Tackle With Titans Ties Taken in USFL Draft

Paul Adams has had plenty of practice since he entered the NFL.

What he needs is game experience. Now, he has a chance to get it – in a different league.

Adams, a 26-year-old tackle who has been on and off the Tennessee Titans’ roster multiple times over the past year and a half, was one of four players with ties to the franchise selected on the first day of the USFL draft.

Adams, a Nashville native, became the fourth offensive tackle taken when the New Orleans Breakers selected him. Also chosen were defensive lineman Freedom Akinmoladun (second round, Philadelphia Stars), tackle Avery Gennesy (sixth round, Houston Gamblers) and defensive end James Folston Jr. (fourth round, New Orleans Breakers).

The draft for the USFL, which has been resurrected this spring as a developmental league, will conclude Tuesday and will provide each team with 35 players. Rosters ultimately will be capped at 38 players plus a practice squad of seven players, which means there will be opportunities for teams to add players.

Each round is limited to one position and the selection order will allow each of the league’s eight teams to have the first selection at multiple positions. Former Titans coach Jeff Fisher, now head coach of the Michigan Panthers, had the first overall selection (the first round was for quarterbacks) and went with Shea Patterson, the starting quarterback last season for the University of Michigan.

Monday’s 12 rounds included the selection of quarterbacks (Rounds 1, 12), edge rushers/defensive ends (Rounds 2-4), offensive tackles (Rounds 5-7) and cornerbacks (Rounds 8-11). The draft will resume Tuesday with wide receivers (Rounds 13-17).

Adams (6-foot-5, 315 pounds) entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent out of Missouri in 2019 but has yet to appear in a regular season game. He spent the last two weeks of the 2021 season on the Titans’ practice squad after having spent all of the offseason with the team. He was released, re-signed and released again in a span of less than two weeks last August.

In 2020, he spent the final 10 weeks of the regular season on Tennessee’s practice squad. He also has been on the practice squads of Cleveland, Washington and Kansas City.

Akinmoladun was claimed off waivers from the Cincinnati Bengals late in the preseason when injuries and COVID-19 issues thinned the ranks along the defensive line. He was released less than a week later when the roster was reduced to the regular-season limit.

Gennessy, who also was in the Alliance of American Football (2019) and the XFL (2020), spent all of the 2020 offseason and training camp with the Titans but was released days before the final cuts.

Folston was with the Titans briefly in August 2019.