Tag: Nicholas Petit-Frere

Titans’ Nicholas Petit-Frere worked at left tackle on Wednesday

Nicholas Petit-Frere was spotted at left tackle during Titans practice on Wednesday.

The Tennessee Titans were handed a gift last week by the NFL when it was announced that offensive tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere’s suspension was being reduced from six to four games for his gambling violation.

This led to a ton of speculation amongst fans as to whether he was going to replace right tackle Chris Hubbard, who has been playing well in his own right, or even making the switch to the left side, to possibly dethrone Andre Dillard.

Head coach Mike Vrabel made it relatively clear on Monday that he likes what he’s seen from Chris Hubbard thus far, so it’s highly unlikely that we see Petit-Frere taking that job away from Hubbard barring something dramatic happening.

As for the possibility of Petit-Frere transitioning to the left side, that speculation intensified on Wednesday after the Ohio State product was noticeably working at left tackle during the portion of practice open to the media.

While it’s way too early to know for sure, that’s at least noteworthy and is something that bears watching going forward. However, it could just be precautionary in case Dillard has another disastrous performance.

Only time will tell how this one will play out.

Titans not ruling out sticking with Chris Hubbard over Nicholas Petit-Frere

Titans head coach Mike Vrabel made it sound like Nicholas Petit-Frere wasn’t a lock to get his job back upon his return from suspension.

The Tennessee Titans will be welcoming back at least one of their offensive linemen this week, as the suspension for right tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere has ended after it was reduced by two games.

When NPF was originally suspended, it was thought the Titans would just use a temporary solution and slot the Ohio State product back in upon his return.

However, that temporary solution ended up being veteran Chris Hubbard, who has been a pleasant surprise, especially when you consider he barely played any snaps in the two years prior.

When asked about NPF returning, Vrabel didn’t sound like it was automatic he would get his job back and instead left the door open for Hubbard to remain at right tackle.

“Nick has been away for a little bit — he was with us in training camp,” Vrabel said, per Jim Wyatt. “We’ll see where things go. I like the way Chris (Hubbard) is playing over there (at right tackle). We’ll just see how he looks this week.”

While it’s true Hubbard has been good overall and deserves to keep his job, he’s also given up five pressures and three sacks over the last two games.

It’s not like Petit-Frere is a lock to be an upgrade or even as good as Hubbard has been after he struggled during his rookie campaign, so it isn’t impossible to think Hubbard holds on to the job for the time being.

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Titans RT Nicholas Petit-Frere’s suspension reduced

Titans RT Nicholas Petit-Frere had his suspension reduced on Friday.

The Tennessee Titans will be getting right tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere back two games earlier than originally planned.

According to CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones, Petit-Frere’s suspension has been reduced from six to four games after the NFL and NFLPA came to an agreement on a new gambling policy.

The agreement makes for harsher punishments for players who bet on NFL games, while reducing bans for those who bet on other sports while in team facilities, which is the infraction NPF committed.

So, this means Petit-Frere will be able to return to action in Week 5 against the Indianapolis Colts.

Here’s a look at the new agreement, per Jones.

The Titans have been rolling with veteran Chris Hubbard at right tackle in NPF’s place, and while he’s played well overall through three games, the bloom started coming off the rose in Week 3, when Hubbard gave up two sacks and three pressures in a losing effort.

NPF was able to rejoin the team at the facility earlier this week and work out. He’ll be ready to roll for Week 5.

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Titans’ Nicholas Petit-Frere takes ‘full responsibility’ for suspension

On Wednesday, Titans RT Nicholas Petit-Frere addressed his six-game suspension for violating the league’s gambling policy.

For the first time since he was suspended six games for violating the league’s gambling policy, Tennessee Titans right tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere spoke on the matter with the media after the first practice of training camp.

Before his suspension came down, Petit-Frere said that he didn’t feel like a good enough job was done explaining the policy to players.

But when talking about the issue on Wednesday, he noted that things have gotten better on that front, and he ultimately laid the blame on himself.

“They’ve been better during this offseason,” Petit-Frere said, per ESPN’s Turron Davenport. “We had a lot of teaching about it, understanding, and re-teaching that kind of really emphasized the key points about it.

“But at the end of the day, it’s my responsibility to understand the policies, go through the entire handbook, every single line, and just make sure that I can know what to do so I can be out here with my teammates,” he added.

When asked what exactly the confusion was on his end, Petit-Frere simply stated he just needs to “understand the policy better” and he took “full responsibility” for his suspension.

“The confusion is just that I needed to understand the policy better,” he admitted. “It’s just on me. It’s something that I take full responsibility for, and that’s just kind of as much as I can say about that.”

