I swear I’m not here this morning to dunk on the T’Vondre Sweat haters over a string of good training camp performances. I’ve said my piece on the guy, and I’ve been a huge fan of his drafting since it happened. Shit, I’ve been a big fan of Sweat since watching his tape and seeing him in person at the Senior Bowl. I, personally, think he’s going to be a force multiplier for Dennard Wilson‘s defense, assuming that all the talk we’ve heard of him taking this responsibility seriously rings true. Nonetheless, his training camp highlights have been fodder for Titans Twitter for a week now. This dude just looks overwhelming, and yesterday, we got another clip of him giving Lloyd Cushenberry the business.
Big T’Vondre Sweat giving Lloyd Cushenberry the work this morning at Titans camp pic.twitter.com/bhy6Enb1Uj
— Easton Freeze (@eastonfreeze) August 7, 2024
Don’t lose sight of the fact that that’s one of the best centers in the game. We’ve talked about Sweat’s size, his power, his pass rush potential, and the way a man of his size and stature should not be moving as well and as quickly as he does. I get that. But, there’s an aspect of his game that I feel Titans Twitter is sleeping on. It’s his hands.
I noticed it on tape at Texas, and you can see it in this clip against Cushenberry. Sweat bats Cushenberry’s hands down and immediately drives that outside hand under Cushenberry’s outside shoulder to rotate him. Not only does it serve to twist Cushenberry up, but it also gives Sweat the hands advantage because it keeps Cushenberry from recovering and getting his hands on Sweat to slow him down. Because Cushenberry is so turned around, he has to over-correct to get his shoulders square to Sweat, and when he does, Sweat executes a swim move on it, using Cushenberry’s own momentum against him, that wins the rep. To execute these moves while still driving his feet is another layer that makes this fun to watch. It’s really incredible stuff, and to me, that Sweat is doing this in practice is a sign that he’s comfortable enough with the up tick in competition to run his game.
He has power and quickness in his hands, for sure. But, to me, it’s the timing of how he uses them and where he strikes that is most impressive. It displays a solid understanding of how to win with your hands, and if he’s already getting this stuff down on a guy that we can at least say should be pretty good, that’s a promising sign for his development. To be such a big specimen, Sweat shows great body control, all parts moving in sync to overwhelm offensive linemen and put them in a position to recover instead of dictate the block.
When you start piecing together the levels of this defense, you can see a clear path towards improvement. Interior pressure + “who knows who’s blitzing?” + strong man coverage on the outside = stifling defense. At least, I believe that’s how Wilson is constructing this thing, and it appears as though the personnel is executing. I’m coming around on this idea that at least in 2024, the Titans will be a strong defensive football team.
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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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