 Nick, you're maybe facing new competition this week with these new practices coming up. Yeah, really looking forward to it. It's always good to get out there against someone else. You know, you get used to going against the same guy, you know, every day during practice, so it'd be good to get some new faces. You know, we had him last year for a joint practice, so kind of know what to expect too. How are you just like from a confidence level? Because it seems like you're playing with much more confidence, you know, watching you in practice and everything. Yeah, I mean, I feel like from first year to last year to this year, confidence is definitely a lot higher. I've said before, just confidence in knowing what to do, you know, knowing the playbook really well just allows me to play a lot faster and then, you know, getting healthy, getting right this offseason, trusting the work that I put in. What did you see from maybe the young guys that played on Thursday and you give kind of pointers to guys or get feedback from guys after playing? Yeah, I mean, I love watching them out there. You know, I feel like, you know, guys were making plays, you know, everybody was making plays all over the field. It's just great to see the growth and, you know, things that we worked on in practice before the game, seeing those applied and people making the right choice and not making the same mistakes. Looking at Racy and the growth he's shown, Todd talked earlier about how that 48-yarder, he might have, you know, last year gone out of bounds with it. Are you seeing in the room and on the field, what do you see out of him in his second year? Yeah, I'm seeing a lot more confidence too. I feel like probably in the same way I can't speak for him, but I feel like he just knows what to do, so he's able just to play fast and not think as much. And I feel like, you know, I'm really excited to see what he's going to do this year. Now, as far as how you prepare yourself for the season, compared to when you first came to the league, as far as watching film, knowing how to treat your body, knowing how to do the little things. Yeah, I feel like it gives you a little bit more free time just because you're not trying to figure it all out. You know, your rookie year, a lot of it's all new, so you're trying to figure out your routine, when to take care of your body, how to do it, you know, when you can study, when you can't. And so now it's kind of having that routine under my belt and it allows me to have a little more free time where I can enjoy my off time and then makes it more exciting when I do come out here and have to go to work. Do you sometimes get the urge to get back out there on special teams, being as though, like, that's where you really made your mark when you came one of the regular receivers. Yeah, definitely. I mean, there's still a lot of fun things to do on special teams and, you know, I feel like I'll still have a role there. And, you know, I'm just really going to do whatever they tell me to do, so if they need me on all four, I'll do all four. If they only want me on one or two, I'll do one or two, but, you know, anytime I'm out there on special teams, I'm just going to give it my all. Nick, I remember in the offseason program, you talked about, like, trying to be more explosive this year, taking that next step, like, in yards after the catch. I know you haven't played in a game yet, but how do you feel like maybe you've been able to work on that at practices so far? Yeah, I feel like, you know, running through the catch, being able to, you know, attack the ball and be confident through that, so that way, you know, there's a little bit more separation when I do catch the ball and it's not, you know, a bang-bang play or being able to catch, you know, tuck the ball away and get a stiff arm out there. So working on all of those drills out here, even in jog, there's just trying to have the mentality of, like, I'm trying to score whenever I have the ball. Who is your favorite receiver in the receiver room? That's the right answer. You know, there's so many great ones, but I feel like, you know, the top one, my favorite, you know, my dog since day one here at Tennessee, probably Mason Kinsey. I like that answer. Shane, you're getting ready for the joint practices and the starter for the Vux won't be on the field for either the practices of the game. Do you miss not going against the starter in that situation and how much can it, you know, would you like to be going against it? Yeah, I mean, anytime you go against Brady, I think it's eye-opening, just our experience with him with what he's done and how he practices, how he carries himself. I think our guys learn a lot and kind of see what that is. But in terms of the actual reps and the practice, whoever we're going against, we got to go out there and execute and do our job, and it's going to be good to see the matchups obviously Brady and everybody else, but up front, outside, inside. So there's still going to be a lot of evaluation going on and it's going to be a big challenge for us and we'll kind of see where we're at. You're getting Elijah Molden back out there today, that nickel competition, him and Macquarie, how are you seeing that carry on? Yeah, I mean, I think as we get going, continue to go forward here and those guys are back out there and we're playing a little bit more, we see how that unfolds. Like right now it's kind of tough because Elijah's working his way back, Roger's kind of working his way back, he's had a few days here. So I think as we get a little bit further into it, we'll kind of get a better gauge for where that thing's at. What about a guy like Shakur Brown? He's come in and got really good reps. What do you like from him? Yeah, I think he's done a really good job since he's been here. I think he's taken ownership of the position in terms of communicating, not really concerned with him in terms of the scheme. I think he could go out there and execute, help the guys next to him. So I've been pleased with what he's done here in his time. What were your biggest takeaways from the first time out? Yeah, I mean, it's never as good, never as