The start of the 2021 season began for the Titans with a 38-13 beatdown at home against the Cardinals. Ryan Tannehill completed just 60% of his passes while gaining 6.1 yards per attempt and earning a 64.3 PFF grade. It's common for receivers in new systems to struggle, and that may be the case for Julio Jones who got just 3 balls for 29 scoreless yards. Naturally, he and AJ Brown should eventually become a force, but it may take some time to get that going. Derrick Henry will return to form and be one of the best running backs in football, but he was awful last week, gaining just 3.4 yards per carry on 17 touches. The offensive line will probably land somewhere in the middle of the road territory, but it must be concerning that Taylor Lewan, who is typically one of the better tackles in football, but absolutely taken to school. by Chandler Jones. The Titans have plenty of talent, and I certainly expect them to be one of the higher scoring offenses in football, but that was some ugly shit they pulled last week. The defense is supposed to be improved after paying Bud Depree and Denico Autry a combined 23.7 million in the off-season, but I have my doubts about Depree -- his numbers from his days in Pittsburgh are impressive, but a closer look shows he was the beneficiary of a dominant defensive line that was perpetually blitzing. Along with Jeffrey Simmons and Harold Landry, it's a defensive line that looks good on paper only -- that was the case last week where Simmons earned the best PFF grade of the 4 at 61.9. The secondary should struggle as well -- though they made a lateral move by going from Malcolm Butler to Jenoris -- err, says here he goes by Jackrabbit now -- Jackrabbit Jenkins, the rest of the corner positions are poor. Kevin Byard is one of the better safeties in the league, but there's simply too many holes to slow down Seattle.
The Seahawks will continue to be one of the top offenses in football, despite Russ Wilson never getting an MVP vote. You don't need this article for me to convince you that Wilson is a top tier QB, and if you have a top tier QB you have a top tier offense. The receiving options are DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett with newly acquired TE Gerald Everett chipping in. They've made strides over the years to improve the offensive line, but they're still left with LT Duane Brown and four question marks. The defensive line was a laughingstock last year -- we had weekly reminders that safety Jamal Adams led the team in pressures until an injury meant that an actual lineman could get those honors. Though they made some off-season additions (Carlos Dunlap and Kerry Hyder) it's still an area of weakness. Luckily, they have Bobby Wagner at linebacker to help smooth things over. The secondary is led by Adams, the swiss army knife do-it-all, but it's fair to point out that he has issues covering one on one. If the Seahawks are smart, they'll limit his responsibilities to blitzing and playing deep. Unfortunately, the corners are a concern across the board.
If your thought after reading this article that this game must have a high total, congrats on paying attention. At the time of writing, the Vegas consensus sits at 54. I like the Hawks to beat up on the Titans secondary while Tannehill is still getting used to his shiny new toy.