Former UAB standout joins Tennessee Titans

Former UAB standout Chris Hubbard is joining the Tennessee Titans for his 11th NFL training camp. The Titans are adding Hubbard to their options until right offensive tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere is eligible to play.
Petit-Frere started 16 games as a rookie last season, but he will miss the first six games of the 2023 campaign while serving an NFL suspension imposed for violating the league’s gambling policy.
Tennessee held its first training-camp practice on Wednesday, and reports indicate Jamarco Jones and John Ojukwu were getting the early work in preparation to fill in for Petit-Frere.
Jones has seven NFL starts since entering the NFL as a fifth-round selection of the Seattle Seahawks in the 2018 draft. Ojukwu is a undrafted rookie from Boise State.
Hubbard started 39 NFL games from 2017 through 2019, but he has battled injuries since then. He finished the 2020 season on injured reserve after hurting his knee in his fifth start of the campaign, played in only one game in 2021 because of a torn tricep muscle and playing in four games in 2022 while dealing with an elbow injury.
Hubbard earned All-Conference USA recognition at offensive tackle in his final season at UAB, but he went undrafted in 2013.
After signing with the Pittsburgh Steelers as a rookie free agent, Hubbard spent his first NFL season on the practice squad, then played seven offensive snaps in his second season and 33 in his third.
In 2017, Hubbard started 10 games for the Steelers, which led to his first free-agent contract with the Cleveland Browns. He played all 1,091 of Cleveland’s offensive snaps at right tackle in 2018 and started 13 more games in 2019.
Hubbard transitioned to a swing-tackle role in 2020 after Cleveland drafted Alabama All-American Jedrick Wills Jr. in the first round and signed Jack Conklin in free agency. But Hubbard still started five games as he got some guard work, too, before hurting his knee.
Injuries have limited Hubbard to 39 offensive snaps in each of the past two seasons.