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Titans’ Mike Vrabel lists candidates for right tackle spot

Titans head coach Mike Vrabel listed the players who will be competing to fill in for RT Nicholas Petit-Frere.

Among the multiple question marks on offense for the Tennessee Titans going into training camp is who will man the right tackle spot while right tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere serves a suspension.

Of course, Petit-Frere will miss the first six games of the 2023 campaign after being suspended for violating the league’s gambling policy.

During his first press conference of training camp, head coach Mike Vrabel listed several players who will be competing for the job, including veteran Jamarco Jones, 2022 UDFA Andrew Rupcich, and rookies Jaelyn Duncan and John Ojukwu.

On top of those players, Vrabel also didn’t rule out first-round pick Peter Skoronski getting a look there, although he also revealed that the Northwestern product would focus on guard for now.

“Jamarco (Jones) has worked over there the first couple of days with the early report guys,” Vrabel said, per Tyler Rowland of All Titans. “I think Andrew Rupcich will play over there. Jaelyn (Duncan) will have a shot over there. O.J.(John Ojukwu) will have a chance over there.

“We’ll kind of see where things go and we’ll find the best person there.”

The Titans head coach was also asked about two veteran free agents the team worked out recently in George Fant and Chris Hubbard, but he had nothing new to report there.

In our most recent 53-man roster projection, Jones was our choice to win the job, but an addition of a veteran free-agent option like Fant or Hubbard would no doubt shake things up.

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Titans’ O-Line ranked dead-last heading into 2023 season

The Titans’ offensive line isn’t being viewed favorably, but Shaun Calderon explains why that’s reasonable.

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Following a disastrous season along the offensive line, the Tennessee Titans used a lot of their available (and limited) resources to revamp the entire unit.

After parting ways with several veterans such as Taylor Lewan, Ben Jones, Nate Davis, and Dennis Daley (yay), the team essentially now has four new linemen up front.

However, with Nicholas Petit-Frere being suspended for the first six games, the Titans will be trotting out an entirely new group come Week 1.

Technically, Aaron Brewer may not be a new starter, but it will be his first time as a full-time starter at center in the NFL, so we have no real evidence as to how his transition will go.

As for the rest of the group, the Titans invested a first-round pick on Peter Skoronski while signing Andre Dillard and Daniel Brunskill in free agency.

As intriguing as this group might be, you can’t blame anybody for remaining skeptical about the fact that Tennessee chose to bank on players who are largely unproven as full-time starters at the NFL level.

This group may prove to be a good offensive line by the end of the year, but it’s rather apparent that the Titans’ unit will have to prove itself before the benefit of the doubt can be given.

Warren Sharp of Sharp Football Analysis recently ranked each team’s offensive line, and despite all of the changes, he had the Titans ranked dead-last (No. 32) among every team in the NFL.

Sharp’s reasoning was as follows:

In 2022, Titans left tackles allowed pressure at a league-worst 9.4% rate, more than two percentage points worse than any other team. Andre Dillard and rookie Peter Skoronski will compete for that job, but we’re unlikely to see a significant upgrade for the unit.

Although I personally think Tennessee’s revamped o-line will be much improved by year’s end, it’s also completely fair for others to remain skeptical until the unit can prove it on the field.

And it does, don’t be too surprised to see the offensive line being ranked toward the bottom of the league on any of these types of rankings.

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Projecting Titans’ starting offense ahead of training camp

Our latest starting offense projection for the Titans ahead of training camp, and in the wake of Nicholas Petit-Frere’s suspension.

With the calendar turning to July, we are just weeks away from the Tennessee Titans’ training camp, which will begin on July 25, three days after rookies report.

Just when we thought we had a good handle on the Titans’ starting offense for 2023, right tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere completely threw a wrench in things after he was suspended six games for violating the league’s gambling policy.

Now, Tennessee will need a new right tackle with NPF shelved for one-third of the season, which, by the way, is arguably the toughest part of the Titans’ schedule.

The good news is, Petit-Frere didn’t exactly light the world on fire in his first season, so barring his taking a big step forward in Year 2, his shoes aren’t exactly impossible to fill.

So, how might the Titans replace their 2022 third-round pick? And how might the rest of the offense shake out?

Find out now as we take our latest stab at a starting offense projection for the Titans ahead of training camp later this month.

See it: Titans’ Treylon Burks got married during offseason break

Treylon Burks gives us a much-needed positive story about a Titans player during the offseason break.

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While the news surrounding some Tennessee Titans players has been negative during the break in between the offseason program and training camp, it’s nice to see good things happening for at least one of them.

