Our long local nightmare is finally over! Yes, it’s actual live football action, for the first time in just over seven months, as the Titans open the preseason tonight with a home game against the St. Louis Rams.
What should we expect from the Titans tonight? Well, for one, a bunch of people who will be playing in the regular season will be standing on the sidelines in street clothes tonight. The list of players expected to miss tonight’s game includes likely regulars when healthy Roydell Williams, Justin McCareins, and Rob Bironas, while DT Tony Brown will be a game-time decision.
Teams don’t plan for a preseason game they way they do for a real game, so I’m not going to put a lot of stock in how Vince Young looks in Mike Heimerdinger’s offense. There are, still, a few players I’ll be particularly interested in watching:
1. RB Chris Johnson. I admit it. I hated the pick when it happened. I thought it was a waste of a pick, they could’ve gotten Johnson a round later, and had other needs. Now, though, I’m fallen for the training camp excitement-I want to see how this guy does, especially with the first team offense against the Rams’ first team defense.
2. DT Jason Jones. I know, it’s very creative to list the first two draft picks as the two players I’m most excited to watch. But, if Tony Brown indeed does not play, Jones is expected to start, even though the unofficial depth chart has him listed behind Kevin Vickerson. Jones is very undersized for an NFL DT, at least if his official listed weight of 275 is close to accurate, and I’ll be looking to see how he holds up against the Rams rushing attack.
3. DE Jevon Kearse. The Freak returns to Nashville. Will he look like a stiff? My Magic-8 Ball says “Don’t bet against it.”
4. SS Chris Hope. Is he fully recovered from the neck injury that ended his 2007 season? Is he still willing to come up in run support and make the big hit, or is there some hesitation?
5. CB Eric King. My initial impressions of his performance at the end of last season was that he looked pretty good. On re-watching the games later, he didn’t look so hot. He’ll probably be matched up mostly against the Rams’ backups. If he doesn’t do well against them, that doesn’t bode well for his regular season performance.
The most important things to keep in mind, though, are (i) it’s only the first preseason game, (ii) it’s actual football, and (iii) one game does not a conclusive sample size make.
For those of us outside the Nashville and St. Louis viewing areas, the game will be shown Sunday afternoon on the NFL Network beginning at noon CT, so that’s when I’ll be watching it.
UPDATE (8/9 6:16 PM CT): The list of inactives is out, and Tony Brown will indeed not be playing. The others are McCareins, Roydell, Blakely, and Cary Williams. Jones will be starting in place of McCareins, and, as reported, Jason Jones for Tony Brown.
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