The Tennessee Titans have a lot of uncertainty as we slowly inch closer to the regular season. This offseason alone, Tennessee parted ways with several high-priced veteran players to get under the salary cap going for the offseason.
This led to a roster that had several holes to fill with limited resources to fill them. Thankfully, the Titans do have brighter days ahead when it comes to their resources.
According to Over the Cap, the Titans are expected to have approximately $93.8 million in cap space in 2024. Sadly, that’s not going do them any good in 2023 unless they’re willing to sacrifice some of that future money with restructures or extensions this year.
This means that, outside of any late additions to the team, the Titans will be forced to maximize the talent they currently have, while also betting on the upside of the free agents they brought in.
Fortunately for them, that is something Mike Vrabel-led teams are often known for.
With mandatory minicamp beginning on Tuesday and training camp around the corner, it’s time to start focusing on which position battles stand out the most.
This team has a few starting jobs on the line, but the majority of the competitions are to determine spots on the back half of the roster.
Let’s not delay this any longer: here are five position battles to keep an eye on throughout this week’s minicamp.
Peter Skoronski vs. Andre Dillard (left tackle/left guard)
This is probably the most high-profile competition going on at the moment.
Truth be told, it’s hard to envision Skoronski taking the job before the pads come on, so don’t expect to see him at left tackle with the first unit too often.
It’s undoubtedly going to take an impressive training camp and preseason, and/or a complete disaster by Dillard for the Northwestern product to win the starting job.
With that said, I’m not one of those who is going to exaggerate about a less than four-centimeter difference in arm length to the point where I’m going to immediately declare Skoronski a guard without at least giving him a chance.
If the Titans had an All-Pro/Pro Bowl left tackle on the roster, obviously you would plug in Skoronski at guard without any hesitation. Unfortunately, that’s not the Titans’ reality at the moment.
To be as blunt as possible: Skoronski is competing with a former first-round pick and disappointment who struggled under one of the best offensive line coaches in the league, ultimately losing his job to a former rugby star who developed faster/better than Dillard did despite only learning how to play football a few years back.
Jordan Mailata is an anomaly, but I’d be willing to argue that so is Skoronski. There aren’t many linemen who are as technically sound as Skoronski is at this age, which is a major reason why he was still considered a top-10 prospect despite his “short arms.”
The Titans admitted that Skoronski was someone they coveted leading up to the draft since he was a “blue player” at a position of need, but they truly didn’t know whether or not he would still be available at No. 11 overall.
Once Skoronski was still on the board, Carthon called it an easy decision to make.
Ran Carthon initial reaction to Pater Skoronski. #Titans. pic.twitter.com/1yR23R0JXe
— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) April 28, 2023
Skor isn’t entering the league with zero flaws. He could get stronger and his overall game could use some fine-tuning here and there.
But the northwestern product is wise beyond his years in practically everything he does.
Whether it’s his ability to time the snap count to beat the opposition to his spot or his impressive blend of efficient hand usage, impeccable contact balance, fluid movement skill and robotic-like footwork, Skoronski has a lot to work with.
More importantly, he knows how to use his lethal skill set to overcome any of his physical limitations. Regardless of how long a defender is, Skoronski is a problem to deal with once you meet him in the trenches.
The #Titans got an absolute dawg in Peter Skoronski
People love to show the one rep from 2021 where Skoronski was exposed by LVN yet conveniently leave out the countless other reps over the last 2 years where he more than held his own.
Wherever he plays, Titans got a pillar pic.twitter.com/B9b9BUr1Xj
— Shaun Calderon (@ShaunMichaels31) April 28, 2023
People love to bring up his sub-33-inch arms as their sole reasoning for why Skoronski can’t play left tackle, but it’s not like Dillard is some lengthy freak who deserves the benefit of the doubt because of it.
Yes, maybe he does end up at guard, but if anyone deserves the chance to prove they’re an anomaly, it’s him. Especially considering who he’s competing with. Respectfully, Dillard isn’t exactly a slam dunk, either
— Shaun Calderon (@ShaunMichaels31) May 13, 2023
At the end of the day, both of these guys will be heavily relied upon on throughout their season at whichever respective position they land.
If you ask me for my boldest prediction heading into mini/training camp, I emphatically believe Skoronski will be the Week 1 left tackle and Dillard will start at left guard — that is, if as Skor is given a fair chance to compete.
By all accounts, it doesn’t appear as if Tennessee has predetermined anything, so it seems like the rookie lineman will at least have a chance to play the position in which he became a unanimous All-American.
