Cam Ward and Jeffery Simmons active vs Vikings; health updates on JC Latham, T'Vondre Sweat, and other Titans starters

There's just something about the AFC South, I guess. But will Brian Callahan repeat his decision this year? Will we get more Cam Ward action before the regular season? Who are the notable players who will take the night off? Here all all the answers to your questions:

How Much Cam Ward Will Play

Cam Ward will, in fact, play some against the Vikings Friday night. He's played between 10 and 15 snaps in his first two preseason outings, which amounted to two drives in Tampa Bay and three in Atlanta. Brian Callahan said earlier this week that the team was still working through exactly who would play for how long against Minnesota, but that they wanted to get some more football in for the starters.

I can confirm today that Ward and a handful of offensive starters around him will play, and the amount of snaps is expected to be roughly the same. So really try to soak up these two or three drives, everybody. It's the last you'll get from Ward until September 7th in Denver.

Offensive Starters Resting

Who is playing alongside Ward on offense tonight? Most of the offensive starters will go, but two notable absences will be right tackle JC Latham and wide receiver Calvin Ridley. Latham left practice early on Tuesday, and I reported that he was working through some hip soreness and should be fine.

That hip soreness is still the reason he's being held out, but the concern level is low. If this were a real game, he'd be playing in it without question. Ridley seemed a bit hobbled in practice earlier this week as well, and sat out on Tuesday and Wednesday. He's being held out tonight out of caution as he works through a slight lower body issue, but would also be playing if this were a real game. Both starters are expected to be full go next week.

It should come as no surprise that C Lloyd Cushenberry also won't play tonight, as he continues to slowly gear back up for the regular season. There's still optimism inside the building that he could be ready to play Week 1.

Defense In And Out

On defense, there are a couple of notable starts and sits to cover. Two young players who won't go in this one are S Kevin Winston Jr. and DL T'vondre Sweat. Both has missed the better part of August, and although both are still on track to be physically cleared by Week 1, their football conditioning comes into question. They've missed a lot of practice at this point, so it stands to reason they might have to ramp back up slowly. Winston was expected back this week, but that didn't come to fruition in Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday's practices.

Click here for a breakdown on Winston's rest situation, as he's been managing some hamstring tightness related to his ACL recovery.

Two notable starters will get some run tonight on the defensive line, though: Jeffery Simmons and Sebastian Joseph Day will play a few snaps to gear up for the regular season. One last defensive note is that LB Cedric Gray will get the start again alongside Cody Barton. He started last week in Atlanta and showed well, and another strong showing tonight could go a long way in solidifying himself as the come-from-behind winner of that starting job. James Williams had a strong start to camp and was the presumed winner of that job for a while, but the game has slowed down for Gray in recent weeks and his coaches value his downhill skillset. Both young linebackers will be involved on defense this year in different packages.