5 reasons the Tennessee Titans will go from contenders to champions

Second-year superstars

Nashville, Tennessee was home to the 2019 NFL Draft and as memorable as that weekend was for Titans fans everywhere, Jon Robinson’s draft class outshined anything that happened on Broadway street that weekend.

Since joining the team in 2016, Titans’ general manager Jon Robinson has had plenty of noticeable picks that have helped build the foundation for the foreseeable future. However, he may have hit his biggest home runs in front of the hometown fans when he selected what seems like eventual superstars on both sides of the ball with his first two selections.

Robinson selected SEC standouts, and high school rivals, defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, and wide receiver A.J. Brown with the 19th and 51st picks in the 2019 NFL Draft.

After being sidelined for the first six games of his rookie year after tearing his ACL during draft preparations, Simmons displayed why he was a consensus top-10 pick prior to the knee injury the second he stepped on the field.

In his rookie debut, the monstrous defensive lineman recorded four tackles, two tackles for a loss and a quarterback sack in the team’s 23-20 win over the Chargers.

Simmons often used his massive size and brute strength to plug running lanes, while also taking on double teams in order to allow his teammates to excel. Although it’s early in his career, Simmons has displayed the potential to possibly develop into one of the games more dominant defensive lineman once he gets more experience under his belt.

The thought of how good Simmons can be with a full offseason of preparing and practicing as opposed to rehabbing is something that should have all Titans fans salivating at the mouth as we wait for September to roll around.

Simmons ultimately finished his strong rookie year with 35 total tackles, two sacks, four tackles for loss, and one fumble recovery. Impressive numbers no doubt, but those stats that don’t nearly tell the story on how dominant Simmons was last season as a rookie coming off a significant knee injury just eight months prior.

The Mississippi State product has the potential to reach new heights in 2020 now that he will likely have a full training camp, and more importantly, a clean bill of health.

As impressive as the monstrous defensive tackle was in 2019, you could make a very strong argument that the player they selected after him, may have the highest ceiling out of any player in the entire 2019 draft class.