Concluding the offensive half of our trip around the Tennessee Titans position by position with a look at the center position as we head (deeper) into the offseason, we (finally) continue with the defensive line.
When I did the offseason positional analysis, I clumped all the defensive linemen together, rather than splitting out the (large) group in some way. Given new defensive coordinator Ray Horton didn’t play distinct strongside and weakside ends, plus we didn’t know who would be playing nose tackle and if they would only be playing nose tackle, plus the uncertainty in dealing with sub package situations made me just leave them in a big lump. When I contemplated my schedule (which I never stick to anyway), I considered splitting out some “nose tackles” just to make the big positional analysis shorter. In the end, though, I decided to ignore my (fake) planning and just lump all the players together.
The fundamental question about the Tennessee defensive line is the same one now that it was in February: how good do the Titans think their defensive line is? Seven defensive linemen saw action in 2014. Six of them entered the offseason still under contract for 2015. The seventh was re-signed after free agency began. The Titans therefore return every single defensive line snap from 2014.
So, how good was that defensive line? Well, they were a unit on the Tennessee Titans in 2014, so we already know they couldn’t possibly have been better than average. By Football Outsiders’ Adjusted Line Yards stat (I write for FO perma-disclaimer), they were 23rd, faring well on runs at right tackle (4th by ALY) and quite badly on runs at left tackle (32nd). The Titans did a bit more switching individual players from side to side than my static model of a Ray Horton defensive front, so it’s not quite so simple as pointing to one player and declaring bad and another and declaring great. Against the pass, the Titans had an above-average number of sacks, though it was a complete team effort with only two players on the entire team above 3.0 sacks (read schemed pressure, not players winning one-on-one matchups, most likely, and see my breakdown of the Steelers game for a reminder of how that happens and doesn’t).
To me, those numbers, plus my eyes, suggest the Titans could really use the sort of impact non-edge defensive lineman they’ve lacked since Albert Haynesworth took the money and ran to Washington in 2009. Of course, I’ve been high on the Titans’ need for an impact defensive lineman since I saw the difference between a defense with Haynesworth and Robaire Smith in 2006 and one without both of them only to be continually frustrated by multiple Tennessee general managers who apparently see the position as much less of a need and/or priority than I have (partial exception I plan to write about soon: Sen’Derrick Marks). Now, the Titans seem to have strong potential interest in spending a premium draft pick on a defensive lineman, and the pick seems to be quite popular with a noticeable segment of the fan base, while I’m the one contemplating other possibilities (and not just Mariota). I’ll finish evaluating Leonard Williams in due course. Given where the Titans stand with bringing their entire defensive line rotation back, I don’t think it makes sense to add anything except either the sort of potentially elite player you could get with the #2 pick in the draft and a UDFA likely camp body.
Anyway, the Titans’ best, highest-paid, and most-used defensive lineman is Jurrell Casey. He played as much as any lineman in a Ray Horton defense, 911 snaps (79.8% of the time). That was over my expectation of no more than 75%, which says a lot about how they viewed his level of performance and endurance (and maybe the players around him). His 5.0 sacks were less than half 2013’s 10.5 total, but as I covered in the preseason look his sack total was somewhat disproportionately high for his total pressures and some regression in the sack total was to be expected. He still had a good pressure total and made a number of plays against the run, leading the Titans in run Defeats (a FO stat that includes tackles for loss, turnovers, and third down stops). For the second consecutive season, I named him the Titans’ defensive MVP. If I have the time, I’ll look at him in a Dick LeBeau defense more specifically later in the offseason, but let’s just say for now he’ll probably be asked to do a lot of the same things he’s been asked to do the last couple seasons and do those things as well as he’s done them, will still playing a lot in sub and a fair amount in base (if they’re looking to reduce his snaps to more like 70%, I think that’s where they could look to change things up).
In deciding which players to write about first in these positional analyses, I try to have a sort of rough depth chart. That’s obviously much cleaner at some positions than others; here, I’m looking at three starters, generally two sub package players, and it gets kind of complicated. If I split it out into two groups, I would have grouped Sammie Hill with the nose tackles, since that was his primary role in the base defense. He finished second among defensive linemen in snaps with 549 (48.1%), despite missing Week 10 against the Ravens and Week 11 against the Steelers (54.8% when active). He finished second at the position with 3.0 sacks and was credited with 6 passes defensed, a good total for a defensive lineman (J.J. Watt’s 16 in 2012 was insanely ridiculous). Horton praised him effusively, declaring if the Titans were a playoff team he’d be a Pro Bowler. The ways of Pro Bowl voting aside, that was certainly high praise and an assessment at odds with most outside assessments of how effectively the defensive line, and Hill in particular, performed. He did some pretty solid work at times, and some work I wasn’t so sure about, and his passes defensed notwithstanding I’m not sure I want him playing in sub, but I expect him to play more nose tackle for the 2015 Titans.
