The Titans aren’t setting anything in stone at this point, but it looks like a good bet that Mason Rudolph will be their backup quarterback come September.
Rudolph signed with the team this offseason and was put into the mix with Malik Willis for the job as the No. 2 behind Will Levis. Rudolph came into the summer with the first shot at winning the job and he’s been making the most of it.
Jim Wyatt of the team’s website has charted practices in camp and has Rudolph completing 64-of-76 passes in 7-on-7 and team drills. That explains why head coach Brian Callahan left little room for Willis to take turns with the second unit.
“The hard part is that Mason’s played so well, too,” Callahan said. “We wouldn’t be moving Malik up because of Mason’s performance, we’d just be allowing Malik an opportunity to play with the twos. It’s hard to elevate Malik and demote Mason when Mason’s played very good football, too. So, it’s a good problem to have. Like I said, it helps the rest of group be able to showcase, and they can both operate and manage, and it helps the whole process for guys competing. So that part’s been really positive.”
The Titans have their first preseason action against the 49ers this weekend and that will give Rudolph a chance to show that his good work extends beyond the practice field.
As the first weekend of the preseason approaches, one of the common questions will relate to which key players will play in the games that don’t count, and which ones won’t.
For 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, who’s in his first “normal” training camp as the full-time starter (last year, he was still coming back from elbow surgery), his reps for Saturday’s visit to the Titans remain to be determined.
“We haven’t talked about that, so just taking it one day at a time,” Purdy told reporters on Sunday. “I think it all just depends on how practices go and my reps and how I’m feeling and stuff. But, I’m sure we’ll make a decision here as the game comes closer.”
After Purdy, Josh Dobbs and Brandon Allen are battling for the backup job. Both of them undoubtedly will play extensively in Tennessee.
Purdy was also asked at his press conference about his rash of interceptions; his prior comments came in a visit to KNBR radio.
“I take pride in protecting the ball for our offense and our team,” Purdy said. “And so obviously, I’m mad when I’m not completing the ball to our guys and it’s going to the defense. I’m hard on myself and the coaches are, too. We have a standard here. So it’s not [that] we’re just going out and just because it’s practice it’s okay to throw picks. No, there’s still a standard here. But with that is, I know you guys have heard me say this all over the media, but now’s the time to be trying out some stuff in terms of throwing some windows and some tight coverages and whatnot. But you know, I still have to grow. I still have to be better and I’m hard on myself with it. But now’s the time to do it. I remember last year coming off my UCL at practice, I was throwing some stuff, and I threw multiple days of picks. But you get into the season and you’re ready for those moments and you’re ready to execute and protect the ball. So that’s where we’re at in the time of year.”
Purdy’s irritation with the interception depends on how the interception happened.
“It depends on what kind of pick it is,” he said. “If I’m trying to fit it in a window and trying to just be aggressive or I just couldn’t see a guy, those are the questions you have to ask yourself. And that’s what I do, ask myself. And obviously, I get pretty mad at myself in terms of, ‘Dude, you turned the ball over and you can’t do that.’ So it’s finding a way to grow mentally for myself in terms of, ‘Dude, you can’t do that.’ Or, ‘Hey, I was being aggressive here and we’re just trying it out and I’m seeing if I can do it with this guy and that kind of window or that kind of look.’ But at the end of the day, I’m not out there trying to just throw the ball up and act like it’s camp and I don’t care, because I do.”
It makes sense, but seven picks in two practices are still a lot of picks. Eyes will be on him whenever he plays in the preseason. And he’ll need to be ready to minimize turnovers in a Week 1 Monday night duel against Aaron Rodgers and a very competent Jets defense.
That game happens in only five weeks.
Free agent safety Quandre Diggs is signing with the Titans, he announced on social media.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that it’s a one-year, $3 million deal with $1 million in incentives based on play time and $1 million more in performance-based incentives.
Diggs’ agreement reunites him with former Seahawks teammate Jamal Adams, who signed with the Titans this offseason.
Diggs, 31, will compete with Elijah Molden to start next to Amani Hooker.
