Titans Clips
Former Titans scout Blaise Taylor will be spending the rest of his life in prison. Twice.
Taylor, convicted of poisoning his girlfriend, Jade Benning, and their unborn child on July 1, received a sentence on Wednesday of consecutive life terms.
More than 80 people submitted letters vouching for Taylor’s character. Nashville assistant district attorney Jan Norman responded to that effort in court on Wednesday.
“Your honor, the defense just submitted 87 letters all speaking to Mr. Taylor’s character,” Norman said, via Alicia Patton of WKRN.com. “They describe a man of honor, honesty, a man of great accomplishments and as someone who has faith in the Lord and was raised by a strong family. More than one of the authors of those letters actually stated he is someone they would want their own daughters to marry. The person described in these character letters, the authors themselves, not one mentioned Jade Benning, not one of them mentioned baby Ivy, and not one single letter out of the 87 letters mentioned anything about what Blaise Taylor did.”
Taylor’s attorney, Letitia Quinones-Hollins, issued a statement regarding the sentence imposed on Taylor.
“We are extremely disappointed but not surprised by the harsh sentence,” Quinones-Hollins said. “This was a flawed trial of a tenuous case, and we will appeal and look forward to doing so.”
It’s the only thing Taylor can do. Given the outcome of the case, the choices are to roll the dice on getting a new trial or scrapping the charges entirely, or sit behind bars until the day he dies.
Unless and until an appellate court disagrees with the outcome, the official position of the state of Tennessee is that Taylor committed murder of his girlfriend and their child, in a particularly heinous way. It’s for Quinones-Hollins to show that mistakes were made at trial that require the status quo to change.
The Vikings added another veteran outside linebacker to their practice squad on Wednesday.
The team announced the signing of Jihad Ward. They also added Kyle Van Noy to the practice squad earlier this month.
Ward spent the 2024 season with the Vikings and moved on to start 12 games with the Titans last year. He had 31 tackles, five sacks and 22 quarterback hits for Tennessee.
Ward was a 2016 Raiders second-round pick and he has also played for the Colts, Ravens, Jaguars and Giants. He has 199 tackles, 24 sacks, three forced fumbles and five fumble recoveries over his entire career.
The Jets are set at most of the key spots in their lineup heading into Sunday’s opener against the Titans, but there’s one position that’s still up in the air.
Kicker Blake Grupe was claimed off of waivers last week, which led to Jason Sanders being released from the active roster. Sanders returned to the practice squad, however, and head coach Aaron Glenn said on Tuesday that he has not made a call about who will handle the role in Nashville.
Glenn said the team will “make the right decision when that decision needs to be done.”
“I said it before, I’m not going to panic about that situation,” Glenn said, via the team’s website. “I think they’re both capable men, all right. And at the end of the day, we got to pick one guy that’s going to be a kicker.”
The overall arc of the Jets’ season will likely be more reliant on other positions, but the wrong choice at kicker could cost the team chances to win games and that makes it a big choice for Glenn to make as he tries to improve on a disappointing first season at the helm.
When he was in Seattle, Geno Smith once famously said after a victory, “They wrote me off; I ain’t write back, though.” He’s back again in New York, where Jets fans and the team once wrote him off.
On Sunday against the Titans, Smith will make his first start for the Jets since Oct. 23, 2016. He left for the Giants the following offseason but returned this offseason in a trade from the Raiders.
“First of all, it’s an honor to be back here and have the opportunity to be a part of this organization again, to lead this team, this young, talented group of guys who work extremely hard,” Smith said Tuesday, via video from the team. “I find myself just looking forward to each and every day, coming to work and giving my all for these guys. It’s really special to family and I [sic], and we look forward to every single day.”
Smith, who turns 36 next month, has played for the Giants, Chargers, Seahawks and Raiders. He is a different — more experienced and more mature — quarterback than the one who left the Jets.
The goal, though, hasn’t changed between his first 30 starts for the team and now.
“It starts with wins, and it ends with wins,” Smith said. “That’s all that matters in this league. It’s the win-and-loss column. Win as many games as we can.”
The Jets haven’t done a lot of winning since well before Smith arrived as a second-round pick in 2013. They last made the playoffs in 2010 and last had a winning record in 2015.
Running back Breece Hall remains on the right path to be in the lineup for the Jets against the Titans in Week 1.
Hall missed time in August with a groin injury, but head coach Aaron Glenn said at a Tuesday press conference that he is “trending towards playing” on Sunday. Glenn added that Hall will be practicing this week and it would seem that Hall will be in the lineup as long as all goes smoothly on that front.
Hall set his career high with 1,065 rushing yards last season and signed a three-year contract to remain with the Jets this offseason.
Glenn said most other players who dealt with injuries this summer, like rookie tight end Kenyon Sadiq, are also trending in the right direction for the opener, but that linebacker Joseph Ossai remains week-to-week with a foot injury.