bad as you think. Man, there's a few things. I think letting him run it in the red zone was a little discouraging to me. We've got to be better there after sudden change, something we preach. Some of the X play showed up. Again, it's an evaluation process. We're going to be playing some man. Maybe we just got to be able to win those one-on-ones down the field. Do you see his opportunities for the younger guys to get some quality reps? Yeah, I think it's a little bit of both. We want our guys out there. We want everyone out there all the time. But at the same time, if somebody's not up, we always preach next man up. So it is. It's going to be a big opportunity for guys if guys aren't going to certain spots to step up and kind of see what they can do. Shane Keelow came in here last week and sort of picked things up on the fly. I guess played a good bit Thursday night. What did you like about him? What did he show? Yeah, I like the speed, man. You see him flying around. He had on the screenplay, I think he darted from the opposite hash and tackled the do without breaking stride on the sideline there. He had some fresh legs, right? But he's done a good job. I think he's trying. He's trying to learn. We put a lot on those guys in the back end and I've been pleased with him. But definitely probably the biggest thing is just the speed. Shane Keelow had gotten his first game action in what, like 10 months or so. How do you feel like he looked and just kind of getting back? Yeah, I thought it was good. It's great for him to be out there and playing right now. I think he's probably getting better because he's still getting acclimated to this game, to this level, to the NFL. He had a few games there last year before he got hurt. So again, we're going to try to get everything we can out of them in these games and let them get some reps and see where it's at just so he can learn and be out there and get a feel for how it's going to go. How the pack of defensive linemen behind Simmons and Autry maybe sorting themselves out and doing it, differentiating themselves? Yeah, I think those guys are battling. I do. It's kind of funny because each day it's really someone else, right? So we're constantly looking for that consistent guy that's going to kind of separate himself day in and day out. I mean, between D-Walk, Han, Strong, obviously Tart and A-Quan who played a lot of ball for us. We're really just looking for a little bit of separation from that group. It's a good problem to have. Don't get me wrong when guys are having good days, everything else, but just that consistency and ownership of that role. Just do you think the experience at table last year ended up helping you guys once this season again? Especially, you know, your Brady and who you were going against? Yeah, tremendously. I do. I think any time you can get away from playing your own guys, I think for one, just the energy you're kind of in the law of training camp at some point as much as we want to fight through it. But getting to go against some fresh faces, right, is always encouraging and it forces our guys to kind of have to learn their skill sets, right, where it's not the same guy in pass rush, it's not the same guy I'm covering in one-on-one. So it's somewhat game-like related where you have to kind of learn the skill set of the guy you're going against. And the scheme stuff, like different schemes. I think it's a great benefit to be able to do this. Well, you got to see Malik in live game action. What's your take as far as how he was able to process things, the operation, and pretty much everything else. Yeah, I think there was some good and some room for improvement. I thought he showed timing and accuracy in some throws and then there were a couple, or I'm sure he wish he had it back and pulled the trigger on a couple of things, but overall there was growth. He did a nice job running the line of scrimmage and huddle procedure and protection checks and things like that. So a lot of good and then obviously some stuff that we got to fine-tune. You said earlier that he does a good job of not making the same mistake twice. Are you still seeing that and is that helping him maybe progress as he works through camp? Yeah, I think he works hard to improve on the things that we challenge him with and I think practice has shown that. He's had some really good corrections in practice and so it's been fun to watch that process with him and to work through that with him. He's such a hard worker and a high character guy that I'm excited about the trajectory he's on. Is the issue of trust in what he sees yet is that pretty common for a guy this first year? Yeah, I would say that that's very common for a young quarterback, particularly if the offense that you're in in the pros is drastically different than the offense you were in in college and so some of these are the first live reps he's seeing of these types of concepts so naturally there's going to be a learning curve there and I think that Malik's working really hard to gain that confidence in seeing things clearly He's talked about the matching of footwork sometimes he's like, I see it I process it but then the feet aren't synchronized I guess. What's that process like from your perspective and how has that progressed like in camp? Yeah, he is a very gifted thrower and has great ball speed and I think he throws an accurate ball and I think that there are probably times that he got away with some things collegiately that he's not going to be able to get away with in the pros or maybe the windows a little tighter than it was in college and so Ty and his feet to his progressions and helping the timing there and the decision making is going to be a major step in the process for him I think he's made strides there and I think he's continuing to work on that stuff and I think that he's realizing he can trust that process I don't know if Mike Mitchell maybe tried those a little bit inconsistent on Thursday, what have you seen from him maybe over the last maybe a week at camp Thursday? I think we just need to get him to translate some of the growth we've seen in practice into the game. I think some of