Tennessee

The Tennessee Titans have a top-3 NFL secondary after Quandre Diggs signing. Now what?

Published

1 year ago

August 6, 2024

The Tennessee Titans have a top-3 NFL secondary after Quandre Diggs signing. Now what?

The Tennessee Titans have spent their offseason trying to get dramatically better in the secondary. This is obviously, indisputably, unambiguously true.

Let’s say it works.

Let’s say the Titans’ choice to hire DB-focused defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson and their moves to add L’Jarius Sneed, Chidobe Awuzie, Jarvis Brownlee Jr., Jamal Adams and now Quandre Diggs into a room that already features Roger McCreary, Amani Hooker and Elijah Molden makes the defensive backfield obviously, unambiguously better in 2024.

What then? Is being better in the defensive backfield a cheat code to being better as a team?

As with anything in the NFL, it’s complicated. Here are the trends to see if the Titans’ energy and resources have been well-spent.

WINNERS AND LOSERS: Tennessee Titans winners, losers, stats that matter from training camp Week 2

Tennessee Titans offseason moves: How much better are the DBs?

On paper, the Titans officially project to have a top-three secondary in the NFL after the move Sunday to add Diggs.

This isn’t hyperbole or random peacocking. This is analysis pulled straight from ESPN projections analyst Mike Clay’s forecast for the 2024 season. Based on Clay’s unit-by-unit grading system, only the Miami Dolphins and Jacksonville Jaguars have better combined grades for their cornerback and safety groups. Clay’s grades give the Titans the fifth-best cornerback room and 12th-best safety room in the league. There are only four other teams graded out as being above average at both cornerback and safety.

The Titans haven’t finished a season in the top half of NFL teams in pass yards allowed since 2018. Even in their best years under coach Mike Vrabel, the Titans’ defensive backs were more opportunistic than stifling. This year, that has a real chance to change.

ROSTER PROJECTIONS: Tennessee Titans roster projections: Predicting depth chart after training camp Week 2

NFL secondary trends: Are Titans scheduled to see big turnaround?

No one stat is going to encapsulate perfectly how good a team’s secondary is, but for the sake of brevity, let’s look at net passing yards allowed by year. It’s not the most sophisticated metric, but it still rings true that teams that allow the fewest passing yards are generally regarded as having the best defensive backfields.

Teams get better against the pass year-over-year all the time. There have been 92 instances in the past 15 seasons of a team improving their net passing yards against by 400 yards or more. In nine of those cases, teams improved by 1,000 or more yards. That 1,000-yard improvement might be a little drastic; it’d position the Titans with the sixth-best net pass defense of any team since 2008. But a more-modest 400-yard improvement vaults the Titans into the range of the top-10 net pass defenses in the NFL last year, which isn’t something to scoff at.

But as for getting better in pass coverage directly correlating to more wins, the data doesn’t back that up. Of those 92 teams mentioned earlier, their median wins gained year-over-year was zero. The 20 most-improved pass defenses in the sample improved by only a median of 0.5 wins year-over-year.

Tennessee Titans roster 2024: So what should fans expect?

Getting better just about anywhere is a good thing. Take a look at teams like the 2021 Bengals and 2023 Lions who made deep playoff runs after loading up on cornerbacks and safeties in the offseason to fix ailing secondaries, and it’s more than fair to say the Titans approached this offseason a correct way.

In the modern NFL, the five most important commodities are pass throwers, pass catchers, pass blockers, pass rushers and pass defenders. Nearly every move the Titans made this offseason can be viewed through the lens of one of those five commodities. That’s a good thing. But the Titans aren’t the only team that knows this. In a league where so many other teams are behaving similarly, there’s no guaranteeing that making the right decisions will lead to immediate, transformative success.

NEXT MAN UP: What DeAndre Hopkins injury means for Tennessee Titans’ offense: Treylon Burks, you’re up

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.

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Tennessee

Tennessee attorney general files lawsuit against Roblox

Published

5 hours ago

December 19, 2025

Press Room

Tennessee attorney general files lawsuit against Roblox

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Chronic wasting disease in Tennessee whitetail deer continues creeping eastward

Published

17 hours ago

December 18, 2025

Press Room

Chronic wasting disease in Tennessee whitetail deer continues creeping eastward

WAYNE COUNTY, Tenn. — Chronic wasting disease (CWD) in whitetail deer continues creeping in an eastward direction in Tennessee.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) has received the first-ever positive chronic wasting disease (CWD) test result in a road-killed deer found in Wayne County. Since Wayne County is already within the current CWD Management Zone, wildlife feeding and carcass transportation restrictions are already in place.

This means CWD has now been confirmed in 20 of Tennessee’s 95 counties. This is the third county where CWD has been confirmed East of Kentucky Lake, what some people hope might provide at least a partial impediment to CWD’s eastward expansion. The first CWD case confirmed in Tennessee came in 2018. Of course several cases have also been more recently identified in the northwest corner of Alabama.

