As the Cleveland Browns compete for more than draft positioning in 2021 and beyond, the rest of the AFC becomes of interest to the team and fans. While the Browns hope to match up with the best from the NFC, their focus has to be on the teams from their side of the postseason bracket.
We started with AFC North rival Pittsburgh Steelers. You can see the discussion of their offensive line weakness here. We moved on to the New England Patriots and their lack of high-end talent here.
Today, we move over to the AFC South and the Tennessee Titans.
The Titans made one of the splashiest moves of the offseason when they acquired Julio Jones in a trade from the Atlanta Falcons.
Coming off an 11 – 5 season and a division title in 2020, the Titans are in a similar place as the Browns are, hoping to compete for a Super Bowl appearance.
Tennessee had an interesting offseason where their additions seemed to come at the cost, or in replacement of, their subtractions. The Titans moved on from Desmond King, Malcolm Butler, Kenny Vaccaro and Adoree Jackson from their secondary. Jadeveon Clowney signed with the Browns while Dennis Kelly, Jack Conklin’s replacement, was let go as well.
The three biggest losses all come from the offensive side of the ball. Corey Davis and Jonnu Smith moved on in free agency while offensive coordinator Arthur Smith took over as the Falcons head coach.
While the latter move may have paved the way for the Jones trade, the Titans are now breaking in a new offensive coordinator in Todd Downing. While Downing has one season calling plays, the 40-year-old does not have a ton of experience doing so.
Outside of the Jones trade, the Titans went with a quantity approach to replace the offensive players that moved on. On defense, the Titans gave former Pittsburgh Steelers edge rusher Bud Dupree big money in free agency while also signing defensive lineman Denico Autry to a three-year deal.
Janoris Jenkins and Kevin Johnson were brought in to help offset the secondary losses but Johnson retired early in June.
Titans Weakness
There are quite a few concerns for the Titans going into the 2021 season but the biggest, until proven otherwise, is in their pass rush.
Last year, the Titans were third-worst in the league in sacks with only 19. They were only two ahead of the worst team in the league, the Cincinnati Bengals. Harold Landry led the team with 5.5 sacks while interior linemen Jeffery Simmons (3), DaQuan Jones (2) and Jack Crawford (2) were the only other Titans with more than one sack.
The addition of Dupree is their attempt at adding a pass rush. Last year, in only 11 games, Dupree had 8 sacks. The previous season, in a full 16 games, he had 11.5.
There are two problems related to Dupree. The first is that many of his sacks came quite easily due to the players on the field with him in Pittsburgh. With offenses focused on T.J. Watt, Cameron Hayward and Stephon Tuitt, Dupree and Alex Highsmith were often given clear paths to the quarterback.
The second concern is that Dupree is coming off an ACL tear that happened in December of last year causing him to miss the last few weeks of the season. While Dupree is reportedly healthy, how will his knee hold up early to the grind of going against the top pass blockers on opposing offenses?
While the Titans’ offense is potent, their lack of a pass rush could expose a secondary that is also depleted. In a pass-heavy NFL, a lack of pass rush and less than excellent coverage could cause doom for the Titans and keep Derrick Henry from being able to dominate the game on the ground.