What to Know Before the Titans Take on the New Orleans Saints
The Tennessee Titans are on the cusp of their preseason finale against the New Orleans Saints. There’s a lot to look forward to and there’s plenty of excitement abound to put the preseason in the rearview mirror as the Titans will look to start the season fourteen days from today.
The Titans are still playing it cautious with L’Jarius Sneed and Chidobe Awuzie. Neither of which have taken part in meaningful practice in some time or are expected to see the game against the Saints. The same can be said about Titans starters Jeffrey Simmons and Harold Landry. Exactly a week ago Coach Callahan made mention that neither of the usual suspects who have missed games would make it back for the final preseason game. However, he did mention that the offensive starters are expected to play saying, “I’d like to see our starting offense play…somewhere in the 3-ish series.” It seems that for Callahan this was the intention all along with not playing any of the starters the 2nd preseason game while allowing for those back end of the roster guys to have a nearly whole game by themselves to best evaluate their status on the team going forward. If Callahan sticks to his word and plays most of the starters it will be mostly against the Saints backups, similiary to how the 49ers game went. The Saints are not expected to play many or even any starters in todays preseason matchup. Will Levis will have big free agent acquisitions Calvin Ridley and Tony Pollard at his disposal along with slot WR Tyler Boyd. The Titans starting offense didn’t have much resistance moving the ball against the 49ers back ups two weeks ago. From the 49ers preseason matchup there was a lot of information gleaned from that game, however. We got our first look at JC Latham and the starting OL. They did their job as expected and Latham looked light years better than Andre Dilliard and Dennis Daley. T’Vondre Sweat should also play a part in the game and it’ll be interesting to see if he can bulldoze backup lineman when 1-on-1 or eat double teams — or can he only do that against the Titans starting OL. Chance Campbell who’s had a resurgence over the past two preseason games should be another name to watch as he fights for a roster spot. There’s plenty of great matchups to keep an eye on if you know where to look. In particular, I’ll be keeping a keen eye on a few players: Jaylen Harrell, Chance Campbell, Gabe Jeudy-Lally, Brayden Narveson, Corey Levin, and David Martin-Robinson.
As for players we won’t see take a look at the below X post by ESPN Titans beat reporter Turron Davenport:
#Titans injury update: Kearis Jackson is questionable to play in Sunday (knee). Jabari Small (concussion) OUT. Kyle Philips probably out due to a hamstring. Josh Whyle, Otis Reese IV is still in concussion protocol. TK McLendon (turf toe) will miss a couple of week.
— TURRON DAVENPORT (@TDavenport_NFL) August 18, 2024
Today’s game should be a fun matchup to watch as the offense should see little resistance. Moreover, at the end of the day it’s a preseason game and it means little overall, and everything to those players looking to make the active roster or even — much less — the practice squad.
Callahan plans to play starters for 3ish series in the preseason finale pic.twitter.com/SoJ1Y3b1Fp
— Buck Reising (@BuckReising) August 18, 2024
There are quite a few players to keep an eye on as they try and make the roster for the Titans. To name a few: Tre Avery, Gabe Jeudy-Lally, Andrew Rupcich, Corey Levin, Matthew Jackson, Jaylen Harrell, Kearis Jackson (if he plays), Mason Kinsey, Brayden Narveson, Ty Zentner, Keondre Coburn, TK McLendon, Isiah Iton, and James Williams. There are so many players and few little spots left on the roster. It will be interesting to see how deep the depth chart will go for certain positions like OL/CB/WR/ILB/DL/TE. Since this is Brian Callahan’s first year on the job we don’t have any historical data to look back upon to say he prefers one position group deeper than another or that he prefers to cary 7 OL over perhaps 10. With cut day looming on August 27th the Titans will need to scour their roster and the rosters of the 31 other teams in the NFL as well. There’s certainly room for improvement along the DL, OLB, OL, and TE should someone hit the waiver wire — where the Titans have 6th priority. Cuts should start late tonight but most certainly by Monday morning. There will be a lot of moving parts come the next couple of days and for a lot of Titans players this is their last shot at making it to a league roster.
