Two weeks later, Elic Ayomanor and Kevin Winston Jr., can laugh about it.
The scariest moment of Tennessee Titans training camp
came on Aug. 6, when Winston plowed through the defenseless Ayomanor going for an end zone interception in a full-speed team rep. Ayomanor exited with a shoulder injury that, though it looked severe at the time, didn't even end up being serious enough to prevent him from partaking in the Titans' Blue and White Scrimmage the next day."I saw (QB Cam Ward) turn up to the other side," Winston explained. "I played ball the entire time. I didn’t even see (Ayomanor). Me and Elic talked about it. As soon as practice was over, I ran in to find him and make sure he was fine. He was actually in the building watching the clip to see what
happened, so you know he’s hard on himself."
"We have a running joke in the receiver room that I’m always (over-complimenting) Kevin," Ayomanor added. "Genuinely, to me, that’s something I have a lot of respect for. Not necessarily the hits where we’re getting hurt. But the mentality. He’s not doing it on purpose. He’s not trying to hurt us. But he practices so hard every day and that’s something I have a whole bunch of respect for and I that’s the habits you have to have to be a great player."
The Ayomanor-Winston moment is an unlikely case study in a lot of the stranger, more difficult to explain challenges of the NFL preseason. Football is a physical game, and training camp is as much for reacclimatizing the body to that punishment as it is for learning schemes and techniques. Defensive players in particular have to ready themselves to do a job that's mostly contingent on their ability to tackle and shed blocks.
But the balance, of course, is the team gets worse if offensive players get injured. So is it better for the team to lean into the physical aspects of the game and risk injury, or is it better for the team to usher skill players to the regular season safely and just trust that defensive players will be able to amp up the physicality when it's called for?
"It’s hard," Winston admitted. "In practice it’s hard. You try to train yourself to pull back or pull off. I think in certain areas when you’re playing fast, it’s hard to find an area (to hit safely). But as a team we’ve got to take care of our guys and make sure we don’t hurt anybody in practice."
On Aug. 17, Winston was at the center of another loud collision, this one with rookie wide receiver Carnell Tate. Tate, like Ayomanor, left practice and did not return. Tate didn't return for practice when the Titans reconvened on Aug. 19, but coach Robert Saleh said that was due to some "lower body stiffness," not the Winston hit.
There's another half to this conversation, though. Come September, offensive players are going to get hit. Opposing teams won't pull their punches. So the way Winston plays is instructive for Ward and his receivers. As Ayomanor puts it, Winston is the kind of player who makes Ward adjust the way he layers his throws and how he uses his eyes to control defenders.
Because when the season starts, it's up to Ward to protect his receivers as much as anyone. Receivers are only as defenseless as their quarterbacks let them be. Call it the "hospital ball" prevention drill.
"A lot of the times if you’re running down the field, it’s hard for you to see the safety, especially if the ball’s on your outside shoulder," Ayomanor says. "If you’re looking at the ball, you might be able to see him in your peripheral. But you really just have to trust the quarterback to protect you. Really what’s in your mind is you have to secure the ball and complete the catch. The rest is trusting the quarterback and if you get hit, you get hit. That’s just the name of the game."
Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X @nicksuss. Subscribe to the Talkin’ Titans newsletter for updates sent directly to your inbox.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Are collisions worth risk for Titans WRs? Here's 1 unlikely way they make Cam Ward better
