2025 Team Previews: Tennessee Titans
Tennessee Titans 2025 Team Preview
All ADP data is courtesy of Fantasy Pros.
** = target in drafts at this ADP
Relevant Players
Calvin Ridley, WR (ADP: 61, WR32): Since returning to the NFL after missing most of 2021 and all of 2022, Ridley has been a bit of a tease. Before all his missed time and personal trials, Ridley was tracking to be one of the elite receivers in football. Since returning, we’ve been hoping for a return to that form, but instead have gotten a player whose just a level below that. He’s just cracked the 1,000-yard mark in his last two seasons, catching 76 passes in 2023 and 64 last year. He caught eight touchdown passes in 2023 for the Jags, which made his managers smile. He caught four last year, which was not so fun, although it’s worth noting that the Titans should be massively upgrading at QB this season. I believe the dream of Calvin Ridley, WR1 is dead. He’s now 30 years old, and it’s been four years since his absolute peak in Atlanta. If you remove that lofty expectation, and treat him like a 1,000-yard lock with a lot of touchdown upside, he starts to look pretty appealing at this ADP.
Ridley has played six NFL seasons, and scored 7+ TDs in four of them, while 2021 shouldn’t even count because he only played in five games. He’s got the No. 1 overall pick under center this season, and while Caleb Williams taught us last year that doesn’t guarantee a high-powered offense, it’s hard to envision Ward not being better than Will Levis. Lastly, the Titans pass-catching corps did get deeper this offseason, but no one is threatening Ridley’s alpha status. He’s a clear-cut WR1 for this team, guaranteed the biggest piece of the receiving pie with a promising young QB. He’s probably a middle of the pack WR2, but he will do the job if you spent an early pick on a monster WR1, and want to use the remaining early-round capital on RB depth, or a high-end QB/TE.
**Tony Pollard, RB (ADP: 79, RB28): Pollard’s ADP right now is almost exactly where it was last season when I penned the Titans’ preview. He was going No. 82 overall as the RB27. At the time I marked him as a value, and I’m doing the same now because Pollard’s contributions to fantasy rosters are underrated.
The drumbeat leading into Titans camp is a renewed effort to ease Pollard’s workload, and get a healthier snap split between he and Tyjae Spears. It was the same story last season, and what did we get? We got a third straight 1,000-yard rushing season, a second straight campaign with 250+ carries, and a third straight season with more than 1,300 yards from scrimmage. The boredom with Pollard stems from us as a community getting out over our skis in the first place. We begged for Pollard when Ezekiel Elliott started to fade, we got the monster season in 2022, and then he disappointed in 2023 from a touchdown perspective. Pollard also got dinged badly because of his struggles in short yardage; that’s an issue for sure, but only when he was being drafted in the first two rounds. Now you’re almost at pick No. 80, and here’s a starting RB who is basically a lock for 1,300 yards and 5-6 touchdowns. That’s tremendous value at this point in the draft, and he’s a perfect RB2 if you invested a first rounder in a RB and want to beef up your WR corps with multiple options.
Tyjae Spears, RB (ADP: 126, RB40): Spears is a player I was very excited about before Pollard came on board, and with Pollard still here, I’m not bullish on Spears’ 2025 prospects. Spears and Pollard have pretty duplicate skill sets, and it’s pretty clear that his size is holding him back in terms of receiving a bell cow workload. There were injury issues for Spears in 2024 that need to be considered, but the drop in efficiency from 2023 to last season was very severe. He went from 4.5 yards per carry to 3.7, lost a full reception per game, and simply doesn’t possess the TD upside to make up for any drop in efficiency. There is breakout potential for Spears in the event of a Pollard injury, but even an increase in usage simply puts him in a 50/50 split with Pollard that would ultimately just kill the fantasy value of both players. There are RBs in this range that have clearer standalone roles, more TD opportunity or both. Drafting Spears here won’t kill your team by any means, and it does have significant ceiling, but I’m probably looking at other names.
Interesting Sleeper(s)
Elic Ayomanor, WR (ADP: 218, WR87): Ayomanor is somewhat interesting as a total flier, because he posted pretty strong numbers at Stanford against man (70.9% success, 62nd percentile), he had had a really strong 2023 campaign that included more than 1,000 receiving yards, and he had back-to-back seasons with six touchdowns. His Stanford route tree didn’t do him a ton of favors, as literally half his routes were nines or curls, and he posted below average success rates on both patterns. He had clear strengths and if Tennessee caters to them, it’s possible he becomes a relevant player. The Titans WR room is crowded, but outside of Ridley, there aren’t established guys so because the path to opportunity is wide open Ayomanor is a guy to pay attention to this summer.
