As far as position battles and competitions go, the biggest question mark for the Tennessee Titans as they make their way through summer OTAs and minicamp practices will be how coaches plug the holes at center and right guard.
These are big holes. Replacing Lloyd Cushenberry III and Kevin Zeitler is a make-or-break necessity as quarterback Cam Ward develops in Year 2. Coach Robert Saleh knows this. So does offensive coordinator Brian Daboll.
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Veterans Austin Schlottmann and Cordell Volson are in position to compete, as are homegrown youngsters Jackson Slater, Fernando Carmona Jr. and Pat Coogan. None of these options are proven commodities, so whichever players win the jobs, they’ll have to outplay their reputations.
But more importantly, it’s difficult to prove how good of an offensive lineman you are without hitting or getting hit. It’s fatalistic to say nothing the Titans do on the field will matter until training camp starts in late July, but it’s probably fair to say there’s not much Coogan, Carmona and Slater can do to separate themselves from Schlottmann and Volson before training camp when there won’t be many opportunities to do any real blocking.
That’s the problem with talking about OTAs and minicamp, especially in the trenches. Good performance or bad, no one can escape the “it’s not real football” caveat.
Every coach has a different relationship with the value of padless on-field work. Saleh, in his first year leading the Titans, shared his perspective with The Tennessean. Here’s how Saleh watches practices this time of year, a good window into how fans and readers should think from what they’re seeing, hearing and learning about Titans offseason practices.
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“There’s a difference between the classroom and then the post-snap cognitive aspect with regards to being able to play football, and you can see it in the way guys move and the way they respond to different post-snap activity,” Saleh said. “Like when the picture changes, how does a player respond? You can get a lot information with regards to OTAs.
“Now, no one’s ever made a team in OTAs because that cognitive part, as freely as it moves in OTAs, changes when pads come on and the speed gets a little bit faster and it gets a little more violent. You’ll find a lot of players who shine in OTAs, not usually, but a lot of players will disappear once pads come on, versus guys who didn’t show well in OTAs kind of appear once the pads came on. So it gives you kind of an idea, but you never want to pass a stamped judgment until pads come on.”
As May gives way to June and then July, keep Saleh’s perspective in mind. These practices won’t be ignored, but they’re more about establishing a baseline than they are for settling any debates.
Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X @nicksuss. Subscribe to the Talkin’ Titans newsletter for updates sent directly to your inbox.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: What to look for from Titans practices, the way Robert Saleh does
