“Hey Cam, how would you like 50 free first downs?” - former Titan has key to unlock Titans offense in unconventional way of thinking

The Titans moved on from punter Ryan Stonehouse this offseason in favor of veteran Johnny Hekker, a move that surprised fans.

Understanding that there will be plenty of struggles for Ward and Tennessee's offensive unit, any advantage coach Brian Callahan can find in any of the three phases is welcome. Kern understands this better than most. The longtime Titan articulated just how much Hekker can impact a team's fortunes to the benefit of an offense on The Buck Reising Show.

“Stonehouse, he gave up 692, 266 in 12 games and 701 yards of returns, right?" said Kern. "That's a lot of returns. If you do a 17 game average, that's 613 yards. Hekker over his 13 year career averages 211. So now you got a difference of 400 yards. That's 40 1st downs over the season, right? You talk about hidden yardage. I'm sure Coach [Dave McGinnis] preaches about hidden yardage, hidden yardage. How can special teams win the hidden yardage? You look at touchbacks, right Stonehouse was around 10 touchbacks a year. Hekker's around four. That's six. Now, if you got a punt that goes to the five compared to the 20, that's 15 yards of difference, right? So now there's another 75 yards. So just alone in changing your style of punting to what Stonehouse did to now what Hekker does. “I mean, you're looking at potentially oversees a season changing 45 to 50 first downs for your defense, which that's huge. I mean, imagine if you could say, hey, Cam, we're going to give you 50 free first downs this year. I'm sure he would be Coach Callahan, the whole offensive staff would be absolutely ecstatic about it."

That's just one phase of the game.

Anything the Titans can do to ease Ward's burden this season will be critical. Longtime special teams coordinator John Fassel replaces first-year coach Colt Anderson which should bring significant improvement. Better field position would do wonders to help level out both Tennessee's offense and defense that were regularly compromised by a historically awful special teams unit in 2024.

The Titans practice in Nashville on Wednesday morning before traveling for a joint practice and preseason game with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

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