Nicholas Singleton 2026 Season Preview — what we know, and what nobody does | Muffed

Penn State's all-time touchdown leader is going at pick one seventy-nine — the fifty-fifth running back — which tells you the market read the depth chart before it read the highlight reel.

The record: Tennessee drafted him in the fifth round, pick one sixty-five, per 247Sports. At Penn State he set the program's career marks for total touchdowns and all-purpose yards — records that once belonged to Saquon Barkley, per the Titans' own bio. He broke a foot at the Senior Bowl, had it surgically repaired, and was medically cleared before the draft, per 247Sports.

[[SITUATION]]

The situation is the reason for the price: Tony Pollard handled two hundred seventy-five touches last season and Tyjae Spears another hundred seventeen, and the new head coach, Robert Saleh, has called those two his bell cows, per A to Z Sports in June. Singleton missed the first week of team drills finishing the foot rehab, then rotated in with increasing frequency through minicamp, per the same beat coverage. The team's own materials talk up his receiving and kick-return value.

[pause] Our stance doesn't change with the draft round: we can't tell you what a rookie produces, and neither can anyone else — we checked whether slot and spring buzz predict it, and they don't at a standard we'd cite. What pick one seventy-nine buys you is a lottery ticket on a crowded room. We'll grade the results when they exist.

September watch: special teams first — if he's returning kicks, he's active and involved — and any week Pollard's touch count dips, because that's the door. [[CLOSE]] Your whole roster gets this treatment every week — that's the show.