ALS is a hot topic this summer in the wake of Chris Johnson’s diagnosis. But what can be done besides the revival of the Ice Bucket Challenge? The answer might surprise you…

Chris Johnson’s ALS diagnosis sent shockwaves through the NFL and the Nashville community, and the outpouring of support has reintroduced the Ice Bucket Challenge to a new generation. But 12 years after the original viral sensation raised millions for medical advancement, the question remains: why is ALS research still so far behind?

I sat down with Indu Navar, founder and CEO of Everything ALS, to find out what has actually changed, what hasn’t, and what people like you and me can do right now to help.

The Ice Bucket Challenge raised awareness, but ALS treatment hasn’t kept pace

Navar, who lost her husband to the disease in 2019, didn’t mince words about the state of ALS care. The numbers are staggering and upsetting. Every 90 minutes, someone in the United States is diagnosed with ALS. Every 90 minutes, someone dies from it. And the diagnostic process hasn’t meaningfully changed since Lou Gehrig’s famous speech in 1939.

“We’ve known this for 90 years,” Navar said. “And up to today, we’re still diagnosing somebody the same way and saying every 90 minutes, ‘you have 2 to 5 years to live.' That’s what we did 70 years ago!”

She pointed to the comparable diseases that have seen breakthroughs. Multiple sclerosis now has roughly 40 different treatments available. Spinal muscular atrophy, a pediatric motor neuron disease, has seen near-cure therapies developed in the 21st century.

ALS has seen nothing close to that level of progress.

The 2014 Ice Bucket Challenge generated enormous awareness, but Navar was candid about its limitations. For most people, it was a social media moment first and a genuine charitable cause second. The deeper understanding of what ALS actually does to the body, and how woefully underfunded its research remains, never fully took root.

Why ALS research keeps starting from scratch

Funding is part of the problem, but Navar identified something more fundamental about the problem: ALS moves fast. Patients deteriorate rapidly, and families are devastated. Then they walk away from the cause, because the person they loved is gone.

“You really don’t get the staying power,” Navar explained. “The movement is a revolving door. You start a movement, everybody starts something when they’re shocked, and then it dwindles down.”

That revolving door means institutional knowledge leaves with each wave of families. New patients and caregivers enter the system with no foundation, asking the same basic questions about speech pathologists, occupational therapists, and treatment options that the previous generation already answered.

That cycle is exactly why Navar founded Everything ALS as a tech nonprofit. Her organization hosts expert talks where patients and families can ask questions. The goal is to build a permanent platform of accumulated knowledge rather than letting each new family start from zero.

How technology and AI could finally change the trajectory

Here’s where Navar’s background as a tech entrepreneur shines. She argued that ALS measurement tools are stuck in the past. The current standard asks patients to rate their own speech, walking, and breathing on a scale of 0 to 4. That subjective, rudimentary scale is the primary measurement used in clinical trials.

“How do you know what a 3, 2, 1 is?” Navar asked. “It’s not like you know the disease. Everybody’s slope is different.”

Everything ALS is building objective measurement tools using AI and machine learning. Their speech study collects voice data from both ALS patients and healthy individuals of the same age, allowing algorithms to track real changes over time rather than relying on patient guesswork. That data can then be fed back to clinicians and used to optimize clinical trials.

The organization also built an AI product called Sava AI, a generative AI chatbot that helps patients find clinical trials in their region. Navar said that roughly 78% of ALS patients who want to participate in clinical trials don’t know where to go. Her tool is designed to change that.

What you can do right now

Johnson’s decision to use his platform to revive the Ice Bucket Challenge and rally donations has been impactful already. But Navar stressed that the average person can contribute beyond dumping ice water on their head. Downloading the Everything ALS app and participating in the speech study takes as little as two minutes. You don’t need to have ALS or even know someone with it. Researchers need healthy control data just as much as patient data to build the AI models that could accelerate treatment development.

The sports world, and Nashville in particular, is fired up right now. The challenge is converting that energy into something that outlasts the news cycle. Johnson gave ALS its highest-profile moment in years. What people do with that moment beyond social media will determine whether this time is any different.

This article was originally published on A to Z Sports. Read the full story here: Chris Johnson's ALS diagnosis sparks Ice Bucket Challenge revival, but expert says awareness alone won't move the needle

© 2026 A to Z Sports.

