NASHVILLE – Within the final sport of the 2021 season, Harold Landry and different members of the Tennessee Titans protection tied an NFL playoff document with 9 sacks of quarterback Joe Burrow and usually terrorized the Cincinnati Bengals backfield.
That alone couldn’t elevate the Titans to a divisional-round playoff victory, however Landry believes that afternoon’s ferocious move rush is a style of issues to come back in 2022.
The Titans made positive the staff’s fearsome 4 will return intact this season once they signed Landry to a five-year deal reportedly price $87.5 million. Landry (12 sacks final season), defensive lineman Denico Autry (9 sacks), defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons (8.5 sacks) and edge rusher Bud Dupree (three sacks) mixed for 32.5 of the Titans’ 43 sacks in 2021 – a complete that represented an enormous soar from the staff’s 19-sack whole in 2020.
“We’ve acquired some canines on our entrance 4,” Landry stated. “I simply really feel like none of us are content material. We’re all the time hungry, all the time seeking to enhance and I believe that’s crucial factor. All 4 of us form of share that very same mindset to the place, after we step out on the sector, we need to be the most effective gamers on the sector.”
The very fact the Titans have invested an estimated $170 million of their beginning edge rushers is a sign of the precedence they’re placing on pressuring the passer.
Landry and Co. can have loads of alternative to take action in 2022. The beginning quarterbacks the Titans are scheduled to face embrace: Burrow, Derek Carr (Las Vegas), Russell Wilson (Denver), Dak Prescott (Dallas), Patrick Mahomes (Kansas Metropolis), Justin Herbert (L.A. Chargers), Josh Allen (Buffalo) and Aaron Rodgers (Inexperienced Bay).
“I really feel personally that the sport goes to come back right down to the quarterback and the fellows that may have an effect on the quarterback,” Landry stated. “That’s the way in which I see it.
“We see all these quarterbacks taking their sport to the extent every year. We simply acquired to do the identical (defensively). That’s what this sport comes right down to, I really feel like. You bought a dominant entrance 4, you bought an opportunity to win each sport.”
Landry’s sack whole wasn’t the one career-high he posted in 2021. The 2018 second-round decide additionally totaled 49 quarterback pressures and 14 tackles for loss. His 75 tackles had been second solely to the 81 he produced in 2019.
The Titans now get to learn from Landry’s enchancment over time, each bodily and mentally.
“As a participant, I’ve simply grown a lot — like run sport, move sport, my fingers, setting the sting, protection and … from a psychological standpoint, simply understanding conditions,” Landry stated. “That’s one thing (coach Mike Vrabel) does an important job instructing us. That’s one thing I’ve grown in over time. The sport has slowed down for me. I’m seeing formations simpler — that the offense comes out in. That triggers one thing in my head that claims, `This can be a move, this can be a run,’ stuff like that.”
One other yr taking part in with each other may additionally make the entrance 4 that rather more imposing in 2022.
Dupree was restricted to 11 video games in his first season with the Titans in 2021, and he had not fully recovered from the torn ACL he suffered in late 2020. Autry performed all 17 video games final season, so he, too, has a yr of expertise within the system.
“I simply felt like because the yr went on, we acquired higher and higher as a unit, and we simply began taking part in off each other increasingly more, constantly and effectively,” Landry stated. “That’s after we had been all at our greatest, after we had been taking part in collectively. I simply really feel like we’ve grown, and continued time is just going to boost that.
“We’re actual assured we now have the staff to exit and win the Tremendous Bowl. I believe our entrance 4 can lead the cost.”