We continue our trip around the Tennessee Titans position by position as we head into the offseason with a look at the defensive ends.

Will the Titans ever be happy with their defensive end grouping? As Andrew wrote last offseason, two (now three) years ago, defensive end was the biggest offseason need, and the Titans addressed the position in the first round of the NFL draft. It was one of the biggest needs of last offseason, and the Titans addressed the position with a big money free agent contract (and in the draft as well, albeit at the end of the draft).

By at least one measure, the defensive end grouping was much improved in 2012. Both starting defensive ends had more sacks than any defensive end did in 2011, and the Titans went from the second-worst Adjusted Sack Rate in the league to a league-average one. At the same time, the big free agent was widely regarded as somewhere between a bit of a disappointment and an outright bust, and there's still something of a need at the position.

Having finished with the offense, we now turn our attention to the defense, specifically the defensive tackles, as we continue our trip position by position around the Tennessee Titans as we had into the 2013 offseason.

As I've chronicled on here, the Tennessee Titans were very young defensively. That was true at many positions, but perhaps nowhere was it more true than it was at defensive tackle. The Titans carried five defensive tackles. Together, those players had as many years of NFL experience in 2012 as they did combined in the years preceding 2012, and one player accounted for three of those five years of experience entering this past season.

The basic question the Titans face at defensive tackle is a familiar theme from this round of positional analyses. With one starter who played most of the time heading to free agency, did the Titans get enough from the position in 2012 that they should look to retaining him and internal improvements to help them improve from 6-10 to the playoff or near-playoff team they need to be in 2013 for the head men to keep their jobs, or should they be looking instead to upgrade at the position? And just how good can those young players be, anyway?

After looks at the tackles and guards, we conclude our trip around the Titans' offensive line with a look at the center position.

What to make of the center position for the Tennessee Titans. As Andrew covered in our preseason look at the position, the Titans tried last offseason to bring in an upgrade, but after failing to sign Chris Myers, Jeff Saturday, and Scott Wells were left with the same grouping they had in 2011. Then, the presumptive starter tore his triceps and was lost for the season. The Titans ended up using three starting centers in 2012, none of whom is currently under contract for 2013.

The situation isn't quite as murky as that precis makes it sound, but as they do at guard, the Titans have a decision or two to make at the center position in 2013. Will they opt for one or another of the various flavors of continuity, or will it be a season of change all along the interior of the offensive line?

We continue our trip around the Tennessee Titans position by position was we head into the 2013 offseason with a look at the offensive guards.

What did the Tennessee Titans learn from their two new starters at the two guard positions in 2012? Well, if a player is moved from left guard to right guard and has never in his life played right guard before, there's a pretty good chance he won't be as good at right guard as he was at left guard. Also, thirty-something offensive linemen who've ended the past two seasons on injured reserve have a pretty good chance of ending the season on injured reserve.

As a result, the Titans head into the 2013 offseason at guard in pretty much the same situation they were in heading into the 2012 offseason, with one starter a free agent who seems unlikely to be retained and the other a bit of a disappointment, plus no good internal candidate to replace either the impending free agent or the disappointing starter. Will the Titans dive into the veteran free agent pool and see if they can get it right this offseason? Do they have another choice?

Next up on our trip around the Tennessee Titans position by position is a look at the offensive tackles.

Or, for the seventh consecutive offseason, it's time to write about Michael Roos and David Stewart. Drafted in the same draft class back in 2005. Heck, the picks to draft them actually came in the same trade, when the Detroit Lions traded up to select current Texans nose tackle Shaun Cody. Beginning when Stewart finally stepped into the starting lineup in Week 4 of the 2006 season, they'd been the starters at left and right tackle for 91 of 93 regular season games.

2012 saw more disruption to the bookend pairing, though, as Roos missed his first career game and Stewart suffered a broken leg late in the season. Both players return for 2013 and should be regarded as the presumptive starters, but after last year, what might 2013 bring?

Next up on our trip around the Tennessee Titans position by position by position as we head into the 2013 offseason is a look at the running back position.

I admit it. Normally, I follow a very standard schedule when I do these positional analyses. Quarterback comes first, then running back, and so on. I started with quarterbacks this offseason, though, then didn't follow up with running back. No, I decided to push it off and wait for other positions just in case, just in case, just in case, they decided to go ahead and cut Chris Johnson by last Friday, when $9 million of his $10 million base salary for 2013 became fully guaranteed. No, I did not expect that to happen. I did not even think there was a realistic chance of it happening. I thought the chances of CJ getting cut were so remote it wasn't even worth writing a post about the possibility. And so it came to pass that Chris Johnson was still on the team.

Ever since the bye week of the 2009 season, the running back position for the Tennessee Titans has been all about Chris Johnson. In 2012, he had 276 carries, while every other running back on the Titans roster had 42. That's 87% of the workload, right in line with what he'd been doing. In the 58 games since that bye week that led to a turnaround in that season's fate, Johnson has had 85% of all running back carries for the Titans. In an NFL where backs who don't get all the work are increasingly prevalent, the Titans are one of the teams standing against the trend.

With Johnson returning, will he continue to play the same role in 2013, and what will the rest of the running back corps look like?

I thought today I'd take a brief break from our series of positional analyses to look at a broader issue of how teams build a roster.

I wrote about this at Football Outsiders, but in the NFL, there are, more or less, five ways you can acquire a player:

a. Draft them. Drafted players are subject to team control at a relatively modest price for four years (five for first-round picks);
b. Retain your own drafted players. Drafted players will eventually age out of the draft control period, and you either have to retain them by paying them market value or let them go;
c. Sign veteran free agents. Drafted players (mostly) that are, for one reason or another, not retained by the team that initially controlled their rights;
d. Sign them as young free agents (including waivers). Not every player is drafted, or makes it through the end of their initial control period with their first time. These players are subject to team control at a relatively modest price for their first four season; or
e. Trade for them.

As with almost all lists or other methods of association and assortment, this list can be a little over-simplified. After thinking the subject over for a while, though, I think I'm pretty happy with this relative level of simplification and complexity.

After the jump, how the Titans were built.