A Busy Week Ahead for the Tennessee Titans
By Les Bailey
Not only do the Tennessee Titans have to prepare for their final preseason game with the Minnesota Vikings on Thursday night in Music City, they also need to cut their roster down to 75 players before they that game gets underway.
Actually, the first roster trim must take place by 4:00PM Eastern time(3PM Central) on Monday. A second cut to 53 players will take place after the Minnesota game and must be dome by 4:00PM on Saturday.
More at Titan Sized: Projecting the Tennessee Titans 53-man Roster
All of that activity promises to make the week a busy one for the Titans brass, and an interesting one for the fans and media surrounding this young team.
Titans head coach Ken Whisenhunt told Tennessean writer John Glennon on Saturday:
“We’ve got to release 15 players this week, which is never easy, especially since you’ve been grinding it out with these guys for a number of practices and a number of days,” Whisenhunt said. “But I think we’re all familiar with where it is in that process, so we’re prepared for that. Some of the cuts — some of the decisions we make — will definitely have an eye towards being able to get through this (final preseason) game with good health of our team going into the opener.”
Whisenhunt said he’s likely to make the early cut in a couple of batches — one soon and one closer to the 3 p.m. deadline.
With a full house of wide receivers on the 90-man squad, you have to think that teams like the Green Bay Packers and Carolina Panthers will be on the phone.
The Packers lost their number one receiver, Jordy Nelson for the season to a torn ACL, and now Randall Cobb in questionable after their preseason game with the Philadelphia Eagles on Saturday.
The Panthers lost their number one target, Kelvin Benjamin to a torn ACL last week as well.
The big question surrounding the Titans is the status of offensive lineman, Andy Levitre. The veteran guard lost his starting job to Byron Bell after a slow off-season and a poor performance in the Atlanta Falcon game.
Levitre is midway through $46.8 million contract, which is a healthy amount for a backup guard. It would be nice if they can move him and get some value instead of eating his contract for another two years.
Whisenhunt also told Glennon that although he is happy with his running back situation, he wouldn’t rule out taking a look at players becoming available during roster cuts.
Bishop Sankey came out of training camp as the starter, but two mediocre performances did not offset the one nice outing he had against the Rams.
Sankey toted the rock six times on Friday night for 17 yards, and fumbled the ball on his last carry. The fumble was recovered by Jeremiah Poutasi, but Whisenhunt didn’t like to see that from his top back.
“I didn’t like the fumble, but other than that, he did OK,” Whisenhunt said. “That’s a tough front to run against, especially when you don’t get an opportunity to plan against them like you normally would. We started off with a 6-yard gain on the first run, but we had some mistakes on the blocking scheme last night as well. It was OK.”
The 2.6 yard average turned in by Sankey Friday night was better than the 1.9 he carded against the Falcons in the opener, but it sounds to me like 2014 all over again.
With rookie David Cobb still a question mark at the NFL level and nursing a sore calf, maybe it’s time to look at the waiver wire.
Dexter McCluster and Antonio Andrews looked good in situational running, neither have the capability to be the “Bell Cow” running back this team needs at this stage of their development.
Marcus Mariota has been taken out of the lineup for Thursday’s game with the Vikings, so will the Titans be looking to shop Zach Mettenberger? Or maybe Alex Tanney?…..or Both?
It looks to be an interesting week around Nashville!
Next: Takeaways from Preseason game 3