Woods, Farley Get a Leg Up by Working Together
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NASHVILLE – One has played nine NFL seasons, earning a Super Bowl ring along the way.
The other has played three NFL games, a total of 60 snaps.
But Tennessee Titans veteran wide receiver Robert Woods and second-year cornerback Caleb Farley have formed a mutually beneficial relationship this offseason, the better to help one another recover from the ACL injuries each suffered last year.
Woods gets to work his way back into prime shape against a fleet-footed, 23-year-old athlete who just happened to be the Titans’ first-round draft pick in 2021.
Farley, meanwhile, has the opportunity to learn from a receiver who’s caught 570 passes for 7,077 yards in his career.
“It’s awesome to have a guy with the experience in the NFL like Robert, and with both of us coming off the same injury,” Farley said. “We’re both hungry, trying to come back. We got to push each other this offseason, working with each other. It’s kind of been cool to have somebody to go through the fire with.”
Added Woods: “We work off each other and we feed off each other … It’s just stealing reps any way that we can.”
The players suffered their ACL injuries less than a month apart last year, with Farley going down against Buffalo on Oct. 18 and Woods’ season coming to an end during the Los Angeles Rams’ practice on Nov. 13.
That’s why the bond began to form during offseason rehabilitation at St. Thomas Sports Park.
“It just kind of evolved,” Woods said. “The timeline of our injury was kind of around the same point when I came in and rehabbed. So we were kind of always doing the same drills, and then even just challenging each other in the weight room.”
It wasn’t long before those challenges extended beyond the weight room.
Woods, for instance, began to eye the good-sized ramp in the Titans’ parking lot, one that leads from the first to the second level of the garage.
“I was (asking Titans director of sports medicine Todd Toriscelli), `Can we run that hill?’” Woods said. “And then me and Caleb are running that hill once a week. I think that was really just us pushing each other, challenging each other.
“(Farley) also had a track background, and we know how important it is to be able to run and drive off the ball. (We would) start on the hill, start on this conditioning, kind of just pushing each other, showing what helps my knee, what hurts his knee, what hurts my knee and vice versa -- being able to find ways to strengthen it in different ways.”
The work between the two has continued into training camp.
Coach Mike Vrabel said both players are at about 90 percent, so they’re still not competing in all the team drills. But instead of just sitting and watching their teammates, Woods and Farley have battled each other in one-on-one situations.
“They’re both going through the same process and they’re mirrored positions,” Vrabel said. “They can go over and work releases or they’ll work something else. We’ve asked them to kind of come to us with a plan of things that they would like, and we’ve given them a couple of things also.”
The 30-year-old Woods said he appreciates the opportunity to go head-to-head with a physical specimen like the 6-foot-2, 197-pound Farley, a long-armed cornerback that ran the 40-yard dash in under 4.4 seconds while at Virginia Tech.
“It’s just really having someone who’s young, being able to keep me young and just work and run, really just feel youthful like that,” Woods said. “He’s big, he’s strong, he’s physical and he’s fast.”
The 6-0, 195-pound Woods may not have quite the same set of physical tools, but he’s passing on to Farley the wisdom he’s gained while battling cornerbacks for nearly a decade.
“I think he’s been the Rams’ most productive receiver the last five years, so just to have his knowledge, his experience, and then he’s a great teammate also,” Farley said. “Just to have that guy there helping me through this offseason talking football has been something huge for me.”
