Tennessee Titans left tackle Taylor Lewan doesn’t feel like he was at his best in 2021 upon his return from a torn ACL he suffered in 2020, but he’s confident he’ll return to form in 2022.
It’s pretty typical for a player coming back from such a serious injury to not be at his best in the first year, and while we’d definitely agree with Lewan’s assessment of how this past season went, it’s not like he was terrible.
Lewan finished with a decent overall Pro Football Focus grade of 71.4, and notched marks of 71.9 and 64.9 in pass-blocking and run-blocking, respectively.
Lewan did allow four sacks — the most he’s given up since 2017 — and 21 total pressures, but two of those sacks and five of those pressures came in Week 1. In his final 12 games, Lewan permitted two sacks and 16 total pressures.
After the loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday, Lewan admitted that he wasn’t himself in 2021, noting that his conditioning, strength and power wasn’t where they needed to be because of the focus on his knee rehab.
“Yeah, I don’t think that is in question,” Lewan said when asked if he thinks he’ll return to form in 2022. “I will say this, this has been a year of adversity for me and not my best year by any means, but I think it is pretty obvious that the first year, unless you are Adrian Peterson, is tough coming back. I didn’t have a full offseason to train. I was really focused on my knee. My conditioning wasn’t as good. My strength wasn’t as good. My power wasn’t as good. There were a lot of things that weren’t up to my standard. With a knee comes other injuries, like a back. That is just how the anatomy works. I have no doubt that I will be back next year. I think I will be back to myself. I have no doubt about that.”
Lewan is under contract for two more seasons and will be responsible for a cap hit of $14.6 million in 2022. That total is the 12th-highest among left tackles in the NFL, per Over the Cap.
There will be conversations between fans and in the media about whether or not the Titans should part ways with Lewan this offseason, something that is possible given he only carries a dead-cap hit of $1.7 million and the Titans aren’t in the best shape financially with an estimated $7.4 million in cap space — but it’s doubtful that will happen.
For starters, Lewan isn’t too expensive when compared to other high-paid left tackles. Also, the Titans don’t have an option on the roster to replace him, unless you’re comfortable rolling the dice on Dillon Radunz. And, it’s highly doubtful they’d find anyone better in free agency without breaking the bank.
The Titans would be much better served keeping Lewan and hoping he returns to top form.
