Some people are fans of the Tennessee Titans. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Tennessee Titans. This 2026 Defector NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so far here.
Your Team: The Tennessee Titans.
Your 2025 record: 3-14, after going 3-14, after going 6-11, after going 7-10. This makes them the worst team in football over the last four years. None of it is a fluke, either, as they also have the second-worst point differential in that period. More important, though, is that the Titans have been genuinely representative of the AFC South for nearly two decades now, and yes, we mean it exactly the way you took it.
Your coach: Robert Saleh, who replaces Mike McCoy, who replaced Brian Callahan, who replaced Mike Vrabel (and you can make up your own joke here). Saleh, who in fairness has never gotten a chance to coach a representative NFL team, having been hired and fired by the Johnsons of New York, now gives the Strunk family a try in Nashville. He has been handed a team whose history is only marginally less laughable, and whose immediate situation is roughly as unfortunate. Given Kyle Shanahan's car crash earlier this month, he can spend his idle moments imagining what could have been had he stayed in Santa Clara. If nothing else, it would have been a lot less humid.
Your quarterback: It's Cam Ward, who is paying dearly for being excellent at the University of Miami. The first pick in the 2025 draft learned what many quarterbacks in a similar situation learn: Going first is more prestigious than it is healthy living. Even the Peyton Manning rookie comp doesn't work here—he went 3-13 his first year but was only sacked 22 times, and being upright allowed him to lead the Colts to a 13-3 record in his second year. This isn't that story, and doesn't seem likely to be that any time soon. For Ward, having the 30th-best passing game and running game wasn't helpful, and neither was being sacked 55 times and injuring his shoulder in the season-ending hammering by Jacksonville.
Of course, Chicago's Caleb Williams was sacked 68 times in 2024, and the Bears decided to commit to him with enough draft and free-agent improvements that the total was lowered to 24 last season. In short, the Titans must understand that they are committed to him not just contractually but in health and safety as well. At least until we find out Saleh is going to spend the bulk of his time trying to address the defense, that is, so keep a thought open for new backup Mitchell Trubisky, who was signed to further distance the offense from Will Levis. And while you're at it, keep a thought open for Philip Rivers, just for the hell of it.
What’s new that sucks: Saleh's coaching staff, hired from scratch, does include linebackers coach Dave Borgonzi, who just so happens to be the brother of general manager Mike Borgonzi, and while we don't want be That Guy, we're perfectly willing to be if, say, the Titans lose to the Jets on opening day and the Giants in Week 3. What we're suggesting here is that the Titans have been lousy enough for long enough (four years) that both Borgonzii may feel the hot breath of the Strunk family on their necks early on.
The Titans did splash plenty of money around in the general direction of the offense, grabbing wide receiver Carnell Tate in the draft and Wan'Dale Robinson in free agency to give Ward better targets. This indicates that they have wearied of being eliminated by Halloween, but having been to only the lost Super Bowl of 1999 and two other conference finals since 1979 makes us suspicious that either are even viable short-term fixes. Sure, the Jaguars repaired Trevor Lawrence with the quarterback-friendly whispers of head coach/goofball-in-residence Liam Coen, and Williams got the same boost from Ben Johnson, but Saleh's specialty is defense, so that's not the way to bet.
What has always sucked: Well, the Tennessee Titans. It's not just the last four years either, even though they have won only 19 games in those four years, 15 of which were against equally horrible teams. They've made the playoffs only four times since 2008, averaging seven wins a year during that period. In short, they have more than done their part in helping to maintain the division's reputation as the worst in the NFL. That last part may be changing now that Houston is fixed and Jacksonville is intriguing, but that only means the Titans have four more difficult games than usual. Even if Ward finds a safer world in the pocket and the defense is made at least workable, the news that the Texans, Jags, and Indianapolis Colts are not nearly so abject works against the Titans.
The Titans are 5-19 within the division since 2022, which means the AFC South is largely a mockery of their own making. At least when everyone else was terrible, they had some cover. Now they are competitive compared only to the Cardinals, Jets, and Raiders, two of whom they play this year. That's worth mentioning only in case you choose to be hopeful about their future, which if you're reading this means you aren't.
