You get what you pay for in the NFL, and the Tennessee Titans have invested heavily in building one of the best secondaries in the league.
On Sunday night, the Titans signed three-time Pro Bowl safety Quandre Diggs to round out the talented group.
The first thing that jumps off of the page with Diggs is just how consistent he's been. Diggs started his career with the Detroit Lions before being traded to the Seattle Seahawks in 2019. Once he joined the Seahawks and became a starter, he played in every game and racked up nearly 5,200 snaps in four and a half seasons with the team.
One underrated aspect that Diggs will bring to the Titans is even more leadership. Diggs spent five years with the Lions before he was traded to the Seahawks, and Lions players were unhappy, to say the least.
Wrap all of that together, and the Titans just added a locker room leader who has made the Pro Bowl in three of the last four seasons. Diggs fills the one need that the defense had left in the secondary.
In total this offseason, this is what the Titans have added to the secondary and what they spent to do it:
-Traded a third-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft for cornerback L'Jarius Sneed and signed him to a four-year contract worth up to $76 million.
-Signed cornerback Chidobe Awuzie to a three-year contract worth up to $36 million.
-Drafted Jarvis Brownlee Jr. in the fifth round of the 2024 NFL Draft.
-Signed safeties Jamal Adams (up to $1.125 million) and Quandre Diggs (up to $5 million) to one-year deals.
There aren't many starting-caliber players in the Titans secondary with question marks. The remaining question is how good can this secondary be?
Every great secondary needs elite talent and the Titans have that in L'Jarius Sneed. His physicality and coverage skills have made him one of the best corners in the NFL. He's entering his prime at 27 years old.
One Titans defender who could step into that category this season is Roger McCreary. In his second campaign, McCreary was one of the best slot cornerbacks in the NFL and wasn't credited with allowing a single touchdown in 2023.
With more help around him in 2024, the sky is the limit for McCreary and he could quickly become a household name.
The other three starters in the secondary are Diggs, Awuzie, and Amani Hooker.
Awuzie isn't an elite corner, but he is an above-average corner who can thrive in a defense like this one that demands physicality at the line of scrimmage and uses blitzes to get the ball out of the quarterback's hands quickly.
Diggs shares a lot in common with Hooker. Both players were cornerbacks in college who have developed into safeties with the range to move around and make plays on the back end.
While Hooker and Diggs will be playing the true safety role, that doesn't mean that the Titans don't have guys in the secondary who will play around the line of scrimmage. That is where Jamal Adams comes in.
Adams has never been a guy that you want patrolling the middle of the field. At this stage, he's a defender that you want playing with his hair on fire and trying to wreak havoc on the opposing offense. That is exactly what he'll do in this new Titans defense and he is going to be one of the players that helps minimize the absence of Arden Key during his suspension.
This secondary has it all when you lay it out there. Two of the best young cornerbacks in the game, veteran leadership that still has plenty left in the tank, safeties that can patrol the middle of the field or get to the quarterback, and depth pieces like Elijah Molden and Brownlee Jr. who has had a great training camp for the Titans.
How many other secondaries can say they have all of that? Very few, and if Dennard Wilson can get the pass rush going with help from creative and aggressive blitzes, then this is going to be the defense that shocks the NFL.
Not bad for a team with an offensive-minded head coach.