New Titans coaching staff connection to intriguing free agent could be the upgrade they need to protect Cam Ward in 2026

New OL coach Carmen Bricillo has a lengthy history with a talented free agent the Titans could use.

Easton Freeze — Tennessee Titans Beat Writer
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The Tennessee Titans’ new coaching staff has nearly taken shape, and key assistants are always worth looking into for potential personnel clues.

Of course, Robert Saleh’s team is going to take on the identity he impresses upon them. But the first steps he takes are hiring a staff of coaches who fit that vision too. And when a staff is assembled with such an emphasis on prior experience, many of these new coaches have patterns that can be traced.

Sometimes it’s their scheme tendencies. Sometimes it’s the archetypes they tend to like most in their room. And sometimes, you can single out specific players they clearly enjoy working with.

Perhaps the most obvious connection that can be made on that front is OL coach Carmen Bricillo to veteran offensive lineman Jermaine Eluemunor.

Jermaine Eluemunor could complete the Titans’ offensive line

Yes, we’re doing the “O-line guru” thing again in Tennessee. The brief Bill Callahan era left fans feeling burned in the end, as the improvement along the OL didn’t come together as quickly as anybody had hoped. There’s plenty to unpack there on who and what is most to blame, but that isn’t the point of this article.

The point is that Carmen Bricillo is this team’s new OL coach in 2026, who followed OC Brian Daboll to Tennessee from New York. He is very positively regarded league-wide for his work with various OL units the past handful of years, most notably garnering praise for doing more with less.

He won’t be asked to do more with less in Tennessee, at least from a pedigree standpoint. JC Latham and Peter Skoronski were both top-11 draft picks made by Tennessee, and Lloyd Cushenberry and Dan Moore Jr. both received position-leading contracts in free agency when they joined the Titans.

This is a unit that has undergone a lot of renovation in recent years, and I’m comfortable finally saying that as of the end of the 2025 season it is no longer below-average. The future finally looks bright.

The only two immediate question marks are center and right guard. C Lloyd Cushenberry remains under contract, but his first season back from a 2024 Achilles tear had some ups and downs both in terms of performance and health. I lean he’ll be back at this point. We often understate the importance of continuity on the offensive line in particular. And he’s a prime “year after the year after” candidate with his Achilles. But his status is still something to monitor this spring.

Then there’s the right guard position, where veteran Kevin Zeitler played last season on his one year deal. I spoke to Kevin candidly on his way out of the locker room on cleanout day, and he was emphatic about wanting to be back here in Nashville in 2026. But he’s 35, and it would be a risk for the Titans to bank on him having another fully healthy year like he managed in 2025. He told me retirement isn’t on his mind and that he’s got at least another year or two in him, so does his desire to stay in Nashville include the possibility of becoming a backup? That may be the question that determines if he gets another contract from Mike Borgonzi.

Let’s assume he doesn’t, and the Titans need a new right guard. I think Eluemunor could make a lot of sense if he wants to keep sticking with his guy Briscillo. Eluemunor has been a right tackle most of his career, having logged over 3500 snaps there. He’s done some work as a swing tackle on the left side, where he has 736 snaps. But he also has over 500 snaps at right guard, proving he can play inside too.

Eluemunor and Bricillo’s relationship will be key if this is something the Titans pursue, because he has played well enough the past couple seasons to be worth a pretty penny in free agency. Teams are always desperate for tackle-capable bodies, so the Titans would need to be a destination he’s really interested in for personal reasons since he wouldn’t be a starting tackle here. This coach-player duo first worked together in 2019 and 2020 in New England. Then Eluemunor bounced around in 2021, spending some time with the Dolphins and Jaguars before sticking in Las Vegas where Briscillo had already moved to. They spent the rest of 2021, 2022, and 2023 together in black and silver until both moved on to the Giants when Briscillo was brought on as Brian Daboll’s new OL coach. They spent 2024 and 2025 together in New York until becoming free agents this offseason, and now Briscillo has followed Daboll to Tennessee. If Eluemunor follows suit, it will be his fourth stint and seventh straight year under his longtime OL coach. That’s why there’s good reason to think he’s at least considering it.

If there is in-fact mutual interest, I think it would give the Titans flexibility and establish a short-term floor at their biggest question mark across the line. They could bring in Eluemunor and pencil him in as the starting right guard, forcing 2025 draft pick Jackson Slater to compete and beat the veteran out if he is to ascend to a starting role. If he can’t, you have an experienced starter at that position. If Slater does win, Elumunor could then compete for the starting swing tackle role with Oli Udoh and Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson. You could let them battle it out and when the dust settles, trade the odd man out in the always-desperate tackle market near the beginning of the season.

There’s a lot of if’s and maybe’s involved here. The point is that there is room for Eluemunor to come to Tennessee and improve this unit, should he want to stick with his guy.

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