Jason Wolf

jwolf@tennessean.com

Tajae Sharpe is atop the Titans’ depth chart because of his precise route running, consistency catching the ball and to push the team’s more physically gifted and higher pedigree young receivers to step up their games.

But the fifth-round draft pick believes he belongs.

“It doesn’t matter how you got here,” Sharpe said Monday after his first NFL training camp practice in pads. “We’re all on the same field now. We all have ‘Titans’ across our chest. So however you got here is really irrelevant, whether you’re the first pick in the draft or whether you’re the last pick, or if you wasn’t picked at all. As long as you’re here, you have an opportunity and you just have to make the best of it.

“But I’m never going to forget where I came from and all the teams that passed up on me. That’s one of the reasons I try to go so hard, just to prove everybody that I belong where I’m at and that I can play with the best.”

The 6-foot-2, 194-pounder was selected by the Titans out of the University of Massachusetts with the 140th overall pick in the draft, despite leading the nation with 111 catches last season and the Minutemen with 1,319 yards receiving and five touchdowns. He’s the school’s all-time leader in catches, yards receiving and catches in a game.

Sharpe has drawn praise from Titans coach Mike Mularkey and his teammates throughout offseason workouts and the first two days of minicamp, but flew under the radar Monday.

“I didn’t see anything negative, so that’s a plus,” Mularkey said. “I have to watch the tape on him. There’s a lot going on. I’m watching a lot of things.”

Sharpe give himself a middling grade.

“I would say it was an OK day,” Sharpe said. “But no matter if you have a great day, an OK day or bad day, you always want to find ways to get better. Even if you don’t think you did anything wrong, you go back and check the film and there’s always things that you can work on, whether it’s technique or if you could have did something different on a certain play. You always want to get out here and every single day just try to be the best player you can be and try to improve.

“Putting the pads on for the first time, everybody was a little bit more juiced up. Just seeing how amped guys were to come out here and have that fire in their step and just see how things go when you put the pads on in the big league, so that was the thing that stood out to me.”

The Titans have added several wide receivers to boost a group that rated among the worst in the NFL last season, signing potential future Hall of Famer Andre Johnson on Friday and former Dolphins wideout Rishard Matthews in March.

But Sharpe may have been the biggest acquisition. The Piscataway, N.J., native said he received “five or six” college offers coming out of high school, and that most larger programs wanted him to switch to defensive back. But he was set on playing receiver.

Would he have been drafted earlier had he attended a bigger school?

“Maybe. Maybe not. We’ll never really know,” Sharpe said, “because at the end of the day I didn’t go to those big schools. I’m proud of where I came from, I love my school, and I’ve heard all the noise before about playing at UMass and not a big-time school. But I can’t control who my opponents are. Back in college, every Saturday I just came out there, whoever lined up against me, I just tried to beat them.

“If those big-time schools would have gave me the opportunity, I would have gladly went there and showed them I could do the same thing. But it didn’t go that way. I didn’t make it to this point for no reason. So I just want to stay the same person I am, keep working hard, stay humble and just keep going, just keep running.”

Wallace high ankle sprain: Titans rookie outside linebacker Aaron Wallace suffered a high ankle sprain and could miss “several days or several weeks,” according to a league source.

Wallace, drafted in the seventh round out of UCLA, was helped off the field Monday late in the team’s first training camp practice in pads. He was unable to put any weight on his right foot.

Wallace sprained his ankle earlier in practice and then "got rolled up on pretty good," coach Mike Mularkey said.

Wallace is the Titans' second rookie outside linebacker on the shelf. Kevin Dodd, drafted in the second round out of Clemson, has opened training camp on the physically unable to perform list after having surgery in May to repair a stress fracture in his right foot. He may return within a week, Mularkey said.

McCain also sidelined: Cornerback Brice McCain, who twisted an ankle Sunday, did not practice. McCain is battling Perrish Cox for a starting job opposite Jason McCourty. He is expected to return to action Thursday or Friday.

“He had a little more swelling than we anticipated,” Mularkey said. “It’s a tough position to play with a swollen ankle.”

Claimed: The Titans claimed cornerback Tyler Patmon off waivers from the Dolphins.

The 5-10, 188-pounder was a three-year starter at Kansas before transferring to Oklahoma State. He has two seasons and 24 games of NFL experience with the Cowboys and Dolphins.

Patmon was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Cowboys in 2014, and made the team ahead of current Titans cornerback B.W. Webb. He was released in December, and signed with the Dolphins.

The move fills out the 90-man roster after undrafted rookie defensive end Terrell Lathan of TCU failed to show for camp and was placed on the reserve/did not report list. The former TCU lineman is retiring from football.

Starters unchanged: The starting offensive line remained unchanged on the first of 12 practices in pads: Left tackle Taylor Lewan, left guard Quinton Spain, center Ben Jones, right guard Chance Warmack and right tackle Jack Conklin.

Conklin, the eighth overall pick in the draft, stonewalled linebacker Derrick Morgan in one-on-one drills. Other players took notice.

Rookie sixth-round pick Sebastian Tretola was at left guard on the second-team O-line. Jeremiah Poutasi worked at right guard. Play grew chippy late in the day, as tight end Anthony Fasano and outside linebacker Deiontrez Mount got into a shoving match.

Updated uniforms?: Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk told ESPN that in addition to the well-documented renovations at team headquarters, she was playing with the idea of updating the team’s uniforms, as well. Any change would be at least two years away.

Reach Jason Wolf atjwolf@tennessean.comand follow him on Twitter at@JasonWolfand on Instagram and Snapchat atTitansBeat.