Offensive Lineman Claimed After Release by Division Rival
The Tennessee Titans did not wait for the start of the 2021 NFL Draft to add to their roster Thursday.
Tennessee claimed offensive lineman Elijah Nkansah off waivers from the Indianapolis Colts.
Undrafted out of Toledo in 2018, he has spent the majority of his time in the NFL on the practice squads of the Seahawks and Houston Texans. The Colts signed him to a futures contract following last season but waived him on Wednesday.
His game experience is minimal but meaningful. Nkansah played one game as a rookie with Seattle in 2018 and was on the field for one play in that game after another player was injured. It was third-and-inches from the opponents’ 4-yard line, and the Seahawks ran it in for a touchdown.
“I’m telling you, you come in, you’re one-for-one,’’ tackle Duane Brown, a teammate at the time, said following that game, via The Seattle Times. “That’s a great stat when you come in the game and you score a touchdown. It doesn’t happen at all like that.”
Nkansah (6-5, 315) was a starting right tackle for two years and a starting left tackle for one while in college but only turned to football after he was injured playing baseball as a high school sophomore. He did not make the varsity team until his senior year.
“Going to the NFL wasn’t always the plan,’’ he told The Seattle Times. “But it worked out that way.”
For now, there always seems to be a team willing to give him a job.
With Tennessee, he joins a tackle group that already has plenty of depth behind Taylor Lewan and free agent Kandall Lamm, the presumed starter at right tackle. Ty Sambrailo can play either side, and David Quessenberry started six games in 2020. Three others – Paul Adams, Brandon Kemp and Anthony McKinney – also will vie for roster spots this offseason.
If Nkansah sticks with the Titans, maybe he actually will get to play in another game.
