Titans’ unofficial OTA catch tally shines a light on who’s finishing routes during OTAs

The Tennessee Titans spent their offseason OTAs focused on fundamentals and timing, but they also left behind a more specific breadcrumb: an unofficial count of which Titans caught the most passes during the five open sessions. The Titans’ own team release framed it as a way to understand the day-to-day rhythm of training camp style work, not as a formal statistic that matches game totals or official league reporting.

According to the Titans, the tally was built by combining two parts of practice. First was 7-on-7 work, where routes develop against defensive backs and pressure is typically scaled down for learning. Second was “team” periods, which more closely resemble full-speed practice play with run-pass responsibilities and more realistic on-field spacing. By merging those segments, the club attempted to capture not only who wins in individual moments, but who produces consistently across the main passing windows of OTA periods.

The release covered all five open OTAs and then added the catch numbers together across those days for a single cumulative ranking. It is important to treat the outcome for what it is: a snapshot of participation and execution during offseason teaching sessions. OTA practices are not games, defensive schemes are often tempered for player development, and coaches routinely rotate reps for multiple reasons, including evaluation and learning different looks.

Still, the Titans’ emphasis on who caught the most passes is telling in a program-building sense. In a league where passing efficiency is driven by timing as much as raw talent, early offseason targets tend to reveal who the quarterbacks trust and who the coaching staff wants featured in a simplified operational plan. Even if the numbers are not a measure of “best player,” they can indicate which route runners are meeting the standard quickly, running clean stems, and finishing plays with consistent hands.

This kind of unofficial tracking also fits the broader reality of OTAs. Most roster decisions and depth-chart shaping do not come from a single practice, but patterns over multiple weeks matter. A catcher who shows up high on a “who caught it” list across five open sessions suggests more than a one-day spike, it suggests he was regularly in the quarterback’s read progression during the most important periods of work.

The Titans’ release also underscores how the offseason calendar is structured for open sessions. OTAs are carefully segmented, and “open” availability changes how much of the practice can be observed and how the club chooses to share context afterward. By publishing an aggregate catch ranking, the organization added a clearer narrative to what fans typically experience as a series of field sessions without box-score transparency.

Looking ahead, the most relevant takeaway is not whether an individual ends up leading the unofficial list, but how the Titans turn OTA timing into training camp continuity. The offseason often decides the early rhythm, while training camp, preseason, and eventually the regular season decide whether that timing survives against faster, more complex coverage and more aggressive pass-rush alignment. Coaches will also continue to evaluate versatility, route discipline, and how receivers perform when the playbook tightens.

For fans, the next practical “watch” is whether the same pass catchers remain prominent as the work becomes more live and more situational. If the Titans keep building chemistry in the passing game, that usually shows up in who gets targeted early once full preseason reps begin, and in who stays available when the reps get scarce. The unofficial OTA catch tally is best viewed as an early indicator of execution, one that becomes more meaningful only after it meets the harder tests that come later in the calendar.