NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Titans quarterback Will Levis couldn't be happier at seeing all the new teammates Tennessee has added this offseason both through free agency and the NFL draft.
The Titans not only hired an offensive-minded coach in Brian Callahan, general manager Ran Carthon signed veteran wide receiver Calvin Ridley in March and just added someone in Tyler Boyd who knows Callahan well from five seasons together in Cincinnati.
That's not including using the seventh overall pick on JC Latham, a player Tennessee hopes will be a significant upgrade and fix at left tackle.
“For one, it means that they’re not afraid to make those investments and they want to go win, which is awesome to see,” Levis said Thursday.
Callahan couldn't comment much on Boyd with the paperwork still not done yet. That didn't apply to Levis who said he can't wait for when Boyd joins the Titans and getting the whole group together. Levis said he knows some Titans might not be happy at first about a new addition.
Boyd seems poised to immediately join three-time All-Pro DeAndre Hopkins and Ridley as Tennessee's third receiver, ahead of Treylon Burks who was this team's 18th pick overall in 2022 and Kyle Philips, a fifth-round pick that same draft.
Injuries limited both receivers through their first two seasons. Hopkins finished with 1,057 yards receiving, but Ridley would have ranked second with his 76 catches for 1,016 yards receiving and eight touchdown catches. Boyd would have ranked second with 67 catches for 667 yards and two TDs.
Levis, the 33rd pick overall a year ago, said it's on him to instill confidence in his teammates. He sees the Titans’ new additions helping improve the offense with competition pushing everyone to be better.
"It’s going to be great for all of us and just great to have that environment of competitiveness, and everyone’s going to get better because of it,” Levis said.
Callahan said Levis has been working to learn everything his new coaches are teaching him, including technique and fundamentals. He likes how Levis has attacked this offseason.
“He’s really gotten better in a short amount of time because of the way he approaches his job, and that’s all you can ask for at this point of year,” Callahan said.
Levis has been working with a new quarterbacks coach in Bo Hardegree, a Tennessee native. Levis said he's already texted Boyd, letting him know how eager he is to have the receiver as a resource in learning Callahan's offense. Levis already has watched tape of Boyd making plays with Cincinnati.
Levis has been throwing with Ridley, enough to feel they can develop a special chemistry.
“He's been great and looking forward to get TB here,” Levis said.
Levis went 3-6 once he replaced veteran Ryan Tannehill at the end of October. Hopkins caught his first three TD catches from Levis in a strong debut win over Atlanta. Levis finished the season 149 of 255 for 1,808 yards with eight TDs and four interceptions.
“A veteran receiver who knows where he’s going is the quarterback’s best friend," new receivers coach Tyke Tolbert said.
Levis and Tennessee certainly can use the help. The Titans ranked 29th last season, averaging a mere 180.4 yards passing a game. Cincinnati ranked 15th with 229.1 yards despite quarterback Joe Burrow limited to 10 games by a season-ending wrist injury.
Asked to describe the Titans' new offense after years of being a run-oriented offense with four-time Pro Bowl back Derrick Henry now in Baltimore, Levis said balanced. Callahan has made clear to the quarterback he will be throwing more, and Levis said he has to earn his coach's trust.
"That was cool to hear that,” Levis said.
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Tennessee Titans first round draft pick JC Latham, center, poses with general manager Ran Carthon, left, and head coach Brian Callahan, right, at an NFL football news conference Friday, April 26, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
FILE - Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tyler Boyd (83) runs after a catch during the first half of an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Pittsburgh, Dec. 23, 2023. The Tennessee Titans have bolstered their wide receiving corps by reuniting first-year coach Brian Callahan with someone he knows very well in Boyd, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press on Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
FILE - Tennessee Titans quarterback Will Levis (8) throws to a receiver during warmups before an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers Sunday, Nov. 26, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. Levis couldn't be happier at seeing all the new teammates Tennessee has added this offseason both through free agency and the draft. (AP Photo/Wade Payne, File)
FILE - Tennessee Titans quarterback Will Levis smiles during a news conference following an NFL football game against the Miami Dolphins, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023, in Miami. Levis couldn't be happier at seeing all the new teammates Tennessee has added this offseason both through free agency and the draft. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
JERUSALEM (AP) — The helicopter crash in which Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s foreign minister and other officials were killed is likely to reverberate across the Middle East, where Iran’s influence runs wide and deep.
That's because Iran has spent decades supporting armed groups and militants in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and the Palestinian territories, allowing it to project power and potentially deter attacks from the United States or Israel, the sworn enemies of its 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Tensions have never been higher than they were last month, when Iran under Raisi and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel in response to an airstrike on an Iranian Consulate in Syria that killed two Iranian generals and five officers.
Israel, with the help of the United States, Britain, Jordan and others, intercepted nearly all the projectiles. In response, Israel apparently launched its own strike against an air defense radar system in the Iranian city of Isfahan, causing no casualties but sending an unmistakable message.
The sides have waged a shadow war of covert operations and cyberattacks for years, but the exchange of fire in April was their first direct military confrontation.
