NASHVILLE, Tenn. – We know the Titans still have an incomplete roster. We don’t know what more, if anything, they will do to round it out.
Dez Fitzpatrick, courtesy Louisville athletics
Given the way things stand right now, here are the six players who they are counting on too much.
4) Teair Tart – The Titans look a lot better with their four-man nickel front with Bud Dupree and Harold Landry outside of Jeffery Simmons and Denico Autry. But on 
early downs or in short-yardage downs they are still going to use conventional 3-4 personnel, at least at times. Tart looks to be the leading candidate to man the nose tackle spot between Simmons and Autry. Tart was quite promising in his seven games and 154 snaps last year. But that is a very limited sample size. He’s at the front of the line now and there is no clear second guy. (Pool photo courtesy George Walker, Tennessean.)
3) Rashad Weaver – I liked the pick at 135th in the fourth round. But as with receiver or tight end, they waited too long to get to edge. Bud Dupree was a big addition. He and Harold Landry should be a good tandem. But they both tend to play too many snaps. I understand the Titans like to lean hard on their best guys, but there are diminishing returns at a certain point. They need a quality third guy who will force them to play him some and let Dupree and Landry recover. Will Weaver be good enough to do that? Maybe so. Now there is an assault case hanging over him, one that comes with an NFL investigation and if it goes unsettled, an Oct. 5 court date between the Titans games at the Jets and at the Jaguars. There could be a suspension.
2) Cam Batson/ Nick Westbrook-Ikhine / Dez Fitzpatrick – Yes, I cheat with a three-for-one/ Out of this trio the Titans need a No. 3 (a No. 2 in a dream scenario; that would be terrific and a home run) as well as their No. 4 and No. 5 guys who can rotate through and be reliable contributors. I like Batson in his role as an occasional slot man who can also run a jet sweep. He had sub-4-4 speed coming out of Texas Tech in 2018. Westbrook-Ikhine made some plays last year in his chances after a lot of camp drops. Fitzpatrick is a fourth-round pick in need of time and polish. The Titans are down 45.6 percent of their catches from 2020. These three guys need to account for 53 catches to match their output plus that of Adam Humphries, Khalif Raymond, MyCole Pruitt, and D’Onta Foreman from last year -- and that’s before chipping into the lost numbers of Corey Davis and Jonnu Smith.
1) Josh Reynolds – The Titans see him as a No. 2 at this point, or at least a No. 3 with one of the guys listed above emerging as a No. 2. He caught 52 passes last season for the Rams, where he was third. That was 13.3 percent of LA’s receptions. If the Titans throw as much as they did last season, that would be 42 catches in Tennessee. Davis had 65 in his final year with the team. Hey, Reynolds could be primed to surpass his 2020 numbers, because as they stand personnel-wise right now, defenses are going to load up to slow A.J. Brown and take their chances against Reynolds.
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