In Wayne County, there are no changes to the deer hunting season dates and regulations. However, hunters are now eligible for the Earn-a-Buck Program. Hunters can earn additional bucks by harvesting antlerless deer in Wayne County and submitting them for testing. Hunters who have already submitted antlerless deer for testing this fall will be provided an earned buck. For more details on the CWD Management Zone and Incentive Programs, visit CWDinTN.org.

As a reminder, Wayne County is subject to the following wildlife feeding and carcass transportation restrictions:

Deer carcasses can move within and between counties in the CWD Management Zone.
Hunters may not move whole or field-dressed deer carcasses or unapproved parts outside of the CWD Management Zone. Only approved parts may be moved out of the CWD Management Zone.
Once a carcass is brought into the CWD Management Zone, it cannot be moved out of the zone.
Approved parts are free to be transported anywhere statewide. Approved parts are listed below:
Deboned meat
Antlers, antlers attached to cleaned skull plates, cleaned skulls (where no meat or tissues are attached to the skull)
Cleaned teeth
Finished taxidermy and antler products
Hides and tanned products
Within the CWD Management Zone, the placement of grain, salt products, minerals, and other consumable natural and manufactured products is prohibited.
Feeding restrictions do not apply if the feed or minerals are:
Placed within one hundred (100) feet of any residence or occupied building; or
Placed in such a manner to reasonably exclude access by deer; or
Placed as part of a wild hog management effort authorized by the agency; or present from normal agricultural practices, normal forest management practices, or crop and wildlife food production practices.

Hunter’s participation in CWD testing is critical for the continued surveillance and monitoring of CWD throughout the state.

Hunters can access CWD testing through participating taxidermists and meat processors or by using drop-off freezers.

The Wayne County drop-off freezer is available at: Beech Creek Fire Hall, 5775 Beech Creek Road, Waynesboro, TN 38485.

CWD is a progressive, fatal disease of the nervous system of cervids, including white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk, and moose.

The agency partners with certified laboratories to test samples, and TWRA has already submitted approximately 8,400 samples for testing this hunting season.

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Titans QB Cam Ward Talks Past, Present and Future

Published

1 day ago

December 18, 2025

Press Room

Titans QB Cam Ward Talks Past, Present and Future

NASHVILLE – Cam Ward discussed the past, present and the future on Wednesday.

During his regularly scheduled session with reporters, the Titans quarterback also discussed what it’s been like handling the pressure of being the number one pick and the face of the franchise.

“I just wake up and go about my business, honestly,” Ward said. “I don’t really see no pressure. I mean, I get to do something every day that I like to do. I’m going to always remember the hard times that I went through my rookie year. I’ll remember the good plays that I made in my rookie year. I’ll remember how many reporters came to report on the team one year. And I’ll remember in the next couple of years when there’s a lot more reporters out here trying to get footage on us.

“You’ve just got to continue to take your day by day process. We continue to feed into each other as the locker room, continue to give emphasis on the coaching staff, what we’re looking for ahead. And we’re ready to turn it back around.”

In 14 starts this season, Ward has thrown for 2,638 yards with 11 touchdown passes and seven interceptions.

He needs just 181 pass yards to break Marcus Mariota’s Tennessee record with 2,818 passing yards (in 2015).

Ward has shown improvement in recent weeks – he has back-to-back games with two touchdown passes (zero such games in his first 12 starts) and this past Sunday was his first career game without taking a sack (3.8 sacks per game in Weeks 1-14).

Ward discussed some of the highs and lows of his rookie season.

Ward said he feels like he hasn’t had his signature game yet while saying “I don’t think I’ll ever have a signature game in my career, honestly.”

“Every game there’s going to be some bad tape,” he said. “Whether it’s one play, two plays, from myself or another teammate. So I don’t really try to chase having a perfect game. I try to just chase having a good play every play. Because at the end of the day, I’m going to have a bad play. I’m going to throw another interception. I’m going to fumble the ball again at some point in my career. So the more I can continue to stress myself, limit the little bad plays and just continue to build on what I already know, what I’m good at, and then just continue to put the ball in space to my playmakers, I think that will serve me better in the long term.”

The Titans face the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, and after that the team has games left vs the Saints and Jaguars.

Ward knows there will be changes on the horizon, including the team naming a new head coach for 2026.

Ward on Wednesday was asked if he wants to meet the head coaching candidates during the process.

He said he’s actually talked to Mike Borgonzi and Chad Brinker about the process.

“I want to meet all of them,” Ward said. “Every coach who’s going to get the opportunity to come here, I want to meet them, have conversations throughout the whole process with them because that’s someone that I’m going to be here with for that time. So, we got to just continue to — me being around and being open to it no matter whoever we try to hire because I know at the end of the day who we do hire is going to be the right fit for us. Whether it’s a defensive person or an offensive person, they’re going to make sure that every person is in the right place, and make sure every person is set up for success.

“Yeah, I have had a conversation with them about wanting to be involved. They know how much I want to be involved. And then especially just not even with the scheme part of it just as the head coach who he is on a everyday basis. And then, we’ll get into the scheme what I know I’m good at, what I want do, what he thinks will also help me.”

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