What’s the point of NFL training camp without arguing over the back end of a wide receiver depth chart? This year’s contenders in Titans land: Bryce Oliver, KJ Osborn, and Xavier Restrepo.

The Tennessee Titans wide receiver depth chart is taking shape ahead of training camp, and the competition for the final roster spots at the bottom of the room is shaping up to be a three-man race.

Titans WR depth is solid at the top, with Carnell Tate, Wan’Dale Robinson, Calvin Ridley, Elic Ayomanor, and Chimere Dike all locks to make the 53-man roster. But behind that group, the battle between Bryce Oliver, Xavier Restrepo, and KJ Osborne for the 6th and potentially 7th wide receiver spots is the position group storyline worth tracking this summer in Nashville.

What makes this competition extra compelling is that all three players represent completely different archetypes, and each arrived in Tennessee through completely different paths.

Xavier Restrepo: The summer star with a ceiling question

Restrepo, who came aboard as Cam Ward’s college connection last offseason after going undrafted, has been the kind of practice standout who makes it hard to look away. He’s a slot-only receiver who defies what you’d expect from him on paper given his physical measurements. In limited action on Sundays last season, he showed he can at least hang at the NFL level. He has somewhat usurped Mason Kinsey as the junkyard-dog, practice-squad-vibes-guy in Tennessee it seems, and his teammates and coaches get visibly fired up when he makes plays.

But physical limitations are real, and the common thread for all three of these players is that the Titans already have five receivers who will eat offensive snaps when healthy. The real question for a player like Restrepo isn’t whether he can contribute on offense in a pinch. It’s whether special teams coordinator Bones Fassel can carve out a role for him on those units. If Restrepo proves he’s a credit to special teams this summer, he has a real shot at one of these spots. If not, he’s likely headed for the Kinsey mold: first or second guy up off the practice squad, somebody the organization fights to keep around because of his value as a leader and weekly competitor.

Bryce Oliver: The special teams ace with a lingering question mark

Oliver is the guy I’d peg as having the upper hand in this competition if it weren’t for one thing: what happened last year?

He’s been with Tennessee for a handful of seasons as a former undrafted free agent and has established himself as a special teams ace. We know how much Fassel relies on him as a gunner. But he's not a special teams-only guy either! He brings something to the table as a receiver in rotation or in relief due to injuries, and he has a body type that works inside and outside, which is in shorter supply on this roster.

A lower body injury kept him out for most of last season, and the circumstances surrounding it left some unanswered questions. One of the things that stuck with me is that former coach Brian Callahan, in one of his final press conferences before being fired ahead of Week 7, mentioned Oliver as a guy who might be coming back soon. But we never saw Oliver catch a pass again.

Week after week, we’d see him at practice and in the locker room, and the vibe was simply that he was trying to get back to 100%. Whether there was a medical situation beyond what was communicated, a mental hurdle he was working through, or some calculated decision-making given the coaching instability, I genuinely don’t know. He’s back at practice now, and that injury situation is the only thing keeping me from calling him a roster lock.

KJ Osborne: The proven veteran filling a familiar role

Osborne is the newcomer NFL veteran in camp this year, filling the shoes of James Proche from a year ago. If you remember the offseason conversation around Proche, he was the guy who kept making plays in practice to the point where you just couldn’t ignore him. Osborne is already doing that same thing.

He has easily the most established NFL track record of these three. Earlier in his career with Minnesota, he had a 3-season stretch where he accumulated nearly 2000 yards and 15 touchdowns. He was a significant contributor for a real team!

What happened after he left the Vikings, I haven’t had a chance to fully investigate. But what I’m seeing in practice lines up with those Minnesota numbers.

The real question for Osborne is the same one facing the other two: how much does this coaching staff expect to lean on its 6th or 7th receiver? If there were only four locks ahead of him, his chances would look different because that 5th receiver role demands genuine offensive ability, and he has it. But with five locks already in place, the calculus shifts toward special teams value.

The bottom line

That’s what this entire competition will probably come down to. We’ll spend the summer weeks talking about what these three do in team drills on offense, when we should really be paying closer attention to how often Fassel is using them during special teams periods. The preseason games will be the real tell. How much and how often Oliver, Restrepo, and Osborne are deployed on those units may be the clearest clue to who’s making this roster and who isn’t.

This article was originally published on A to Z Sports. Read the full story here: 3 camp standouts fighting for final Titans WR roster spots face 1 harsh reality in Nashville with 5 Titans WRs locked on depth chart

© 2026 A to Z Sports.

