Ernest Jones IV got off the Los Angeles Rams team plane on Saturday with no idea of what was about to happen.

“I’m just going to be completely honest: I was shocked. We got off the flight from Houston and then I got told that I would be traded,” Jones said Wednesday. “No bad blood. There wasn’t even any contract talks. We never even talked numbers. It was just ‘All right, y’all aren’t extending me, I’ll play this year out.’ I was under the impression I was going to finish this year in L.A. and then I’d move on. But you know, it happened earlier.”

What happened earlier was the Tennessee Titans traded a fifth-round pick in exchange for Jones and a sixth-round pick, adding depth to an inside linebacker room that sorely needed it. Just three days after being informed he’d be traded, Jones landed in Nashville — at 8:42 p.m., as he remembers it — and about 18 hours later he was practicing as a member of the Titans.

ROSTER ANALYSIS: Winners, losers from Tennessee Titans depth chart, first 53-man roster reveal

In Jones, the Titans add a player who can stuff against the run and create havoc as a blitzer. His 145 tackles were the 11th-most in the NFL last season, and his 37 quarterback pressures were the most recorded by any inside linebacker. He joins a revamped room that also features former first-round pick Kenneth Murray Jr., who the Titans signed in March, and draft picks Cedric Gray and James Williams, as well as returning starter Jack Gibbens.

Murray’s starting job appears to be safe after the Jones acquisition. Gibbens’ job may not be.

“Ernest has to come in and earn the spot,” Titans general manager Ran Carthon said. “He hasn’t been here. It’s up for (Jones and Gibbens) to figure it out.”

Jones was a full participant in Titans practice Wednesday. He says he worked in all the individual drills and got a few reps in team activities, but that was his first exposure to the Titans’ system. He didn’t have a chance to study the team playbook before practice, and says the Titans are trying to “feed (him) in slow” as opposed to pushing him with too much too quickly. This approach tracks with the way the Titans handled safety Quandre Diggs’ acclimation process after signing him in early August, waiting a couple weeks before installing him in the starting lineup.

Jones didn’t practice much for the Rams this offseason, but he says that had less to do with any pain or discomfort he’s feeling due to a lingering knee issue and more to do with the Rams managing his health. “When they told me not to practice,” Jones said, “I didn’t practice. That was that.”

MORE TRADE THOUGHTS: What Malik Willis trade means for Tennessee Titans and quarterback picture

Now the priority for the Titans is getting Jones, and the linebacker room at-large, ready for Week 1 against the Chicago Bears. Gray is heading to injured reserve with a designation to return because of a recurring nerve injury that’s limited him in camp. Garret Wallow and Chance Campbell, the Titans’ No. 2 options at the start of training camp, are both on season-ending injured reserve. Backups Luke Gifford and Otis Reese IV are both recovering from time spent in the concussion protocol.

Jones is both the last piece in an offseason-long rebuild of the Titans defense that’s also included adding Diggs, Murray, cornerbacks L’Jarius Sneed and Chidobe Awuzie and defensive linemen Sebastian Joseph-Day and T’Vondre Sweat as potential starters and an added question mark for a defense trying to figure out what it’ll look like when the season begins on Sept. 8.

None of this was in the plans for Jones, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t in good spirits.

“If you look from top to bottom, there’s some really good ballplayers on that side of the football,” Jones said. “I’m really excited about what we can do when we go out there and put it all on tape. That gets me excited coming into this building.”

ESTES: Tennessee Titans winning Super Bowl? It’s as likely as AJ Swann winning Heisman

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.

The parents of an Independence High School student are suing the Williamson County school board and District Attorney Stacey Edmondson after they say their child was unfairly expelled and punished under a districtwide zero tolerance policy.

The case is the latest filing against the board regarding the zero tolerance policy, passed in 2023 as a result of the Covenant School shooting in Nashville. A second case, filed May 21 in the U.S. District Court’s Middle Tennessee district at Nashville, involves two middle school students and is also pending.

The Williamson County school board declined to comment for this story, citing the pending litigation.

Attempts to reach Edmondson for comment on this story were not successful.

