Tennessee Titans have another defender named to the Pro Bowl
By Will Lomas
The Tennessee Titans defense has done a complete 180 since the dark times (2020). A big reason for that is the improved defensive line and the emergence of Harold Landry as a star EDGE.
Because Pro Bowl players are chosen in a very weird/bad way, the Tennessee Titans secured the top seed in the AFC but only had one player named to the roster. Safety Kevin Byard definitely deserved it and that showed up in his All-Pro selection, but there were other players worthy of a spot on that team.
I won’t go through all of them, but everyone reading this has to be screaming “Jeffery Simmons” at their screen. If you are, then you are absolutely correct, he was fantastic and you could make the argument that he is the most disruptive defensive lineman in the league under 30. Hopefully, he is the next player added to the roster because his exclusion was an oversight in the first place.
Despite the failure of the Pro Bowl voting system, Harold Landry will be a Pro Bowler after it was announced that Joey Bosa will miss due to an injury.
Why is this important for the Tennessee Titans?
I don’t think his inclusion in the Pro Bowl is going to be a big deal to the Tennessee Titans financially because that front office doesn’t let the league tell them which players are good and which players are bad.
In the past, Titans’ GM Jon Robinson has signed guys like Rodger Saffold, Denico Autry, Bud Dupree, and Ben Jones, despite none of those players having a Pro Bowl credit to their name. Each of those guys have come in and made a clear impact on the roster, while other players (Jadeveon Clowney, Vic Beasley, etc.) proved that you aren’t a good player just because you win a popularity contest.
However, a quiet benefit to this is that the Titans now have Kevin Byard, Harold Landry, and the entire Tennessee Titans coaching staff spending time and talking to an entire roster of some of the best players in the NFL.
I believe that the Titans have Harold Landry at the top of their list of priorities this offseason and I would say that there is a 95% chance that he is playing with this team next year. So you are going to have two guys drafted and developed in Nashville and the coach of the 1-seed, talking to pending free agents about how great it is to be in Tennessee.
There are some interesting connections the Titans could make there. Maybe a tight end like Mike Gisicki or Dalton Schultz makes the roster as alternates and one of them intrigues Tennessee as another weapon in this offense?
If you are talking about swinging for the fences and just talking about blue chip players at the event, Davante Adams, Ryan Jensen, Cameron Jordan, Chandler Jones, Patrick Ricard, J.C. Jackson, and Xavien Howard are all players who should be on the market by the time free agency starts.
Who knows what will happen there, but Harold Landry has earned this after doing whatever the team needed from him for the last four seasons. Having another voice to talk to free agents is nice, but seeing Landry get the credit he has deserved after being snubbed is cause for celebration.