San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Offense will lean heavily on ‘Suite’ TE duo
Arriving for the opening day of UFL training camp last month, the first thing San Antonio Brahmas tight end Alizé Mack noticed was how early Cody Latimer took the field for practice.
Wanting to learn from the sixyear NFL veteran in his position room, Mack started mimicking the routine, arriving between 40 minutes and an hour early. He found that the new approach created extra time for stretching and sparked conversations with teammates he normally wouldn’t interact with.
By the time practice opened, Mack felt physically loose and mentally focused.
“That’s what you love about vets,” Mack said. “That’s why Cody means so much to me, because he truly is that. I’m always soaking in information.”
Latimer said the connection works both ways, with Mack providing another perspective to bounce ideas off as they work to pick up a new offense in San Antonio.
While the Brahmas’ quickhitting, run-and-shoot attack isn’t known for a reliance on tight ends, Mack and Latimer have made themselves indispensable, projecting as two of the team’s most important weapons when San Antonio opens the season against the D.C. Defenders on March 31 in the Alamodome.
The duo has already devised the nickname “The Suite Life of Mack and Cody” — a play on the late-2000s Disney channel sitcom of a similar name.
“I know I’m the old head in here, but I’m learning a lot from him, too,” Latimer said. “We’re just bouncing ideas back and forth off each other. I think we’ll be a good one-two punch.”
Asked to highlight standouts from training camp, Brahmas coach Wade Phillips pointed to Mack before any other player. A
26-year-old Notre Dame product, Mack arrived in San Antonio last season and finished just three catches shy of the team lead in receptions, hauling in 28 passes for 230 yards and a touchdown.
Phillips knew the 265-pound “Mack Truck” would be a potent blocker, and Mack credits his 2022 stint alongside Marcedes Lewis with the Green Bay Packers for inspiring his passion to block. But Mack’s ability as a receiver, boasting a wide catching radius despite packing on 10 pounds from last year, caught the Brahmas’ new coach by surprise.
“I can’t be more impressed,” Phillips said. “I knew he could
block well, and he really wants to. But he runs routes well and catches the ball well. He’s an allaround really good player.”
Mack parlayed his XFL opportunity into a training camp stint with the Tennessee Titans. A preseason standout, Mack seemed poised to turn his sixth NFL stop into his first spot on a 53-man roster for the regular season, but an MCL injury during the Titans’ last preseason game left him as part of the team’s final cuts.
Mack called the Tennessee experience “the peak of my career,” and after a couple months of injury rehab in Nashville, Tenn., he returns to San Antonio feeling like an “updated version”
of himself.
“I’ve learned a lot as a tight end, and I grew as a man there,” Mack said. “You pick yourself up and you move on and keep moving forward in the journey.”
Until about 18 months ago, Latimer believed his football journey was finished. A secondround wide receiver out of Indiana in 2014, Latimer fell short of expectations but did enough to find a home in the league, playing four years with the Broncos and two more with the Giants.
His final NFL season was his best, as he posted career highs of 24 catches, 300 yards and two touchdowns with New York in 2019, earning a new contract with Washington.
But after a May 2020 arrest, Latimer was placed on the commissioner’s exempt list in July, and Washington released him in August. He later pled guilty to misdemeanor assault charges, receiving two years’ probation.
“I had some stuff going in 2020, so after that happened, I was kind of over ball, in a way,” Latimer said. “But the opportunity came again last year, and I was excited for it.”
When the call arrived to gauge his interest in the XFL, Latimer was 270 pounds — a jump of about 50 pounds from his NFL playing weight. But he said he would give the league a shot, provided he could move to tight end to accommodate his new size.
Though he said he struggled with knee issues and felt like he was “pulling a piano around,” Latimer finished third in the league with 593 receiving yards, making 50 catches with four touchdowns.
He returns for 2024 in much better shape at 235 pounds, but the 31-year-old said he’s put NFL aspirations behind him. If his 2023 performance didn’t draw any interest, he doesn’t expect this year to be much different, content with focusing on raising his children and working as a tattoo artist after this season.
The 2024 campaign is about “getting that last itch out,” Latimer said, wanting to soak in the locker room atmosphere and the team camaraderie. He also couldn’t resist the allure of a final ride with Phillips, who was the Broncos’ defensive coordinator for two years of Latimer’s tenure, which included a Super Bowl championship following the 2015 season.
“I’m excited to finish with him, and at the end of the day, it’s a dream come true,” Latimer said. “The next goal is to get another ring with him before I’m done. So, hopefully, we get that done this year.”