The NFL’s second wave of “Rivalries” uniforms were unveiled on Tuesday.
All the teams from the NFC North and AFC South will wear the uniforms at some point during the 2026 season for a home game against a divisional opponent. They can be worn for games during the 2027 and 2028 seasons as well.
The first game to feature the new threads will come in Week 3 when the Colts don their new “Anvil Strike” look against the Texans. The Packers will debut their alternates in Week 5 against the Bears while Week 8 will see both the Jaguars and Lions throw on the new uniforms.
Week 10 will bring the Titans into the fold and the Texans will sport their alternate look when the Colts visit in Week 11. The Vikings will debut their rivalry outfits against the Lions in Week 15 and the Bears will be the last team to join the fun when they host Green Bay in Week 16.
Titans Clips
The Titans scored 10 points in the fourth quarter to end Sunday night’s preseason game against the Seahawks with a win, but head coach Robert Saleh said the team’s early performance left something to be desired in a postgame press conference.
Cam Ward started at quarterback for the second straight week and led the team to a field goal on their first drive, but failed to convert a fourth-and-1 on their second possession and fumbled on a sack to help set up a punt on his final series. Ward was 8-of-12 for 69 yards through the air before exiting the game.
All of that came against Seahawks backups and Saleh said that any of the good things that happened don’t outweigh the need for the entire operation to improve.
“I thought the first drive was good, we went out there and got some points,” Saleh said. “Thought Cam, again, was good with the ball, good decision-making. We just couldn’t connect on a couple of deep throws, but, overall, it’s got to be better. I’m not trying to sugarcoat it. It does got to be better, but at the same time, there’s always going to be things that we can take from.”
It’s a bit better than Saleh’s review of Ward’s first preseason outing, but the Titans will need the progress to pick up for the offense to get where they want it to be for Week 1 against the Jets.
The Titans played their starters in Sunday night’s preseason game, and the defense gave up two first-quarter touchdowns to Seattle’s backups. But Titans head coach Robert Saleh was seeing the glass as half full after the game.
Saleh said he hated seeing his team give up a 36-yard touchdown pass on the first possession and a 69-yard touchdown run on the second possession, but he believes making mistakes in the preseason is part of the process of his players learning his defense.
“The two plays are hateful,” Saleh said. “The pass play, I’m glad it happened, because that is a fundamental issue in the defense that if you don’t get those reps, you don’t recognize it fast enough, and for it to happen, glass half full, glad it happened. Half empty, it’s a shitty thing that happened. . . . Those two plays, wish we had them back, but overall I thought the defense was pretty good today.”
Saleh believes his defense played fundamentally sound football, outside the mistakes that can be corrected that resulted in the two long touchdowns.
“It was those two plays. Felt really good about all the different things that were happening,” Saleh said.
Saleh is confident that the mistakes being made in the preseason will get corrected before the regular season.
“Like I said, I’m glad it happened because it’s an easy fix. For the player to feel that, it’s like, ‘I get it now,’” Saleh said. “It’s a really cool a-ha moment. Unfortunately it happened in a game-like atmosphere. Thank God it was preseason. One hundred percent will get fixed.”
The Seahawks have taken three big losses before the season even starts.
During the joint practice with the Titans earlier in the week, the Seahawks lost wide receiver Jake Bobo for the season with a right leg injury.
During Sunday night’s preseason game in Tennessee, the Seahawks saw safety Bud Clark and offensive guard Mason Richman leave with injuries. Coach Mike Macdonald said after the 19-16 loss to the Titans that Clark and Richman were diagnosed with major injuries that will keep them out for months.
“We have had three heartbreaking injuries this week,” Macdonald said, via Brady Henderson of ESPN.
Clark, the team’s second-round pick, broke his ankle and will miss “multiple months.”
He was injured on the Titans’ first play from scrimmage on a 9-yard run by Tony Pollard and wore a vacuum splint on his right leg as he left the field.
Henderson reports that another of the Seahawks’ backup safeties, Rodney Thomas II, underwent surgery last week to repair a fracture in his hand. Thomas has a chance to return next week.
It is unclear what Richman’s injury is, but Macdonald called it “long term.”
Richman is the backup to Grey Zabel, though he started at left guard against the Titans with Zabel not playing.
Titans rookie wide receiver Carnell Tate was held without a catch in the preseason opener and then missed practice time this week, but quarterback Cam Ward has no doubt that there are big things in store for Tate.
Ward said today that Tate, who returned to practice after a few days off, didn’t get down about not having catches in the preseason game against the 49ers and always displays the right attitude.
