Once again, there have been many changes this offseason for the Tennessee Titans.
The big question – as the club opens training camp formally on July 28 at what is now Vanderbilt Health Football Center – is how much those offseason changes will improve the team’s fortunes.
Many of the changes are cosmetic and won’t affect what happens on the field that much.
For example, the team has unveiled new uniforms that basically are an updated version of the classic Houston Oilers togs that they abandoned back in 1999. That was when the current stadium opened and Tennessee fans demanded a name change away from the Oilers, which team owner Bud Adams wanted desperately to hold on to. But Bud finally acquiesced, paving the way for the Titans rebrand.
This will be the Titans’ last season in that stadium before moving into the new$2 billion enclosed stadium next door to the current Nissan Stadium, which will be razed at the conclusion of the coming season.
Changes all around
The stadium and the new uniforms aren’t the only changes afoot in Nashville.
Yet again, there is a new coaching staff, the third one in the last four years if you’re keeping count. And that doesn’t even include the interim stint of Mike McCoy, who finished up last year following the firing of Brian Callahan in October.
This time, it’s Robert Saleh in charge on the field. Saleh is one of the best defensive minds in the game, but he flamed out quickly in his first head coaching stint with the New York Jets.
This time, he has brought in plenty of veteran coaches to help him remake the Titans and try to find more success. Brian Daboll, his coaching counterpart with the Giants in New York, will run the offense and is charged with helping Cam Ward develop into a franchise quarterback.
Saleh, who will call the defense, brought in former Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley to be defensive coordinator and retained John Fassel, who did outstanding work with special teams last year even as the ship was sinking around him.
A big challenge
The Titans, no doubt, want to see improvement over the last two seasons where they have managed just three wins in each of their last two years.
Consider this: They were a fumble at the 1-yard line or a fluky fumbled interception touchdown gift from the Arizona Cardinals from having the first pick in the draft two years in a row and finishing with only two wins. As it was, Tennessee picked fourth a year after picking first in 2025.
Coming off a three-win season in 2024, it would have been hard to imagine the Titans being worse in 2025. Yet, they managed to do so.
Last year, the Titans averaged just 16.7 points a game while giving up 28.1 points per game. They managed to lose by at least two scores in nine of their 14 defeats. By comparison, the 2024 Titans averaged 18.3 points a game while surrendering 27.1 on average. They only absorbed eight two-score losses on their way to 3-14.
In addition to the majority of the 2025 coaching staff, many of the players on last year’s roster were shown the door, as well. Between free agent additions, draft picks and rookie free agents, the Titans have 46 new players among the 90 they will take to training camp. That’s 51%, meaning slightly over half the team wasn’t here in 2025.
Déjà vu all over again?
In that regard, this Titans team does feel a little bit like 2024 with a new coaching staff, a young quarterback hoping to develop into a franchise player, a new system and many new faces on the roster.
Let’s hit the rewind button back to those halcyon days when Brian Callahan was brought in by GM Ran Carthon to replace Mike Vrabel, who had gotten sideways with ownership.
Carthon, Callahan and Titans management sold the fan base and media on a “competitive rebuild,” even though stalwarts like Derrick Henry, Ryan Tannehill and a little later Kevin Byard were ushered out. In their place were veterans Tony Pollard, Calvin Ridley, L’Jarius Sneed, Chidobe Awuzie and a whole list of other players, young and old, for which the Titans had high hopes.
Atop that list was young quarterback Will Levis, who had fans some great moments in half a season starting as a rookie. The Titans were high enough on Levis’ potential that Amy Adams Strunk even referenced his development as a selling point in her statement regarding the coaching search after Vrabel’s firing.
When Levis’ second season crashed and burned behind a poor offensive line, subpar skill players and his own issues with putting the ball in harm’s way, the Titans went down the drain.
Enter Mike Borgonzi as the new general manager, who decided to keep Callahan on board and allow him to try and develop first overall pick Cam Ward in the way he was unable to develop Levis.
