Titans re-sign QB Simms

The Tennessee Titans re-signed quarterback Chris Simms on Monday and released punter Josh Miller, who was signed for emergency purposes for Sunday’s game in Baltimore.

Simms, who had signed with the Titans after Vince Young suffered a knee injury in the season opener, was released on Saturday to make room for Miller, who had been brought in just in case punter Craig Hentrich’s back flared up. Hentrich missed practice most of last week, but was able to punt in Sunday’s 13-10 victory over the Ravens.

“Chris totally understood the move, and we assured him we’d get him back under contract, and we did that today and we released Josh,” Titans coach Jeff Fisher said.

Fisher said that retaining Simms was a priority for a Titans team that already has Kerry Collins and Vince Young at quarterback. Collins can be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end.

“We’ve had two [quarterbacks] for obvious reasons. We’re keeping Chris around because he’s important to us, not only for the immediate future, but for the future. It does create depth and the potential production at the depth position allows us to keep a third quarterback,” Fisher said.

ALL RIGHT NOW: Fisher indicated Monday that there is no lingering effects from the on-field shove that linebacker Keith Bulluck gave cornerback Cortland Finnegan, who had just drawn his second personal foul penalty during one third-quarter drive.

Finnegan, who had had offsetting penalties with former Titans receiver Derrick Mason earlier on the drive, was flagged for a hit out of bounds that put the ball on the 11 for the Ravens, who scored their only touchdown of the day on that march.

After the game Sunday, both players said the incident was over, and Fisher reiterated that on Monday.

“Keith kind of summed it up yesterday when he said, ‘Hey, we’re teammates, we’re brothers, and every once in a while, we have an argument on the back lawn kind of thing.’ And that’s what it was. I’m sure it was exactly this: Cortland was penalized and Keith says something along the lines of enough is enough, and Cortland says, ‘I didn’t do anything. I shouldn’t have been penalized,’” Fisher said. “And in reality, he should not have been penalized for that play. Then they start going, and they’re frustrated. But they calmed it down. They’re fine. They were fine last night. It’s done and we don’t anticipate any problems.”

The Titans were hit with 78 penalty yards, many of them on the defensive side of the football Sunday, but Fisher said that other than that, the defense played well.

He added that a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct call on Chris Hope that extended a Ravens drive should have been an offsetting foul on Baltimore receiver Mark Clayton as well.

“I don’t know that he was baited,” Fisher said. “That one should have gone both ways, but that happens. You learn from it. It was a very physical game. They challenged us, and their approach I’m sure was to distract us a little bit. It worked. We have to learn from it and move on.”

NOT BY DESIGN: Fisher said LenDale White’s omission from the offense Sunday was not intentional. White had just three carries for four yards, and his touches have decreased each of the past two weeks. By contrast, Chris Johnson had 18 carries Sunday at Baltimore for 44 yards.

“It was not by design. It was just the way the game went,” Fisher said. “We were using Chris; he was effective. We didn’t anticipate having as much difficulty running the football, and we just tried to mix things up.

“It’s not a case of where Chris has outplayed LenDale, it’s just one of those cases where we didn’t get a lot of snaps. We had some three-and-outs. They had some long drives and it just happened. He’ll be equally involved in our when we come back.”

REST TIME: Kyle Vanden Bosch will likely get rest to heal his injured groin this week, while Tony Brown will have time to rest his ankle, as the Titans enter their bye week before turning to play at Kansas City on Oct. 19.

“We’re currently evaluating them,” Fisher said. “We’ll have some players that will practice this week, and we’ll have some players that will not, either because they’re injured and can’t or we’ll rest them.”