8 Tennessee Titans with the most to gain or lose in 2020

2020 will be a big season for the Tennessee Titans as a whole, but who will be under the microscope the most?

Mike Vrabel engineered a quick turnaround in the middle of the 2019 season to get the Tennessee Titans to the AFC Championship Game.

Several players had to have big seasons along the way including Ryan Tannehill, A.J. Brown, Derrick Henry, Harold Landry, and more.

For some, these great seasons end up pushing them into long term contracts with the team or higher up the depth chart. However, for guys like Cameron Wake, Delanie Walker, Dion Lewis, and Ryan Succop, a mix of injuries or disappointing performances led to the end of their careers with the Tennessee Titans.

Looking back, the writing was on the wall for most of those players. Most of those players were either in contract years or they had a lot of non-guaranteed money coming their way.

So, using that as a filter these players are the guys who have to be under the microscope this season. The Titans are scheduled to have nine picks in the 2021 NFL Draft including four picks in the top-100.

Along with that, Tennessee is scheduled to have something between $60-$100 million in cap space in 2021. With Ryan Tannehill, Taylor Lewan, Kevin Byard, and other key names all under contract, there should definitely be some money to spend if the team wants to.

So which players do you need to keep an eye on?

8. Jayon Brown

If you know me, then you know that I have been a big Jayon Brown fan since the Tennessee Titans drafted him. As soon as I got a chance to really see him in the NFL against players like Delanie Walker or in the preseason, I was sold that he had something special to offer the Titans.

So don’t read this as a criticism because that isn’t what is going on. However, we are about to enter an era where I think linebackers who can cover are going to be at a premium.

We just watched Jon Robinson let Jack Conklin walk who was a former first round pick at a premium position who played at a very high level. To me, that shows me that Robinson has a price for every position and he is very cautious about going above that price.

Historically, Jon Robinson has done a good job getting contracts done in the preseason so if this drags into the season I would be very curious to see if Robinson would let such a unique piece go when he was able to land David Long in the 2019 NFL Draft.

7. Jonnu Smith

Maybe no one on the Titans roster took a bigger step forward than Jonnu Smith. The former FIU tight end took the starting job after Delanie Walker was banged up again and from that point on no one in that tight end room could give the offense what he did.

Whether lining up as a running back (alright that was only once or twice) or lining inline, Smith proved that he could do more than just act as an oversized slot receiver. That is probably a big part of the reason that Mike Vrabel always speaks of Smith in such glowing terms.

With free agency right around the corner, Smith has two years of being an “ok” TE2 behind a season where he was one of the best receiving tight ends in the NFL.

Teams seem to react most to what happened most recently so whether the narrative ends up being that he was a one year wonder or that he is the heir apparent to Delanie Walker, the fact is that we have seen good and bad from Smith and right now the good is far outweighing the bad.

6. Adoree Jackson

This could all change if/when the Tennessee Titans announced that they are picking up Jackson’s 5th-year option.

If Jackson does get his option declined, then it will come down to Jackson being looked at as less than the sum of his parts.

Despite being timed with a sub 4.4 40-yard dash, Jackson has always struggled with field-stretching receivers. Whether he gets too grabby or if he just fails to make a play, Jackson hasn’t quite been the fringe CB1 that it looked like he could have been coming out of college.

On top of that, he washed out as a return man despite having truly elite potential. In fact, in the for much of his rookie year, it looked like Jackson was poised to be a special teams star. However, some tough hits as a returner and a lack of success seems to have destroyed any confidence he had as a return man in the NFL.

Having said all that, I still believe that Adoree Jackson is a very good CB2 and as long as you don’t expect him to be a guy with elite speed or technique, you have to be happy to have him on the field.

He deserves to have his option picked up based on his consistency and willingness to do the dirty work in the running game when he needs to. Even if he isn’t a turnover machine he is still an important cog in this defense.

5. Nate Davis

A lot of you might not like this, but there is a good chance that Isaiah Wilson never becomes an above-average starter at offensive tackle.

He lacks athleticism and his balance is all over the place. Too frequently he oversets to adjust to speed rushers who are just outright better athletes than he is and they beat him only for him to sort of fall on them or for him to dive and try to push them off of their track.

