The rookie's impressive rise through training camp pits him against an elite interior defender, transforming grueling practice battles into a vital launchpad for a starting role.
There's been an interesting development at Tennessee Titans training camp lately.
Rookie Fernando Carmona has been impressing and is in line to start for the Titans in the second straight preseason game. What's even more impressive is who he's been beating for offensive snaps.
Carmona has been competing with Cordell Volson and Jackson Slater for the starting right guard. The contest has really been between Volson and Carmona, truthfully.
Volson came to the Titans this offseason after four years with the Cincinnati Bengals. He played in 50 games with 48 starts.
The kicker is that Volson had a season-ending injury at training camp last year. He revealed that he's still working his way back from the shoulder injury, which could affect his performance in the competition so far.
Robert Saleh confirmed that Carmona will be running with the starters in Sunday's game against the Seattle Seahawks.
Carmona has been a welcome surprise at training camp and is now starting to carve out a role for himself early into his Titans tenure.
Lucky for him, he gets to go against the best defensive tackle in the game of football on a regular basis. Carmona has started at right guard so far, meaning he has the tough task of blocking Jeffery Simmons at practice.
This is no easy task. Most players in the NFL can find it hard to keep Simmons out of the backfield.
However, Carmona revealed at Wednesday's press conference that he has really enjoyed facing Simmons. He understands that going against a player like Simmons daily is only going to make him a better player, too.
"Yeah, it's been awesome, man," Carmona said. "You know, coming into this league, being a rookie, you want to go up against the best. Knowing that I'm going up against Jeff here, I know when it comes Sunday time, you know, it's going to be that much easier. So, it's a true blessing to have him on our team. Then, you know, him to go up against me every day in practice, it's a true blessing."
Carmona is doing pretty alright for a former fifth-round pick out of Arkansas. If he keeps stacking performances like Thursday's, we might see him start for the Titans as a rookie.
General Manager Mike Borgonzi was high on both Carmona and Pat Coogan. We're just now starting to see why that was.
Carmona and the Titans kick off their second preseason game on Sunday versus the Seahawks at 7 p.m. CT on Fox.
