NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- When you see him anticipate a closing defender and manage to ward him off, credit Tennessee Titans tight end Delanie Walker for a sixth sense, if you'd like.
He doesn’t believe he deserves quite that much credit, he said. He’s actually using one of his five senses, not relying on an extra one.
“I hear footsteps,” he said. “I can hear breathing. You can almost hear the ground rumbling a little bit. When we catch the ball and you see a guy duck and you’re like, ‘His awareness was great.’ It’s not that his awareness was great. He heard something and it made him duck.”
An NFL stadium is quieter than many might imagine as a catch is made, which helps make such clues available to be heard.
“Once the ball goes in the air, the crowd kind of stops,” Walker said. “They don’t always yell. Once they see the ball go in the air, they kind of pause a little bit. Then when you catch it, you’ll hear a, ‘Noooo.’ Even when I stiff-armed one of the DBs in a game, I didn’t hear anything until I stiff-armed him and then I heard, ‘Ohhhh.’ I stiff-armed him pretty good.”
Titans return man Marc Mariani describes things in a similar fashion.
“I don’t claim to be a freak that feels and sees everything,” he said. “On a punt return you get your last look at the coverage team and then you’ve got your eyes on the ball. A lot can happen in those 10 yards. I think you definitely use every tool you can use.
“You can feel stuff, you can see stuff, you can anticipate stuff and, yeah, you can hear stuff. You use it all, for sure. You can hear footsteps, you can hear rattling pads. There are some guys out there that cover punts that are huffing and puffing the whole way -- I know exactly where they are.”
Beyond Walker and Mariani, not many skill-position guys on the Titans feel as though they hear things that help them do their jobs.
Neither of the Titans' quarterbacks, Marcus Mariota nor Matt Cassel, said they hear footsteps while trying to avoid a rush.
They each said with eyes downfield, it’s a combination of feel and a ticking clock that tells them they are running out of time.
“Some people say they hear it, some people talk about a Spidey sense or something where they kind of feel it,” Mariota said. “I don’t know. I can kind of feel it. I don’t really hear. I tend to zone in on things, and I tend to just kind of feel things, feel the game. I think it’s different for every player.”
Titans receivers Rishard Matthews, Tajae Sharpe and Harry Douglas all said they can’t hear defenders closing, and they said so in a tone that suggested a cause for embarrassment.
“No, man, I don’t hear any footsteps, not me,” Sharpe said. “I don’t worry about anything like that. I just want to catch the ball. I don’t hear footsteps, nothing, I just worry about the football.”
Offensive coordinator Terry Robiskie doesn’t believe that.
“The receivers who told you they don’t hear, tell them they lie,” he said. “They do hear. You ever hear, ‘That guy dropped it because he heard footsteps?’ We all hear. They know they’re coming.
“It’s just a matter of the great ones, they hear with their ears but they focus on that ball with their eyes and they find a way to grab that thing and lock on to it.”
Walker tends to agree with Robiskie.
While receivers may consider the concept and conclude hearing footsteps is a negative that would have a bad influence on their ability to concentrate through a catch, he sees it as a positive.
It doesn’t inhibit his making a catch, and then it enhances his ability to size things up once he has the ball.
He made it clear he’s not telling anyone else how to do their job. But he also took a joking jab when I conveyed what his wide receiver counterparts said.
“That’s why," Walker said with a big grin, "they don’t get yards after the catch the way I do.”
