Training camp starts a week from today, and there are going to be plenty of new faces for the Tennessee Titans, especially on offense.
Looking back to Week 1 of the 2022 season, the Tennessee Titans will have only three starters returning to play the same position that they were playing in that game. Those starters are Ryan Tannehill, Derrick Henry, and Treylon Burks.
If you are feeling generous, you could throw in Kyle Philips if you think that the Titans will use a slot receiver enough this season to call it a starting position.
Regardless, more than half of the offense will have new starters, but there aren't as many position battles as you might expect.
It is hard to imagine a world where Treylon Burks, DeAndre Hopkins, and Chig Okonkwo are the starting pass catchers in this offense. Similarly, it is hard to come up with a situation where Andre Dillard and Peter Skoronski aren't playing left tackle and left guard, even if we are only 95% sure which player will play which spot.
That only leaves a handful of starting positions, and while it is tempting to look down the road and to feature Malik Willis vs Will Levis here, that is a position battle that is going to be fought over the next seven months not the next three weeks.
The question that needs to be answered as soon as possible, is who will win the right tackle job.
Who wins the Tennessee Titans battle royale at right tackle
There are six or seven players that could theoretically play right tackle for the Tennessee Titans in Week 1 in the wake of the Nicholas Petit-Frere suspension, but there are only three realistic options.
If the Tennessee Titans want to get the five best offensive linemen on the field in Week 1, then that means that Daniel Brunskill should be the favorite to win the right tackle job. He has some really solid film at every position on the line and that includes starts at right tackle where he held his own week after week.
Having an intelligent backup iOL like Corey Levin makes this a smart move because you should get average to above-average play from the right guard position while Brunskill moonlights as a tackle for a month and a half.
The second option is Jamarco Jones. The forgotten man on the offensive line, Jones has been on the roster since last season where he was a complete non-factor after an injury in training camp.
That is a shame because there were rumors that he had the inside track to start at left guard before getting hurt. If he had stayed healthy, maybe at some point last season, Aaron Brewer could have replaced Jones at left guard and Jones could have started at left tackle to get Dennis Daley off the field.
Getting back to 2023, Jones has started games at right tackle in the past and he should give the Titans a passable performance at the position until NPF has served his suspension.
The final option is to go out and sign George Fant who has already hinted that he would like for the Tennessee Titans to make him an offer. Normally I would be against spending money on a player who is only going to play for six games, but his versatility as a potential starter at both right and left tackle in a pinch makes him almost like a high-end version of Jamarco Jones.
If Fant did well enough, there wouldn't be any reason for the Titans to rush to put NPF back into the lineup, and he is the only player that I can realistically see stealing away the right tackle job for the entire season.