The Tennessee Titans have flipped their roster over the last two offseason cycles under general manager Mike Borgonzi. The team added over 30 veteran free agents and draft picks this offseason alone.

No question that the flip was needed, as the franchise has only won 12 of its last 56 games dating back to the end of the 2022 season (three head coaches and three GMs ago).

With new head coach Robert Saleh’s staff hoping to be the end of the turmoil, there are a handful of players who the fans and media seem to have different opinions about when it comes to the role and future they have with this team.

For today’s exercise, Austin Stanley and Easton Freeze will play “fresh start” or “tough break” with six Titans who had disappointing seasons in 2025 (for either injury or performance) and have questions for what this new coaching staff means for them.

Tennessee Titans: “fresh start” or “tough break”

Running back Tyjae Spears

Freeze: I think Brian Daboll can only spell “fresh start” for running back Tajae Spears. Daboll’s history as an offensive coordinator points to his desire and willingness to use players like Spears in creative and productive ways as the “change of pace” back. And Spears can take all the career help that he can get, because who amongst us doesn’t have him penciled in to hit free agency next year? His ability on the field has been worth extending if you ask me, but he hasn’t been nearly available enough the past two season as he’s worked through injuries.

Robert Saleh made it clear at the podium on Thursday: this team has two bell cows, and their names are Tony Pollard and Tyjae Spears.

Offensive lineman JC Latham

Freeze- Let’s get a couple things straight before we begin here. First, JC Latham is without a doubt an NFL tackle. There’s a large crowd that thinks he is a guard, and while I think he could play guard, he can also play tackle. And people who can play tackle, play tackle! Not only can he play tackle, but last year he played tackle pretty well! There’s a contingent of Titans fans who thinks he’s not very good. But based on what I saw last year, I thought he looked like a guy who has become an NFL starting tackle. Point blank, period.

So why is this a “tough break” for JC Latham? Because styles make fights with offensive lines. I’m not saying the new OL coach Carmen Bricillo won’t be able to maximize JC Latham in his ideal version of the Titans offensive line. I think that he will. But Latham was Bill Callahan’s guy in the first place. I have seen too many instances where a regime changes, and a good offensive lineman is victimized by stylistic or preferential change.

A recent high profile example somewhat like this is Aaron Brewer. He was the Titans’ starting center during the Vrabel years, and that coaching staff really liked him! Tennessee ended up moving off of him as things changed here, and then last year he was the 2nd Team All Pro center for the Miami Dolphins. It was very easy to argue that he was the best center in the NFL last season! Did he magically get way better in Miami? He certainly improved, but I don’t think the Titans moved off of him because he was terrible at football. It had just as much to do with the fact that they were looking for something different.

With this new coaching staff, JC Latham now has to prove himself to be what Carmen Bricillo, Brian Daboll, and Robert Saleh want in their starting right tackle if he is to cement that job long-term with a big extension in a couple of years. I think that’s made harder by the fact that the person who picked him in the first place is no longer here.

Quarterback Will Levis

Stanley: The Will Levis rollercoaster ended the last week of OTAs on a fun, high note after a scary end to the month of May.

Trying to predict what is going to happen to the Titans back up back up quarterback is really difficult.

However, Saleh’s staff, with Daboll, is a “fresh start” for Levis as he has the opportunity to show he is healthy after an elective shoulder injury kept him out last season. Maybe even more important, Levis has a chance to clean up his tape by playing less chaotic than he did in 2024 under Brian Callahan’s offense. Levis was a turnover disaster in 2024, losing the chance to be the Titans longterm answer.

Now he has to do something to show he can be a reclamation project for the rest of the league as he enters the final season of his rookie contract in Tennessee. Will Borgonzi find a trade partner before the season? If not, the Titans have a weird decision to make to either keep three QBs on the active roster or cut bait entirely.

Wide receiver Bryce Oliver

Freeze: The argument for why this is a “tough break” for Bryce Oliver is relatively similar to the one for JC Latham. Oliver is a talented special teamer who provides real offensive upside at receiver. And while I think his special teams value and connection with coordinator John “Bones” Fassel is what will ultimately keep him on the active roster, he too has to prove himself again to a brand new coaching staff.

Brian Daboll and his offensive guys come in having no attachment to Bryce Oliver as the utility depth receiver on this team. I think he is absolutely talented enough to be on the 53-man roster. But he has to prove that to his new coaches now. And competition around him such as newcomer KJ Osborne find themselves on equal footing with Oliver since everybody is new to this coaching staff.

Defensive end Femi Oladejo

Stanley: When Borgonzi drafted Femi Oladejo in the mid second round of the 2025 draft the narrative was to let him develop over two seasons as he undergoes a full position change from off ball linebacker to edge rusher. Oladejo broke his leg in game six of last season, which was unfortunately looking like his best performance.

Why I side with “fresh start” for Oladejo is because that position change moves another notch as he goes from an outside linebacker edge rusher to a defensive end edge rusher under Saleh’s scheme.

Saleh wants Oladejo and his other ends to ‘think less, rush more’ as the hockey line shift rotation becomes the theme of the defensive front. In my opinion, this allows Oladejo to develop appropriately without becoming a liability while the development is in progress.

Linebacker James Williams Sr.

Stanley: This is a “tough break” for another Titans defender in the middle of a developmental portion change.

Williams is an incredible athlete with the former five-star high school safety prospect standing at 6’4″, 232 pounds. He flashes high end talent, but still doesn’t have enough time on task as an NFL linebacker to break through in Saleh’s system. If he did, would the team have traded up into the second round to draft Anthony Hill Jr. from Texas?

I really like Williams longterm, but does he have a spot? If he does it’s purely as a special teams demon. Linebacker depth is crowded behind trustworthy veteran Cody Barton, 2025 breakout player Cedric Gray, Hill Jr., and extra depth completions of Mohamoud Diabate and Dorian Mausi.