During the preseason Week 3 broadcast on Saturday night, Tennessee Titans general manager Jon Robinson revealed that rookie Nicholas Petit-Frere had won the starting job.
“Nick Petit has kind of won the right tackle job,” Robinson said during a spot in the broadcast booth in the third quarter.
While the timing of the admission was surprising, the decision itself is not, as the writing was on the wall all this week that NPF had won the starting job.
During the week, Petit-Frere was getting all the looks at right tackle, while his competition, 2021 second-round pick Dillon Radunz, saw snaps at guard.
Petit-Frere then got his second straight start at right tackle on Saturday night. Despite being named the starter, he’s still very much in competition mode.
“Even though we’ve played our last preseason game, we’ve still got another week of practice, then we have the Giants coming up,” he said, per ESPN’s Turron Davenport. “It’s the NFL; every single day is a competition, every single day your job is on the line so you’ve got to compete for it.”
Robinson saying Petit-Frere “kind of” won the starting job makes us wonder if he means Radunz lost it more than Petit-Frere won it, but the rookie has earned a starting role nonetheless, and much sooner than anyone expected.
As far as Radunz is concerned, the Titans will now look to convert him to a guard moving forward, a position many thought he’d end up at before being drafted.
However, there’s no question this is a major disappointment for the North Dakota State product, who is well on his way to being a bust.
