Ugo Amadi: Titans ‘want me to play nickel’
The Tennessee Titans traded for yet another defensive back on Wednesday, acquiring Ugo Amadi from the Philadelphia Eagles in a trade that also included a swap of late-round picks.
Amadi is the second defensive back the Titans have traded for in a week, as the team also acquired safety Tyree Gillespie from the Las Vegas Raiders.
While the more options the merrier, one has to wonder if the Titans are either unhappy with their current crop of defensive backs beyond their starters, or if there are injuries the team is concerned with — but I digress…
Amadi, who made his practice debut on Thursday and is expected to suit up in preseason Week 3, is capable of playing safety and nickel corner. After the session, he revealed that the Titans want to get a look at him in the latter role.
“My style of play, my versatility, being able to play multiple positions. You need guys that can cover and hit,” Amadi said, per Jim Wyatt of Titans Online. “[The Titans] want me to play nickel, and we’ll see where it goes from there. I have experience with that, and I’m just going to be myself, play my role, play my game.”
That job is usually owned by second-year corner Elijah Molden; however, the Washington product has been sidelined with an injury for most camp, forcing Tennessee to look at other options.
“We had some guys go down; A.J. [Moore] has been unavailable,” head coach Mike Vrabel said when asked about the flurry of moves at defensive back. “We’ve seen flashes from each of those guys… we’ll give them every opportunity. We don’t care how they get here, we just focus on what they do while they’re here. We coach them up and see who improves in our system, what contributions they can make and help them define a role for themselves on the team.”
Amadi and the rest of the newest Titans will have their final opportunity before final cuts on Tuesday to show their stuff in the preseason finale on Saturday night against the Arizona Cardinals in Nashville.
