Tennessee Titans: 2 players make PFF’s ‘NFL Week 13 Team of the Week’

Two Tennessee Titans players made Pro Football Focus’ “NFL Week 13 Team of the Week.”

It was a good week for Tennessee Titans offensive linemen in terms of Pro Football Focus grade.

As we outlined in an article on Tuesday, four of the top-five graded Titans in Week 13 were along the offensive line, which is a far cry from where this unit was earlier in the season.

Two among them, left tackle Taylor Lewan and left guard Rodger Saffold, earned a spot on PFF’s “NFL Week 13 Team of the Week.”

Here’s the write-up for Saffold.

"Along with the teammate to his left-hand side, Saffold dominated the trenches in Week 13, earning top marks as both a pass-blocker (87.5) and as a run-blocker (86.5). He kept a completely clean slate across 29 snaps in pass protection."

Here’s what PFF had to say about Lewan.

"The Titans’ big left tackle didn’t allow a single sack, hit or hurry on any of his 27 pass-blocking assignments, and he paved the way in the running game, earning a 79.4 run-block grade for his work."

While the Titans did allow six sacks in total during the Week 13 win against the Indianapolis Colts, neither Saffold nor Lewan was responsible for any, and that’s good news for what has been two of the most embattled offensive linemen in Nashville this season.

Saffold, who signed a four-year, $44 million deal this past offseason, was in the dog house for much of the season after struggling mightily in pass protection in the first half. In fact, it took him just a handful of games to surpass the amount of sacks he allowed in all of 2018.

Since then, Saffold has been an asset in pass protection and has led the charge for the improved blocking we’ve seen in the run game the past three games.

Lewan, on the other hand, was facing tough but fair criticism for another reason: penalties.

The highly-paid left tackle committed nine in his first six games after returning from a four-game suspension for performance-enhancing drugs, and his shortcomings were killing drives for a Titans offense that was already having issues.

Not only has Lewan not committed a single penalty in his last two games, but he also kept his cool when two different Jacksonville Jaguars defenders took cheap shots at him in Week 12.

For now, it appears things have stabilized on the left side of the line at the right time with the Titans trying to make a playoff push in the last four games of the season.