The Titans will honor Chris Johnson during their first game of the 2026 season.
The team announced on Friday that they will induct Johnson into their Ring of Honor during their season opener against the Jets. The announcement comes after Johnson revealed in June that he was diagnosed with ALS last year. Johnson said that he hopes going public with his condition “helps even one person get diagnosed sooner, inspires more research, or gives another family hope.”
“Chris Johnson holds a special place in the hearts of our organization and our fans,” Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk said in statement. “His stats speak for themselves, and he will forever remain a leader in our record books, but the man behind the yardage deserves just as much celebration. We look forward to welcoming him home on Sept. 13 and officially inducting him into the Titans Ring of Honor.”
Johnson was a Titans first-round pick in 2008 and was named the NFL offensive player of the year after rushing for 2,006 yards in his second season. Johnson remained with the team through 2013 and ran for more than 1,000 yards in each of his six seasons with the team. He ranks fourth in franchise history behind Eddie George, Derrick Henry and Earl Campbell with 7,965 rushing yards.
Titans Clips
When it comes to the NFL’s effort to send the Brian Flores case to arbitration, it’s apparently not over until the NFL says it’s over.
Regardless, the presiding judge has now made it abundantly clear that it’s over.
Despite a court ruling and an appeals court ruling that the claims brought by Brian Flores (against the Dolphins, Giants, Broncos, and Texans), Ray Horton (against the Titans), and Steve Wilks (against the Cardinals) must be decided in court, the NFL filed a motion to reconsider the ruling that slammed the door on arbitration.
On Wednesday, Judge Valerie Caproni denied the NFL’s latest motion.
The 15-page ruling begins with an expression of exasperation regarding the nearly four-and-a-half-year-old litigation: “This case continues to linger at the starting block. Or, to use a more fitting metaphor, this case continues to linger as the teams mill about in the players’ tunnels.”
Elsewhere in the written decision, there are some not-so-subtle indications of the judge’s impatience with the NFL’s efforts to keep fighting over a settled issue. From page 9: “Defendants can articulate no reason why these arguments were not raised in their response to Plaintiffs’ Motion for Reconsideration. . . . With sophisticated law firms, it is hard to fathom a plausible explanation.”
Also, from the same page: “Defendants opted for an iterative stream of arguments to buy themselves a few more months hanging out in the players’ tunnels. . . .”
Putting it another way, and as a judge said to the opposing lawyer in a case I was handling more than 20 years ago, “At some point, you stop arguing to the court and start arguing with the court.”
Judge Caproni’s order concludes like this: “Defendants’ seemingly-never-ending list of arguments why they should not have to litigate this case has run its course. Stepping back, while Defendants are free to spend endless attorneys’ fees to pursue the forum they think will be most advantageous to them, arguments about the superior efficiencies of arbitration ring hollow. . . . Instead of proceeding, discovery and motion practice for these three teams have been further delayed so this Court can deal with these teams’ attempt to take yet another run at how to avoid district court litigation and will, presumably, be delayed further while they pursue yet another appeal.”
It’s a mostly tactful way of saying to the NFL, “Enough. You’ve lost on this issue. Stop asking for arbitration and get to work on defending yourself in the litigation.”
Attorney Doug Wigdor issues a statement regarding the latest decision.
“At this point, the NFL and its teams have lost on this issue at the Second Circuit, were denied en banc review by the Second Circuit, were denied Supreme Court review and have now had the District Court twice confirm that the claims will not proceed in an NFL-controlled forum,” Wigdor said. “We hope the NFL and its teams will accept these rulings and proceed with the litigation.”
Presumably, that will happen. One of these days. Or, more accurately, one of these years.
After the Titans’ 26-0 loss to the Texans dropped them to 0-4 last season, quarterback Cam Ward gave a famously candid assessment of his team.
“If we keep it a buck right now, we ass,” Ward said.
Ward’s rookie season is now being featured on the Netflix Quarterback show, and when he reflected on the “We ass” comment, he says he was just trying to give an accurate assessment of his team’s performance, including his own.
“That’s how I’ve been my whole life. That’s how I was raised, to be honest. That’s how I was brought up,” Ward said. “For myself, I’m not playing my best ball that game, and when I said that, I meant it.”
The Titans earned their first win of the season in their next game after Ward’s candid comment, so perhaps Ward’s honesty spurred something in his teammates. It still proved to be an ugly season for the Titans, who fired head coach Brian Callahan during the season and finished 3-14. Along the way, they learned they have a quarterback who will speak his mind.
In Tyjae Spears’ three seasons, the Titans have gone 6-11, 3-14 and 3-14. He’s optimistic that things are changing this year.
Spears told the team’s website that under new head coach Robert Saleh, the Titans are a different team, and that’s going to result in a very different record.
“We have a new logo, and we have a lot of new things around here. So, we are going to have a winning record this year,” Spears said.
The last time the Titans had a winning record was 2021, when they went 12-5, won the AFC South and lost in the divisional round of the playoffs. They’ve had double-digit losses every year since then, but Spears said it’s all about what they can do this year.
“In this league,” Spears said, “you have to prove yourself each and every day, each and every year.”
Spears thinks the Titans will prove themselves this year.
Titans tight end Gunnar Helm, a fourth-round pick in 2025, appeared in 16 games, with 10 starts, as a rookie. He ranked fourth on the team with 44 receptions, which set a franchise record for rookie tight ends, and fourth on the team with 357 receiving yards.
Helm scored twice and had at least one reception in all 16 games he played.
He isn’t satisfied.
