Will Levis, Calvin Ridley connection gets stronger every day

With DeAndre Hopkins sidelined, the Tennessee Titans have used training camp to strengthen the chemistry between Will Levis and Calvin Ridley.

Hopkins is always going to be a quarterback's best friend because he's dominant at the catch point anduses his physicality to create separation. When he re-joins the Titans offense, he and Levis will pick up right where they left off.

In the meantime, Levis and the coaching staff have made it a point to feature Ridley even more.

I want to clarify that Levis and Ridley were already doing well together before Hopkins got banged up. On the first day of training camp, Jim Wyatt commented on Ridley's conditioning and how he had an impressive catch over the middle of the field. He's been a regular standout in practice.

But that sort of describes where the development stalled out. For a couple of weeks, Levis and Ridley were still connecting on the short and intermediate passes, but they couldn't get the timing right on the deep passes.

Funny enough, no one had been concerned enough to ask a question about it until Wednesday. That morning, the media asked Brian Callahan about the missed connections, and 15 minutes later, Levis and Ridley went on to have their best day of practice together.

Levis spoke about his big day with Ridley following practice.

"Yeah those were just a couple of types of connections we haven't really been able to hit consistently here during camp so that was definitely great for confidence," Levis said. "Getting more and more comfortable with him every single day, getting the deep ball and down the red line was one we have been working on and to get it in sync and get it in rhythm I'm excited to watch the tape and I think it is going to look exactly like we drew it up."

Even if the Titans can't consistently hit on those long balls, it only takes a few deep shots to force defenses to respect that threat. Obviously the goal is to hit more than you miss, but the threat alone can clear things out for the rest of the skill players in the middle of the field.

For guys like Hopkins, Tyler Boyd, Tyjae Spears, Chig Okonkwo, Josh Whyle, Tony Pollard, and Treylon Burks, that space could mean the difference between being forced to make a contested catch and being able to look the ball in and create yardage in the open field.

Since the starters are only going to play a handful of snaps in the preseason game on Saturday, we don't know if we'll see a deep shot. If we do, fans should be thrilled because that will be the first real taste of what Ridley can do for this offense.