out these “entitlement” payments to families that can already afford it, our public schools get further left behind.

Private schools get to pick their students, meaning that many students are excluded, including the most vulnerable who need the most help.

Vouchers end up excluding most disadvantaged students because they simply aren’t desirable for many private schools. That includes students with disabilities who use Individualized Education Plans, which this bill expressively says private schools don’t have to continue.

Vouchers are the school’s choice, not school choice.

Vouchers allow discrimination on special needs kids and any family who doesn’t fit the school’s “values.”

I would urge people to not be fooled by all of the shiny bells and whistles attached to this new voucher scam bill. Don’t be fooled by the words the governor is saying − take a good, hard look at what he’s not telling you.

Vouchers aren’t good education policy or conservative; it’s just a scam to defund your local school to align to a misguided political ideology.

State Rep. Caleb Hemmer, D-Nashville, represents District 59 (part of Davidson County) in the Tennessee General Assembly.

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Watch: Gretchen Walsh Cracks NCAA Record in 100 Butterfly (Tennessee Invite Day 2 Race Videos)

Published

19 hours ago

November 21, 2024

Press Room

Watch: Gretchen Walsh Cracks NCAA Record in 100 Butterfly (Tennessee Invite Day 2 Race Videos)

2024 Tennessee Invite

The third day of the 2024 Tennessee Invite saw lots of action, with the unique setup of the meet, the A-finals were contested in a 1-on-1 format that brought many fans to their feet and proved to bring an extra layer of excitement to the meet. UVA’s Gretchen Walsh built on that excitement to continue her record-breaking streak, shattering her own American, US Open, and NCAA Record in the 100 butterfly with a time of 47.35.

Even though the day might be over, you can relive all of the action with the race videos below. Courtesy of the University of Virginia.

WOMEN’S 200 MEDLEY RELAY- TIMED FINALS

NCAA Record: 1:31.73, Virginia- 2023
2025 NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 1:36.24
2025 NCAA ‘B’ Cut: 1:36.76

Virginia A- 1:32.58 A
Tennessee A- 1:34.35 A
Virginia B- 1:35.89
Tennessee B- 1:37.94
Kentucky A- 1:39.66
Kentucky B- 1::41.35

Race Video:

MEN’S 200 MEDLEY RELAY- TIMED FINALS

NCAA Record: 1:20.15, Florida- 2024
2025 NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 1:23.62
2025 NCAA ‘B’ Cut: 1:23.90

Tennessee A- 1:21.71 A
Tennessee B- 1:25.31
Kentucky A- 1:26.75
Kentucky B- 1:27.48
Virginia A- DQ
Virginia B- DQ

Race Video:

WOMEN’S 100 FLY – FINALS

~~NCAA Record: 47.42, Gretchen Walsh (UVA) – 2024~~ 47.35, Gretchen Walsh (UVA)- 2024
2025 NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 50.52
2025 NCAA ‘B’ Cut: 53.34
2024 NCAA Cutline: 51.88