It’s no secret that finding a pass-rusher is one of the Tennessee Titans’ biggest needs this offseason, which is why mock drafts routinely have general manager Jon Robinson taking one in the first round.
The latest example of this comes from Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar, who has the Titans taking Penn State EDGE Yetur Gross-Matos with the No. 29 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft in his pre-combine mock.
As Pro Football Focus recently pointed out, “The Titans had nine players with 100 or more pass-rushing snaps [in 2019]. The only one with a pressure rate above 10% was Cameron Wake.” Wake, who just turned 38, also played in just nine games and had just 2.5 sacks. Linebacker Harold Landry is a rising star, and we all know how good defensive tackle Jurrell Casey is as a multi-gap force, but it’d be nice for Tennessee’s defensive coaching staff, still likely reeling from coordinator Dean Pees’ retirement, to have more options at the edge. Tremendously athletic at 6-foot-5 and 264 pounds, Gross-Matos needs help with his hand moves (which can be said of nearly every collegiate defensive lineman), but he’s got the potential to be the final piece in what could be a formidable group of quarterback disrupters.
If you were going to point to an ideal pick for the Titans in the first round, Gross-Matos would be it. Farrar is just one of many experts who has mocked Gross-Matos to Tennessee.
The Titans struggled to consistently get pressure on opposing quarterbacks during the 2019 season, particularly off the edge.
That was never more apparent than in the AFC Championship Game against the Kansas City Chiefs, when quarterback Patrick Mahomes carved up Tennessee’s defense thanks to a lack of pressure.
Outside linebacker Harold Landry had a breakout campaign with nine sacks, but the Titans could still use another pass-rusher opposite him in order to help their defense take that next step from solid to great.
Gross-Matos would fit the bill as a 6-foot-5, 264-pound EDGE who is long and athletic. The 21-year-old (22 on February 26th) totaled 17 sacks in his last two seasons with the Nittany Lions.
As Farrar points out, the Penn State product still has some developing to do, but he’d give the Titans a duo on the edge that could wreak havoc for years to come.
Adding a pass-rusher in the draft isn’t the Titans’ only option, though.
Free agency, which comes before the draft, is another opportunity for Tennessee to add to its stable of pass-rushers, and chances are the Titans won’t leave their biggest need to chance by just waiting for the draft to fill it.