Robert Saleh plans an extended look for his first-team unit against Chicago, aiming for a full half of action to sharpen performance before final roster cuts.
One thing we've learned about how the Tennessee Titans operate in the preseason under Robert Saleh is that he likes to play the starters.
In both games so far that's been the standard.
It has led to ups and downs for the Titans, but luckily it's happening in the preseason, not the regular season.
The offense has had its problems, but the defense has held its own. The Titans struggled after scoring on their first drive, but still won 19-13 over the San Francisco 49ers.
Ward and the first-team offense showed improvement in the second game with the Seattle Seahawks but didn't score any touchdowns. After the starters allowed touchdowns on the first two offensive drives, the Seahawks were held to three more points in the second half.
The Titans won that game 19-16.
To one's surprise, Saleh is going to play the starters again on Saturday night, when the Chicago Bears come to Nissan Stadium.
The question at Thursday's press conference was how many plays the starters will be on the field. Saleh shared that he will try to keep the starters on the field for anywhere from 20 to 25 plays.
The goal is to keep them out there until the end of the first half.
"That's the plan, but again, that is subject to change once I get in there and just see where our bodies are at," Saleh said. "We've had a pretty extensive, pretty difficult training camp. Like, it's been heavy. Every time we step on the field it, you know, it's been a different model. So, I don't know if you guys have noticed, but every single one of our practices from a load standpoint has simulated a game plus a quarter. And so, after every practice, they're walking off feeling like they just played a game. And that was by design. And so, we've had, I want to say, eight game like practices, this including one of them. So, we'll see when go we in there what the rep count will be, but the goal is to get them through the first half."
Prepare for another high dosage of starters on the field. At least in the first half.
Saturday will be the final day before the Titans have to reduce their 90-man roster to 53 players. The official NFL deadline will be Sunday at 5 p.m. CT.
Fringe Titans players will get one more chance to prove they deserve to be on the roster on Saturday night versus the Bears.
