Jordan Elliott departure is a massive vote of confidence for 49ers 2nd-year pro

One should have easily suspected former San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh would take a few of his former players with him to the Tennessee Titans when he accepted the head-coaching job there.

But the pipeline from the Bay Area out to Tennessee hadn't exactly flowed too freely, at least until the eve before the start of the league new year.

Defensive tackle Jordan Elliott, who spent the last two seasons with the Niners, is reportedly off to Tennessee to reunite with Saleh on a two-year deal, as reported by ESPN's Adam Schefter the night before the 2026 NFL new year kicked off:

Judging by the lack of noise from San Francisco about potentiall re-signing Elliott, it certainly doesn't appear as if there was any serious interest in retaining his services.

And that's a massive piece of news for one of the 49ers' more recent investments, defensive tackle Alfred Collins.

Jordan Elliott going to Titans opens up huge opportunity for Alfred Collins

Collins, the Niners' second-round pick from the 2025 NFL Draft out of Texas, stands to be the primary beneficiary of Elliott's departure. The two effectively played the same position in Saleh's base front last year, although the veteran received 16 starts over the season in contrast to Collins getting just one.

That figures to change now, although it's going to be interesting to see how Saleh's replacement, Raheem Morris, configures his defensive line on both base downs and nickel packages.

Either way, San Francisco hyped Collins for much of his rookie season, evidenced by how frequently TV color analysts talked about how much the 49ers loved their first-year defensive tackle. And while Collins had his share of up-and-down moments throughout 2025, it appears the Niners are thrilled with his development thus far.

If they weren't, there'd likely be a lot more effort given to keeping Elliott around instead of letting him walk so easily.