Titans head coach Brian Callahan offered updates on a couple of injured players during a media session at the league meetings on Monday.
Wide receiver Treylon Burks tore his ACL five games into the 2024 season and Callahan said he’s not expected to be back for the start of training camp. Callahan added, via the team’s website, that Burks could “potentially” make it back for the start of the regular season.
Burks had four catches for 34 yards before his injury and has 53 catches for 699 yards and a touchdown since being selected in the first round of the 2022 draft.
Callahan said that the team is hopeful that center Lloyd Cushenberry will be ready for camp. Cushenberry is recovering from a torn Achilles.
The Titans have attended Cam Ward’s Pro Day. They have taken him to dinner. They have had a private workout with him.
If the Titans have fallen head over heels for Ward, they aren’t trading the No. 1 overall pick.
“I was taught over the years, if you find the quarterback that you want, and you think he’s a franchise quarterback, then you’re not going to pass on him,” General Manager Mike Borgonzi said, via Paul Kuharsky of paulkuharsky.com.
Coach Brian Callahan said a few days ago that the Titans have a short list of players they are considering for the first pick. Quarterbacks Ward and Shedeur Sanders, cornerback/wide receiver Travis Hunter and edge rusher Abdul Carter are under consideration.
Even though president of football operations Chad Brinker said the team isn’t closing the door on a trade down, it sounds like the Titans are close to a decision. (Spoiler alert: It’s Ward.)
“I think anytime you can find a quarterback that can lift your football team and that you feel is the caliber of player you’re talking about, those guys are worth more,” Callahan said, via Kuharsky. “There is really no price on those guys.”
Borgonzi conceded that the phone might ring on draft day, and the Titans won’t be open for business.
The Titans will continue to scout their options, with a contingent headed to Colorado’s Pro Day on Friday to see Sanders and Hunter. They also have a private workout with Sanders on April 9.
“We’re getting closer to this decision,” Borgonzi said.
If a team is going to trade with the Titans to acquire this year’s No. 1 overall pick, it sounds like it won’t be the Browns.
General Manager Andrew Berry told reporters on Sunday that it’s “unlikely” that Cleveland would trade up for the first selection, though the team is keeping its options open.
However, Berry noted that the Browns are willing to discuss moving down from the No. 2 pick.
“We’re pretty much open to anything that can be advantageous to us,” Berry said, via Daniel Oyefusi of ESPN.
The Titans are widely expected to select quarterback Cam Ward with the No. 1 selection next month. But the Browns have done their due diligence on the QB, working him out privately.
If Cleveland stays at No. 2 overall, the club may look at quarterback Shadeur Sanders, receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter, or edge rusher Abdul Carter.
The Titans are doing nothing to disquiet the noise about a possible trade out of the first overall pick in the draft. In contrast, they’re denying that they’ve spoken to anyone about trading quarterback Will Levis.
“That’s a false report,” Titans president of football operations Chad Brinker said Sunday at the annual meetings, per the team’s website. “We have not contacted anybody, and nobody has contacted us, about Will Levis. I don’t think anything has changed from the time somebody asked me about this a month ago.”
So what’s the plan for the 2023 second-rounder?
“The plan with Will Levis is he has a chance to compete for a starting job next year,” Brinker said. “And that’s like every player that’s on our roster. It’s no different for Will. I see him in our facility, he’s working hard. Everybody knows he’s a great kid, he’s a hard worker and he’s going to give it everything he has. And we’re going to continue to work with Will Levis.”
Levis has started 21 games over his first two seasons. And he comes with a very affordable contract, at $1.59 million in 2025 and $2 million in 2026. They could keep him as the backup/insurance policy to quarterback Cam Ward (if they make Ward the first overall selection) or they could trade him after the draft to a team that needs a quarterback.
However it plays out, he’s an asset at the most important position in the game. And the price for the next two years gives him even more value.
Titans head coach Brian Callahan said recently that the team is considering four players for the first overall pick in the draft, but president of football operations Chad Brinker made it clear the team isn’t closing the door on one other option.
Brinker said from the league meetings on Sunday that the team is closing in on a decision about what to do next month and that he thinks they’ll come to a final call in the near future, but he will still be picking up the phone if other teams call with trade offers.
“We are going to go through the whole thing, and I think probably here in two weeks we’re going to have a good idea of where things are headed,” Brinker said, via the team’s website. “Now, we’re not going to go out there and tell everybody, of course. And, there’s a chance a team calls and it makes you stop for a second and think, ‘Hey, we might need to consider this.’ But all of this is a part of being disciplined, and being thorough.”
Brinker said teams are “checking in,” but added that trades typically “get done closer to the draft than they do now” so no one’s going to be putting any names on the back of jerseys for a while.
The Titans could trade the No. 1 overall pick as General Manager Mike Borgonzi recently said “everything is still on the table.” It appears likely, though, that the team uses the selection.
Head coach Brian Callahan told Tom Pelissero of NFL Media that the team has a four players it’s considering for the first choice.
