The Tennessee Titans were coming off of a season where they were the most injured team in NFL history and they are already doing their best to match that record in 2022.
In some of the worst news Titans fans could hear, Pro Bowl EDGE Harold Landry injured his ACL in practice on Thursday.
It is hard to describe what this loss will do to the Tennessee Titans’ defense because the team hasn’t had to be without Landry for more than a handful of snaps since Brian Orakpo and Derrick Morgan were the starters at EDGE.
Not only does Landry rush the passer as well as anyone on the Titans roster, but he also was an underrated run defender and a player that the coaches insisted on moving around from EDGE to linebacker as a matchup weapon.
Tennessee Titans will need backups to step up now
With just over a week until the final practice before their Week 1 matchup with the New York Giants, the Tennessee Titans were supposed to just have an easy conditioning day before taking the weekend off.
Now they will have to spend a large portion of time making sure that Rashad Weaver and Ola Adeniyi are up to taking over for Landry as a starter for a 17-game season. Another name to remember is David Anenih, the UDFA EDGE from Houston that was explosive in the preseason and ended up on the Titans practice squad.
These three players will need to compensate for the loss of a young star coming off of a breakout season. Together they do have all of the traits that Harold Landry had, they just don’t have a player that has all of the traits in one package.
Rashad Weaver has the power to be a edge setting run defender on early downs, but he lacks the quick-twitch that Landry had around the edge. Ola Adeniyi flashed some explosion as a pass rusher last season, but he has never had to be a full-time starter on defense.
Something else to watch is just how quickly Anenih can take Adeniyi’s role as a special teamer and a rotational pass rusher. The sooner that happens, the better because that will allow Adeniyi to focus his time and energy on defense.
This is a massive blow to the Titans’ defense and one that will threaten their ability to win the AFC South convincingly this season. We have seen this team be resilient in the past, but it would be nice to see a Tennessee team that doesn’t have to be resilient for once.