Ryan Roberts, NFL Spin Zone
Ryan Roberts did a mock draft a few days ago, and had an interesting fit for the Tennessee Titans.
In the middle of the first, he gave the Titans: Raekwon Davis DT, Alabama
His analysis:
"The Titans look to Alabama to snag defensive tackle Raekwon Davis. Despite a drop in production from 2017 to 2018, Davis possesses all the tools to make plays up and down the defensive line. The Derrick Brown vs. Raekwon Davis battle to become the top interior defensive lineman in the 2020 NFL Draft will be a very interesting one."
Now, this is interesting, but not for the reason that Roberts says. In his longer analysis (which you should check out at the link above) he forgets that the Titans drafted Jeffery Simmons in the first round in 2019.
That is a big miss, but I still don’t hate the pick. Let me tell you why, at 6’7, 310 lb. Davis looked poised for a monster year in 2018 only for Quinnen Williams to come out of no where and have one of the best seasons by a DT that I can remember.
This forced Davis to take a back seat, but it doesn’t take away from his 10 TFL, 8.5 sack season in 2017. If Davis could recreate that production, the Titans could go with this defense:
Front five: Harold Landry, Jeffery Simmons, Raekwon Davis, Jurrell Casey, Cameron Wake
LBs: Jayon Brown, Rashan Evans
DBs: Adoree Jackson, Malcolm Butler, Kevin Byard, Kenny Vaccaro
What do you even do against that front? They are too big to run up the middle, too quick on the outside and too athletic to continually test them in coverage.