Tennessee Titans have three players on pace to eclipse ten-sack mark

Somehow, the Tennessee Titans haven’t had a pass rusher with double-digit sacks in half a decade. However, that looks like a trend that will change this year if these pass rushers can maintain their current pace.

Even with Bud Dupree recovering from injury, the Titans pass rush has not been their biggest problem this season. As a matter of fact, you could argue that the front four have been the best unit for the Titans up to this point of this young 2021 season.

That’s the good news for the franchise because Titans fans are hard-pressed to remember the last pass rusher who had 10-plus sacks for the defense. Most people might think Jurrell Casey’s huge 2013 campaign was the last time that Tennessee had someone hit double-digits, but it was actually 2016, Brian Orakpo’s best year in Nashville.

What might be most surprising is the fact that three Titans are on pace to register ten or more sacks this season.

Which Tennessee Titans are on pace for a monster year?

The most obvious candidate is Harold Landry who has at least half a sack in three of the Tennessee Titans’ four games this season. He has been exciting to watch whether he is blitzing from off the ball, winning around the corner, or running a game inside with Jeffery Simmons.

Another obvious candidate is Ola Adeniyi who didn’t do much in New York, but who was great in the second and third week of the season. During that stretch, he racked up 2.5 sacks in just 31 plays, which is amazing.

For some reason, he didn’t see quite as much time in Week 4, but that will probably change as the season goes on and he continues to establish himself.

Finally, let’s talk about Denico Autry. Here’s some full disclosure, Autry isn’t ‘technically’ on pace for ten sacks this season…yet. That’s because his overtime sack of Zach Wilson was marked down as a tackle for loss. There is still time for the NFL to rectify their mistake (because it was clearly a sack), and once they do he will be on track for a Jurrell Casey-like season.

The list of potential break-out pass rushers should be longer than this. Once Bud Dupree is healthy, he still has all of the talent and experience to catch up to the pack and get on pace for a big season as well.

While Bud Dupree and Ola Adeniyi are the guys who could pop off for massive games at any time to inflate their sack total, Harold Landry, Jeffery Simmons, and Denico Autry are there to make sure that they provide stead pressure on the QB from a variety of angles.

Keep in mind, these five players have done this with no consistency from the defensive backs. In four games this season, the Titans have had eight defensive backs start a game for them. If they can ever get it together on the backend, this team could be surprisingly dangerous when they need to rush the quarterback.