Welcome in to the Titans Rewind here on the SoBros Substack! Here, I’ll be reliving some of my favorite or most memorable Tennessee Titans games, players, moments, and stories over the course of my fanhood. Highs, lows, and everything in between – Titan up!

Titans Rewind: Mekhi Sargent

The preseason is in full swing in the NFL. This weird period of late summer is one of my favorite times of the year. Take this week, for instance – just last week, it felt as hot as the blazes of hell outside, but earlier this week, it felt like a more mellow early fall. Now, it’s back up to feeling like over a hundred degrees, but that’s neither here nor there. There’s this weird bittersweet feeling between the disappointment in the out-and-about activity of summer coming to an end, knowing we’re all about to go inside for the next seven months, and the excitement of a new football season. One door closes. Another door opens. That’s August, baby! Maybe it makes me more contemplative, and that’s why I’m hyper aware of my love for this weird transitional month. I don’t know. But, there’s excitement in the air, and that’s always good for an underdog story, which brings me to today’s Titans Rewind. 

Since it’s the preseason, I wanted to look back at a player that was known as a “preseason guy.” There have been many throughout the years, and it sure seems as though this Titans fan base falls in love with a different player every year (usually one that has no shot of making the roster). Mekhi Sargent was at top of mind for a couple of reasons – one, he had his moment just three seasons ago in the 2021 preseason, so there’s a bit of recency with his name. Two, I feel like his name popped up on a podcast I just did, or a podcast I listened to. I don’t quite remember, but he was right there…the first name I landed on. 

If you break down the anatomy of how these “preseason guys” catch fire throughout the fan base, the first thing they have to have is the element of anonymity. We’re all a sucker for these stories in which the player comes out of nowhere…no first round status…no prolific college pedigree…just a guy that got a chance and made the most of it. Sargent rushed for 1,740 yards in his three seasons at Iowa, though he’d never top his sophomore season’s 745 yards and 10 total touchdowns in 2018. So, it wasn’t as if he was some college football legend coming to Titans camp. Most of us, it felt like anyway, thought that Sargent was a long shot to begin with because of the Titans depth at running back. 

Scouts seemed to agree that he had a decent burst, and he definitely had a good frame for the position, but there were concerns about his sloppy ball security at times, and the fact that his production pretty well declined each season from his 2018 campaign. Tony Pauline called him “an undrafted free agent who could end up making a next-level roster as a fifth running back.” Needless to say, expectations were low for Sargent, meaning he checked the first box as an underdog story. He entered the league in virtual anonymity. 

There’s an entire class of players that sign with the Titans in virtual anonymity each season, though. What matters after that is how they show up in camp, and if they can start turning heads, that’s when that momentum starts to build. The running back room was established for the Titans heading into the 2021 season. Derrick Henry was…well…Derrick Henry. The team still had Darrynton Evans on the roster, who they weren’t going to give up on quite yet. The team signed veteran Brian Hill, who ultimately didn’t pan out, but had NFL experience and seemed like a good cultural fit at the time. Then, there was another guy who did his best work in the summertime in Jeremy McNichols. Yet, Sargent stood out on a regular basis. I remember that summer, thinking there’s no way this guy would make the team with what they already had at running back, but the reporters there just kept singing his praises and saying he was going to push for a roster spot. Hill stunk. Evans was injured. So, the dominos began to fall Sargent’s way. He had an opportunity to show that all of his work in camp could translate to game action during the preseason, and he made the most of it.

I wrote this on SoBros Network on August 23, 2021:

At the time of this writing, Sargent is second in the NFL preseason in total rushing yards with 136. He trails only NewEngland Patriots running back Rhamondre Stevenson and his 193 rushing yards. He’s taken 16 carries in each of the two preseason games so far, and averaged 4.25 yards per carry with ’em. In Saturday night’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he also caught a beautiful touchdown pass as well. Sargent has done a little bit of everything well. He’s obviously out there playing like his career depends upon it. But, in addition to playing hard, he’s shown that he can be quite slippery and shifty between the tackles. Not to mention that he showed on Saturday night that he can be a tough guy to bring down, carrying four Bucs defenders with him on a run up the middle.

Do two strong preseason performances make Mekhi Sargent a lock to make the final 53-man roster? No. But, I’ll say this – the conditions are starting to set up well for the former Iowa Hawkeye. Namely, this coaching staff is getting a good long look at him in game action, and he’s exceeding expectations. It helps that Hill hasn’t really wowed anyone in this race. And, with Evans getting hurt (again) and missing action, it’s leading to more opportunities for Sargent. The more I see of him, the more I think he really might be able to push McNichols over the course of the last couple of weeks.