The Seahawks made Diggs a salary-cap casualty March 5, saving $11 million in space.
Seattle acquired Diggs in a 2019 trade with the Lions. He went to three consecutive Pro Bowls with the Seahawks and had 18 interceptions in his four-plus seasons with the team.
In 2023, Diggs totaled 95 tackles, an interception and five pass breakups.
Titans head coach Brian Callahan confirmed on Saturday that the team will be without wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins for the next few weeks because of a knee injury.
Hopkins does not need surgery and the hope is that he will be back in time for the start of the regular season. Until he is cleared to get back on the field, the Titans will be using other wide receivers and Callahan singled out Treylon Burks as the one who will see the biggest uptick in usage.
“It’s a chance for guys to get more opportunities and you get to see what they’re going to make of them. Treylon’s probably the one that benefits the most at that position,” Callahan said, via the Tennessean. “We’re going to get some looks at him as a starting receiver for us when D-Hop’s out. So I’m excited about that. When you get opportunities to see guys do more. I think Trey’s had a really nice camp. We’ve seen good things and now we’re going to get the chance to see more.”
Burks hasn’t lived up to the expectations that come with being drafted in the first round over his first two seasons, but Hopkins’s injury opens a door for him to work on changing that up in Year Three.
Titans offensive lineman Nicholas Petit-Frere passed his physical Friday, allowing the team to remove him from the active/physically unable to perform list.
Petit-Frere can return to practice.
He went on PUP before the start of training camp, missing the first five practices of camp while rehabbing a knee injury that required a medical procedure.
Petit-Frere, a third-round pick in 2022, enters the competition for the starting right tackle job.
In his first two NFL seasons, Petit-Frere appeared in 19 games, with 18 starts. A total of 17 of those starts came at right tackle, including 16 in 2022. Petit-Frere played only three games, with two starts, during a 2023 season when he dealt with a suspension and an injury.
Titans receiver DeAndre Hopkins injured his knee in practice this week, and doctors have diagnosed him with a strain, Paul Kuharsky of paulkuharsky.com reports.
Hopkins is expected to miss 4-6 weeks.
Four weeks would give him a full week to prepare for the season opener, while six weeks would keep him out of the Bears game and potentially the Week 2 game against the Jets.
Hopkins led the team with 75 catches for 1,057 yards and seven touchdowns last season.
The Titans added Calvin Ridley and Tyler Boyd as free agents this offseason, and with Hopkins out, former first-round pick Treylon Burks will get more opportunities with the first-team offense.
In his two seasons, Burks has played only 22 games and has 49 catches for 665 yards and a touchdown.
Edge rusher Shane Ray hasn’t played an NFL game since 2018. He’s a longshot to stick with the Titans, who signed him last week.
But all Ray wanted was a chance.
“For me, it’s been one step at a time,” Ray said Wednesday, via Jim Wyatt of the team website. “Training, training, training, and talking to my agent, praying to God: Is there something? Is there something available? Does somebody want to bring me in? Is there an opportunity? Those moments were highs and lows because sometimes it was like, ‘Hey, we might have something,’ and other times like, ‘Hey, man, we got to go train for another five, six weeks.’
“So, for me, the call itself was amazing. Then, walking to the building was amazing; meeting the coaches was amazing; and having my first minicamp workout back was amazing. Every step that I’ve taken up to this point is another milestone that, for a long time, I just dreamed about it, and prayed about it and worked for. This opportunity, I have been preparing for this for a long, long, time.”
The Broncos made Ray a first-round pick in 2015, and he played 49 games, with 15 starts. He has recorded 14 career sacks, including eight in 2016 while playing in 16 games. He was a Super Bowl champion in Denver in 2016.
Injuries, though, set him back.
He has had offeason stints with the Ravens in 2019 and the Bills in 2023, playing for the Toronto Argonauts in the CFL in between. Ray said he has stayed on a schedule, continuing his training routine he had when he was in the NFL.
