Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Cam Ward v Will Levis CONTINUES AT OTAs, JC Latham TOTALLY TRANSFORMED & Callahan's Offseason Change

Episode Date: May 20, 2025

The Tennessee Titans are in the midst of organized team activities, but the battle between Will Levis and Cam Ward continues to rage on as head coach Brian Callahan confirmed the two young passers are getting even reps as things stand. However, Callahan has mentioned that will change next week, but didn't say what the change would be. Also, JC Latham has made a massive change to his body from last season and Latham has a chance to take a huge step forward in his new situation. L'Jarius Sneed on the other hand continues to look like a massive bust. Finally, Brian Callahan made big changes to the offseason structure to create more team togetherness and hopefully it pans out.  Subscribe to the TicTacTitans Film Channel:https://www.youtube.com/@TicTacTitans TicTacTitans Merchandise: https://dixons-dream.square.site/shop/tictactitans-gear/C3AAPNWXSXA6SBYG3USV2I7R?page=1&limit=30&sort_by=category_order&sort_order=asc Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitans Follow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPod Subscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/LockedOnTitans/videos Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.Skylight CalendarRight now, Skylight is offering our listeners $30 off their 15 inch Calendars by going to Skylightcal.com/NFL. LinkedInPost your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

Cam Ward and Will Levis continue to get even reps at practice, and it's nonsense that must end by next week. I'll explain why on today's edition of Locked On Titans. You are Locked On Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to the Locked On Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland, Titans fans. On today's show, we're going to break down Tennessee Titans OTAs from yesterday. We heard from Brian Callahan about Cam Ward and Will Levis.

We got an update on JC Latham and Ligeria Snead. And also, we'll go over the new off-season approach that Brian Callahan has instituted this year. Before we get into all of it, do want to thank you for making Locked on Titans your first listen each and every day. Remember, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content, all year round round always for free. Make sure that you get subscribed. Stay subscribed. It's your team every day. Speaking of every day, shout out to my

everydayers out there tuning in Monday through Friday. Couldn't do it without you guys. If you aren't an everydayer, you need to be one. The Titans have OTAs again next week. They have OTAs again after, mandatory mini camp is right after that. So much Tennessee Titans football coming your way here in the next few weeks. You wanna make sure that you stay locked in to the Locked on Titans podcast. On tomorrow's show, we're gonna go over more

of what we heard on Tuesday. We're gonna talk about the running back rotation. We're gonna talk about the offensive line and the addition of Dan Moore. Talk about what teammates are saying about Cam Ward at OTAs now that he's integrated with all of the veterans. Can't wait to dive into all of that. It is your team every day here on the Locked on Titans podcast. But with all that being said, again, Brian Callahan doubled down on Tuesday about Cam Ward and Will Levis splitting reps and he said that quote right now right now it's all evenly split we're not competing right

now it will probably change a little bit when we get to OTAs and we have seven on seven and some teamwork and stuff like that, but right now we're not really going against anybody so we just roll through it. They're roughly about even all the way though, which is pretty standard for this time of year. We have talked about this Cam Ward versus Will Levis situation and look, it's all well and fine right now. Hey, they're in phase two of OTAs. It's not seven on seven. It's not 11s.

It's not competitive stuff. It's just routes against air, hitting your drops, all those different things. So right now, yeah, sure. Let them have even reps. But I think what's most important was what Brian Callahan said in the middle here. He said, it will change probably a little bit

when we get to OTAs and we have seven on seven and some teamwork. Well, right now the Titans are in phase two of the off season, which means you can't do some of those overly competitive things that the Titans wanna do. But next week and the OTAs that happen next week, the 28th, the 29th, and the 31st,

then we get into phase three. And then you could start to do offense against defense. Then you could start to do 11 on 11, 7 on 7 heavy stuff. You can actually start to do real style football practices. Of course, they're not going to have pads on and there's limited things, but it can look more like what we would think a football practice would look like. And that's why Brian Callahan is saying right there, things

will probably change a little bit when we get to OTAs. Well, why? Because it's the same thing that I've been saying for two weeks now talking about this. You cannot, you cannot under the guise of competition and we gotta make Cam Ward earn it. You cannot do that and serve that purpose and sacrifice getting Cam Ward ready to go for the season. Again, phase two of the OTAs, they're throwing against air, it's all split out even, you're just getting work in, fine Brian Callahan, fine. They can be split. But even Callahan started to crack a little bit right there. Like, yeah, we can't just do evenly split reps. This