It was a short-lived marriage. Callahan was fired after six weeks as the Titans predictably struggled with a rookie quarterback playing behind a poor line with limited weapons.
About the only differences were that Ward’s miscues didn’t turn into Instagram memes. The rookie – at least outwardly – seemed mostly unflappable, and the Titans’ front office didn’t try to sell a “competitive rebuild,” but instead leveled with the fan base about the hard road ahead.
Which brings us to now and the opening of Saleh’s first training camp.
Lots of change on both sides
Just as Callahan’s staff threw out much of the offensive playbook that Vrabel’s staff had employed, Saleh and his guys are taking it one step farther.
Daboll will be calling plays with an offense that will be markedly different with option routes for receivers that will require the quarterback to anticipate and make the right read of defenses. Saleh also is moving the Titans defense back to a 4-3 after a decade as a 3-4.
To that end, Saleh opted for familiarity, bringing in plenty of guys he had previously coached in San Francisco and New York to run that system.
John Franklin-Myers, Jacob Martin, Solomon Thomas and Jermaine Johnson will be counted upon to bolster the defensive line and give Jeffery Simmons some reinforcements that should make the unit better.
For some of the holdovers up front, like Cedric Gray, Femi Oladejo and Jaylen Harrell, there will be new positions to learn in camp in order to master Saleh’s system.
There are new starting corners in CorDale Flott and Alontae Taylor, imported from the Giants and Saints respectively, to help boost a woefully thin group that still feels like it is one injury away from serious problems. Finding some depth in the secondary at both corner and safety will be one of the storylines worth watching as camp unfolds.
Offensive questions remain
On the offensive side, everything is centered on Ward, who now has his third play-caller in two seasons in Daboll. The Titans have to keep him from struggling like Levis did with change in coaching and system.
The good news is Daboll coveted Ward when the Titans made him the No. 1 pick a year ago. Daboll and the Giants were willing to offer a package of multiple picks for the chance to grab Ward. Now, Daboll gets his chance to work with Ward and help him improve on a rookie season where he showed slow, but measurable progress late last year.
There are two things that could help Ward improve – playmakers and protection, exactly what the Titans lacked for Levis in ‘24 and Ward last year.
The Titans drafted Ohio State receiver Carnell Tate with the fourth pick. While that was a surprise move to some, the early returns on Tate have been positive. It had been a while since the Titans spent a high pick on a playmaker at a skill position.
It might feel a little outside the norm, given three first-round picks since 2020 going to the offensive line, but the addition of Tate is welcome and needed to try and give Ward a No. 1 receiver. Tate, plus slot receiver acquisition Wan’Dale Robinson, who came with Daboll from the Giants, figure to make Ward’s life a bit easier, provided the line gives him sufficient time to throw.
Speaking of the offensive line, here we go again. Entering camp, the Titans really have no one outside of Peter Skoronski as a top-level player on the offensive front.
Left tackle Dan Moore is so-so and could well be replaced in 2027. On the right side, J.C. Latham, the seventh overall pick in 2024, has quickly reached a make-or-break season. Will he take a big leap – as Skoronski did last year – and play himself into the team’s long-term plans or simply be another disappointment?
At the other two spots, the Titans are planning on competition at center and right guard. The Titans need to decide those spots quickly and hope that the players who prevail are up to the task.
Is there hope?
As the Titans open camp – rookies reported July 23 – many things need to come together in a short amount of time. A veteran coaching staff should help in that regard, but it’s going to take several things going right to get the franchise moving back in the right direction.
The defense should be better, provided it doesn’t suffer injuries.
That could help carry the load while Ward and the offense find their footing.
There is reason for optimism. The roster, while still thin in several areas, at least looks better and more promising than it has in a while.
For a team that has had so much go wrong since blowing the No. 1 seed in the AFC five years ago, the Titans are overdue for some things to go right.