We know this is going to be an interesting offseason for the Tennessee Titans. They’ve named their offensive coordinator in the promotion of Tim Kelly, and they’ve shuffled around some position coaches in addition to bringing in Charles London as the passing game coordinator. With the staff in place, the priority shifts to roster-building. There are plenty of personnel decisions to make on who’s staying and who’s going…whether it be determining who is integral to the team’s success and worthy of a pay day, or who is too big of a strain on the salary cap and needs to go. Mock drafts are chewing up and spitting out wide receivers, quarterbacks, and offensive linemen to the Titans, but I think there’s a sneaky spot on the roster that we’re overlooking heading into 2023.
The Titans have a situation to sort out at linebacker. Let’s start with David Long, Jr., who has vastly outperformed his draft position from 2019. You know what you’re getting with Long at this point in his career. He’s a fringe top 10 linebacker in the league, and hell, you won’t get much argument out of me if you want to go ahead and count him among the elite. He is a heat-seeking missile that plays with a lot of fire and passion, making him an important leader on the defense. But, he’s due a payday – one that probably isn’t going to be cheap. Would it make sense to do everything in their power to keep him? In my opinion, yes. We know the list of needs is long, though. There are a lot of mouths to feed this offseason. I was also a little thrown off by Mike Vrabel listing Long by name when talking about injured players building callouses a few weeks ago. At the very least, it makes me wonder if there’s the slightest tinge of doubt in Vrabel’s mind about whether or not Long is one of the “8-4 guys.” But, he will be a difficult player to replace if they opt to allocate resources elsewhere.
There’s Dylan Cole (who I broke down after the Colts game), who got a ton of playing time this season. Cole is a nice player that offers value on special teams. He excels in diagnosing run plays, navigating traffic, and making the tackle. But, his lack of raw power and elite athleticism showed up at times during games. He’s a great guy to have in the rotation, but is he a bona fide #1? Probably not – he just doesn’t have the pure talent to she blocks and do it all on a consistent basis.
Then, there’s Jack Gibbens. “Dr. Gibby” was a great story for this team late in the season. We all root for the underdog, and Gibbens getting in there and making some big plays was easy to cheer on. His interception against the Texans was the direct result of his dedication to playing to the whistle. Gibbens is a willing hitter that positions himself well (hence the “right place at the right time” nature of that interception). But, there’s a missing element of explosiveness to his game that is evident in a lack of change-of-direction speed. I noticed him over-pursue on a running back trying to get to the edge – he cut the run back inside, and Gibbens didn’t have the closing speed to turn tail and lock that up. He whiffed on a couple of tackles in the Texans and Chargers games that I noticed too. He’s a heady player, but I wouldn’t say he’s the most dynamic. His flashes in 2022 were a testament to this coaching staff’s ability to get (just about) anyone ready that they need to.
But, the prospect I’m most interested in is Monty Rice. I wanted to watch some more of his game, so I fired up the games against the Jaguars, Chargers, and Texans since those were three of the four games he had the highest snap counts in this season. What I noticed was a downhill player good at diagnosing the run, tracking and covering the running back, zone discipline, and positioning. It was interesting to see how the Titans deployed him because he came off the field in obvious pass rush situations, and they more or less just lined him up in the middle of the field. But, he patrolled the second level of the defense well.
I didn’t notice him in too many one-on-one coverage situations. He did end up one-on-one with Brandin Cooks in the Texans game but the ball was tipped. That’s a hard spot to put a linebacker in regardless, but had that play connected, it could’ve been a big gain. It looked like Evan Engram scored a touchdown on him in the Jags game, but if you watch, Rice was picked by a Jags receiver that bought Engram a few steps and an open path to the end zone. It’s hard for me to hold that against him – plus, check out this play from the Chargers game during which he’s matching Keenan Allen stride for stride down the field:
Truthfully, I have a hard time wrapping my head around how the Titans utilize this position within their defense. It’s doesn’t look like they asked him to truly cover guys all that often. He’s an active communicator before the snap, but I did notice a couple of plays on which there were two linebackers in the same spot, so it looked like a miscommunication though I don’t know whether that’s on Rice or the other guy. Nonetheless, in situations that were obviously “find your man and cover your man,” I thought Rice did pretty well. He’s more of the “eats up space and clogs up lanes” type of linebacker than the “I’m going to go stride for stride with receivers in coverage” linebacker.
The way he crashes the play and shows a real nose for the football, his biggest strength seems to be his ability to hit a gap and stonewall running backs. Take this play, for instance – gun to my head, I’d say this is Rice at his absolute best:
I’m awfully curious about how this staff views Rice and how they craft the role that whoever plays this “middle linebacker” hybrid type of position plays. On one hand, it sure seems like they trust him to play it intelligently and reliably. On the other, it sure seems like they don’t think he has pass rush potential, and they didn’t put him in a lot of situations where he ended up one-on-one with a pass catcher. So, maybe that limits his potential a bit. But, I still think he has the most upside of the guys in this rotation not named David Long Jr.. So, I’d feel okay about a Long-Rice starting tandem in 2023 because of how complementary Rice’s game is to Long’s. It at least provides a stopgap at the position that would allow the Titans to allocate resources to a more urgent area of need.
If they can’t or don’t pay Long, they’re going to have to bring in some new blood because I don’t think any other linebacker on this roster can do what Long does. He’s just a different mold from Cole, Gibbens, and Rice. I still think they’ll probably bring in some competition among this group regardless of whether Long is back in 2023 or not. But, if he’s not back, this unit will be missing a crown jewel.
All in all, linebacker is another position that I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Titans overhaul in 2023. I don’t think they’re going to be throwing that first round pick at a linebacker, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility for this team to invest an earlier-round-than-expected pick on one. Titans fans have a habit of falling in love with overachievers like Cole and Gibbens, but the reality is that this franchise needs play-makers at every level. Linebacker is no different.
There are some incredibly exciting prospects in the draft – I’m a big fan of Indiana’s Cam Jones. Jones has the leadership qualities you look for in a linebacker. He crashes the play and does offer some versatility in special teams play and potential pass rush ability. I like Washington State’s Daiyan Henley quite a bit as well as a rangy do-it-all linebacker. And, there’s Isaiah Land out of Florida A&M, who looks a bit raw, but has a ton of talent and position versatility on defense. The Titans wouldn’t have to break the bank for any of these guys, and they’d instantly add some juice to the linebacking corps.
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Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.
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