Titans quarterback Cam Ward’s rookie season ended a little earlier than expected, but there doesn’t seem to be much worry about his right shoulder impacting his readiness for Year Two.
Ward did not have surgery after spraining his AC joint in the first half of Tennessee’s final regular season game and head coach Robert Saleh said that he has been a regular at the team’s facility while working his way back from the injury.
“He is in there, he is working with the trainers, working in the weight room,” Saleh said, via the team’s website. “We are up to date. I am not going to put a timetable on anything, but he is progressing really well.”
The Titans start their offseason program this week, which will be the first chance that Saleh and the rest of the new coaching staff gets to do football work with the quarterback. That work will be crucial to Saleh’s hopes of a more successful head coaching run that he had with the Jets and his initial impression of Ward bodes well on that hope. Saleh said that “I just don’t see him failing” and the shoulder shouldn’t be an obstacle in their first year together.
Titans Clips
Arvell Reese may not make it past the second overall pick in the draft later this month, but other teams at the top of the draft order will be ready if he does slip past the Jets.
NFL Media reports that Reese has visited with four of the next seven teams on the draft board, including the three teams slated to pick directly after the Jets at No. 2. The edge rusher has spent time with the Cardinals, Titans, and Giants as well as the Chiefs. Kansas City has the ninth overall pick.
Per the report, Reese has also met with the Cowboys, who have the No. 12 pick.
It seems unlikely that Reese will be available if Dallas stays put, but the Cowboys do have a pair of first-round picks this year — the Chiefs do as well — so they could try to make a jump up the board if they are convinced Reese is their guy.
Texas Tech edge rusher David Bailey is one of the top prospects in the 2026 draft, a likely top-10 pick.
He spent the week visiting with the Cowboys and the Chiefs and took a top-30 visit to the Cardinals the week after the Scouting Combine, NFL Media reports.
The Cardinals draft third, the Chiefs ninth and the Cowboys 12th.
Dallas, though, also has the 20th overall pick, so it could seek to move up to select Bailey, who would fill a big need.
Bailey has also visited the Titans, according to Jim Wyatt of the team website. The Titans draft fourth overall.
Bailey, 22, began his collegiate career at Stanford before transferring to Texas Tech for his senior season. He earned unanimous All-America honors and was Big 12 defensive lineman of the year.
In his four-year college career, Bailey totaled 163 tackles, 42 tackles for loss, 29 sacks and 10 forced fumbles in 46 games.
Offseason programs will start getting underway around the NFL next week.
The ten teams that hired new coaches this offseason will be eligible to start working with their players on Monday, April 6. The Ravens are the only team that has set that as their first day of work while the Cardinals, Falcons, Bills, Browns, Raiders, Dolphins, Giants, Steelers and Titans have set Tuesday as their opening day.
All of those teams will also be able to hold a voluntary minicamp later in the spring. Every team is also scheduled to hold a rookie minicamp and a mandatory minicamp over the course of the next few months.
The first two weeks of work for all teams is limited to meetings, strength and conditioning, and physical rehabilitation only. The three-week second phase allows for on-field work, but no full-speed team drills while the third OTA phase allows for team drills, but there is no live contact allowed at any point in the offseason.
Most of the 22 teams with returning coaches will be opening their offseason programs on April 20 or 21. The Broncos have set May 4 as their first day.
The Chiefs are adding a former first-round pick to their defense.
Kansas City has agreed to sign cornerback Kaiir Elam, Mike Garafolo of NFL Network reports.
Elam, 24, split last season between the Cowboys and Titans. Buffalo traded him to Dallas at the beginning of the league year in March after his first three seasons with the club. Elam appeared in 10 games with seven starts for Dallas before the Cowboys waived him in November.
He signed with the Titans shortly thereafter and appeared in four games with the club over the rest of the season.
The No. 23 overall pick of the 2022 draft, Elam has appeared in 43 career games with 19 starts. He’s recorded eight passes defensed with two interceptions.