According to TMZ Sports, Burks tied the knot last Saturday with his wife, Shelby Pearlman, and the two went on a honeymoon to St. Lucia. If you’re into celebrity honeymoon/vacation photos, you can check Burks’ out in the hyperlink above.

Thanks to the amazing work of the wedding photographer, Mallory Luster, we did get a peek into Burks’ wedding, which took place in Arkansas, per Luster’s caption.

Click the arrow on the picture below to scroll through them all.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CuEpyU1OdtD/?hl=en

This should bring an extra big smile to the faces of Titans fans, who have seen two of their players get into trouble in the two weeks since the team’s offseason program ended.

Right tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere was suspended for six games for violating the league’s gambling policy (more on that here), and running back Hassan Haskins was arrested and charged with aggravated assault by strangulation after multiple alleged domestic violence exchanges with his ex-girlfriend (more on that here).

Titans rookies will report to training camp on July 22, while the rest of the team will arrive on July 25. In the meantime, let’s hope we get more positive stories like Burks’ and none like the other two.

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Titans’ Nicholas Petit-Frere before suspension: NFL did bad job teaching gambling policy

A month before his suspension, Nicholas Petit-Frere made it clear he didn’t have a great understanding of the league’s gambling policy.

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The month before he was suspended for violating the league’s gambling policy, Tennessee Titans right tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere said he didn’t believe the league did a good enough job explaining things to players.

Petit-Frere, who spoke with Nick Suss of The Tennessean last month, stated that he didn’t feel like he had a clear handle on things, and that he wasn’t alone in feeling that way.

Here’s the full quote:

“I’ll be honest with you: there wasn’t really a lot of teaching from the NFL and things like that,” Petit-Frere said. “I was actually one of the people who asked the most questions when it came to fantasy football and things like that. I just wanted to make sure I learned as much as I could.

“When we heard about those suspensions and things like that, I’ll be honest, a lot of the guys felt like there just wasn’t a lot of teaching in general about this offense. I just feel like that’s something the NFL should kind of harbor a little bit more and understand these guys are making mistakes that they didn’t even know was a thing.”

“It’s tough,” he continued. “None of us ever want to do anything that jeopardizes the shield, that jeopardizes the NFL. Our mission, every single day, and we’re blessed to do this, is to play this children’s game. We’re getting paid to do it. Not only that, we get a lot of great experiences from not only the teams that we build but the players we’re a part of and also the fans. I would say I feel like the outlook of it is that it is something that should be more visited by the NFL and looked into more as a teaching moment than really a moment of coming down hard. Because in all honesty, if you ask guys, they weren’t taught this.”

If we want to throw on the old tinfoil hat, one would say perhaps NPF knew of his violation and impending suspension when he said this and was just getting out in front of it, but we can’t say for sure.

If that isn’t the case (again, we can’t know for sure at this moment), it’s clear Petit-Frere genuinely didn’t have a sufficient understanding of the policy.

Another thing we can’t say for sure is if the Titans and the league did a good enough job teaching its players, unless it’s confirmed there is a widespread misunderstanding from players, as NPF suggests here.

Regardless, these players have the resources (money and connections) to go out and seek the answers they’re looking for. I don’t necessarily think they should have to do that, but they do have options nonetheless.

All of this is not to say I think this policy makes sense.

No, players should not be able to gamble with impunity when it comes to betting on their own sport or team, as such a policy would jeopardize the legitimacy of the sport.

But suspending a guy six games simply because of his location while betting on other sports like NPF did is silly.

And that’s especially true when you consider how much the NFL is raking in via contracts with sportsbooks and whatnot. Adding to that, players caught using performance-enhancing drugs get less time (four games) than NPF.

But none of this matters now. Clearly the NFL is not changing its stance on this policy, and now the Titans will be without their starting right tackle for six games, which just stinks, no matter where you want to place the blame.

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4 potential replacements at right tackle following Nicholas Petit-Frere suspension

With Nicholas Petit-Frere suspended for the first 6 games of 2023, here are some potential replacements at right tackle for the Titans.

The news surrounding the six-game suspension of Titans’ starting right tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere undoubtedly stunned Tennessee’s fans, coaches, players, and media members everywhere.

This was a deflating blow to an offensive line that already has a ton of question marks to begin with.

Petit-Frere was the one starting lineman on the team who was returning in 2023 at the same position he played the previous year.

Now, at the very least, the Titans will have to find a way to survive over 35 percent of the season without the second-year lineman.

While this news is rather disappointing, this now opens the door for someone to snatch the starting right tackle role, should they run with the opportunity in front of them.

This article is going to discuss three potential in-house replacements, as well as another free agent option should Tennessee decide to go that route.

Let’s not delay this any longer and find out who the four potential candidates are.