The Tennessee Titans have a massive offseason ahead of themselves that’s filled with uncertainty from the top down.
However, before we completely turn the page on a 2022 campaign that was largely disappointing, it’s time to reflect and go over some of our biggest takeaways on each side of the ball.
We covered the offensive takeaways earlier in the week, so now let’s focus on a defensive unit that had high hopes and expectations coming into the year.
As everyone knows by now, injuries dismantled the Titans’ season. At one point, they had 23 out of 48 players dressed that had spent time on the practice squad earlier that year.
Translation: approximately 47 percent of their roster was a practice squad team by season’s end.
The once-dominant defense was responsible for a handful of those inactive spots, so don’t be surprised if injuries are a major theme throughout this article.
With all that said, let’s dive right into the biggest defensive takeaways of the season
Injuries ruined an elite unit
Coming into the year, the Titans’ defense was expected to be amongst the league’s best. The team’s defensive front in particular had plenty of hype considering what it did in the 2021 playoff loss.
Unfortunately, that group took a hit before the season even began after Harold Landry tore his ACL days before the season opener.
Things would only get worse as the year progressed, and injuries only continued to pile up in ridiculous numbers.
The most disappointing reality to accept when it came to all these injuries was the fact that the front four of Jeffery Simmons, Denico Autry, Harold Landry and Bud Dupree didn’t play a single snap together this season.
Even worse, Autry, Simmons and Dupree were only on the field together for less than 16 percent of the defensive snaps in 2022.
Throw in the plethora of absences that occurred at inside linebacker and within the defensive backfield and this season was an absolute mess from a health standpoint.
Despite all this, Tennessee still managed to be one of the most efficient defenses for half the season before things began to completely unravel.
The #Titans defense continues to dominate.
Since Week 3, they’ve only allowed an average of 15.1 PPG while ranking:• 1st in Success Rate
• 1st in Rush EPA
• 1st in Rushing Success Rate
• 6th in EPA/play
• 6th in Dropback Success Rate*6-1 record over that span* pic.twitter.com/N2QtuiBcoZ
— Shaun Calderon (@ShaunMichaels31) November 15, 2022
Unfortunately, this was nothing more than a lost season that seemingly never really had a chance once this elite defense spent more time on the inactive list than on the field.
Denico Autry’s absence further showed his importance
If there’s one player on the defense whose stock exponentially rose by sitting out, it’s undoubtedly Autry’s.
Prior to suffering his unfortunate knee injury, Autry was playing at an All-Pro level. He had accumulated seven sacks and six tackles for loss over the first eight games of the season.
At that point, the Titans’ pass-rush wasn’t as potent as it was in 2021, but it was still good enough to affect the opposing quarterback on a consistent basis.
The second Autry was sidelined, the entire pass-rush disappeared. Simmons was then mostly neutralized as the weeks passed since he was receiving the bulk of the attention on top of battling his own ankle injury,
Autry returned for two games at the end of the year, instantly impacting the defense upon his arrival. He tallied another sack and two tackles for loss to finish off his injury-shortened campaign.
Run defense remained elite despite the dismal season
Even though the Titans fell apart as a team as the year went on, the one consistent aspect of their game that never folded was the run defense.
Tennessee finished the year as the No. 1 unit after only allowing an average of 76.9 yards per game.
The Titans especially excelled at stopping the opposing ground game on the road. Tennessee only allowed an impressive 57.6 yards per game anytime their defense traveled to another city, which was 20.6 fewer yards than the next closest defense (Baltimore Ravens).
If there’s one thing this banged-up 2022 Titans defense can hang its hat on, it’s the fact that the unit didn’t let anybody bully it regardless of what was happening on the scoreboard or who was out there.
