NASHVILLE — The biggest position battle in Tennessee Titans training camp appears to have a winner: Rookie guard Fernando Carmona has been consistently running with the first-team offense and looks poised to lock down the right guard spot with two weeks remaining in camp.

The Titans offensive line, the most scrutinized unit on the roster entering the 2026 season, now has a projected starting five in place.

Does that mean the problems are solved? Not necessarily. But it gives a clearer picture of what this team is trending toward heading into the regular season.

The offseason left questions at guard

The offensive line was the position group of greatest concern after free agency. Tennessee’s biggest addition to the unit was center Austin Schlottmann, who signed a 1-year, $9 million deal after spending time with the New York Giants. Schlottmann brought familiarity with offensive coordinator Brian Daboll and offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo, but he never felt like a sufficient solution for a unit with problems from top to bottom.

The other veteran addition, Cordell Volson, is an experienced guard with roughly 40 NFL starts, but he has always operated in a reserve capacity. Neither Volson nor Schlottmann projected as sure-fire starters.

Tennessee then turned to the draft, selecting Fernando Carmona out of Arkansas in the fifth round (142nd overall) and center Pat Coogan from Indiana in the 6th round. Carmona, a redshirt senior who transferred from San Jose State, is listed at 6-foot-5, 325 pounds and brings decent athleticism for the interior. He played tackle at the collegiate level, though he would not be asked to do that at the NFL level by any stretch.

At Arkansas, Carmona started all 12 games last season, helping anchor an offense that produced six games of over 500 total yards. The Razorbacks did not have the kind of season they wanted, but Carmona’s tape against top-flight competition stood out. Games against Tennessee, Texas A&M, and Notre Dame showcased his pro potential and his nastiness, which is really at the core of why he has earned a starting role.

Volson and Slater could not hold up

If you watched Tennessee’s preseason opener, you saw glaringly that Volson is not a pro starting player. You also saw that Jackson Slater, a 5th-round pick from a year ago, is not the kind of player you want taking meaningful starting snaps. If Slater develops into decent depth, you would be satisfied, but he is not a top-line starter at this point.

Carmona, with five years of college experience, came in looking to make an immediate impact, and he has done exactly that.

The projected starting offensive line now looks like this: Dan Moore at left tackle, Peter Skoronski at left guard on the $100 million extension he signed this offseason, Schlottmann at center, Carmona at right guard, and JC Latham at right tackle. Latham, the seventh overall pick, is tracking well as the long-term solution on the right side. He won’t be a perfect player, but Tennessee at least has a starting-caliber offensive line built around young, organically drafted talent and retained pieces from within the organization to give Cam Ward a better chance than he had in 2025.

Cam Ward must hold up his end of the bargain

A huge chunk of this equation is Ward’s ability to adapt and improve as a passer. What we know about the second-year quarterback is that there is a lot of extra, inefficient motion to his game at the pro level — a lot of hopping around once or twice or three times before he lets a pass go.

That inefficient motion can throw off his timing, disrupt his footwork, and put him in a position to be sped up the way we saw Thursday night against the 49ers, where his mechanics started to fray because he felt like he was playing faster than he needed to be.

I thought the offensive line gave Ward a good showing in that game. It does not mean this group will be the best unit in the world, but they at least have time to gel, provided they maintain their health as a five-man starting unit. Carmona winning the job fairly early makes you feel better about having known commodities up front before the regular season begins.

Fernando Carmona’s message: hard work and violence

We talked to Fernando Carmona in the post-game locker room after the San Francisco game, and this is what the rookie guard had to say.

“I just want to be known as a hard worker,” Carmona said after Tennessee’s preseason win in Santa Clara. “Somebody who plays with a lot of violence. Those are the two main things. Everything else will figure itself out from there. If I could just work hard and just continue to play with violence, you know, everything will sort itself out.”

Violence.

That word is at the key of all of this. You need a high level of violence on the offensive line, especially with a team that is going to try and be significantly more physical in the run game than it was a year ago. Balance is critically important for the Titans offense this year around Ward, and it feels like Carmona is, at least for the immediate future, part of that solution.

You hope Tennessee can hit the ground running in 2026 with a more settled offensive line, one the quarterback can lean on to help him be the better version of himself.