T'Vondre Sweat, Jeffery Simmons among Tennessee Titans not on field for OTAs Tuesday

Several of the Tennessee Titans' most prominent players, particularly defensive stars, were absent from the first day of voluntary offseason training activities that was open to the media Tuesday, though many of those absences seem to be due to minor injuries.

Defensive linemen Jeffery Simmons and T'Vondre Sweat, cornerback L'Jarius Sneed, linebackers Harold Landry and Kenneth Murray and offensive tackles Nicholas Petit-Frere and Jaelyn Duncan were the most prominent players not on the field during Tuesday's practice.

Sneed spent time in the weight room exercising, where injured players tend to spend practice, and Titans coach Brian Callahan confirmed that Sweat and Petit-Frere are two of the players who are dealing with injuries rather than missing practice for off-the-field reasons.

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"There's guys rehabbing," Callahan said. "There's plenty of guys that because we don't have to put out an injury report in spring. There's guys that have had clean-up surgeries and guys that have done things in the offseason process that they're rehabbing and returning to play. That stuff is all normal procedure for us and there are guys that have nicks and bruises from even the Phase 1 and Phase 2 (of the offseason). If you pull a hamstring, you're part of the rehab process as well.

"Those things don't get reported because we don't have to, but there are plenty of guys in return-to-play protocols and guys who are on a day or two or a week of rehab process."

Callahan elected not to elaborate on which players are in which stages of rehab.

OTA practices are not mandatory, and it's rare for a team to field its full squad at this point in the offseason. Still, with the Titans breaking in a roster full of players added this offseason — and a new coach, offensive, defensive and special teams coordinators — a good chunk of the most prominent players attended Tuesday. That included all of the quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers.

The Titans have eight more OTA practices this offseason, as well as three days of mandatory minicamp, which will take place June 4-6.

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick atnsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.