The Titans' Most Improved Positions This Offseason

Buck Reising evaluates the current Tennessee Titans roster and compares each position group to last year's team

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The 2026 Titans have undergone massive roster change in the course of the last couple of months, and so tonight we are going to talk about the position group that improved the most in the last six months, and the position group on the roster that has not improved at all.

In fact, probably got worse.

There's two such position groups that come to mind when I say that kind of a phrase, and I wonder which position groups pop into your head.

We're gonna talk about it tonight.

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Lot of changes for the Titans in the last six months.

A new coaching staff, a new front office structure, a basically new roster.

There are some returning pieces and parts, a new extension for Jeffrey Simmons, as a matter of fact, to keep him in Tennessee.

But for the most part, you're talking about 30 new players just in free agency, the main free agency, and trades alone before you even get into UDFAs and those kind of extra additions, the end of summer roster transactions that you've seen.

You're talking about more than half of a new roster coming into Tennessee to raise the floor of this entire situation, and we do believe them to be a better football team.

But it is worth, as we sit here in training camp month, just what?

I think about 20 days from the first practice of training camp, and the report date for the players to get back into the building.

Coaches usually back in the building post July 4th, and that has been the case for Tennessee.

I think it's worth looking in the summer as we get ready to see these position groups in action, these roster competitions in action at training camp, who actually did improve the most?

'Cause there are a lot of improvements made on the roster.

It's not a complete product, though, which we understand.

They're coming into 2026 with still some considerable flaws that will likely keep them from the post-season.

But as we talk about the position group that improved the most, you guys can give me your answer in the comment section, and I'll tell you mine.

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What comes to mind when I think of most improved position groups is the Titans defensive line.

So let's just talk about what this unit looked like a year ago.

Jeffrey Simmons is obviously a returning commodity.

He's coming off of the best individual, individual performance season of his career.

So Jeff returns and on a new contract, paid, ready to rock, and had his elbow cleaned up, so healthier theoretically to start this season than he was coming into even last season.

The starting line, the starting defensive line last year was Sebastian Joseph-Day, Taven Dre Sweat, Jeffrey Simmons, and Arden Key.

You probably add Jihad Ward into that mix.

Femi Oladejo did make some starts.

You can count Femi if you want to.

Obviously it's a different kind of a defense that they were playing under Denard Wilson than they will be playing under Robert Saleh.

But Joseph-Day, Sweat, Simmons, Key, and Jihad Ward we'll say, because Ward ended up playing the bulk of their snaps on the outs, on the edge last season.

So you take that and understand, okay, they're going from a 34 defense to a 43 under Robert Saleh and Gus Bradley, and so there will be some positions that don't necessarily translate.

Obviously your linebacker situation is going to be different, but the bulk of the defensive line is going to be different as well.

Just think about the amount of players at those positions alone, the front seven positions alone that they brought in reinforcements, and additional top line starting caliber players.

So just to take a look at beyond just, beyond just the, the free agents, right?

Keldric Fulk was their second of the two first round picks that they made.

John Franklin Myers was one of their biggest free agent spends.

You got guys like Malik Herring who are more, you know, maybe they make the roster, maybe they don't make it out of training camp type of situation.

Jermaine Johnson, a former first round pick that they traded in the Taven Dre Sweat deal, traded for in the Taven Dre Sweat deal.

You add Jacob Martin as well.

Now, Femi Oladejo is still here, and you go through the defensive line, the interior of it, J- Jordan Elliott, Timmy Horn, Kam Horsley, Jackie Marshall, this year's sixth round pick out of Baylor.

Of course, Simmons, Solomon Thomas, a first round pick in his own right.

All of these different players coming in here to provide an eight or nine-man depth rotation for the Titans on that defensive line.

Robert Saleh has said, "If they can play more than three snaps with the way that we like to play, then they're not doing it correctly."

I think that this is a considerably deeper group across the board, a considerably more top-end talented group across the board.

And I know there was some hand-wringing among some Titans fans.

I think, you know, this was probably a polarizing player as soon as he got here in Taven Dre Sweat.

I think a lot of people were optimistic.

I think a lot of people took Ran Carthon at his word, and I don't have any reason to discredit Ran Carthon's advanced scouting on Taven Dre Sweat.

I think if Ran would've stayed and Sweat would've been working in an organization that was being run by Ran Carthon, it probably would've gone a little more the way that they expected it to.

Instead, Ran Carthon, who brought in a lot of players who he could directly relate to, was fired.

That That bridge between the organization and the locker room in Ran Carthon unceremoniously let go, and we understand why.

He did not do a good enough job.

They did not take, the kind of steps to meaningfully improve the way that they should have, given the resources that they had at their disposal and the timeline that they had to do it.

You could say that Ran Carthon got a raw deal.

I would also agree with that to some extent, but, he's not faultless, not entirely blameless in why he is no longer the general manager here.

So Sweat is a second-round pick, and I didn't like the Sweat second-round pick from the jump.

I didn't like that they passed on the deal with the Rams, that the Rams tried to offer them, that the Carolina Panthers ended up taking for the 38th overall selection in that 2024 draft, and I didn't like that they took Sweat with the selection that they decided to stick and pick with.

