Tennessee Titans cornerback Caleb Farley is having a very rough start to his second season after seeing his rookie campaign cut short due to a torn ACL.
Farley was expected to grab the starting spot opposite Kristian Fulton going into the offseason but was somewhat unexpectedly beaten out by rookie cornerback, Roger McCreary.
Then, we expected to see Farley grab a role as the extra defensive back in sub-packages, but that didn’t happen, either.
Clinging to his backup role, Farley had a great opportunity to show his stuff in Week 2 with Fulton out, but he failed to answer the bell in what was a horrific showing for the entire team.
The 2021 first-round pick slipped even further in Week 3, when he was passed over for playing time in favor of veteran cornerback Terrance Mitchell, who had just joined the team mid-week.
Mitchell was bad and his poor performance made Farley, who saw just one snap on defense, look even worse.
As bad as things are for the Virginia Tech product, he remains confident in himself and is saying all the right things, although he isn’t happy with his limited non-existent role.
“I’m confident,” Farley said, per John Glennon of Sports Illustrated. “I mean, I’m not happy with it, but I’m here to work hard and do what I can do to put myself in position to help this team win. When the opportunity comes, whenever they make that decision or that call, it’s my job to rise to the occasion and do the best I can to come in and execute.”
“You’ve just got to put your head down and do what’s best for the team, put the team first,” Farley added. “That’s the decision that was made, and I stick behind it because guys make decisions that are best for the team.”
While the Titans being down on Farley is understandable, he has to get more of a look than what he’s gotten thus far, which amounts to two games with 17 snaps or less, including his one-snap game in Week 3.
As Fulton pointed out earlier this week, reps are important for a young player to gain confidence, and that’s especially true for Farley in the first season back from a knee injury that can often take a year to fully come back from.
“It’s a process to get out there and get comfortable. I just try to share that with [Farley]. Once he gets those game reps, I feel like he’ll be good, but I just have to let him know that it’s a process,” Fulton said, per AtoZ Sports Nashville’s Sam Phalen.
“This is the NFL,” he added. “Everybody comes into the league confident in their abilities, but once you don’t get those reps out there, you can lose confidence in yourself.”
Head coach Mike Vrabel hinted earlier in the week that more changes could be coming to the revolving door that has been the Titans’ secondary depth.
We’ll see if Farley getting more playing time is one of those changes.