is not a true quarterback competition. This is not a true open competition. It is absolutely silly to think that that's what the Titans are doing. I have said it before, I'll say it again. Cam Ward earned the starting job over Will Levis when the Titans decided to draft him with the number one overall pick, even though Will Levis is only going into his third season. Like we don't have to play this stupid game where Cam Ward has to earn it

in this macho locker room type hunger game situation. We're not doing that. That's not what's happening here. So I get what Brian Callahan is saying. And again, it's smart. You want to make sure that Will Levis is still a viable option in a trade. You don't want to absolutely tank what little value he has remaining. So it doesn't make any sense to do anything other than what the Titans are doing.

But again, I love that we're we're talking about this little crack here from Brian Callahan. He's get, he's too honest of a guy to continue to try to peddle this even split thing when we get into activities that are seven on seven, that are teamwork, offense versus defense. Like again, getting Cam Ward ready to play this year when he's going to be your franchise quarterback, he's going to be your day one starter, he is your guy, you already made that commitment when you drafted him number one

and rolled Warren Moon out to unretire his jersey. You already made that commitment. So you cannot, under some fake competition for the locker room, you cannot waste Cam Ward's opportunities to get ready for the season on Will Levis. So I appreciate that Brian Callahan, at least for a moment said, hey, we expected to change a little bit when we get to OTAs next week. So again, I think it's pretty obvious what's happening here. I've said that all along. They're trying to do right by Will Levis. And look, Brian Callahan had other good things to say about Will Levis. Will Levis needed to improve. He talked about Cam Ward and Will Levis. He said they both handled it really well. Quote, I've been pleased with their demeanor and their approach. Will has done a really nice job of getting better at things he needed to get better at. I felt pretty good about his all season work and

how he has come back. Cam has done a really nice job of integrating himself. A lot of that is knowing the play call, being able to spit it out in the huddle, having the tempo, getting familiar with the receivers, what the words mean, how to call it, how your snap count sounds. All of that stuff has been really well done on his part. So they both done a really nice job getting up to speed where they needed to. Both had different things that they're trying to get accomplished, but I am happy with where that's at. And that's 100% right from Brian Callahan as well. Obviously, they're at two different stages of their careers right now with

Levis being a couple of years ahead. But at the end of the day, what I want to focus on through that is Brian Callahan continue to talk positively about Will Levis, which is what he should do to continue to sell. And then Cam Ward, again, getting up to speed on all the terminology and all the logistical aspects of playing quarterback, not even throwing the football and executing the plays and reading defense, all the stuff leading up to it. For him to be on track the way he is, and I go back to what we talked about a couple of weeks ago, or last week on the show,

he got the playbook early. The Titans were basically having board work sessions with him before the draft even took place because they maximized all of their zoom meetings that they could have with him. Every single minute they were allowed to have with Cam Ward by the rules before the draft they had it to get him ready. And then he's drafted. He even said the coaches are telling him what they want him to learn, but he's going ahead in the playbook to learn it. Even more. So, I said it before, I'll say it again, Cam Ward's off to a perfect start,

and that perfect start is going to include the Titans getting serious about what they're doing at quarterback and giving Cam Ward more reps than Will Levis next week when the reps actually really start to matter. But with that being said, we got big updates on J.C. Latham and an unfortunate update on Ligeria Snead. Do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by LinkedIn jobs as a small business owner, your work doesn't end when the clock hits five. Your business is always on your mind, which means when it's time to hire,

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your job for free. Terms and conditions do apply. Titans fans. Let's continue today's edition of the locked on Titans podcast. We talked about Cam Ward versus Will Levis and why that's not going to matter in a week, in my opinion. But now I want to dive into some, some of the other updates that we got from Brian Callahan in his press conference on Tuesday. One on J.C. Latham, who I'm going to give a tighten up and one on Legerius Sneed, and I'm going to give a tighten down. At the end of the show, we're going to talk about how Brian Callahan has restructured this all season and it makes sense that you know from year one he's going to grow quite a bit as a head coach but do want to thank you again for making Locked on Titan your first listen make sure that you get subscribed stay subscribed it's your team every day but with JC Latham now look Latham shared some pictures on his Instagram.

