Titans Free Agent Target Tiers: Players the Titans are the leader in the clubhouse for, who to keep an eye on, and ‘keep dreaming’ options

Free agency week is upon us, the Titans have a lot of needs and a lot of money, and these are the players to watch.

Easton Freeze — Tennessee Titans Beat Writer
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Welcome to free agency week!

The “Legal Tampering Period” begins at 11am CT on Monday, and this is when players can officially begin agreeing to terms with teams that weren’t their own. These deals can’t be finalized until Wednesday afternoon, but a lot of the biggest names will be tied to their new teams in the news before then.

The Tennessee Titans are one of the most talked-about teams in this years free agency market because of how much cap space they have to work with. Cam Ward is a promising young QB heading into a pivotal Year 2, Robert Saleh and his new coaching staff will want to raise the floor of this team in a meaningful way in their first season, and they’ve done some winking and nodding to the effect that owner Amy Adams Strunk has committed the cash necessary to add some firepower to this porous roster.

But which players is GM Mike Borgonzi likely to land? Based on a combination of insider intel, educated tea leaves reading, and common sense, here are the tiers of hot names to watch:

Leader In The Clubhouse

DL John Franklin-Myers

  • The smoke around JFM to the Titans has been suffocating for weeks. He’s basically the only DL on the free agent market with serious juice, which is why he’s being talked about by insiders this week as a guy who will get a bigger payday than you might expect. But the Borgonzi regime has been adamant about their inside-out philosophy with building the trenches first, and I expect JFM to be a member of the Titans this week.

WR Wan’Dale Robinson

  • The smoke on a Robinson reunion with his old head coach-turned-Titans OC Brian Daboll has been building as we approach the opening bell of free agency. Tennessee is clearly very interested in him, and at this point I’ll be pretty surprised to see him land elsewhere.

Keep An Eye On…

C Tyler Linderbaum

  • The fight for Linderbaum is tightly contested! It’s been reported that he’s “as good as gone” if he’s not re-signed by the Ravens by the time free agency week begins, so it seems he’ll be playing elsewhere this fall. The Titans have the need and the means to land him if they want to hand out a contract north of $20 million AAV, but teams like the Raiders, Commanders, and others who also need a center will drive up his price. For more on the Titans’ center situation and a world in which they miss on Linderbaum, click here.

LB Tremaine Edmunds

  • The Bears released Edmunds last week and he was previously connected to Tennessee amongst others as a potential trade target. Head coach Robert Saleh is on the record in the past praising Edmunds as a unique LB talent, and it’s a poorly kept secret at this point that Tennessee is interested in adding a high-level linebacker to play alongside Cedric Gray.

LB Bobby Okereke

  • Okereke isn’t really a candidate to be that high-end starter I think the Titans would like to add if possible, but his list of connections to this coaching staff are impossible to ignore. He was a team captain for Brian Daboll’s Giants and played there for three years, played for DC Gus Bradley before that, and played for LB coach Dave Borgonzi before that. The Titans know this guy extremely well, and he won’t break the bank.

WR Romeo Doubs

  • If the Titans somehow end up missing on Wan’Dale Robinson, what then? I expect them to add at least one receiver of note in free agency, and I believe Doubs for the right price is somebody they’re considering. This has been a connection other insiders at both the local and national level have made as well. He was buried in a crowded room of WRs who are deployed strangely in Green Bay, and there’s some belief around the league that he has more to offer than we’ve seen so far.

RB Tyler Allgeier

  • Allgeier is the running back in this market I think we’re foolishly ignoring. He has proven starter ability, and clearly works very well as in a 1a/1b situation. He could be that with Pollard in Tennessee, or be more of the lead back with Spears if Pollard is ultimately cut or traded. I don’t expect him to break the bank either.

CB Alontae Taylor

  • This CB market is robust, but it’s full of mid-level guys who are, well… boring to the average fan. There are a lot of startable names, and Taylor is one of the most attractive ones. He’s a former Tennessee Volunteer, so this add would make a lot of locals happy. And he’d be a valuable veteran addition to the defense. Unfortunately, he’s a player that more than half the league’s fanbases seem to think their team is signing. So his market might be too competitive.

