Tennessee Titans: 3 Reactions after rewatching first preseason game

Tennessee Titans vs Atlanta Falcons notes

The Tennessee Titans finally got back onto the field and played real(ish) football against the Atlanta Falcons last night.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter who won or who lost…but the Tennessee Titans beat the Atlanta Falcons in every phase of the game as they cruised to a 23-3 victory.

What does matter is how the Tennessee Titans played and almost more importantly, who played. It was a little bit surprising that the first-team defense featured many of the faces that fans should expect to see lining up against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 1.

Even if it was brief, fans got to see Kevin Byard, Jackrabbit Jenkins, Kristian Fulton, Rashaan Evans, Jayon Brown, Teair Tart, and Amani Hooker all on the same field together. That was in stark contrast to the offense which featured none of their starters at any point last night.

Still, there were things to take away from both sides of the ball and after watching the game live and re-watching it Saturday morning, there are three big takeaways that need to be talked about.

The first and most important is a defensive adjustment that the Titans made, and I don’t think anyone noticed it until this morning. However, it may be a shift that makes a massive impact this season.

Tennessee Titans new 3rd down linebackers

It is no secret that the Tennessee Titans defense in 2020 was potentially the worst defense in NFL history. They were abysmal and no one is safe from criticism.

The play design was poor and it usually featured dumb mistakes like cornerbacks playing 5+ yards off the line of scrimmage on 3rd and 2. When the play design was acceptable, the defensive backs were slow to react and the pass rush never got home.

However, an underrated problem was that the linebackers couldn’t really contribute anything. They generally weren’t involved as pass rushers, when they were involved they weren’t effective, and the only linebacker who had success in coverage last year was Jayon Brown.

Luckily, the Titans seem to have identified and corrected that mistake thanks to a change that fans have been begging to see for years.

For now, it looks like the Titans have made the change to put David Long on the field on 3rd downs. As a blitzer, he is night and day better than Rashaan Evans and he also has the quick twitch to react well in coverage.

This might finally be the year where the Titans have two speedy linebackers on the field often and in key moments, which is a step towards the 21st century that should make a massive difference.

Dillon Radunz had a better night for the Tennessee Titans than you think.

At first glance, it was easy to be down on the entire offensive line. However, it definitely hurts when your starting left tackle, left guard, center, right guard, and right tackle miss the game.

It only gets worse when you realize that the Tennessee Titans’ backup center (Aaron Brewer) and their second-best right tackle (Kendall Lamm or Ty Sambrailo take your pick) also sat. In a zone-blocking scheme, the chemistry between offensive linemen is at a premium because you have to decide whether the guy next to you can take over your assignment to let you climb to the next level, or if you need to stay where you are and let him climb.

Even with all of that, Dillon Radunz did a very nice job both at right guard and right tackle. He played nearly the entire game and he did a little bit of everything including pass protection, being the strong side tackle, weak side tackle climbing to the second level, combo blocks, iso blocks, and he even pulled on a play early in the game which is rare to see from the Tennessee Titans.

Was there rust? Sure, but you have to remember that this is a new scheme, he is playing two positions that he has never played before, he is making the move from North Dakota State to the NFL, and he has only played one game since 2019 because of COVID restrictions.

All the physical tools were there, now he just needs time to get back into true playing shape and adapt to this level of competition.

Rashad Weaver really was that good for the Tennessee Titans.

Last night there was one thing that every Tennessee Titans fan agreed on and that was that 4th round rookie Rashad Weaver looked like he may be the steal of the 2021 NFL Draft class.

When it was all said and done, Weaver’s night finished with him picking up 1.5 sacks, 2 tackles for loss, 2 quarterback hits, and a batted pass where he read a boot perfectly and climbed the latter to swat down a pass as soon as it left the quarterback’s hand.

Weaver’s stat line is incredible, but some of that is because he played so many snaps over the course of the game. However, that volume is what makes this stat from PFF so impressive:

To lead the NFL in an efficiency stat like pass-rush win rate, despite playing so many snaps is a testament to just how dominant he was.

He isn’t limited to pass-rushing though, in fact, you could argue that the most dominant part of his game is his run defense. Several times last night Weaver would lock out his long arms and control the point of attack in the run game vs players that outweighed him by at least 40 pounds.

If his pass-rush skills were scoops of ice cream and his power in the run game was the hot fudge, then the cherry on top of this rookie debut was his versatility.

Weaver spent time on both sides of the line winning against offensive tackles as an EDGE, but the Tennessee Titans coaches really looked like they want to see him play inside in sub-packages as a 3-tech. Luckily for everyone, he thrived as much there as he did on the outside and it looks like there is no wrong way to use Weaver.

Going forward, the Tennessee Titans have their starting EDGEs and defensive linemen in Harold Landry, Bud Dupree, Jeffery Simmons, Denico Autry, and Teair Tart, but Weaver has made real headway into being a guy who sees a lot of snaps as a rotational player at both positions.