Season-ending injuries to Jaylen Harrell and Jaren Kanak deplete Tennessee's depth, forcing the defense to reshuffle its pass rush while narrowing a crowded battle in the tight end room.
The Tennessee Titans suffered two unfortunate injuries in their 19-13 win over the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday evening.
Jaylen Harrell played 15 snaps on defense before leaving with an injury. Rookie tight end Jaren Kanak only played one offensive snap before exiting with an injury as well.
Head coach Robert Saleh updated Kanak's status on Friday, but then he had more bad news on Saturday. Kanak had an MRI, and the team was waiting for the results to come back.
Those results came back the next day, and Saleh shared that Kanak had torn his pectoral muscle and was out for the year. Harrell is also out for the season after tearing his ACL.
Harrell was learning a new position this offseason after playing outside linebacker for most of his NFL career up to this point. With the Titans moving to a 4-3 defense, he was learning how to play as an edge rusher.
Harrell set a career high of 4.5 sacks last season. He was a seventh-rounder in the 2024 NFL Draft out of Michigan.
Kanak was a seventh-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft out of Oklahoma. He started his college football journey as a linebacker, then converted to tight end after not being able to see the field as much.
He ended up finishing with the third-most receiving yards on the team last season. For someone who played one year at tight end, that's pretty impressive.
Unfortunately, both of their seasons are now over.
Based on where they were in the first depth chart of the preseason, let's take a look at what this means for the Titans.
Starting with Harrell, he was competing for a spot in the rotation as a right-side edge rusher. That side also features Jacob Martin and Keldric Faulk. Harrell was listed as the No. 3 edge rusher.
This means that the Titans have now lost depth at the position. We know how little depth there was in the pass rush last season.
The Titans compiled only 42 sacks as a team last year, which ranked 14th in the NFL. The Titans did add more depth at edge rusher this offseason with Martin, Jermaine Johnson, Malik Herring and Truman Jones, but losing Harrell still hurts.
You can never have too much depth, especially at a position of need in the Titans' case.
Kanak was trying to carve out a role for himself in the tight end room. He was competing with Joel Wilson, David Martin-Robinson, Kylen Granson, Daniel Bellinger and Gunnar Helm.
Realistically, Kanak was probably not going to challenge either Helm or Bellinger and was most likely going to compete for the No. 3 or No. 4 spot at tight end if the Titans decide to keep that many on the 53-man roster.
At the very least, Kanak could have been a practice squad player. It's unfortunate that his rookie season is ending so soon. If he had been able to make the 53-man roster, he could've gained valuable experience from Bellinger or Helm.
At the end of the day, the Titans lost valuable depth at edge rusher and tight end. Both Harrell and Kanak will focus on their recovery as they are done for the season.
