The Tennessee Titans continue to put former Texas Longhorns defenders on the chopping block before the regular season.
The Titans announced earlier this week that they waived former Texas linebacker David Gbenda after signing him as an undrafted free agent. Gbenda spent six years in Austin, appearing in 62 games while posting 166 total tackles (89 solo), 3.5 sacks, one forced fumble, four pass breakups and two interceptions, which included a pick in the loss to Ohio State at the Cotton Bowl in January.
Gbenda watched in April as 12 of his teammates were selected in the 2025 NFL Draft, setting a new program record. This included the Titans’ selection of tight end Gunnar Helm in the fifth round, who was one of many Longhorns to join the Titans this offseason.
Titans Have Parted Ways With Three Texas Longhorns
The Titans, who drafted Vince Young third overall in the 2006 NFL Draft, have shown a reignited interest in more former Longhorns over the past two draft cycles, but it hasn’t worked out for some of them.
After drafting Helm in the fifth round, Tennessee signed Gbenda and safety Jerrin Thompson to undrafted deals. Thompson played last season at Auburn after being teammates with Gbenda at Texas for four years.
These two were hoping to join two other former Longhorns on the defense in defensive lineman T’Vondre Sweat and Keondre Coburn. However, the Titans waived Thompson in June before doing the same to Coburn in July.
Gbenda is now the latest Longhorn to be let go, leaving just Helm to have a reunion with Sweat in Nashville.
Potential Texas Reunion Spoiled by Titans
All five players were teammates for two seasons in 2021 and 2022. A reunion with all of them this upcoming season on the Titans roster would have been a pleasant site for Texas fans, but that’s the harsh reality of the NFL.
Gbenda, Thompson, Sweat and Coburn were just some of the players on defense that helped bring Texas back to national relevancy. After experiencing the 5-7 season in the first year under Steve Sarkisian in 2021, all five players returned as the Longhorns put together an 8-5 finish in 2022.
This set the stage for 2023, as Texas won the Big 12 Championship and made it to the College Football Playoff as the No. 3 seed.
Gbenda talked about how the defense set the expectations of excellence during that 2023 season.
“The standard was set last year, in my opinion, with a group of guys that we had before,” Gbenda said in November. “The standard defense was, you’re not going to move the ball on us and we’re going to play hard, and you’re going to have to really put your all into it, because we’re going to bring our best shot, you’re not going to do anything about it.”
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