This article is part of our Job Battles series.
The Job Battles series from this point onward will post each week of training camp on Wednesdays. Training camp battles for playing time will pick up in a hurry once camps open, and this series will track those NFL position battles.
This entry is the last of the irregularly scheduled offseason posts in the series, which was preceded by a roundup of the offseason QB and RB news (here), the WR and TE news (here), and two update posts (here and here) since then.
This article will break down the training camp battles for snaps between Tony Pollard and Tyjae Spears in Tennessee and analyze the fallout from the Tristan Wirfs injury in Tampa Bay.
Check out the industry-leading fantasy football live draft assistant to get custom rankings for your league and follow along with a live draft on most major platforms!
Tony Pollard vs. Tyjae Spears, RB, TEN
Quotes of coach Brian Callahan from a press conference in May are popping up again, but new or not, it's worth revisiting as Callahan indicated an intention to split the workloads more evenly between Tony Pollard (301 touches in 16 games) and Tyjae Spears (114 touches in 14 games).
As much as the comments are not new, the reasoning of the comments always made obvious sense. Pollard was overworked in 2024. It should be a categorical goal of Callahan's to lighten Pollard's workload, even regardless of the alternative.
That the alternative is Spears, a
The Job Battles series from this point onward will post each week of training camp on Wednesdays. Training camp battles for playing time will pick up in a hurry once camps open, and this series will track those NFL position battles.
This entry is the last of the irregularly scheduled offseason posts in the series, which was preceded by a roundup of the offseason QB and RB news (here), the WR and TE news (here), and two update posts (here and here) since then.
This article will break down the training camp battles for snaps between Tony Pollard and Tyjae Spears in Tennessee and analyze the fallout from the Tristan Wirfs injury in Tampa Bay.
Check out the industry-leading fantasy football live draft assistant to get custom rankings for your league and follow along with a live draft on most major platforms!
Tony Pollard vs. Tyjae Spears, RB, TEN
Quotes of coach Brian Callahan from a press conference in May are popping up again, but new or not, it's worth revisiting as Callahan indicated an intention to split the workloads more evenly between Tony Pollard (301 touches in 16 games) and Tyjae Spears (114 touches in 14 games).
As much as the comments are not new, the reasoning of the comments always made obvious sense. Pollard was overworked in 2024. It should be a categorical goal of Callahan's to lighten Pollard's workload, even regardless of the alternative.
That the alternative is Spears, a fully likable prospect selected out of Tulane in the third round of the 2023 draft, makes it easier yet to embrace the goal.
The issue with Spears, perhaps alluded to by Callahan himself when he prefaced this entire sentiment with the In A Perfect World clause, is that Spears is a uniquely fragile running back and probably can only withstand a limited workload himself. Pollard was overworked in 2024, yet Spears also reached a point of Overwork, much more quickly.
The question as it pertains to Pollard's fantasy value is: will a decrease in Pollard's per-game usage volume make him non-viable at his fantasy football ADP?
At the moment Pollard's ADP on NFFC registers at 79.75, which places him at RB26 just behind the likes of Kaleb Johnson and Quinshon Judkins while ranking just ahead of D'Andre Swift (80.73) and Isiah Pacheco (83.98). On Underdog Pollard is slightly cheaper (82.8), going instead just after Swift (74.0) and Pacheco (78.4).
It's arguably worth quibbling over whether Pollard is the correct pick over similarly-priced alternatives like Swift or Pacheco, but in general RB26 is not a high bar for a player like Pollard to reach. Moreover, the goal of lightening Pollard's workload is not to take the ball away from Pollard, or even to give the ball to someone like Spears. The point of giving Pollard more breathers is to keep Pollard healthy, which is only a goal you prioritize when you want to keep using that player as much as practically possible.
In 2024 the Titans used Pollard more than what was practically possible, resulting in overwork-related injury. As much as we greedily want our fantasy assets to accumulate as much usage as possible, Callahan seems to understand overuse can exact a cost on a player's durability, and even their effectiveness.
Indeed, Pollard's value peaked in 2022, when he split the workload in Dallas with Ezekiel Elliott. More specifically, Elliott would handle the most thankless short-yardage and blitz pickup snaps, leaving the in-space and big-play designs to Pollard, who thrived in this selective deployment. It's possible that lightening Pollard's workload will result in the same fantasy point total as in a scenario where he takes more work, not just because of the availability point but because Pollard might make more big plays with fresher legs.
In the case of Spears: there's reason to believe Callahan means it when he says he wants to get Spears the ball more, but it remains to be seen what kind of workload Spears can withstand. Spears already would have seen more usage in 2024 if his durability had cooperated. It did not – Spears hurt his ankle in Week 2, tweaked a hamstring in Week 6, and missed two games due to two concussions (Weeks 12 and 18). The injury theme was similar with Spears in college.
