Tennessee Titans ST Coach Craig Aukerman Announces Decision on Key Roles

The Tennessee Titans' offense and defense get the bulk of the attention, but there will need to be massive improvement on special teams for the Titans this year as well and the Titans are hoping to accomplish that with a ton of turnover at the bottom of this year's roster.

With that turnover comes the need for new faces in new roles. That creates questions about ability and who will fill certain spots. We got some answers to those special teams questions on Thursday from special teams coach Craig Aukerman.

First, Aukerman cleared up questions about who the Titans' returner will be. Aukerman declared rookie Kearis Jackson, the former Georgia Bulldog, would be the team's punt returner.

"(Jackson) has done a really good job in the preseason and during training camp," Aukerman said. "He's earned the right to go back there. Excited for him, but we feel comfortable in him being back there and catching the ball, getting upfield and getting some positive yards for us."

Head coach Mike Vrabel also spoke about Jackson at Wednesday's media session.

"I think at some point in time Kearis decided to be coached," Vrabel explained, "and to work each day and improve. He changed some behavior and learned multiple positions. Also, be consistent catching the football and taking advantages of his opportunities.

Aukerman also announced that Jackson would return kickoffs, but also mentioned Tyjae Spears as an option there as well.

"Kearis will be back there, Tyjae (Spears) might have an opportunity, the guys that you've seen during preseason. Again, I thought Kearis did a really good job until he got banged up a little bit in the Minnesota game, but we're looking forward to have him back there."

Along with the returning jobs, Aukerman also gave his top-four gunners on punt coverage and declared a personal protector on punt team. Aukerman identified Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, Chris Moore, Anthony Kendall and Matthew Jackson as the gunners and Mike Brown as the personal protector.

Gunners are coverage players on the punt team that line up in a similar position to what a wide receiver would and bolt down the field as fast as possible to try and make a tackle on the punt returner. A critical position in the field-position battle.

Personal protector is the man who calls the snap count on the punt team. Think of it as a quarterback of the punt group. He makes sure there are enough players on the field and that everyone is lined up correctly before he starts the play. Often he is the closest man to the punter when everyone is set.

Aukerman also talked about the Titans' new kicker, Nick Folk. Folk only kicked a touchback on 9% of his kickoff attempts last season and struggle on some of his longer-distance kicks in 2022, leading to some question about leg strength.

There was some thought the Titans might even consider having someone other than Folk do kickoffs. Aukerman showed confidence in Folk, but didn't rule out changes.

"That's going to be game by game," Aukerman advised. "Have no issues with Nick and his leg strength and I think he does a really good job, even watching some stuff that he did last year at New England whether it's a touchback or them trying to kick the ball. We'll continue to discuss that with coach (Mike) Vrabel and Nick too and see what we want to do to help us win the game."

We may have answers to who will be playing certain roles to start the year for the Titans, but that doesn't answer the question of whether the decisions will work. For those answers, we will have to wait for the season to kick off and luckily, that happens on Sunday.

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