With a week of practices in the books, here's The Tennessean's latest projection as to what the Tennessee Titans' 53-man roster will look like when the roster gets cut from 91 players to 53 players at the end of August.
For the sake of this exercise, we'll divide the roster into five groups: The locks, the guys who ought to be feeling pretty good, the players on the right side of the bubble, the players on the wrong side of the bubble, and the players who've got a lot of work to do.
Following practice on Aug. 1, here's our projection:
Tennessee Titans 53-man roster projection
The locks (40 players)
Cam Ward, Mitchell Trubisky, Tony Pollard, Tyjae Spears, Nick Singleton, Carnell Tate, Wan'Dale Robinson, Calvin Ridley, Elic Ayomanor, Chimere Dike, Gunnar Helm, Daniel Bellinger, Dan Moore Jr., Peter Skoronski,
Austin Schlottmann, Cordell Volson, JC Latham, Jackson Slater, Pat Coogan, Fernando Carmona Jr., Jeffery Simmons, John Franklin-Myers, Jordan Elliott, Solomon Thomas, Jermaine Johnson II, Keldric Faulk, Jacob Martin, Femi Oladejo, Cody Barton, Cedric Gray, Anthony Hill Jr., Alontae Taylor, Cor'Dale Flott, Marcus Harris, Amani Hooker, Kevin Winston Jr., Tony Adams, Joey Slye, Tommy Townsend, Morgan Cox
Roster watches focus on the players at the bottom of the roster, but don't lose sight of the starters. These are the guys who are going to matter most come September.
Guys who ought to be feeling good (6 players)
Jaren Kanak, Austin Deculus, Jackie Marshall, Mohamoud Diabate, Dorian Mausi, Joshua Williams
Not necessarily locks, but also not on the bubble. A couple of draft picks who'll have to lose spots to miss the team, a couple of free agent depth pieces who have priority over younger or less experienced players and some depth for the inside linebacker room in the form of two players who'll be able to contribute in the rotation and on special teams.
The right side of the bubble (7 players)
Will Levis, Kalel Mullings, Bryce Oliver, David Martin-Robinson, Jaylen Harrell, Jalen McMurray, Kendell Brooks
Caveat: No pads are on yet. It's still early. But let's keep Levis on the squad until further notice, give Mullings the nod as a special teams option in the backfield, lean on Oliver's special teams skills as WR6, keep Martin-Robinson around for depth, let Harrell develop one more year off the edge and bring back Brooks as valuable safety depth. And oh yeah, not to pander, but it's no fun to do a prediction with no UDFAs and the Titans need a backup nickel option so McMurray ― the former Vol ― is getting rewarded for a nice couple of practices.
The wrong side of the bubble (11 players)
Michael Carter, Julius Chestnut, K.J. Osborn, Xavier Restrepo, Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson, Timmy Horne, Truman Jones, James Williams Sr., Micah Robinson, Keydrain Calligan, Jerrick Reed II
Any of these guys could land on the right side of the bubble soon enough. Osborn and Restrepo are still in the mix for a receiver spot. Carter and Chestnut are getting looks alongside Mullings (and Singleton). And everyone else here was good enough to survive the total roster turnover from 2025 to 2026, with almost all of them spending most of last season on the active roster.
A lot of work to do (27 players)
Hendon Hooker, Mason Kinsey, Hank Beatty, Tyren Montgomery, Courtney Jackson, Lance McCutcheon, Joel Wilson, Kylen Granson, Andre James, Rasheed Miller, Drew Moss, Aamil Wagner, Garrett Dellinger, Zachary Thomas, Malik Herring, Jalyn Holmes, Earnest Brown IV, Shad Banks Jr., Sean Brown, Mani Powell, Mario Goodrich, Nazeeh Johnson, Bishop Fitzgerald, Erick Hallett II, Derrick Canteen, Khalen Saunders, Laki Tasi
There are some nice players in the bunch here, but no one who's really high on the radar . . . yet. Let's see how the projection morphs as the pads come on and competitions takes a different shape.
Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X @nicksuss. Subscribe to the Talkin’ Titans newsletter for updates sent directly to your inbox.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Projecting Tennessee Titans' 53-man roster, depth chart after 1 week of training camp
