Titans Sign 11 Players Every NFL Team Passed On During Draft

Context matters here. The Titans won three games in 2025. Saleh and general manager Mike Borgonzi inherited a roster stripped to the studs, with 86 players on the books after draft weekend. That left room for exactly the kind of aggressive post-draft haul most franchises never attempt. Eleven undrafted free agents across eight positions, signed before most teams had finished their draft-party cleanup. Desperation and opportunity look identical when you’re rebuilding from the floor, and Saleh chose to treat both as fuel.

The 2023 Precedent Hanging Over the Building

Tennessee is not stumbling into this strategy for the first time. The franchise has leaned on undrafted talent harder than most over the past several seasons, and research on NFL UDFA production shows the Titans among the league’s more consistent producers of undrafted contributors. That institutional habit matters. A front office that has already built around undrafted starters approaches an eleven-player UDFA class with muscle memory, not hope. The 2026 haul is a continuation, not an experiment.

The Awards That Didn’t Matter

Aamil Wagner started all 12 games at Notre Dame, allowed just three career sacks in 886 pass-blocking snaps, captained the offense, and earned a Jason Witten Collegiate Player of the Year finalist nod. That resume screams Day 2 draft pick. It screamed it to nobody. Shad Banks led UTSA with 94 tackles, 3 interceptions, 3 fumble recoveries, and 7.5 tackles for loss, earning First-team All-American Conference honors. Also undrafted. Awards, apparently, carry weight everywhere except the draft room.

Flag Football to the NFL

Tyren Montgomery never played high school football. He walked on to the basketball team at LSU. Then he entered a flag football tournament, filmed a highlight reel, and sent it to colleges across the country. He landed at Division III John Carroll, where he caught 119 passes for 1,528 yards and 15 touchdowns in 2025, averaging 109.1 yards per game. He became the only Division III player invited to the Senior Bowl. Every scout in America watched him perform. Zero drafted him. Tennessee signed him anyway.

The Prestige Filter Nobody Admits Exists

The draft doesn’t evaluate talent. It evaluates origin. Power 5 schools produce draft picks because Power 5 schools have always produced draft picks. The evaluation hierarchy runs P5, Group of 5, FCS, Division III, and production metrics barely dent the order. Montgomery’s 119 catches would match or exceed many drafted receivers. Wagner’s pass protection graded elite. Bishop Fitzgerald finished third in Big Ten interceptions despite missing three games. The tape said yes. The pedigree filter said no. Saleh’s regime bet on the tape.

Fitzgerald’s $267,500 Bet

Bishop Fitzgerald played quarterback in high school. Won District Offensive Player of the Year. Received zero Division I offers. Went the JUCO route, transferred to NC State, then USC, converted to safety, and racked up 5 interceptions and 52 tackles in just 10 games. He earned National Defensive Player of the Week recognition. The Titans gave him a $20,000 signing bonus and $247,500 in guaranteed salary, totaling roughly $267,500 in total guarantees. That figure dwarfs typical UDFA money. For a player 32 front offices rejected, Tennessee committed real capital. That gap between market price and actual investment tells you everything about conviction.

Chad Reuter’s Rankings vs. Tennessee’s Board

NFL.com’s Chad Reuter published his ranking of the top undrafted rookies by position within hours of the draft closing. Several Tennessee signings appeared on that national board, which means Borgonzi agreed with consensus on the most obvious overlooked names. Others were pure Tennessee calls, players who did not crack Reuter’s positional ranks but convinced the Titans’ scouting staff anyway. That split is where the interesting work lives. Following consensus on one prospect while betting against it on another is the signature of a front office using its own grades rather than borrowing them.

Four Corners, One Blind Spot

Four of the eleven signings were cornerbacks. Jeadyn Lukus from Clemson posted an 11-foot-7-inch broad jump and ran a 4.41-second 40-yard dash at his Pro Day. Those numbers would rank among the elite at any combine. Latrell McCutchin started all 13 games at Houston and led the team with 10 pass breakups, earning Second-team All-Big 12. Roughly 36% of the UDFA class targeted one position group, signaling the Titans identified the secondary as the deepest vein of overlooked talent across the league.