The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas has drawn in other Iranian allies, with each attack and counterattack threatening to set off a wider war.
It's a combustible mix that could be ignited by unexpected events, such as Sunday's deadly crash.
Israel has long viewed Iran as its greatest threat because of Tehran's controversial nuclear program, its ballistic missiles and its support for armed groups sworn to Israel's destruction.
Iran views itself as the chief patron of Palestinian resistance to Israeli rule, and top officials for years have called for Israel to be wiped off the map.
Raisi, who was a hard-liner viewed as a protégé and possible successor of Khamenei, chastised Israel last month, saying “the Zionist Israeli regime has been committing oppression against the people of Palestine for 75 years.”
“First of all we have to expel the usurpers, secondly we should make them pay the cost for all the damages they have created, and thirdly, we have to bring to justice the oppressor and usurper," he said.
Israel is believed to have carried out numerous attacks over the years targeting senior Iranian military officials and nuclear scientists.
There is no evidence Israel was involved in Sunday's helicopter crash, and Israeli officials have not commented on the incident.
Arab countries on the Persian Gulf have also long viewed Iran with suspicion, a key factor in the decision of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to normalize relations with Israel in 2020, and of Saudi Arabia to consider such a move.
Iran has provided financial and other support over the years to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which led the Oct. 7 attack into Israel that triggered the Gaza war, and the smaller but more radical Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which took part in it. But there is no evidence that Iran was directly involved in the attack.
Since the start of the war, Iran's leaders have expressed solidarity with the Palestinians. Their allies in the region have gone much further.
Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, Iran's most militarily advanced proxy, has waged a low-intensity conflict with Israel since the start of the Gaza war. The two sides have traded strikes on a near-daily basis along the Israel-Lebanon border, forcing tens of thousands of people on both sides to flee.
So far, however, the conflict has not boiled over into a full-blown war that would be disastrous for both countries.
Iran-backed militias in Syria and Iraq launched repeated attacks on U.S. bases in the opening months of the war but pulled back after U.S. retaliatory strikes for a drone attack that killed three American soldiers in January.
Yemen's Houthi rebels, another ally of Iran, have repeatedly targeted international shipping in what they portray as a blockade of Israel. Those strikes, which often target ships with no apparent links to Israel, have also drawn U.S.-led retaliation.
Iran's influence extends beyond the Middle East and its rivalry with Israel.
Israel and Western countries have long suspected Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons in the guise of a peaceful atomic program in what they see as a threat to non-proliferation everywhere.
Then-President Donald Trump's withdrawal from a landmark nuclear pact between Iran and world powers in 2018, and his imposition of crushing sanctions, led Iran to gradually abandon all the limits placed on its program by the deal.
These days, Iran is enriching uranium to up to 60% purity — near weapons-grade levels of 90%. Surveillance cameras installed by the U.N. nuclear agency have been disrupted, and Iran has barred some of the agency's most experienced inspectors. Iran has always insisted its nuclear program is for purely peaceful purposes, but the United States and others believe it had an active nuclear weapons program until 2003.
Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed power in the Middle East but has never acknowledged having such weapons.
Iran has also emerged as a key ally of Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, and is widely accused of supplying exploding drones that have wreaked havoc on Ukraine's cities. Raisi himself denied the allegations last fall in an interview with The Associated Press, saying Iran had not supplied such weapons since the outbreak of hostilities in February 2022.
Iranian officials have made contradictory comments about the drones, while U.S. and European officials say the sheer number being used in the war in Ukraine shows that the flow of such weapons has intensified since the war began.
In this photo provided by Moj News Agency, rescue teams' vehicles are seen near the site of the incident of the helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Varzaghan in northwestern Iran, Sunday, May 19, 2024. A helicopter carrying President Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other officials apparently crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran on Sunday, sparking a massive rescue operation in a fog-shrouded forest as the public was urged to pray. (Azin Haghighi/Moj News Agency via AP)
An Iranian woman prays for President Ebrahim Raisi in a ceremony at Vali-e-Asr square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 19, 2024. A helicopter carrying President Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other officials apparently crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran on Sunday, sparking a massive rescue operation in a fog-shrouded forest as the public was urged to pray. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
People pray for President Ebrahim Raisi in a ceremony at Vali-e-Asr square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 19, 2024. A helicopter carrying President Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other officials apparently crashed in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran on Sunday, sparking a massive rescue operation in a fog-shrouded forest as the public was urged to pray. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
FILE - People gather around a component from an intercepted ballistic missile that fell near the Dead Sea in Israel, Saturday, April 20, 2024. The apparent crash of a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other top officials is likely to reverberate across the Middle East. Tensions have soared since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, and Israel and Iran directly traded fire for the first time ever in April. (AP Photo/Itamar Grinberg, File)
FILE - Iranian worshippers chant slogans during an anti-Israeli gathering after Friday prayers in Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 19, 2024. The apparent crash of a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other top officials is likely to reverberate across the Middle East. Tensions have soared since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, and Israel and Iran directly traded fire for the first time ever in April. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)