What might not suck: Ward might get the Williams/Lawrence bounce, RB Tony Pollard might become a more visible weapon, and all the money they spent on DT Jeffery Simmons and the rest of the defense might make them more like the 2023 team that won seven games. Also, the uniforms have more red in them and less navy blue, in a clear attempt to channel their Houston Oilers days, a long-standing ownership fetish that has amused, well, nobody really. Second, it's hard to max out at three wins for three years in a row. Only two other teams have managed it in this century (Cleveland from 2015-17 and the St. Louis Rams of 2007-09), so the benefits of parity could arrest the Titans' taste for parody. Oh, and one other thing: If Saleh doesn't work out this time, the Strunks have demonstrated that they're more than willing to go get someone else, if that's your idea of improvement. It might more accurately be described as a core Titans value—a willingness to bring in new faces and names while somehow keeping the on-field product at the level of store-brand dog food.
HEAR IT FROM TITANS FANS!
J.D.:
All us corn pone dipshits in Tennessee are currently subsidizing the Titans new stadium. Irony of ironies, none of us locals will be able to afford to visit it for a game once it's done. That honor will be reserved for the carpetbaggers that Oracle brought in. It wouldn't matter anyways. The crowds at Titans games are 80% fans of the visiting team. That's what being a soulless town of transplants gets you.
Some rotten miscreant in the state house is going to say some performative, hateful bullshit about Robert Saleh being Muslim before the season is over. My money is on Child Grave Robber Andy Ogles. Mark my words. It doesn't matter how good a coach Saleh may be when he's here, our local politicians never miss an opportunity for hatred.
We'll bleed every local Nashvillian dry just so we can host a Super Bowl in Music City, by God. Play in it? Don't make me laugh. Fuck Andy Ogles, Steve Smith (the businessman, not the WR), Jon Robinson, and Bill Lee.
James:
Are you a player known only to tape-eating sickos, in a unique system that allowed you to put up fine numbers despite being a nobody?
We, the Tennessee Titans, would like to give you 100 million dollars!
We have zero track record of success for spending a lot of money on free agents no one else offered within 30 million of what we gave, but we promise our checks will hit your bank account, and no one in Nashville will really bother you in a creepy fan way! We don't really even need you to play a full season! Just show up to the press conference, maybe pull a hammy, schedule surgery in the middle of the season, commit a drive-by, it doesn't matter! Preserve yourself to prosper elsewhere after getting rich here! Hell, collect a last check before retirement! It's fine! We're less a football team, and more about enriching ourselves by convincing the local government to double our family's net worth.
Did we mention we're a family? Our owner is Miss Amy. Isn't that nice?
Hey, maybe you'll succeed here! We support that, but it's secondary to making fans think we're trying, while being an afterthought.
Send us your name, position, and bank info, oh and maybe do the ice bucket challenge to support CJ2K and we'll send you at least $100 million dollars!
Mike:
The Adams family is beyond hated in Houston. So it makes perfect sense to rebrand a Tennessee team (that hasn’t been in Texas since Newt Gingrich ran things) into the Oilers 2.0.
Nashville got their own team logo/colors only to watch it devolve into some sloppy seconds bullshit.
And they still suck.
Scott:
Do the Titans suck? Of course they do. But not in the way say... the Browns or in previous decades the Lions sucked. They suck in the same way that a wall painted beige sucks. Bland, uninteresting, not even worth the effort of getting worked up over. Barely noticeable. You know that something more interesting could be done but beige is... fine, ya know. You'd be forgiven if most of the time you forget this is an NFL franchise that exists in 2026.
This might be, in fact, their most impressive achievement. That somehow in the modern incarnation of the city of Nashville, where everyone and everything screams "LOOK AT ME!!!" in the most pleadingly annoying and garish way possible, the Titans somehow manage to engender almost no strong feelings. They aren't in the conversation of worst teams, ever, even if they should be after back-to-back 3-14 seasons. They're also never remotely close to being considered the best. Even when their season record somehow indicates they are a capable team, they will prove otherwise at the earliest time of convenience, just to make sure you forget about them again as quickly as possible.
