The Tennessee Titans are putting the pads on in training camp this week with more unanswered questions than most teams in the NFL.

From the 4th overall pick’s readiness to face physical corners to an offensive line still sorting out its starting five, the next several weeks will reveal a lot about where this roster stands heading into the 2026 season.

I sat down with ESPN’s Turron Davenport to talk through what we’re both looking to learn. Here’s where that conversation led.

Carnell Tate versus press coverage is the story of camp

This was the first thing TD brought up. Tennessee finished with a dreadful completion rate against press coverage last season. That has to change, and the Titans are banking on their rookie first-round pick to be a major reason why.

Tate has been dominant in the offseason program so far, but the pads haven’t come on yet. The competition he’s faced in OTAs and minicamp is a far cry from what Alontae Taylor, Cor’Dale Flott, and the corners he’ll see in joint practices are going to bring. Taylor himself said as much on a recent podcast with Tyrann Mathieu, noting that he’s looking forward to getting physical with the rookie and seeing how he responds.

Tate has the frame for it and comes from Ohio State’s prestigious program. But until we see him win reps against legitimate press coverage in pads, the question lingers.

The joint practice schedule is going to accelerate this evaluation. The Titans drew the Bears, Seahawks, and 49ers for preseason joint sessions, giving Tate a gauntlet of defensive backs to test himself against. Three joint practices against three quality teams should give us a real gauge of where the rookie stands.

The offensive line has to prove it in pads

Every year in training camp, the same chicken-or-the-egg question comes up: is the offense struggling because the defense is good, or is the defense dominating because the offense is bad? That’s why the joint practices matter even more for this offensive line.

The interior has real questions. When I asked Davenport which spot concerns him more between center and right guard, he didn’t hesitate: right guard. The veteran option hasn’t played in over a year, and the next man up got meaningful action in just one game last season.

Pressed for a prediction on who wins the right guard job, Davenport went with Cordell Volson as the veteran choice while acknowledging Jackson Slater. The previous regime liked Slater. Whether that carries over remains to be seen.

The real test comes when this group has to block Montez Sweat, Nick Bosa, and Leonard Williams in joint practices. As Davenport put it, you don’t want to just keep guys in front of you.

You want to dominate. We’ll see if they can.

Kevin Winston Jr. and the spine of the defense

Davenport made a point I think is exactly right: a defense is only as strong as its spine. your defensive tackles, your middle linebacker, and your safety. Kevin Winston Jr. represents a third of that equation, and his development could be one of the most important storylines of camp.

We all remember the moment last year when the pads came on and Winston suddenly announced himself. He hits. There may be no player on the roster who better embodies Robert Saleh’s all-gas, no-brakes approach. But the question for Winston has always been coverage. He talked at the end of last season about learning on the fly, experiencing things in real time that he simply hadn’t processed before. There’s room for improvement there, and the coaching he’s getting from safeties coach Marquan Emanuel should help. Davenport spoke highly of Emanuel’s on-field teaching during OTAs, particularly during red zone periods where he’s constantly feeding his players pre-snap reads and positioning cues.

The linebacker room is more crowded than you think

Cody Barton is the incumbent. Cedric Gray is looking to improve his coverage. Anthony Hill Jr. is the rookie everyone wants to see. James Williams is a converted safety who fits perfectly in a Saleh defense. Dorian Mausey has special teams value that Bones Fassel prizes. And there’s another veteran they signed this offseason out of West Virginia who adds yet another body.

That’s potentially five or six linebackers competing for roster spots, and the pecking order matters. I asked Davenport how much Barton’s mental command of the defense protects him from being overtaken by Hill early in the season. His answer was clear: it matters a lot. Hill is the better athlete, but Barton is more instinctive right now and has familiarity with this style of defense from his time in Seattle. Processing speed and play speed are different things, and until Hill can do both at the NFL level, Barton holds the edge.

Davenport’s prediction is that the competition starts to balance out five or six weeks into the season, perhaps after the bye week. Until then, expect Barton to start with Hill’s role expanding gradually.

The bottom line

Training camp is where projection meets reality. The Titans have spent aggressively this offseason and made some bold moves in the draft, but the roster still has significant questions that OTAs simply couldn’t answer. The next few weeks, and particularly those joint practices, are going to tell us a lot about whether this team is ready to take a real step forward or still has work to do.