Tennessee Titans Release Player With Robert Saleh Ties

The Tennessee Titans are reeling after a 26-20 win over the Indianapolis Colts. 

Now, they must come back down to Earth and prepare for the Cleveland Browns. Before then, there was some business to take care of regarding one player. 

Upon looking at the injury report ahead of Week 5's game, the Titans had two players listed as out. Kevin Winston Jr. and Jordan Elliott were both inactive. 

Winston was injured in the 26-3 loss to the Houston Texans. He was marked out with a quad issue. 

Luckily, the Titans' secondary played well without one of their starters out there. Amani Hooker came back from injury and nearly had two interceptions. The Colts built a 13-0 lead, but the Titans' defense allowed only seven points in the second half. 

Then, there was Elliott. 

Elliott had played in every game until Sunday against the Colts. He wasn't dealing with an injury but still appeared on the injury report anyways. Elliott was left out due to a personal issue. 

The Titans didn't offer an explanation outside of that. 

On Tuesday, we learned the team's plans for him. The team announced that they were releasing him and shared a statement on social media. Elliott's release stemmed from an incident on Oct. 15 at the team facility. 

"On Thursday, October 15, there was an incident at our team facility involving Jordan Elliott," the statement read. "Following our review of the incident, we have made the decision to release Elliott from our roster. We will have no further comment on the matter." 

Elliott didn't even get to the halfway mark of the season before being released. He was familiar with Robert Saleh already before joining the Titans this offseason. 

He started his NFL career with the Cleveland Browns in 2020. He was a rotational player at first, then became a starter in 2022. He remained a starter in 2023, then joined the San Francisco 49ers in 2024. 

Elliott was a starter for the 49ers, and Saleh joined the franchise in 2025 as defensive coordinator after the New York Jets fired him. Elliott started 16 games for the 49ers last year, recording 31 total tackles, one pass defended, and one TFL. 

He joined the Titans as a rotational piece, much like he was at the start of his NFL career. The Titans prioritized beefing up the defensive line this offseason. 

Elliott played behind John Franklin-Myers on the depth chart and was listed ahead of recent addition Nazir Stackhouse, whom the Titans claimed off waivers following the preseason. 

Up until late Tuesday evening, all we had to go on was what was in the statement from the Titans. That changed once AtoZ Sports' Austin Stanley and Easton Freeze shared an update. 

A source told AtoZ Sports that the incident at the Titans' practice facility involved Elliott and a firearm. Elliott got into an argument with a teammate and stormed out of the locker room. That wasn't the problem. 

The problem was that Elliott went into the parking garage to his car to get a firearm. Thankfully, the situation de-escalated before it got worse. 

At the moment, that's all we know regarding the Elliott situation. 

One thing we do know about the incident is that it was not tied to the decision to make Alontae Taylor inactive on Sunday. 

ESPN's Turron Davenport went on X and reported that the two were isolated incidents. Besides what Saleh said about the situation surrounding Taylor, the Titans as a whole had not released any information about it publicly as of Tuesday. 

"Jordan Elliott's release from the Titans has nothing to do with whatever went into Alontae Taylor being deactivated vs. the Colts," Davenport said. "They're totally separate from each other per source."

Aside from Sunday, Taylor has played in every game for the Titans so far this season. Taylor was one of the Titans' most expensive free-agent additions this offseason. 

He is being paid a three-year, $58 million deal. 

Elliott and Taylor will most likely be topics of discussion heading into the Browns. Titans Roundtable will update you with the latest information on the two players when it becomes available.