This doesn’t mean I’ll be disappointed if Dillard ends up starting Week 1, but I’m personally going to give the bona fide technician the benefit of the doubt over the guy who has a one-inch advantage and “the data” says I have to like better.
The competition will start to heat up during minicamp, but don’t expect to see Skoronski working much with the first-team unit at left tackle until the pads come on in late July.
Will Levis vs. Malik Willis (No. 2 QB)
This next one is going to be a popular battle to watch throughout the coming weeks and months, but at the end of the day this job mostly relies on Will Levis’ development.
If the Kentucky product looks incredible in camp, then it’s hard to envision Tennessee keeping him as the No. 3 quarterback for long.
In an ideal world, Levis will perform to the point that it’s impossible to keep him on the bench. That would then allow the team to trade Ryan Tannehill at some point and acquire some much-needed draft capital for the future.
When it comes to Willis, yes he’s technically competing for the backup job as well, but considering the Titans’ investment in Levis, he will obviously be the priority going forward over Willis unless he flips that switch and makes this a difficult choice. Sign me up for that problem any day.
As of right now, Willis is mostly competing with those who are on the cusp of being the 53rd man on the roster, with the best-case scenario realistically resulting in Willis showing enough growth to warrant him being the emergency third quarterback on game days.
The wide receiver battle royale
Outside of Treylon Burks and maybe Kyle Philips, you can realistically make an argument that every other spot on the depth chart is up for grabs at the moment.
Burks figures to be the alpha No. 1 option for Tennessee, while Philips will operate out of the slot as long as he stays healthy.
After that, it’s anybody’s guess. Chris Moore is the only wide receiver on the team who has a season of at least 500 receiving yards, so I guess he’s the pre-camp favorite to be the No. 2 receiver on the outside.
To be perfectly honest, that’s just a depressing reality to comprehend.
Other receivers on the roster who are battling for a role on the team are Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, Racey McMath, Colton Dowell Mason Kinsey and Reggie Roberson Jr., as well as undrafted free-agent signings Jacob Copeland, Gavin Holmes Tre’Shaun Harrison, and Kearis Jackson.
Barring some late veteran addition(s), at least three from that group will make the team in some capacity. This week’s minicamp will be another chance for these receivers to start proving themselves.
Battle for No. 2 ILB
This is probably one of the more underrated position battles heading into camp. It’s a safe bet that we can pencil in Azeez Al-Shaair as one of the starting linebackers this fall.
As for the other spot, former third-round pick Monty Rice is the favorite at the moment, but he’s hardly a lock. He’ll face competition from several others, including Luke Gifford, Ben Niemann and Chance Campbell.
However, I believe his biggest competition will be someone who sneakily showed tons of untapped potential at the end of last season.
Rewinding to last year, Jack Gibbens was someone who we saw do well in the preseason and wondered how well that would translate to the real thing. By season’s end, we got to see that his potential was more than a facade.
Over the last five weeks, Gibbens finished the season with an impressive run-defense grade of 73.7, per Pro Football Focus. Rice, who played in a total of 10 games, posted a slightly better mark of 73.8.
Now that Gibbens is more experienced and Rice is healthy, it will be interesting to see how this battle plays out.
Secondary depth competitions
Barring some unforeseen development, the top-three cornerbacks on the Titans’ depth chart will be Kristian Fulton, Roger McCreary and Sean Murphy-Bunting.
Of course, the starting safeties will be Kevin Byard and Amani Hooker.
.@PFF_Sam ranked the Top-32 CBs in the NFL…
Here is his Top-10 in the AFC 👀 pic.twitter.com/DpBEmBbh93
— PFF (@PFF) June 4, 2023
After that is where the unpredictability kicks in.
Ideally, Caleb Farley finally puts it together and plays like the first-round cornerback he was selected to be, but considering we literally haven’t seen him play good football since 2019, I won’t get my hopes up, although I’d love to be proven wrong.
Others who will be competing for a depth spot at cornerback include Tre Avery and Chris Jackson, among others.
Elijah Molden is the true wild card of the group. The 2021 third-round pick has been working at safety this offseason, so that’s something to keep an eye on throughout the coming months.
Molden would instantly improve the depth at safety if he does make the full-time switch, but he’d also weakening the depth at corner. The hope there would be that Farley and/or Avery step up to fill the void.
Josh Thompson is probably penciled in as the third safety at the moment, but you’d have to figure Molden will make a case for himself if he’s given the chance to compete and can stay healthy.
