Titans guard Chance Warmack produces winning weigh-in

Titans coach Mike Mularkey had a little fun with one of his team’s best eaters on Friday.

Mularkey weighed all of his players on Thursday morning, prior to their big Thanksgiving meals, to remind them not to get too crazy at the dinner table.

At a team meeting Friday morning he asked if everyone was confident they’d maintained their weight. Guard Chance Warmack raised his hand, so Mularkey invited him down in front of the group for a congratulatory bonus of $50.

What Warmack didn’t know was that Mularkey had a scale hidden in a closet nearby.

“I said, `Well I’m so proud of you (Chance), come on down here — I’m going to give you this money,” Mularkey said. “He came down like Rocky, like 'I’ve won.’

“I said I just need to double check (the weight), and that’s when the clothes started coming off. He just stripped down to nothing to make sure.”

Warmack’s targeted weight is below 330 pounds. He said he’d weighed in at 327 pounds on Thursday, then had a couple plates full of chicken, macaroni and cheese, sweet potato casserole and collard greens.

“He threw me off,” Warmack said of Mularkey’s decision to weigh him. “I didn’t know what he was going to do. But I started stripping.”

In the end, Warmack came through with flying colors. He said he weighed in this morning at 326, surprisingly a pound less than the previous day.

“He made it, so he got his bonus,” Mularkey said. “It was some good humor, and we all needed that.”

Added Warmack: “I’ll never forget this Thanksgiving.”

Of course, there may be a final chapter in this weighty tale, as Warmack said he has a little surprise still remaining.

“I’ve got some cherry pie waiting for me at the crib,” Warmack said with a smile.

New returner ready: Titans rookie wide receiver Tre McBride will get his first regular-season opportunity to return kicks on Sunday against Oakland.

McBride, recently activated from the practice squad, played his first NFL game in the Titans’ loss to Jacksonville last week. Mularkey said he likes the speed of McBride, who returned 56 kicks for an average of 23.1 yards at William & Mary.

“Those are the tough guys to handle,” Mularkey said. “It’s the guys that run fast forward and take the proper angles that are difficult. … If you’re hitting (the angles), that’s a tough guy to try to stop. If we give him a crease, he can go.”

McBride, a seventh-round draft pick, said he tries to be decisive on his kick returns.

“(I’m about) speed and one-cutting, which is pretty much the standard you should use when you’re a kick returner,” McBride said. “Hit the seam as quick as you can. That’s how I run the routes and also how I run kick returns”

McBride said he will also continue to play the gunner role on punt coverage.

Mularkey said receiver Harry Douglas and cornerback Perrish Cox will both see punt-returning duties in McCluster’s absence.

Reach John Glennon at 615-259-8262 and on Twitter @glennonsports.