Despite dazzling highlights at training camp, the No. 4 overall pick remains catchless. Tennessee’s head coach addresses why a "vanilla" scheme is currently prioritizing fundamentals over flash.
There's been plenty of excitement this offseason about Tennessee Titans rookie receiver Carnell Tate.
He was selected No. 4 overall in the 2026 NFL Draft and has looked the part so far. It's rare that a practice goes by without a highlight of Tate making some ridiculous catch, whether it's one-handed or showcasing his catch radius.
Usually, rookies play in the preseason, but the Titans have been letting the starters get playing time a lot so far. Tate has been with the first-team offense in both games
Still, he has yet to catch the first pass of his NFL career. Tate had three targets in game one against the San Francisco 49ers, and two on Sunday night against the Seattle Seahawks at Nissan Stadium.
It's still the preseason, but you'd like to think the Titans would try to get the ball to their top draft pick.
This was a topic of discussion at the post-game press conference. Robert Saleh shared that the Titans are running a very basic version of the offense and aren't focused on getting players like Tate the ball with urgency.
"We're really not game planning. And there's different philosophies. Could Daboll move him around and get him the ball? Sure. We're still going out there and running our base, base vanilla offense. I mean, we're barely motioning. We're normal spacing. We're not exactly making it easy for our players to go execute, but at the same time, that's not what this is for. There will be a time to game plan and scheme people open, but right now it's about going out, executing the base fundamentals of what the scheme is supposed to be in all three phases. When it comes time to game plan and get people the rock, we'll get people the rock."
Cam Ward and the first-team offense have yet to throw a passing touchdown in the preseason. The Titans scored on their opening drive versus the 49ers, but it was a rushing score from Tony Pollard.
We'll see how many targets Tate gets in the final preseason game, but with how little he's gotten so far, we shouldn't expect that to change any time soon.
It seems we'll have to wait until the regular season for Tate to start getting the ball more consistently.
For now, the Titans will begin preparing for the preseason finale against the Chicago Bears on Aug. 29. Kickoff is at Nissan Stadium at 5 p.m. CT on NFL Network.