those young guys maybe had themselves hyped up a little bit for their first NFL action out on a game field he certainly wasn't the only one but I think that we need to see more consistency translating that growth, that route craft that understanding where you're at and the concept speed off the ball those things from practice we've seen a pretty good amount of with him into the game more consistently. What did Julius do to come out of it working with the ones after the game? Yeah, you know obviously he had the one hiccup but after that bounced back, had some really tough runs did a nice job in protection for us. You know he's just continuing to take advantage of his opportunities with the ball in his hand, he plays our brand of football and we were very pleased with some of the things he did last night, you know came out and had an opportunity here in practice to showcase some of those things with Derrick not in there in the team period and you know we'll keep giving those guys opportunities as they play hard. You got to look at Nick Petit-Fraer on both the right side and the left side throughout the course the game would you like about the way that he performed and what were your kind of takeaways there? Yeah, similar to some of the other young guys a little inconsistent but I think that Nick is working hard to play physical to run off the football for us. I think he did some good things in combinations with guys, obviously had a couple of hiccups as well so just got to smooth out that kind of learning curve a little bit and get him to play more consistent you know I know that's a common word that I'm using with those young guys but a lot of them fall in that same category. Did he kind of show that growth that you guys have seen since the spring did it translate into the game? Yeah, Dylan played hard you know he played physical and with good effort and finish and we expect that of him especially a guy in his second year you know he and Brew and Corey those guys that were out there that you know know our style of football we expect there to be a consistency there and we expect them to be leaders when it comes to play demeanor so Dylan did some good things and look forward to him continuing to grow. On the big throw to Racy did Racy do anything particularly well to get open there or was that more of a busted coverage that you guys just took advantage of? Well number one he put pressure on the defense with speed he played with great speed off the ball and got into the secondary quick he set a nice angle from a leak and I thought the most impressive thing was how he tracked the ball understanding where he was on the field you know he caught that ball right up against the sideline and last year he may have caught it and run right out of bounds and hopefully got two feet down in the process he understood where he was and was able to get down in bounds and you know tracked the ball that wasn't an easy track I mean he was running pretty fast with a ball that was tailing away from him so how much is your confidence in him grown these last couple weeks now based on practices and then taking something like that into the game? Yeah he's he's doing a great job with the opportunities we're giving him you know and and we try to commit to giving guys more opportunities as they succeed around here and and so he's got more opportunities and done a nice job with him we just got to continue to harp on the details with him and some of the techniques and I like I like where race is at not something he was very known for out of Michigan but just his hands and his route running and what that can bring to the offense yeah he's showing a dependability and protection which is a good thing obviously you know he wasn't eating up in in blocks very much so he's able to get out quickly for the check downs had the nice game obviously on the four vertical concept we ran the red zone there and did a nice job after the catch so that was encouraging to see I thought he ran tough you know didn't show any you know lack of contact courage he went in there and and got what was there in the run game push the pile a couple of times so you know I think he's another guy that's taken advantage of some of his opportunities excited to see that translate here as we get back into training camp mode and you know have some fresh faces coming here in a couple days watching him stay on that course I think that's a ongoing competition you know those guys are kind of rotating through there in different spots Josh's you know done a nice job with some of the perimeter stuff we've asked him to do and I think all those guys understand that the more they show a willingness to get in there and mix it up in the run game the more we're going to try to reward him in the run game so you know searching for that commitment out of that group not just Josh but any of those any of those guys fighting for a spot it's going to be paramount you know that they show you know playing our style of ball as the backup quarterback battle heats up I guess what are you maybe specifically looking for from Malik and Logan to see kind of who ultimately comes out you know as that top backup behind Ryan yeah ultimately the backup quarterback needs to be somebody that can run the game plan on a moment's notice right and that means different things for those two players there's certainly aspects of Malik's game that if he were playing for us we'd try to amplify or augment you know and there's certain things that Logan does very well that we would be able to augment as well consistency and dependability in their decision making is critical putting the ball in harm's way you know as something that a backup quarterback can't do and we've got to make sure that we're doing everything we can not only from a pocket ball security but also throw location and decision making you know they got to be able to take care of that football and you know keep the offense flowing as if Ryan were in there. Consideration I guess with both those guys sometimes the track is not great sometimes are throwing the guys who don't have a lot of experience how do you see some of those factors. Yeah you try to just