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Turron Davenport
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Interim Tennessee Titans coach Mike McCoy spoke to the media for the first time Tuesday and outlined his plan for helping rookie quarterback Cam Ward. Through six games, Ward’s eight turnovers ties him for the second most in the league.
“That’s one thing we have to clean up,” McCoy said. “You see what happened the other day in the game where there was some drifting and then the ball security in the pocket, things like that we got to clean up and that’s our job as coaches.”
McCoy mentioned some of the previous quarterbacks he’s worked with including Philip Rivers, Peyton Manning, Jake Delhomme and Trevor Lawrence. Before coming to the Titans, McCoy was the quarterbacks coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars from 2022 -2024. He said one of the things he did with Lawrence, who was in his second season when they first worked together in Jacksonville, was use positive reinforcement. That’s what he plans to do with Ward.
“It’s going to be the same thing every week,” McCoy said. “You’re getting better. That’s what I kept on telling Trevor and what I’m going to tell Cam.”
McCoy said the coaching staff met Tuesday morning to start on the game plan for when coach Mike Vrabel and the New England Patriots come to Nashville on Sunday. They focused on emphasizing what Ward does best and how it meshes with the overall strengths of the offense.
“That’s going to be our number one focus,” McCoy said. “How do we get Cam to be more efficient and have more success?”
Quarterbacks coach Bo Hardegree will continue to call the plays according to McCoy, but with more involvement from tight ends coach Luke Stocker and running backs coach Randy Jordan.
The defensive staff will remain the same. McCoy said he plans to rely on the leaders to help set the tone for the team, especially defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons.
“Seeing what Jeff does every day, there’s a reason why he goes out and dominates every game,” McCoy said. “The way you see him at the end of games, on the sideline with the offense as they’re coming off, regardless of what the score is. That’s just one guy that I’m mentioning. There’s a lot of guys, the veteran players we have here, they know what it means to play this game every day.”
Simmons said the Titans had one of their worst weeks of practice leading up to their 20-10 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders last Sunday. When asked about Simmons’ comments, McCoy revealed that Simmons stepped up in practice last week and demanded they start over because he felt like the low energy wasn’t acceptable.
“I love that,” McCoy said. “That’s the accountability factor. He wants to win so bad. He’s a great example to look at from any player on this football team and say, ‘If we all play — if we all work as hard on a daily basis and go out there and play the way he is playing on Sundays, great things are going to happen for this organization.'”
