Titans-Bears preseason recap, what happened, what actually matters for depth chart

When next the Tennessee Titans take the field, it'll matter. For now, it's wait-and-see time at the bottom of the roster.

Led once again by the reliable leg of kicker Joey Slye and not much else, the Titanscompleted the 2026 NFL preseason with a 24-15 loss against the Chicago Bears on Aug. 29. Now it's time for the sprint to the start of the regular season. NFL active rosters must be cut down to 53 players by 5 p.m. CT on Aug. 30, meaning the Titans will have to sever ties, at least temporarily, with 38 players before rebuilding a practice squad of up to 17 players on Aug. 31.

The Titans rested most all of their starters in this one, a departure from coach Robert Saleh's strategy in the first two weeks of the preseason. The only projected starters who played on offense were rookies Carnell Tate, who only took three snaps, and Fernando Carmona Jr. On defense, contributors like Cedric Gray, Jacob Martin, Marcus Harris and Jordan Elliott played intermittently in the first quarter.

Quarterback Will Levis led the Titans' offense throughout the first half, finishing his day 14-for-22 passing with 143 yards. Bears starter Tyson Bagent continued the trend of backup quarterbacks torching the Titans' defense in the first half of preseason games, completing 16 of 17 passes for 208 yards and two touchdowns, including a 97-yard score on his first play from scrimmage.

Slye made 11 field goals across three preseason games, the most by any kicker in any preseason since Graham Gano in 2016. Counting preseason games and training camp practices that media have been able to view, Slye has made 36 consecutive field goals.

It'd sure be nice if the Titans found the end zone more often. But Slye has emerged as Mr. Automatic in the second half of this preseason.

The Titans' secondary is leaving an awful lot of cushion in coverage. After the Week 1 preseason win, the argument was that San Francisco's route patterns were so specific that it created difficulty in man coverage. After the Week 2 preseason win, the conversation shifted to difficulties in communication understanding the transition from match coverage to vision coverage. Now... the Bears' receivers were just open.

Credit where it's due: Bagent's a pretty good quarterback. But the Titans aren't closing many cushions. The ball is finding receivers way too easily, whether it's against the first-team, second-team or third-team defense. For as many excuses as there can be about the Titans playing vanilla in coverage, the closing speed and the ability to force incompletions hasn't been on display.

Across three games, Levis posted a stat line of 21-for-39 with 200 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions. At very few points during training camp did Levis ever look like a serious threat to replace Mitchell Trubisky as the Titans' backup, and the Titans validated that by letting Trubisky sit this entire game out, along with starter Cam Ward.

Levis could well be a candidate to be cut or traded in the coming hours. NFL teams are usually evenly split between how many carry two quarterbacks on their active roster and how many carry three. With one season left on his rookie deal, Levis isn't a particularly valuable long-term investment for a team interested in trading, but the one thing that still isn't in doubt is his arm talent. Levis had two would-be touchdowns dropped on go balls in this game alone, and the ability to put the ball downfield accurately is still as alluring as it was when the Titans drafted him in 2023.

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at  nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X @nicksuss. Subscribe to the Talkin’ Titans newsletter for updates sent directly to your inbox.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Titans-Bears preseason recap, what happened, what actually matters for depth chart