Will Tennessee Titans EDGE Cameron Wake state his Hall of Fame case near Canton?

MIAMI GARDENS, FL - AUGUST 17: Ndamukong Suh #93 and Cameron Wake #91 of the Miami Dolphins talk during a preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens at Hard Rock Stadium on August 17, 2017 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
MIAMI GARDENS, FL - AUGUST 17: Ndamukong Suh #93 and Cameron Wake #91 of the Miami Dolphins talk during a preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens at Hard Rock Stadium on August 17, 2017 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) /
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Tennessee Titans new EDGE may put an exclamation point on long career this weekend.

I don’t think veterans think about the Hall of Fame when they believe they have years left in them, but new Tennessee Titans EDGE Cameron Wake may have some of that on his mind this weekend.

Against the Cleveland Browns, Wake is going to match up against one of two players.

The first is Greg Robinson who will be the starting left tackle for the Browns. Robinson has allowed 22 career sacks and has never played the typical 1,000 snap season that you see from most offensive linemen.

Opposite him is right tackle Chris Hubbard who only started the last two season for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2017 and the Cleveland Browns in 2018, but has allowed 9 sacks (6 with Cleveland last year) during that time.

Neither are great and when you make massive improvement to a roster sometimes you have to sacrifice at others. Notably this offseason the Browns got worse on the offensive line in order to acquire Olivier Vernon and potentially Odell Beckham (if you believe the Zeitler/Vernon trade had any impact on the OBJ move).

That means that Cameron Wake heads into the game as the Tennessee Titans most proven pass rusher against and offensive line that is weak on the outside and is relying heavily on Eric Kush at the right guard spot.

With Canton nearby you have to wonder if Wake who sits at 98 sacks, is eying a big game to put him into the triple digits.

This is sort of the perfect storm for Wake. After the Miami Dolphins let him go, everyone was dismissive of him and tried to call him old and washed up despite a very good 2018 campaign. Now he heads into Cleveland against the most hyped team in the NFL and gets to attack their weakest unit.

You can be sure that Dean Pees will be calling his friends in Baltimore to get the skinny on how they managed to sack Mayfield 5 times in their first matchup and what they did to get him to throw 4 picks in their two meetings.

However, it won’t be quite that simple.

It should be noted that Baker Mayfield was sacked only three times in his last four games where he had to face some pretty tough defenses (Cincinnati Bengals, Denver Broncos, Baltimore Ravens).

Will the Browns be more aggressive down the field and open themselves up for more potential sacks? Or will they try to attack quickly and utilize the short area quickness of Odell Beckham and Jarvis Landry?

It will be really interesting to watch that matchup, but inside the matchup of the Titans defense vs the Browns offense is the matchup of Cameron Wake vs those offensive tackles.

If Harold Landry can threaten enough off the edge to prevent the offensive from giving extra blockers to Wake’s side then he could hit that historic landmark. Only 32 players in NFL history can make that claim and of the 25 eligible for the Hall of Fame, over half have made it in.