I don't know how comfortable I feel ripping pictures off of his Instagram to show him on the show, so not gonna put those up. If you're listening on podcasts, wouldn't have mattered anyway whether I had the pictures, you wouldn't have seen them. But what I am telling you to do right now, unless you're driving or dangerous, heavy machinery,

the obvious adult disclaimers, children's disclaimers either, machinery, the obvious adult disclaimers, children's disclaimers either, otherwise, just the health disclaimers. Don't do it if you can. But if you're free and available, go look at J.C. Latham's Instagram. I retweeted the pictures at the end of last week, I think it was, or over the weekend as well,

if you follow me on Twitter, at Tic Tac Titans. I think it was or over the weekend as well if you follow me on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans but Jacey Latham looks Way different folks like I mean if you haven't seen the pictures It's hard for you to properly understand, but Latham has lost probably 30 maybe 40 pounds Seriously, maybe 30 to 40 pounds. Like he looks totally different. He cut off his long hair, he's got a shorter haircut which adds to like the

visual shock of holy crap he looks so different. Like that's J.C. Latham. The hairstyle is different, the body is so different. I mean it is crazy how much different he looks. He looks so much leaner, so much more fit and folks Brian Callahan confirmed that that is 100% what the expectation was. Brian Callahan said this quote, yeah he really committed himself to getting his weight at the range that he needed to get it to. He probably admittedly was heavy at the end of last season as the second half of the year wore on. He learned a lot of lessons himself about what it takes to play tackle in this league. The caliber of players you face every week and there's no letdown.

I think every rookie goes through that phase when they realize, man, whatever I did before, I gotta do it better if I want to have a chance to be the player I think I'm capable of being. And JC is capable of being an excellent football player and he really dedicated himself to changing his body like a lot of first year players going into their second year find ways to do. He looks great. He's in great shape. He's moving really well. I'm excited about where he's at, but all that credit goes to him and just understanding what he realized it was going to take to be the player he wants to be and he dedicated himself to it." I absolutely

love everything that Brian Callahan had to say right there. He's 100% right. Your first season in the NFL, think about what your off season is like. You're training for the draft. That's not football training. That's athletic training for like track almost. You're training more for track than you are football when you're getting ready for the Combine to do your best and all of that. Then you're going through the draft process, interviews, visits, flights, schedule stuff. You get in, you're a rookie, it's a whirlwind. You're in training camp all of a sudden, you don't know what's going on.

And think about this. Every single week in the NFL, you're playing an NFL team against NFL players. In college, a couple of times a year, you'd play the sisters of the poor university. You get no breaks during the season. And Brian Callahan was so honest here. Love the honesty from Brian Callahan, but he even said there, he played heavy at the end of last season and we heard that J.C. Latham was about 365, maybe even 380 at times at Alabama.

And he talked about getting down to like 345, 350 last year. But again, with the off season and the way it's structured and then going into the year and the way your body is more sore than you're ever used to it being and you're getting beat up? Can you in the middle of the season be like, holy crap, maybe I didn't realize what I had to do to get in shape here? And correct that mid-season? No, you can't do that. So this is one of the things that gets me so excited about J.C. Latham going back to last year when he was drafted as his mindset and how dedicated he is to being a great football player. This kind of change, dietary change, change to process, fitness, dedication in the off season. That sort of stuff can take players years. I don't think that Traylon Burks has ever done that stuff.

We've heard that he did, but I don't see the results. So, to me, this is proof that J.C. Latham truly is as locked in as we hoped he would be, and he's doing this now when it may take other players who are less locked in way longer to figure this stuff out. I'm so excited for J.C. Latham this season. Switching back to right tackle where he'd probably end up being more comfortable, better shape, better focus, better all season. I think J.C. Latham truly takes a massive leap this year for the Titans and turns into an all-pro level player. Cannot wait to see what he does. But I gotta be honest, to see what he does, but I gotta be honest for how excited I am about J.C. Latham. I'm probably as concerned about Ligerious Sneed.

