By MIKE HERNDON, columnist

With less than a week to go until the Titans report to training camp and the whirlwind adventure that is a new NFL season begins, I thought it would be a good time to set expectations for the upcoming season. For much of this offseason, my analysis and the focus of most fans has been centered around comparing the 2024 Titans to the 2023 Titans.

It’s not hard to make a case that improvements have been made to both the roster, and potentially, the coaching staff here in Tennessee. However, I’d venture to guess that at least 30 of the league’s 32 fan bases likely feel that their teams will be better in 2024 than they were in 2023. Such is the cycle of the NFL. Underperforming players go out, new players come in, fans convince themselves that the new players will obviously be better than the old ones. For example, there was simply no chance that Andre Dillard wouldn’t be an upgrade from Dennis Daley, right?

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Titans plan on experimenting with Jamal Adams, and if the veteran is healthy he could be used in a variety of roles, I've confirmed after digging around to learn about their plans for him.

The idea of him as a starting safety opposite Amani Hooker in place of Elijah Molden, who has been in line for the job, is fluid. 

Adams signed a one-year deal worth $1.25 million with $985,000 guaranteed, per Over the Cap. He's missed 24 of his last 39 regular season games with shoulder, quad and knee injuries.

The team is very conscious of the risk/reward of a veteran who played his first three seasons, which included two Pro Bowl trips and a First Team All-Pro season, with Dennard Wilson as his position coach.

The team views him as a potential big nickel if

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Titans will have just two training camp practices open to the public. When I got to the email they sent out Tuesday, as I was driving back from a family trip, tickets to both had been snatched up.

Those are the morning of Thursday, Aug. 8 and Thursday, Aug. 15.

Tickets remain available to the team's Saturday July 27th practice at Nissan Stadium, the first football event there without the bulk of the parking people are used to as that's now the construction site for the new venue.

There was never reason to expect much regarding open training camp sessions. 

Space is tight with the new building on the team's campus now and parking in the area is harder than in the past with some of the local buildings where the team had leased spots now occupied.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Much was done to patch depth-chart holes during the offseason, but all along we knew there was too little on the roster for a full fix in one offseason.

So while they look a lot better on the front lines, the depth is still an issue.

As I went position-by-position I was struck that they are in a lot better shape on offense than on defense, though they seem most secure at cornerback. We will discuss that in more detail on this week’s podcast, coming soon.

Onto our specific breakdown.

By MIKE HERNDON, columnist

We are officially just under two weeks away from the 2024 Titans reporting to training camp and exactly one month from their first preseason game against the 49ers at Nissan Stadium. The long wait for NFL football is almost over.

Battles for starting jobs, reps, or even roster spots provide for a lot of the intrigue throughout camp beyond the daily rollercoaster ride of reports about Will Levis’ performance or videos of highlights from one-on-one periods. And this year, the Titans have a few that are worthy of tracking. Here are the five battles that I will be most interested in when the team reports to Ascension St. Thomas Sports Park on July 23^rd.

By MAX GOLD, guest commentator

Max Gold holds a PhD from MIT and has followed the Titans since the Steve McNair-Eddie George years. He's a scientist with a background in machine learning and biology who is looking forward to seeing how the team's new regime uses data analytics on and off the field. He's from New Jersey and lives in Boston.

In 2022, an ESPN survey of the NFL found that the Titans were seen as the least analytically inclined team in the entire league. Since then, the Titans have shifted their attitude and made a series of moves to change that reputation. Ran Carthon was hired as the GM in 2023 and he has spoken at length about the value of analytics. Carthon has also hired people with analytics backgrounds, such as Chad Brinker and Sarah Bailey, for key roles in the front office and chose analytically-minded Brian Callahan as the coach to replace Mike Vrabel.

“Analytics” is a vague term that can refer to many different things, so I was happy to hear Callahan describe it as “using hard, concrete data to help decision-making.” Based on interviews and press conferences, it seems the Titans organization has bought into this definition of analytics, so here are some areas I expect this regime will be different from the last …

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Titans already have significant roster turnover, but we will really see the extent of it for a second year in a row when they trim to 53 on Aug. 27.

I peeked ahead to see how many contracts the Titans may need to address in 2025.

Thirty-six of 89 players on the current roster – 40 percent, are not signed beyond 2024. But the list doesn’t make for a hugely significant group.

Let’s look ahead at who Tennessee will be at risk of losing when contracts expire next fall.

By MIKE HERNDON, columnist

Heading into the 2024 season, few Titans players feel more essential to the team’s success than Harold Landry. The team’s 2018 second-round pick is entering his seventh season in Tennessee and stands out as clearly the most productive player at a critical position for Dennard Wilson’s defense.

Landry’s 41.5 career sacks represent 61.9 percent of the career sacks for the Titans' current outside linebacker group combined and land him 11^th on the franchise’s all-time sack leaderboard. He’s now just 10.5 sacks behind Jevon Kearse for the most in the Titans era of the franchise.