{"id":315914,"date":"2025-08-25T08:33:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T08:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/315914\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T08:33:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T08:33:19","slug":"stock-up-down-after-tennessee-titans-preseason-victory-over-vikings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/315914\/","title":{"rendered":"Stock up, down after Tennessee Titans’ preseason victory over Vikings"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tennessee Titans<\/a> finished off the preseason with a 23-13 victory over the Minnesota Vikings at Nissan Stadium on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Tennessee’s starting units looked strong on both sides of the ball and looked sharp, even playing without a few select veterans. Jeffery Simmons made his preseason debut and spearheaded the charge on defense, while Cam Ward continued to shine and led the team on an impressive touchdown drive in limited action.<\/p>\n

As always in preseason, it is hard to truly evaluate the game and players with so many moving parts and varying degrees of competition. But there were some things that stood out, both good and bad.<\/p>\n

Here’s a look at whose stock is up and whose is down after the second week of the preseason.<\/p>\n

Stock up: Brian Callahan<\/p>\n

Brian Callahan entered the offseason clearly on the hot seat and has responded. The Titans have had a solid preseason, and Cam Ward is developing. While Callahan\u2019s seat is still totally frozen, he is in a much better place now than he was at the start of training camp. This team looks cohesive and much improved over the 2024 disaster. There is still a long season ahead, and this preseason momentum must translate into improvements during the regular season, but he appears to be trending in the right direction.<\/p>\n

Stock down: Pass rush<\/p>\n

Through three preseason games, the Titans’ pass rush has been uneven at best. While the defense never truly played as an entire unit, it is hard to determine if the offseason changes made an impact. The Titans struggled mightily to generate a pass rush in 2024, and right now, they don\u2019t appear to be all that different.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stock up: WR Van Jefferson<\/p>\n

Van Jefferson had a breakout game one week after falling squarely on the hot seat with a crucial drop. The veteran receiver bounced back and made some big plays when the offense needed them. His performance should have cemented his roster spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stock down: WR James Proche\u00a0<\/p>\n

With Jefferson bouncing back, James Proche needed to step up in a big way both as a receiver and on special teams. Unfortunately, he didn\u2019t do that. Prosise didn\u2019t add any explosion to the return game, and on offense, he didn\u2019t stand out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stock up: LB Cedric Gray<\/p>\n

Cedric Gray might have nailed down the starting spot next to Cody Barton with another outstanding effort against both the run and the pass. Gray was a physical thumper in the middle of the defense and again flashed enough athleticism to play in space. James Williams was solid once again, but Gray appears to be ascending.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stock down: DT Timmy Horne<\/p>\n

Timmy Horne was outstanding in the preseason opener, but has faded as camp has progressed. While he made a couple of plays late, it was not the same type of performance he had against Tampa Bay. With T\u2019Vondre Sweat still working his way back, Horne had a great opportunity, but failed to seize it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stock up: K Joey Slye<\/p>\n

Joey Slye got to put his strong leg on full display, connecting on a 63-yard field goal and hitting another from 55 yards. While there will be some ups and downs with him due to his erratic nature, he was consistent and proved that he can be a weapon for the Titans in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stock down: CB Gabe Jeudy-Lally<\/p>\n

With L\u2019Jarius Sneed finally back on the field, the competition for the reserve cornerback position has become even more intense. Entering training camp, Gabe Jeudy-Lally appeared to be squarely in the mix for one of the final depth roles, but after another shaky performance, his stock is falling.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tennessee Titans finished off the preseason with a 23-13 victory over the Minnesota Vikings at Nissan Stadium…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061],"tags":[247,265,9297,9198,7,6639,20842,469,19213,9725,11016,1184,248,267,246,88,6,35196,245,264,48674,24679,1602,2517,9,266,526,394,2411,527],"class_list":{"0":"post-315914","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennessee-titans","8":"tag-american","9":"tag-american-football","10":"tag-cedric","11":"tag-cedric-gray","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-gray","14":"tag-hub","15":"tag-james","16":"tag-james-proche","17":"tag-joey","18":"tag-joey-slye","19":"tag-listicle","20":"tag-national","21":"tag-national-sports","22":"tag-neutral","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-nfl","25":"tag-nfl-hub","26":"tag-overall","27":"tag-overall-neutral","28":"tag-proche","29":"tag-slye","30":"tag-smg","31":"tag-smg-listicle","32":"tag-sports","33":"tag-sports-news","34":"tag-tennessee","35":"tag-tennessee-titans","36":"tag-tennesseetitans","37":"tag-titans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115088484583822047","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315914","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=315914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}