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Tennessee Titans safety Kevin Byard named one of the NFL’s best young stars

By Will Lomas

NASHVILLE, TN - DECEMBER 22: Kevin Byard #31 of the Tennessee Titans celebrates with Kenny Vaccaro #24 during the fourth quarter against the Washington Redskins at Nissan Stadium on December 22, 2018 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TN - DECEMBER 22: Kevin Byard #31 of the Tennessee Titans celebrates with Kenny Vaccaro #24 during the fourth quarter against the Washington Redskins at Nissan Stadium on December 22, 2018 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images) /
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From draft day steal to star safety, Kevin Byard is Tennessee Titans lone star under-25.

SI’s Andy Benoit just released his list of best players 25 and under in the NFL, and Kevin Byard was the only player on the Tennessee Titans to make the cut.

The other safeties on this list were Derwin James, Jamal Adams and Landon Collins. His analysis on Byard looked like this:

"“Our top three safeties can operate anywhere on the field, putting all blitz and coverage disguises in play. All are playmakers, too. Byard is a ball hawk in deep centerfield. James and Adams are destructive near the line of scrimmage”"

Benoit obviously knows that Byard can do everything whether in run defense or in coverage, otherwise he wouldn’t have had the former MTSU stand out on the top of his list.

With more interceptions than anyone else in the NFL over the last two years, it isn’t any surprise that his coverage is the first thing mentioned. The gap between Byard and the other two is wide in terms of interceptions with Byard accounting for as many interceptions last year as both of the other safeties combined.

However it might be surprising to some, just how good Byard is at disrupting runs and getting to the QB. James and Adams are mentioned as destructive near the LOS, but Byard also ranks top-5 in QB hits and sacks by a safety even though he is rarely the DB that gets blitzed.

Byard deserves to be mentioned as the best safety in the NFL at any age, so it is great to see him get a lot of respect in that column.

If there were a snubs section or a place to list players who should make the list next year, I would definitely expect to see Jayon Brown‘s name there.

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The 24-year old linebacker was passed by Leighton Vander Esch, Darius Leonard, Roquan Smith and Jarrad Davis which I don’t see at all. Despite playing rotational snaps, this is how Brown compared to the other LBs on this list in order:

-TFLs: Leonard (12), Davis (10), Brown (8), Smith (8), LVE (2)

-Sacks: Leonard (7), Brown (6), Davis (6), Smith(5), LVE (0)

-Pass deflections: Leonard (8), LVE (7), Brown (6), Davis (5), Smith (5)

-Interceptions: LVE (2), Leonard (2), Brown (1), Smith (1), Davis (0)

So if you convert those to a point system you end up with this ranking, also note the total snaps they played in parenthesis:

1st: Leonard (1,108 snaps)

2nd: Brown (852 snaps)

T-3rd: LVE (893)

T-3rd: Davis (976)

5th: Smith (946)

Brown was behind Leonard by one interception and one sack in those two major categories despite playing 77% as many snaps as Leonard did.

I’m not saying that he would have absolutely gotten those stats if he had played, but he was definitely on pace for it and on a per snap basis few if any linebackers were as good as Brown.

If I had to guess, he would be the Tennessee Titans player most likely to make it onto this list next year.

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