There were roughly 10,000 fans at Nissan Stadium for the Tennessee Titans' training camp practice Saturday, or nearly twice that if you count the handheld fans folks were waving to beat the heat.

The human and inanimate fans witnessed a practice that was more or less par for how the Titans' first week of training camp has gone. With the exception of dialing up a few more deep passes than earlier in the week, they didn't trot out anything new with supporters in the stands.

Saturday featured the same special teams work, individual sessions, 7-on-7 period and team drills as took place Wednesday and Thursday. Same stuff, different place.

Here's what stood out from Saturday's session, starting with an overreaction to a big day from a previously-written-off player.

SNEED TALK: L'Jarius Sneed was Titans' prized offseason addition. So why isn't he practicing daily?

Wait, has QB Malik Willis figured things out???

Malik Willis had a good day Saturday. A really nice one, actually. He completed 8 of 10 pass attempts across 7-on-7 and team periods, an impressive stat line on its own. But the way he compiled those numbers was the particularly impressive part.

He completed two deep passes down the sideline in 7-on-7s, one on a toe-drag out route and the other on a back-shoulder comebacker to show off his accuracy. He made another nice throw to the sideline in team drills, this one on a sprint-out where he was able to show off his throw-on-the-run ability. And he should've gone 4-for-4 in his against-the-pressure third-down period were it not for a dropped pass on an impeccably placed deep ball to rookie Bryce Oliver.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves and ordain Willis a threat in the Titans' quarterback competition. Let's not even call it a competition between him and Mason Rudolph for the backup job. But Willis has put together a strong first couple of days so far after seemingly underwhelming in OTAs.

At the very least, Willis looks more like an NFL quarterback than he has at any other point since being drafted by the Titans in 2022, and it's fair to say he's justifying his status as someone who should make the 53-man roster.

Something I like: Jeffery Simmons on the outside

Last year, Jeffery Simmons took a little more than one-third of his snaps at a defensive end or edge defender position. This year, given the big-bodied acquisitions the Titans made on the defensive line, he might earn a little more time lined up over tackles or outside them. And I think that's a really nice matchup fit for him.

Simmons batted away a pass in a team period for the second straight practice, a welcome development. He broke up only one pass in 2023 after breaking up five, six and seven passes in the previous three years. Saturday's PBU came while lined up over right tackle John Ojukwu, a rejection Simmons swatted back at Will Levis with power. He'll have better angles and more leverage to do that sort of thing from the outside, and he'll also be able to free up speed rushers like Harold Landry off the outside to do more damage if he's engaging with tackles.

This shouldn't be an every-down thing. Simmons still does a ton of damage in the middle. But I like the Titans' new freedom to use Simmons as even more of a mix-and-match player with T'Vondre Sweat in the middle.

MORE ON T-SWEAT: Titans T'Vondre Sweat feels great, is moving well and won't back down on where 'the real UT' is

What the heck is going to happen at receiver?

The first five in the pecking order are pretty clear: DeAndre Hopkins, Calvin Ridley, Tyler Boyd, Treylon Burks, Nick Westbrook-Ikhine. If I had to pick the sixth right now, I think I might say Mason Kinsey? I see the argument for Jha'Quan Jackson, the rookie, or Kyle Philips, the former fifth-round pick. But there are two huge questions that are still hard to parse.

One, how many receivers are the Titans going to carry on the 53-man roster? Two, are the Titans OK with almost all of their depth coming from guys who can primarily line up in the slot? After those first five targets, the only other receiver on the roster taller than 5-foot-11 is Oliver. Kinsey, Philips, Jha'Quan Jackson and Kearis Jackson all essentially fill the same role. Is that lack of role diversity enough for the Titans to keep things light at receiver, or do they want a series of clones on the bottom third of the roster?

Watching Saturday's practice, it's getting harder and harder for me to evaluate. But I will say: Kinsey's taking more reps with the first-teamers than any of the other players in his tier are.

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Titans' Jeff Simmons crushes, Malik Willis impresses as fans watch