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.
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.”
