The Titans practiced this morning without pads. They were, however, sporting the ultra-fly baby blue Oilers throwback helmets and they look great. Without the pads on, they mostly focused on the passing game, and spent about half of practice playing 11 on 11. They will take the field again tonight at 7:30 at Baptist Sports Park under the lights, and according to one member of the Titans Radio staff, they will be in full pads. Come on out if you can, because there is not a better free ticket in town.
My observations after the jump.
- Nate Washington showed exactly why the Titans signed him. From the slot, he streaked past Nick Harper and Michael Griffin and caught a beautiful bomb from Kerry Collins. Moreover, Kerry looked great today, much better than yesterday.
- We may have an answer to our problems with corner back depth. Rookie Ryan Mouton made a great play on a badly under thrown deep ball from Vince Young that was intended for Nate Washington and picked it off. He had another interception, this time from Alex Mortensen in rookie 7 on 7's after practice ended.
- LenDale White is a lot faster. They ran a sweep and he made the corner with ease. I am officially upgrading him from LenWhale to LenDolphin.
- Javon Ringer showed a flash of brilliance in the passing game, making a highlight reel one-handed grab on a pass that was thrown behind him.
- It's always risky to read too much into the plays a team runs in camp, but I hope what I saw today was a sign of things to come. On multiple occasions they put Chris Johnson in the slot. Last season he was used almost exclusively as either a safety valve out of the backfield or on screen passes, so maybe this is a sign that they are going to expand his role in the passing game and have him run some real routes.
- I've been harsh with Lavelle Hawkins in the past, but you have to give credit where credit is due. He looked very good out there today, catching every ball that came his way including a beauty while toeing the sideline. He even managed to avoid any obvious wrath from Coach Heimerdinger. Justin Gage, on the other hand, had a day he would probably prefer to forget, with 2 pretty bad drops.
- Jared Cook continues impress. They used him in both the slot and out wide and he looks really comfortable out there. I never saw a ball thrown his way hit the ground today.
- Rob Bironas was back in street clothes today after making his training camp debut yesterday.
- Ahhh the indignities of being a rookie. When Coach Fisher decided to practice with the offense backed up to their own goal line, he had the rookies stand in the back of the endzone and provide a little "crowd noise".