NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Line them up like old-school Amtrak conductors: NFL national analysts, so many of whom punch holes in Ryan Tannehill the way the guys running trains punched holes in paper tickets.

The Titans quarterback is a success only because of Derrick Henry, they say, he can’t throw deep, he’s a product of the system, he lacks pocket awareness, he’s injury-prone.

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Pool photo: Alison McNabb, Tennessee Titans

Too many of his critics from too far a distance are unwilling to offer a revised opinion of Tennessee’s quarterback or discount his work for silly reasons.

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TitansPodiumLogoNASHVILLE, Tenn. -- WIth four days of Titans' camp in the books and the team enjoying a day off before starting to ramp things up more, it's time for a big broadcast.

Come be part of a public broadcast at 6:30 p.m. CT where I will share some thoughts about what's unfolded so far and what's still to come and take a load of your questions.

You can find it on my Twitter timeline, at my public Facebook page or in the embedded YouTube stream below.

See you in a while.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Ryan Tannehill threw deep up the left side. His receiver had only a slight edge on the defensive back, but the play was there.

The pass sailed a bit beyond A.J. Brown and Kristian Fulton’s good coverage.

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Several of us nearby wondered if it was, in the team’s fourth practice, the first pass in Brown’s direction all camp to fall incomplete.

It was not, but he’s been so good it was not an unreasonable question.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Not so long ago, the broad NFL mentality didn’t lend itself to caring much about a player’s personal issues.

In 1990 Oilers offensive lineman David Williams stayed home from a game on the road for the birth of his son and Babygate was a national scandal.

Missing a game to welcome a child might still be looked down on by some now, but the world has changed and the league has changed with it.

Pro sports have evolved to allow a broader understanding of life beyond the game, in many ways that have less visible impacts than missing kickoff.Vrabelgarbage

Wives and kids, moms and dads, friends tugging at a player and anything else under the big heading of life that may once not have been allowed to be a factor in the tough-guy atmosphere of a facility or practice field are not walled off as much now -- at least not in Nashville.

With the Titans, Mike Vrabel considers it a key part of his job to know what’s going on with his guys and make sure they can sort through it to best put their worries aside to most effectively do their jobs.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Wednesday doesn’t mean a thing on Thursday.

And the Titans proved it in their second practice of training camp.

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The first day they ran a smooth and clean operation. Nice routes and well-delivered balls but also some good reads and breaks by defenders for breakups and picks. Eleven field goals attempts and 11 makes. Things like that.

Twenty-four hours later?

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – No matter how good it was last year, a team starts from zero when training camp opens.

That doesn’t mean optimism can’t be way up there.

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“We are insanely confident,” Rodger Saffold said. “The only thing is just that we have to remember ourselves that though we are back to back rushing champions, though we’re making it to the playoffs two years running after having a drought with this team that we have to re-earn everything.

“We just can’t put the names over there and think that we are going to win. We have to put in the work and that time is now.”

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