NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Titans are embracing a full-blown youth movement for 2027 and beyond that starts now, with the final nine games helping evaluate who will stick around past this season.
The Titans dealt safety Amani Hooker to the Buffalo Bills at the NFL trade deadline Tuesday after sending All-Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons to the Chicago Bears on Oct. 29 for three draft picks, including first-round choices in 2027 and 2028.
The trades leave linebacker Cedric Gray, a 2024 fourth-round pick, as the most tenured player remaining on the Titans defense.
“I think that’s crazy to hear,” Gray said. “Obviously, we know what Jeff and Hook meant to this defense, but it looks like we’re moving in a new direction and new era for this team.”
Trading away key defensive starters for future assets isn't what general manager Mike Borgonzi envisioned at the start of the season with a new head coach in Robert Saleh and a big free agency spending spree in March.
“It’s a surprise,” Borgonzi said. “I think the expectations for us going into the season were that we weren’t going to be 1-7 at this point. That’s for sure.”
Now Borgonzi has four first-round selections in 2027 and 2028, with three second-round picks, a pair of third-rounders and three fourth-rounders for a total of nine top-100 selections and 12 in the first four rounds. The Titans had two first-round picks in the April draft after trading back into the end of the first round for defensive lineman Keldric Faulk.
“Now, we have a lot of work to do, though,” Borgonzi said. “We obviously have to make the right decisions with these picks, and it’s hard moving on from two really good players that have been here for a long time.”
Tennessee's youth movement already was underway on offense with several primary skill position players in their first or second seasons. That group includes first-round picks in quarterback Cam Ward and receiver Carnell Tate, plus receivers Chimere Dike and Elic Ayomanor and tight end Gunnar Helm.
The key player in that group is Ward, whom the Titans hope to build around after selecting him first overall in the 2025 draft. Ward and the Titans are just 4-21 in that span. However, Ward said he feels the organization still believes in him and supports him.
“We’re just trying to win football games, and if that means us having to get rid of some great football players, who have been here for a long time, and to get some new guys to come in and change everything that we’re trying to do, then by all means, I’m with it,” Ward said.
Ward is coming off his best game as a pro, which was just before the Titans' bye. He completed 26 of 40 passes for 304 yards in an overtime loss at Cincinnati. Now, he must build on that beginning Sunday in a home game against Jacksonville (6-2).
“I think what everyone saw in Cincinnati is what we’ve been seeing in practice,” Saleh said. “Now the challenge is to build off of it. Everyone can do it once. Decent ones can do it twice. Great ones do it all the time."
For the final nine games, the Titans also have a handful of veterans added through free agency to help keep things stable.
“Those veterans have earned the right to play, so we’re going to make sure that everyone has earned the right to play gets an opportunity to play,” Saleh said.
The objective doesn’t change.
“The expectation in this league is to win," Saleh said. “There is no timeline.”
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