Titans promote OLB Josh Carraway to 53-man roster; release FB Jalston Fowler

The Titans promoted outside linebacker Josh Carraway from the practice squad to the 53 man roster Saturday as they look to add some depth with Derrick Morgan ruled out for their game in Arizona. To make room for Carraway, the Titans are releasing fullback Jalston Fowler.

Fowler had seen his role reduced over the course of the 2017 season, failing to reach double digit snaps since the Browns game and being a healthy inactive the last two weeks. The 2015 4th round pick has mostly been a roster afterthought lately. The Titans have been choosing to use tight ends Phillip Supernaw and Jonnu Smith as H-backs rather than using a roster spot on a true fullback and it has resulted in two of their better rushing performances of the season. The mid-week addition of blocking tight end Luke Stocker made Fowler even more expendable and certainly influenced this move.

Fowler’s release means the Titans have just one member of Ruston Webster’s 2015 draft class still on the roster: Marcus Mariota. The other members that preceeded Fowler out the door were Dorial Green-Beckham, Jeremiah Poutasi, Angelo Blackson, David Cobb, Deiontrez Mount, Andy Gallik, and Tre McBride. This fact makes the Titans’ success this year even more amazing.

The 2015 draft class should be a big part of this roster at this point, but its created a massive hole instead. The Titans relied on their rookie class for more snaps than all but 6 NFL teams last year and are on pace to do the same this season. If you want a smoking gun for why the 2017 Titans are so inconsistent, the failure of the 2015 class is a great place to start.

Carraway’s addition makes me wonder if the Titans are concerned that Morgan may miss more than just one game. He is a superior special teams player to Kevin Dodd and, frankly, offers more pass rush juice as well. It remains to be seen if he is actually on the active roster Sunday, but it at least gives the Titans some options. Carraway was a pleasant surprise in the preseason and I will be interested to see what he can do if he gets out there.