As national press pass through Nashville, be conscious of snapshot views

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Thursday, three national reporters passed through Nashville to look in on the Titans.

Their visits will inform not just whatever they wrote/write with a Music City dateline, but will likely color their opinion of the team, especially before meaningful games are play.

Kevin Clark of The Ringer and Dan Pompei of Bleacher Report and The Athletic are high-quality, insightful guys. La Canfora, of CBS, has been around the league for a long time and has solid connections -- though in Nashville he’s known for a disconnect with the Titans.

(The brief summary: La Canfora said over and over that the NFL would pressure the Titans to sell -- maybe by the end of 2015, no less. But Amy Adams Strunk remains firmly in place as controlling owner in partnership with her family. Even if there is some small element of the league that doesn’t like the team’s ownership structure, she’s doing excellent work and was named to the league’s Hall of Fame committee. La Canfora also once misspelled former Titans GM Ruston Webster’s name in an item about how Webster might be let go and replaced by Lake Dawson, not long before Dawson was let go by Webster, who remained in place. Hey, I misspell names. I correct them too, and when I miss I like to own it.)

My broader point is, these guys may walk away really impressed with Derrick Henry -- who’s impressive, but who also got more work with DeMarco Murray out with a hamstring twinge. They head to the next stop on their camp tours without having a chance to check in with Corey Davis, who dropped out of practice with a pulled hamstring that required an MRI. They saw a pick and two fumbles. But the fumbles were by David Fluellen and Tre McBride, players who may not make the roster and the pick by Marcus Mariota came when Adoree' Jackson had a good read on a play as the Titans ran a second consecutive time.

There is nothing bad about national guys doing training camp tours and getting snapshots from as many places as possible. They work to keep things in context, to ask the right questions to get it and not to put too much weight on any one thing.

Still, an impression is an impression and they’ll be asked at their next stops how the Titans look. The people asking won't generally be conscious the answer is really how they looked on Aug. 3.

Just keep in mind it’s a snapshot. If they shoot it on a bad day for a good guy or a good day for a bad guy, those are things that can linger in an overall assessment and in a feeling about a team that can have staying power.

Remember it down the road, and as others pass through for their glance.

And if you’re trying to get a big-picture view of someone on the Titans, give more weight to the local person you trust. Same thing if you want to get a sense of a player on another team.

You’re always best off balancing out the quick impression with the long view.