Brian Callahan talked about Sneed and he said that he is still rehabbing his knee and his quad. Both the injured knee that has been a problem throughout his career and the quad that he injured last year. Callahan said, quote, he's coming back injury wise. So the rehab process is ongoing. He's in a good spot, excited about where he's at, but there's definitely a part of I'd like to practice more. I think he's on the same page too, where you got to balance those things. There's a management part of a lot of players, but there's also, um, you got to practice and get better at your craft and continue to improve. So we'll balance that.

I feel good about where that process is for us and him. And I think he's well on the same page as well. It's both the knee and the quad. I mean, the knee is something that you manage all the time. Then for the quad, it's taken some time to rehab from. So those things are still kind of ongoing simultaneously. It's all part of the process for him, but he's in a great place, excited about where he's at.

He's progressed as expected. I call BS. I do not think he's progressed as expected. The fact that he is still rehabbing the quad injury, that he suffered in week five or week four of last year, like that's a disgrace. That's a disaster. I gotta tell you guys, let's, like that's a disgrace. That's a disaster. I gotta tell you guys, let's just be real for a second.

I hope that Legerius Need turns this thing around. I hope that Legerius Need pulls a 180 on his Titans career, but let's all just have an honest moment with ourselves and admit. If you can't admit this, I think you're a liar. It's more likely that this turns into one of the all-time bust moves that the Tennessee Titans have ever made. This will be the biggest, you know, knock on Rancar Thon 10 years from now. It'll be, oh, that guy who traded for that bum Ligeria Sneen with the bum leg.

I would give this a 5% chance of turning into a positive for the Tennessee Titans. This will be a luxurious needs last season with the Titans. They'll cut him after the year. They'll take a big hit on the chin financially to do it. He'll go on somewhere else and be an average good cornerback. Just not who he is. The Titans just blew this one. Sneed's body, they took way too big of a

risk, gave him way too much money. It was a bad move. I was excited for it. I don't blame them for trying to, you know, make moves to fix this team. But at the end of the day, the odds of Legerrius Sneed becoming an impactful player and a good player for the Titans just go down by the day. Like week five, week six quad injury, you're still not ready. And they said it was a quad strain and a quad tear all at the same time. There was bone bruising. There was blah, blah, blah. This and it just.

We got to look ourselves in the face, look in the mirror Titans fans, and we all can just admit this one ain't going to work out, is it? It's not going to work out. I'd be surprised now at this point if he even is a decent starter for the Titans this year like my hopes are just so so low but hopes about the Titans should be higher and hopes for Brian Callahan should be higher because Callahan made some changes this all season to do some new things and let's hope that it helps the team win more games. Titans fans, let's cap off today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast.

We have talked about the Cam Wardwell Leavitt situation, why I think we get more clarity on that next week. We talked about Latham with a tighten up, Ligeria Snead with a tighten down. Now I want to go over these off season changes that Brian Callahan has made. It was a big topic of conversation at the OTA on Tuesday that the Titans are doing a bunch of different things. So let me explain, I guess, first and foremost, what the Titans are doing. So the Titans have broken up the team into like eight teams of 10 to 12 players. The math doesn't work perfectly there because there's only 90 players on the team, but it's about eight teams of ten to twelve players. The math doesn't work perfectly there because there's only ninety players on the team, but it's about eight teams of ten to twelve players. I guess it could be, I guess that does make sense. You could do like eight teams of eleven

guys. That would work out well or whatever. But either way, the Titans have broken up the team into these little segmented teams. And it's not just position groups like Tony Pollard is on a team with a defensive back and a linebacker and an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Like it's all these different compilations of different position groups together and they're getting points. It's what I would compare it to, hilariously enough, is like the house cup in Harry Potter. Like, you know, Imani Hooker gets an interception. Ten points for Slytherin. You know what I mean? Like, that's basically what's happening.

All these tug-of-war videos and the rock-paper-scissors and all these everything, they're all these team competitions, and apparently it's going to continue forward. And Brian Callahan broke down, like, what he was trying to do, what it is, all of that. And he said this, um, quote, I mean by that is it's an emphasis for us as well. Just like we emphasize trying to eliminate those negative plays in our execution, there is a leadership emphasis.

