3 Titans who would benefit the most from Jadeveon Clowney
By Will Lomas
Kevin Byard
In Kevin Byard’s breakout season where he led the league in interceptions, the Titans had more sacks and QB hits than in either of the next two seasons. It isn’t hard to see the correlation between pressure caused by the front seven and his interceptions.
This isn’t something that is lost on Byard either, something that was noted by Michael Gallagher from the Nashville Post:
"“Obviously I’m not John Robinson or Mike Vrabel,” Byard said. “But I would say, as a safety, the most beautiful thing as a safety that you can have is some bad pass rushers in front of you that’s getting after the quarterback. A lot of times you get a lot of tipped balls, batted balls. It’s a lot of opportunity to make plays on the ball. If we could add a guy like him, an elite pass rusher, somebody that can get to the quarterback and also be great in run defense? I’m definitely all for it.” “Harold Landry is a young guy who I feel like is going to be one of the best pass rushers in the league in the future,” Byard continued. “If we can get Clowney it would just be more power that we have on our defense.”"
Combining all the points we have talked about, Byard should be sitting behind a pass rush that features a former sack leader, one of the best “support” EDGEs in the NFL and a player that Byard called “one of the best pass rushers in the league in the future.”
On top of that, he will likely be playing behind two rangy linebackers in Jayon Brown and David Long, and don’t forget that we are one year removed from Brown having a 6 sack season.
That could mean the biggest year yet for Byard, or conservatively a season that is at or slightly below his career-high. Even if he falls short of his career-best 8 interceptions, and still manages to pull in 7 then he would have 24 in his first 4 years as a starter.
Since 1983, no one in the NFL has done that and maybe that would finally give Byard the recognition he deserves.