Earlier than the season, practically everybody who was listening to the Tennessee Titans would have informed you that their greatest place group was defensive deal with. Regardless of a rocky begin, that group has gotten again on monitor and is proving everybody proper.
Jeffery Simmons has been magnificent this season, and he appears like he’s a lock for the Professional Bowl with aspirations of being voted in as an All-Professional. How good has Simmons been?
Regardless of lacking three video games, he nonetheless leads all defensive tackles with eight sacks. If he had performed the entire season, he could be monitoring towards a 12.5 sack season with 19 TFLs and practically 30 quarterback hits.
Jeffery Simmons, T’Vondre Sweat forming elite tandem for Tennessee Titans
Simmons is having a stellar season, one that’s getting loads of consideration nationally. One other under-the-radar participant who’s doing a whole lot of soiled work for this workforce is T’Vondre Sweat.
Sweat is presently PFF’s sixth-ranked defensive deal with (Simmons is No. 2), and once you watch him on tape, you possibly can see why he’s incomes nationwide reward. Whereas Sweat is not doing the flashy issues that Simmons is doing, he’s continually drawing further consideration and holding his floor effectively in these conditions.
It does not at all times present up on the stat sheet, however the affect of drawing that focus is the sophomore surge of Cedric Grey, who’s on tempo for greater than 160 tackles this season. Maintaining these inside offensive linemen busy makes life a lot simpler for a downhill linebacker like Grey to key, diagnose, and make a deal with.
The Titans’ season goes to finish in a number of weeks, and it’s important that the entrance workplace and the subsequent head coach know which gamers they’ll depend upon. This defensive deal with tandem, together with an infusion of underrated defensive expertise from the 2025 NFL Draft class, ought to present the framework of a great protection.
With the bones of that protection in place, the entrance workplace can go after flashier playmakers within the offseason to actually give that aspect of the ball some tooth and to take strain off of Cam Ward and the offense within the close to future. All of that may solely occur as a result of the Titans have two affect gamers in the midst of the protection, which makes life simpler for everybody else.
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