Titans Bring Back Versatile RB For Fourth Season

The Tennessee Titans, amidst endless rumors about their potential rookie-lead plans for the backfield ahead of this year's NFL Draft, have re-signed a depth piece that, for the time, will be around at least one more year.

According to Jim Wyatt, the Titans are retaining Julius Chestnut on the short-term deal. The agreement interrupts a relative silence for Tennessee after an action-packed start to their free agency period. For now, the running back room remains unshaken.

Chestnut, who will be going into his fourth season with the Titans, has yet to score a touchdown in a regular season contest with the team. With just 154 combined yards over the last two years, the signing is unlikely to make any visible difference as far as the team's performance goes.

Retaining Depth

Even so, as the backfield approaches a draft that could seriously change its landscape, keeping a reliable body around on the sideline is far from an unimaginable step to take. In fact, it's a safe and understandable one.

Even if Chestnut doesn't see the field, continuing to receive inconsequential, if any, clock, his sticking around may be a positive bit of locker room cohesion in an offseason otherwise set on turning that very thing over.

Tennessee Titans running back Julius Chestnut (36) | Andrew Nelles / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

That's something to hold on to and, at the end of the day, it's more news to get Titans fans through the team's current dry spell ahead of an inevitably busy April on the horizon.

An April that, again, may yield more than one change in Tennessee's backfield. Chestnut's re-sign may be the first domino that falls in a chain; movement around veteran mainstay Tony Pollard, and favored draftee Jeremiyah Love, could very likely follow.

Chestnut is the First Domino To Fall

Robert Saleh's specific plans are unknown, especially on offense. The defensive-minded head coach made very clear toward the beginning of the offseason that most of what he and the Titans' brass do will be kept under intense wraps.

But it's hard not to let hints seep through the cracks, and those around the aforementioned Love have done so to a serious enough extent that even a move as apparently calm as Chestnut's can come across as the first hint that Tennessee's RB room overhaul is underway.

Fans should keep a close eye on what, for the time, looks like a unit in continuous motion.

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