One player's recent absence highlights a fragile secondary. With unproven depth behind the new starters, even a minor setback threatens to derail Tennessee’s rebuilt defensive backfield this season.
The Tennessee Titans are holding their final OTA practices this weekend, but something came up that is a little concerning.
The Titans made some big moves in free agency this offseason, bringing in Wan'Dale Robinson, John Franklin-Myers, Alontae Taylor and Cor'Dale Flott. However, besides Robinson, most of them haven't been at OTAs.
Robinson will bring his veteran experience at slot receiver to a room that desperately needed help last season. Franklin-Myers is an excellent player to pair with Jeffery Simmons to hopefully bring more consistency to the defensive line in 2026, and Taylor and Flott are going to be the starters on the outside at cornerback.
Flott hasn't been seen in the last couple of weeks, and Titans head coach Robert Saleh revealed why that was. He shared at a recent press conference that Flott has been out with an injury for the last couple of weeks.
"Marcus [Harris] is doing a fantastic job at nickel, you know, and [Cor'Dale] Flott was doing a really nice job. He's dealing with an injury. So, he's been out a couple of weeks, but he'll be, I think, good for minicamp. But overall, I think the secondary is in really good shape."
This is great news for Flott, but even more so for the secondary as a whole.
The secondary was a massive disappointment last season, with many players being shuffled in and out throughout the year. L'Jarius Sneed played in seven games due to injury, and Roger McCreary and Jarvis Brownlee Jr. were both traded at the deadline.
Darell Baker, Jalyn Armour-Davis, Marcus Harris and Micah Robinson were the starters after that and didn't do very well. The Titans allowed the seventh-most passing yards per game last season (248.3).
While Flott's injury appears to be very minor, the lack of depth the Titans have outside of the starter is apparent.
As it stands, Taylor, Flott and Harris are expected to start as we head into minicamp and training camp this summer. If any of them go down with an injury, the Titans are going to be in trouble.
The reserves at corner are Josh Williams, Keydrain Calligan, Jeadyn Lukus, Micah Robinson, Erick Hallett II, Latrell McCutchin Sr., and Jalen McMurray.
Williams was mostly a special teams player at the Kansas City Chiefs. Calligan, Robinson and Hallett were on the team last season but only have one game of starting experience between them.
Lukus, McMurray, and McCutchin are all undrafted free agents and have zero NFL experience.
Don't get me wrong, the Titans improved both sides of the ball significantly compared to last year; however, the secondary still has little to no depth outside of Taylor, Flott, and Harris.
On the bright side, if those three can stay healthy, the Titans may be in good shape and have a consistent year in the secondary. That would be great for what was one of the worst defenses in the league last season.
However, if the Titans start dealing with injuries at cornerback as we did in 2025, we could see more of the same from this defense.
