NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Titans are in the midst of joint training camp practices with the Seattle Seahawks, and one position group is going to be questioned almost as much as any other on the field: the cornerback room.

The two starting corners Tennessee paid to come in through free agency, Alontae Taylor and Cor’Dale Flott, have been very disappointing. The results have been shaky at best, and with Jackson Smith-Njigba, the reigning Offensive Player of the Year, visiting Nashville this week, the pressure on this secondary is about to intensify.

Tennessee completely remade its cornerback room

Consider where the Titans were just one year ago. When I was asked on the radio show to name the starting cornerbacks from Week 1 of the 2025 season, I had to think about it. I could name La’Jarius Sneed, who played very little during his time in Tennessee but was available at the start of the season. Then I struggled to recall who else was out there when this team opened Cam Ward’s rookie season on the road in Denver.

I had forgotten all about Roger McCreary, who got traded to the Los Angeles Rams ahead of the deadline and has done very little since. McCreary played special teams, got hurt in L.A., and was playing into the fourth quarter of a preseason game this past weekend. Surprising stuff for a former second-round pick who played solid football in Tennessee but was never great. Jarvis Brownlee was also traded well ahead of the deadline, shipped to the New York Jets as the Titans tried to dump a player they weren’t interested in keeping despite some reason to believe he might be quality depth.

The Titans had glaring holes, so they basically remade the entire room. Not named Marcus Harris, the sixth-round pick out of Cal last year who is the current starting nickel, every significant corner on this roster is new.

The Alontae Taylor experience feels like a positional mismatch

Taylor signed a 3-year, $60 million contract to come from New Orleans. He played both on the outside and in the nickel with the Saints but was far better as a slot player, logging 566 snaps in the slot last year compared to just shy of 300 on the outside. His career snap counts tell the same story. In 2023, Taylor played 718 slot corner snaps for the Saints and only 122 on the outside. In 2024 that number shifted, with over 600 snaps on the outside and 358 in the slot, but New Orleans moved him around more than they would have liked.

Almost by consensus, Taylor seems to be a better player as a nickel. Yet Tennessee needs him on the outside, where it hasn’t been a disaster all the way through but hasn’t been good either. He feels like a player being asked to play out of position.

Something else worth noting is how much off coverage the Titans were playing in their preseason game. How much will they press once the regular season arrives? I think they want to play more zone under Robert Saleh, but that does not seem to suit the skill set of their players right now.

Cor’Dale Flott is the bigger concern

The Taylor situation is frustrating, but it’s much more extreme when we talk about Flott, who came to Tennessee from the Giants on a 3-year, $45 million deal. Flott started 14 games for New York last season, recorded one interception and a career-high 11 pass deflections, 27 solo tackles, and three tackles for loss. He was immediately brought in to be a starting corner for a team that desperately needed the help.

The Titans were simply looking for stability in doing these two deals. Right now, both deals look objectively terrible.

You’re also trying to get a decent measure of what Ward and the offense are doing against this secondary. Carnell Tate is still the best wide receiver on the team, but he’s catching passes all over the place and these corners aren’t putting up much of a fight. Then you see how much they got waxed by De’Zhaun Stribling, the rookie second-round pick out of Ole Miss, who had six catches and was tracking toward 100 yards before getting pulled because he expects to be a starting-caliber player. Flott was around the ball in coverage but could not make any plays against a rookie wide receiver.

Flott has good length at 6-foot-1, but at 175 pounds he’s paper thin. He is somebody this team is going to lean on heavily, and right now leaning on Cor’Dale Flott does not seem like an effective exercise.

Robert Saleh acknowledges the urgency

After Saturday’s practice, where Ward and the passing offense lit up the secondary with receivers Elic Ayomanor and Calvin Ridley putting it on the corners, Saleh was asked about a higher level of urgency around the cornerback situation.

“Well, everything matters, whether it’s, you know, that Stribling kid’s gonna be pretty damn good,” said Saleh. “He’s a big, strong receiver. [The] quarterback did a good job giving him a chance and he won some one-on-ones. I’d love to tell you no concern, but there’s a sense of urgency with regards to making sure that we get it fixed and we continue to put our guys in those situations in practice so that we can continue to get that work.

“We’ll never panic, but urgency will always be high.”

Not a glowing endorsement from the head coach. Saleh was giving the corners coaching points throughout practice Saturday. It wasn’t a terrible day for them, but you watch Flott, and while he is around the ball regularly, he’s not making plays. He’s not breaking up passes. He’s not contesting catches the way you need him to.

There are only two more weeks of training camp left before game planning begins for real. The Titans cornerback room is an immediate red flag, and Seattle’s visit this week will tell us even more about how deep the problem runs.