Saleh Faces the Jets, Ward Faces the Blitz: What Sunday's Opener Comes Down To

Robert Saleh will walk onto the Nissan Stadium sideline Sunday at 1 p.m. ET and look across the field at the New York Jets, the franchise that dismissed him midway through the 2024 season. He has said the right things about it being just another game. Nobody in Nashville believes him, and nobody should have to.

The matchup itself is close on paper. Early numbers have Tennessee as a 1.5-point home favorite with a total of 38.5, which tells you what the market expects: a conservative, low-scoring afternoon in which the first team to make a mistake probably loses. Both offenses are still proving they can finish drives, and the Jets in particular have a kicker question, with Blake Grupe coming off a shaky preseason after converting under 80 percent of his field goals in New Orleans.

For the Titans, the season rests on Cam Ward's second year and on Brian Daboll's first as offensive coordinator. Daboll has a history with Calvin Ridley from their Alabama days, and the receiving room around Ward is deeper than anything Tennessee has fielded in years: fourth overall pick Carnell Tate, free-agent addition Wan'Dale Robinson, Ridley and Elic Ayomanor, with Tony Pollard, Tyjae Spears, Gunnar Helm and Daniel Bellinger all in line for targets. Tate did not record a catch in the preseason, which is either a non-story or the first thing to watch. Robinson looks like the early-season volume play.

Here is the number that should worry Tennessee. Against the blitz in 2025, Ward's success rate was 33.9 percent, last in the league, and the gap between him and the second-worst quarterback was larger than the gap between second and 14th. Aaron Glenn, the Jets' head coach, ran one of the most blitz-heavy defenses in football as Detroit's coordinator in 2024, sending extra rushers on roughly 35 percent of snaps. He knows what the film says. Add rookie edge David Bailey, the second overall pick, lined up over left tackle Dan Moore Jr., who graded in the bottom third of the league last season, and you have the game's central collision.

If Ward and Daboll have built answers to pressure over the summer, the Titans have the higher offensive ceiling and the home crowd, and the pick here is Tennessee in a tight one. If they have not, Sunday will look a lot like last year, and the revenge storyline will belong to the other sideline.