What's the point of NFL training camp without arguing over the back end of a wide receiver depth chart? This year's contenders in Titans land: Bryce Oliver , KJ Osborn, and Xavier Restrepo .
The Tennessee Titans wide receiver depth chart is taking shape ahead of training camp, and the competition for the final roster spots at the bottom of the room is shaping up to be a three-man race.
Titans WR depth is solid at the top, with Carnell Tate, Wan'Dale Robinson, Calvin Ridley , Elic Ayomanor , and Chimere Dike all locks to make the 53-man roster. But behind that group, the battle between Bryce Oliver, Xavier Restrepo, and KJ Osborne for the 6th and potentially 7th wide receiver spots is the position group storyline worth tracking this summer in Nashville.
What makes this competition extra compelling is that all three players represent completely different archetypes, and each arrived in Tennessee through completely different paths.
Restrepo, who came aboard as Cam Ward 's college connection last offseason after going undrafted, has been the kind of practice standout who makes it hard to look away. He's a slot-only receiver who defies what you'd expect from him on paper given his physical measurements. In limited action on Sundays last season, he showed he can at least hang at the NFL level. He has somewhat usurped Mason Kinsey as the junkyard-dog, practice-squad-vibes-guy in Tennessee it seems, and his teammates and coaches get visibly fired up when he makes plays.
But physical limitations are real, and the common thread for all three of these players is that the Titans already have five receivers who will eat offensive snaps when healthy. The real question for a player like Restrepo isn't whether he can contribute on offense in a pinch. It's whether special teams coordinator Bones Fassel can carve out a role for him on those units. If Restrepo proves he's a credit to special teams this summer, he has a real shot at one of these spots. If not, he's likely headed for the Kinsey mold: first or second guy up off the practice squad, somebody the organization fights to keep around because of his value as a leader and weekly competitor.
Oliver is the guy I'd peg as having the upper hand in this competition if it weren't for one thing: what happened last year?
He's been with Tennessee for a handful of seasons as a former undrafted free agent and has established himself as a special teams ace. We know how much Fassel relies on him as a gunner. But he's not a special teams-only guy either! He brings something to the table as a receiver in rotation or in relief due to injuries, and he has a body type that works inside and outside, which is in shorter supply on this roster.
A lower body injury kept him out for most of last season, and the circumstances surrounding it left some unanswered questions. One of the things that stuck with me is that former coach Brian Callahan, in one of his final press conferences before being fired ahead of Week 7, mentioned Oliver as a guy who might be coming back soon. But we never saw Oliver catch a pass again.
Week after week, we'd see him at practice and in the locker room, and the vibe was simply that he was trying to get back to 100%. Whether there was a medical situation beyond what was communicated, a mental hurdle he was working through, or some calculated decision-making given the coaching instability, I genuinely don't know. He's back at practice now, and that injury situation is the only thing keeping me from calling him a roster lock.
Osborne is the newcomer NFL veteran in camp this year, filling the shoes of James Proche from a year ago. If you remember the offseason conversation around Proche, he was the guy who kept making plays in practice to the point where you just couldn't ignore him. Osborne is already doing that same thing.
He has easily the most established NFL track record of these three. Earlier in his career with Minnesota , he had a 3-season stretch where he accumulated nearly 2000 yards and 15 touchdowns. He was a significant contributor for a real team!
What happened after he left the Vikings, I haven't had a chance to fully investigate. But what I'm seeing in practice lines up with those Minnesota numbers.
The real question for Osborne is the same one facing the other two: how much does this coaching staff expect to lean on its 6th or 7th receiver? If there were only four locks ahead of him, his chances would look different because that 5th receiver role demands genuine offensive ability, and he has it. But with five locks already in place, the calculus shifts toward special teams value.
That's what this entire competition will probably come down to. We'll spend the summer weeks talking about what these three do in team drills on offense, when we should really be paying closer attention to how often Fassel is using them during special teams periods. The preseason games will be the real tell. How much and how often Oliver, Restrepo, and Osborne are deployed on those units may be the clearest clue to who's making this roster and who isn't.
This article was originally published on A to Z Sports. Read the full story here: 3 camp standouts fighting for final Titans WR roster spots face 1 harsh reality in Nashville with 5 Titans WRs locked on depth chart
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