The war between the official team coaching staff and private positional trainers has once again reignited. Tensions exploded when renowned wide receiver trainer James Everett, popularly known as ‘The Route God,’ blasted the Tennessee Titans for putting rookie wideout Carnell Tate through a heavily flawed drill sequence during OTAs.

“We know that you’re not gonna get as much movement work as you need during the season,” ‘The Route God’ reacted to Tate’s drill on Instagram. “But this right here don’t make no sense. We doing a hip drop drill, then we roll into a speed cut for what? Either work the hip drop, work the down stop, work the snap down, and come out of a break. This is break points, not speed cuts. Speed cuts are a different thing.” 

The fundamental issue comes down to basic physics and momentum. Speed cut is a momentum maintenance mechanic that requires the WRs to run a softer angle without slowing down. They plant their outside foot and push off to change direction while maintaining their top speed. Meanwhile, hip drop is a pure deceleration mechanic that asks the WRs to make a sudden stop. And asking an athlete to perform them back-to-back as a single drill is like asking them to slam on the brakes and gas pedal at the same time. 

Drilling these two conflicting movements together confuses the receiver’s muscle memory. If Carnell Tate trains his body to drop his hips every time he prepares for a speed cut, he might unnecessarily slow himself down on game day. That tiny hesitation gives an NFL cornerback the exact fraction of a second they need to close the gap and break up the pass. 

The trainer then shifted his focus toward a much larger frustration regarding the sheer arrogance of the professional staff. He firmly believes highly paid NFL coaches constantly monitor popular private trainers like himself, Goldfeet, and Receiver Factory. They translate the game as per the movement and make things make sense, but the disconnect lies in the lack of respect. 

“The disconnect is we just don’t get our respect. And we respect them up there,” the trainer continued. “And I stop trying to want a job up there. I’m me, and I know what I do for the game that helps people get better and s— like that. But this is where it go on, and believe it or not, they watch us and get this.

“They probably watched two people, me and somebody else, or somebody else, and put two drills together and thought they were doing their own thing. No, you f—ing shut up. Stay on your Xs and Os.” 

And if anything, not everyone seemed to agree with Everett. 

Did ‘The Route God’ overreact to Carnell Tate’s OTA drill?

According to A to Z Sports’ Austin Stanley, the trainer seemingly went a bit overboard. Tate and the other Titans went through the individual period with their respective position coaches, and every WR performed one repetition, cutting left and one cutting right. As someone who was present at the OTA practice, Stanley claimed Everett was overreacting. 

“On this day, I was at practice taking videos for content,” he wrote. “The drill rep from Tate has a time of 11:50 am CT on my phone. It was the first drill the WRs did in their individual period. Another drill with the juggs machine followed. The Titans QBs were throwing routes on air at 11:55 am CT based on my phone having a video of Tate catching a pass.”

This means that the wide receiver got about six minutes of drills before joining the quarterbacks. And in such a short time, the position coach tried to combine a hip drop and speed cut. 

Nevertheless, Tate impressed the onlookers with his performance at the OTA. As per Jim Wyatt, the reporter for the Titans, the rookie went through a three-touchdown day and got behind the defense on multiple instances. There were instances when the defenders reached the ball just as Tate did, and once he caught it, no one could make him drop it.

This shows that Tate has certainly made a case for himself. As per ESPN’s Mike Clay, Tate is a 6’2” tall, 192-pound route runner who is projected for 1,065 yards and five touchdowns. So, do you think he can do it?