And part of the reason I did what I did was dividing up our team into teams now is they're all accountable to each other on that team. There's a leadership that starts to grow because now each team has a captain and an alternate. And now you've got more people in leadership spots. One of the things I think is unique about the process is it allows those guys to start to find their own voices and it's not just offense versus defense. It's much more of a holistic team approach to it. We encourage these guys to spend a lot more time together both in the building and out of it. It's been a focus for us. I think you can develop leadership. I don't

think leaders necessarily just walk into a room ready to lead. I think there's skills you have to learn. You have to have the communication as a leader. You have to know your teammates. We spend a lot of time trying to get to know each other on a level that I think is going to be beneficial to fostering more leadership from more people. One of the things I tell our team all the time that is really important is a lot of times you ask people, how do you lead? And most people say, I lead by example.

And my retort to that is, there's really no such thing in pro sports. Leading by example is the expectation. That's your job, To be on time. To do what you're supposed to do. To work hard to study. That's in your contract. So my challenge to our team this year was to do more of the things that will require bringing people with you. Making other people better.

And so leadership is something that we talk a lot about. It's a focal point of our off season. And the idea is that you develop a team full of leaders and everyone has different styles. But it's something that I think more people you have to have that are comfortable in those roles and understand it's more about how you interact with people and how you make people go around you better.

That part of it, I think, is something I'm excited about. He talked about the competition more. The cool part is you can earn points in a lot of different ways. For example, let's say defensively, Amani Hooker has an interception. That's a three-point swing for his team. But on his team is also the quarterback and the quarterback through the interception. So that's minus three-point swings.. So really is a net zero for his team for that particular play. But what it does is you see more communication, more conversation, more accountability to other folks around the team. And they get to know each other on a different level than maybe just offense

and defense. That's one of the things I think we need to do a better job of is just the whole team interacting more more not just side Not just by position or side of the ball. I think so far it's been a lot of fun I think the guys enjoyed it I also think it's grown those leadership qualities that accountability to each other as opposed to just trying to be the best offense or the best defense that day this continues To shout to the high heavens. The Titans hated their locker room culture last year.

They hated it. Brian Callahan went to Mike Borganzi and said, you got to get me a new locker room. We had no leaders in this locker room last year. No leaders. That's what it's telling us. And that could be a referendum on some players last year. No leaders. That's what it's telling us. And that could be a referendum on some players last year. Sure. But Callahan is saying you can't just lead by example. No, we need vocal leaders to say, do that the right way. Hold your teammate accountable. That's not good enough, bro. That's what the Titans need. Okay. Not just guys to show up on time. So it makes sense, the draft class. The draft class is all about character and leadership,

character and leadership. That's what we're looking for, set the foundation. And now we're hearing, hey, we have put a large emphasis on creating leadership within the team. We need more leaders, we need more accountability, we need the locker room to police itself better. So all these little house cup games, they're running all that at the end of the day. It's just Brian Callahan desperately trying to have a better

locker room this year than what they had last year. I think the you don't get only three wins on the season when you have a great locker room and just a bad team. That doesn't happen. The locker room is bad and the team is bad. That's how you go three and 14 and get the number one overall pick. So I'm glad that Brian Callahan recognizes these things. He seems like a very introspective person. He seems like a very self-aware person. Now, that doesn't mean that Brian Callahan is going to improve mightily and be a good enough coach to keep his job. But, but what I would tell you is,

like we talked about with J.C. Latham a second ago, from year one to year two, Brian Callahan spent so much time last year setting up his staff, thinking about how he wants to operate, his schedule for the day, how he wants to space things out, how he handles these interpersonal relationships with brand new employees that are looking up to him, from the coaching staff to the people in the building to the players. This year, none of that's new. Now it's about improving my process, not developing it in the first place. So that should, in theory, make Brian Callahan a better coach too. And if he gets what he wants and he gets a better locker room and he's a better coach and he has a better roster with better quarterback play, then maybe. The Titans can do something great this year.

Maybe not great in terms of, you know, playoffs and this and that, but great in terms of turning this program around and getting back going the right direction. But with that being said, again, we're going to break down more comments tomorrow. Running backs, offensive line, Cam Ward comments from teammates, so much to discuss. I'm going to do a mailbag. Yes, I'm honestly, truly going to do a mailbag at the end of this week. Get your questions to me on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans. Uh, more OTAs next week, mandatory mini camp right around the corner. Make sure you get subscribed.

Stay subscribed to your team every day, but that's going to do it for me today. Folks, as always, I am your host Tyler Roland, and this was Locked on Titans.