Tennessee
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.
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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.
The Tennessee Lady Vols are now off to the College World Series after defeating the Georgia Bulldogs in the second game of what could have been a three-game series. The Lady Vols won the first game off the back of a gutsy performance by Karlyn Pickens, and many of their batters had a great outing.
In game two, the score was 2-0, as the Lady Vols scored off a two-run shot from Sophia Knight. Knight is one of the better players on the team for the Lady Vols, as she hit a home run in game one and had a home run in game two. This game was won without the Lady Vols best pitcher even coming to the mound, as the Lady Vols didn’t even use Karlyn Pickens in this contest.
Even though the Lady Vols are the team playing in their home stadium, they didn’t have the advantage in their game against the Lady Bulldogs, which means the Lady Vols had to pitch to a solid batting squad in the bottom of the ninth, who are also notorious for having a rally. The Bulldogs started the inning with a triple, and the batter later reached home after a wild pitch from Sage Mardjetko.
There would be one out with none on, and the Lady Vols’ star pitcher gained her swagger back with a nasty strikeout that completely fooled the batter on, although, had she gotten a hold of the ball, it likely would have been one to go over. Goodwin would come to the plate with the Lady Vols having a chance to punch their ticket to the college world series, which is exactly what happened off the back of a 1-2 count and a hit to the second baseman, who sat her down for the rest of the season.
The Lady Vols will now await the bracket.
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An east Tennessee school board member who told a teenage girl, “God – you’re hot,” on video at a public meeting in April has been charged with assault.
State prosecutors on 18 May charged 59-year-old Keith Ervin under a Tennessee statute that outlaws “intentionally or knowingly [causing] physical contact with another [that] a reasonable person would regard … as extremely offensive or provocative”.
Tennessee considers that offense a class B misdemeanor, which upon conviction can carry up to six months in jail and a maximum $500 fine.
Ervin’s charge came after his participation in a 2 April meeting of the Washington county school board to which he was first elected in 2006. At that gathering, in plain view of a camera capturing video for the public board’s YouTube channel, Ervin gazed at a female student seated next to him, placed his left hand on her right shoulder, and said, “God – you’re hot. Did you know that? Damn.”
She laughed uncomfortably as he leaned in and wrapped his left arm around her shoulders, continuing, “Where do you go to school at?” She provided the name of her school, and he rejoined, “All right.”
Other people in the room could be heard laughing at the end of the exchange. And the Washington school district’s superintendent, Jerry Boyd, visibly smiled while on the other side of the student.
Local media reports describe the girl as a high school senior and a student representative on the board. Her father later went on social media and criticized Ervin’s behavior as “disturbing and inappropriate”.
In that statement, reported by Tennessee news outlet WJHL, the girl’s father said neither he nor her mother believed Ervin “should be anywhere near students” – and he expressed incredulity that the moment passed “without immediate accountability”.
Ervin provided his own statement to WJHL in which he contended he was not “always good with words”. He also maintained that he would not purposefully offend anyone, though he acknowledged the video of him and the girl looked bad.
A Change.org petition almost immediately calling for the dismissals of Boyd and Ervin from their roles has since gathered more than 7,400 signatures. Ervin’s fellow school board members voted to censure him during a special meeting called on 8 April as outrage surrounding his filmed remarks spread beyond Washington county.
The female student at the center of the assault case addressed the county school board directly at a 7 May meeting – and she let its members know she was unimpressed with their handling of the matter, Tennessee’s Knoxville News Sentinel reported. She accused board members of cowardice while rejecting apologies from them, saying: “I do not forgive you.”
She added, “Thank you for teaching me that no one will stand up for me besides myself. Thank you for showing this community what you believe it means to protect our children.”
After he was charged in Washington county circuit court, Ervin was served with a criminal summons ordering him to appear at a hearing tentatively scheduled for 7 August.
Ervin did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.
His Washington school district biography says he is a self-employed dairy farmer by trade. The biography also notes that Ervin has two daughters who previously graduated from the school attended by the student listed as the victim in his pending assault case.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — The attempted murder case against Tennessee livestreamer Dalton Eatherly, known online as “Chud the Builder,” has now been bound over to the grand jury following a court hearing on Wednesday in Montgomery County.
According to court officials, Eatherly’s case was moved out of General Sessions Court and will now proceed in Circuit Court. His previously scheduled May 26 hearing has been canceled.
Eatherly’s bond was also lowered from $1.25 million to $1 million, according to updated court information on Wednesday.
WATCH: Here’s all we know so far about the controversial, arrested streamer known as “Chud the Builder”
The 28-year-old faces multiple felony charges, including attempted murder, after investigators said he shot another man during a confrontation outside the Montgomery County Courthouse on May 13.
Authorities previously said the shooting happened in broad daylight outside the courthouse complex after an altercation between two men escalated into gunfire. Both Eatherly and the other man suffered gunshot wounds.
The case has drawn widespread attention due to Eatherly’s controversial online presence. Known online as “Chud the Builder,” Eatherly built a following through confrontational livestreams filmed across Tennessee, including in Nashville and Clarksville.
Before the courthouse shooting, Eatherly had also recently been arrested in Nashville after police said he refused to pay a more than $370 bill at a steakhouse following a disturbance inside the restaurant.
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Eatherly remains jailed in Montgomery County as the criminal case moves forward in Circuit Court.
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