NASHVILLE Max Unger Jersey , Tenn. (AP) In a perfect world, Brian Orakpo would like to play 25 snaps a game for the Tennessee Titans.

That would mean the Titans have enough talented linebackers on the roster to keep the 10-year veteran fresh rotating between the field and the sideline. Fresher legs all around also would mean more sacks and pressure on quarterbacks for a dominant combination.

”That’s how you stay fresh,” Orakpo said. ”Philly did it, New York back in the day with Osi (Umenyiora) and (Michael) Strahan and all of them did it. That’s what it’s all about. I don’t want to be playing 90 snaps a game, who does? If that’s what it takes, that’s what it takes. But at the same time it’s all about depth, and we need those guys to step up and I know they will.”

Orakpo wants Tennessee to take a cue from the champion Philadelphia Eagles by building enough depth to survive when injuries hit and still be able to make a run at a championship. The Eagles had five key players miss the Super Bowl last February, including quarterback Carson Wentz.

The Titans are working to further strengthen the roster for a deeper playoff run this season with only two real holes to fill in their starting lineup after last year when they went 9-7 .

– Running back Derrick Henry, the 2015 Heisman Trophy winner, showed he can replace DeMarco Murray by running for 156 yards in a playoff win at Kansas City in January.

– Inside linebacker Avery Williamson left for the Jets as a free agent , and the Titans have a handful of options there.

Tennessee signed inside veteran Will Compton, who started 33 of his 57 games over five seasons with Washington, and also traded up to draft Rashaan Evans of Alabama at No. 22 overall. The Titans also have Jayon Brown, who played extensively in passing downs as a rookie last season.

The Titans also drafted linebacker Harold Landry III at No. 41 overall Tevin Coleman Jersey , and he has gotten plenty of work with the first-team defense with Orakpo nursing a sore shoulder in camp.

Compton, who has been working with the first-team offense so far in camp, played only nine games last season before a Lisfranc injury ended his season. He said the Titans’ depth, chemistry and leadership helped convince him to join the Titans.

”Coming into this locker room, it’s definitely a player-led team, and those are the teams that can become great,” Compton said. ”We’re not there yet. We have a long way to go, but the chemistry and the leadership is all there. And that’s what you need: a lot of experienced, veteran guys and everybody plays a role and everybody wants the same thing.”

The Titans also signed defensive lineman Bennie Logan to join three-time Pro Bowler Jurrell Casey, DaQuan Jones and Austin Johnson in the middle. Logan, who has started 63 of 74 career games with Philadelphia and Kansas City, was impressed by seeing the Titans in the AFC wild-card game Tennessee won last January against the Chiefs.

Even with Henry at running back, Titans general manager signed Dion Lewis away from New England as another option in the backfield. Three-time Pro Bowl tight end Delanie Walker says he loves looking around the offensive huddle in camp.

”It’s beautiful,” Walker said. ”You’re going to have to focus on a lot of other people other than just No 82 Jahleel Addae Jersey , so I’m excited about it.”

With all five starters back on the offensive line, general manager Jon Robinson still signed linemen with starting experience in Kevin Pamphile and Xavier Su’a-Filo . Robinson’s best work came in the secondary, signing cornerback Malcolm Butler after adding Logan Ryan as a free agent in 2017. Adoree Jackson, the 18th pick overall in 2017, started every game last year.

”We have depth no doubt,” Ryan said. ”I think everybody who is not starting right now wants to start, and I think the guys that won’t make this team will make other teams.”

NOTES: WR Rishard Matthews, recovering from an unspecified injury, was added to the physically unable to perform list. Orakpo (shoulder), Evans, TE Jonnu Smith, DL Claude Pelon (right knee) and TE Luke Stocker did not practice.

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The words that threatened to define Ben Roethlisberger’s season were uttered almost as an afterthought and with more than a hint of frustrated sarcasm.

It just didn’t read that way as it made the rounds on social media, or sound that way during a three-second sound bite played endlessly on a loop.

”Maybe I don’t have it anymore,” the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback said in a somber locker room three months ago after throwing five interceptions in a 30-9 loss to Jacksonville .

