Titans Run Defense in Desperate Need of Talent Infusion Next Offseason

The Tennessee Titans hired defensive coordinator Ray Horton away from the Cleveland Browns last offseason as head coach Ken Whisenhunt began to put his own stamp on Tennessee's roster. Horton, an aficionado of the 3-4, switched the Titans over from the 4-3 they played in 2013.

To accommodate the scheme change, the Titans brought in players like linebacker Wesley Woodyard (four years, $15.75 million) and defensive lineman Al Woods (two years, $4 million) to try to restock the front seven for the change.

Those signings, along with bringing back defensive end Ropati Pitoitua, have actually served the Titans fairly well in the run game. Unfortunately, the rest of the unit has been a complete joke.

Tennessee ranked 31st in run defense DVOA (per Football Outsiders) coming into Monday's 27-24 loss to the Steelers, and it somehow managed to look even worse than that in letting Le'Veon Bell cruise to 204 rushing yards. The backbreaker was a drive that lasted the final seven minutes of the game, icing the three-point win, as the Titans could do nothing but watch Bell exploit their gaps and get to the third level on play after play.

One of the biggest questions coming into training camp was what the Titans would do at the inside linebacker spot opposite Woodyard. Tennessee had spent many premium picks on linebackers over the past few seasons: a second-rounder on Akeem Ayers, a second-rounder on Zach Brown and a third-rounder on Zaviar Gooden.

It turned out that none of these toolsy, hybrid players were good fits to man the middle in Horton's defense, in his opinion.

Brown was the nominal starter, but he tore his pectoral four snaps into the season and was placed on season-ending injured reserve. Ayers had just 10 defensive snaps before being traded to New England. Gooden only got a 138-play sample before being phased out of the defensive game plan. That has left fifth-round rookie Avery Williamson scrambling to pick up the pieces. 

Unfortunately, this has been a very common theme on this year's Titans team. Players that Tennessee retained, drafted or went after in the offseason have generally been sound run fits for Horton. Players forced into new roles due to injuries or the scheme change have been sieves.

Player	Position	Run Defense Grade	Stops	Offseason Acquisition?
Ropati Pitotua	DE	+6.5	14	Yes
Al Woods	DE	+1.7	11	Yes
Wesley Woodyard	ILB	+1.2	27	Yes
Bernard Pollard	SS	+0.8	8	Yes
Mike Martin	DT	+0.6	2	No
Shaun Phillips	OLB	-0.7	7	Yes
Avery Williamson	ILB	-1.7	16	Yes
Sammie Lee Hill	DT	-5.2	10	No
George Wilson	SS	-6.2	9	No
Kamerion Wimbley	OLB	-6.8	11	No
Derrick Morgan	OLB	-10.7	14	No

As you can see, the biggest factor has been outside linebacker play. It's quite normal for a team to prioritize the pass rush, but edge-rusher Derrick Morgan has been taking poor angles all season. And if you can figure out a reason why linebacker Kamerion Wimbley is still getting snaps for the Titans, you have created one more reason than I could. 

In the short term, it's easy to say that the Titans need to play around with their lineups a little more. Maybe give some starts to different players (like, say, Mike Martin at nose tackle) to see if anything sticks. It's the exact thing they're doing with Zach Mettenberger at quarterback right now—it's time to embrace that strategy up and down the roster as this lost 2-8 season continues. 

In the long term, it's a little scary that the Titans actually have been getting worse as the season goes on. After posting negative run defense DVOAs in two of their first four weeks of the season, Football Outsiders has them with just one negative run defense DVOA since Week 5. 

Week	Opponent	Run Defense DVOA
1	@ KC	-46.7%
2	v. DAL	6.1%
3	@ CIN	24.1%
4	@ IND	-12.8%
5	v. CLE	17.3%
6	v. JAX	16.9%
7	@ WAS	-28.6%
8	v. HOU	17.2%
10	@ BAL	16.2%
11	v. PIT	Over 9000%

That's concerning on a number of fronts, the most important of which is how much confidence the Titans should have in Horton. 

Remember, this is a coordinator who re-staffed the Browns before 2013 with a huge offseason spending spree that included importing linebacker Paul Kruger and defensive lineman Desmond Bryant) and using a first-round pick on linebacker Barkevious Mingo. That only lowered Tennessee's defensive DVOA rank from 22nd in 2012 to 24th in 2013. The Titans defense is on pace to pull the same trick in 2014, as it's fallen from 22nd to 27th through Week 10. 

Tennessee finishes the season with two games against the seventh-ranked (New York Jets) and 11th-ranked (Houston) run offenses, but otherwise should have some opportunity to demonstrate improvement against the Colts, Giants, Jaguars and Eagles. If Tennessee becomes the team that lights the torch for comebacks by running backs LeSean McCoy or Rashad Jennings, you'll know things have continued to go very, very wrong. 

But as the Titans aren't likely to let go of Whisenhunt's hand-picked defensive coordinator after just one season, they're going to need to inject a number of talented pieces into this defense if they want to get back to a respectable level.

It's not going to be the No. 1 offseason priority—that's quarterback—but the Titans can't get pushed around at the line of scrimmage like they have recently and expect to be more than a six-win team. That means the same kind of offseason plan that Horton's Browns had: multiple picks and free agents at needed positions. 

Hopefully, that works out a lot better than it did for the Browns.

Rivers McCown is the AFC South lead writer for Bleacher Report and the co-host of the Three-Cone Drill podcast. His work has also appeared on Football Outsiders and ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter at @riversmccown.