A battle-tested veteran fights to claim his starting role as Tennessee reshapes its offensive front, but lingering recovery hurdles threaten to delay his return to full game speed.
The Tennessee Titans decided to let two of the starters from last year's offensive line go this offseason.
Lloyd Cushenberry was released before free agency to free up cap space, and Kevin Zeitler wasn't given another contract after his one-year deal expired.
This means that two new faces will be tasked with protecting Cam Ward this season. The Titans have multiple players at center and right guard competing for the starting role.
At center, you have Austin Schlottmann, Pat Coogan and Andre James. The right guard competition consists of Cordell Volson, Jackson Slater and Fernando Carmona.
There are pros and cons to every person competing at both positions.
Schlottmann has the most familiarity with Brian Daboll's offense, but not much starting experience. James has played more NFL games but could be at a disadvantage since he hasn't been with Daboll before.
Coogan played five years of college football but hasn't played any NFL snaps yet.
At right guard, Volson looks to be the favorite. However, he is coming off a season-ending shoulder injury in training camp with the Cincinnati Bengals last year. He does have 48 starts under his belt.
Slater played in 12 games for the Titans with zero starts, and Carmona has yet to play an NFL snap.
The competition at right guard seems easier to gauge than at center. The job is Volson's if he can beat out Slater and Carmona.
While Volson is the frontrunner, he's still quite fully recovered from his injury with the Bengals last year. At Tuesday's press conference, he shared that he's still working his way back after missing all of last season.
He stated that the speed of the game is hard to get back into and his reaction time isn't quite where he wants it to be, but that it's slowly returning to him each day.
"Yeah, I think, you know, some of the biggest challenges is, like you said, I just didn't play football all last year due to the injury and just, you know, kind of getting back into the game, the flow of the game, the speed of the game, you know?" Volson said. "Right now, maybe a little slower to react to some things that I would like to be, because, you know, it's been so long since I played, but day by day it's coming back."
Getting the offensive line right should be a high priority for the Titans, who have had a bottom-10 unit in the league the last two years in terms of sacks allowed. From 2024-25, the Titans have allowed the sixth-most sacks in the NFL.
For Ward to continue progressing, the Titans will need to make sure he has a reliable offensive line protecting him.
