ESPN analyst gets Cam Ward’s supporting cast all wrong, proves national media doesn’t know what’s going on with Titans
The rest of the country doesn’t understand the Titans yet
The Tennessee Titans skill positions are in a period of serious transition right now. There’s a whole lot that’s unknown, and until the season gets started, a good deal of it is projection for young players. So trying to rank them in the grand scheme of the rest of the league is… tricky.
But that’s exactly what ESPN analyst Bill Barnwell set out to do this week in his latest article. I like Bill a lot. He’s one of the smarter, more thoughtful analysts in football today. I listen to and read his work regularly. So lovingly, I must say: he really missed the mark with the Titans on this one.
Is Tennessee Really Dead Last?
Barnwell ranked the Titans dead last in the NFL when it comes to their collection of receivers, tight ends, and running backs. One could quibble with whether they really belong at 32nd, behind some arguably worse units like New England, Cleveland, or Carolina. Maybe they belong at 30th or 29th overall. But that’s neither here nor there for me. I don’t actually take issue with the 32nd overall ranking before training camp, if nothing else because it’s such an “incomplete” body of work to grade.
But while I don’t take issue with the ranking, I do take issue with the analysis in the piece. And what Bill wrote here is I think a pretty good representation of what most people outside of Nashville misunderstand about the Titans skill position situation heading into 2025.
The Titans Are Changing Faster Than You Think
The biggest issue with this analysis is the names evoked. Barnwell explained that his rankings tried to focus on the five most elite, highest contributing players on each team. Depth wasn’t considered much. And wide receivers were weighted heaviest in his decision making.
When you look at the five Titans he named—RB Tony Pollard, RB Tyjae Spears, WR Tyler Lockett, WR Calvin Ridley, and WR Van Jefferson—the problem becomes apparent to those in the know. These are not the names that should be projected as the biggest contributors to the Titans offense in 2025! Barnwell mentions a bonus 6th player in rookie WR Wlic Ayomanor at the end of his blurb, at least acknowledging the youth infusion that may be coming. But it doesn’t go nearly far enough.
There is no mention of TE Chig Okonkwo, the 2nd most productive receiver on this team last year in a crappy situation. No mention of rookie TE Gunnar Helm, who some on the Titans beat already wonder about being the best receiving tight end on the team. No mention of rookie WR Chimere Dike, the first pick of the 4th round and somebody the coaching staff is very excited about.
Read any of my (or others’) local analysis, and you’d be up to date on where this team appears to be heading per the best available information. Believe it or not, Tyler Lockett and Van Jefferson are not players who the Titans coaching staff is baking into their equation to rely on for a lot of production this year. They’re veterans, and they’re the kind of players you’re very glad you have as insurance. But the goal is for the young players on this team to take on serious responsibility early, and for the veterans to be leaned on less and less as the season goes. As I’ve written about extensively, that could be earlier than a lot of people think! So when Barnwell writes that Cam Ward’s group of receivers are “… well-seasoned” and “This feels like a group where there could be three new starters in 2026”, that’s just not an accurate reflection of the plan in Tennessee.
Give The Vets Their Due
I’ll also push back on the way he portrays some of the veterans here. The statistical representation of Tony Pollard in this article is that of somebody who has forgotten what Pollard’s season was actually like. He was just about the only good, reliable player on the offense for the totality of the season. His overall success rate numbers waned down the stretch as he played his final month-plus on a bum ankle that doctors were shocked he could run on. But he played because the team needed him, and that’s just how he’s wired. You simply cannot watch Tony Pollard last season—on a team with a laughable passing “threat” most of the time and a bottom-tier offensive line in front of him—and come away thinking he was disappointing.
And then the portrayal of Calvin Ridley is just funny to me. He credits Ridley with improving from 2023 in Jacksonville, but writes “… but he dropped seven passes and wasn't always the reliable target a struggling group of quarterbacks needed.” Now, Ridley started slow last year. There’s no doubt about that. And he’s not blameless for how those first 6 weeks went. But I think this idea that he was failing to be a consistent help for his struggling QBs pretty clearly has things completely backwards. In reality, if was more the other way around: the QB play and deployment by coaches did Ridley no favors. Of the top 20 target leaders in 2025, Ridley has the lowest number of catchable targets per SIS. Just 69.7% of the balls thrown his way were catchable.
One final thing: Ridley and Pollard weren’t perfect last season by any stretch. But they did both reach 1000 yards on a terrible unit with dreadful QB play. Less than 1/3 of the league had a 1k yard rusher and receiver.
It’s not particularly surprising to see national folks slow to catch up to the changing of the guard for Tennessee. In general, it’s fair to discount a handful of Day 3 pass catchers as rookie impacts for a team. But the Titans have a unique trio of 4th rounders, situated with a unique level of opportunity on this roster to jump into the fray. So as much as I love Barnwell and his work, I think this will be one he looks back on later this fall and chuckles at.
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