NASHVILLE, TENN. – The lack of the Titans in primetime in the schedule released Wednesday evening shouldn't be a surprise.

While there is local excitement about what the team's done this offseason, a small-market team with an unproven quarterback, a first-year rookie coach and little star power isn't a big draw.

Tennessee is on Monday Night Football in Miami in Week Four. That game is on ESPN at 6:30 p.m. CT while Seattle will play at Detroit on ABC at 7:15 p.m. CT.

Teams with as little "flash" to their schedule as the #Titans:#Panthers play a home game in Munich#Colts play a road SNF game#Cardinals host a MNF game#Raiders host a MNF game#NFL not putting Raiders on more primetime shows it can be done with big-name franchise. https://t.co/68BA77lW74

— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) May 16, 2024

Last year on MNF in Miami on Dec. 11, the Titans recorded a record rally in the final three minutes to beat the Dolphins, 28-27.

The requirement that all teams play a Thursday night game no longer exists.

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By MIKE HERNDON, columnist

The Titans have spent the entirety of the 2024 offseason behaving like a franchise that believes it has a young quarterback worth building around.

Sure, they were going to spend in free agency to some degree because they had to. The big splashes for Calvin Ridley and L’Jarius Sneed, however, certainly feel like a team that thinks it’s closer to competing for a playoff spot than most national pundits would have you believe. Adding a 29-year-old Tyler Boyd on a one-year deal is another example of a “win now” type addition by Ran Carthon.

The explanation for the divide between how the Titans view themselves – as evidenced by the aggressive offseason – and the national media’s low expectations is very simple. The two groups have very different views of second-year quarterback, Will Levis.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Texans are coming off a terrific season and have implied odds of 47.6 percent of winning the division. The Jaguars are heading into Year Two under a Super Bowl-winning coach. The Colts get back a quarterback they chose fourth overall in 2023 but who only started for four games before he got hurt.

There is a lot of promise in the AFC South in 2024, a division that has been the NFL’s worst since it was created in the 2002 realignment with a regular season winning percentage of .478. 

Most of it is based on the quarterbacks. C.J. Stroud is coming off an excellent offensive rookie of the year season. Trevor Lawrence is heading into Year Four and has not living up to billing that came with being the No. 1 overall pick out of Clemson in 2019 but may be due to finally put it together. Anthony Richardson can be electric. Will Levis, while not particularly highly-regarded nationally, has tools that may be well developed by an offensive head coach on a team that’s put in work to improve weaponry and protection.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – They are 380-pound blocking sleds, created with input from Bill Callahan, with more realistic torsos and twist, that are more reactive and tougher to balance.

The two in the Titans’ offensive line blocking area are named Bertha and Olga, and early turns with them are different and more complicated than what linemen are used to.

“It’s designed in a way to more accurately mimic what it feels like to have to clamp and brace on what a normal defender would feel like,” Brian Callahan said. “Some of the old-school sleds they don’t really give you that same balance issue. And (these) are really hard to move. I can’t tell you how hard these things are to move and to move straight, because they tip and they are off balance and they are meant to really stress guys' ability, to strengthen their core, keep their hands tight and drive a sled vertically as opposed to getting all off kilter. It’s a balance thing.

"So there is a lot of indoctrination that goes into those sleds, our guys even now, it’s taken them a couple weeks to feel good about moving them the way they are supposed to move. So it’s fun to watch, I like watching those guys doing it, they improve pretty fast.”

JC Latham’s first couple reps on the sled were adventurous, but he and other linemen on the first day of the Titans rookie minicamp gradually got better with the sled.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Injuries have been a major concern for the Titans for the last three seasons as they’ve used at least 83 players a year, straining depth. A major talking point was how much fault should have been aimed at the strength and conditioning department.

Thursday, Brian Callahan did something that would have been unheard of under Mike Vrabel. When the Titans rolled out their offensive assistants, there in wraparound shades and a blue Titans short-sleeved windbreaker with a whistle around his neck was an absolute shocker: Zac Woodfin, the Titans director of sports performance.

“We like to say our program is a blue-collar, cutting-edge program,” he said. “And what I mean by that is blue collar in the sense that there is no getting around doing hard work. You’ve got to lift hard, you’ve got to lift heavy at the appropriate times. And then the cutting edge in the science that we bring to it: making sure our guys have the proper assessment through technology. It allows us to get a really clear picture of what they need. Everybody needs something a little bit different to achieve their maximum performance.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Rare is a transcript some thing I'd share here, but Bill Callahan's first conversation with the press seems worthy. I was with the group for about 10 minutes before splitting off to get other offensive coaches.

Here's a lightly edited transcript with some re-ordering and a few videos spliced in with some notes with my thoughts in italics.

Bill Callahan has no doubt about JC Latham at LT for #Titans. https://t.co/HMltI0wYIj

— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) May 9, 2024

That "I don't" answer to "Do you have any doubts about his ability to move to the right?" is the answer that should put everyone at ease about the shape of the line. We're looking at Latham, Peter Skoronski and Lloyd Cushenberry, left-to-center, which is solid. Then competition on the left side. If you're demanding pre-camp solidity at those two spots then you're just not familiar with the shape the roster was in at the end of 2023.

The Titans have addressed left tackle, center, two receiver spots, running back, defensive end, nose tackle, two inside linebacker spots and two cornerback spots in the starting lineup -- 11 starting spots in all. Additionally, they added a backup quarterback, a return man who could play some receiver, a fourth corner, and two more outside linebacker. That's 16 contributors before we assess the class of undrafted free agents. 

They simply weren't going to be able to get new everywhere and Callahan has been known to develop previously under-developed players. 

Callahan on Jedrick Wills flip from right to left tackle in Cleveland

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Titans may be about to shake up their scouting department. The Eagles’ director of pro scouting and the Cardinals' director of college scouting have been in for interviews and the word is a bunch of interviews are going on.

Meetings with Max Gruder of Philadelphia and Josh Scobey of Arizona were still in process late Wednesday afternoon.

Gruder became the Eagles' director of pro scouting in 2022 and joined the team as an assistant in that department in 2019 after six seasons with the Dolphins. He was a linebacker at Pitt and an undrafted rookie with the Falcons who did not make Atlanta’s roster.

Scobey just completed his 12th season with the Cardinals and his second as the team’s college scouting director. He

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