Spears was a uniquely explosive player at Tulane (6.8 YPC, 7.3 percent touchdown rate), and a dominant pure runner by any standard. The problem was durability: Spears suffered the second tear of the same ACL early in the 2020 season, and Ian Rapoport grimly stated before the 2023 draft that Spears had cartilage damage and arthritis in the same knee, which no longer had an ACL at all.
The legendary No ACL story of Hines Ward perhaps offers some reassurance against the worst-case scenarios for Spears, and to some extent Spears has already shown he can play at a high level in this state. The problem with the Ward example is that Ward unknowingly lost his ACL in a bike accident as a child, which allowed his body to recover with and grow around the injury in a way that might have compensated for lost function. Spears lost his ACL as a result of repeated knee trauma at a college age, and in Ward's case there was no reporting of arthritis.
In short, Spears looks like a player capable of providing above average per-play production, and in theory his upside should scale to whatever workload he's capable of withstanding. At his current fantasy football ADP, Spears is probably worth mixing in on Underdog (126.4), while on NFFC (147.41) Spears is probably one of the cheaper handcuff picks, limited as his volume upside might be.
Based on his past, though, it might be best for Spears' longevity to keep his snaps limited as much as possible to in-space functions as a runner and route-running responsibilities on passing downs. This means there would likely be non-negotiable volume limitations with Spears in even his best-case scenarios, or at least, his best-case scenarios otherwise would be very brief due to the risk that he gets nicked up with the heightened usage.
In summary: Both Pollard and Spears are capable players who the Titans mean to feature extensively, and it's possible the two can coexist at fantasy football ADP in a way that makes both viable picks. That's particularly true in Best Ball formats, where the injury risk and potential for volatile weekly usage gets muted. It also might be particularly true if you're considering Pollard or Spears as floor picks or diversification picks. Without reliable volume upside, the Titans duo might be better understood as value rather than upside.
If it's upside you're looking for specifically then that might be a reason to prefer the likes of Swift and Pacheco, both of whom have more volume upside and should play in offenses that score more touchdowns than Tennessee.
There's also a chance that the Titans budget a little more usage for a power specialist than they did in 2024, and if players like Kalel Mullings or Julius Chestnut climb the Titans depth chart it could occur disproportionately in short-yardage situations. The position battles between Mullings and Chestnut are certainly worth monitoring in their own right.
In the event that Mullings or Chestnut get involved it should mostly be offset by the likely improvements in the Tennessee offense, which should find its way into scoring range more often with Cam Ward than it did with Will Levis and Mason Rudolph.
Check out our fantasy football ADP report for a comprehensive tool with live-updated ADP data for multiple league formats and sites.
Charlie Heck vs. Graham Barton vs. ???, LT, TB
An unusual entry here. According to Tampa Bay Times reporter Rick Stroud, left tackle Tristan Wirfs (knee) likely will miss at least the first two and could miss the first four games of the 2025 season, creating a massive void at what normally would be the greatest strength of the Tampa offensive line.
The Buccaneers are in challenging position now — Wirfs is a player you can't replace, but his absence might be brief enough that Tampa can withstand the storm until his return.
The other good news is that the other four Tampa Bay offensive line reps look at least solid and in a few cases legitimately strong — Graham Barton should be one of the league's best centers as soon as 2025, while both Cody Mauch (right guard) and Luke Goedeke (right tackle) decisively turned the corner in their own developments in 2024.
Then again, Tampa Bay's offensive success in recent years is arguably owed to Wirfs more than any other single player. The Buccaneers' offensive line in general was a team strength, and if Wirfs' absence were to cause that to change then it could stunt the rhythm of a Tampa offense that has mostly been locked in the last two years.
The bad news is that, barring a personnel move, the Buccaneers' replacement options at left tackle are as bad as any in the league. The de facto backup left tackle on the Buccaneers depth chart going into training camp is Charlie Heck, a former fourth-round pick (2020) who has struggled with both on-field play and durability. Heck only played right tackle until his fifth year of college play – another indication that he'd be a liability at left tackle.
Heck might be bad enough that it could tempt Tampa Bay to temporarily move Barton from center to left tackle, where he played at Duke prior to 2024. Barton probably would be a better left tackle than Heck, but is it worth the cost of creating a new potential weakness at center?
The Buccaneers have a lot to think about, because taking a player like Wirfs and replacing him with a zero could throw off the otherwise dominant routine Tampa has in the NFC South, where they now have four years in row with division titles (two with Tom Brady, two with Mayfield).
Check out how injuries are affecting recent player performance and season-long outlook on RotoWire's NFL injury report.
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