Throughout the offseason, I haven’t been shy about stating my skepticism regarding Andre Dillard being the Tennessee Titans’ choice to play the most important position on the offensive line, which is left tackle.
I’ve openly said I wanted to take a wait-and-see approach, as opposed to just assuming he was going to thrive now that he’s out of Jordan Mailata’s shadow.
Things started off rough early on in camp after the veteran lineman had a couple of disappointing practices where he struggled against the Titans’ talented defensive front.
Fortunately, for everybody’s sake, Dillard has seemingly bounced back strong and has consistently received praise ever since the pads came on and he was allowed to be more aggressive.
While most of the starters didn’t play during Saturday’s preseason game against the Chicago Bears, all five of the projected Week 1 starters upfront played during the opening drive that ultimately led to a touchdown.
This was the majority of the fanbase’s first time seeing their new left tackle in action, and he held his own against the majority of the Bears’ starting defense.
Dillard registered a pass-protection grade of 80.0 and a run-blocking grade of 67.1, per Pro Football Focus, and he didn’t allow a single pressure.
Following the game, Dillard was asked to reflect on what he thought of the collective performance of the starting offensive line in its lone drive of the day.
“I think it was a pretty good start to everything,” he said, per WKRN’s Cory Curtis. “I’m proud of the group for how we came out there and, you know, it’s never perfect, but there’s always stuff to learn upon, but I’m happy that we drove down and scored. It felt pretty good.”
Andre Dillard on the offensive line going 1 for 1 today on TD drives pic.twitter.com/booNV5DLaa
— Cory Curtis (@CoryCurtis2) August 12, 2023
Head coach Mike Vrabel was also pleased with the performance.
“[The starting offensive line] was efficient, and I thought they did some really good things. We were able to run the football,” Vrabel said, according to Jim Wyatt. “I thought there were some good looks there, things that we’ve worked on in practice. We got some pile push, and some guys cleaning up the pocket. We got some movement.”
Even though it’s way too early for anybody to truly know how this marriage will work out, there’s at least been some positive momentum building as of late when it comes to Dillard and the entire unit.
The next task at hand for Dillard and Co. will be the joint practices the Titans are set to have against the Vikings this week. It remains to be seen if the starters will play once again in preseason Week 2, though.
All I know is, by year’s end, I personally hope I’m issuing the former first-rounder a public apology for not giving him the benefit of the doubt. Only time will tell whether or not that will happen, but things are at least off to a good start for the Washington State product.
