SELF-PUBLICITY NOTE: Football Outsiders Almanac 2015, the annual tome previewing all 32 NFL teams, plus the college football season put out by Football Outsiders, is now available. I was a contributor for the sixth consecutive season, writing the Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, and, yes, once again, Tennessee Titans chapters. The PDF is currently available from the Football Outsiders website, while the dead tree version is now on Amazon. Buy it, buy it, buy it! /end plug
After quarterback, running back, fullback, wide receiver, and tight end, the next step on our trip around the Tennessee Titans position by position as we approach the start of the 2015 regular season is a look at the offensive tackles.
If you look at past editions of the positional analyses, you’ll see that I tend to repeat myself and say things over and over when it comes statements about the state of a position. So, I’ll repeat something I said last preseason and again in the offseason: for years, offensive tackle was the easiest, least interesting positional analysis to write. From 2007 through 2013, you could write Michael Roos at left tackle, David Stewart at right tackle, assume both would be average-plus performers in all aspects of the game, and move on to more controversial or interesting things.
Roos and Stewart are now retired, of course, which means it’s time to talk about a new crop of players. The Titans are confident they’ve found one starting tackle. In that offseason positional analysis, I mentioned the Titans did not have two starting tackles, but it was still March and there was free agency and the draft to add a player. The Titans went both routes, and, unlike last preseason, there will actually be something of a competition to see who starts at right tackle opposite the player who’s a lock to start at left tackle.
This year, last year’s first-round pick Taylor Lewan is that left tackle. He had a suitably encouraging rookie season, though one that wasn’t without the usual share of ups and downs. The first NFL offseason is often where players at technique-heavy positions like offensive line improve and clean up the mistakes that created the rookie raggedness and improve, or they don’t. The offseason talk from and about Lewan has been suitably optimistic (and vociferous bordering on bombastic, something I don’t think is necessary to get into here).
Beyond those improvements in on the field play, the second key question for Lewan this season is actually getting and staying out there on the field. What made Roos so remarkable was he was out there virtually every week. From Week 1 of his rookie year until he destroyed his knee Week 5 last year, he was out there every game save one, that after having an appendectomy (and playing through the early signs of that!). Lewan’s already missed five games he would have been the starter. The Titans were a bad team last year even without the flotsam and jetsam they ended up having to trot out there at offensive tackle, and this year there’s no Lewan-like starter in waiting they can trot out there.
The favorite to start at right tackle seems to be free agency addition Byron Bell, late of the Panthers. He was a pretty bad left tackle in Carolina last year, and if the Titans had signed him to be their left tackle, I would probably be about as unhappy as I was when they signed Michael Oher last offseason (quote from last year’s preseason positional analysis: “This seems to be a mistake, unless the Titans know something we don’t.” They didn’t). Bell as a right tackle is a much more palatable proposition. He played there his first couple seasons in the league and was an average to below-average starter, though not terrible; he’s definitely at the reasonably-priced starter to “compete” guy range I mentioned in the offseason positional analysis. If I knew more about OL technique, I’d give you a better breakdown, but that’s not what I do well as an analyst.
Bell’s competition for the starting right tackle job is third-round pick Jeremiah Poutasi. Just turned 21, the former Utah Ute is one of the youngest players in the NFL after coming out early. Like the Titans other draftees, I didn’t get the chance to do a proper in-depth post on him. Still, it probably wouldn’t have been as insightful as my go-to on offensive line play’s Lance Zierlein writeup for NFL.com.
Like Bishop Sankey or Marqueston Huff last year, there was a divide between different analysts on Poutasi’s traits, their worth, and consequently his draft stock (and in Poutasi’s case, that included his eventual position). Zierlein falls on the pessimistic end of the scale, seeing a more limited player who projects best as an NFL guard. Greg Cosell, on the other hand, has spoken highly of Poutasi and believes he could eventually be an NFL left tackle. Unless unfortunate things happen with Lewan, that wouldn’t be in Tennessee, but it does give you an idea of the range of opinions on him. He’s not my preferred style of offensive lineman, but the Titans aren’t listening to me in that area (and they shouldn’t be, in any case). I’d wondered if he could be competition inside for Andy Levitre, but haven’t seen any reports of him working there. With a young rookie, that’s probably the smartest plan even if Titans scout Marv Sunderland did call him “more of a guard guy” in his interview with the team’s official site after the pick was made. Barring injury, I don’t expect to see him on the field in 2015 but pencil him in for the starting right tackle job in 2016.
The Titans also re-signed Byron Stingily, who was an unrestricted free agent. Officially, he probably is a member of the competition with Bell and Stingily for the right tackle job. Unofficially, that the Titans added Lewan and Michael Oher last offseason, and then Bell and Poutasi this offseason with one starting job open, tells me everything I need to know about what they think of Stingily, and I’m not prepared to say they’re wrong. After last year’s injury issues, though, I’d expect the Titans to keep four offensive tackles once again, and with a rookie and a second-year player among the top three, I’d want a veteran like Stingily to be that fourth tackle.
If the fourth tackle isn’t Stingily, I’d expect it to be Will Poehls, a 2014 undrafted free agent who spent last year on the practice squad. I thought he was on the sixth-best tackle on the team last preseason, but I have no clue how he’s progressed since then.
The Titans are a bit light at tackle right now. After seven players last preseason, there seem to be just those five right now practicing at the position. Terren Jones was released in training camp, and Jamon Meredith is making the transition to Levitre competition at left guard I thought Poutasi would make. I’ll cover that potential battle tomorrow.
Conclusion-Type Things
One lock starter, plus one battle with a likely favorite, which was pretty much the situation as I thought it was last offseason. Hopefully this year doesn’t produce the same disappointment. There’s some potential here, as Lewan could be the leader on and off the field of a much-improved grouping up front and Bell could be a solid enough starter. Or you could end up with a disaster like last year, with Lewan failing to improve as expected before missing time again, plus Bell and Poutasi yo-yo’ing in and out of the lineup based on who looked bad more recently. By now, I’m with Paul Kuharsky and his declaration that he’ll believe the Titans will finally have a good offensive line when it actually plays that way on the field.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
