Two reasons why Tennessee Titans offensive line deserves more optimism

It is fair to have some doubts about the Tennessee Titans’ offensive line, but it isn’t smart to focus solely on the negative.

There are questions that need to be addressed, specifically at left guard where the team seems to be content letting Aaron Brewer and Jamarco Jones compete for the starting job. Whether or not that mirrors the Titans’ decision to let Jonnu Smith walk without replacing him, is yet to be seen.

However, once you get past that the offensive line has some reasons to make fans hopeful. In fact, there are two big reasons why fans should have moderate expectations.

For some reason, PFF has David Quessenberry as a moderately successful right tackle last year even though fans should know better. Instead of running headlong into a debate about whether those numbers are worth paying attention to or not, I didn’t even include Dillon Radunz in this article.

Instead, I wanted to focus on Taylor Lewan and Nate Davis.

Tennessee Titans offensive line should be healthier

Like Bud Dupree, Taylor Lewan should be completely recovered from an ACL tear that sidelined him for most of the 2020 season.

While he was on the field last year, he was in and out of the lineup frequently, and even when he was in he didn’t look right. There are times when players can fully recover in a single offseason, but more often than not it takes players 18+ months to get completely back to normal.

Lewan finished the year strong and started to look close to what he showed a few years ago. His health status has been a huge talking point for years, and a full 17-game season would make a massive difference in how teams and fans perceive him.

Something that didn’t get brought up enough last year was right guard Nate Davis going from nearly making the Pro Bowl to looking completely overmatched at times. It turns out that Davis actually got COVID twice last year, and that would explain why he didn’t look like he was in the best condition.

With both players taking part in minicamp last week and looking like they are at 100%, that means that the Titans should be getting more from their left tackle and right guard this year. Throw in continuity at center and an upgrade at right tackle, and that means that the team is just once left guard away from a very good offensive line.

Time will tell if one of the two guards can win that spot and if everyone can gel in time for the season, but if they can get that going then it could be anything but doom and gloom for the Tennessee Titans line this year.