The New Titan
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Prior to the NFL Draft in late April, Atlanta Falcons first year general manager Terry Fontenot talked about trading Julio Jones.
Since then, I’ve been waiting to see where he would end up. We don’t have to wait any longer because he was traded to the Tennessee Titans.
Atlanta will receive a 2022 second-round pick and a 2023 fourth-round pick for sending Jones and a 2023 sixth-round pick to Tennessee. I think the Titans won this trade. Julio is a seven-time Pro Bowler and a top three wide receiver in the league at least. I think Atlanta should have received a first-round pick for him.
The Titans are already a good team, finishing 11 – 5 last season and winning the AFC South. The year before that they advanced to the AFC Championship game.
Tennessee has great skill players already. Derrick Henry led the league in rushing with 2,027 yards and 17 touchdowns. Quarterback Ryan Tannehill was 15th in the league in pass yards with 3,819. He is tied for 7th in passing TD’s with Deshaun Watson, throwing 33 of them with only 7 interceptions.
Wide receiver A.J. Brown had 70 receptions for 1,075 yards and 11 scores. Corey Davis had 65 catches for 984 yards and 5 touchdowns. He signed with the New York Jets in the offseason, so Julio is essentially replacing him.
The Titans have not had two 1,000-yard receivers in the same season since 2004. That should change in 2021. The biggest winner in the trade is Brown.
“It takes some of the tension off of me and with Derrick (Henry) and Ryan (Tannehill) with Anthony (Fisker),” Brown told ESPN on Sunday. “Having another dominant guy on the other side, everybody has to be honest. Now, you don’t know who’s going to hold who. I may get CB1 or Julio may get CB1. But whoever gets CB2, [that cornerback] is going to be in trouble. It’s going to be fun.”
Tennessee obviously likes to run the ball a lot with Henry and throw play action passes off of that. Defenses would normally have to put eight men in the box to try to slow him down.
They faced eight defenders in the box on 23.1% of their snaps last season, more than any other team in the NFL. Adding Julio makes it difficult to do that now. At this point they basically have to pick their poison.
Their former offensive coordinator, Arthur Smith left to take over as head coach in Atlanta after the 2020 season. Todd Downing is entering his first season as OC in Nashville.
“We’ll look for ways to get him singled up, ways to help him with different coverage indicators and things like that,” Downing said of Brown. “See where we can move him around, expand his route tree a little bit and watch him have success as we expand it.”
The Titans ranked 28th in total defense last year, giving up 398.3 yards per game and 27.4 points per game. They only had 19 sacks in 2020 which is ranked 30th.
They did try to address that in free agency, signing corner back Janoris Jenkins, linebackers Bud Dupree and Jayon Brown.
They also signed defensive tackles Trevon Coley and Denico Autry. They drafted Virginia Tech corner Caleb Farley in the first round.
If Julio stays healthy, I think they will win the division again. The only AFC teams that are better on paper are Kansas City and Buffalo.
I’m looking forward to see how this season plays out and who Atlanta will draft with the picks they acquired.
