Tennessee Titans outside linebacker Harold Landry took a step in the right direction in his second season in the NFL, posting a career-high nine sacks, which was also tops on the team.
Going into 2020, the Titans will be looking for Landry to make the leap and become one of the more feared pass-rushers in the NFL by crossing over into double-digit sack territory.
Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox believes that Landry is the Titans’ secret weapon for this coming season.
Second-year pass-rusher Harold Landry III was a big piece of the defensive puzzle. The former Boston College standout racked up nine sacks to go with 68 tackles, a forced fumble and an interception. He had another seven tackles and a sack in the playoffs.
While Landry isn’t widely considered one of the top young edge-rushers in the NFL, he can wreck opposing game plans and is the driving force behind the Tennessee pass rush.
While Landry is certainly underrated, calling him a “secret weapon” at this point is a bit of a stretch. After all, opponents know he’s the guy to stop in Tennessee’s pass-rush.
Landry was notably absent from the box score in the sack department over the team’s last four games before notching one in the postseason, so finishing strong will be a point of emphasis for the Boston College product in 2020.
Earlier this offseason, Titans outside linebackers coach Shane Bowen said he believes Landry played too many snaps in 2019, which might have been a cause of his sack-less finish. As a result, Tennessee may look to lessen his workload in his third season.
Taking pressure off Landry is also important. The Titans need a consistent, effective pass-rusher opposite him in order to avoid Landry getting extra attention on a regular basis.
To help remedy that, the Titans signed Vic Beasley to a one-year deal earlier this offseason, but his future remains up in the air because of his failure to report to camp.
Along with Beasley, Kamalei Correa is also in line to see significant snaps. The former second-round pick finished the 2019 campaign very strong with six sacks in the last eight games (including playoffs).
Beyond Landry, Beasley and Correa, the Titans also have younger options in 2019 UDFA Derick Roberson, who totaled three sacks in the team’s last two regular season games, and 2019 fifth-round pick D’Andre Walker, who is a wild card after missing all of his rookie season due to injury.
Tennessee has a solid stable of outside linebackers on paper, but it remains to be seen if it’ll be enough to improve a pass-rush that finished near the middle of the pack in sacks last season and was unable to disrupt Patrick Mahomes enough to come out on top in the AFC Championship Game.
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