Today’s taxi squad moves:
Dallas Cowboys
Houston Texans
Indianapolis Colts
New York Giants
San Francisco 49ers
Tennessee Titans
Today’s minor moves:
Atlanta Falcons
Carolina Panthers
Cleveland Browns
Las Vegas Raiders
Los Angeles Chargers
New York Jets
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tennessee Titans
Today’s minor moves:
Arizona Cardinals
Atlanta Falcons
Baltimore Ravens
Carolina Panthers
Cincinnati Bengals
Denver Broncos
Detroit Lions
Houston Texans
Jacksonville Jaguars
Las Vegas Raiders
Los Angeles Rams
Minnesota Vikings
New York Giants
New York Jets
Philadelphia Eagles
Pittsburgh Steelers
San Francisco 49ers
Seattle Seahawks
Tennessee Titans
Kenny Vaccaro is calling it a career. On Wednesday, the longtime NFL safety announced that he is stepping away from the game to focus on a new e-sports venture (Twitter link via NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport). 
“This isn’t a reflex decision for me; it’s something I’ve thought about for a long time,” Vaccaro said. “I’ve been a gamer for even longer than I’ve played football, and I’ve always thought of myself as a gamer first. So this is the realization of a long-term dream for me…Life doesn’t end just because you put down the helmet. You can reinvent yourself.”
Vaccaro, a 2013 first-round pick, spent his first five years with the Saints and started in 67 of his 68 regular season games. After that, he found himself in a severely depressed market for veteran safeties. But, after settling for a cheap one-year deal with the Titans in 2018, he parlayed a strong season into a four-year, $26MM extension.
The veteran made 42 for the Titans before his release earlier this year. In 2020, his last NFL campaign, he finished out with 62 stops, one sack, and five passes defensed. The advanced metrics at Pro Football Focus — which have never been especially fond of his work — gave him a 58.8 overall grade, slotting him just 68th out of 84 qualified safeties.
After 110 career games, multiple postseason trips, and over $28MM in career earnings, Vaccaro is now set to enter the e-sports arena.
While preparing to watch Sunday’s Titans-Patriots game, kicker Stephen Gostkowski made a noteworthy revelation. The 37-year-old isn’t opposed to resuming his NFL career in the future, reports ESPN’s Mike Reiss. 
After an illustrious Patriots career that saw him win three Super Bowls and earn two All-Pro honors, Gostkowski signed with the Titans in 2020. He played in 15 games, converting 18 of 26 field goals and 46 of 48 extra points.
The Titans have placed linebacker Monty Rice on injured reserve, according to a team press release. In an injury-marred year, Rice becomes the 18th player to land on the Tennessee’s IR.
The Titans turned to Rice as their starting inside linebacker after losing Rashaan Evans and David Long to injury. Now, they’ll have to look elsewhere for support, alongside fellow fill-in Jayon Brown. That could mean an uptick in work for backups Dylan Cole and Nick Dzubnar.
It’s a disappointing setback for the rookie ‘backer, as he was starting to gain favor with head coach Mike Vrabel.
“He started by finishing [on special teams]…running his guy and taking care of the returner, so I think he started to build some confidence there. Then he made some tackles on kickoff and really started to build some confidence there. [Now,] he’s got an opportunity to play linebacker,” Vrabel said recently (via Jim Wyatt of the team website). “He is continuing to improve and hopefully we can start to really see some more progress.”
Rice, a third-round rookie, could theoretically return later this year after sitting out for at least three games. So far, the Georgia product has 36 stops on the year, plus one pass defensed and a quarterback hit.
Today’s taxi squad moves:
Arizona Cardinals
Cleveland Browns
Denver Broncos
Detroit Lions
Houston Texans
New England Patriots
New York Jets
San Francisco 49ers
Tennessee Titans
The Titans have placed safety Kevin Byard on the Reserve/COVID-19 list, per a club announcement. Byard is one of several NFL notables to receive the designation today, alongside Vikings cornerback Patrick Peterson and Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt. 
[RELATED: Vikings Place Peterson On Reserve/COVID-19 List]
The good news is that Byard might not miss any game action, since the Titans are on their bye week. And, at the same time, they’ve also been able to activate linebacker Joe Jones from the COVID-19 list. Assuming everything checks out, Byard could suit up for the Titans next game, a Week 14 matchup vs. the Jaguars.
Byard, 28, put himself on the map with a league-leading eight interceptions in 2017. He hasn’t reprised his Pro Bowl or First-Team All-Pro status since, but he remains a pillar of the Titans’ secondary. In 2019, the Titans furnished him with a five-year, $70.5MM extension, making him the NFL’s highest-paid safety at the time of signing.
Through 12 games, Byard has notched five interceptions and two defensive touchdowns.
Today’s taxi squad moves:
Baltimore Ravens
Buffalo Bills
Jacksonville Jaguars
Kansas City Chiefs
Tennessee Titans
The Titans are down another skill player. The team announced that they’ve placed wideout A.J. Brown on injured reserve.
Having suffered a chest injury, Brown did not practice all week and had already been ruled out for tomorrow’s showdown against the Patriots. Fortunately, the Titans and Ryan Tannehill should have their top receiver back before the end of the season. Per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport (on Twitter), the injury isn’t a season-ender and Brown is expected to be back in December. The earliest that Brown could come back is Week 16 against the 49ers, although that TNF game comes on a short week.
The offense the Titans deploy in Week 12 will not look especially similar to the one it hopes to trot out come January. Tennessee already has Derrick Henry and Julio Jones on IR. The team also lost fill-in wideout Marcus Johnson for the season last week. Wideout Golden Tate could have been one candidate to fill one of those roster spots, but the veteran wasn’t elevated for tomorrow’s contest.
Temporarily, Tannehill will be throwing to the likes of Nick Westbrook-Ikhine and Chester Rogers. The team also has a fully stocked tight ends depth chart with Geoff Swaim, Anthony Firkser, and MyCole Pruitt.
The Titans have also elevated four players from the practice squad: wideout Cody Hollister, defensive back Breon Borders, quarterback Kevin Hogan, and defensive lineman Kevin Strong. Fullback Khari Blasingame has also been activated from injured reserve.