“There’s always something to go out there and do,” Helm said, via Jim Wyatt of the team website, “always something to prove, and there’s somebody always coming for your spot.”
Helm has a new head coach (Robert Saleh), a new offensive coordinator (Brian Daboll) and new teammates at tight end, with veterans Daniel Bellinger and Kylen Granson and rookie Jaren Kanak joining Helm, David Martin-Robinson and Joel Wilson on the roster this offseason.
Helm knows Daboll’s offense utilizes the tight ends, which has him excited about building on his rookie season.
“It’s been great,” Helm said. “Obviously [Daboll] is not afraid to use the tight end, did so wherever he’s been. There’s been great clips of like [Rob] Gronkowski [in New England], Dalton Kinkaid [and] Dawson Knox [in Buffalo], just doing things that usually receivers do. Being able to be worked into the offense like that, it’s been great.”
Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons has played more than 80 percent of the team’s defensive snaps in each of the last six seasons and his performance was good enough for the team to sign him to a three-year contract extension this offseason.
While that might suggest more of the same in 2026, the Titans’ new head coach has something different in mind. Robert Saleh said during the team’s offseason program that the team is designing a defensive line rotation that will cut down on Simmons’s snaps.
Saleh said that if Simmons is “able to go to 50 plays out of 60, he’s not doing it right” and that the team is prioritizing certain downs and situations for their All-Pro.
“The whole point of the rotation is to make sure that Jeffrey Simmons is ready for that one-on-one when we need it,” Saleh said, via Turron Davenport of ESPN.com. “Third down, two minute, make sure he’s fresh, ready to roll and ready to exert every last fiber in his body and winning that one-on-one. So that’s really the purpose behind it.”
Simmons said this offseason that he feels Saleh’s attacking defensive approach is well suited for his style of play and the Titans’ plan to take advantage of that is to focus on quality over quantity.
The NFL is making a significant change to the offseason calendar for the 2027 season.
Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that the free agent negotiating window will open on March 9 next year. That is the same date that the two-day window opened this year, but the change comes in how close it will be to the end of the Scouting Combine.
NFL teams will wrap up their examinations and interrogations of incoming prospects on March 8 in 2027, which moves the league away from having a week or so between the two events as they have in past years.
Under that setup, the Combine has always been rife with table-setting for free agency as agents and team executives are all in the same place with their minds on the same things. With that gap eliminated, there will likely be even more of that work being done in Indianapolis so that teams are ready to make moves right from the starting gun.
The Titans cut a player from their injured reserve list on Monday.
The NFL’s daily transaction report shows that they waived defensive lineman C.J. Ravenell off of the list. Ravenell was waived off of the active roster last month and landed on injured reserve after going unclaimed.
Assuming that happens again, Ravenell will be eligible to sign with another team ahead of training camp.
Ravenell appeared in 14 games for the Titans last season and he made one start. He had six tackles and a forced fumble in that action. He also spent time with the Ravens in 2024 without appearing in any regular season games.
At a time when it’s not clear whether receiver Brandon Aiyuk is getting any advice — or whether he’s listening to the advice he’s getting — a former NFL G.M. who knows Aiyuk plans to connect with him.
Appearing Monday on SiriusXM NFL Radio, former Titans G.M. Ran Carthon, who worked for the 49ers during Aiyuk’s first three years in San Francisco, addressed Aiyuk’s recent social-media video habit, including Saturday’s decision to cross swords with Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels.
“There’s something there, and I’m being as transparent as transparent can be,” Carthon said. “B.A. and I, we have a relationship. I was there when we drafted him, and through time spent in the same building, we have a relationship. I honestly have been going back and forth in my head over the last week or so and I really want to reach out to him on a personal level and see if he’s willing to have the conversation, because I think there’s something there that hasn’t quite been unlocked. I don’t know if ‘unlocked’ is the right word. But I do agree with you, this isn’t the Brandon Aiyuk I know. Now, I know him to be stubborn, so I know that part about him.
“But this recent behavior, I’m not as familiar with. And the other part of it, to be quite honest, in this day and age with these guys, it could just be him trolling with the most recent video, knowing that he will get a reaction. And maybe even trying to figure out — these guys are fairly smart — so maybe he’s like, ‘OK, maybe if I create enough buzz in saying whatever he said to Jayden [Daniels] online, then the 49ers won’t think I’m just trying to get to Washington.
“Maybe that’s a game being played right now. But in full transparency, it’s something, probably when we get off the air, I may just shoot a text and say, ‘Hey man, let’s connect.’ I just want to see where his head is and offer him any advice that I can, or be a sounding board.”
Someone needs to tell Aiyuk that it would be a good idea to stop the videos, and to petition the NFL for reinstatement from the 49ers’ reserve/left squad list. That’s the first tangible step toward securing the free agency Aiyuk wants.
Former NFL safety Myron Rolle went to medical school after he completed his playing career and the pediatric neurosurgeon is now coming back to work with the NFL Players Association.
The NFLPA announced that Rolle will be joining the union as a strategic advisor. Rolle’s work will focus on player health, brain cognition, and preventative care for active players.
“This sport gave my family joy, discipline, and community,” Rolle said in a statement. “To return now, as a physician, researcher and former player, and contribute to the wellbeing of the men who make this game what it is, feels deeply meaningful. I am honored to support the NFLPA’s mission and help advance a future where every player’s health is protected with the highest standard of care.”
Rolle was named a Rhodes Scholar while playing at Florida State and the Titans drafted him in the sixth round in 2010. He also spent time with the Steelers, but did not play in any regular season games before going back to Florida State for medical school in 2013.
