Tag: monty rice

Titans’ Mike Vrabel on waiving Monty Rice: ‘It didn’t work out’

Titans head coach Mike Vrabel briefly talked about the team waiving linebacker Monty Rice on Tuesday.

The Tennessee Titans made a somewhat surprising move on Tuesday when the team decided to waive former third-round pick and linebacker Monty Rice.

It wasn’t surprising because Rice was playing particularly well. In fact, he had been relegated to mostly special teams duty this season after it was thought he could start going into the year.

But he did have another year left on his rookie deal after this one. Clearly the Titans didn’t feel it necessary to give him another season.

When asked about letting Rice go, head coach Mike Vrabel kept it short and sweet.

“It’s a process and it didn’t work out,” Vrabel said, per John Glennon. “I’m sure Monty will go on and have another opportunity and we’ll give other guys opportunities here.”

Rice, who had some parting words for the Titans on his way out the door, has since been claimed by the New Orleans Saints, where he’ll look to revive his career.

With Rice gone, now half of the eight picks the Titans made in the 2021 draft are off the team. Those left include Caleb Farley, Dillon Radunz, Elijah Molden and Rashad Weaver.

Taking Rice’s spot on the roster is undrafted free-agent signing and linebacker,  Otis Reese, who was promoted to the active roster on Wednesday.

He’s likely one of the guys Vrabel is talking about when he discussed giving other players opportunities. Along with Rice, the Titans have starters Azeez Al-Shaair and Jack Gibbens, and special teamers Luke Gifford and Joseph Jones left at the position.

Tennessee also has newly-signed linebacker JoJo Domann on the practice squad.

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Saints announce 5 roster moves before Week 14 matchup vs. Panthers

The New Orleans Saints announced five roster moves before their Week 14 matchup with the Carolina Panthers:

The New Orleans Saints announced five roster moves before their Week 14 matchup with the Carolina Panthers, losing two key defenders to injured reserve while parting ways with a veteran on the practice squad — and signing a couple of young defensive players to reinforce the 53-man roster. Here’s what you need to know about each move:

Former Titans LB Monty Rice claimed by the Saints

Former Titans LB Monty Rice has found a new home with the Saints.

The Tennessee Titans made a surprising move after they waived linebacker Monty Rice after just 2.5 seasons.

The Georgia product was a former third-round pick back in 2021, who never found a way to consistently make meaningful contributions on the defensive side of the ball.

However, he now has the opportunity for a fresh start elsewhere, as it was recently reported by ESPN’s Field Yates that Rice had been claimed by the New Orleans Saints.

Rice will immediately join the Saints’ active roster after a tumultuous Titans tenure that recently saw him take some parting shots at his former team in a series of recently-deleted tweets.

While the former third-round pick never became a focal point of the defense as originally intended, he was a steady presence on special teams throughout his young career. This season alone, he accounted for 184 special teams snaps, which is 98 more snaps than he played on defense.

Rice now gets a clean slate in New Orleans where he hopes to revitalize his once promising career.

In total, Rice played in a total of 35 games (10 starts), tallying 128 tackles, five tackles for loss, three quarterback hits, and two passes defensed.

Monty Rice throws shade at Titans after being waived

Now-former Titans LB Monty Rice had some parting words after being waived on Tuesday.

Now-former Tennessee Titans linebacker Monty Rice did his best Jaleel Johnson impression after the team waived him on Tuesday.

The Jaleel Johnson reference comes from the defensive lineman tweeting his frustration with the Titans after his being waived last month. Surprisingly, Tennessee ended up him bringing him back and he has since apologized.

After being let go, Rice took to X to say that not only was he happy that the Titans let him go, he also believes he was better than what we saw of him on the field and encouraged everyone to put on the tape and see for themselves.

Hat tip to AtoZ Sports’ Sam Phalen for the screen shots of Rice’s tweets, which we couldn’t view because the linebacker has us blocked on X.

Rice’s tenure with the Titans was a major disappointment after he was selected in the third round of the 2021 NFL draft out of Georgia.

Rice failed to break through to a full-time starting role over his first two seasons, at least partly because he was stuck behind some good players. When he did see the field on defense, he wasn’t very effective.

The 2023 campaign was supposed to be the year that Rice ascended to a starting role after the team parted ways with David Long and had just one sure starter at the position in Azeez Al-Shaair.

Instead, Rice was absent for a chunk of the preseason, and while we know it was not injury-related, no exact reason was given.

Jack Gibbens ended up winning the starting job over the Georgia product, who was relegated to mostly special teams duty until Week 10, when he began seeing regular snaps on defense.

That continued through Week 12, but the 24-year-old saw a dip in playing time in Week 13. Clearly the Titans didn’t see enough out of him with those opportunities.

This isn’t the first time Rice has taken to X to air grievances.

During the offseason, he voiced his displeasure with criticism of his coverage and those he perceived showed him “disrespect” in their analysis of him.

Rice will now go to waivers, where he can be claimed on Wednesday. If no team claims him, he’ll be able to sign with any team, although I think it’s safe to assume a return to Tennessee’s practice squad is off the table.

But after what we saw with Jaleel Johnson, never say never.

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Titans waive linebacker Monty Rice

The Titans have parted ways with linebacker Monty Rice.

The Tennessee Titans made a surprising move on Tuesday, with the team announcing it has waived linebacker Monty Rice.