TE Daniel Bellinger

Bellinger is a stand-in here for the mid-tier blocking tight ends I expect the Titans to target, especially if they do not successfully retain Chig Okonkwo as Paul Kuharsky has reported they are trying to. I personally don’t totally understand bringing Chig back, especially if his market is near double digit millions AAV. 2026 and beyond needs to be about Gunnar Helm developing as the top do-it-all TE on this team. He needs to be the top receiving option, which would mean Chig is secondary despite really only offering receiving prowess. This team needs the tight ends behind Helm to be useful blockers, and Bellinger (who obviously has Daboll ties from NY) is a perfect example of that.

QB Tyrod Taylor

The Titans need a backup QB, and Taylor has a lot of experience with this coaching staff. He played on Brian Daboll’s team from 2022-2023, Robert Saleh’s team in 2024, and even Gus Bradley’s team from 2019-2020. He is the tier of backup I expect them to sign.

DT Kalia Davis

Davis is a very easy Saleh connection. He played all 17 games for the Titans’ new head coach in San Francisco last year, and the Niners declined to tender his contract this offseason. He’d be an affordable interior rotational piece.

I’d Be Surprised

EDGE Trey Hendrickson

  • Mike Borgonzi is not somebody I think is interested in signing an aging pass rusher to a monster deal. Hendrickson is obviously a game changer, but he’s going to cost so much and his age just doesn’t align with the Titans’ timeline. This defensive front is going to be centered around depth and rotation.

EDGE Jaelyn Phillips

  • Selfishly, I’d be willing to make an exception to my personal philosophy on paying free agents at premium positions to land Phillips. He is that good, and he’s young. But he’s going to land a contract near or perhaps north of $20 million annually, and his injury history is pretty scary. The Titans demonstrated last spring that they really prioritize availability in free agency.

WR Mike Evans

  • This has to stop. Titans, have some shame. And frankly, Mike, you have some shame too. Don’t do this. Evans can still play, but he’s entering his age 33 season coming off his worst year as a pro marred by bad injury luck. The Titans must beat the allegations, and I expect they will. I do not buy the recent rumors that Tennessee is seriously interested in him.

RB Kenneth Walker

  • I don’t get the sense the Titans will be in the market to upgrade at RB this aggressively. Walker is going to get the biggest contract at this position in the free agent pool, and as much as I like the idea of him with Cam Ward when I picture it, I will be surprised if they pull the trigger on this.

CB Tariq Woolen

  • There’s no doubt the Titans need CB help. And Woolen’s highs are sky high, he’s a freak athlete. But his inconsistency and personality don’t seem like a hand-in-glove fit for where the Titans are right now.

LB Devin Lloyd

  • I liked what I saw from Lloyd a lot last season, and he’s the kind of LB I think the Titans are generally pursuing for this defense. But the more I have dug into how the league views him as a player, the more I’ve started to think our opinion on the outside is higher than the consensus on the inside.

Keep Dreaming

WR Alec Pierce

  • This has apparently turned into my personal Alamo. I have maintained all offseason that Pierce is and always was a Colt, but the Colts bungled the franchise tag situation so badly that the door is at least cracked for him to go elsewhere. I am still confident he will be a Colt, though if he isn’t, everybody I know will spend the next week throwing pie in my face. What I’m doubly-confident in is that he will not be a Titan. I don’t see his skillset, proven production, and apparent price tag as being compatible with this front office’s plans whatsoever. They’re surely keeping tabs on him and would like him at the right price, but I don’t think their offer will be close to the right price.

CB Jaylon Watson

  • Once the Chiefs traded Trent McDuffie to the Rams, Watson’s return to Kansas City felt inevitable. Borgonzi’s KC connection was in play here for if Watson hit the market and the Titans wanted to sign a guy near the top of it, but I just don’t see it any more.

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