Dane Brugler reminds Titans fans of T'Vondre Sweat's multiple red flags

Everyone makes mistakes and everyone deserves some grace, but some Tennessee Titans fans are understandably concerned with what they have seen from second-round pick T'Vondre Sweat so far.

The sky is the limit for Sweat. Just look at what he did last year for the Texas Longhorns. He was a unanimous All-American, the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, and the Outland Trophy winner. When you look at single-season accolades, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone with a better four-month stretch in recent college football history.

Don't overlook that, because that is something that should excite Titans fans when you think about what he might become with the right role models and coaches.

But excluding that four-month hot-streak, what else do we know about Sweat?

Last week, Buck Reising had the best draft analyst in the media by a wide margin, Dane Brugler on his show to recap what the Titans did in the first two rounds of the 2024 NFL Draft.

He didn't spend long on Sweat, but he spent long enough to highlight all of the issues that Sweat had coming out.

The popular talking point from this interview is the reminder that his off-the-field issues were a big concern for people heading into his fifth year of football, and just when some GMs were buying the idea that he might have gotten his head on straight, he was arrested for an alleged DWI. That regression scared off a lot of teams, and it isn't hard to see why.

That has been talked about a lot and it is important, but those weren't the only issues that Brugler had with the Sweat pick, and these other issues aren't getting talked about enough.

One of the big concerns was that Sweat's big season came out of nowhere. In 2023, Sweat nearly doubled his career production which is shocking when you remember how many games he had played to that point.

Before 2023, he was a statistical dud for the first four seasons of his career, racking up a combined 9.5 TFLs and 3 sacks in his first 48 games. That is about as unproductive as you can be when you get to play 25% of your games against Rice, UTSA, Texas Tech, Wyoming, etc, and when you are naturally gifted at 6-foot-4 and roughly 365 pounds.

Speaking of his size, that was another issue that Brugler brought up and he wasn't nearly as harsh as he could have been.

When talking about his size, Brugler said,

"In the college football playoffs, he was close to 390. So it's like, 'Can we manage his weight? Will he stay down under 370 pounds?' That is something that is going to be a big sticking point with him...Now that he has all this money, it's going to be maybe more potential distractions. Can he do enough to keep that weight down so that he can keep that weight down so that he can play in that 365 range?"

In the best possible scenario, Sweat plays at roughly 365. Sweat has talked about how he would be a Hall of Famer if he could get down to 355, and maybe he could be, but through a month of practices, he hasn't been able to get on the field more than once.

Let's remain optimistic here and say that Sweat doesn't miss a practice once training camp begins and he gets his weight down to 365. Can you guess how many defenders that weigh 360 pounds or more have started a game in the last 10 years?

Two, and the only reason it is that many is because I went back to 2013 when Terrance Cody started one game for the Baltimore Ravens. (The other player is former Titan Anthony Rush).

Even if Sweat is a boy scout off the field, there should be serious concerns about how long it took him to make an impact in college and how rare it is for someone of his size to start football games, let alone make an impact.

If the Titans get four years of what the Longhorns got in 2023, Sweat is going to be a steal before signing a lucrative second contract. However, you could have said the same thing about guys like Kevin Dodd who had his best college football season before hoodwinking the Titans with a second-round pick.

Taking J.C. Latham was a slight reach, but you feel good about everything you have seen from him so far. Sweat hasn't reassured fans at all since he was drafted, and he is viewed by many as the biggest reach of the Titans' offseason, and a big gamble by GM Ran Carthon.

Did Carthon cook and get a steal that everyone said was a reach? Or did he decline one of the most lopsided trades in recent history just to reach for someone who can't even be a starter?

Brugler recently reminded us of the concerns.