During his press conference on Wednesday, Tennessee offensive coordinator Nick Holz was asked if Titans wide receiver Calvin Ridley seemed happier in his second training camp with the NFL team.
Holz said he didn’t know about happier, but he did know the former Alabama standout had taken charge of Tennessee’s wide receivers.
“I would say I thought he was a pretty happy guy last year,” Holz said. “I think he’s just got more comfort in being here for a second year, same coaches, similar offense. Just kind of, I think, as you get somewhere for a while I think you just become more comfortable, and it feels like he’s just kind of really taken a leadership role in the receiver room and in the passing game. And I think that’s where, whether it’s happiness or just more vocal and kind of those things, I think it’s been really good for him, and he’s been good for all the other people.
“I think every time you talk to one of these receivers, all they talk about is Calvin’s work ethic and how he’s taught me this and done this and done that. And that’s probably a really cool role for Calvin to be in. You know, he came in as a young guy with Julio Jones and those other guys in Atlanta, and now all of a sudden he’s at the point in his career where he gets to kind of impart some of this knowledge. In the meetings for us, it’s been great just to have him be so vocal and involved.”
Ridley had 64 receptions for 1,017 yards and four touchdowns for Tennessee last season for his second straight 1,000-yard performance. He’s reached that milestone in each of his past three full seasons.
For 2025 No. 1 draft pick Cam Ward’s first season as the Titans quarterback, Tennessee put together what could be a veteran first set of wide receivers. To join Ridley, the Titans signed Tyler Lockett and Van Jefferson.
Lockett had four 1,000-yard seasons during his 10 years with the Seattle Seahawks. In 2024, Lockett had 49 receptions for 600 yards and two touchdowns. In his fifth NFL season, Jefferson had 24 receptions for 276 yards and two touchdowns for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The second line of Tennessee’s wide-receiver depth chart is anything but experienced. Bryce Oliver had six receptions for 95 yards as a Titans rookie in 2024, and Chimere Dike and Elic Ayomanor joined Tennessee in the fourth round of the NFL Draft on April 25.
Holz said Tennessee is still sorting out its wide-receiver pecking order behind Ridley as the Titans head into their final preseason game. Tennessee faces the Minnesota Vikings at 7 p.m. CDT Friday at Nissan Stadium in Nashville. CBS will televise the game.
The Titans have 12 wide receivers on their preseason roster. Most NFL teams keep six on the active roster during the regular season.
“They’re all really bunched up,” Holz said, “and so I think you look at all of them from (James) Proche and those kind of guys all the way to (Xavier) Restrepo and Mason Kinsey and Jha’Quan (Jackson) and all those guys, and we really want to see them.
“Two things that are going to happen: They got to make some plays, right? If you make some plays, we always talk about to our guys, ‘Hey, this isn’t just your resume for us. It’s your resume for everybody.’ So for the whole league, we want to give all those guys an opportunity to go out there and make a play. And then the special teams is going to be a big part of all those guys that really separates those guys that are probably outside the first couple of guys that are going to start. So they’ve all had really good camps. They’ve all kind of had their ups and downs, but we feel good about where the group’s at.”
After working with quarterback Matt Ryan in his first four NFL seasons with the Atlanta Falcons, Ridley caught passes from Trevor Lawrence with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2023 and Will Levis and Mason Rudolph with the Titans last season.
“I wouldn’t say it’s as much of a relearn as it’s more of just a, like, subtle adjustment,” Holz said of the switch to Ward for the wide receivers. “You know, it’s really very similar routes and things like that. It’s just kind of that ball may be coming a little faster or maybe it’s coming down the field more and maybe sometimes, you know, Cam’s got a really quick release, so it might be coming out a little quicker. But it’s not really this kind of wholesale change, I wouldn’t say.”
The Titans kick off the regular season against the Denver Broncos on Sept. 7.
“We think the offense Week 1 is going to look a lot different from the offense Week 17, Week 18,” Holz said, “of really where (Ward) goes and what we find out about him and what we find out about our whole team as we go.”
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at@AMarkG1.
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