Tennessee Titans inside linebacker and 2021 third-round pick, Monty Rice, has played a significant role in two of the past three weeks with the team dealing with injuries at the position.
In Week 8, Rice played well with Rashaan Evans and Jayon Brown out, tallying a career-high 54 snaps and posting seven tackles and one pass defensed in his first career start.
In Week 10, Rice got the starting nod once again with Evans and David Long out and didn’t disappoint. He finished with a team-high 11 tackles, while also adding one QB Hit in 46 snaps.
So far, head coach Mike Vrabel likes what he has seen out of the rookie, who he says started building confidence with his play on special teams.
“He first started to make an impact on special teams,” Vrabel said, per Jim Wyatt of Titans Online. “He was finishing. He was finishing guys out of bounds and running his guy and taking care of the returner, so I think he started to build some confidence there. Then he made some tackles on kickoff and really started to build some confidence there. Got an opportunity to play linebacker. Yesterday was another step. It was another game he played a lot of football for us, and the Colts game a few weeks ago. He is continuing to improve and hopefully we can start to really see some more progress and string a couple weeks together.”
Inside linebackers coach Jim Haslett praised Rice’s play against the run on Sunday and believes the Georgia product will continue to get better.
.@Titans ILB coach Jim Haslett on @RiceMonty: In the game Sunday, he was credited with 12 tackles. Did a good job in the run game and he should get better and better
— Jim Wyatt (@jwyattsports) November 16, 2021
Once Evans and/or Long return, Rice will be relegated to backup duties once again, but there’s no question the Titans have the makings of a future starting linebacker on their hands, which is big considering the team could lose both Evans and Jayon Brown in free agency in 2022.
