Veteran cornerback Kaiir Elam has found a new place to play.
The Titans announced that they have signed Elam to their 53-man roster on Wednesday. Elam was released by the Cowboys earlier this week.
Elam played 10 games for the Cowboys and had 29 tackles in those appearances. The 2022 first-round pick had 81 tackles, two interceptions and a fumble recovery in 29 games for the Bills.
Elam also visited with the Jets before agreeing to a deal in Tennessee.
The Titans also announced that they have waived cornerback Samuel Womack. Womack played in five games for the AFC South team this season.
The Titans fell to 1-10 with Sunday’s 30-24 loss to the Seahawks, but there will be a major silver lining to their losing season if it ends with quarterback Cam Ward on an upward trajectory.
Interim head coach Mike McCoy believes that Ward is heading in that direction. Ward threw for 256 yards and a touchdown against the Seahawks while avoiding an interception for the third straight game. Ward also ran for a season-high 37 yards and his first NFL touchdown while taking the Titans from being down 20 points to a one-score loss.
Ward was sacked four times, but they’re coming at a lower rate than they did early in the season and he didn’t fumble the ball. He also showed a knack for making throws on the move that fits with McCoy’s belief that the first overall pick in the 2025 draft is making real progress.
“It’s taking that next step, and that’s what he’s done,” McCoy said, via Teresa Walker of the Associated Press. “We’ve been saying it from day one, the way he competes, the way he works every day. When we first came in in the offseason program, the early mornings, staying late, things like that, it’s starting to pay off.”
Given the overall makeup of the roster, the Titans might not win another game this season but more outings like Sunday for Ward should make for interest in their coaching job once the team’s search really gets going in January.
Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba set a franchise record and he remains on pace for an NFL record.
Smith-Njigba had eight catches for 167 yards against the Titans and now has 1,313 receiving yards for the season. That breaks the franchise record that Smith-Njigba’s former teammate DK Metcalf set in 2020 and Smith-Njigba is also on pace to become the first player with 2,000 receiving yards in a single season.
Two of Smith-Njigba’s catches went for touchdowns in a 30-24 win that pushes the Seahawks to 8-3 on the season. Last Sunday’s loss to the Rams means they’ll remain in second place regardless of what the Rams do against the Buccaneers on Sunday night, but the win was a good rebound from that result and a boost to their overall playoff chances.
Smith-Njigba has picked up at least 79 receiving yards in each game this season and he almost matched that on his first touchdown catch. It was a 63-yard strike from quarterback Sam Darnold and the wideout would take on a 56-yarder on the first play of the third quarter.
Week 13 will have the Seahawks back home to reunite Darnold with the Vikings. Darnold was 16-of-26 for 244 yards on Sunday and Kenneth Walker ran 11 times for 71 yards, but the team’s
Smith-Njigba’s second score put the Seahawks up 23-3 in the third quarter and the Seahawks were pretty quiet from that point. Titans rookie Chimere Dike returned a punt 90 yards for a score, Cam Ward scored his first NFL rushing touchdown and Dike caught a touchdown with 43 seconds left to play to bring the Titans within six points. The Seahawks were able to recover the onside kick and close out the win.
Ward was 28-of-42 for 256 yards and he ran for a team-high 37 yards, which makes for a bit of a silver lining on a day when his team fell to 1-10. He’ll try to build on the effort against the Jaguars in Tennessee next weekend.
The Titans are trading blows with the Seahawks in the second half of Sunday’s game, but that still leaves them down by 13 points late in the third quarter.
Rookie quarterback Cam Ward ran for a five-yard score with 1:18 to play in the third to cut the Seahawks’ lead to 30-17. It was the first NFL rushing touchdown for the first overall pick of this year’s draft.
Ward’s score came after Seahawks running back Zach Charbonnet ran for a score to put the Seahawks up by 20 points. Wide receiver Jaxon Smith Njigba opened the quarter with his second receiving touchdown of the game and the wideout set the Seahawks’ single-season record for receiving yards before Charbonnet’s score.
The Titans got their first touchdown in between those scores when Chimere Dike returned a punt 90 yards for a score. It was the rookie’s second punt return touchdown of the season.
The Titans produced the first points of Sunday’s game against the Seahawks, but the visiting team has done all of the other scoring.
Sam Darnold threw a long touchdown pass to wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Jason Myers made three field goals in three tries. The last of them came on the final play of the first half and sent the game into halftime with the Seahawks up 16-3.
The Seahawks will get the ball to open the third quarter, so they have a chance to put this game even more firmly in their control with a quick start to the second half.
Smith-Njigba has four catches for 86 yards as he looks to remain in a comfortable lead over the rest of the league in receiving yards. The Seahawks haven’t gotten much going on the ground thus far and getting that in order would help Seattle’s bid to run out the clock on a victory.
Titans quarterback Cam Ward led the team on a drive that ate up more than nine minutes to open the game, but the Titans opted not to go for a touchdown on fourth down and they haven’t come close to the end zone on their other possessions. Ward is 11-of-15 for 109 yards and he leads the team with 21 rushing yards, but five penalties and two sacks were drive killers during a half that needed more from the offense.