The good news is, almost all of his problems are solved with a simple move from offensive tackle to offensive guard. The bad news is, that means that Nate Davis is going to have to get a lot better and he is going to have to do it quickly.

Davis flashed good and bad throughout his rookie year and in the end, he looked like a pretty good fit for this offense. However, I still think that he is the weakest of the starting five offensive linemen (as long as Dennis Kelly is starting right tackle) and it would make a lot of sense to push Wilson over to right guard if he can’t hack it vs speed on the outside.

That means that Nate Davis would sit on the bench behind Rodger Saffold and Wilson for at least a season but maybe two considerin that is when Saffold’s deal would be up.

If Davis improves, then the question becomes more about how you make the most of your offensive line that has three good guards instead of punting on a top-100 pick.

4. Daquan Jones

Jones doesn’t have anything to prove at this point, but the question is more about his value and the development of defensive linemen around him.

While an above-average run defender, Jones hasn’t really given the Titans a lot of splash plays in his time in Tennessee and he probably won’t at this point.

So, with Jeffery Simmons looking like the next star on the defensive line and with Isaiah Mack (who was good and people forget that) and Larrell Murchison behind him, there is a real scenario where the only role for Jones on the roster is as a 2-down run stuffer who alternates heavily with Murchison.

Right now the Titans are paying Jones almost $10 million and in his next contract you can probably assume that he will want a deal similar to that.

I don’t know if that will be in the best interest of the Titans, but if he is going to make an argument that it is then he should start by having a great 2020 as a playmaker.

3. Greg Joseph

The Tennessee Titans made a few decisions during the 2020 NFL Draft that made bold statements.

For example, the Titans didn’t draft a single EDGE and in fact, they traded out of the 7th round instead of addressing the position. The statement that makes is that they think they can get Jadeveon Clowney or someone on the trade market that adds a top talent to that position.

Another decision they made was ignoring kicker completely despite some pretty solid players on the board on Day 3.

The statement there is that they are all in on Greg Joseph who only kicked one field goal for the Titans in 2019, which he made.

Sure, the Titans signed a kicker as a UDFA but the odds are with Joseph here and they expect a career 85% kicker to be the answer at that position.

Don’t forget, if Tennessee hadn’t completely screwed up the first half of the season with bad kicks then the Titans would have been closer to 11-5 than 9 -7.

2. Corey Davis

Corey Davis slander will not be tolerated here, however it is probably more than likely that the Tennessee Titans are going to decline to pick up his 5th-year option.

In a more pass-heavy offense and with some sort of offensive consistency over the course of his career, there is a chance that Davis would be thought of as a top-20 receiver in the NFL. We are just over a year away from talking about how the fact that the Titans couldn’t get Corey Davis 1,000 yards was a fireable offense for Marcus Mariota.

Now he is going to have a chance to practice with his QB in a familiar offense for the first time in his entire career and he is going to draw favorable coverage with all eyes on Derrick Henry and A.J. Brown.

Stop thinking about Davis as a top-5 pick as start thinking about him as a WR2 who has been a key blocker in so many of Derrick Henry’s game-breaking runs.

Is he worth $10 million per year? Probably not based off of what we have seen to this point. However, he has a chance this year to show that he can be a WR that takes advantage of good situations and that is a player worth re-signing after the end of the season.

If he doesn’t do that, then I think we all expect the Titans to move on and allow Davis to pick his landing post in a pass-heavy offense that can afford to give him more volume.

1. Malcolm Butler

For the last 16 games or so, I think Butler has been a very good CB when he has been on the field. The problem is that he missed most of last season so people are quick to forget how much different he is than the guy who struggled for the early portion of his Titans career.

After this season Malcolm Butler will be 31 and he only has $6 million of his $28.5 million guaranteed on his contract.

I think the people saying that the Titans should have cut Butler this offseason are crazy and even planning to cut him at the end of this season is a bad idea based on what we have seen him do most recently.

However, Butler is going to have to have a big season if he is going to convince Tennessee that he is worth $14 million per year when Logan Ryan couldn’t even get $10 million per year despite being generally healthy and a year younger than Butler.

With Kristian Fulton and Adoree Jackson (who is probably back on a 5th-year option), you probably have your starting CBs right in front of you on rookie deals. With how devalued slot CBs are, Butler is behind the eight ball already.