Titans wrap up camp feeling much better about team

Center Justin Hartwig said he feels much better about the Titans after an offseason in which eight veterans were either released or allowed to leave as free agents to squeeze the team under the NFL salary cap.

With only 11 players with four or more years’ NFL experience, Hartwig worried that rookies would replace all the experience. Not after camp.

“I think we jelled as a team. This camp has been huge for us. We’ve had nearly 40 practices now, and we’ve spent a lot of time together, and I think our team is really starting to come together,” Hartwig said.

Steve McNair is the biggest player to return healthier, slimmer and faster than he’s been in years.

Linebacker Peter Sirmon proved he is fully healed from the torn anterior cruciate ligament that knocked him out of the 2004 season. Safety Tank Williams (torn right ACL), receiver Tyrone Calico (repaired left ACL) and offensive lineman Jacob Bell (torn right ACL) all worked out in training camp.

The Titans entered camp needing to replace three starters on offense, five on defense and find a kicker.

Rookie Michael Roos, their second-round pick out of Eastern Washington, hasn’t been named the starter at right tackle. But he has played the best at the position and will replace Brad Hopkins, the biggest injury in training camp, at left tackle in the opener Sept. 11 at Pittsburgh.

Hopkins was suspended for the game for assaulting his wife in March, but he had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee after tearing some cartilage Monday.

The Titans still don’t know who their kicker will be. They brought in three kickers Tuesday, released Ola Kimrin and signed Jay Taylor on Wednesday to compete with Rob Bironas over the next week. Bironas kicked a 53-yarder in the exhibition opener, but must show consistency to win the job after missing two field goals last week against Atlanta.

“We still have an awful lot to accomplish, but I feel like at this point we’ve done that,” coach Jeff Fisher said. “We’ve stayed healthy, gotten a lot out of the young players.”

He cited the rookie receivers, offensive protection, the defensive line and linebackers for showing improvement.

But the starting cornerbacks also haven’t been decided.

Top draft pick Adam “Pacman” Jones didn’t practice until Monday, and he will be pressed hard to make up the lost work before the opener. Andre Woolfolk and Tony Beckham currently are working with the first team, and Fisher said the best two will start against Pittsburgh.

Rookie Vincent Fuller, a fourth-round pick out of Virginia Tech, finished camp working as the fifth defensive back in passing situations.

Jones does fill the slot at punt returner for a team that can only improve after ranking last in the NFL in 2004. The Titans must spend the next two weeks figuring out which players will fill out their special team units.

“We just have a lot of work to do between now and the opener,” Fisher said.