Titans offensive tackle JC Latham wants opposing teams to know they’re not going to get away with any cheap shots on quarterback Cam Ward.
Latham said a big part of the offensive line coming together this offseason has been agreeing that they need to play with more fight, which will include going after any opponent who goes after Ward.
“Culture is what you stand for and what you allow,” Latham said. “This offseason we all did a moment of self-reflecting of, we want to be the offensive line that we know we can be. We can’t be no pushovers, we can’t be nobody’s bitch, just being completely honest. So all the late hits, all the extra stuff that defenses do, if we want to be what we know we can be, we can’t stand for that.”
Latham said the Titans’ new coaching staff has told the offensive linemen that they all have to have their teammates’ backs.
“If any of us gets into it, we’re all getting into it. We’re all stepping up,” he said. “You just can’t go for no bullshit.”
Derrick Henry has played in one AFC Championship Game, a 35-24 loss to the Chiefs in the 2019 season. After parting ways with the Titans, Henry signed with the Ravens because he believed he could win a title with Lamar Jackson at quarterback.
In Henry’s two seasons in Baltimore, though, the Ravens have one playoff berth and one playoff win.
He still believes.
“It would be crazy for me to say I played with Lamar Jackson, and we didn’t win no championships,” Henry said on “The Lounge” podcast, via Ryan Mink of the team website. “I cannot have that. I do not want that to be a thing. We’ve got to do it.”
The Ravens lost to the Bills 27-25 in the divisional round in the 2024 playoffs and failed to make the postseason in 2025. The team fired coach John Harbaugh and hired Jesse Minter, and the Ravens revamped their defense in the offseason.
Henry said he “believes that we have all the pieces to get it done.”
In nine postseason games, Henry has 211 touches for 1,090 yards and seven touchdowns. It hasn’t been enough.
Jackson is 3-5 in his postseason career, with one trip to the AFC Championship Game.
“I want to win a Super Bowl. That’s a big motivation,” Henry said. “I just want to be able to feel that feeling. I’m tired of watching. Every year, I’m tired of being at home on the couch watching. I want to be a part of it. That’s what’s motivating me right now. I’m going to keep going until we get to that point. We have the 2026 season to get that accomplished.”
Titans linebacker Cedric Gray has entered the NFL’s concussion protocol after being injured in an off-field accident over the weekend.
Gray was involved in a utility terrain vehicle accident over the weekend. A UTV, or utility task vehicle, is a rugged, off-road vehicle designed to carry passengers and haul heavy loads over rough terrain.
“Over the weekend, Cedric Gray was involved in a UTV accident in Tennessee and sustained a concussion and minor injuries,” the Titans said in a statement. “We look forward to Cedric returning to the field soon and in full health when he clears the NFL’s concussion protocol.”
Gray started 16 games in 2026, and he ranked fifth in the NFL with a career-high 160 tackles.
A fourth-round pick in 2024, he played seven games with no starts as a rookie.
The Jets are looking at adding another quarterback to their broader roster.
According to Zack Rosenblatt of TheAthletic.com, New York worked out Will Levis and Jack Plummer for a spot on the practice squad on Thursday.
Levis, a second-round pick in 2023, was waived by the Titans as part of their roster cuts over the weekend and went unclaimed. While he missed the 2025 season due to injury, he started 21 games for Tennessee from 2023-2024, completing 61.0 percent of his passes for 3,899 yards with 21 touchdowns and 16 interceptions.
Plummer is the UFL’s reigning MVP, having won it for his season with the Orlando Storm. He led the UFL with 2,188 passing yards while tossing 17 touchdowns with just one interception in 10 games. He previously spent time with the Panthers and worked out for the 49ers and Dolphins this summer.
New York currently has just rookie Cade Klubnik on its 53-man roster at quarterback behind starter Geno Smith. Veteran Bailey Zappe is on the team’s practice squad.
The first game of Robert Saleh’s second run as an NFL head coach comes against the team that gave him his first shot at the job.
Saleh’s Titans will host the Jets on September 13 and that will make the first time Saleh has faced the Jets since they fired him early in the 2024 season. During a press conference this week, Saleh said that any of his personal feelings about the way things ended are not going to be on his mind heading into the game.
“New York is still a special place,” Saleh said. “Gave me my first opportunity as a head coach. Our desire to win Week 1 and beat the Jets is because it’s Week 1 and nothing more. I am forever grateful for all the opportunity that they gave. I don’t hold grudges.”
The Titans have ex-Jets like Jermaine Johnson and John Franklin-Myers on the roster, but Saleh said he’s not worried about their ability to “keep the main thing the main thing” when facing their former team. Given how recent seasons have gone for both clubs, the chance to get to 1-0 should offer ample incentive outside of the shared history that will be in the air.
