Despite early looks, it appears as though the Tennessee Titans left guard battle isn’t over yet. Rookie Sebastian Tretola has emerged as a player who could compete with incumbent Quinton Spain for the spot.
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Now, I wrote an article last week on Spain’s impressive performance against the San Diego Charger, but after he failed to follow that up with any consistency, doubt seems to have crept back into Mike Mularkey’s mind.
So, I decided to go back and grade out Sebastian Tretola’s snaps against both San Diego and the Carolina Panthers.
So a lot like what I did with Dennis Kelly, I am going to do a short scouting report on what Tretola has been in the NFL so far.
Pros
-Really low pad level on run blocking plays. Several times he was underneath a linebackers pads driving him back at the second level.
-Sneaky athletic north to south. Can slip up to linebackers quickly.
-Rib breaker in pass protection, always finding someone to hit. During the 4th quarter on (I believe) the penultimate drive, he hands two defenders to two separate blockers. One gets throw to the center who takes him over, and he stuns a blitzing linebacker to make it easier for the running back to pick up.
-Wide body that is hard to get around in man blocking schemes.
FanSided
Cons
-You can’t pull him effectively. He is too slow in his pull step and kills the play’s momentum.
-Aggressiveness is a double-edged sword. Sometimes you can see him too eager to lunge at his defenders which hasn’t hurt him in a big way yet, but it will once defenders game plan for him.
-Haven’t seen him against starters and even if he plays this week we will see about six or seven drives with him against an average to above average defensive line.
-Missed Jeremy Cash on a blitz pickup that resulted in a TFL. It looks like it was because he was too quick to help the center rather than make sure his man wasn’t in the play.
-He misses with his hands wide on occasion, but he is so quick to put his body on the defender and/or grab him that you rarely see it.
Summary
-He got much better from week one to week two of the preseason which really makes you ask a lot of question: Was it a scheme issue? Was the Chargers front just better than the Panthers on their second string? Was he just nervous in his debut? Did he have issues that he addressed that week and overcame?
Those are all things I can’t answer based off of just two games. However, I can tell you that he is always going to be the aggressor no matter whether it is a run or a pass. He always is loaded and ready to put his hands on and defender, and the only way to really screw him up is to catch him with some sort of lateral move or to beat him in space.
His pass pro is effective and he shows a nice anchor after only really getting dislodged from his stance one time once he was set. Other than that he does a good job helping others and making sure that his side of the line doesn’t get any sort of free rush.
His run blocking is where he really shines, which makes sense given his size and reputation as a nasty player. His best job comes when he can bury defenders on double teams and get to linebacker. However, and underrated part of his game is how he deals with backside zone schemes. If he loses the initial battle at the line of scrimmage, he will do anything to make sure his guy doesn’t make the play including and dirty move or two like pulling him down where the refs can’t see.
He is savvy player with good pad level and aggression which are all things that Jon Robinson loves. However, no matter how many times they try to pull him, it really doesn’t work and he reminds me of a better Chance Warmack at this stage.
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Should he start
-Probably not, but not because he isn’t ready. From what I can tell pulling guards and zone read plays will be featured in this offense pretty heavily and those are both things that Quinton Spain does well. While Tretola is good from the backside on those zones, I worry how he would do trying to catch a great 3-tech with a good get-off.
If the team wants to feature those plays then Spain is probably a better starter. However, I could see him earning the right guard spot next year if he progresses like he should and it would mean a lot to already have that guy on the roster going into 2017.