The 2022 Tennessee Titans will largely be remembered as a disappointing team whose season was ultimately destroyed by a plethora of injuries. However, it wasn’t all bad in Tennessee last year.
Despite a handful of injuries throughout the year to Harold Landry, Jeffery Simmons, Denico Autry and Bud Dupree, the Titans still finished with the No. 1 run defense in the league.
Tennessee only allowed a measly 76.9 rushing yards per contest on the year, but according to Nate Tice of The Athletic, Tennessee’s elite run defense was even better than most people realize.
The Titans ended tied for the ninth-highest defensive rushing success rate since the start of 2013, producing a successful defensive run stop on 69.8 percent of their snaps.
so many clips against the Titans looked like this. Teair Tart and Jeffery Simmons make for an awesome Bash Brothers pairing and David Long would be there to clean up everything else. https://t.co/BVybI4MP1k
— Nate Tice (@Nate_Tice) June 23, 2023
Tennessee is now expected to have Simmons, Landry and Autry on the field at the same time when the season rolls around barring any future injuries (knock on wood).
The Titans also replaced Dupree with Arden Key, a talented pass-rusher who has been a consistent force over the last two seasons, tallying a combined 90 quarterback pressures and 11 sacks over that span.
Meanwhile, arguably the most underrated member of the defensive front is Teair Tart. The Titans’ young nose tackle is coming off a career year in which he posted a respectable overall grade of 73.1 in 2022, per Pro Football Focus.
Now that Tennessee’s talented defense is completely healthy again, this group has the potential to be as good, if not even better than the dominant defensive front the Titans had in years prior.
