Grading the Tennessee Titans offseason
By Will Lomas
6. Nose Tackle
What I said:
“The Tennessee Titans were rumored to be making a play for Snacks Harrison last year in free agency. I don’t know if that was because he is a blue-chip player or because they felt like they needed an upgrade at nose tackle.
Dick Lebeau’s defense is much different with a huge nose tackle clogging up lanes in the middle and keeping bodies off of the linebackers. Maybe they try to find one this year.”
What Robinson did:
This was a weird one because the Titans added a nose tackle, but it wasn’t the one I thought they would.
The Tennessee Titans brought in former first round pick Sylvester Williams.
On one hand, he was a starter on the Super Bowl team that shut down Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers. You can’t do that if you can’t stop the run.
On the other, he was inconsistent and really didn’t do anything that jumps out to you. If he didn’t get a good jump on the snap, he was largely a non factor.
If the Tennessee Titans shift to a more attacking front and are alright with linemen potentially getting up to Wesley Woodyard and Avery Williamson (I’m not) then this is fine.
There is a good chance that this doesn’t pan out, from all accounts it seems like Dick LeBeau kinda vouched for him and said he could make him work. Jon Robinson worked him out at his Pro Day and agreed to give it a shot.
If it doesn’t work this year, I imagine that he moves to 3-4 DE and the Tennessee Titans add a true NT next year.
This is a low impact position and the Titans have a good DL, so I’m going to give this a “B-” because if it fails I am almost more interested to see how Austin Johnson or Angelo Blackson would look at the NT position.
Grade: B-