In what’s become the norm under head coach Mike Vrabel, the Tennessee Titans are set to enter the 2023 season with their fair share of talent on the roster.
Whether it’s their ridiculously potent front seven, arguably the best safety tandem in the NFL or the future Hall of Fame skill players at their disposal, Tennessee is once again set to compete in 2023.
Buy Titans TicketsWhile the Titans have certainly improved the team at several different spots, it’s hard to deny that the Titans’ most talented players heading into the season are the two returning behemoths wearing Nos. 22 and 98.
Both Derrick Henry and Jeffery Simmons have consistently been among the best players at their respective positions over the last few years, and barring injuries, it’s hard to see that changing this season.
ESPN certainly agrees with that statement, as they’ve listed Simmons and Henry as the team’s lone representatives in their recent rankings where they essentially predicted who will be the top 100 players by the end of the year.
To create the list, they asked several of the company’s NFL experts to rate players based on performance expectations for the 2023 season in comparison to their peers.
Simmons was the highest-ranked Titans player, coming in at No. 58. Here is what ESPN’s Turron Davenport had to say about the selection
Simmons has been among the top interior defensive linemen, ranking top seven in pressures, sacks, run stop win rate, and batted passes in the past two seasons. The return of Harold Landry III and free agent addition Arden Key should help reduce the number of double-teams Simmons faces when rushing the passer.
ESPN goes on to mention how Simmons is coming off a season in which he was the second-most doubled-teamed player in the NFL, facing at least two blockers on a whopping 319 pass rushes a season ago.
To be perfectly honest, that ranking is way too low for someone like Simmons now that he’s fully healthy.
Prior to aggravating his ankle injury, Simmons was having a dominant start to his 2022 campaign. The former Mississippi State star recorded a whopping 31 pressures and six sacks over the first seven games.
Unfortunately, his numbers drastically declined from Weeks 9-18, finishing with just 22 pressures and two sacks in that span. Uncoincidentally, that’s the period where the Titans defender himself admitted that he was forced to shoot up his ankle before every game just to step on the field.
A fully healthy Jeffery Simmons is so damn entertaining to watch.
He’s just out there wreaking havoc in a variety of different ways https://t.co/suNNwIbXvh— Shaun Calderon (@ShaunMichaels31) May 13, 2023
If Simmons stays healthy, he should easily shatter ESPN’s modest projections of 62 tackles and seven sacks.
As for Henry, he came in at No. 92 on this list, with Davenport’s breakdown as follows:
Henry’s 125.7 yards from scrimmage per game over the past four seasons is the highest in the NFL, and his ability shows no signs of slowing down. Despite having the second-most rushing yards (1,538) last season, he could see fewer stacked boxes with the addition of veteran wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins
There is no way there are 91 players better than Henry in 2023.
If you want to say he’ll regress a little bit, that’s technically fair, considering the ridiculous standards he’s set for himself. However, we really have to get to a point where we stop downplaying Henry’s greatness.
2019: “Who is better, Derrick Henry or CMC?”
2020: “Who is better, Derrick Henry or Nick Chubb?”
2021: “Who is better, Derrick Henry or Jonathan Taylor?”
2022: “Who is better, Derrick Henry or CMC?”
Imma go with the guy who is always in the conversation 👑 https://t.co/DxZKq50gtS pic.twitter.com/yxfd3198RK
— Shaun Calderon (@ShaunMichaels31) April 20, 2023
Ever since the Alabama product had his legendary breakout game against the Jags (Week 14, 2018), Henry has produced unfathomable numbers over his last 64 games played:
- 7,175 Rushing Yards
- 925 Receiving Yards
- 8,100 Total Yards
- 66 Rushing touchdowns
- 71 Total touchdowns
More importantly, he just totaled nearly 2,000 yards from scrimmage (1,538 rushing, 398 receiving) despite everything he dealt with last year.
Whether it was playing with three different quarterbacks, a horrendous offensive coordinator, an injured (and bad) offensive line, and a listless passing attack that couldn’t take pressure off him, the odds were stacked against Henry and he had every excuse to produce a down year.
Instead, he still found a way to rush for over 1,500 yards and 13 touchdowns.
I personally would have him as the No. 1 running back because I don’t think there’s a single ball carrier in the league who could accomplish those same numbers under similar circumstances.
Being a one-man band for most of the year unsurprisingly led to Henry facing the highest stacked-box percentage of his career (38.11 percent)
For comparison, Nick Chubb only faced similar defensive fronts on 28.81 percent of his carries, while Josh Jacobs (2022 rushing champion) faced stacked boxes on 20.59 percent of his rushes.
That hardly did anything for opposing defenses when it came to containing Henry, as he was the NFL’s most productive back when facing eight or more defenders in the box, tallying a total of 650 yards — 490 of which came after contact — and eight touchdowns in such situations.
Simply put, until No. 22 gives us a reason to doubt him, he absolutely deserves the benefit of the doubt.