Ropati Pitoitua finished third at the position group in snaps (391, 34.3%) despite missing four games, including Week 12 against Philadelphia and Week 17 against Indianapolis as a healthy scratch (46.7% when active). I don’t have much interesting, even to me, to say about him; unless I’m seriously underrating him, he’s a solid base downs end who shouldn’t be playing much, if at all, in sub packages. He had 2.0 sacks, 1 pass defensed, and about as many official scorer tackles per snap as Hill, though with less impact. Being a healthy inactive twice makes me want to cut him if the Titans do select Leonard Williams with the second overall pick, though the three-year extension Ruston Webster handed him last offseason makes me pause about that.
Coming out of Michigan, I thought Mike Martin was a complete WYSIWYG, a shade nose tackle who might be overwhelmed by bigger players some of the time but who would otherwise do a solid job in the right role. He was mostly a defensive end and sub package interior player for the Titans in 2014 (348 snaps, 30.5%, missed four games, 38.7% when active). I wasn’t impressed with his play generally and was even less impressed when I watched a bunch of runs marked left tackle while writing that paragraph of this positional analysis. For as many snaps as he got, he really did not make many plays. My mental model of a Dick LeBeau defense doesn’t really have a space for a player like Martin, though I need to do an in-depth updating of said model.
As much as I wonder about Mike Martin’s role in a LeBeau defense, I wonder about Karl Klug‘s fate, except I don’t really. We know what Klug is, an undersized interior penetrator who can win with good hand use and leverage. At his best, he looks like a real force against bad linemen and those with technique lapses. At other times, teams can take advantage of him with power and blow him off the ball. That skill set was worth a rotational role under Horton (317 snaps on defense, 27.8%, never less than 11 or more than 30 snaps in a given game). I wasn’t sure if it would be worth a role under LeBeau, whom my mental model has for liking outside linebackers he can deploy in different ways more than interior penetrators. That the Titans re-signed Klug to a rotational lineman-like deal tells me that my mental model is at least somewhat off. I don’t think his work as a fullback in short yardage power situations (14 snaps on offense) was more than a very ancillary factor and while I wouldn’t rule out him continuing to do that do not expect him to do much more than that (20-25 snaps, max).
Al Woods saw his biggest workload in the season finale with Pitoitua down and Hill playing a limited role. Until his 34 snaps that game, he had been between 11 and 23 in every previous game (288 total, 25.2%). When I examined him last offseason after the Titans signed him, I saw a player who was primarily a base downs player whose versatility made him a weekly player but whose performance made him never more than a rotational player. I thought that the Titans targeting him meant they viewed him as something more than that; the answer to that question now appears to be “no,” which is fine. That’s the sort of player I’d always be looking to upgrade on, but obviously I’m not in charge at St. Thomas Sports Park and thus expect him back for another year of the game.
DaQuan Jones rounds out the group of returners. I grouped him and Woods together in the preseason analysis, seeing them similarly. Jones had a quiet rookie season, a healthy inactive most weeks and 53 of his 137 snaps (12.0% of total, 28.0% when active) came in Week 17 when his playing time seemed to be the one concession the Titans made to “We’re 2-13, let’s see what young players can do.” Unless you want to overread into that game, and I try to ignore Week 17 whenever possible, his rookie season was kind of a washout and the best look at his play is still what I saw coming out of Penn State. The first offseason in the NFL is typically the most important in terms of future growth and development, so I’d give Jones’ expected 2015 role and level of performance the biggest range of uncertainty of any player in the position group.
Aside from re-signing Klug, the Titans have not addressed the defensive line at all this offseason. I thought Chigbo Anunoby looked okay in the preseason and the Titans liked him enough to keep him on the practice squad all regular season, but they did not sign him to a futures contract and the Vikings eventually snapped him up.
Conclusion-Type Things
I outlined the basic question in the post-how good do the Titans think their defensive line grouping is, and how interested are they in making a major addition to it? That’s one question they’ll have to answer before drafting Leonard Williams with the second overall pick (and it’s not the only one). It’s a group they could, and I think might, view as good enough, or one you might see as Casey and the Pips.
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