factor in you know all those variables into whether they made the right decision and if they were on time. If they're making the right decision going to the right place with the football and they're on time you can understand that maybe the protection caused a little bit of a high throw or you know a receiver was short on his route depth or something like that. You have to look at it objectively and certainly that's part of the pre-season process right is you know you're in there with kind of a mixed bag of personnel and some different challenges along the way but are they going to the right spots are they going there on time and then when they're able to are they accurate. Well you know for the first time I thought our guys were in tune with everything obviously that was one of our keys going into it was our substitution and our operation our guys were into it on the sideline I thought they did a pretty good job I mean there's still some stuff that we need to clean up but for the most part we're still with them and we'll continue to try to build off of that. Split with the punters from first half to second half what was kind of the approach there and what did you like from both guys? Yeah we think both of them punted the ball really well Brett you know had the first three punts and his first two were 52 yards out of bounds I mean that was awesome to see he was locked in and ready to go and then Ryan came in and punted the ball well he had that touch back you know at the end of the first half you know for his first time out there we thought he punted the ball really well too How was your returners? Racy especially had a nice return what did you like from those guys? Yeah we thought all of them did a really good job there's still a few things that we need to clean up as far as our blocking is concerned but you know Trenton went out there the first couple and did a really nice job we like him to keep his feet a little bit more so we're going to work on some drills with that but it was fun to see Racy out there for the first time running there and catching it and we told him hey it doesn't matter where it is let's bring this thing out and you know the biggest thing that we wanted to see from him is not stopping his feet and running through any type of smoke what we say and you know he did a good job putting his head down and gaining some yards What are some of the things you can gather like when you get those guys out there live as opposed to out here? Yeah it's a lot for us because we don't practice much live kick off and kick off return so those are really important for us to get that in the preseason and you know on kickoffs we don't want to kick touch backs we want to see these guys get an opportunity to go down there and make plays and try to make the team and same thing for kickoff return we're hoping to get the returns so our guys can go out there and showcase their abilities What field position allows is sort of a 50 yard punt the expectation these days? Yeah I mean I think it's depending on where you're at you know we would surely love to kick the ball as far as we can with a lot of hang time but every year it seems like punters are asked to do even more so 50 yard punts are great but we've got to have great hang time with them so you'll see that a lot during the preseason us try to get 50 yard punts with some hang time so we can go and cover you know it's interesting I talked to Brett after the second one I was like you know what's getting into you you know it's a great pun again but we've got to see some guys cover and he's like hey coach I'm just doing my job but those are always fun to see Brett hitting those like he did in the past Do you have a number of guys that have never played special teams before they got here or what's that process like trying to get them going? Yeah usually the rookies hardly ever see any special teams during their time in college unless it was early on maybe they're freshmen in Southmore year usually they're starting defense or defense so when we get them obviously it's a big part of us of getting them going on special teams we feel pretty lucky right now with the guys that we have as far as rookies are concerned because they played some on special teams and we just got to get them used to how we do things here so I think they've really taken to our coaching and we look forward to them in this next preseason game Let me talk about running through the smoke how hard is that for guys to learn typically? Yeah usually in college if they're a returner they're going to get bigger holes you know when they run through you know if there's some double teams kick out blocks there's usually going to be bigger gaps well in the NFL that kind of closes a lot and they're going to have to run through some arm tackles and they're going to have to run through some holes that aren't as big so we got to tell them like hey it's one cut and go and they got to get used to it so we try to simulate that a little bit and just get them used to it but nothing gets them used to it until they go through the game so it was exciting to see those guys running through some holes like Trenton did and Racy and hopefully we get some more this week Bullock been from I guess time off he started through camp and now on Thursday night? Yeah extremely consistent I think he's missed maybe three kicks all training camp he's locked into a zone right now and we're excited you know he just got to continue to build on and his confidence is really high right now and we're trying to put him in different situations as far as two minute whether we got to hurry up field goal at the end he's really focused in on the 40 to 49 yards which is doing really well now we got to back him up a little bit more you know to continue to build confidence in 50 plus field goals What is he doing now when he's cleared he'll be ready to roll Yeah I mean he's trying to get better he's in the training room all the time and we'll take him day by day and see what he's going to do obviously it helps that we got Randy right now doing really well but we're still excited about Caleb and hopefully we can get him back on the practice field