According to Wikipedia, their overall record as the Titans from 1999-2025 is a bland 215-226. Toss in the two seasons as the hilariously misnamed Tennessee Oilers and you get 232-242. They are the Wonder Bread of the NFL.
Michael:
The two stories getting the most ink this offseason are about the team's former coach and future stadium, respectively.
Is anything about this team compelling in the present (or near-future-) tense?
Apparently not.
Brett:
Every year I write this later and later but guess what, I imagine you'll be forced to put this in because otherwise you'll only have like 3 submissions for the Titans. These suck ass losers just prove to be suckier and suckier every year. Why 6 year old Brett chose to root for this team in '99 is beyond me. Every good player we has either dies (RIP Steve McNair, horrendously saddened by the CJ2K ALS diagnosis) or lives long enough to become the villain (an Eagle or Raven). McNair hit both so good for him.
There's really not much to say about the current team. Brian Callahan was the worst failson hire possible, so there's really nowhere to go but up. Sure, I'm optimistic about the year; Cam can take a jump, the defense should be much improved, there's some young weapons but that will all come crashing down by week 3 if they manage to lose to the Jets and Giants. At least the disappointment just washes over me now and I can go about my life pretty unaffected.
Eric:
Tennessee Football Titans
You may be surprised to learn that there is a very good and cool football team in Tennessee! No, I am not talking about Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam’s foray into college sports (Tennessee Volunteers) or the now shuttered (my first pass at typing that said shittered) Memphis Showboats, I am referring to the Football Titans of Tennessee! They play in the highest echelon of professional American football, the AFC South division of the NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE (TM) and they play their home games right here in the American state of Tennessee! “Wow,” you say to me “that’s so awesome that they finally put a team in the South, people down there sure love football!” While it is true that people in the South love football, the team has been in Tennessee since 1997, nearly 30 years! “Incredible!” you reply “I bet with that much time to build an organization and a team, they are one of the very best teams in the AFC South division of the National Football League” You are correct in that assumption, they are one of the 4 best teams in the AFC South division of the NFL! In fact, they have never finished lower than 4th in the division the entire time they have been a part of it! The citizens of Tennessee love the team so much that they are paying $2.1 Billion for a brand new shiny stadium right next to the old stadium in Nashville, which is one of the cities in Tennessee! With a new coach, (relatively) new quarterback, new GM, newly clarified organizational structure, and new stadium, the Titans of Tennessee are on the verge of competing in a brand new season of professional football in 2026!
Tony:
However badly run you assume the Titans are, they’re worse.
Since 2019, they have:
Drafted exactly one (1) Pro Bowler (a return specialist).
Signed two free agents who became Pro Bowlers with the team (one of whom was a longsnapper).
Fired two head coaches and two GMs, but never at the same time, which means the team is now on its fifth different head coach/GM combo in five years.
I could list the many individual indignities and humiliations the Titans have inflicted on themselves and anyone burdened by association with them, but I might as well try to make an exhaustive list of all the stars in the known universe, or all the jobs their billionaire faildaughter owner wouldn’t be qualified to do outside the organization. There are limits to the human mind, and as a Titans fan, my mind is more limited than most.
The period of time this offseason in which Matt Nagy was a frontrunner to coach this team will not soon be forgotten by my loved ones, nor by my therapist. What a relief it was for them to instead hire Robert Saleh, who took one look at the defensive roster and felt such intense disgust he decided to throw them at Gus Bradley, who I suspect eats more boogers than all 37 of Saleh’s kids combined. The last five Gus Bradley defense ranks by points allowed: 23rd, 26th, 28th, 28th, 24th. Between these two and Daboll, I am going to spend this fall inventing so many slurs for bald men, you'd think I was J.K. Rowling visiting a monastery.
Carnell Tate was a stupid fucking pick. I don't care what anyone says.
Ilissa:
I went into labor a week early the day we beat the Cardinals. That’s how shocking it was that we’d actually won a game.
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