The Tennessee Titans' offseason will be defined but what the offense looks like in 2025, but so far, the team has acquired more new starters on defense in NFL free agency than they have on offense.
Over the last month, the Titans have cut Harold Landry and Chidobe Awuzie, traded Kenneth Murray, and allowed Quandre Diggs and Jack Gibbens to pursue other opportunities in free agency.
There is still more work to be done on that side of the ball, but Dennard Wilson's new-look starting lineup has begun taking shape.
Two acquisitions who are undeniable starters at their position are linebacker Cody Barton and safety Xavier Woods.
Barton has started double-digit games at each of his last three stops and considering that the Titans allowed Murray and Gibbens to walk, it is hard to imagine them shelling out $7 million per seas for a linebacker who won't crack their top two.
Similarly, Woods is going to make $5 million annually at a position where the Titans had a gaping hole opposite Amani Hooker. Luckily, Woods is a player who doesn't need to prove himself in training camp after playing more than 4,200 snaps over the last four years.
While neither of those starters is going to push for a Pro Bowl spot this year, they are the epitome of a solid veteran who offers a consistent, predictable level of play.
The next player who is almost certainly heading for a starting role is Jarvis Brownlee Jr. who will take over the cornerback spot vacated by Awuzie.
In Brownlee's first year, he showed as much promise as any of Tennessee's rookies, and he plays with the aggressive temperament you want to see from a cornerback. More importantly, he isn't afraid to make a mistake because he knows that he has the talent to make up for it later in the game.
One of the best examples of this was when he allowed a big catch early against the Houston Texans, but he finished that game with three pass breakups, one tackle for loss, and one interception (if you want to see this develop in real time, he was mic'd up in that game). That is how you want your players to bounce back, and that effort and talent were rewarded with a promotion this offseason.
With cornerback, safety, and linebacker settled, the Titans still have a massive hole at EDGE that they need to address. They started trying to fill that hole by signing Dre'Mont Jones, but they still have much more work to do there.
Ideally, Jones would be your second starting EDGE and Arden Key would be a rotational piece. Without a truly dominant pass rusher, the Titans are going to ask these two to step up and play above what they have shown in the past. Barring a big change, it looks like this is going to be the biggest weakness on the entire roster next season.
That is the state of the defense right now, but that is subject to change as we get closer to the 2025 NFL Draft. This new supporting cast alongside Jeffery Simmons, T'Vondre Sweat, L'Jarius Sneed, Hooker, and Roger McCreary could surprise us and be very good, but this still feels like an incomplete group without a real game-changer right now.