One of the more slept-on storylines surrounding the Tennessee Titans is the undeniable talent and potential of their defensive line now that the front is fully healthy again.
Last season, Harold Landry was out for the entire season with a torn ACL, while Jeffery Simmons, Denico Autry, and Bud Dupree each dealt with injuries of their own, missing a combined 13 games.
Fast forward to the present day and for the first time since the Titans’ nine-sack performance in the 2021 playoffs, Tennessee is expected to have Autry, Simmons and Landry on the field at the same time when the season rolls around, barring any future injuries.
The Titans also replaced Dupree with Arden Key, a talented pass-rusher who has been a consistent force over the last two seasons, tallying 90 quarterback pressures (10 in playoffs) and 11 sacks over that span.
Meanwhile, Teair Tart is an underrated nose tackle who has developed into a starter and significantly improved his overall grade each year, going from 48.7 in his rookie season to 59.2 one year later before finishing the 2022 campaign with a respectable 73.1, per Pro Football Focus.
The combined success and potential of those five is why Zoltán Buday of PFF had the Titans cracking the top 10 in his recent defensive line rankings
Buday stated the following when explaining his reasons for having the Titans ranked No. 10:
Due to the perception of the Titans’ offense, the defense might also be flying under the radar — even though their defensive front has the potential to be very good in 2023. Interior defenders Denico Autry, Teair Tart, and Jeffery Simmons all graded among the top 25 players at their positions. The Titans also signed edge defender Arden Key, who had a breakout season with the Jaguars this past season. They are also getting back Harold Landry III, who had to miss the entire 2022 season due to an injury.
Even though the PFF analyst gave the Titans a respectable ranking, I would argue that it’s still too low.
The last time we saw the Titans’ front four completely filled out with their primary guys, the group was wreaking havoc on one of the best offenses in a playoff game Tennessee certainly deserved to win.
Since then, we may not have seen Landry suit up, but Simmons and Autry continued their stellar play.
At one point, they were on the verge of becoming one of the most dominant tandems in the entire league prior to suffering their midseason injuries. The two of them combined for 66 pressures and 12.5 sacks over their first 8 games of the season.
Now you get those two back healthy, throw in Landry and Key rushing off the edge and suddenly that group has the potential to be as good, if not even better than the dominant front the Titans had back in 2021.
