NASHVILLE — Tyjae Spears isn’t hedging. Heading into his fourth NFL season, the Tennessee Titans running back says 2026 is the year this franchise stops losing.
“We have a new logo, and we have a lot of new things around here. So, we are going to have a winning record this year,” Spears said, according to the team website’s Jim Wyatt.
It’s a bold line from a player who has never actually experienced one. Spears has been in Nashville for three seasons. The Titans haven’t finished above .500 in any of them.
A Franchise in Overhaul
The optimism isn’t coming out of nowhere. Nashville looks like a different building than it did a year ago. Robert Saleh is the new head coach, hired away from his post as the 49ers’ defensive coordinator. The Titans landed two first-round rookies, wide receiver Carnell Tate and edge rusher Keldric Faulk, with the No. 4 overall pick in April’s draft. And in March, the franchise scrapped nearly 30 years of branding for a new logo, new uniforms and new helmets, leaning into the light-blue color scheme of the old Houston Oilers.
Spears sees all of it as connected. New coach, new receivers, new look, new results. Whether the roster moves actually translate to wins is a separate question, but the locker room mood has clearly shifted.
The losing has been real, and it’s been prolonged. Tennessee hasn’t had a winning season since 2021, the last of three straight playoff appearances under then-coach Mike Vrabel. The bottom fell out fast after that. The Titans went 7-10 in 2022 and 6-11 in 2023 in Vrabel’s final two years, then collapsed to back-to-back 3-14 finishes under Brian Callahan, who was fired last October five games into his second season.
| Season | Record | Head Coach |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 12-5 (playoffs) | Mike Vrabel |
| 2022 | 7-10 | Mike Vrabel |
| 2023 | 6-11 | Mike Vrabel |
| 2024 | 3-14 | Brian Callahan |
| 2025 | 3-14 | Brian Callahan / Mike McCoy (interim) |
There’s precedent for a fast turnaround under a first-year coach — Vrabel himself just did it. He took the Patriots to a Super Bowl berth in 2025, his first season in New England, after a team that had won four games in each of the previous two years.
Spears’ Own Path Through Adversity
Spears, a third-round pick out of Tulane in 2023, has played in 42 games over three seasons with the Titans, including three starts. He’s rushed for 1,048 yards and eight touchdowns while adding 127 catches for 873 yards and two more scores through the air, per the team’s own numbers via Wyatt’s report. His best statistical season came as a rookie under Vrabel, when he posted 838 scrimmage yards. He hasn’t cracked 550 in either season since, with injuries and a stagnant offense both playing a role.
He’s framing this offseason around one word.
“Consistency overrules everything,” Spears said. “I am trying to consistently improve … as a person and a player. And if I do that, everything is going to be good.”
New offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, hired away from the Giants, gives Spears a fresh scheme to work in. Saleh has already put a number on Spears’ role, calling him one of the position group’s “bell cows” alongside veteran Tony Pollard, who’s posted four straight 1,000-yard seasons dating back to his Dallas Cowboys days. Pollard isn’t likely to cede much ground, but at 25, Spears has fresher legs and a clear chance to carve out a bigger share of the workload than he’s had in either of the past two years.
Spears has walked this road before. His Tulane teams went a combined 15-22 through his first three college seasons before breaking out to a 12-2 finish in 2022.
“I went through some tough years in college,” Spears said. “So, my first few years in college were kind of rough, dealing with injuries, dealing with the record. Eventually, we keep on working hard and working together, something has to change, and this is the year to change.”
What Comes Next
Talk is cheap in July. The Titans haven’t played a snap under Saleh yet, and a winning record would mean at least a five-win improvement on last season’s total. But the pieces are at least different this time — new play-caller, new top-of-the-draft talent, and a running back who’s stopped waiting around for things to change and started saying so out loud.
Tennessee opens training camp next month, when Spears’ words will start getting tested against real practice reps.
