Peter Skoronski got paid by the Titans last week – a $100 million deal that made him the NFL’s highest-paid guard. The Titans would love it if somehow JC Latham is the next player to earn a big contract extension with the club.
Perhaps more than any other element of the offensive line, Tennessee needs Latham to stay healthy and take a big leap forward this season, the way Skoronski played himself into their long-term plans a year ago.
Thus far for Latham, his NFL career has been plagued by inconsistency, injuries and a position switch.
The Titans, upon the recommendation of then-line coach Bill Callahan, grabbed Latham with the seventh overall pick in the 2024 draft with the idea of him finally solving their longtime left tackle problem.
That went OK for a little over half the season, but whether it was the rookie wall, better competition or injuries, Latham’s play declined as the season wore on, and the Titans decided he would be better off shifting back to right tackle to play the position he had played at the University of Alabama.
In 2025, Latham re-aggravated a training camp hip injury in the season opener and wound up missing four games, and struggled for a while upon his return.
Latham says he won’t use all the moving around or the injuries as an excuse, as there are no more alibis coming into his third season in the NFL.
“This is year three for me. One of the things we say in the O-line room is there’s no sympathy given. There’s a lot that’s going to be thrown at us,” Latham says. “We’re installing a lot of plays, with new plays, players coaches, you see it around the facility, everything has changed. We’re not going to allow that to be an excuse as to why anything is lackadaisical. We’re all professional athletes and coaches at the end of the day, so as far as attacking that ourselves, that’s what we’re expected to do.”
Emphasizing the mental aspects
Latham has made a priority of changing his mental approach, which he says at times has not been the best. He says it began late last season, making it a point to try to move on from a play – good or bad – so he could focus on the next play.
“I was having penalties, and some plays I might have had a tendency to think about the play while getting the next play, thinking I didn’t like that B block. Why didn’t I like that B block ... and we’re getting the next play,” Latham says. “Well, if you’re thinking about the last play, while getting the next play, you’re mentally not focused for the next play.
“So just learning how to say, ‘You know what? We’ll look at it on film. Let it go.’ Mentally reengage into the play and learn how to execute, because this is the biggest play. Just those things, I’m at the point now to continue to lay down the foundation of what do I want this to look like and how can I handle the adversity or the successes of it.”
New Titans offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo has given Latham a clean slate and is helping him with a different approach to the mental side of the game. He points out that Latham, who just turned 23 in February, is actually younger heading into his third season than rookie linemen Fernando Carmona and Pat Coogan, who were drafted in May.
“It’s a developmental position,” Bricillo says of right tackle. “By the way, the two rookies we drafted are older than JC. So let’s just analyze that.”
Bricillo says he learned a long time ago two key points on how to deal with players stuck in their own heads.
“During my time in Ohio, I was fortunate enough to work around some people who worked with Jim Tressel, and one of the things that Tressel said was, ‘Don’t judge a player when they’re young, and don’t judge them when they’re hurt.’ JC’s been both,” Bricillo says. “JC is a tremendous athlete who has a high standard for himself and is a real worker. Like all the guys, he’s working his ass off and I’m sure he’ll continue to do that, and we’ll see gains.”
As for his mental approach to the game, Latham says Bricillo is challenging him and the rest of the offense to be on point no matter what situation might arrive.
“It’s an amazing coincidence having Coach Carmen here. One of the things he talks about is building neuropathways. We’re in install right now, and he speaks extremely fast and he expects you to keep up. And the thing that he says consistently is if we go over it one time, it’s live at any given point,” Latham says. “We have a script every single day that we go out and look to execute. They have called something, I remember we installed ‘Wham’ probably the second week and by the seventh week of OTAs, we called it. It wasn’t on the sheet, or wasn’t anything like that.
“He told us, ‘Hey, I know we only went over it the one time, but part of being an athlete and being in the game is knowing what you’re supposed to do.’ Just building those neuropathways and really trying to understand the information and execute it at a high level, that’s something that adds to that ability to not only retain the information, but to build the mental fortitude to play at a high level.”
The 90/10 split is real
Latham is now dedicating himself to studying more and becoming a student of the game to help his play.
“You hear the phrase that the game is 90% mental and 10% physical. I think there’s a lot of truth to it, just to be able to process the game at a high level and see the whole game for what it is and execute it completely,” he says. “You get the answers to the test every single day. You know what the defense is going to do, how they’re gonna play, what type of player they are.
“Very seldom are they going to change. A guy is not going to be a power rusher for one game and then decide, ‘Hey, I’m just gonna speed rush this whole game,’ unless the tackle is struggling with that or whatever it might be,” Latham continues. “The player is true to himself, so you can learn a lot about the player and the style of the defense or whatever it is just by watching the film and being a student of the game and showing up with the answers and preparation. Confidence is how you prepare.”