During the offseason, the Tennessee Titans made a significant investment in their cornerback room, signing Alontae Taylor, Cor’Dale Flott, and Joshua Williams as free agents, but after five weeks, none of the three have made a splash on the field. That trend will continue on Sunday.
Although the opportunity existed when Tennessee activated Williams from injured reserve (IR), head coach Robert Saleh decided to make Taylor a surprise inactive for the Week 6 matchup with the Indianapolis Colts. No word was given on why Taylor was a healthy scratch
#Titans CB Alontae Taylor is inactive.
— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) October 18, 2026
Coach's decision.
Week 6 and one of the team's biggest free-agent acquisitions is benched. Joshua Williams is back from IR and presumably starts in his place.
Taylor
has struggled to adapt to his new role as an outside cornerback with the Titans after excelling as a nickel for the New Orleans Saints, and he has been ineffective in the Titans’ secondary under this new scheme. But it’s still a surprise that the Titans would sit down their high-priced cornerback after signing him to a $60 million contract with $42 million guaranteed.
In addition to activating Williams from injured reserve, the Titans also kept Jaylon Jones active for the matchup against his former team. Jones has been a healthy scratch all season and will now get his first game action in 2026.
This article originally appeared on Titans Wire: Tennessee Titans make surprising decision to bench CB Alontae Taylor
