The Tennessee Titans held their first scrimmage-style practice at Nissan Stadium Friday night, and one name stood out from the jump: defensive end Femi Oladejo.

Oladejo was a player I flagged on Friday’s A to Z Sports Nashville morning show as someone who could elevate his game and his roster status in a scrimmage setting. He delivered. From the very first defensive series, Oladejo made his presence felt against the Titans’ first-team offense and quarterback Cam Ward.

Oladejo popped in the early portions of the scrimmage

On Cam Ward’s first drive of the scrimmage wide receiver Carnell Tate hauled in a one-handed catch and run, gaining 23 yards to move the ball inside the 10. Two plays later the offense faced second-and-goal from the 7. Running back Tyjae Spears took the handoff, and Oladejo stuffed him for a 3-yard loss, creating a third-and-10 situation. Ward scrambled on the next play, and the offense settled for a short field goal.

Oladejo wasn’t done. He also recorded a sack on quarterback Mitch Trubisky later in the first half of the scrimmage before the juice seemed to wear off a bit across the whole event. But those early reps were exactly the type of plays that can separate a player fighting for a larger role.

Titans defensive line rotation taking shape

Beyond Oladejo’s individual performance, the scrimmage provided a clearer picture of how the Titans’ defensive line rotation is forming. 

I was curious how this would work as we knew the first team offense would face the first team defense, followed by the second teamers going head to head on the next possession. How deep would the ‘first team’ defensive line rotation go against Ward’s unit? We got our answer off the bat.

The initial first team edge rushers were veterans Jermaine Johnson and Jacob Martin. The second wave of ‘first team’ ends were Oladejo and rookie Keldric Faulk.

For Oladejo, the early returns in a scrimmage format confirmed what the Friday morning conversation suggested he was capable of doing. He ran with the first unit, made plays against starters, and showed the kind of burst that earns more opportunities as training camp rolls on.

The Titans need the 2025 second round pick to produce this season if he’s going to be a significant part of this rebuild. A broken leg only allowed Oladejo to play in six games as a rookie, and now the pressure has intensified to live up to his draft slot. 

The ‘high end’ pass rusher felt like the one large box left unchecked this offseason in a player acquisition cycle that was nearly impossible to sweep. The Titans could have enough juice with these top four ends, plus Jeffery Simmons and John Franklin-Myers pitching in, for this season to progress the roster rebuild. 

But I think we all know pass rusher could be priority number one next spring, and Femi has a chance to lessen the urgency for that if he can carry what we saw Friday night into the regular season with consistency. 

I’ll consider this an explosive first step out of the blocks for Femi. Next week he needs to keep it going in a joint practice and preseason game in San Francisco vs the 49ers.