They understood or they talked about a player who was incredibly talented and had some judgment errors, obviously the DUI in the weeks leading up to the draft.

somebody who was not, maybe renowned is the wrong word, but it was no secret that Devondre Sweat enjoyed the nightlife.

and in fact, I happen to know that talking to a number of people with the Titans, that they were even looking at different ki- different ways that Sweat could still enjoy himself, but at a calorically lesser value if that makes sense.

and that's He's not the first player that they've, that, that any organization has made those kind of accommodations or tried to facilitate in a way to maybe not outright quit the behavior, but curb the behavior in a way that was gonna allow him to at least make weight, stay on a healthy, a healthy trajectory, and Sweat just didn't put the work in across the board.

He was somebody who was not considered a high-effort player.

He did not realize his potential here.

He did not get a ton of time to realize his potential here.

But understanding that the general manager who drafted him was no longer here, that the coach who he was drafted under was no longer here, it made s- sense to try and get as much value as you could for Devondre Sweat.

And to acquire Jermaine Johnson for Devondre Sweat is about as good a value proposition as you could have had for a player who comes, who comes, who came in here with some red flags that were big enough, were glaring enough, or red enough to keep him flatly off some teams' draft boards in that 2024 NFL Draft.

So Simmons gets an upgraded cast of characters around him, and I think he is going to benefit as much as anybody from that.

In particular, I like the Jermaine Johnson add.

Of course, we talked about John Franklin Myers, who's probably past the peak of his career but can still be a highly productive player, and the depth that you have behind each of those players feels considerably better than it has been in quite some time.

And that is the way that they are going to try and manufacture their defense, the way that Saleh was able to manufacture a defense despite so many injuries in San Francisco last season.

So then you have to look at the opposite side of the conversation.

You have to talk about the position group that improved the least year over year.

And this, I think, was a, a layup of an answer because it's a position group that we've been talking about for a considerable amount of time.

Their offensive line unit may end up actually being worse than it was in 2025, and that is saying something.

Now, it, it may be that a revised, approach from the offensive line coaching staff, led by Carmen Brousillo, is going to help maximize the abilities of these players beyond what we believe them to be capable of them, of, of on their own if you were to put them in a vacuum.

Bill Callahan was also supposed to do something similar for a more talented collection of players in the last couple years, and in fact, you could make the argument that the Titans' offensive line was as bad in certain situations as it has been for the previous four years since they've been chasing, the attrition that happened to them after their most successful run at the peak of that six-year streak where they were winning, in six consecutive seasons, or had a winning record in six consecutive seasons.

So you look at the offensive line unit last year, and Dan Moore is a completely average left tackle.

Peter Skoronski ended up being a good player, their best player on the offensive line.

Lloyd Cushenberry was cut.

He was a disappointment because of the injury.

I still think Lloyd Cushenberry was not an outright disaster.

They chose to move on.

Kevin Zeitler played significantly better football down the stretch, but he is at the tail end of his career.

He is still an unrestricted free agent.

I don't have any indication right now that he is planning on returning, but he is a quality player even at advanced age.

And then JC Latham, I don't think is a bad player.

I don't think he's a good player.

I think that we are still in a situation where we have a lot to learn about JC and that he is not what I can definitively say is that he has not lived up to his draft pedigree as the former seventh overall pick.

Now, most of that returns in 2026, but you look at the offensive line unit now, and just for what it's worth, the depth behind those guys was, Oliudo, who played a significant amount of time, Jackson Slater, the fifth-round draft pick from Sac State who hardly played at all, guys like Drew Moss and Corey Levin, Brandon Cre- Brandon Crenshaw-Dixon, a UDFA.

That was the kind of depth that they were trotting out there last year, and obviously they have not yet pared down this roster, but Latham returns excuse me, at right tackle.

Your right guard job is up for grabs, though you have guys like Drew Moss who are coming in here to compete for the job.

Jackson Slater will compete for the job, and then Cordell Volsen, who was signed in free agency, who has starting experience, will also compete for the job, but not a good option.

They drafted guys like Fernando Carmona and Pat Coogan, a center and a guard, a, a player in Carmona who's played both tackle and guard in his career.

Coogan, who will likely be a center at the next level he's ab- if he's able to make it.

They did also sign towards the end of minicamp Andre James, a veteran center option, and including in that mix Austin Schlottmann, who comes over from the New York Giants with Carmen Brousillo, with Brian Daboll to help them find, some additional To hit the ground running, for lack of a better term.

There are guys like Dan Moore who al- who will return, Skoronski obviously returning, so it's center and right guard that are up for grabs.

Even if they do find their, their starting options, Schlottmann is probably the starting center.

Even if they do find their right guard option, I think you are worse at center.

I think you are worse at right guard.

Can the scheme, can the offense, can improved play by Cam Ward help the offensive line situation more than outright just having better players?

Probably so.

Cam Ward, by his own admission, talked about the idea that half of his lead le- league-leading sack total last year was on him, and there is plenty of evidence to look at the way that Cam tried to extend plays.

oftentimes, too often, tried to use his, renown for, or his renowned escapability as a college player at the next level.

Didn't quite have the same effect, understanding that the athletes are significantly better on the defensive line in the NFL than they are even at the highest level of college football.

So you have a situation where Cam can help the offensive line, and the offensive line is going to need significant help because this is not a quality unit.

In fact, I might be willing to make the argument that it is a worse unit than it was in 2025, which is saying something because they were pretty damn awful.

That's gonna do it for us tonight.

Appreciate you guys hanging out.

Make sure you like the video on the way out the door.

Thanks to Two Rivers Ford and Simon Says Nashville, as always, for making these videos possible.

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