One of the major frustrations with the Tennessee Titans‘ previous regime was cornerbacks not playing press coverage, giving opposing receivers extra room to work with in the short part of the field, often leading to easy first downs.
But under new defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson, those days are over. Before practice on Wednesday, Wilson made it very clear that Tennessee’s cornerbacks will press receivers at the line of scrimmage.
“For me, I believe press or less,” Wilson said, per Paul Kuharsky. “And I want them to be in front of receivers and challenge the receivers. Ultimately in this game, if you get free access, it’s easy for the quarterbacks to complete balls.
“So what I do, I want to create hesitation at the line of scrimmage and make them earn it the hard way, make them earn it throwing the 50-50 ball. Everything else we’re going to challenge.”
When asked if Titans cornerbacks will have a choice in the matter at all, Wilson made it very clear they will not.
“From Day 1, it’s we press everything, period,” he replied.
It’s true that the previous coaching staff didn’t have anywhere near the talent of the Titans’ 2024 cornerbacks room, but the lack of even trying to play press coverage only made things more frustrating.
Wilson went into more detail about his philosophy, including how it’s more about what a coaching staff emphasizes as opposed to what cornerbacks are comfortable doing.
“Listen, offenses do a great job of giving different formations, right?” he said. “A lot of offenses when they spread you out, it’s wide. You’re going to line up and press them, you want to go body on body. But what offenses do, they shrink the formation and get you to back off. A lot of times when you see guys playing off coverage, it might be because of the coverage that you’re playing and you have zone vision so you have to be off.
“To me, it’s not about the DBs or players having fear of doing it, it’s about what do you emphasize? And players do what you emphasize. It’s what you want from a scheme standpoint. And then teaching the techniques and letting the corners understand the leverage and where’s their help. When they thoroughly understand where their help is they can play to certain leverages and take certain routes away.”
After having a coaching staff that was more guarded than Fort Knox, it’s so refreshing to see these types of detailed answers from the new one.
Whether it’s because of that, or the new approaches this coaching staff is bringing, it’s very clear these are not going to be the same Titans we watched the last six years.
