ClutchPoints
Expectations are high for the Tennessee Titans’ first-round pick. And Carnell Tate has already dazzled the team. And he is crucial to the season, which will explode or fizzle with these two players: Tate and his quarterback, Cam Ward.
When the Titans went into the 2026 NFL Draft, they had a clear-cut choice. They could have selected a game-changing defender like Arvell Reese, Sonny Styles, or Caleb Downs. Instead, they chose their version of the best available offensive weapon.
In so doing, they banked their 2026 season success on an offense that can consistently score enough points to keep the team within shouting distance of fourth-quarter wins.
To be clear, this doesn’t mean the Titans are a two-man show. Even when Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill were wreaking crazy havoc back in the day, the Chiefs didn’t win games just because of those guys.
But the margins in the NFL are slim. A darling team one year becomes next year’s disaster. The most recent example was the difference between the 2024 and 2025 Commanders. The former won every close game in sight. The latter did very few things right.
So why is there so much of a spotlight on Ward and Tate? It’s because they have to be the margin benders for the Titans. It doesn’t mean that every time the fourth quarter rolls around, Ward finds Tate in the corner of the end zone for the game-winner with eight seconds left.
But it does mean that when the Titans win games, that duo needs to be the spark somewhere along the way.
The Titans are already banking on offensive coordinator Brian Daboll helping Ward make a big leap in year two, according to ESPN.
“Tennessee’s hope is that Ward makes the kind of jump Allen did early in his career when Daboll was offensive coordinator in Buffalo, or he has the kind of season Jones had in Daboll’s first season with the Giants,” Dan Graziano wrote. “The Titans added a lot to their disappointing wide receiver room in the hopes of building something quickly around Ward. Daboll’s résumé tells us he should be able to identify Ward’s strengths and weaknesses, designing a playbook that helps him thrive as early as this season.”
And the addition of Tate makes that more likely. The Titans made no bones about the reason they drafted Tate, according to ESPN.
“The quarterback is a pretty damn important piece,” Saleh said after the draft. “So we’re doing everything we can to help [Ward] and surround him with players who can get the ball in their hands and go score. Carnell was by far the top receiver on our board. It was a very easy decision to make.”
“(Tate has) great hands, wins in man coverage, and he’s a strider,” Ward said.
One of the things the Titans love about Tate is his size....
