3 Former Tennessee Titans who might not be done playing

How many of you, as Tennessee Titans fans, forgot about Nate Orchard?

Former Ted Hendricks Award winner (that’s given annually to college football’s top defensive end) and First-team All-Pac-12 nod in 2014 Nate Orchard has accumulated his share of stories that he can sit back in the recliner and tell the grandkids about one day. Some of us would have loved to have played for one NFL team. Orchard has been a member of eight, but unfortunately, his professional career hasn’t gone in the manner that he would have liked.

Things started pretty well for him. He was drafted in the second round of 2015’s NFL Draft, and he made 11 starts for the Cleveland Browns as a rookie. Since then, he’s only appeared in 31 games from 2016 to 2020. That also only includes only two more starts.

The last NFL game he appeared in was in Week 7 of the 2020 season as a member of the Washington Football Team. He didn’t play a defensive snap, but he was on the field for 13 special teams snaps. He was waived on November 7th, picked up by the rival Houston Texans two days later, and waived again on December 12th.

The Tennessee Titans added him to their practice squad on December 19th, signed him to a futures contract on January 11th, and released him almost four months later on May 10th. He hasn’t hung up the cleats and called it a career yet, so he’s available if anyone wants to sign him. He’s still young having turned 28 in January, but one can only wonder if his time is winding down.