Farley Not Finished With Preseason Play

Coaches want the 2021 first-round pick and projected starter at cornerback to get as much game experience as possible prior to the 2022 NFL season.

George Walker IV / Tennessean.com / USA Today Network

NASHVILLE – Caleb Farley is one of the few Tennessee Titans starters who already has played this preseason. And he is not finished.

The 2021 first-round pick out of Virginia Tech also is likely see action this Saturday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Nissan Stadium and a week later in the preseason finale against the Arizona Cardinals.

“It’s great for him to be out there and play,” defensive coordinator Shane Bowen said Sunday. “The more reps he can get in practice, the more reps he can get in game-like situations – probably – the better because he is still getting acclimated to this game, to this level, to the NFL.”

Farley along with fellow cornerback Kristian Fulton and nose tackle Naquan Jones were the only likely or possible starters on Tennessee’s defense who played in Thursday’s 23-10 loss at Baltimore. Farley stayed on the field for 24 snaps, second among Titans cornerbacks in that contest.

He was credited with two tackles and no passes defensed. Immediately afterward, coach Mike Vrabel characterized his performance as “OK” but “not good enough.” Vrabel pointed specifically to the game’s first third-down play, a third-and-6 on which the Ravens completed a pass for 8 yards against Farley as an example of where he needs to be better.

“You can't play corner in this league without having somebody complete a pass on you,” Vrabel said earlier in training camp. “That's not going to be possible. But he just keeps showing up to work, keeps practicing, keeps working on technique, and then shows up in the meetings ready to learn and ready to fix any mistakes that showed up.

“So, I'm excited to watch him go out and play (as I am with) whoever else is out there.”

Whatever Farley did or did not do well against the Ravens, it is more than he did at this time in 2021, when an injury forced him to sit out the preseason opener. Eventually, he made it on the field for the final two tune-up contests. In all, he logged 37 snaps on offense and four on special teams in game action ahead of the regular season.

Health issues soon caught up with Farley again, though. He appeared in just three of the first six games and logged 60 snaps on defense and 14 on special teams before a torn knee ligament forced him to spend the rest of the campaign on injured reserve and endure a lengthy rehab.

Add it all up, and he effectively has a little more than a game’s worth of NFL game experience to his credit after an abbreviated college career that consisted of 24 games, one full season sidelined by an injury (2017) and another on the sideline after he opted out due to COVID-19 concerns (2020).

That makes every snap he can get at this time of year valuable.

“He had a few games there last year before he got hurt,” Bowen said. “So, again, we’re going to try to get everything we can out of him in these games, let him get some reps and see where it’s at just so he can learn and be out there and get a feel for how it’s going to go.”