Tennessee Titans need to sign Jay Ratliff
By Will Lomas
The Tennessee Titans have a very successful pass defense so far this year, but last week the Miami Dolphins showed that if you have a very good left tackle you can really limit this team defensively.
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In case you were wondering, you can do this because can dedicate people to double team Jurrell Casey, give help to your right tackle who plays, and force the Titans to have someone beat your other guard in a one-on-one scenario. Now, this is assuming that the Titans run a four-man front, but for the most part that is what they have done if I am not mistaken.
Last week, Mike Martin, Angelo Blackson and Karl Klug played a combined 28 snaps at what PFF calls “Right End” or “RE”, but honestly in the front that the Titans play that ultimately ends up being defensive tackle opposite Jurrell Casey, so you could say that it should really be labeled “Right Defensive Tackle” or “RDT”.
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Well, according to multiple sources, a very good player has just hit the market thanks to the Chicago Bears: Jay Ratliff.
Ratliff is most famous for his years in Dallas, but don’t think that he has been bad in Chicago. No, PFF had him as their 8th best defensive tackle in the NFL last year, despite only playing 474 snaps last year.
He was a force against the pass with 7 sacks on just 450 snaps, and he was the only 4-3 DT to have 7 or more sacks with less than 688 snaps, and he cleared that number by a huge margin.
To tell you just how good he is as a pass rusher, PFF had him tied for third overall in pass rush productivity among all 3-4 DEs, nose tackles and defensive tackles (out of the 52 players that actually played 50% or more of the defensive snaps).
So while the Chicago Bears couldn’t find a spot for him in their defense, I think this is a great time to add a smart veteran who has been very productive to this team. Give him a 2-year contract and you have your front four set for next year, regardless if you just use him in sub packages or if this team switches to more four-man looks as their base package.