“When I came into the league, I came in with all the [high expectations], and now coming back it is really just on me working, and building,” Ray said. “It feels good to earn what I am getting. But my life is completely different now.
“I love this game. Unfortunately, I got banged up early when I felt like it was time for me to take it to the next level in my career, and it kept me out of the league for a long time. Now I have another chance, and I feel like I am ready. I’ve worked, and I’ve prepared. Now it is on me, and I want to show what I can do.”
On Tuesday, Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons got into a verbal altercation with a radio host who was broadcasting live from practice. On Wednesday, Simmons apologized for his behavior.
Here’s the exchange with Buck Reising of 104.5 The Zone. Simmons can be heard calling Reising a “pussy” at one point. Simmons was upset with things Reising had posted on on social media.
“That’s not who I am,” Simmons said, via Jim Wyatt of the team’s official website. “That’s not who I want to be seen as. I talked to Buck. We have an understanding. . . .
“At the end of the day, I take full accountability of my actions on the field. I mean, that’ll never happen again. . . . I always talk about that switch, when to turn it on, when to turn it off. I kind of still had it on coming off the field.”
The Titans issued no comment on the situation. They presumably had something to say to Simmons.
After all, teams invite media to cover training camp through events such as live broadcasts in order to generate interest in the home market. This isn’t the kind of interest the Titans were hoping to generate.
It was surprising when the Titans fired Mike Vrabel in January after the club finished 6-11 in 2023.
But it might have been more surprising when Vrabel accepted a job as a consultant for the Browns, working with the club’s coaching staff and personnel staff.
Speaking to the media in a Tuesday press conference, however, Vrabel said he didn’t necessarily see his departure from Tennessee in the same way.
“Nothing surprised me. This is my 25th NFL training camp, so I would say that nothing surprises me in the National Football League,” Vrabel said. “That’s part of the job. I think it’s disappointing. I think you’re disappointed that you couldn’t do the job the way that they wanted it, or they envisioned it.
“But again, this is the opportunity that I think is best for me right now to be able to go through draft meetings, personnel meetings with [G.M.] Andrew [Berry] and his staff and see how that all got navigated and how they may do things. There’s 32 flavors in this league, and everybody does it a little differently. So, it’s been fun to be a part of this and try to help where I can and most especially learn.”
Vrabel did interview for some head coaching jobs in the offseason and said that he “certainly wanted to take every opportunity and talk to everybody that called.” But once those teams elected not to hire him, he met with Berry and head coach Kevin Stefanski at the scouting combine and agreed to come to Cleveland.
Though Vrabel has been largely working with tight ends with the Browns, he said he’s not slated to have a gameday role with the club. He will attend games to support the team, but will have already moved on to looking at the next opponent.
But it’s no surprise that Vrabel would like to be a head coach again — when the time is right.
“[T]here’s a time and place for that. It’s not going to be anytime soon,” Vrabel said. “So, I think that things that I’ll ultimately learn here may help me the next time that, you know, I get an opportunity to have one of those interviews. This is what I’m focused on, focused on doing that and learning here and helping. And then, you know, if those opportunities present themselves after the season, then I’ll absolutely try to do that.”
It looks like the Titans are going to be without edge rusher Arden Key for the start of the 2024 season.
Titans head coach Brian Callahan was asked at a Tuesday press conference about a report from longtime Titans reporter Paul Kuharsky that Key is facing a six-game suspension from the NFL. Callahan said he would wait for the league to make an announcement before making a comment, but then moved on to say that other players are going to have to step up in Key’s absence.
“I’m aware of the news,” Callahan said, via Turron Davenport of ESPN.com. “It’s a league thing, I don’t really have much to comment on until that comes out from the league. We’ll see, I don’t know. It’s not something you wanted to hear. We don’t really have a choice, we gotta go play football with who we have. If we can find someone else, we will. If we can’t, we have to play with what we have. So that’s sort of where we’re at.”
Key had six sacks and two forced fumbles while playing every game for the Titans last season. Harold Landry, Rashad Weaver, and seventh-round pick Jaylen Harrell are other in-house options.