“I think it’s a short list at No. 1 for sure, it’s all the guys that I think are worthy of it, the ones that everyone talks about out there, and between Travis [Hunter] and Shedeur [Sanders] and Cam [Ward] and Abdul Carter, I think those are, that’s the top of the draft for me. Those are the most elite players in the draft,” Callahan said. “There’s going to be a lot of good ones certainly that come after them, but I think those at this moment are the best players in the draft and at the top of it.”
Sanders and Ward are quarterbacks, a need for the Titans, and Carter is the top edge rusher. Hunter plays wide receiver and cornerback.
Pro Days, top-30 visits and private workouts are ongoing, so the Titans have a few more weeks before they finish the data-collecting process. But they already have narrowed the list ahead of the April 24 draft.
“We’re getting closer for sure; all of the processes are moving right along,” Callahan said. “I would say we have a pretty good feel for what direction we’re headed by early April here, and you put the final touches on it and tie the bow over it by the time you get to the draft.”
Edge rusher Abdul Carter didn’t do any on-field work during Penn State’s Pro Day workout on Friday, but he still tried to make his case to be the first overall pick in this year’s draft.
While quarterback Cam Ward is seen as the likeliest choice to go first overall whether the Titans hold onto the pick or if they deal it to another club, Carter was asked why he thought his name should the first one called from the stage in Green Bay next month. Carter cited his versatility, his knack for making big plays in the biggest moments, and his ability to “make people around me better” as reasons why he can provide teams with the same kind of impact as a quarterback.
“Those great defensive players, you look in the history, they can impact the game just as much as a quarterback,” Carter said, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN.com. “There’s been defensive players who’ve taken over a game right at the end of Super Bowl in those playoffs scenes where you really need that great defensive player and he also makes people around him better. So I feel like just saying that, seeing how defensive players can take over a game, we’re just like a quarterback.”
Carter’s argument may not change anyone’s plans at the top of the first round, but he probably isn’t going to have to wait long to hear his name.
The Titans may be using the first overall pick in the draft on quarterback Cam Ward next month and one of the best ways to set him or any quarterback up for success is by making sure that they are well protected.
New Titans General Manager Mike Borgonzi has worked to create that kind of protection in free agency. The Titans signed tackle Dan Moore and guard Kevin Zeitler as part of an effort to upgrade on what the team had on the field last season.
Moore played left tackle for the Steelers and is set to remain on that side while 2024 first-round pick JC Latham moves to the right side. That’s where Latham played last year and Borgonzi told Jim Wyatt of the team’s website that he believes the move will benefit all parties.
“I think a lot of people saw him as a right tackle,” Borgonzi said. “Certainly, he played left tackle last year, but I think it will be good for him to move back to the right, and it’ll make the entire line better, I think.”
The Titans also have 2023 first-round pick Peter Skoronski at left guard and the hope is that the two players form the foundation of a strong line for years to come in Tennessee.
Punter Ryan Stonehouse has a big leg. It wasn’t big enough to get him a fourth season in Tennessee.
The Titans opted not to re-sign Stonehouse, nor to apply a restricted free agency tender. He left via free agency for the Dolphins.
“I was surprised,” Stonehouse told reporters earlier this week regarding Tennessee’s decision to move on. “I think a lot of other people were as well. I truly didn’t expect it. I’m a guy that I like to be where my feet are, been training in that building ever since I stepped foot in it three years ago. I thought it would be a little bit different, just more clarity would have been nice, but it is what it is and I’m excited for this new opportunity.”
He approaches the new opportunity with a familiar motivation.
“I’ve certainly built my career off of not being the first one picked,” Stonehouse said. “Obviously, I wasn’t drafted. I didn’t have very many opportunities after the draft — Tennessee was one of them. So I kind of took that as a chip on my shoulder and I truly felt like that’s kind of where my career has taken me. Whether that was college, I didn’t really have very many scholarship offers. Colorado State took a chance on me. Same what I said in high school, I only played on varsity one year; I had to compete for that job. So I really truly have built a career off of competition. Yeah, I think there was some things about natural fits and I actually truly believe the Dolphins are the best fit for me. I’ve kind of come to realize that being in the league for three years now that fit matters so much and understanding the player that I am matters a lot — how to use me as a weapon is truly something that I thank Craig Aukerman and Chase Blackburn for when they brought me into Tennessee. It was very important for me to have a good fit, so I truly believe Miami is that place.”
Stonehouse averaged 53.1 gross yards per punt in 2022 and in 2023. Last year, he averaged 50.6 yards per punt. He was named a second-team All-Pro as a rookie.
Teams attending Penn State’s Pro Day on Friday will not get to see one of the top prospects in this year’s draft class in action.
Via Adam Schefter of ESPN, agent Drew Rosenhaus said edge rusher Abdul Carter will not work out during tomorrow’s event.
“He is still finishing up rehab on the shoulder injury he had from the Boise State game,” Rosenhaus told Schefter. “He may still do a workout for teams sometime in mid-April.”
Carter, 21, was the Big Ten defensive player of the year in 2024, finishing the season with 12.0 sacks and 24 tackles for loss in 16 games. He also recorded four passes defended and two forced fumbles.
He is widely expected to be a top-five pick in next month’s draft, if not one of the top two selections.
