Draft picks are going to have to start making an impact if the Tennessee Titans are going to dig out of the doldrums that have plagued them for the past four seasons.
It’s not just recent first-round picks like Carnell Tate, Keldric Faulk or 2025 No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward. Those guys need to become stars. What the Titans really need is contributors from middle- and late-round picks.
Last year, they got a nice bit of that from Chimere Dike, who became an All-Pro kick returner as a fourth-round rookie, and to a lesser extent from fellow receiver Elic Ayomanor and tight end Gunnar Helm.
This year, the first rookie to step out from anonymity that comes with being a third-day pick is Fernando Carmona, a fifth-round pick who played first at San Jose State and then Arkansas.
While most of the focus on the competition for the Titans right guard spot focused on free agent pickup Cordell Volson and 2025 draft pick Jackson Slater, it was Carmona who quickly moved to the front of the line.
From the week of the Blue and White Scrimmage just a few days into camp, Carmona made his move to the first team with the competition all but over. By the end of training camp, it was a foregone conclusion that Carmona would be the starter and get a chance to solidify a position that has been in flux for quite a while.
Titans coach Robert Saleh says Carmona earned the job.
“I thought he’s done an outstanding job. We gave him the opportunity to step in there and show what he can do, and when he got in that spot, he just wouldn’t relent,” Saleh says. “And credit to him, he’s a mauler, he’s a fighter, he’s a strainer. He’s got a lot of work to do. As you guys know, he’s going to see some of the best D-tackles in all of football, but I do think he’s up for the challenge.”
Smart with a side of nasty
Carmona possesses two things the Titans have lacked for years at the position: physicality and nastiness. Those traits are always brought up whenever Titans personnel speak of Carmona.
“We all liked his skill set coming out in terms of his size, his strength. He’s smart, he’s tough. He brings a little bit of nastiness to that group,” Titans general manager Mike Borgonzi says of Carmona. “So you never know with those guys. I mean that’s such a characteristic position where we’ve talked about this before with some of these guys, especially offensive line, where there’s certain character traits that sometimes make up for some other deficiencies.”
In many ways, Carmona is still learning the game. He was a tennis player before moving to football his junior year, despite being 6-4 and 225 pounds at the time.
“I always told myself I would never really play football at that time,” he says. “And it was funny because it was the tennis court right here and then the football field, and every morning or every afternoon all the football players would yell at me across from the gate like, ‘come join us, come join us,’ and I was like ‘nope, I’m fine playing tennis,’ and then sure enough, man, we’re here.”
He also learned about how to play with a physical edge, even if it wasn’t exactly in his nature.
“It’s something I had to learn in college,” Carmona says. “Off the field, I’m a very friendly guy, and it’s a sign that you have to learn when you cross these lines. You know all these guys can’t be your buddies.
“And you know, they’re your teammates, so you gotta take care of them. But at the end of the day, you gotta get your work. And that took me a while in college to learn how to find that nastiness.”
So, how soon did Carmona believe he could become a starter in the NFL? Right away, and that is precisely what has happened for him in Tennessee.
“I think that’s just kind of been my mindset ever since, I mean, leading into combine prep. I knew I could play in this league and I could be a starter and I’ve just kind of always had that belief in myself and I know my work has led me to that,” Carmona says.
Terry McCormick also covers the Titans for TitanInsider.com