Titans’ 2026 Opponents Revealed: Who Cam Ward will face in his second season with a new head coach
Here’s who Tennessee draws in 2026 with their last place schedule
The Tennessee Titans’ 2025-26 season came to a whimpering end in Week 18 when Cam Ward led them to a 7-0 lead, left the game with a shoulder injury, and the Jacksonville Jaguars rattled off 41 unanswered. It was a reminder of what they are: an inferior roster that desperately needs upside from the QB position to do anything.
One might say this season’s end is merciful. Nothing went much to plan, from firing the head coach after six weeks, to failing to improve on a 3-14 record in 2024, to failing to win even one AFC South game for the first time in the history of the Titans’ existence.
All eyes are on the critical offseason ahead, with a head coaching hire up first on the to-do list. Now that the regular season has ended, though, one thing about the impending 2026 season has already been finalized: opponents.
Tennessee Titans opponents in 2026
The Titans will be playing a fourth-place schedule for the third straight season after finishing a whopping five wins shy of third-place in the AFC South.
As they do each year, they’ll of course play each of the Jaguars, Colts, and Texans once at home and once away. Houston and Jacksonville are enjoying their best seasons in a while, managing 12 and 13 regular-season wins, respectively. Either could make a legitimate run in the playoffs. The Colts just went through one of the greatest implosions we’ve ever seen, beginning the year 7-1 and finishing 1-8.
Their unremarkable 8-9 season saw GM Chris Ballard go all-in on CB Sauce Gardner and QB Daniel Jones right at the turning point of their winning ways, foolishly mortgaging the franchise’s future by trading their next two first-round picks to the Jets.
The AFC division Tennessee will play the entirety of 2026 in the AFC North. It’s a division coming off of one of their worst years in memory, either sending a limping Ravens or Steelers team into the playoffs off the heels of an SNF regular-season win-and-in finale. But in any given year, this is typically a nasty, physical division to face. Tennessee will host the Browns and Steelers, and travel to play the Bengals and Ravens.
The NFC division Tennessee will play the entirety of in 2026 is the NFC East, so if these Titans manage to get a single primetime game next year, I’d wager it’ll be with one of these guys! The NFL sure does love to cram the NFC East down our throats in standalone games.
The defending champion Eagles just became the first repeat winner of this division in 21 years. The Cowboys need a defensive facelift, the Commanders’ young QB had a down year riddled by injuries, and the Giants need their rookie QB to play less recklessly for whoever his new head coach will be. Tennessee will host the Eagles and Commanders, and travel to play the Giants and Cowboys.
And finally, the actual “fourth place” portion of the schedule: Tennessee will host the fellow last-place Jets and travel to play the last-place Raiders and Lions. At first glance, obviously, one of these things is not like the others. Those who think the Lions’ brief reign of terror came to a close in 2025 have another thing coming if you ask me.
As for the Raiders and Jets, both teams will have new quarterbacks and at least one new head coach by the time the Titans get their hands on them. See you then, Fernando Mendoza and… Dante Moore? We’ll see!
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