NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Titans spent more on free agents than any other NFL team this year, restocking the roster for new head coach Robert Saleh.
A franchise mired in four straight losing seasons requires more help.
Now they have the No. 4 overall pick next Thursday night in Pittsburgh — along with four of nine total selections in the first 101 slots of the three-day NFL draft — to get just that.
So do the Titans use that fourth pick to try to help quarterback Cam Ward, who started every game as a rookie last season, or offer more support to All-Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons?
“Where we’re at right now, we want to take the best player available,” Tennessee general manager Mike Borgonzi said. “It depends on your roster construction, too. But where we are at, we are taking the best player available. We are taking the best football player.”
Borgonzi took Ward with the first overall selection in his first draft as Tennessee’s GM last year, and the Titans fired Brian Callahan after a 1-5 start to what wound up a 3-14 season. Callahan had gone 3-14 in his first season with Tennessee a year earlier.
The Titans hired Saleh in January before Borgonzi added several defensive players, including tackle John Franklin-Myers and a trio of cornerbacks.
The biggest addition to the Tennessee offense via free agency was Wan’Dale Robinson, with fellow receiver Calvin Ridley agreeing to rework his contract to stay in Nashville.
Borgonzi talked at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis this past winter about how the Titans want to protect and support their quarterback.
“Certainly that’s our goal every year, is to add weapons for Cam,” Borgonzi said.
So that could mean the Titans take Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love to help Ward, right?
Of course, with the “best player available” philosophy in play, it could instead lead to the selection of an edge rusher such as Texas Tech’s David Bailey, Miami’s Rueben Bain Jr. or Ohio State’s Sonny Styles.
Still, this franchise knows well what drafting a game-changing running back can do, with a history that includes Earl Campbell in 1978, Eddie George in 1996, Chris Johnson in 2008 and Derrick Henry in 2016. Campbell starred in the Houston Oilers era, while George was with the team in both Texas and Tennessee.
The Titans do have 28-year-old Tony Pollard on the roster, and he and Henry — who has been with the Baltimore Ravens since the 2024 season after playing for Tennessee his first eight years as a pro — are the NFL’s only running backs to reach 1,000 rushing yards each of the past four seasons. Pollard, who played for the Dallas Cowboys from 2019-23 before joining the Titans after Henry’s exit, set a career high with 1,082 yards last season.
Love would give new offensive coordinator Brian Daboll a speedy running back who can mix up the offense with his ability to catch passes out of the backfield or even line up at wide receiver.
And what the Titans need is speed. Ridley is coming off a broken leg and turns 32 in December, which could affect the velocity of a receiver clocked by NextGenStats at 20.93 mph in the 2024 season.
Tennessee ranked next to last in the 32-team league in total offense last season with 259.6 yards per game and 30th in scoring at 16.7 points per game.
Even with the free-agent additions, the Titans still need help on the offensive line. They waived center Lloyd Cushenberry, and right guard Kevin Zeitler is a free agent. More depth is needed at receiver as well, while the same is true defensively at linebacker and cornerback.
However, the Titans have pretty much taken care of special teams, re-signing kicker Joey Slye (who was a new addition in 2025) and long snapper Morgan Cox (a Tennessee native who has been with the team since 2021). Two-time Super Bowl champion punter Tommy Townsend, most recently with the rival Houston Texans, also was part of the spending spree.