Notable Players
Cam Ward, QB (ADP: 159, QB27): Ward is one of the most undersold No. 1 overall picks I can ever remember, and it’s bizarre. Ward was absolutely crushing it at Washington State for two seasons, carrying them in the Pac-12 against teams stacked with significantly more talent before going to Miami and putting up over 4,300 yards and 39 touchdowns for the Hurricanes. This guy is an absolute stud, and I’d expect him to hit the ground running in Tennessee and elevating Calvin Ridley. Now, as a fantasy option in one-QB redraft leagues, Ward is a streaming QB. You need to be throwing for 4,000+ yards and tossing 30+ touchdowns to be cracking the Top 12 without running, and I love this dude but I don’t see him doing all that for this Titans team as a rookie.
For keeper and dynasty leagues, Ward is a very interesting player because in time, I do think he will be one of the NFL’s best QBs. I also believe he’s a very worthy gamble in SuperFlex formats because he will have some massive spike games this season, and while he’s not a runner, he can inflict pain on defenses as a scrambler.
Chig Okonkwo, TE (ADP: 184, TE23): Okonkwo reminds me so much of Jonnu Smith, another former Titans TE who was hyper athletic, had big play speed, but took until Year freaking nine to break out. Okonkwo has six career touchdowns, and has never had a 55-catch season, so regardless of how we feel about his big play ability and overall potential, he cannot be taken as your season-long TE. Okonkwo is a player to watch for those who stream the position, because he has blowup potential in soft matchups. Having a player of Ward’s caliber at QB can only help, but it’s not enough to make him someone I’d really consider actually drafting.
Tyler Lockett, WR (ADP: 224, WR88): It sure seems like Father Time is coming for Lockett. Long one of the premier underrated stars, Lockett’s decline began in 2023, and increased in earnest last season as Jaxon Smith-Njigba rendered him obsolete. Lockett fell below the 50-catch threshold for the first time since 2017 last year, and he could only muster 600 yards and two scores despite appearing in 17 games. His name might jump off the page here because aside from Ridley, it’s one of the few anyone beyond hardcore dynasty leaguers would recognize, but I do believe he’s cooked. There’s a ton of youth on this team, and while Lockett might be on the field early on while they develop, he’s going to be way more valuable as a tutor than he is for fantasy managers, even in super deep formats.
Xavier Restrepo, WR (ADP: 302, WR114): Restrepo was a player I loved at Miami, as he was Ward’s top running buddy and most reliable receiver. Restrepo’s combine numbers might be gross, but on the field he was an 1,100+-yard receiver for the Hurricanes who scored 11 touchdowns. Now, with that said, I am not very excited at all about him from a fantasy perspective. Restrepo embodies the scrappy small slot receiver archetype, but his success rates are actually not even at a level where you can see him evolving into a Wes Welker-type player. He was in just the 34th percentile vs. zone, the 30th vs. man, and he was flat-out garbage whenever he faced press (52%, 17th percentile. Restrepo was in the red on just about all the big boy routes except the corner, and thrived on slants, flats, and screens. Basically, Restrepo was completely reliable on layup stuff, and couldn’t do much else. He probably can do the same stuff in the NFL and be a positive for Tennssee’s offense, but that’s not going to deliver the fantasy goods, even in full-PPR formats.
Treylon Burks, WR (ADP: 316, WR113): Burks is still here, he’s still athletic, and he’ll probably still make a handful of plays that make you say “WOW! Why isn’t he better?” The Titans adding three rookies this offseason plus signing Lockett likely tells you where they’re at with Burks.
Chimere Dike, WR (ADP: N/A): Like with Ayomanor, there is a clear path to playing time for Dike if he shows out in the summer. Ayomanor, however, seems like the better bet due to his size and X receiver projection pairing better with Ridley, who can move all around the formation. Dike is a burner and the best version of him is tearing downfield and wreaking havoc with Ward and his big arm, but Dike’s college success rates on corners, nines and posts were all well below average. Dike is just an unrefined route runner, and that’s not what you want when you’re trying to develop a rookie QB you took first overall. Dike is the exact player who will be glued to the bench to begin his career while Lockett is on the field getting his reps.
Handcuffs
Kalel Mullings, RB (ADP: N/A): Mullings was a sixth-rounder, so we know that his potential to make an impact is tenuous with so little capital invested. With that said, Mullings is a big back (6’1, 236 lbs.), and he scored 12 touchdowns for Michigan last season, a team that is fully powered by the running game. Mullings is an absolute hammer, and he could find himself a pretty secure short yardage role for the Titans given Pollard’s previous short yardage struggles and Spears’ diminutive stature.