Roethlisberger didn’t mean it. Call it a visceral reaction to having two of his 55 passes returned the other way for game-deciding touchdowns. Three days later the 35-year-old was back to calling himself one of the ”best in the world.” It wasn’t just idle talk. He followed it up by spending the better part of the next 10 weeks playing like it.

The quarterback who will stride onto the field Sunday for a rematch against the Jaguars in the divisional round of the playoffs has his swagger back. Wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey jokingly gave credit to the beard Roethlisberger began growing in the aftermath of one of the most forgettable performances of his career. Of course Marcus Cannon Jersey , that’s not the reality. The guys who surround Roethlisberger in the huddle know the swagger never really left.

”Ben is the most talented guy I’ve ever been around,” Heyward-Bey said. ”I’m not talking quarterback. I’m talking about talent. He can do a lot of different things. He believes in his ability and he’s going to show people on Sunday that he believes in himself.”

The player who openly pondered retirement last spring, the one who quarterbacks coach Randy Fichtner said in November will occasionally uncork a flutter ball while looking very much his age, heads to his 21st career playoff game at the height of his powers. Roethlisberger is averaging 298 yards passing since that forgettable three hours against the NFL’s top defense.

Roethlisberger’s thrown multiple touchdown passes in seven straight games and the Steelers ended the season with a 9-1 sprint, the lone setback a loss to New England on Dec. 17 in which his only mistake came on a poorly executed fake spike that resulted in a game-ending pick.

What’s working? Nearly everything.

Having two of the top skill position players in the league in wide receiver Antonio Brown and running back Le’Veon Bell helps. So does the continued evolution of rookie JuJu Smith-Schuster and Martavis Bryant’s immersion into the offense following an ill-advised trade demand.

Yet Pittsburgh’s offense will only go as far over the next month as Roethlisberger can take it. Though he downplayed looking for payback after the Jaguars shut him down in ways that few teams have in recent years, not everyone is buying it.

”I’m sure just as any competitor would, when you go and have a bad outing or a difficult, tough outing against a team, you want that revenge,” Jacksonville quarterback Blake Bortles said. ”You want to go prove that it was a fluke or whatever it might be. I’m sure that’s probably what he’s thinking.”

Not that Roethlisberger would admit it even if he is. Never one to go into great detail about how he goes about his job, Roethlisberger insists he’s focused simply on playing well. The fact it’s against the Jaguars is coincidental. There is no looking ahead to a potential shot at New England in the AFC title game, or a third Super Bowl that would provide an exclamation point on a potential Hall of Fame career.

”I am not worried about what’s going on up there (with the Patriots),” Roethlisberger said. ”All I can think about and worry about is this defense that we are playing.”

A defense that will likely need to find a way to replicate its October dominance to extend its season. The Steelers have been forced to revisit the loss this week, one that put their journey from that moment to this one in perspective.

”That game for our entire group was kind of a watershed moment John Jerry Jersey ,” offensive coordinator Todd Haley said Thursday. ”We stayed together, but there was a lot of pressure from the outside. A lot of outside factors that could have been divisive in some way for our group, but I take my hat off to the guys. They stuck together. They pulled together tighter. We knew that wasn’t our best football and we knew it probably really wasn’t as bad as it appeared.”

Or, as Roethlisberger can attest, as bad as it sounded afterward. The sound bite was just that, a bite, one that in a way played a role in his resurgence. One that ended with his sixth Pro Bowl selection and a very real shot to become the fourth quarterback in NFL history with three Super Bowl titles.

”He’s confident in his ability and he’s confident in his receivers,” Heyward-Bey said. ”He knows that we’re going to go out there and try and make plays for him. That’s what a quarterback needs. He has to have confidence in his guys.”

Roethlisberger’s confidence in himself was never an issue.

NOTES: CB Artis Burns (hyperextended right knee) did not practice Thursday but is hoping to play Sunday. DE Stephon Tuitt (elbow) also did not practice but plans to play. … LB Ryan Shazier, recovering from spine stabilization surgery, attended practice again in a wheelchair and hung out in the locker room after practice.

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