Who is closer to a title: Tennessee Titans or Nashville Predators?
By Will Lomas
Biggest holes left on the roster?
What Glennon said:
"“The Predators did a good job filling last year’s most significant weakness, the absence of a productive second-line center, when they acquired Duchene.” “The Titans’ most glaring need remains the absence of a bona fide No. 1 receiver, though Corey Davis made big strides during his second season. Rookie A.J. Brown might fill that role in time as well. It’s also fair to wonder about Mariota as he heads into his fourth season.”"
The Preds absolutely needed depth scoring on their roster, but are we sure that a second line center was the biggest need?
With RyJo-Turris-Bonino-Sissons they may not have had an elite unit, but they certainly had enough to get it done if everyone played like they should. The problem was that there was no consistency in that depth and often times it was the Bonino or Sissons line that was outshining the other two (when the JOFAs weren’t together).
I think wing is going to be an issue again this season, though having a great center can help cover that up which I think makes sense on why David Poile was so motivated to get Matt Duchene.
What is the need for the Titans? Corey Davis is a WR1 in the NFL, he just doesn’t get the volume he should. Look at this tweet:
That takes the percent of times that Davis was targeted and his yards per target and then applies that to the pass attempts by each team. That is a really interesting look at just how good Corey Davis is even though the numbers don’t jump off the page.
Mariota being a concern makes sense if you doubt him, but isn’t that why Tannehill is in Tennessee? When he is healthy he is great (see most of 2016, some of 2017 and specifically the Dallas, New England and Houston games from 2018) and with Tannehill in the fold they can avoid rushing him back from an injury in the middle of the season like they have had to the last two years.