A 2021 third-round pick, Rice appeared in all 12 games this year but played mostly on special teams after failing to grab a starting role out of training camp.

The 24-year-old did see more snaps on defense in recent weeks and looked to be ascending, at least in terms of playing time, but his snaps took a dip in Week 13.

While he provided a speed upgrade as compared to starter Jack Gibbens, Rice didn’t do much with his increased snaps and never panned out overall during his two-plus seasons with the team.

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The move is surprising because Rice still has one more year left on his rookie deal after 2023 and at least could’ve continued to provide help on special teams, if nothing else.

However, clearly the Titans felt it was time to part ways with the Georgia product, who will now go to waivers, where he can be claimed on Wednesday. If he goes unclaimed, he can sign with any team.

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Analyzing Titans’ snap counts from Week 12 victory

The Titans’ snap counts following their Week 12 victory on Sunday.

When it comes to the Tennessee Titans’ snap counts from the Week 12 win over the Carolina Panthers, there wasn’t too much that stuck out on either side of the ball.

The most notable thing on defense was safety Elijah Molden seeing less playing time in favor of fellow safety K’Von Wallace. It’s also worth noting that linebacker Monty Rice was once again involved in a rotation.

On offense, wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins seeing the third-most snaps at the position was certainly worth mentioning, as was tight end Trevon Wesco leading his position group.

Now, a look at the full snap counts for offense and defense from Week 12.

Titans’ Week 11 snap counts: Snaps split evenly at LB, TE

A look at the Titans’ snap counts from Week 11.

There were some interesting takeaways from the Tennessee Titans’ snap counts following their Week 11 blowout loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Tennessee had a full-blown timeshare at linebacker between Monty Rice and Jack Gibbens. It was the second-straight week in which Rice eclipsed his season-high number of snaps.

Meanwhile, tight end Chigoziem Okonkwo saw a season-low number of snaps and did not lead the team in playing time at the position.

On top of seeing how the Titans divvied up snaps at linebacker and tight end, we’ll also be taking a look at how the team replaced some of their missing players at wide receiver, cornerback and offensive line.

Biggest takeaways from Titans’ updated unofficial depth chart

The Titans released their latest unofficial depth chart on Monday. Here are the biggest takeaways from it.

The Tennessee Titans released their latest unofficial depth chart on Monday ahead of their Week 1 game against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, September 10.

While the latest version did answer some questions we still had, others went unanswered, like the backup quarterback situation, for example, something head coach Mike Vrabel said is still up in the air.

“I think a lot of it is based on game plan, about who we feel who would step in there and help us,” Vrabel said, per Jim Wyatt. “Will has been out a little bit (injured), but we’re excited to get him back this week and (we’ll) continue with Malik’s maturity and kind of see where it goes at the end of the week.”

Two other spots that remain mysteries are CB2 and kick returner, as those positions were separated by slashes, also. We’ll go into detail about those situations and more below.

But first, here’s a look at the depth chart.

Now, the takeaways:

Titans’ Mike Vrabel contradicts Monty Rice, says absence was injury-related

After Monty Rice had indicated his absence wasn’t injury-related, Titans head coach Mike Vrabel stated it was.

Tennessee Titans linebacker Monty Rice was absent from the team’s final two preseason games and it was assumed the 2021 third-round pick was simply dealing with injury.

However, Rice said that was not the case recently, instead stating his absence was a result of “life and God” as opposed to injury.

“Life. Life and God,” he said when asked for the reason behind his absence, per John Glennon of Nashville Post. “That’s the best way to put it.”

However, when speaking to the media on Thursday, head coach Mike Vrabel had a different reason for Rice’s absence, indicating that the Georgia product missed time because of injury.

“In this particular case, yes,” Vrabel said when asked if Rice had put his past issue behind him, per Paul Kuharsky. “But I will say — not to this matter — we’re always going to have things that we deal with outside of here, or we deal with injuries. It’s part of life, it’s part of professional sports. So, when Monty was healthy, he returned and that’s where we’re at.”

When pressed on Rice indicating his absence wasn’t injury-related, Vrabel had a different interpretation of what was said.

“I don’t know if he didn’t say that (he was injured). When Monty was healthy, Monty returned to practice,” Vrabel said “However he phrased it, that’s up to him. And, again, we expect Monty to be out there and use his speed, use his explosiveness… He knows he has to be a dynamic special teams player for us that can run and then work his way in there defensively.”

Whatever the case may be, Rice has secured his spot on the initial 53-man roster and is set to play a depth role on defense while also contributing on special teams.

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Titans’ Monty Rice admits absence wasn’t injury-related

Titans LB Monty Rice says his absence from the team lately was because of “life and God”

Outside of a few snaps against Chicago, Tennessee Titans linebacker Monty Rice has notably been absent for the majority of the preseason.

This was a rather odd development since he was in the midst of battling with Jack Gibbens for one of the Titans’ starting inside linebacker jobs.

Naturally, many of us assumed it was due to some sort of injury, but that doesn’t appear to be the case as Rice confirmed on Monday that his absence wasn’t an injury-related issue, instead attributing his unavailability to “life and God”.

While it’s unclear what he exactly meant by that, we won’t speculate any further than we need to. More importantly, let’s just hope everything is OK with the well-being of Rice and his family.

Nevertheless, now that the Georgia product is back, he figures to have at least a depth role on the team going forward barring something shocking happening between now and cutdown day on Tuesday.

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