There’s no denying that Tennessee Titans offensive lineman Andre Dillard has had a shaky start to his NFL career.
After being a first-round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles in 2019, Dillard’s tenure there quickly fell apart after several underwhelming years that consisted of injuries and inconsistencies.
To be as blunt as possible: the Washington State product routinely struggled under one of the best offensive line coaches in the league, ultimately losing his job to a former rugby star who developed faster and better than he did despite barely learning how to play football a few years back.
That former rugby star is Jordan Mailata, who is undoubtedly a special and rare athlete, but Dillard still struggled to carve out a role for himself, regardless of where the Eagles tried to play him.
Therefore, you really can’t blame anybody for being a skeptic about his potential as a franchise left tackle going forward.
It’s apparent that you can count Alex Ballentine of Bleacher Report as one of those skeptics after he tabbed the Titans’ lineman as Tennessee’s biggest bust for the 2023 campaign.
Here is what Ballentine had to say about his decision:
The Titans did a lot to overhaul their offensive line this offseason, but signing Andre Dillard was the biggest financial commitment. They gave the former Eagles tackle a three-year, $29 million contract.
It’s a decent-sized contract for a player who only logged 37 offensive snaps in 2022. Dillard has basically been a spot starter for the entirety of his Eagles career.
The former first-round pick didn’t start until the middle of his rookie season and didn’t hold onto the job. He missed all of 2020 with a biceps injury and was replaced by Jordan Mailata. Of course, Mailata went on to become one of the best tackles in the game.
But it’s still concerning that Dillard couldn’t really break into the lineup over the last two seasons. He did play reasonably well in 2021. He played 340 snaps and only gave up one sack while drawing seven penalties, per PFF.
It’s hard to tell whether he can turn that limited experience into being a team’s answer at left tackle. It’s a big gamble considering his contract isn’t that much cheaper than the three-year deal the Falcons gave starting tackle Kaleb McGary this offseason.
Truth be told, you won’t get many arguments from me on this stance.
I haven’t exactly been shy with my skepticism regarding Dillard being the team’s long-term solution at left tackle, especially now that the team has someone like Peter Skoronski on its roster.
For everybody’s sake, let’s hope the former first-rounder proves us wrong and becomes part of the solution in Tennessee.
