Five final thoughts on the Tennessee Titans defense before camp
By Will Lomas
3. Time for young players to take over
There are some real leaders on this defense with guys like Jurrell Casey, Wesley Woodyard and Cameron Wake all previously being captains last year.
However, by the end of the year the Tennessee Titans defense should be littered with young talent. Look at this list of guys on their rookie contracts:
-Kevin Byard
-Adoree Jackson
-Harold Landry
-Jeffery Simmons
-Sharif Finch
-Amani Hooker
-D’Andre Walker
I mean, you could almost assemble a starting defense out of that group that would be better than some and five of those players are backups or rookies.
The Tennessee Titans organization is depending on these players to develop and continue to get better, especially with some huge financial decisions coming after 2019.
Guys like Amani Hooker, Jeffery Simmons, Sharif Finch, and D’Andre Walker could be starting in 2020 and this year is huge for them as they try to build confidence with their coaching staff to make those transitions easy when the time comes.
The development of these players will have a huge impact on what the Titans can do in free agency and the draft next year.
TL;DR: There are several talented players on rookie contracts on the defense and with a cap crunch coming up, the Tennessee Titans could really use big years from some of these guys to make moves down the road.