I remember when we first started to survey the Titans roster at the beginning of this off-season. The positions that were flashing red on this team’s dashboard were edge, wide receiver, and cornerback. Offensive line is always going to be an area that every NFL team can and would like to improve, but for the first time in a while, I actually liked where the Tennessee’s offensive line was at coming out of the season.

The deeper we got into the spring, the more questions I had about the plan.

Flash forward to draft night, and we all found ourselves wondering how the Titans would address two relatively glaring holes on their starting OL. Each round came and went, and Tennessee ultimately grabbed two day three lineman who can’t be ruled out as eventual NFL starters if everything goes to plan. But with the draft behind us, there’s no doubt what area of this Titans roster has the most questions remaining: how exactly will the Titans protect Cam Ward in year two?

Titans front office leaves OL options open heading into offseason training

Tennessee Titans assistant general manager Dave Ziegler spoke with the media Tuesday afternoon to put a bow on the draft weekend.

I asked him to explain the plan at OL, and how it may have shifted between the beginning of the offseason and now. “Well I think with the group that we have now,” Ziegler began, “obviously we signed (Cordell) Volson, who has a lot of experience started for three years in Cincinnati before having an injury. We like the experience that he brings. We like his size. We like his toughness. Jackson Slater is going to be here in year two, so we’re excited to see what his development is in the spring. And we drafted a couple of guys. So yeah, there’s a level of competition that’s still going to be taking place there.”

But Ziegler didn’t shy away from saying “and then there’s an element for us to continue to—whether it’s offensive line or other positions—continue to look to improve it. Free agency’s over and the draft’s over, but there’s still an element of different areas of the team that we are going to continue to add competition to and I think offensive line will be one of those positions, along with some other ones.”

The question isn’t whether the Titans will add veteran help to this OL. The question is when, or perhaps more specifically, how long of a runway do the current contenders have to prove to the front office that they don’t need to?

“I would say we’re going to give those guys an opportunity,” Ziegler ultimately landed on. “They have the opportunity this spring to prove themselves and to earn the trust of the offensive staff and have an opportunity to secure a role, but we’re also going to look to bring competition in and if we can improve a position we’ll improve it… Ultimately, we’re excited about the group that we have, but understand we’re going to still look to bring competition in there also.”

GM Mike Borgonzi also touched on the OL situation in his wrap-up presser immediately following the final round of the draft. “These guys have played a lot of football, both of them,” he said of Carmona and Coogan. “They really do fit the definition of how we say, like, the tough, smart, dependable. They epitomize it, those two guys.  Like I said, they’ve had a snaps here in college football. Physically where they’re at right now, the size, I think they can come right in here and compete… I think there’s a maturation to it, especially with the O-linemen. They’ve played so much, and they’ve been around probably a lot of different coaches, both guys. Fernando (Carmona Jr.) was at San Jose State and went to Arkansas. Then Pat (Coogan) was at Notre Dame and then finished his season for the National Champs (Indiana). Yeah, so they’ve played a lot of football, so I think that does help.”

My attempt to dig on the Titans exact plan at offensive line is an ongoing process, but right now it certainly seems to me like they aren’t necessarily secure with where they’re at still. They continue to be noncommittal about who is competing for what, and they continue to be open to the possibility of adding more bodies to the problem. My understanding from draft week is that bringing back right guard Kevin Zeitler seems to be a ship that has sailed. He’s still on the table for some NFL team to add to their roster this summer, and he told me without hesitation at the end of last season that he is not done playing. He thinks he has another good season or two left in him at least. But where I was once optimistic that could be with the Titans, I no longer feel that way.

This is where the Titans have an interesting question to answer for themselves. As a roster with so many holes, it’s difficult to spend as much draft capital on your offensive line as Mike Borgonzi surely would like to. Having the luxury of throwing premium picks at that position to add coveted depth and high-end starting ability is any personnel man’s dream. But you have to play the board and consider the rest of the roster. So especially along the interior offensive line, Tennessee is faced with a question if and until they can spend premium picks on those positions: at what point do you stop trying to put a Band-Aid on the bullet hole?

The big question Mike Borgonzi has to roll the dice on

Kevin Zeitler was a sneaky good stop-gap for them in 2025. He played better than people gave him credit for in the moment, and he was a stabilizing force for right tackle JC Latham. But he was on a one year contract and is a very old player by NFL standards. So even at his best, he is still a temporary solution.

Any NFL team can continue to ride temporary solutions year in and year out, but your results may vary with so much high turnover at a position that benefits from continuity more than just about anywhere else on the football field. It’s also a matter of cost and injury risk, which every team wants to mitigate with young players on cost-controlled rookie contracts. So when you go and draft a player like Indiana C Pat Coogan and Arkansas G Fernando Carmona later in the draft, you eventually have to ask yourself when you’re comfortable taking the leap.

Offensive line is a position that requires reps more than others do. It requires time with your teammates to your left and to your right, hitting real defensive lineman and experiencing different situations as you work to maintain a pocket or drive a pile. Prospects with lower pedigrees like Carmona and Coogan need these reps as first team practice players and eventually game day starters. You can put them on the shelf for a year or two like the Titans did with Jackson Slater in 2025, patiently waiting for them to develop with every opportunity they get during practice hours. But there’s a give and a take with everything, and for somebody like one of these day three picks, nothing beats first team reps.

How does this apply to the Titans now? My understanding is that Carmona and Coogan are both players the Titans could see starting in the near future. Coogan in particular is somebody that I believe they really want to win the starting center job. In my personal opinion, his athletic limitations are going to make that difficult. But if they’re dedicated to a player like him becoming the guy between now and the beginning of September, he’s going to need all of the first team reps that he can get. And then once September and October roll around, he’s going to need all of those first team reps and a healthy dose of patience.

With veterans like Cordell Volson and Austin Schlottman on the roster, it’s tempting to ride the known commodity. Their ceilings are lower, yes, and you don’t feel like you’re investing in your future by playing them. But you also feel better about Cam Ward not getting killed.

This is what the Titans will spend the next couple of months wrestling with.. Mike Borgonzi has some big decisions to make, and these young players have some dramatic opportunity in front of them that they each need to empty the tank in the pursuit of claiming. Don’t take this front office’s words lightly when they say they may not be done adding to these rooms. If it comes to it, I think that they will.