{"id":271517,"date":"2025-08-08T11:39:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T11:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/271517\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T11:39:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T11:39:11","slug":"5-titans-players-to-watch-in-preseason-week-1-vs-buccaneers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/271517\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Titans players to watch in preseason Week 1 vs. Buccaneers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musiccitymiracles.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tennessee Titans<\/a> held a joint practice with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bucsnation.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a> on Thursday morning. It was an excellent measuring stick for Brian Callahan\u2019s rebuilding team. The Titans will now play the same opponent in Saturday\u2019s Week 1 preseason opener.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">We\u2019ve identified five Titans players worth especially watching closely in Saturday\u2019s first exhibition game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">All eyes will obviously be on rookie quarterback Cam Ward. The No. 1 overall pick will play a \u201cseries or two,\u201d according to head coach Brian Callahan. It\u2019ll mark Ward\u2019s first taste of official NFL action, and Titans fans will be anxious to see him perform admirably.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">We\u2019re cheating by grouping the rookie wide receivers together, but there\u2019s too many to give them their own individual categories. Elic Ayomanor is competing for a starting role at \u201cX\u201d boundary receiver. Chimere Dike should play extensively on Saturday, both on offense and special teams. Ward\u2019s favorite target Xavier Restrepo is fighting to make the 53-man roster.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Titans paid Dan Moore Jr. handsomely via a four-year contract worth $82 million in free agency to protect Ward. Many around the league considered it an overpay, but new GM Mike Borgonzi was willing to throw money at a multi-year problem. It would be nice if Moore doesn\u2019t have any hiccups in his series or two on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Everyone is concerned about the Titans\u2019 pass rush. Rookie EDGE Femi Oladejo is expected to play a sizable role alongside Arden Key and Dre\u2019Mont Jones. Oladejo is raw, but explosive and athletic. Hopefully he makes a splash play versus the Buccaneers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Sophomore linebacker James Williams Sr. is the heavy favorite to claim the vacant starting gig opposite Cody Barton. It hasn\u2019t been much of an offseason \u201ccompetition,\u201d with Williams dominating first-team reps at training camp practice. A stellar showing versus the Buccaneers would help him continue securing what already feels secured.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tennessee Titans held a joint practice with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday morning. It was an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,7,6,704,250,2597,2596,52730,2413,2416],"class_list":{"0":"post-271517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-buccaneers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-tampa-bay","12":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","13":"tag-tampabay","14":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers","15":"tag-tennessee-titans-preseason","16":"tag-tennessee-titans-news","17":"tag-tennessee-titans-roster"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114992956375296673","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}