I remember watching those preseason games, and like many of you, thinking “how are they going to cut this guy?” The answer, ultimately, was that they wouldn’t. Sargent eventually made the Titans final 53-man roster. He played sparingly in a few games, but didn’t impress when the lights were on bright. The Titans ultimately leaned on D’Onta Foreman and Adrian Peterson as replacements for Henry when he went down with an injury. He was placed on the practice squad later in the season, but ultimately waived in November. 

The Los Angeles Rams picked him up and he was promoted to their main roster in December of 2021, but was waived later that month. Sargent spent some time with the Jacksonville Jaguars, but was waived in April of 2023. He is currently a free agent. 

Hey, this is just the reality of life in the NFL for some players – there’s nothing wrong with it. Some guys excel at a certain level, but when the pressure increases along with the talent of the players around them on the field, it exposes what’s missing from a player’s repertoire. Sargent made some noise as an underdog for this franchise, and he’s a name that the diehard Titans fans who watched that 2021 preseason will remember intently. 

Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, second on Football & Other F Words, analyst for Stacking The Inbox, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, the NFL Draft, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.

Elsewhere on the SoBros Network: Check out Stacking The Inbox for premium coverage of the Tennessee Titans and NFL Draft. Subscribe to Nashville Movie Dispatch for all of our movie content. We get weird on Phone It In, the history podcast that explores legendary tales, important historical figures, and events.

Longtime readers of SoBros Network know what a weirdo I am when it comes to seasonal habits. Shit, “rituals” might be the more appropriate term given the way I do the same things every season. In the fall, it’s pumpkin-spiced everything, Hocus Pocus, and long drives through the countryside to admire the trees. Part of the ritual is food, too – no doubt that I have a whole catalog of seasonal recipes no matter the occasion, but for me, fall is king. Four of my favorite recipes that I’ve ever stumbled upon are great for this time of year. So, I figured I’d pass those along to the loyal readers of SoBros Network so you can try ’em and maybe add ’em to your annual rotation too.

My Favorite Fall Recipes

Pumpkin Cheese Stuffed Shells Bolognese Bake – Source: Half-baked Harvest – This is what’s pictured in the featured image for this post, and fret not, that’s not at all what the dish looks like when it’s cooked. My wife told me not to post it because it doesn’t look appetizing, but if I waited ’til it was done, you wouldn’t be able to see the pumpkin and sage. Gotta know how this thing is constructed, right?

Anyway, this may be my favorite thing I’ve ever created in my kitchen. It is phenomenal – the combination of flavors are hearty and festive. This is a heavy dish too – I pride myself on being able to clean out an entire casserole, but this is one that I can only eat one and a half bowls of before I’m unbuttoning my jeans. The combination of flavors, between the white wine in the bolognese, the pumpkin pureé, the sage, and the fontina cheese is unlike anything I’ve ever had. Pro-tip: I never add the bleu cheese…I’m not the biggest fan of it to begin with, but I feel like that flavor would really jack up the profile of this dish.

Butternut-Sage Pizza – Source: WeightWatchers (fuck yeah!) – So, I have a recipe from one of their cookbooks that calls for this to be made on naan bread instead of pizza dough, which saves you the trouble of rolling it out, etc.. You can also add whatever toppings you like to this – I love adding mushrooms to it, or some fresh jalapeños for a little kick. They’re simple and easy, and make for the perfect week night fall meal.

Spiced Apple Chili – Source: Taste of Home – Bear with me here. The sound of apples in chili tends to turn people off, but if you stop and think about the flavor profile of a rich, smoky apple pie combined with a basic hearty chili, it fucking works. I swear it. And, the recipe only calls for two apples, peeled and chopped so it’s more of a subtle flavor than you’d imagine. It’s a great way to go outside-the-box from the standard old run of the mill chili. I haven’t tried this yet, but I think I might sub one of the cups of beef broth for red wine the next time I make this one.

Slow Cooker Root Veggies w/ Apple Cider Glaze – Source: Family Style Food – Okay, so I literally just discovered this one last week when I was looking for something festive to throw in the crockpot on a relaxing lazy Saturday, and I think my version of it is right up there with the pumpkin and sage stuffed jumbo shells in terms of fall favorites. This one was immediately added to the regular rotation. It’s cooked up to be a side at a larger meal (it would kill at Thanksgiving as is), but I wanted it to be our main course, so we added a pound of ground sausage to it and chopped up and sprinkled about six leaves of fresh sage. The veggies I went with – a pound of carrots, a pound of butternut squash (you can buy this pre-diced in a package at Kroger to save you a ton of trouble), two sweet potatoes, and one parsnip.

