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Last season, while the Titans took a downturn from their three-year stretch of legitimate contender status, defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons \u2026<\/p>\n Last year, the Titans competed to avoid being labeled the NFL\u2019s worst team. A few bright spots<\/a> \u2014 all-pro punt returner Chimere Dike, as well as Simmons, who regularly ranks among the league\u2019s top defensive players \u2014 gave fans just enough hope to keep watching. Cam Ward<\/a>, the NFL’s first overall draft pick in 2025 (the fruit of a last-place Titans season in 2024), started all 17 games, showing big-game potential but playing uneven football. He also uttered last season\u2019s most memorable quote<\/a>.<\/p>\n “If we keep it a buck right now, we ass,\u201d Ward said in September after the team\u2019s losing start. \u201cAt this point, we have nothing to lose. We\u2019ve lost a quarter of our fucking games, and we\u2019ve yet to do anything. We\u2019ve got to lock in, especially myself.\u201d<\/p>\n The team started 1-5, embarrassing owner Amy Adams Strunk enough to fire head coach Brian Callahan with 11 games left in the season<\/a>. The Titans finished 3-14 in a four-way tie for the league\u2019s worst record as the franchise muddled through a generational low point. Meanwhile, former franchise star Derrick Henry revived his dominant run game for the rival Baltimore Ravens<\/a>, and former head coach Mike Vrabel led the Patriots all the way to the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n Titans coach Robert Saleh addresses reporters, July 30, 2026<\/p>\n Photo: Eli Motycka<\/p>\n New slogans like \u201cOwn It\u201d and “All Gas No Brakes” now line the Titans\u2019 practice complex, accompanying a full-team rebrand that updated the team\u2019s iconic sword logo and lightened up its two-tone blue color scheme. Players readily described this year\u2019s training camp as professional and organized, drawing welcome contrast with the team\u2019s rocky past few years.<\/p>\n Ownership brought in Saleh on Jan. 22<\/a> to pull the Titans out of its disastrous tailspin. Saleh, who formerly led the San Francisco 49ers defense, has delegated offensive play calling to focus on his preferred territory. He has already implemented a new defensive scheme players describe as \u201cfast and violent\u201d and signed talent he previously led in New York during his three-year stint as the Jets’ head coach.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
The four-time Pro Bowler heads to Baltimore after totaling more than 9,000 rushing yards with Titans<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aThey gotta figure out a way to block us, not the other way around,\u201d defensive end Jermaine Johnson, who played under Saleh with the Jets, told reporters after practice. \u201c\u200aThere’s nothing else I’d rather be in, because when you’re holding that kind of power \u2014 it’s a lot of fun to play in. But you need the right people to be able to play that, and I feel we have the right people.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to a few team veterans and Saleh\u2019s raft of signees<\/a>, a core of drafted young talent has given fans plenty to watch. Every quarterback needs targets, and Ward was joined just months ago by 2026 first-round draft pick Carnell Tate, a smooth wide receiver who won the 2024 NCAA championship with Ohio State. Tate got his share of smack talk from the defense, drawing taunts from linebacker Cody Barton, safety Amani Hooker and cornerback Marcus Harris after a pass sailed over his head on Thursday. Second-year players Ayomanor and tight end Gunnar Helm add to an aggressive receiving corps with plenty to prove.<\/p>\n For now, coaches and the front office have a few immediate concerns. About 40 players from Thursday’s roster need to be cut to get under the league\u2019s 53-man limit \u2014 these choices are never easy. Saleh is already trading barbs with radio pundit Jared Stillman, chief jester of Nashville sports media, and made headlines in May for his blanket ban of seed oils at Titans facilities<\/a>. Maybe that kind of detail makes the difference \u2014 players and fans seem to agree that there is nowhere to go but up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some coaches talk about working with a blank slate \u2014 Robert Saleh, the Tennessee Titans\u2019 first-year head coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":960269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061],"tags":[127,2240,7,57973,10563,6,6043,9,526,394,2411,527],"class_list":["post-960268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennessee-titans","tag-cam-ward","tag-carnell-tate","tag-football","tag-jared-stillman","tag-jeffery-simmons","tag-nfl","tag-robert-saleh","tag-sports","tag-tennessee","tag-tennessee-titans","tag-tennesseetitans","tag-titans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117013614759607948","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960268","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=960268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/960269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=960268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=960268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=960268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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