For most of the Tennessee Titans summer break is officially underway. Wednesday marked the end of a month of Organized Team Activities (OTA’s) and the beginning of their five-week break before training camp.
OTA’s are voluntary, but they were very well attended by the Titans. Wednesday’s final workout was minus a lot more veterans like Derrick Henry, Jeffery Simmons, Kevin Byard and Treylon Burks.
For the rookies, well, their work continues, they are required to work out St. Thomas Sports Park for two more weeks.
This may look like a down time, a time for relaxation and vacation, but the head coach has a different view of the next five weeks, “Probably the most critical five weeks of the season. Just in my experience as a player and a coach. What you do away from here when things aren’t planned or structured, are you able to get into a routine. So, what I want them to do is go prepare for a long season, a long grueling season of professional football. That’s what I want them to do.”
Rookie first round pick Peter Skoronski did not sound like he even needed that message. He talked about working on a number of things over the next five weeks like his guard sets and punches, “well you’ve got to get better! You can’t take it off.”
Quarterback Ryan Tannehill was on hand for every practice of OTA’s including the last one. He said it was critical with the team installing a new offense under Tim Kelly. He also stressed the importance of the next few weeks, “You’ve got to get yourself mentally, physically ready to go for, I don’t even know how many weeks it is now from training camp to the Super Bowl… You also have to take a little time to make sure you’re emotionally prepared to handle the length of the season.”
Training Camp starts July 25th for the Titans, that is 29 weeks until Super Bowl 58.