The Tennessee Titans have a huge matchup in the slot this week.
The Tennessee Titans get to come back home and play an afternoon game against one of the toughest teams in the NFL, the Seattle Seahawks.
If they are going to win this game they need to exploit every matchup they can to get an advantage. There is one place that stands out as a mismatch to me: slot wide receiver.
I say this because of this stat that came out yesterday:
Most Targets Surrendered to WRs Out of Slot (Weeks 1-2)
— Scott Barrett (@ScottBarrettDFB) September 20, 2017
1. Cardinals (23)
2. Seahawks (22)
3. Broncos (20)
4. Chiefs (20)
5. Chargers (20)
That is great information to know going in to this game for a few reasons.
Firstly, it tells you that if you can get the Seahawks into a nickel defense you will probably have a talent mismatch with their 3rd CB vs anyone you trot out there.
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Secondly, if you can exploit this effectively it gives you the ability to counter punch with a big play if they have to cover up for it.
Finally, the Tennessee Titans should have three different guys who can win that matchup in different ways. That gives them a huge schematic advantage because they can just keep rolling in new players to attack that.
The first player is Eric Decker. While Decker hasn’t been great this year, he is rounding into form and becoming a pretty solid “big slot” receiver.
With Decker you have to hope that his ankle was 80% in Week 1, 90% in Week 2 and finally somewhere close to 100% now.
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The other obvious slot guy is Taywan Taylor. With Corey Davis already out for this game, I expect the other rookie receiver to step up and get a lot of snaps.
Taylor has game-breaking speed and while I don’t think that he will be a factor down the field (unless he lines up on the opposite side as Richard Sherman) he should be able to make some hay underneath.
The last player is Delanie Walker who has been amazing this year:
Delanie Walker owns the highest season grade among TEs pic.twitter.com/NVdDGVhOgO
— PFF (@PFF) September 21, 2017
As the top tight end in the NFL right now, you would generally have to scheme ways to get him the ball. Well, one way you could do that is by having Jonnu Smith/Philip Supernaw as the inline tight end, and let Walker go out to the slot.
This is a matchup that the Tennessee Titans need to play around with and find what their best option is. Once they have it they need to put pressure on it and hopefully find a way to make this information crucial in the game vs the Seattle Seahawks.