The Tennessee Titans were widely expected to be sellers at the 2025 NFL trade deadline. At 1-8, they are tied for the worst record in football, boasting the worst scoring offense and third-worst scoring defense in the league. Tennessee fired Brian Callahan nearly a month ago, too, effectively punting on the season. And yet, when the deadline came and went on Tuesday, the Titans abstained from making any blockbuster moves. Tony Pollard, especially, stayed put in spite of some pretty tangible rumors.
Fantasy football owners were probably holding onto Pollard in the hopes that maybe he would find a new home midseason. Now that he is hitched to the Titans for at least the rest of this year, how will Pollard’s fantasy outlook change?
Tennessee Titans Trade Deadline Moves
The lone deal the Titans made at the deadline was with the Baltimore Ravens. They traded away defensive end Dre’Mont Jones, snagging a conditional 2026 fifth-round pick in return. They previously traded cornerback Roger McCreary and a conditional 2026 sixth-round pick to the Los Angeles Rams for a conditional 2026 fifth-round pick back on October 27. Back on September 23, Tennessee shipped cornerback Jarvis Brownlee Jr. and a 2026 seventh-round pick to the New York Jets for a 2026 sixth-round pick.
Pollard, defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons, wide receiver Calvin Ridley, tight end Chig Okonkwo, offensive guard Kevin Zeitler, edge rusher Arden Key, outside linebacker Jihad Ward, safety Quandre Diggs and defensive linemen T’Vondre Sweat and Sebastian Joseph-Day all popped up in rumors only to remain with the Titans.
According to Boston Sports Journal’s Mike Giardi, the Titans may have been unwilling to strike a deal with the New England Patriots, who showed interest in Pollard, Key and Ridley. Owner Amy Adams Strunk, reportedly, did not want to help Mike Vrabel out after how things ended with him in Tennessee. As a result, Pollard didn’t go anywhere, effectively locking him into the Titans’ depth chart for the rest of the season.
Tony Pollard Fantasy Football Outlook
Pollard entered 2025 with an ADP in the mid-60s. He was RB25, on average, which was right below Isiah Pacheco and right above Aaron Jones Sr.
The 28-year-old was coming off four consecutive seasons with at least 1,000 scrimmage yards and three with at least 1,300. He finished 2021 as RB29, then jumped to RB8 in 2022. He was RB18 in his final year with the Dallas Cowboys in 2023 before finishing as RB22 upon joining the Titans in 2024.
Pollard is currently RB24 heading into Tennessee’s Week 10 bye, averaging 9.9 PPR fantasy points per game. He hasn’t scored fewer than 6.3, but he hasn’t gone past 14.8, either. Pollard has reached double-digits four times in nine games, plus one more game when he scored 9.2.
Through five games, Pollard was averaging 11.3 PPR fantasy points per game. Tyjae Spears was on the injured reserve for the first four of those games, leading to an 85.8% snap share and 18.2 touches per game for Pollard. Since Spears returned to full strength, however, Pollard has seen the field on just 50.9% of offensive snaps while 11.8 averaging touches per game. Spears is getting 50.4% of the snaps in that same span with 9.8 touches per game. Spears is outscoring Pollard in fantasy since Week 6, with the former averaging 10.6 and the latter averaging 8.2.
Is there reason to believe Tony Pollard can turn it around in 2025?
Pollard and Spears are now joined at the hip for the rest of the season, barring injury. Interim head coach Mike McCoy doesn’t seem to have a favorite between the two running backs, which doesn’t bode well for Pollard returning to his early-season workload. On top of that, the Titans have run just 49 plays inside the red zone and 30 inside the 10 all season. The lack of a clear role and touchdown opportunities makes Pollard a bench player moving forward, unless the Titans commit to him as their lead back post-deadline.
Would Pollard have been a more valuable fantasy asset if he was on the Patriots? In short, yes, even though he would have been competing with Rhamondre Stevenson, TreVeyon Henderson and Terrell Jennings. Stevenson is managing an injury, Henderson doesn’t have the faith of the coaching staff and Jennings just came off the practice squad. New England simply has a better offense, and having a piece of that would have been much more enticing than a marginally more consistent role on a far worse unit.
At the same time, the Titans’ offense didn’t get any worse at the deadline. They didn’t move Ridley, Okonkwo or Zeitler, and No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward is still just nine games into his NFL career. Coming out of the bye, there is reason to hope that Tennessee can take at least one step forward. Don’t insert Pollard into your lineup for Week 11, but keep him on your roster. The Titans aren’t facing too many elite offenses that will bury them in blowouts, so maybe Pollard can actually be part of the game script against the Texans, Jaguars, Browns, 49ers and Saints down the stretch. Pollard could still be an emergency FLEX option, depending on the matchup.
