NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Some things from Titans’ coordinators on Tuesday that struck me as especially interesting.
Less gray area: Offensively, the team has a better feel for what to call when.
Nick Holz was asked about how the offensive approach will differ from last season.
"I think it's a better idea of some of the things we wanted to do last year and then I think we've now learned from ourselves, watching ourselves scout things, 'Hey, we thought we were going to be good at this and we weren't. Or, hey maybe we didn't think we were great at this and we actually were. So now there is probably just a clearer idea of who we are."
Holz indicated that means the Titans have cut things down some, with fewer different schemes and less gray area with stuff they think might work as opposed to more firm conviction about plays they like against certain fronts and coverages.
That sounds promising. They have better, but not great, personnel in many spots and a more promising quarterback to execute things. As Brian Callahan said regarding many different facets of his team, now they have to show it, now they have to put it into practice.
Oladejo confidence: Wilson reiterated the confidence he’s expressed before in second-round edge Femi Oladejo.
“For me, Femi is a tone-setter,” he said. “And that’s what I want to see from him. I want to see him come out and play with anger. See him set the edge, I want to see him violent, I want to see him finishing tackles. Everything else is going to come to life in terms of pass rushing and those things. Femi has had an outstanding camp. He is a rookie but you don’t see a lot of the rookie lapses when you see him play. He belongs. We’ve very confident in him and I can’t wait to see him play on Sunday/
The first half of that sounds like Wilson’s pep talk to Oladejo, it’s about what he wants to see from him. The second half seems like wishful thinking. “Everything else is going to come to life” is certainly optimistic talk and Wilson didn’t spell out the basis for it.
I hope for the defense’s sake it is the case.
But it’s the sort of thing that we haven’t seen the evidence for, so if it exists it on a deeper level and more behind the scenes.
Quandre Diggs will play, says Dennard Wilson. #Titans. We’ll see how they use the safety depth on Sunday.
— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) September 2, 2025
The unknown: Special teams have been a huge negative for this team for too long.
We’ve presumed that with John Fasssel coordinating them, things will be better.
But only recently has he learned who his core group is and had the chance to work with them. This is a big practice week as Fassel talks of his punt return coverage system being complicated and counting on chemistry between players who work beside each other and may only have recently assumed those spots.
“I love the unknown to be honest with you,” Fassel said. “That’s a part where you can fear it or you can embrace it and 
I’ve always embraced the unknown, especially going into a season on a new team. I honestly don’t feel any anxiety. I’m super competitive and excited about the opportunity that a lot of our young guys have. We have some core pieces that we’ve challenged with doing certain things differently and they’ve gotten a lot better at it…
“I’m an optimist most of the time, so I am trying to navigate the differences between the reality and the optimism, but I feel good about some of the young core pieces we have.”
The Titans need to avoid the sort of catastrophes that have befallen them too often and get reliable work from Joey Slye and Johnny Hekker.
Slye could get an end-of-half or end-of-game field goal chance from as far as 68 yards, Fassel said.