Tennessee Titans: Takeaways from Saturday night scrimmage

The Tennessee Titans put on a scrimmage for the fans at Nissan Stadium on Saturday night and here are three takeaways from that scrimmage.

For the eighth practice of training camp, the Titans put on a show for the fans at Nissan Stadium. They put on a scrimmage along with a concert by Jake Owen for everyone who came out to show their support.

But the best part of this scrimmage is we got to see what the team looked like for the first time this year and here are my three biggest takeaways from the scrimmage.

1. Mariota and receivers

One big question for the Titans is can Marcus Mariota compete again in 2019? Well, this year he has a great receiving corps surrounding him and probably the best since he got into the league.

On the first drive of the scrimmage, Mariota went 6-7 and capped it off with a touchdown throw to Tajae Sharp. Adam Humphries also saw some action in the first drive, which is a positive since Mariota will likely depend on Humpries a lot this season.

After the hot start, Mariota slowed down and didn’t look too great after that. He was pressured a lot and wasn’t really able to get anything going consistently after the first drive.

2. Sharif Finch showed out

If you don’t know who Sharif Finch or know a lot about him, you will very soon. He looked really good on Saturday night and showed out.

There wasn’t any tackling in the scrimmage so you can’t say how many tackles or sacks he would’ve had in a real game but let’s just say it would have been a lot.

He was in the backfield virtually all night. He is entering his second season in the league and was one of the stand out players on defense throughout the night.

He had only 1.5 sacks in 15 games last season, and he would’ve gotten more than that tonight if it were a real game.

3. The defense looked really good

When looking at who stood out on the defense, there were a few names that come to mind, but just about everyone on defense came out to play. When there’s a scrimmage with no tackling the defense is at a disadvantage, but the Titans defense was able to overcome that.

The secondary looked really good outside of a handful of drives by both Mariota and backup quarterback Ryan Tannehill.

One of my favorite young defensive backs Kareem Orr out of Chattanooga had a solid performance which is promising for his career with the Titans.

All around the team looked pretty good. The defense did really good, Mariota and the receivers looked good, and the chemistry seemed there which is going to be important when they’re going down the long stretch of the NFL season.

Now that the scrimmage has come and gone we look forward to Week 1 of the Preseason as the Titans kick off their year against another team in a “real” game.