Titans: 3 players on roster bubble who must shine in preseason

Nov 12, 2023

Only a few days until the 2023 NFL preseason officially kicks off.

The Titans will take on the Chicago Bears on Saturday. Tennessee faced the Bears in the preseason in 2021, falling in a 27-24 loss at Nissan Stadium as Titans quarterbacks Matt Barkley and Logan Woodside combined for 226 passing yards and one touchdown. Titans head coach Mike Vrabel won the NFL's Coach of the Year that season after the Titans went 12-5 in the regular season, taking a 28-25 win over the Houston Texans to cap off their regular season campaign before losing to the Cincinnati Bengals in the Divisional Round at Nissan Stadium.

Entering Vrabel's sixth season with the Titans, Tennessee will have its fair share of questions they'll need to answer before the start of the 2023 NFL season.

How will some of the newcomers fit in with the Titans' roster? Who will prevail in some of the team's position battles and round out the quarterback rotation behind veteran signal-caller Ryan Tannehill? Have the Titans added enough talent on the offensive line to boost an offense that ranked 32nd in the NFL with a Pro Football Focus pass-blocking rating of 52.4?

Tennessee will have plenty of players who could have something to prove as the preseason goes on.

Who are some players on the Tennessee Titans' roster bubble who need to shine in the 2023 NFL preseason?

The Titans' offensive line will have plenty of younger options to look out for, including Northwestern offensive tackle Peter Skoronski.

The former four-star recruit from Park Ridge, Ill., was selected with the No. 11 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. The Titans placed him at left guard in the unofficial depth chart they released on Monday. Tackle Andre Dillard, center Aaron Brewer, guard Daniel Brunskill and tackle Chris Hubbard took spots alongside Skoronski in the starting unit.

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Roos, a former undrafted free agent who signed with the Seattle Seahawks in 2017, took a spot behind Skoronski on the team's unofficial depth chart. He played in seven games and started in three for the Titans last season, gaining a 52.7 Pro Football Focus offensive ranking in games against the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys and Jacksonville Jaguars.

Roos must provide valuable depth for a team that hired a new offensive line coach, Jason Houghtaling, in February. If he can prove himself during the preseason, the Titans can take one step closer to building a reliable rotation on the line behind their starting five.

Jackson has played in 24 games and started in six for Tennessee since he was selected in the seventh round of the 2020 NFL Draft. He played in one game for the Titans in 2022, a 41-7 loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 2.

Jackson took a spot behind a few other cornerbacks on the team's depth chart. Cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting took the starting role, while Roger McCreary and Armani Marsh took the second spots. Murphy-Bunting, a former Super Bowl champion with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, signed a one-year deal with Tennessee in March.

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Jackson will need to prove himself during the preseason if he wants to take a role in improving a defense that allowed 4,671 passing yards in 2022, putting them in 32nd place in the league, according to NFL.com.

Campbell, a five-year NFL veteran for the Kansas City Chiefs and Arizona Cardinals, was signed by the Titans in April. He played in 17 games and started in nine for the Cardinals in 2022, earning 70 tackles, two tackles for loss, one quarterback hit, one pass deflection and one fumble recovery. He won a Super Bowl with Kansas City in 2020, ending the championship matchup against the San Francisco 49ers with two tackles and one quarterback hit.

Niemann took spots behind linebackers Azeez Al-Shaair and Chance Campbell on Tennessee's unofficial depth chart. He ended last season with a 71.0 Pro Football Focus grade, putting him on pace with Denver Broncos linebacker Josey Jewell and Jacksonville Jaguars linebacker Foyesade Oluokun at about 28th in Pro Football Focus's 2022 linebacker rankings.

If Niemann can continue to prove he is a reliable option at linebacker, he can provide a solid amount of depth behind Al-Shaair and linebacker Jack Gibbens by the time the 2023 season rolls around.