The Chiefs have voids to fill in their secondary after trading Trent McDuffie and losing Jaylen Watson in free agency.
The Titans have been discussed as a potential landing spot for running back Jeremiyah Love with the fourth overall pick, but they have also spent time with three of the top defensive players in this year’s class.
Jim Wyatt of the team’s website shares that Ohio State linebacker/edge rusher Arvell Reese, Texas Tech edge rusher David Bailey, and Miami edge rusher Rueben Bain have all visited with the team. General Manager Mike Borgonzi said this week that the team feels they have built a roster that will allow them to take the best player at any position and head coach Robert Saleh explained why that could be a pass rusher.
“Edge rushers are playmakers, too,” Saleh said. “When you are drafting that high … you are looking at: Who can change the game in one play? And, edge rushers can change the game in one play. Love is a very talented young man and he can change it in one play. There’s receivers who can change it in one play. Right now, we need guys and we need to develop guys currently on our roster who can change the game in one play and when you are looking at all these guys from a consistency standpoint, who can flip the game on its head? Edge rushers can close it, and skill guys can end it.”
Reese has been linked with the Jets at No. 2 throughout the early stages of the draft process, but the Titans would have at least two and possibly all three of Love, Bailey, and Bain available when they’re on the board for the first time next month.
On a busy day for the Titans, they’ve made a third and fourth addition to their offense.
The Titans are signing free agent running back Michael Carter and wide receiver Lance McCutcheon.
The signing will reunite Carter with Titans head coach Robert Saleh, who was the Jets’ coach when they drafted Carter in the fourth round in 2021. Carter started 21 games for the Jets before he was waived and claimed by the Cardinals in 2023.
McCutcheon is re-signing with the Titans after playing for them last season. He has previously spent time with the Rams, Texans, Jets and Steelers.
The Titans also signed quarterback Hendon Hooker and wide receiver K.J. Osborn today.
The Titans are adding another quarterback to their roster.
Per Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, Hendon Hooker has agreed to sign with Tennessee.
Hooker, a third-round pick in the 2023 draft, was most recently with the Jets. He had signed with the team’s practice squad late in the 2025 season and was promoted to the 53-man roster in January.
The Lions had waived Hooker in August while reducing their roster to 53 players and he signed with the Panthers’ practice squad a couple of days later.
Hooker has appeared in just three regular-season games, all in the 2024 season with Detroit. He’s completed 6-of-9 passes for 62 yards.
With the addition of Hooker, the Titans will have five quarterbacks on their offseason roster with Mitchell Trubisky, Brandon Allen, and Will Levis all behind 2025 No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward. It stands to reason that at least one will be moved in the coming weeks, with Levis being a prime candidate after recovering from a shoulder injury that kept him out for all of last season.
Wide receiver K.J. Osborn is headed to Tennessee.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that the Titans are going to sign Osborn to a one-year contract.
Osborn failed to make the Commanders out of training camp last summer and spent time on the Falcons’ practice squad, but he did not appear in any regular season games with Atlanta. He played one game for Washington in 2024 and caught seven passes for 57 yards in seven games for New England before heading to the Commanders as a waiver claim.
Osborn spent his first four seasons with the Vikings. He had 158 catches for 1,845 yards and 15 touchdowns during his time in Minnesota.
There was some question about whether wide receiver Calvin Ridley would be back with the Titans for the 2026 season, but he and the team worked out a revised contract this month that will keep him in Nashville.
Head coach Robert Saleh explained from the league meetings in Arizona on Tuesday why the team felt it was important to hold onto Ridley after he was limited to seven games last season with a fractured fibula.
“I know not everything has gone perfect, but when he is on the field, he is a problem,” Saleh said, via the team’s website. “Any time you can add players, or keep players in this case, who can score from anywhere on the football field, I think that is important.”
The Titans added free agent Wan’Dale Robinson to their receiving corps this month and the hope in Tennessee is that the duo can help quarterback Cam Ward hit a new level of productivity in his second NFL season.