“He never shows that to the team, whether he’s frustrated or not. The thing about Carnell, whether he has a drop or I have a bad pass, he never points a finger at nobody. He always comes back with a next play mentality,” Ward said. “He wants the ball, so when the ball does get thrown his way he’s urgent to it. He goes up and high points it, there’s times when he bails me out when the ball needs to be better.”
Ward said he has no doubt that Tate, the No. 4 overall pick in the draft, will have a major role in the offense.
“He’s been great. He may not have had the splash plays like he always does today, but he’s going to be a key reason we’re successful on offense,” Ward said.
After what Ward described as a “very competitive” joint practice with the Seahawks today, the Titans will face the defending champs in a preseason game on Sunday.
Titans first-round pick Carnell Tate is back on the practice field Friday.
Tate missed the last few days of work due to what head coach Robert Saleh termed stiffness, but videos from Friday’s joint practice with the Seahawks show that the wide receiver is back to work. Tate’s status for Sunday’s preseason game between the teams is uncertain.
Quarterback Cam Ward targeted Tate three times during Tennessee’s first preseason game against the 49ers, but the rookie did not reel in any of the passes.
Ward was 5-of-12 for 57 yards overall in that game. Saleh said afterward that he thought the second-year quarterback was “a little sped up” in that contest and the Titans will be hoping to see a calmer outing this time around.
The Titans signed a pair of defensive players on Friday morning.
Defensive end Tanoh Kpassagnon and linebacker Milo Eifler have been added to the 90-man roster in Tennessee. Tight end Matt Lauter and cornerback Nazeeh Johnson were placed on injured reserve in corresponding moves.
Kpassagnon was a Chiefs second-round pick in 2017 and spent four years with the team before moving on to a four-year run with the Saints. He played in four games for the Bears last season and has 146 tackles, 17.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery for his career.
Eifler has appeared in 17 games for the Commanders and Falcons over the last four seasons. He has four tackles while appearing almost exclusively on special teams.
Last month, the federal judge handling the Brian Flores case sent a very clear message to the NFL that it was time to end the arbitration quest and start defending the claims on the merits.
The NFL didn’t get the message. At least not completely.
While some of the claims in the Flores case have moved to the discovery process, the league has appealed Judge Valerie Caproni’s most recent ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit as to Flores’s claims against the Dolphins, Steve Wilks’s claims against the Cardinals, and Ray Horton’s claims against the Titans.
In all three cases, the plaintiffs had contracts with those teams containing arbitration clauses that referred any disputes to the Commissioner or his designee. Still, the overriding problem (as multiple courts have concluded) comes from the effort to delegate the judge/jury role to the NFL.
There’s a big difference between arguing to the court and arguing with the court. The NFL currently seems to be trying to convince multiple courts that they’re wrong.
Either way, multiple claims in the Flores case will continue to be stuck at square one. Which will serve only to slow down any effort to get the four-year-old case ready for trial.
The Titans added several veteran offensive linemen this offseason, but a rookie that joined the team on the final day of the draft may wind up as one of their five starters come week one.
Fifth-round pick Fernando Carmona started at right guard in the team’s first preseason game last week and he is in line to start again this week.
“He put his foot in the door, and he’s doing everything he can to throw his shoulder through,” head coach Robert Saleh said, via Teresa M. Walker of the Associated Press.
Carmona started at left tackle at San Jose State and Arkansas before moving to guard in his final season with the Razorbacks. He said on Wednesday that practicing against defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons has helped spur his growth this summer.
“Being a rookie, there’s a lot of things I need to grow on, and he sees a lot of those flaws in me,” Carmona said. “And it’s just awesome having that veteran leader being able to tell you what he sees and how it can improve my game.”
The Titans are hoping that Saleh’s hiring will usher in a more successful run of football than they’ve enjoyed in recent years and Carmona could wind up being a part of that.
There is some positive news on the injury front for the Titans.
Both quarterback Mitchell Trubisky and running back Tony Pollard returned to practice on Wednesday, according to multiple reporters on the scene.
Trubisky exited practice early on Monday to have a biceps injury evaluated. But with his presence at practice on Wednesday, he is apparently OK.
Trubisky is in line to be Tennessee’s backup behind Cam Ward in 2026. The Titans also have Will Levis and Hendon Hooker on their roster at QB.
Pollard, who has rushed for over 1,000 yards in each of the last two years with Tennessee, is back after missing the last two sessions.
