The first game of Tennessee Titans cornerback Roger McCreary’s fourth NFL season will be the second in which he’s faced a former college teammate as the opposing quarterback.
Malik Willis, McCreary’s teammate at Auburn in 2018, led the Green Bay Packers to a 30-14 victory over the Titans on Sept. 22, 2024.
On Sunday, Bo Nix will lead the Denver Broncos against Tennessee. McCreary and Nix were teammates at Auburn from 2019 through 2021.
“I know he’s a guy who’s going to always create and extend plays,” McCreary said about Nix. “I feel like that’s his bread-and-butter right there, so we just got to focus on him, trying to get in his head, show him different stuff out there just to put pressure on him and all types of stuff. But it really starts with Bo Nix and trying to affect him.”
Expectations are high for the Broncos in Nix’s second season. Denver went to the playoffs for the first time since 2015 in his rookie year.
Since McCreary joined the Titans in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft, Tennessee has posted records of 7-10 in 2022, 6-11 in 2023 and 3-14 in 2024, and the over/under for the team’s win total is 5.5 in 2025.
“I feel like since I’ve been here, that’s been the story every year,” McCreary said of the low expectations for the Titans. “They always put us on the back burner. They don’t talk much about us. They don’t talk about our quarterback. We don’t got no night games. None of that, so I feel like it’s always like that with us, so we just got to prove them wrong and get that chip off of us, for real.”
National outlets just about have to talk about Tennessee’s quarterback some this year: Cam Ward was the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft on April 24.
“I feel like he’s totally ready,” McCreary said about Ward’s NFL debut on Sunday. “He got the right mindset. He got the guys, like, ready to show him the way. And you know, every day he always just talks about trying to get better. You can just tell on the field how he try to improve every day and just be the guy and be in the right spot for that game. I feel like he’s ready for it.”
The Tennessee roster includes 23 players with two or fewer seasons of NFL experience, including 11 rookies.
“It’s just football at the end of the day,” McCreary said of his advice to his younger teammates. “We’ve been doing this since we was a little kid. Don’t try to complicate it. Nothing like that. Exactly how we practice, that’s exactly how it’s going to be. That’s the reason why we practice hard so it can translate to the game. So that’s what I tell them. Don’t think too much. It’s all football at the end of the day.”
The Titans haven’t won their season-opening game since beating the Broncos 16-14 to kick off the 2020 campaign. This time, Tennessee and Denver will square off at 3:05 p.m. CDT Sunday at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, with McCreary starting the season as the Titans’ slot corner.
“We got to start off strong,” McCreary said. “Last year, we was close, but we ain’t finish, so I feel like this game, got to come out strong and finish strong. That’s the main thing. And later on in the season, they’re going to fall in place, but we just take it one-by-one. …
“A lot of guys are ready for the game to see what we’re really about, and I feel like we’re going to show everybody exactly that. I can’t wait for the start, for real.”
Both McCreary and Nix were Alabama high school standouts – McCreary at Williamson in Mobile and Nix at Pinson Valley.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at@AMarkG1
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