It was phenomenal – the next morning, we dropped a couple of eggs in the leftovers and scrambled it up for breakfast. It’s so wholesome, filling, and if you get the right combo of root veggies in there, has a nice flavor variance that makes it an amazing and festive dish. I’m going to gain you about 10 pounds this season with this list.

Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, second on Football & Other F Words, analyst for Stacking The Inbox, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, the NFL Draft, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.

Elsewhere on the SoBros Network: Check out Stacking The Inbox for premium coverage of the Tennessee Titans and NFL Draft. Subscribe to Nashville Movie Dispatch for all of our movie content. We get weird on Phone It In, the history podcast that explores legendary tales, important historical figures, and events.

When I think about the all-time fall lineups from Yankee Candle, there are a couple that come to mind immediately. As a runner-up, but a damn good line, I think about the Woodland Road Trip collection in 2021. That included four fragrances: Woodland Road Trip, Cozy Cabin Escape, Farm Fresh Peach, and Sunlit Autumn. I loved how Farm Fresh Peach smelled like the last echo of summer. Cozy Cabin Escape and Sunlit Autumn both felt like fresh takes on the outdoor late-summer/early-fall fragrance. And, Woodland Road Trip instantly became a must-burn for me every late-August and early-September.

It doesn’t really touch what I would consider the best fall lineup that Yankee has produced in my lifetime. The G.O.A.T., to me, is still 2009’s lineup that included a wide array of classics such as Almond Cookie, Autumn Fruit, Be Thankful, Farmer’s Market, Lakeside Birch, MacIntosh Spice, Moonlight Harvest, and Vanilla Pumpkin. I mean, that’s like the Dream Team. That’s that NFL Draft from the year Jim Kelly, Dan Marino, and all those quarterbacks went in the first round. Be Thankful and Farmer’s Market have been burned pretty close to every year in my household since 2009. Vanilla Pumpkin, Almond Cookie, Autumn Fruit, and MacIntosh Spice are all supremely underrated. Lakeside Birch and Moonlight Harvest are hidden gems that will cost you about a hundred bucks on eBay these days (please bring them back one day, Yankee Candle!). It’s a deep and talented roster of fall candles.

And, I’m here to say that this year’s first wave of fall fragrances is going to join that conversation. Maybe it’s not at the top of the list, but it’s in the discussion. Why? Well, it really covers the fall bases.

You have your quintessential fall fragrances represented in Pumpkin Parade and Orchard Tag. Homecoming makes for a nice complement between those two. Harvest Creamery checks the “sweet treat” box for those of you who like your fall candles to smell like food. And, with all of the basics covered, they found room to sprinkle in two unusual fragrances in Campfire Nights, which is heavy on the black pepper and wood smoke, and Corn Maze Craze, which smells like a cornfield with a hint of sweetness to it.

Whatever you’re looking for in a fall fragrance, this line has it. And, I really can’t remember the last time a lineup was this deep in quality scents. I scooped up Campfire Nights and Corn Maze Craze at the recent members-only sale for 50% because I like weird stuff and those two are immediately where my attention gravitated towards. I popped the top and reviewed them over on the YouTube gimmick:

Check out the Yankee Candle archives here on SoBros Network for my extensive backlog of Yankee Candle reviews! Also, be sure to check out my comprehensive list of the top 100 Yankee Candle fragrances of all time. I worked on that thing for forever, so any read is appreciated, thank you. That is all.

Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, second on Football & Other F Words, analyst for Stacking The Inbox, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, the NFL Draft, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.

Elsewhere on the SoBros Network: Check out Stacking The Inbox for premium coverage of the Tennessee Titans and NFL Draft. Subscribe to Nashville Movie Dispatch for all of our movie content. We get weird on Phone It In, the history podcast that explores legendary tales, important historical figures, and events.

Alright, you might have to fast forward to the 30-minute mark of this podcast to skip the old men reminiscing about August in Middle Tennessee – from Riverstages to the Wilson County Fair, it takes us a little bit to get into the discussion on this episode. Nonetheless, it’s Brandon, Brett, and me reliving what is widely considered one of the greatest films ever made, 1957’s 12 Angry Men, on this episode of Movie Review Rewind. 

Keep up with all of our work covering the world of movies on Nashville Movie Dispatch. Listen to the Movie Review Rewind podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you take in your podcasts! Just search for ‘Nashville Movie Dispatch’ and you’ll find us. Or, just smash the play button on the embed below!

Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, second on Football & Other F Words, analyst for Stacking The Inbox, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, the NFL Draft, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.

Elsewhere on the SoBros Network: Check out Stacking The Inbox for premium coverage of the Tennessee Titans and NFL Draft. Subscribe to Nashville Movie Dispatch for all of our movie content. We get weird on Phone It In, the history podcast that explores legendary tales, important historical figures, and events.

I’m going to be honest…if you were to strictly box-score scout Cam Ward’s accuracy statistics from last season, you would not be impressed. While that alone might raise concerns for fans and media, the stats don’t tell the full story of why Cam hasn’t been as accurate as he was in college. Even though a 59.8% completion rate is attached to Ward’s rookie season, this does not mean that he is doomed to repeat this kind of performance in the 2026-27 season. 

The Numbers Without Context Can Be Misleading 

After ranking 31st in target percentage and having a league-low 5.9 YPA (Yards per Attempt), Cam Ward might as well just hang up his cleats and call it a career! I’m obviously kidding, but this is legitimately how some Titans fans think. I, on the other hand, try to keep a generally optimistic outlook on the teams I follow even though that can be incredibly difficult to do sometimes, especially since I am also a Vanderbilt fan. After these pessimistic fans I mentioned bring up Cam’s accuracy issues, they completely forget to mention the 24 dropped passes that occurred last season as well. These fans also forget to bring up that Cam was sacked a whopping 55 times last year. While I acknowledge that some of these sacks were definitely Cam’s fault, he was playing behind one of the worst pass-blocking OL units in the league last year. While I understand that completion percentage is an individual quarterback stat, I would also argue that the quarterback’s completion percentage can be classified as an offensive unit statistic as well. On top of this poor offensive play, Ward also had a hard time finding stability within the offense itself. After week 6, Brian Callahan, Cam’s play-caller, got abruptly replaced, not even halfway into his first NFL season. Even though Cam did show some improvement under Bo Hardegree’s playcalling leadership, it is still hard for any quarterback to have two different play-callers in a season. 

The “New Cam” Sample Size is Basically Zero 

Before I go any further, I need to address the elephant in the room. At the time of writing this article, Cam has only completed his first preseason game of the 2026 season. In this game, Cam went 5-of-12 passing with only 57 passing yards. While these stats alone are horrendous, Robert Saleh gave some explanations for why Cam’s performance left a lot to be desired. Saleh claimed that Cam’s mechanics were simply “sped up” and Saleh also mentioned that all the plays called in the game, Cam was able to execute perfectly in practice. Another aspect of this performance to consider is that this was Cam’s first performance in a stadium where he can actually get hit in quite some time. Hopefully, this sped-up mentality that Cam showed can be easily fixed after a film session with the offensive coaching staff. 

Luckily, the plan around Cam is specifically designed to fix his sped-up mentality. One of the main strengths of Brian Daboll in my opinion is his ability to scheme pass catchers open. Along with this, Daboll has talked a lot about focusing on the lower-body mechanics of the quarterbacks that he has worked with. Cam has even mentioned in a press conference, during this year’s training camp, that he has been working on getting back in the pocket more slowly from under center so his pass catchers can have more time to get into their breaks. On top of this, Mike Borgonzi was able to get Cam some real pass-catching help by drafting Carnell Tate and signing the likes of Wan’Dale Robinson in free agency. Personally, I wish the front office focused more resources on fixing certain positions on the offensive line, but it is getting too late to make significant OL changes this far into the offseason. If Cam Ward wants to make a second-year jump that a lot of analysts are predicting, he is going to have to lean into the new coaching and pass-catching assets that the team has invested in him so far. 

When Cam’s Accuracy Issues Start to Become Concerning 

Obviously, as a Titans fan, I would love to see Cam Ward succeed this year. Unfortunately, as a fan of the game of football, I realize that sometimes high-end players just simply don’t pan out in the NFL. If Ward’s accuracy and overall decision-making issues are not looking better by mid to late October, it might be time for Titans fans to have some pretty difficult conversations about Ward’s future with the team. I don’t want to give up on Cam by any means, I just want the Titans to win as many games as they possibly can. If the coaching staff and the front office believe that Cam can win games with the Titans, even after early accuracy struggles, I am going to have to trust their analysis. I just hope that Cam begins to show some real tangible improvement in his play since this entire offseason for the Titans has been specifically designed to help him.

All in all, Cam needs to be better this year from an accuracy standpoint in my opinion. If he somehow has a regression in his play all the way into the midpoint of this season, the front office and Titans fans are going to have to seriously consider what the future of the quarterback position is going to look like for this team.