Offensive tackle JC Latham is optimistic about the Tennessee Titans’ 2026 season. It would be hard for it to be worse than 2025 for the NFL team. Or 2024.

Since Latham joined the Titans’ offensive line as the seventh selection in the 2024 NFL Draft, Tennessee has endured back-to-back 3-14 seasons. In 2025, the Titans fired coach Brian Callahan six games into the campaign. Team leaders searching for his replacement now after Mike McCoy finished the season as the interim head coach.

But Latham thinks injuries played a big part in Tennessee’s lack of improvement – at least as reflected in the record – during 2025 and foresees better days ahead for the Titans with the right leadership in 2026.

“You look at the guys that we have and you look at what we can add to that core guys,” Latham said. “I mean, like I said, we lost an immense amount of key players this year, so you look at everybody that we have coming back from injury next year and then what we can add to that, obviously, on paper it’s going to look pretty good.

“But, I mean, just attention to detail on the little things, and the little things is what’s going to win and lose games. And I feel like the right leadership, the right guys on the field and the right guys just for the support cast of everything, I think it’s something really to be optimistic about and excited for.”

Latham was among the Titans’ injured in 2024. After playing every offensive snap in his rookie season at left tackle, Latham shifted to right tackle in 2025 after Tennessee signed Dan Moore Jr. as a free agent in the offseason.

Latham got hurt in the season-opening game and missed the next four contests because of a hip injury. When he returned to the lineup, he played every offensive snap for the Titans in the remaining 12 games.

But Latham said he still was hurting after his return.

“I asked them, I was like, ‘Hey, is there anything I can do to kind of get the pain to go away?’” Latham said. “And with that specific injury, they’re saying you’re going to have to basically deal with it to the end of the year. Either you don’t play or you play through it, but you can’t play and make it go away. So the maturity part of me, I should have kind of taken the appropriate time, not rushed myself to come back, in a sense. So, yeah, I mean, it wasn’t 100 percent, but I felt it was kind of selfish if I could play and I don’t. So, you know, just that’s part on me to kind of gauge it better in the future. …

“You feel like you’re approaching the day not at your 100 percent, but you don’t want to just leave the team out there. You know, you’re a guy that you want the team to be able to depend on.”

The Titans’ season ended on Sunday with a 41-7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. The offseason will allow Latham to give his injury what it needs.

“Just rest,” Latham said. “I mean, that’s the biggest thing for it. I mean, what the injury was, it was an injury that the movements, especially what I did, would stretch it and cause it to flare up and things of that nature. So to cause it to not have that issue I just literally had to stop moving and rest. And since I couldn’t do that, obviously, in season, that’s where the issue just kind of stayed lingering, so for the next couple weeks, I’m just going to just try to stay off my feet and rest.”

In addition to resting, Latham wants to work on improving this offseason, particularly in one area.

“You assess what you like, what you don’t like, but more importantly, you look at what do you need to overcome and get a lot better at,” Latham said. “You know, me specifically, I know it’s the penalties for me. That hurts the offense. It’s drive-killers. So my mindset this offseason is strengthening my mental game. So that’s something I look forward to strengthening it every single day because the physical part of it, I mean, that that’s going to come.”

Referees flagged Latham 14 times in the 2025 season, including six times for false starts and five times for holding.