The Tennessee Titans are less than one week away from opening their season against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, Sept. 10.
While we haven’t been given official depth charts just yet, most of the starting spots are rather predictable at this point of the year.
Buy Titans TicketsIt should go without saying that the players who accumulate eight-figure salaries annually are in the starting lineup, such as defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons, safety Kevin Byard and outside linebacker Harold Landry.
However, when it comes to the defensive side of the ball, there are a few spots that are somewhat up in the air, so those are the ones that we’ve provided a brief explanation for.
Also, it should be noted that there are 12 players listed below instead of the 11 since Tennessee will obviously run its fair share of nickel packages throughout the year (five defensive backs).
Without further adieu, let’s take a look at the Titans’ projected starting defenses heading into Week 1.
DT: Jeffery Simmons
DE: Denico Autry
NT: Teair Tart
OLB: Harold Landry III
OLB: Arden Key
ILB: Azeez Al-Shaair
ILB: Jack Gibbens
This one is pretty much by default, considering Monty Rice failed to secure the job he was projected for throughout the offseason.
With that said, Gibbens is a very cerebral player who always seems to be around the ball whenever he’s thrown into action.
He probably won’t ever be an elite linebacker in the NFL, but he should be both reliable and capable enough to get the job done as Tennessee’s second inside linebacker.
CB: Kristian Fulton
CB: Sean Murphy-Bunting
CB: Roger McCreary (nickel)
The Titans’ second-round pick from a year ago had a sneaky impressive rookie season in Tennessee. Unfortunately, his length (or lack thereof) routinely showed up when covering big-bodied wide receivers on the boundary.
McCreary was often in a position to make the play, but he simply didn’t have the natural tools to overcome his physical limitations at times. Moving him to the inside where he will mostly see smaller, albeit quicker wideouts should suit his skill set much better this year.
FS: Kevin Byard
SS: Amani Hooker
Check out our starting offense projection!
