Tennessee Titans GM Jon Robinson’s 5 best draft picks: Defense
By Will Lomas
2. Jayon Brown, LB (5th round, 2017)
2017: 51 tackles, 4 PBUs, 1 TFL, 1.5 sacks, 3 QB hits
2018: 97 tackles, 6 PBUs, 8 TFLs, 6 sacks, 10 QB hits
No one is slept on more than Jayon Brown, which I wrote a little bit about here. The highlights of that conversation is the comparison between the Tennessee Titans 5th round steal and more hyped up young linebackers.
People don’t seem to realize just how good Brown is and they never compare him to the hype machines so they are never going to realize their mistakes. So I will tell you what they won’t:
"“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) 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.”"
Brown is one of the best playmaking linebackers in the NFL anyway, but if you are going to bang the table that any of these other young players are better then you better be able to explain what is incorrect about the stats I posted.