Tennessee Titans starting center Lloyd Cushenberry continues to recover from last year's season-ending Achilles injury. Though Cushenberry is on a desirable recovery schedule, by all accounts, his absence from team periods impacted practice at mandatory minicamp.
Luckily for No. 1 overall quarterback Cam Ward, the Titans had an experienced veteran ready to step in.
Head coach Brian Callahan met with the media ahead of Thursday's final mandatory minicamp practice session. Unprompted, Callahan showered backup center Corey Levin with praise. And with that, an underrated roster battle has an early winner ahead of training camp.
"A guy who really deserves some public praise is Corey Levin," Callahan said when asked about offensive line depth. "With Lloyd [Cushenberry] being out, we brought Corey back to run the [offense]. Corey is a veteran player. He's a savvy, scrappy, and intelligent player. He's really helped us run our offense over the course of the offseason. Really, really pleased with what he's done for us. He's very capable. If that guy is a depth piece, that's fantastic for us."
Corey Levin an early favorite for key Titans roster position
Ward spent minicamp continuing to acclimate to the NFL while getting increasingly familiar with Callahan's offense. It would have been helpful if Ward had his projected starting center, Cushenberry, at his full disposal. Injury prevented that from being the case. Tennessee is fortunate they had a savvy, familiar veteran like Levin ready to step in.
It was Levin who replaced Cushenberry in the starting lineup last season after his Achilles injury. Levin played roughly 133 snaps at center in 2024. He allowed just one sack while earning a pass-protection grade of 64.5 from Pro Football Focus. Even with a new GM coming in, Mike Borgonzi made the decision to re-sign him earlier this offseason. It speaks volumes when a back-end roster player survives a regime change.
That's precisely what Levin did.
Interestingly enough, the Titans recently signed another veteran reserve center. Sam Mustipher was added to the offseason 90-man roster in April. Some believe Mustipher posed a legitimate threat to Levin's roster spot. That seems less likely after hearing Callahan glow about Levin.
Cushenberry is a candidate to begin training camp on the team's Physically Unable to Perform list. When Tennessee's report date (July 22nd) arrives, he'll be approximately nine months removed from the devastating injury. If Cushenberry isn't full-go, Levin will continue earning reps with Callahan's first-team offense. The regular-season opener is set for September 7th versus the Denver Broncos.
A center is crucial to a young quarterback's development. Unfortunately, Ward didn't have Cushenberry available to him during seven-on-seven and 11-on-11 team periods at minicamp. But Levin, an unheralded veteran player who consistently rises to the occasion, has helped make Ward's transition as smooth as possible given the circumstances.