Latest Jeffery Simmons report proves growth is happening within the Titans where it's truly needed most

The Tennessee Titans just became the first team in the NFL this season to fire its head coach on Monday, and the future of the team is as uncertain as it’s ever been. Brian Callahan is gone, the team is 1-5 and hasn’t shown signs of substantive growth, Mike McCoy is the interim for the next 11 games, and there’s no telling what this shakeup will do to the players and coaches in terms of rowing in the same direction.

It’s not shocking Brian Callahan was fired, he was 4-19 in his time at the helm. Everybody understood it was coming sooner or later. But this roster, which it could be argued was a pretty impossible task to work with the past year and change in hindsight, never turned on him. That was perhaps the most remarkable thing about his tenure, how things got impossibly bleak and yet the locker room never fractured.

Now that he’s gone, it won’t be shocking one bit to see everybody feel drawn towards fending for themselves. Players could start thinking about their next contract, coaches about their next job. I’m not accusing this particular team of heading down that road, but we’ve seen it plenty of times before in similar situations. That’s the risk that management has chosen to take on by making this decision now.

So what can prevent that from happening? Real leadership. And that starts with the players. The bad news is that this locker room spent a ton of time and effort on fostering new leadership over the offseason, because the team was pretty devoid of it. But the good news is that some of the best players have taken that mantle, and all indications are that they’re not giving up. The latest report on the team’s best player is a great example of that.

JC Latham's Return Is Officially Concerning

This story from Mike Silver at The Athletic is about Jeffery Simmons, but it’s also about JC Latham. Last week before getting beat up in Las Vegas by the Raiders, the Titans had what they called one of the worst practices they’ve ever had. Now, every team has bad practices and they aren’t always reflective of Sunday performance. But it’s easy to point back to one when you get whipped on gameday.

Jeffery Simmons and Cam Ward alluded to that bad practice after the game on Sunday, but Mike Silver’s article shared a new detail that he gathered during his time in Nashville last week talking to Cam Ward. Here’s what he wrote:

“According to several witnesses, Simmons stopped Thursday’s practice to point out what he considered a poor showing by second-year right tackle JC Latham, who had missed the previous four weeks with a hip injury. ‘I’ve watched you for the last 10 plays, and this ain’t it,’ Simmons told Latham. ‘We need more from you.’”

I’ll get to the leadership element of this from Simmons in a moment, but first, JC Latham needs a bounce back in a bad way. To learn that he looked so bad in practice last week that the best player on the team was calling him out is ugly enough. Looking at how he played on Sunday in his first game back is even worse. There’s no doubt coming back from a month of rest and rehab to face Maxx Crosby as your first test is as hard as it gets, but it’s still a test that he failed. PFF credited him with 3 sacks allowed and 5 pressures, by far the worst of the five starting lineman.

to Latham’s credit, he wore it after the game. He owned the fact that the team brought him in to block players like Crosby, and he didn’t do nearly well enough when put in that spot. The harsh reality here is that it’s pretty impossible for a lineman to stay in game shape and game-hardened when you take a month off like that. The only way out is through. He has to play his way back to where he needs to be. But the Titans desperately need that to come sooner rather than later.

Jeffery Simmons Has Become The Leader This Team Needs

Now that I’ve successfully buried the lede on this: how about Jeffery Simmons this year? Here’s a player that has gotten a lot of grief both on and off the field the past couple of years, and is held to a very high standard. And to his credit this year, his growth into a leadership role—in tandem with playing the best football of his NFL career so far—deserves the praise that it’s getting.

I’ve always felt that part of the rub with Simmons is that fans and the organization alike have tried to foist him onto a leadership pedestal that was simply higher than reality. Not everybody is a Boy Scout locker room leader like a Kevin Byard for example, and I think a lot of people expected that from Simmons, who is rougher around the edges and speaks his mind. For a while, expectations didn’t match reality, and it led to misunderstanding and frustration.

But I’ve been taken aback by the way Simmons has grown as a leader this year. This story from last week is only the latest example of him taking this mantle and running with it. He’s been a more vocal leader of the team. He’s taken more responsibility for himself, his position group, and his role. He’s been a real credit to this otherwise flailing team both on and off the field so far in 2025.

With how dysfunctional the Titans have been six weeks into the season, frankly, I think he’d be within his right to try to force his way out of this mess. But he’s done the opposite of that so far. Everything I’ve seen, heard publicly, and heard privately—even in the wake of this latest major shakeup—indicates he’s been exactly what this team needs in that locker room right now. And this front office would sooner forfeit the season than trade him away to a competitor.