NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Saturday is cut-down day and the tendency is to look for surprise cuts.

Here are three players who may still be on the roster after 3 p.m. CT Saturday, or could resurface Sunday if the Titans need to keep someone on the initial 53 before making an IR move.

(Chris Milton photo: Mark Humphrey, AP via pool.)

Chris Milton – Nick Dzubnar get singled out as the special teams ace as he was a semi-notable offseason signing. But Milton was great on special teams last year when healthy, and he’s gotten better at cornerback. I remember one red zone one-on-one period where he played very physical coverage with great positioning.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Vic Beasley worked some with Mike Vrabel on a side field early during Thursday’s practice and Derick Roberson reportedly rode a stationary bicycle.

These qualified as big developments for the Titans at outside linebacker a dozen days before their scheduled opener in Denver.

Go anywhere else on the team and the questions are about depth.

But OLB is vying to replace receiver as the Titans trouble spot, a patchwork of players with minimal production, pedigree or both. Now with Beasley, there is even a desire question, something I didn’t think we’d be discussing about a Jon Robinson-Mike Vrabel significant money acquisition, whether the player in question is a one-year prove-it guy or not.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Some degree of clarity is coming on Vic Beasley by 3 p.m. CT Saturday.

Teams have to trim their rosters to 53 by then, which also means they have to make decisions on lists like the one Beasley is on, the Non-Football Injury list.

A spot on NFI means a player reported with an issue he didn’t suffer while under the team’s watch.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Beware the combination of a high draft pick and a Titans’ training camp.

In 2016, Kevin Dodd was the first pick of the second round. He had offseason foot surgery and missed the first 19 days of training camp.

In 2017, Corey Davis was the No. 5 pick overall and missed virtually all of camp with a hamstring injury.

(Kristian Fulton photo by Mark Humphrey, AP via pool.)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – After Dean Pees’ defensive meetings broke down in 2018 and 2019 and positional units assembled, the outside linebackers stayed in the same room. The coordinator noticed Shane Bowen already had a whiteboard filled with notes ready for his guys.

“A lot of coaches don’t do that,” Pees said. “A lot of coaches just write them down themselves, put them on their paper and then they tell their players. Well, he’d not only tell them, the players could actually sit there and look at them there on the board.

(Photo: George Walker Tennessean via pool.)

“That’s taking the extra step, it’s doing a little more than everybody’s asking of you, kind of being a perfectionist, making sure his player knew what we were putting in and how we were going to do it.”

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Words that keep showing up in my notebook from training camp practices: middle and perimeter.

Middle is bolded and underlined, perimeter comes with a question mark or a light cross-out.

The Titans offense can hit plays on the sideline, of course. But their best weapons in the passing game seem best suited for the inside, and that seems to be where Ryan Tannehill keeps finding A.J. Brown and Corey Davis in addition to Adam Humphries.

(Photo by Mark Humphrey, AP via pool.)

As a slot receiver, we’d expect Humphries to work there. As guys who more frequently line up outside, Brown and Davis might more often “win the red line.” Route-runners try to gain an edge against coverage and leave themselves space to go get a throw in that five yards marked off from the sideline on the practice fields.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The longer we go without seeing a guy, the more people tend to expect from him.

Vic Beasley is a big glaring exception here. He took 10 days to report and aside from one sighting on an exercise bike, he’s been just about as visible during his time on the non-football injury list as he was when the team couldn’t find him for the first three days of his unexcused absence.

For $9.5 million the expectation was something in the range of 10 sacks. Now it’s set up that any production out of him will look like a giant bonus.

But look around the Titans’ roster at some other guys we’ve not seen really do anything yet, and the outlooks are positive, sometimes unreasonably so.

(Photo: D'Andre Walker)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – I want for it to be for my guys out there the way it is for them in here.

That was one of the big points from Mike Vrabel on Thursday after the Titans didn’t practice and turned again to a big discussion of social justice, this time in light of the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisc.

Kevin Byard and Ryan Tannehill, centered in front of the masked team in its main meeting room, delivered messages through a media Zoom call. They spoke of how they and the group were feeling after watching Blake’s story unfold and stack on top of a string of recent and historical events they want to see change course.

#Titans' statements from @KB31_Era and @ryantannehill1 with full team in support. https://t.co/rx9xttoKiu

— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) August 27, 2020