Titans to sit key veterans vs Falcons, giving Cam Ward live work with up-and-coming rookie pass catchers in Preseason Week 2

The Tennessee Titans face the Atlanta Falcons in Preseason Week 2 on Friday night at 6:00pm CST. It’s our second opportunity to see some live Cam Ward action, and this week, he’ll be playing with a different cast of weapons. Here’s the rundown on who is and isn’t expected to play for Tennessee, and what […]

Easton Freeze — Tennessee Titans Beat Writer
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The Tennessee Titans face the Atlanta Falcons in Preseason Week 2 on Friday night at 6:00pm CST. It’s our second opportunity to see some live Cam Ward action, and this week, he’ll be playing with a different cast of weapons. Here’s the rundown on who is and isn’t expected to play for Tennessee, and what it means:

Rookie Opportunities In Atlanta

In their first preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Cam Ward only completed passes to veterans on his two drives. He hit Calvin Ridley for his first three completions and 50 yards, then found TE Chig Okonkwo to get into the redzone and WR Tyler Lockett to get inside the 5 yard line. It was an 11 play, 65 yard drive for the team’s only touchdown of the game.

If Cam Ward leads any scoring drives in Atlanta, he’ll be doing it with completions to some younger players.

Veterans Calvin Ridley and Tyler Lockett are amongst those expected to sit out against the Falcons, per a team source. This means Cam Ward’s on-field action will involve a healthy serving of rookie WRs Elic Ayomanor and Chimere Dike lined up alongside him. Not getting to see much of them in Preseason Week 1 was a bit of a bummer, and hopefully this bump in the WR rotation tonight will result in some more action. Ayomanor was a big topic of discussion at joint practices earlier this week, as he’s emerged as one of the top target-getters in the Titans offense this camp. Click here for a whole lot more on his development.

This also means the depth receivers fighting for roster spots should see more of the field in Atlanta. This includes college standout Xavier Restrepo, Cam Ward’s Miami teammate fighting to go from being undrafted to making this Titans team. He only saw 11 snaps in Tampa Bay, which was another surprising disappointment from that game for many fans. A big part of that was his being buried on the depth chart and finally getting called up when things fell apart with QB Tim Boyle in the lineup. With Trevor Siemian now in the quarterback room in Boyle’s place, and a higher spot on the active depth chart tonight, Restrepo should get more work. Let’s just hope Siemian can put together some decent drives to showcase the back-end of this roster.

Updates From The Bench

Elsewhere on offense, I’m not expecting veteran RG Kevin Zeitler to play this week after sitting out last week as well. And starting C Lloyd Cushenberry is continuing to take his return from Achilles repair slowly. He did some individual work at joint practice earlier this week, and we could see him return to some team activities for the first time in the next week or two. But they aren’t rushing him, and I wouldn’t expect him to be ready to start Week 1 (at least). RB Tony Pollard will get the night off also, and since Tyjae Spears is also out with a high ankle sprain, rookie RB Kalel Mullings will get a lot of run.

On the defensive side of the ball, star DT Jeffery Simmons won’t make his preseason debut this week either. Sebastian Joseph-Day, who missed some joint practice work this week, will be sidelined as well.

Some young players of note: T’Vondre Sweat won’t play as he’s continuing his recovery from a tonsillectomy. And rookie S Kevin Winston Jr will take the night off as well as he continues to cautiously manage his return from ACL repair nearly a year ago. Both young defenders hope to be back at practice next week.

WR Matt Landers and EDGE Jaylen Harrell won’t play in Atlanta either. Both are nursing injuries from Preseason Week 1 in Tampa Bay.

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