I’m not a big Carnell Tate fan. He didn’t do much of anything in the preseason, and it’s looking like the Titans will have a bottom-5 offense.
If August is an accurate barometer, Tennessee will be right near the bottom in scoring. Maybe they can outscore the Browns, Raiders or Jets. The Dolphins and Cardinals are supposed to be in this discussion, but they both looked surprisingly decent in August. The Falcons might be starting Cooper Rush (!) in Week 1, so I suppose they should be put in this conservation, but that offense at least has Bijan Robinson and Drake London.
Tate didn’t look like a player of note in the preseason. Not that he made any glaring mistakes, but after 35 plays in the practice games, I can’t say any confidence that he’ll even outperform the other wide receivers on that team. Wan’Dale Robinson and Calvin Ridley have at least had some success at the pro level.
The hope, I guess, is that we’re just working with a small sample size. Ja’Marr Chase authored arguably the worst preseason by a receiver in league history, dropping 4 of the 5 passes thrown his way, but he went on to shred the league. While we haven’t seen it yet, Tate is talented enough that many or most teams that he was worth a top-10 pick in the draft.
And as poorly as Cam Ward looked in August, he mixed in some real nice gunslinger-type throws as a rookie. He also comes with the potential to possibly become viable at some point this season.
With the preseason being of flimsy importance in today’s game, I see Tate as worthy of a fantasy roster spot. I wouldn’t want to put him in a lineup right now, and there’s a chance I would be releasing him in a week or two. But let’s also concede that there’s some chance (seemingly slight chance) that Tate is a lot better than what he appears to be.
But preseason numbers suggest most likely Tate won’t be helping out much anytime soon.
In the 17-game era, 21 rookie receivers have finished with top-40 numbers (using PPR scoring). Tate in the preseason was statistically worse than all of those guys. Only two others didn’t catch passes in the preseason (Marvin Harrison, Jordan Addison) but neither had passes thrown their way.
| ROOKIE WR WITH TOP-40 NUMBERS (preseason stats) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Rk | Tgt | No | Yds | Avg | Lg | TD |
| 2023 | Rashee Rice, K.C. | 27 | 19 | 14 | 155 | 11.1 | 38 | 0 |
| 2022 | George Pickens, Pitt. | 40 | 12 | 8 | 84 | 10.5 | 26t | 1 |
| 2023 | Tank Dell, Hou. | 39 | 9 | 5 | 65 | 13.0 | 24 | 1 |
| 2024 | Xavier Worthy, K.C. | 33 | 6 | 3 | 62 | 20.7 | 39 | 1 |
| 2022 | Chris Olave, N.O. | 24 | 5 | 4 | 51 | 12.8 | 20t | 1 |
| 2023 | Jayden Reed, G.B. | 25 | 7 | 4 | 46 | 11.5 | 19t | 1 |
| 2024 | Brian Thomas, Jac. | 4 | 4 | 3 | 93 | 31.0 | 41 | 0 |
| 2023 | Puka Nacua, LAR | 4 | 5 | 3 | 32 | 10.7 | 17 | 1 |
| 2023 | Zay Flowers, Balt. | 31 | 2 | 2 | 37 | 18.5 | 26t | 1 |
| 2022 | Garrett Wilson, NYJ | 21 | 8 | 6 | 52 | 8.7 | 15 | 0 |
| 2025 | Emeka Egbuka, T.B. | 23 | 4 | 2 | 26 | 13.0 | 21 | 1 |
| 2024 | Malik Nabers, NYG | 6 | 6 | 4 | 54 | 13.5 | 21 | 0 |
| 2021 | Amon-Ra St. Brown, Det. | 22 | 10 | 6 | 28 | 4.7 | 9 | 0 |
| 2025 | Tetairoa McMillan, Car. | 15 | 7 | 2 | 43 | 21.5 | 30 | 0 |
| 2021 | Jaylen Waddle, Mia. | 12 | 4 | 3 | 21 | 7.0 | 10 | 0 |
| 2021 | DeVonta Smith, Phil. | 30 | 4 | 2 | 19 | 9.5 | 10 | 0 |
| 2022 | Drake London, Atl. | 28 | 1 | 1 | 24 | 24.0 | 24 | 0 |
| 2021 | Ja'Marr Chase, Cin. | 5 | 5 | 1 | 16 | 16.0 | 16 | 0 |
| 2024 | Ladd McConkey, LAC | 14 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5.0 | 5 | 0 |
| 2024 | Marvin Harrison, Ari. | 30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -- | -- | 0 |
| 2023 | Jordan Addison, Min. | 23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -- | -- | 0 |
| 2026 | Carnell Tate, Ten. | ? | 5 | 0 | 0 | -- | -- | 0 |
—Ian Allan
