{"id":57417,"date":"2025-05-17T12:53:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T12:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/57417\/"},"modified":"2025-05-17T12:53:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T12:53:13","slug":"tennessee-titans-add-vanderbilt-lb-anfernee-orji-waive-former-vols-rb-jabari-small","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/57417\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee Titans add Vanderbilt LB Anfernee Orji, waive former Vols RB Jabari Small"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a move that’ll surely rile up SEC fans across the state, the Tennessee Titans<\/a> have parted ways with a former Tennessee Vols offensive standout to make room on roster<\/a> for a former Vanderbilt Commodores<\/a> defensive star.<\/p>\n

The Titans<\/a> were assigned former New Orleans Saints<\/a> linebacker Anfernee Orji off waivers on May 14, adding him to the roster ahead of the start of OTAs on May 27. To make space on the roster, the Titans<\/a> waived running back Jabari Small, who stuck around on the roster through 2024 after joining the team as an undrafted free agent.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Orji appeared in 16 games for the Saints in 2024, starting two contests and logging 30 tackles with two TFLs. Despite growing up and playing his high school ball in Texas, Orji came to Nashville for college where he thrived, playing in 42 games across four seasons and logging 272 tackles. He led Vanderbilt in tackles as a junior and as a senior.<\/p>\n

Small rushed for 2,122 yards and 24 TDs, ranked No. 12 on UT’s career list when he left. He was the Vols’ leading rusher in 2021 and ranked second in 2022 and 2023.<\/p>\n

The Titans have almost entirely reconfigured their linebacker room this offseason. Veterans like Kenneth Murray II, Jerome Baker, Jack Gibbens and Luke Gifford are out. Free agent add Cody Barton is now the biggest name in the room, but he’ll also be joined by youngsters like Orji, Otis Reese IV, Curtis Jacobs, Cedric Gray and James Williams. In addition to Orji, the Titans also added linebacker Amari Burney off waivers and signed David Gbenda as an undrafted free agent.<\/p>\n

Without Small, the Titans’ running back room now consists of only four players: Tony Pollard, Tyjae Spears, Julius Chestnut and rookie Kalel Mullings. Small didn’t appear in a game for the Titans in 2024.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at\u00a0 nsuss@gannett.com<\/a>. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Anfernee Orji, former Vanderbilt linebacker, claimed by Tennessee Titans<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a move that’ll surely rile up SEC fans across the state, the Tennessee Titans have parted ways…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061],"tags":[15466,16617,9198,1723,19116,16141,7,17643,10286,14101,10561,4046,9175,13332,55,6,14102,526,394,6364,2411,4045,527,10562,10555,2821,7205],"class_list":{"0":"post-57417","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennessee-titans","8":"tag-amari-burney","9":"tag-anfernee-orji","10":"tag-cedric-gray","11":"tag-cody-barton","12":"tag-curtis-jacobs","13":"tag-david-gbenda","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-jabari-small","16":"tag-jack-gibbens","17":"tag-jerome-baker","18":"tag-julius-chestnut","19":"tag-kalel-mullings","20":"tag-kenneth-murray","21":"tag-luke-gifford","22":"tag-new-orleans-saints","23":"tag-nfl","24":"tag-otis-reese-iv","25":"tag-tennessee","26":"tag-tennessee-titans","27":"tag-tennessee-vols","28":"tag-tennesseetitans","29":"tag-the-titans","30":"tag-titans","31":"tag-tony-pollard","32":"tag-tyjae-spears","33":"tag-undrafted-free-agent","34":"tag-vanderbilt-commodores"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114523276601474334","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57417","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=57417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}