2014 Tennessee Titans Rookie of the Year: Avery Williamson

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One of the things I stressed in selecting my offensive and defensive most valuable players is being on the field. It’s the same reason I selected Chance Warmack as my 2013 rookie of the year even though I ended that post with a request to play a lot better in 2014. Applying that same rule makes picking a 2014 Tennessee Titans rookie of the year just as easy as naming Delanie Walker and Jurrell Casey the offensive and defensive MVPs was.

When I wrote about Avery Williamson in my post-draft post on him and the inside linebackers preseason preview, I was somewhere between circumspect and pessimistic in terms of his chances for playing time on defense. I thought he would play a lot of special teams, where he could make an impact, but did not expect him to earn many snaps when the other team had their quarterback on the field, at least without injury. Then Zach Brown went down on the fourth play from scrimmage and was lost for the season. He didn’t get to play that game, or the next one. By Week 3, though, he’d shown enough to displace Brown’s initial replacement Zaviar Gooden at least some of the time. By Week 6, he’d sent Gooden to the bench entirely. Not long thereafter, he’d shown enough to stay on the field over veteran Wesley Woodyard even in some passing situations. By Week 13, he’d shown enough that he never left the field. He went on to play every defensive snap in the final five games, while Woodyard was the player who left the field a third of the time. That’s a pretty big role for a player-813 total snaps-for a player who himself wasn’t sure if he’d play more than special teams this year.

Not only did he play a lot, Williamson also made more splash plays. I praised Woodyard in my defensive MVP post, but mentioned he didn’t necessarily make a lot of high impact plays. Williamson’s performance was notable because he did. He got downhill better than Gooden or Woodyard, made his average tackle in run defense closer to the line of scrimmage, had more sacks (3.0), and was credited with more passes defensed (4). I’ll go into his play in more detail later in the offseason, but he finished third on the team not because somebody had to, but because he made a bunch of plays.

With Williamson playing so many more snaps than any other Titans rookie, he would have had to have been pretty lousy for me not to pick him. Other than him, Bishop Sankey had 354 snaps, just ahead of Taylor Lewan’s 353, Zach Mettenberger 305, Marqueston Huff 269, DaQuan Jones 137, and then others (from Antonio Andrews to Rico Richardson) fewer than 100 each. Lewan would be my first runner-up, as he was very solid outside of the Eagles game. Behind him? Eh, I may have an answer for that one once I finish going through the all-22 from every game, if I decide it’s a question worth answering. As it was, Williamson was an easy, slam-dunk choice.