Titans free agency: Corey Davis should be the priority over Jonnu Smith
By Will Lomas
Who is the bigger matchup nightmare
I went back over the last two years on Stathead and looked at a stat that I think is the most important stat in the Titans offense for receiving threats. That is “yards per target” and in a low-volume passing offense like the Titans run, being a threat means more about what you do when you are given targets and less about your stat line.
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Jonnu Smith is no slouch. Among tight ends with 100 targets over the last two years, Smith is 7th out of 25 qualifiers in the NFL behind superstars like Travis Kelce, George Kittle, and Darren Waller.
Meanwhile, he was ahead of guys you might expect more from like Hunter Henry, T.J. Hockenson, Evan Engram, and Zach Ertz.
Since Corey Davis plays receiver, I thought it was fair to bump his filter up from 100 targets to 150+ targets. Over the past two years looking at wide receivers with 150+ targets, Corey Davis is 5th out of 50 in the NFL.
The four players in front of him are Mike Williams, Stefon Diggs, Chris Godwin, and topping the list is fellow Titans star, A.J. Brown.
I was going to make a list of the interesting players below him, but there is an easier way to explain it. Think of any receiver in the NFL and if their name isn’t Mike Williams, Stefon Diggs, Chris Godwin, or A.J. Brown and they didn’t have 150+ targets, then they had fewer yards per target than Davis over the last few seasons.
Jonnu Smith deserves a lot of praise and he is an ascending tight end in the NFL, but Corey Davis is criminally underappreciated and he is the perfect fit for one of the best offenses in the NFL. Looking at the numbers, both are matchup problems for any defense, but one is playing at a higher level and that is the guy that the Titans need to make the biggest push to sign.