Early in August, ESPN's Jeremy Fowler took a trip to Tennessee Titans training camp, and he left with several takeaways that caught everyone's attention. Aside from several players and coaches praising rookie QB Cam Ward, the biggest takeaway was that the Titans are still considering being very active in the free agent market.
Fowler was hopefully correct. With each training camp practice and preseason game, it becomes clearer which position groups need help and which ones are worth developing. Fowler's intel suggests that the Titans are looking to add talent at EDGE, QB, and CB.
After more joint practices and a preseason game, it should be clear to the Titans that they need to act by adding some players at those premium positions as soon as possible. EDGE and cornerback could especially use upgrades.
Titans must take action after disappointing preseason debut
While Arden Key and Dre'Mont Jones are going to be the starting EDGEs this year, Smith could come in and push Femi Oladejo down the depth chart into a rotational role, which is where he belongs based on everything we've seen to this point.
At cornerback, the Titans were helpless on third-and-long plays between the lack of pass rush and the secondary's inability to contest passes from backup quarterback Kyle Trask. It was painful to watch them arrive late before ineffectively swatting at the ball while the Buccaneers marched down the field methodically.
While the pass rush was weak and the coverage was soft, the worst part of the game was trying to watch Brandon Allen and Tim Boyle move the ball against several Bucs defenders who are fighting uphill battles for spots on the practice squad.
Maybe that performance is the new bar for how bad a problem needs to be before the Titans address it, because the Titans did make a move on Monday with the addition of Trevor Siemian. That should be a familiar name for Titans fans because he was with the team briefly in 2020 and then for a few months again last season.
The question for Titans fans is whether things need to get that bad at the other positions, or if this is just the first of several moves to improve the depth at the premium positions Fowler mentioned that the team has been concerned about during training camp.