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USATSI

It's a fun time for us as our CBS Sports staff is doing all the player outlooks for the upcoming season. Those are the blurbs you read on each player's page and, more importantly, the information you see in the draft room.

We invest a significant amount of time in these outlooks and conduct thorough research. The goal, as always, is to help you prepare for your draft -- and win your league.

With that in mind, we wanted to break out some of the best research items we found on each player so you can start preparing now. When your draft is happening, especially if it's live, you might remember something you read here and don't have to panic when you're on the clock.

I have the AFC South outlooks, and here are some of the interesting things that stood out to me about the Texans, Colts, Jaguars and Titans. For example, Joe Mixon was among the NFL leaders in touches per game, all the Colts receivers were better with Joe Flacco than Antony Richardson, Brian Thomas Jr. was an absolute monster to close 2024, and Tony Pollard's stats popped when Tyjae Spears was out.

In this article, we'll focus on the key takeaways from doing the Titans outlooks. 

If you want to find out my key takeaways from breaking down the NFC South outlooks, head here. 

What will happen in 2025 with these teams? Let's find out. Here are five interesting notes on each roster.

Titans

1. Did you know: Cam Ward holds the NCAA record with 158 passing touchdowns. In his lone season at the University of Miami in 2024, Ward set single-season school records for yards (4,313), completions (305), touchdown passes (39) and completion percentage (67.2 percent).

Our view: Ward steps into an interesting situation with the Titans. He should easily beat out Will Levis for the starting job, and Tennessee has some good but not great weapons in Calvin Ridley, Chigoziem Okonkwo, Tony Pollard and Tyjae Spears. We'll see what kind of impact Tyler Lockett makes, and the Titans added some talented rookies in Chimere Dike, Elic Ayomanor, Xavier Restrepo and Gunnar Helm. Ward doesn't offer much as a runner -- he combined for 287 carries for 406 yards and 17 touchdowns in three seasons at Washington State and Miami -- but he could surprise us as a passer in his rookie campaign. Ward is only worth drafting in Superflex and two-quarterback leagues, but he could be a waiver-wire addition in one-quarterback formats as the year goes on.

2. Did you know: Pollard had seven games last season where he played at least 73 percent of the snaps, and he scored at least 14.7 PPR points in four of those outings.

Our view: Pollard will continue to share snaps with Spears, but we still expect Pollard to be the lead running back for the Titans. That said, his numbers popped when Spears was out, and Pollard only averaged 12.5 PPR points per game for the season. We expect the Titans offense to improve this year because of Ward, but Tennessee coach Brian Callahan said in May that "hopefully that division of labor gets a little more evenly distributed" this season between both running backs, which could be a problem for Pollard. Most likely, Pollard will be a solid value pick -- think Round 7 in a 12-team league -- and be a borderline No. 2 running back in all leagues.

3. Did you know: Spears had five games with double digits in touches in 2024, and he scored at least 11.9 PPR points in four of those outings, including two games with at least 21.6 PPR points. 

Our view: Spears played one game last season without Pollard, and Spears had 20 carries for 95 yards and three catches for 8 yards on four targets in Week 17 against Jacksonville. We'll see how much Pollard and Spears share touches this season based on what Callahan said, but we still like Pollard as the lead running back. However, Spears is a great value pick as a lottery ticket, and he should be drafted after Round 10 in all formats. He could also be a flex option in deeper leagues if he's getting enough touches in tandem with Pollard during the year.

4. Did you know: Ridley averaged 11.7 PPR points per game for the season in 2024, but in five starts with Mason Rudolph, he averaged 14.6 PPR points.

Our view: Ridley will hopefully improve with Ward under center, and Ridley averaged 13.5 PPR points per game in 2023 with the Jaguars and 14.2 PPR points in 2021 with the Falcons. If he can return to that level of play -- or how he performed with Rudolph last season -- then Ridley will be a serviceable No. 3 Fantasy receiver in all leagues. We would draft him as early as Round 7, and hopefully he'll develop a solid rapport with Ward right away.

5. Did you know: Last year, Okonkwo closed the season on a tear with three games of at least 10.9 PPR points in each of his final three meaningful outings, and he averaged 14.6 PPR points over that span.

Our view: The Titans added a talented rookie tight end in Helm, who could steal targets from Okonkwo. And we don't know how well Ward will play as a rookie. But aside from Ridley, there are plenty of question marks with this receiving corps, which added Lockett, Dike, Ayomanor and Restrepo. Okonkwo could easily be No. 2 on the team in targets, and that could lead to quality Fantasy production. We don't see Okonkwo getting drafted in the majority of leagues, but he could emerge as a top waiver wire tight end during the year.