Tennessee Titans UDFA Sharif Finch should make the team

The Tennessee Titans like Sharif Finch more than you think.

The 2018 NFL Draft came and went in a flurry of picks and trades for the Tennessee Titans.

At the end of the day the Titans ended up jumping teams three times to get four guys that they really liked at key positions.

The issue is that you really want to come out of a draft with a certain level of depth. This helps everything from camp atrophy to finding potential backups for the regular season. That is where UDFAs come in.

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UDFAs (undrafted free agents) are signed in a scramble after the draft is over. The Titans knew that they didn’t have a huge draft class, so they went big and signed 22 UDFAs including two guys likely to make the team: Akrum Wadley RB, Iowa and Deontay Burnett WR, USC.

Neither one of those players were given the most money by the Titans though, that accolade belongs to Sharif Finch.

Add the #Saints to the list of teams aggressively using base salary guarantees to secure undrafted free agents this year. Here are some of the top UDFA guarantees, per NFLPA records. (Note: this is not a complete list.) pic.twitter.com/hMiVtaHo6F
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) May 1, 2018

I know a lot of you have no idea, and honestly neither did I until I saw the Titans made such a big commitment to him. Now, obviously it isn’t like they gave him $10 million in GTD money. However, relative to other Titans UDFAs and in fact, relative to all UDFAs this is notable.

Thinking about it, why shouldn’t the Titans make a big commitment like this to an UDFA EDGE given the weakness that they are in.

This is the depth chart at EDGE:

-Brian Orakpo (17.5 sacks in the last two years)

-Derrick Morgan (16.5 sacks in the last two years)

-Harold Landry (rookie)

-Kevin Dodd (1 sack in the last two years)

-Aaron Wallace (1 sack in the last two years)

Jon Robinson did a good job adding depth at the edge position with the potential to start in Harold Landry, but behind those three there is nothing that you can even bank on to be league average as a backup.

So it makes sense that they made a big play for someone with potential like Finch, and to be fair he does have a lot of potential.

He is 6’4, 250 lb. with a 7.0 second 3-cone and a 4.65 40-year dash who had 8.5 sacks last year. He has talent and athleticism, but he has some medical concerns. Think of him as a slightly less athletic Josh Sweat.

This is what Finch looked like to Jim Cobern:

What those charts tell me is that he has all the athleticism to be a starter and potentially more. While he may never be a Pro Bowl player, he has the athleticism to get close and he nearly hits the thresholds in production to.

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Another big reason to sign him is that he will be a solid special teams player. He had 5 blocked punts in his career, which was the most for any player at any position coming out of college this year.

He was moved around a lot in college, playing more LB in his first two years and transitioning to EDGE later in his career. In addition to those he was a sub package DT and obviously on the punt block team.

That versatility and the athleticism/production combo make him interesting. Those things plus the money they gave him and the lack of proven depth at the position make this a wide open opportunity with him.

I think he could ultimately have the easiest path to making the roster now that I really think about it. Whether that is more in a special teams capacity with the potential to get some time on defense, or if he earns the EDGE4 spot outright I think he gets a great chance with the Titans.

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