Tennessee Titans might benefit from Amani Hooker’s injury

Nearly everyone thought that third-year safety Amani Hooker would be the next Tennessee Titans player to take a significant step forward.

Unfortunately, Hooker suffered an injury that landed him on injured reserve, and now the Titans are going to make a change at starter for the first time in the 2021 season.

According to Jim Wyatt, the next man up is likely going to be Bradley McDougald. Coming in to start after starting on the bench isn’t new for the nine-year veteran.

Over the last seven years, McDougald played with three teams, 47 games with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 47 games with the Seattle Seahawks, and then 7 games with the New York Jets before suffering an injury.

In both Tampa Bay and Seattle, McDougald ended up winning the starting job halfway through his first year and then holding on to the starting role for the next two seasons.

Tennessee Titans fans will get to see more of McDougald this weekend, but the real reason why this might help this defense doesn’t actually have to deal with McDougald or even with Hooker. This is all about Kevin Byard.

What does this change for the Tennessee Titans?

Right now the Titans are using Kevin Byard as a jack-of-all-trades player who is asked to play man coverage or zone coverage interchangeably. Unfortunately, he has spent the better part of the last three years struggling to play man coverage with slot receivers or pass-catching tight ends.

Last week against the Arizona Cardinals, you could watch Kyler Murray identify where Byard was presnap and if he saw Byard matched up with a wide receiver he stared down that matchup until he threw it or until he was forced to do something else. Byard ended up allowing two touchdowns like this, and while his interception was nice, it wasn’t enough to offset that sort of coverage.

Hooker was the team’s leader in interceptions last year and he did his best work when he was playing deep zone coverage. Maybe with Hooker out, the Tennessee Titans defense will put Byard back deep and allow McDougald to draw those man coverage assignments.

This isn’t an indictment on anyone because this is a problem that happens when you get two safeties who are good players, but who have very similar play styles. Instead, think about this as the Titans being forced to do the right thing instead of constantly outthinking themselves like they always seem to do.

At least, that is what Tennessee Titans fans should be hoping this means.