One of the Titans' free agent acquisitions' lingering injuries has stalled his path to the starting lineup, forcing Tennessee to fast-track rookie Fernando Carmona against elite preseason competition.
The Tennessee Titans are trusting youth over experience again this preseason.
The Titans' next preseason opponents aren't getting any easier. They take on the reigning Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, then finish out the preseason against the Chicago Bears on Aug. 29.
Last Thursday, we saw the Titans play their starters, which isn't something fans were used to under Mike Vrabel.
Among the starters on the offensive line was rookie Fernando Carmona at right guard. Carmona got the start over veteran Cordell Volson, who has played in 50 games with 48 starts.
Robert Saleh was asked whether Carmona would get the start again after Monday's practice and said the rookie would be first in line.
"Yeah, he'll probably have first dibs." Saleh said.
While it's great that Carmona is seeing the field this early in his Titans career, there's the flip side of this situation.
Volson was brought in to be the starting right guard in free agency. He wasn't with the starters in the first preseason game, despite being listed that way on the depth chart.
Now, it looks like Carmona is going to run with the starters again for Sunday's game. It looks like Volson's injury is still a problem as he works his way back.
We learned at the beginning of August that Volson is still working his way back from an injury.
Before joining the Titans, Volson played for the Cincinnati Bengals from 2022-25. He quickly won the starting job at left guard and held down the position for all those years.
He suffered a shoulder injury during training camp last year and had surgery, missing the entire season. It's now clear that this injury continues to affect his ability to play football.
Volson was among the many free-agent acquisitions the Titans made this offseason to upgrade a 3-14 team from last year. The Titans are going to have two new starters on the offensive line either way, with Lloyd Cushenberry and Kevin Zeitler no longer being with the team.
Luckily, it looks like the Titans made a good decision in drafting Carmona, because Volson is clearly still behind in working his way back from last year's shoulder ailment.
The good news is that the Titans aren't committed to Volson for a long time. He signed a one-year, $3.2 million contract with the franchise in the offseason.
There's obviously still time for Volson to get back to 100% and have a chance to earn the starting job at right guard. It definitely says something if he's losing snaps in the preseason to a rookie.
That's not a dig at Carmona, as Saleh himself even said that Carmona and Austin Schlottmann were the frontrunners for the jobs at center and right guard earlier in the offseason.
If worse comes to worst and Carmona is the starter in the regular season, perhaps Volson can be the backup. Carmona has looked solid so far, but he will definitely hit the rookie wall at some point, as all newcomers in the NFL eventually do.
It's a good thing the Titans drafted Carmona as a backup plan, because their first plan hasn't panned out so far.
