Scrape scrape scrape above 40mph. Goes away when I turn right or hit the brakes

A guy rear ended me the other day. Of course, he didn’t have insurance. Anyhow, so my car starts making this scrape scrape scrape sound above 40mph but it goes away when you press on the brakes.

At first I thought it might be the rear brake because I’ve heard that scrape sound before with drum brakes and I thought the jolt might have knocked the shoe out of place. Then I noticed it also goes away when I turn to the right so I figured it must be coming from one of the front tires instead of the rear tires.

I take the front tires off and the calipers and brake pads look fine. Then I notice the tie rod end on the passenger side is loose. I can wiggle the tie rod end where it connects to the control arm. Maybe I was hearing a thump thump thump not a scrape scrape scrape. You think the problem could be the loose tie rod end?