Titans Bet Their Joint-Practice Progress Will Carry Into the Season

The Titans prioritized their work against the 49ers, Seahawks and Bears over preseason games. Now they have two weeks before we find out whether that progress translates into real results.

By PAUL KUHARSKY

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Titans made the preseason pronouncement final: Joint practices are more meaningful than preseason games.

All but a couple of starters sat after Robert Saleh and his staff were satisfied with short-week work against the Bears Thursday, as Chicago’s bench beat the Titans’ bench 24-15 at Nissan Stadium.

Saleh said being under the lights and in live situations was very important for guys competing for roles and roster spots.

"For the guys who know they are going to be here, those joint practices are extremely (valuable)," he said. "You're getting more scheme. It's not game planning, but you're getting more volume, you're seeing more from the other team, the intensity is a lot higher. You're not as cautious with regard to trying to avoid injury with people on the ground. You're getting 50 reps in less than an hour and a half, the conditioning level. It's a much more true evaluation."

Tennessee will get its roster down to 53 Sunday by 3 p.m. CT and play the Jets two weeks later, giving us our first real feel for just who Saleh’s version of this team is and what sort of advancement Cam Ward is making under Brian Daboll.

In the meantime, the second-level defense helped Tyson Bagent look terrific. He faced little pressure, stood tall and delivered while also making some effective plays on the move.

"Starters" Kurtis Rourke, Drew Lock and Tyson Bagent combined for an .889 completeion percentage, 9.2 yards per attempt and a 127.04 passer rating vs. the #Titans in the preseason.

— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) August 29, 2026

The Titans’ D gave up four fourth-down conversions before getting a stop of the Bears. 

.@ChicagoBears @titans on 4th & 1...Got a play for every situation; even the preseason. #dabears #BaldysBreakdowns pic.twitter.com/HRcm4l2Y7N

— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) August 29, 2026

Will Levis got a final chance to wow another of the league’s 31 teams and did not. He had deep balls that were a touch off to Carnell Tate – it would have been a tough catch -- and Tyren Montgomery -- he should have had it -- that would have been touchdowns. 

"I could have kept Tate a little higher, just to keep him a little more up the field," Levis said. "I liked where the other one was, but those are tough plays to make. I know those guys are going to make them for us."

Carnell Tate almost has a big play but it gets broken up by Dillon Thieneman pic.twitter.com/Vc9n4HmNwb

— Football Performances (@NFLPerformances) August 29, 2026

He had a 1:21 drive with three timeouts before the half that the offense only turned into a field goal. 

Levis connected on 14 of 22 passes for 143 yards and an 82.2 rating.

The offense in three games was predominantly Joey Slye, who hit 11 of 11 field goals. Those accounted for 33 of the Titans’ 53 preseason points. Tony Pollard ran in a touchdown on the first drive of the first game and D'Ernest Johnson scored his second late against the Bears.

Yes, the Titans clearly valued the joint practice session with each preseason opponent more than the game that followed two days later.

They showed more scheme, as film of that work is exclusive to the two clubs involved, and they played increasingly better. I wrote that they were too pleased with tone-setting in Santa Clara, Calif. against the 49ers and were trumped on precision and execution. Offensively against the Seahawks, they fared better, carving up some big holes in the running game and playing good situational offense against the defending Super Bowl champions. Against Chicago, Cam Ward found multiple meaningful connections with Carnell Tate, who came out of a lull.

They find all that more important than what their first-team offense did in six series in games, what the defense did in a bit more than that and what second-teamers and lower-ranking guys fighting to sort out roles and roster spots did Saturday evening.

But even with them playing vanilla against vanilla, we can’t dismiss the lack of overall execution and playmaking. It’s reasonable to shift to a place where joint practices become the main feature of the preseason. We can’t move to a place where, for a team at this stage, preseason games mean nothing.

The expectation is that it will all be better when it counts. But that will be another big change to go with the staff, the roster, the branding and the uniforms. 

The work on altering those back-to-back 3-14 seasons is soon upon them.