Six Waived to Make Room

The UDFA class did not arrive free of cost. Between April 29 and April 30, 2026, Tennessee waived six players to create space for the eleven signings and the drafted rookie class ahead of rookie minicamp. That math is the part casual fans miss. Every undrafted bet forces an incumbent off the roster, and six players with NFL contracts lost jobs so these eleven could sign theirs. Borgonzi did not hedge. He cleared the bench to make the new class real.

The New Scouting Arms Race

Here is what makes this more than a roster move. If even three of these eleven become starter-quality contributors at UDFA salaries, the cost-per-win advantage reshapes how Tennessee builds for years. Other front offices will notice. The competitive edge evaporates the moment rivals invest in small-school scouting infrastructure and Division III film databases. Saleh’s approach works precisely because nobody else is doing it yet. Once they do, the market corrects and the overlooked tier disappears. This is a window, not a permanent advantage.

What Happens to 20-Plus Veteran Additions

The UDFA class is not arriving in an empty building. Saleh’s first offseason already brought in over 20 veteran players through trades and free agency. That context changes the competition. Eighty-six bodies will compress to 53 by early September, and the veterans with guaranteed money are first in line for roster locks. The eleven undrafted signees are fighting for the narrow band between the back end of the 53 and the ten-man practice squad. The roster math is the quiet engine behind every training camp decision that follows.

Training Camp Will Be Ruthless

Mani Powell led Purdue with 110 tackles, 12.0 tackles for loss, and 5.0 sacks. Hank Beatty caught 64 passes at Illinois with zero drops, earning a PFF grade of 83.5, ranking 33rd among 679 qualified receivers. Sean Brown suffered a season-ending injury in his fifth game at NC State and still got signed. Every one of these players now enters a proving ground where production finally outranks pedigree. The question hanging over Nashville is whether Saleh’s tape-first philosophy survives contact with NFL-speed reality.

Rookie Minicamp Starts May 1

The first real test arrived fast. Rookie minicamp opened the weekend after the draft, giving Saleh and his staff their first on-field look at the full eleven. Minicamp does not decide roster spots, but it decides reputations inside the building. First-team reps, walkthrough assignments, the order players run through a drill, these are the signals coaches use to sort the class before pads come on. For a small-school prospect like Montgomery or a position converter like Fitzgerald, the first three days set the floor for everything that follows.

The Historical Comp Nobody Wants to Make

The base rate for undrafted success is not zero. Kurt Warner, Tony Romo, Antonio Gates, Arian Foster and James Harrison all entered the league undrafted and became cornerstones for their teams. The honest framing is that most UDFAs wash out, a handful stick as role players, and roughly one in a generation becomes a star. Tennessee does not need a Warner out of this class. It needs two or three to stick, one to start, and the math of the bet pays off. That is the quiet number behind every optimistic headline.

Thirty-Two Teams, Same Blind Spot

The draft didn’t fail on one player. It failed on eleven, all in the same direction. Award finalists, statistical leaders, elite athletes, all filtered out by the same prestige hierarchy every front office shares. That synchronized miss is the real story. Saleh didn’t find a hidden gem. He found a hidden market. And the only thing standing between this UDFA class and vindication is a summer in Nashville where the tape either translates or the system gets the last laugh.

Which of these eleven do you think actually makes the 53-man roster in September? Drop your pick in the comments and tell us why the rest of the league got it wrong.

Sources:
Tennessee Titans Communications Department, “Titans Reach Deals With 11 Undrafted Free Agents,” April 29, 2026.
Pro Football Rumors, “Titans Sign 11 UDFAs,” April 29, 2026.
NFL.com, “Undrafted Free-Agent Signings Tracker: Every Team’s UDFAs After the 2026 NFL Draft,” April 24, 2026.
The Tennessean, “Titans Sign 5 Draft Picks, Announce Full 11-Man UDFA Class,” April 30, 2026.
Sports Illustrated, “Titans Waive Six Players Ahead of 2026 Rookie Minicamp,” April 29, 2026.
NFL.com, “2026 NFL Draft: Top Undrafted Rookie Free Agents Ranked by Position,” by Chad Reuter, April 24, 2026.