Allow me to pull back the curtain for a moment. Covering this Titans team has been harder than usual this spring!

The reason is simple. I’m somebody whose job it is to know the players, coaches, executives, scheme, and tendencies of a team first-hand. That allows me to provide fans with insider insight and informed analysis. But doing those things is a lot harder when everybody is new!

Relationships take time to build, and the understanding of how a team works on and off the field takes time to figure out. And a lot has changed around here. So we’re all still just getting our feet wet.

In times like these, you sometimes have to read between the lines to figure out what’s what. And through the first two weeks of OTA’s, the powers that be within the Titans organization have given us one massive clue as to who we need to pay attention to.

The Titans are telling us who to pay attention to at the podium

At practices open to the media right now, we aren’t able to grab just anybody coming off the field to chat. Titans PR is working with the coaching staff to choose select players to put at the podium when we come to the facility. We’ve gotten nine of them so far, and I think some of the selections are telling.

Let’s start with the obvious: we spoke to Cam Ward. That’s a given for all 32 teams, you’re going to talk to the quarterback.

There have also been three other fairly obvious representatives of the team. LG Peter Skoronski is about to get a big bag from this team as their best offensive lineman. He also won the award for the most helpful player to the media last season. He’s a model face for the team on and off the field. RB Tony Pollard is a seasoned veteran starter who is well-spoken. He’s an easy choice. And so too is S Amani Hooker, who GM Mike Borgonzi extended last summer.

It’s the other five I find interesting.

Two more returning Titans were trotted out: LB Cedric Gray and S Kevin Winston. It’s safe to assume this coaching staff expects big things from both of these young men as both players and as leaders. Winston is coming off an injury-impacted rookie season, but he has a ton of promise and a great deal hinges on his growth in a perilously thin safety room.

Cedric Gray is, to me, one season away from stamping himself as a bonafide draft hit that this team should give a second contract to. His 2025 breakout was impressive. He needs to back that up and then take another step with Robert Saleh, whose track record of LB success is pretty definitive. For this coaching staff to trot these two out to speak for the new team is not nothing!

The final three players we spoke with are new to the team, and are perhaps the most interesting. Wan’Dale Robinson’s inclusion proves the Titans didn’t just give him that massive contract for his on-field ability. He’s also a culture-setter and well-spoken leader that this coaching staff values given his familiarity with the program.

How about C Austin Schlottman! He was brought out to speak, and that was the most revealing choice of them all. There is so much speculation at the center and right guard spots that the Titans have welcomed with their decisions. The free agent market seemed to break in a way that just didn’t favor the Titans. When you go into an offseason needing so much, that’s bound to happen somewhere.

But it’s led to us wondering who has a chance to win those open competitions. And rolling out Schlottman—the perceived favorite—in the second week of OTA’s is undoubtedly a signal that he’s the guy until further notice. I’m pretty certain of that.

Finally, I found it interesting that they gave us TE Daniel Bellinger. He’s new to the team and knows Daboll from his time in New York, so I get the general idea. But I also think a part of it has to do with his importance in this offense. We’re all (I think 100% correctly) assuming Gunnar Helm is the starter in his second season. But Tennessee paid Bellinger real money to come down here and help out on offense, and in the modern landscape of needing multiple versatile TE’s on your roster, I think he’s going to play a big part in this operation.