CBs Jason McCourty and Ryan Mouton. Courtesy of TitansOnline.com

The Tennessee Titans had one of the best young cornerback groups in 2011.  Following the season, the biggest story of free agency (before the Peyton Manning chase) was whether or not the Titans would bring back Cortland Finnegan.  Jason McCourty’s play had become solid with an upward trajectory and young Alterreun Verner was constantly making plays when on the field at nickel.  Tommie Campbell was also playing hard and showing a spectacular size and speed combination.  The Titans decided to let their ace cornerback walk for a big contract in St. Louis.  In a somewhat surprising move, however, the Titans extended Jason McCourty for roughly the same numbers just weeks later.

The move backfired.

The coaching staff made two errors in their offseason evaluation.

1. The ability of Tommie Campbell to start on the outside.
2. The ability for Ryan Mouton to play nickel.

Alterraun Verner ended up staying on the outside as they played Ryan Mouton inside when they needed three on the field.  Verner actually played well on the outside, but not as good as his stellar play at nickel position.  The dropoff of play to Mouton proved to be enormous.  The Titans reached for Mouton in the 3rd round of the draft 3 years ago, but he’s failed to develop the way McCourty has.

Tommie Campbell attributed his lack of playing time in 2012 to “off the field things”.  This from Rotoworld:

“Campbell admitted being late to a meeting and failing to gain the coaching staff’s trust on the field as well. ‘If I have deep-third coverage in practice. then I need to be in the deep third,’ he said. ‘If I’m playing Cover 2, I need to get the jam and then sink — simple things like that before they could throw a guy like me out there.’ The Titans would be wise to get Campbell on the field more in 2013, kicking Alterraun Verner into a more natural slot role.

Those sound like more ON the field issues than OFF the field issues to me.  Campbell has the abilities, but has yet to get his head right enough to be trusted on the field.  If he doesn’t know what coverage he’s suppossed to be playing, then that seems like a pretty big deal to me.  Nothing is worse than miss-communication in the secondary.

The Titans made a move in the 4th round of the draft and picked up Coty Sensabaugh, but he wasn’t game ready right off the bat.  He finally took over Mouton in snap counts during the Miami game last year.  He made rookie mistakes, but did progress as the year went on, and even with these mistakes he was an improvement over Mouton.

Overall, if the Titans can’t find an outside corner and move Verner back to nickel, then 2013 could be another stellar year for opposing quarterbacks.

The front office mismanagement on the personnel side is mainly to blame for the secondary’s rough year, but rough it was.  I give the corner backs as  whole a C-.  McCourty and Verner were B+ players and there was no pass rush to aid them,  but the unit as a whole failed to perform and helped the Titans post their worst defensive performances ever.

FINAL GRADE:  C-

Sep 16, 2012; San Diego, CA, USA; San Diego Chargers running back Ronnie Brown (30) runs the ball to the one yardline before being tackled by Tennessee Titans cornerback Coty Sensabaugh (24) during the fourth quarter at Qualcomm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

The Tennessee Titans went into the 2012 draft knowing that they needed at least a little help in the secondary. With the 115th pick of the draft in the 4th round, they chose CB Coty Sensabaugh out of Clemson.

Considered a late bloomer, Coty entered college as a special teams player but left Clemson as a team captain and leader of the defense. Sensabaugh also set a team record for most plays played in one season with 993. Sensabaugh entered the 2012 draft combine and ran the 4th fastest time amongst cornerubacks with a 4.42.

Being a 4th round draft choice, it usually takes that player quite a bit longer to be able to contribute and with Sensabaugh, it was the same. Although he didn’t play that much early in the season, Sensabaugh did end up playing more as the season wore on. With the Titans finishing 6-10, I’m sure some of his playing time was used so coaches could see how he was progressing this year.

In the last four games of the season, Coty had 3 tackles in each game. The most tackles he had in one game this year was against the Chicago Bears when he had 4 tackles. Sensabaugh seemed to fit in on defense and didn’t make too many noticeable mistakes while playing.

Being a 4th round draft pick, Sensabaugh certainly has many more tough days ahead trying to keep his roster spot, but he has shown that he does have a little game to him. With next year being his second year we should be able to see quite a bit of growth from his first to his second year.

Sensabaugh mainly played nickel for the Titans and that looks to be the position that he will stick at unless there are injuries to the starters. On tape, he looks a little indecisive and he must get that fixed if he would like to play often.

Grade: C+

Tune in Tuesday for DT Mike Martin’s review.

Dec 11, 2011; Nashville, TN, USA; Tennessee Titans wide receiver Damian Williams (17) runs after a reception against the New Orleans Saints during the second half at LP Field. The Saints beat the Titans 22-17. Mandatory Credit: Don McPeak-US PRESSWIRE

Twitter is an amazing tool allowing you to connect with almost anyone, so for today’s post I thought I would post all the Tennessee Titans Twitter handles so you can easily follow them and try to talk to them! The world gets smaller everyday and Twitter makes it that much smaller. Click on the links and you’ll be taken to their Twitter pages where you can click follow and keep up to date with them.

Shoot them a tweet or two!

2012 Rookie Draft Class

OLB Zach Brown – @ZachBrown_55

DT Mike Martin – @GoMikeMartin

CB Coty Sensabaugh – @CotySense15

S Markelle Martin – @MarkelleMar10

CB’s

Jason McCourty – @McCourtyTwins

Alterraun Verner – @Alvern_1

Tommie Campbell – @Tommie_Campbell

LB’s

Akeem Ayers – @Akeem_Ayers

Will Witherspoon – @willwitherspoon

Colin McCarthy – @COLINMcCARTHY52

Tim Shaw – @TShawsTruth

Gerald McRath – @4everUSM24

DT’s

Shaun Smith – @autumnsjs90

Jurrell Casey - @Jurrellc

Zach Clayton – @ZAClayton

DE’s

Derrick Morgan – @dmorg91

Kamerion Wimbley – @Mr_Wimbley96

Leger Douzable – @LegerDouzable

Safeties

Michael Griffin – @MikeGriff33

Jordan Babineaux – @jordanbabineaux

Robert Johnson – @Robertjohnson32

WR’s

Damian Williams – @DwillOne7

Kenny Britt – @KennyBritt_18

Marc Mariani – @MarcMariani83

TE’s

Jared Cook – @JaredCook89

RB’s

Chris Johnson – @ChrisJohnson28

Javon Ringer – @JavonRinger23

Jamie Harper – @Newbreed23

FB’s

Quinn Johnson – @QuinnJohnson_45

QB’s

Matthew Hasselbeck – @Hasselbeck

K’s

Rob Bironas – @RobBironas

Brett Kern – @brettkern6

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You can also find me on Twitter @JustinLStewart