Sadiq and Bailey shine on debut, Jets down Titans

2 top 4 selections from the 2026 NFL Draft crossed paths in Nashville this afternoon, as Carnell Tate and David Bailey made their debuts for the Titans and Jets, respectively. While the season outlook doesn’t appear too shiny for either side, it gave one a chance to begin the season with a victory and carry some momentum into the first month of the year.

Robert Saleh, fired by the Jets during the 2024 season, made his head-coaching debut in Tennessee against his former team, adding a noteworthy subplot to an otherwise bleak Week 1 matchup. The Titans were also placing their hopes in second-year quarterback Cam Ward, the No. 1 overall pick in 2025, who was tasked with taking a significant step forward after throwing for 3,169 yards, 15 touchdowns and seven interceptions as a rookie. With both teams desperate to start the year on the right foot, Nissan Stadium provided the setting for a meeting that a bit of spice despite the 2 teams’ lack of recent success.

The Jets’ offensive rookies wasted no time in making their mark on the NFL field, as Omar Cooper Jr. helped them down the field with a 30-yard catch, setting up tight end Kenyon Sadiq to run in his first league touchdown and take an early lead.

Unfortunately for Jets fans, Cooper Jr. made his way to the blue tent with an ankle concern after his promising start.

In a predictably lacklustre offensive game, the teams traded field goals, and the most amusing sequence of plays came when a Chimere Dike fumble only resulted in Jason Sanders producing one of the biggest shanks we’ll see all season.

The Jets entered the main break with a 10-3 lead, as Cam Ward’s mere stat line of 32 passing yards on 5/9 failed to really get the home crowd going.

Geno Smith’s solid first half in New York continued into the second, finding Garrett Wilson and Adonai Mitchell for back-to-back 30+ yard gains, before Breece Hall punched it in, which he’ll be hoping to do more of this season than he did in 2025.

Overcoming his horror first half miss, Sanders knocked one in from beyond 50 yards to extend the lead to 3 scores, which was shortly followed by the play that might have Jets fans excited as much as anything from today: David Bailey’s first career sack.

Smith and his offense maintained control of the game well enough for its remainder, such that a late touchdown by Elic Ayomanor proved to be nothing more than consolation for Tennessee, as New York ran out 23-10 winners.

It’s certainly a promising step forward for the Jets, and will feel good to start the season off the right way, albeit against a pathetic Titans outfit who didn’t offer a challenge. The fruits of their long-term rebuild are starting to come through and Geno Smith did well to verify why he was signed this offseason to help develop such young talent.

For Tennessee, it’s more of the same from last year. The team is certainly a number of years from returning to contention, but all fans will hope for is development from Ward, Tate and the rest of the young offense. It’s a long season ahead.

Touchdowns
New York: Sadiq, Hall
Tennessee: Ayomanor

Top Performers
New York: Hall, Bailey, Stiggers, Wilson, Smith
Tennessee: Hooker, Hill Jr.

Injuries
New York: Fitzpatrick (groin), Cooper Jr. (ankle), Brownlee Jr. (calf)
Tennessee: N/A

Crowd: 64,336 at Nissan Stadium