Titans-Falcons Winners & Losers: Cam Ward’s stats don’t tell full story, pair of exciting rookie pass catchers, defensive hope?

The Tennessee Titans won their second preseason game of the season 23-20 against the Atlanta Falcons on Friday. This is the preseason, though, so the score is the last thing that matters. Here are tonight’s winners and losers as the Titans race towards roster cutdown day: Winner: Elic Ayomanor I wrote at length about the […]

Easton Freeze — Tennessee Titans Beat Writer
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The Tennessee Titans won their second preseason game of the season 23-20 against the Atlanta Falcons on Friday. This is the preseason, though, so the score is the last thing that matters. Here are tonight’s winners and losers as the Titans race towards roster cutdown day:

Winner: Elic Ayomanor

I wrote at length about the increase in rookie WR Elic Ayomanor’s involvement in this Titans offense earlier this week. He’s emerged as one of the four most popular targets in training camp lately (by my estimation at least), and there seems to be a concerted effort to get him the ball. We saw that in this game against Atlanta. He was targeted four times in the first half and caught two passes for 47 yards. His first catch was Cam Ward’s first pass of the day. It was a beautiful rolling strike to Ayomanor, who was streaking across the middle. He added some nice YAC to turn it into a 35-yard gain.

The first half was the perfect encapsulation of the promising work-in-progress of the Elic Ayomanor experience. There’s a lot to like here. His coaches and quarterback clearly see him as a target that deserves volume. They keep pushing the ball his way and in a variety of ways. It just isn’t totally clicking yet, though; his chemistry with Cam is still building. Ayomanor still developing as an NFL receiver but all the flashes you want to see are there. Give it time.

Loser: Cam Ward’s Stat Line

How people talk about Cam Ward’s second preseason outing will be telling about how much they actually watched. His two-for-seven, 42-yard, 52.1 passer rating stat line won’t inspire the box score scouts. But when you review the film, Cam The Gunslinger was making some really encouraging decisions and near-plays.

This video is the one you’ll see across the internet this weekend. On their first drive, after completing a 35-yard pass to Ayomanor, Ward dropped this gorgeous pass into Van Jefferson’s orbit beyond three defenders in the area. This is big boy, NFL football right here. But it fell incomplete, so it doesn’t show up in the box score.

On the ensuing drives, Ward did some more gunslinging. The processing was mostly sharp, and the execution was fine. In a sense, he could’ve used some savvy veteran receivers out there on some of these difficult connections. But Ridley and Lockett were inactive, so some of the areas of this offense that are still developing showed through.

Winner: Defensive Depth

After the Titans’ performance in Tampa Bay in Preseason Week 1, the depth on defense became a screaming concern. It was very, very bad. And while things certainly aren’t close to “fixed” after game 2 in Atlanta, there were a couple of young defenders who showed some promising signs of life.

Chief among them was LB Cedric Gray, the Titans’ 2024 fourth-round draft pick, who got the start alongside LB Cody Barton tonight. A seventh-round pick from his class, LB James Williams, seemed to have that LB2 role locked up until this week. But in joint practice, we saw a lot more of Gray higher in the rotation. Then, in this game, he showed his strengths in the first half. This blitz up the middle, where he crushes the running back before making the sack, stood out in particular.

If Gray pushes the competition for that spot, it’s great news for a position we once thought was a real question mark. A serviceable Williams and Gray tandem behind Cody Barton is a perfectly fine room to enter the year with.

Meanwhile, at defensive back, the Titans need somebody to emerge badly. The defensive play of the game came from UDFA rookie S Kendall Brooks, who did well to diagnose and then trigger on this ball for a pick six.

Sixth-round rookie CB Marcus Harris also flashed some this week, both in joint practice and in this preseason game. At least one of these depth guys proving themselves to be a serviceable depth option would be massive. This team needs it badly.

Loser: Van Jefferson

It’s not that I’m trying to take Jefferson to the woodshed over one cool throw that he didn’t catch. Upon (very limited options of) review, it looked like a tougher one to bring in. I wouldn’t call it a “gotta catch that” ball if we’re speaking technically, though the Rule of Cool does dictate that. . . you’ve got to catch that. Maybe a better replay shows it better or worse for him, but the point is that one singular catch isn’t my point.

So what in the world is your point, Easton? Well, my friend Nick Suss at The Tennessean mentioned this to me after joint practice this week, and it’s stuck: I can’t remember the last time Jefferson made a catch. None immediately comes to mind from team drills in joint practice. He was the target of Ward’s first pass in Tampa Bay last week, and that one went incomplete despite looking catchable (limited replay angles strike again). And in Preseason Week 2 in Atlanta, his memorable moment was this incompletion that the internet is buzzing over.

I don’t think he’s getting cut. He’s always been primarily a depth option on this team, even if there was (or still is) a plan to play him more heavily to begin the season as young players work to take his place. But based on his showing from the past week or two, I’m starting to wonder if that plan is changing. He’s just really not inspiring, and fans are already frustrated over it.

Winner: Gunnar Helm

The rookie tight end affirmed his place as TE2, and he’s on the heels of TE1 Chig Okonkwo already. His four receptions led the team, with 48 yards and a touchdown to boot. Take a look at how that scoring play went down:

If Helm keeps making contested catches like that, he’ll get a lot of redzone looks for this team in 2025. That’s exactly the kind of big-bodied, sure-handed target you want out in the pattern on the money downs.

Loser: Joey Slye

Including him here is a bit of a stretch based on this game: he just missed an extra point. But he did, in fact, miss one. And in general, my comfort with him as this team’s kicker has faltered a bit this month. Allow me to quote myself, from a training camp notebook article 2 weeks ago:

“Nick Folk missed two field goals in two seasons with the Titans. He was north of 95% both years. Joey Slye missed 12 field goals with the Patriots and Commanders in that time. He didn’t crack 80% either year. Now, does he have a stronger leg? Yes. Is he a full decade younger than Folk? Also yes. But the results are the results. And while Slye has had an overall fine camp, the wheels came off a bit on Saturday. He has multiple misses that weren’t anywhere close to out of his range.”

I won’t continue to question the decision to replace Folk with Slye until he really proves himself reliable this year. I worry this team escaped kicker purgatory just to willingly plunge right back in. I hope I’m wrong.

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