Video: Which Tennessee Titans defender is the new “Johnathan Joseph”
By Will Lomas
What is he doing so poorly?
To paint a full picture, I want to start off with his stat line because that is the most tangible way to start discuss defensive linemen.
The NFL doesn’t give half-credit for TFLs, so in his career, he has one TFL (that he shares with Rashaan Evans who was a driving factor on the play) and no sacks.
Now, this is the part where people usually defend players by saying “Well, not everything shows up on the box score.” and I am very glad for those of you thinking that.
Because he is doing so little in the box score, you might see his snaps increasing and think that is doing something beyond the box score that is helping the team. For instance, Jeffery Simmons has a lot of plays that end up as just regular tackles or have no statistical impact at all because of his influence on the play.
Maybe the offensive line is giving Dickerson more attention? Maybe he is steering plays away from him? Is he a force in the run game that makes teams more willing to throw the ball?
The answer to all of these is a resounding no. In fact, this is the one stat I want you to take away from this:
In the last 3 weeks, the Titans have allowed 4 rushing touchdowns. Not only has Matt Dickerson been on the field for all of these rushing touchdowns, but the other team has run at him on 3 of the 4 touchdowns.
Let me show my work using the NFL’s official Youtube account where they post the highlights.