Titans Free Agent Predictions: Who to re-sign, who to replace in the NFL Draft and free agency

Here’s who needs to be a Titan again in 2026.

Easton Freeze — Tennessee Titans Beat Writer
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The Tennessee Titans are facing a critical offseason juncture as a franchise after their last game of the 2025 season. Cam Ward looks like a franchise player in the making, but this roster still needs a ton of work. Spotrac.com currently projects $113,415,019 of cap space for Mike Borgonzi to have at his disposal this spring, and while you never want to build your roster in free agency, they’ve got to spend a big chunk of it somewhere!

We have plenty of time to dig through the pending free agents around the league in the new year. But first, which pending Titans free agents should the Titans be working to bring back? Here’s my comprehensive list of guys Tennessee must (and must not) work to re-sign in 2026, including the amount of money they made in 2025 and the age they’ll be turning next season.

Titans free agents they must re-sign

TE Chig Okonkwo

  • $1M, 27yo

Chig will be the most talked about name in Titans free agency, and he’s the player I have flip-flopped on more times than I can count this fall. I’ve come to this simple conclusion: Chig is a player you’re probably always going to want a little bit more from, but it will be easier to keep him than to replace him.

With his rookie contract expiring and a not-so-insignificant pay increase likely in his future, I’d point to the fact that Mike Borgonzi didn’t move him at the trade deadline as evidence of their desire to keep him… if it weren’t for the fact that they didn’t get much action on him at the time.

But while this team ideally needs another reliable blocking tight end with pass game upside in the modern NFL, I’m not sure where that guy would be coming from. This free agent pool of tight ends has some bigger receiving names on it such as David Njoku, Kyle Pitts, and Dallas Goedert. So I don’t think Okonkwo will be very expensive. The Titans have money to burn anyways, so why not spend it on the guy you know who has more than once told us this year he’s trying to be a Titan for life? Bonus spin-zone: his tendency to come alive in December will turn from annoying to exciting once the Titans are actually competing for something at the end of the season again!

C Corey Levin

  • $1.2M, 32yo

Give me one good reason not to double Corey Levin’s salary to keep such a reliable depth piece on Cam Ward’s roster. Triple it if you have to. Levin’s ability to fill in not just serviceably, but genuinely well when called upon for interior line play is a valuable thing to have. The Titans’ resident “roster gymnastics” guy in recent years who has been willing to get cut, sign to the practice squad, sign to the active roster, and then rinse and repeat needs an upgrade to a full-time member of the active roster going forward.

DL Sebastian Joseph-Day

  • $6.5M, 31yo

I’d bring back the majority of the Titans defensive line depth. Competition this summer for each of them will be warranted, but a guy like Sebastian Joseph-Day is worth the mid-single digit millions he costs. He has 18 pressures and 28 run stops this season with one game left to play.

DL Jihad Ward

  • $1.4M, 32yo

Of all the pending free agent DL, Ward is the easiest decision to try to retain and pay an increased salary to. The Titans picked him up as a late-summer floater to add to their depth this season, and he’s been one of the most consistent forces in the pass rush all year. He has 46 pressures and a league-leading 21 QB hits for DL this season.

DL James Lynch

  • $1.1M, 27yo

Lynch is at least a valuable camp body who you can bring back for a minimum and hope to bring in competition who will beat him out. He’s flashed a couple times the past two seasons when called upon.

WR Van Jefferson

  • $1.6M, 30yo

It was a bummer to see Jefferson go down with a season-ending forearm injury in Week 17, because he had quietly settled down into a useful player on the offense. Assuming his injury isn’t one that will impact him for more than a couple of winter months, I’d bring him back as competition throughout the summer and hope your injection of WR talent can come in and push him down the depth chart.

OT Oli Udoh

  • $1.1M, 29yo

Oli Udoh has genuinely been one of the most sought-after swing tackles all season long. The Titans have been careful to keep him on the active roster because they had good reason to believe he’d get swiped by another team if they ever tried to bump him down to the practice squad. When called upon, he’s been a surprisingly steady force at swing tackle. That’s an invaluable thing to have for Cam Ward, and a ridiculously rare thing to have in the NFL in general. I would overpay to keep him here.

CB Darrell Baker Jr.

  • $1.1M, 28yo

Baker is a guy you really want to have better options than, but the 2024 waiver wire addition is a useful depth option for a cornerback room that will be extremely difficult to completely overhaul in just one offseason. This room is empty. You can do worse than Baker at the back end. I don’t see a reason not to bring him back if he remains cheap.

LS Morgan Cox

  • $1.4M, 40yo

The day the Titans have one (1) long snapping hiccup is the day I will begin to entertain conversations about replacing old man Cox. Until that day, keep paying the man and enjoy his mastery.

K Joey Slye

  • $1.2M, 30yo

Slye went 28/34 on field goals in his first year as a Titan, missing just one extra point. While he wasn’t as automatic as Nick Folk who the Titans moved off of in favor of Slye’s services, he has proven to be a worthy kicker for the time-being. His range is still a weapon, and while I wouldn’t mind them bringing in young competition for him this summer, I’d try to retain him.

Titans free agents that need gone replaced

RG Kevin Zeitler

  • $9M, 36yo

The Titans signed the veteran Zeitler last summer as a one-year rental, and that’s what he has been. His play declined as Detroit was anticipating it would when they let him walk, but he was serviceable most of the time. The Titans need to work towards a RG solution of the future, though, and you can’t bank on Zeitler having another fully healthy year as a 36 year old. There may be temptation to bring him back simply to lean into continuity for this OL, but it’s time for the rookie Jackson Slater or another newcomer to take the reigns in 2026.

EDGE Arden Key

  • $7M, 30yo

The Arden Key experiment in Tennessee has run it’s course. He hasn’t been a liability per se, but for the amount of money he’s making, the Titans should try to find better. He’s entering his 30’s soon and just played in his fewest games in a years thanks to some bad injury luck. If he’s brought back, it should be as cheap depth only.

P Johnny Hekker

  • $1.4M, 36yo

Hekker simply hasn’t been very good this season. His gross average on 73 punts is 39.7yds, which is 28th out of 33 qualifying punters in 2025. It hasn’t all been terrible, but I won’t bore you with punter metrics. If you want the full rundown, PFF is a couple of clicks away. The bottom line is that Bones Fassell should probably go back to the drawing board on this position.

CB Jalyn Armour-Davis

  • $1.1M, 27yo

Once the most sought-after man on the initial 2025 waiver wire, Armour-Davis has demonstrated how limited he is in the 500+ snaps he’s played for Tennessee this year. The unfortunate cherry on top of his case is the Achilles injury he suffered in Week 17, adding to the laundry list of injury issues that have plagued his career already.

QB Brandon Allen

  • $1.4M, 34yo

Plenty of folks wanted to see the backup QB position upgraded this past offseason when Allen was first brought in. I was perfectly fine with the veteran being a cheap, useful option to have around in the meeting room. And my general theory on backup QB is that it’s the most undervalued position on good teams and the most overvalued position on bad ones. While the Titans won’t be a definite “good team” in 2026, it is time for them to begin taking the position a bit more seriously. Find somebody with more upside.

G Blake Hance

  • $1.3M, 30yo

The man billed during this past offseason as the Titans’ “Swiss army knife” on the OL, capable of filling in at four positions, has had a disappointing year. He’s dealt with longterm injuries that have kept him out of all but four games, and on less than 90 snaps (primarily at RG) he committed two penalties.

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