Tennessee Titans

Titans expect to be healthy at center by training camp

Published Jun. 19, 2015 12:46 p.m. ET

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Injuries up front forced the Tennessee Titans to improvise at center during the team's offseason program, but head coach Ken Whisenhunt expects the situation to improve by the start of training camp.

The Titans have been without starter Brian Schwenke and rookie Andy Gallik, both of whom are dealing with hamstrings. Second-year player Gabe Ikard missed time with a knee injury as well.

In the interim, the team had left guard Andy Levitre take snaps at center during OTAs and signed veteran free agent Fernando Velasco.

Despite the issues over the last few weeks, Whisenhunt said everyone should be ready to go when camp convenes on July 30.

"It was a concern in OTAs and certainly minicamp … but I can't anticipate that's an issue going into camp," Whisenhunt said, via John Glennon of the Tennessean. "Fernando's in the mix now, too, and I certainly feel good about that. I like what I've seen out of (Schwenke and Gallik), but they have dings. But they should be fine for camp."

If Schwenke and Gallik are indeed healthy, the Titans expect to move Levitre back to guard. Whisenhunt said the experience at center may benefit Levitre in the long run.

"It makes him mentally tough to have to do that. Because that's not fun. It's not easy. It would have been very easy to say, 'I'm a guard.' But he worked hard and to me, that's a big thing," Whisenhunt said. "Mentally, it makes it tougher. Can that help him play guard? Sure, why not? So I'll be interested how it goes when he gets back (to training camp) and gets reps at guard."

(h/t The Tennessean)

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