The newest lawsuit, filed Aug. 16 by Julie and Scott Wernert in the same U.S. District Court at Nashville, claims the couple’s son was criminally prosecuted by Edmonson’s office and was “humiliated before his peers, deprived of access to his classes and curriculum and made to suffer other indignities,” after he was expelled for allegedly doing a “Hitler salute” and making a comment about North Korea in a class on Sept. 11.

Under Williamson County Schools’ zero tolerance policy, any student found to have made threats, including speech, that a reasonable person could conclude would lead to serious bodily injury or death for two or more people should be expelled for a year.

But, no evidence has been presented, to date, showing that the boy actually made the salute or the comment, the 22-page suit said, noting that Independence High School Principal Nikki Patton is said to have shouted, “I don’t care, I want him arrested,” in response to the lack of proof.

The boy was subsequently arrested, strip-searched, taken to a Juvenile Detention Center and placed in solitary confinement, the suit said. It also adds that the use of the word “threat” is not defined in state law and as a result, “the lack of an intent element leaves a child who utters anything that can be even remotely construed as a ‘threat’ vulnerable to criminal prosecution and other dire consequences.”

That argument is advanced further in the joint lawsuit, filed on behalf of the middle schoolers in May. It claims both students were questioned and punished under the zero-tolerance policy.

In the first incident, a 14-year-old student at Page Middle School was accused on Aug. 10, 2023 by another student of making threats about having a gun in his backpack, shooting up the school and having a bomb at home, the suit said.

The student was placed on a 24-hour solitary confinement hold and, “was required to strip down and change into jail clothes while an adult male guard was facing away,” the suit said, also noting that the boy was incarcerated for four days and later placed under house arrest in his parents’ custody.

After appealing the punishment to the school board, Williamson County Superintendent Jason Golden concluded that the boy would be allowed to return to class, although he created a rumor “of a threat of a weapon” at school.

The second incident outlined in the joint suit makes no mention of a resolution.

It occurred on Aug. 22, 2023 at Fairview Middle School.

School officials determined that a 13-year-old student’s text message was a “Threat of Mass Violence,” the suit said.

In a text thread, shared with the court, the student was talking about plans for the week and responded at one point, “on Thursday we kill all the Mexico’s,” the suit reads.

The girl was taken to the Williamson County Juvenile Detention Center, where she was forced to undergo a strip search. She was also allegedly questioned by staff, who asked “if she had ever had sex, an abortion or suicidal thoughts,” the suit said.

The joint suit is seeking $300,000 in damages for both students and for the zero tolerance policy to be declared unconstitutional.

The Wernert lawsuit is also seeking $300,000 in damages along with the same policy designation.

The Tennessee Titans have their 53-man roster solidified for now, but in the NFL, things change on a dime.

The Titans have some unique factors in regards to their 53-man roster. Here’s a look at three observations:

Most NFL teams usually carry three tight ends on their roster at any given time. Some teams will bring four on the roster, in case they like an extra blocker, but very rarely do teams carry five … unless you’re the Titans.

The Titans have Chig Okonkwo, Josh Whyle, Nick Vannett, Thomas Odukoya and David Martin-Robinson all on the initial 53-man roster.

With Whyle injured for most of training camp, Martin-Robinson and Odukoya saw more reps than usual, and they impressed the Titans enough to warrant a roster spot.

It’s unlikely all five will dress on game day, but they should all have some impact this season.

The Titans have been decimated at the defensive line spot, with Marlon Davidson and TK McLendon Jr. both hitting injured reserve.

That leaves Jeffery Simmons, T’Vondre Sweat, Keondre Coburn and Sebastian Joseph-Day as the only defensive linemen on the roster.

It’s likely that the team won’t be satisfied with just those four, and perhaps a waiver claim or two is coming.

The Titans have also been stung by the injury bug in the linebacker room, with Chance Campbell, JoJo Domann and Garret Wallow all out for the year with injuries.

Trading for Los Angeles Rams linebacker Ernest Jones will help tremendously and gives the Titans another linebacker to work with.

Jones will eat up a lot of snaps alongside Kenneth Murray Jr. and Jack Gibbens leading Dennard Wilson’s defense.

The Titans’ 53-man roster is preparing for their Week 1 matchup against the Chicago Bears on Sunday, Sept. 8.

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