Calvin Ridley, Elic Ayomanor, and Chimere Dike: The Titans WR room has some very legitimate depth. And while their individual impacts on this roster may be different, they share a common theme:

The Tennessee Titans wide receiver room has clear headliners in Carnell Tate and Wan’Dale Robinson, the two weight-bearing pieces LINK the front office spent big to acquire this offseason. The back end of the depth chart features Mason Kinsey, K.J. Osborn, and Bryce Oliver scrapping for roster spots through August.

But between those two tiers sits a group of three receivers who are certain to make the 53-man roster, certain to play on Sundays, and yet unlikely to be the primary targets in the Titans passing game. Calvin Ridley, Elic Ayomanor, and Chimere Dike are the middle class of this wide receiver room, and they might matter more than people think.

Ridley as the turbo boost button

Ridley is heading into his age-32 season, his third with Tennessee. His tenure has been an up-and-down ride. He eclipsed 1,000 receiving yards in his first year catching passes from Mason Rudolph and Will Levis during a three-win campaign.

The following season brought another three-win year, but Ridley was barely a part of it. He appeared in seven games and started six, but a soft tissue injury against the Raiders pulled him out very early. After returning from a brief rehab stint, he caught a first-down pass over the middle on his very first play back a few weeks later and broke his leg in the process.

His recovery has been ahead of the medical timeline many expected, and he was already flashing his trademark movement skills during OTAs and mandatory minicamp this spring in a way that suggests he should be 100% by the regular season.

The meaningful difference for Ridley in 2026 is that for the first time as a Titan, he is no longer a foundational piece of the offense. Tatum and Robinson sit ahead of him on the depth chart as steady, reliable options. If Ridley is less effective or unavailable, it is no longer the disaster it once was for Tennessee. That reality makes him icing on the cake rather than a load-bearing wall.

Here’s the thing about Ridley, though: he is the nitrous button for this offense. He has never been a superstar player, but he possesses star ability in flashes. His burst, his top speed, and his violence in and out of cuts still stand out in practice even alongside talented teammates.

When he has one of his takeover games, it raises the floor for the entire Titans offense. As long as Daboll avoids building the plane out of a play-in, play-out necessity for Ridley’s involvement (and I trust him not to), utilizing him when he’s available and at his best is a genuine credit to this roster construction. I also wouldn’t be surprised if the reduced pressure puts Ridley in a better mental spot than he’s been in since arriving in Nashville.

Dike and Ayomanor are properly slotted now

Chimere Dike and Elic Ayomanor can be discussed as a duo. Both were Day 3 picks from GM Mike Borgonzi’s first draft class. Both are entering Year 2 with Cam Ward, which gives them a chemistry advantage over the new additions who are still building rapport.

Last season, they were thrust into positions where they were forced to bite off more than they should have been chewing. Ayomanor finished with 515 yards on 41 receptions and four touchdowns, Dike posted 423 yards on 48 receptions with four touchdowns of his own, and they tied for the team lead in receiving scores. That production is simultaneously a mark of two overachieving fourth-round picks, and a mark of a bad team. You don’t want to be relying on Day 3 rookies as your second and third leading receivers, as it turns out!

What stands out about both players goes beyond the stat sheet. They are trusted, responsible, and process-oriented. By all accounts, they bring a steadying presence that reflects the football character Borgonzi has prioritized for this roster. I think they’re poster boys for that philosophy.

I still believe both have the potential to be No. 2-4 receivers in the NFL. I don’t see either becoming a true No. 1, but they could solidify themselves as starters in this league, whether in Tennessee or elsewhere down the road. The difference now is context. They’ve gone from being borderline emergency starters filling in for an injured Ridley, to being the fourth and fifth receivers on a properly constructed depth chart. Playing to their strengths in specific circumstances is so much better than the fire they walked into last year.

That’s the theme connecting all three of these players. Ridley, Dike, and Ayomanor feel properly slotted into a wide receiver depth chart for the first time since any of them arrived in Tennessee. Maximizing their roles rather than overextending them should lead to more efficient play from each, and I think it makes the Titans better as a whole.

This article was originally published on A to Z Sports. Read the full story here: Tennessee's wide receiver room finally has a real middle class, and Calvin Ridley's new role sets up a dangerous shift for this offense

© 2026 A to Z Sports.