Cornerback Re-Signed Days After Release

Breon Borders started five games for the Titans in 2020.

David Boclair | Mar 1, 2021

Breon Borders is back.

Less than a week after they released him, the Tennessee Titans re-signed the 25-year-old cornerback Monday.

Borders appeared in six games for the Titans in 2020 and started five. He was credited with 27 tackles, five passes defensed, one tackle for loss and his first career interception.

His season ended in early December, when he was placed on injured reserve with a hip issue. His last game was against Cleveland, a 41-35 loss in which he got beat for several big gains.

“When you play this game for a long time, you are going to have days like that,” defensive backs coach Anthony Midget said a couple days later. “It’s how you bounce back from it. That’s what makes guys successful in this league, being able to bounce back and put that behind them.”

Borders never got that opportunity. He will, however, get another chance after having been waived along with wide receiver Adam Humphries and cornerback Chris Milton last Thursday.

He was one of the Titans’ more pleasant surprises of 2020 in a secondary that was racked with injury issues from start to finish. He earned his opportunity to get on the field and into the lineup with relentless competitiveness during practice sessions.

“I would say [he has] probably one of the best attitudes on this football team as far as just day to day, and his outlook on his job and this football team,” coach Mike Vrabel said late in the regular season. “Couldn’t say enough say nice things about (Borders).”

A fourth-year pro out of Duke, Borders was not even on an NFL roster at the start of the season. Tennessee signed him to its practice squad on Sept. 21. His first appearance was as a gameday addition to the active roster, after which he immediately reverted to the practice squad. He was signed to the active roster on Nov. 7 and started opposite Malcolm Butler until he got hurt.

He appeared in 12 games for Jacksonville (2018-19) and one for Washington (2019) prior to last season.

Published Mar 1, 2021

DAVID BOCLAIR

David Boclair has covered the Tennessee Titans for multiple news outlets since 1998. He is award-winning journalist who has covered a wide range of topics in Middle Tennessee as well as Dallas-Fort Worth, where he worked for three different newspapers from 1987-96. As a student journalist at Southern Methodist University he covered the NCAA's decision to impose the so-called death penalty on the school's football program.