One of the areas of need the Tennessee Titans did not address during the 2020 NFL Draft was the pass-rush, which led many to believe that the team was on the precipice of signing Jadeveon Clowney in free agency.
However, over three weeks later nothing has changed.
Clowney remains on the open market waiting for the right deal to come along and the Titans have only made one pass-rusher addition in former Atlanta Falcons EDGE, Vic Beasley.
Adding to that, trading Jurrell Casey away has made the Titans’ already lackluster pass-rushing defensive line worse.
As a result, ESPN believes that the team’s pass-rush is the biggest remaining roster hole left.
2018 second-round pick Harold Landry broke through as a highly effective edge rusher in 2019, but the rest of the Titans’ pass rush was underwhelming, finishing No. 30 in Sports Info Solutions’ pressure rate. That was before the cap-clearing trade of their best interior rusher, Jurrell Casey, and the free-agency departure of cornerback Logan Ryan, who was surprisingly effective as a secondary blitzer. Those departures increase the need for the team to get more from its outside rush.
Post-draft rumors have the Titans heavily linked with former Texans edge rusher Jadeveon Clowney, whose most productive season in Houston came under the tutelage of Mike Vrabel. Clowney would make a huge difference for a defense that struggled to get pressure from its front seven in 2019. Even if they don’t snag Clowney, however, the Titans should look to upgrade the list of hopefuls and reclamation projects currently competing to start across from Landry.
Beyond Beasley and Harold Landry, the Titans’ outside linebacker depth consists of Kamalei Correa, Derick Roberson, D’Andre Walker, and run specialist Reggie Gilbert.
While there is a lot of potential in Roberson and Walker, both players are still unproven. It certainly wouldn’t hurt for the Titans to at least add another player to the competition for snaps at EDGE.
The duo of Jeffery Simmons and DaQuan Jones on the defensive line is a good one, however neither player showed much of a knack for getting to the quarterback last season. I do believe Simmons will improve in that regard in 2020, though.
The only additions the Titans have made to the defensive line after the departures of Casey and Austin Johnson were the signing of veteran Jack Crawford and the fifth-round pick of Larrell Murchison. The NC State product is an unknown and Crawford is a serviceable depth piece at best.
The good news for the Titans is that they have significant cap space left. Even after they sign all of their draft picks, Tennessee should still have around $17 to $18 million to work with.
That’s enough to sign Clowney, but if he falls through Tennessee could potentially bring in two players with that kind of money.
At the very least, the Titans would have their pick of the lot of one of the big EDGE names aside from Clowney, like Markus Golden or Everson Griffen, for example.
Veteran Mike Daniels is another possibility to fill the void on the defensive line, but it remains to be seen if the Titans would have enough to nab both he and one of the aforementioned edge rushers.
To me, it’s a matter of when, not if, the Titans pull the trigger on another free-agent signing to further improve their pass-rush.