PR or WR? Damian Williams' biggest role in 2010

Written by Drexel Perry on .

Selected in the third round in last weekend's NFL Draft, WR/PR Damian Williams is already garnering high praise from the key figures in the Tennessee Titans' organization.

Head Coach Jeff Fisher stated that the team was considering trading up to attain DW but fortunately, he was there for the taking at pick #77. Most recently, GM Mike Reinfeldt teased us by mentioning the possibility of Williams developing into a #1 WR someday.

In addition to his tantalizing abilities at WR, Williams was also drafted for his punt return skills, which of course, is an area of great need for the Titans.

Although he's expected to make an immediate impact on special teams' as the team's primary returner, could Damian Williams also step up as a contributor at WR as a rookie?

How much did the Titans' offense improve when VY came in? Prt 3

Written by Tom Gower on .

[Ed.-Hopefully this re-post fixes the problem with the earlier post.  Sorry for the inconvenience.]

I'll have another draft post coming this weekend, but in the meantime I thought I'd get back to my continuing series of how much the Titans' offense changed when VY replaced Kerry Collins as the starting quarterback after the bye week.

In part one of this little series, I wrote about how Kerry Collins and Vince Young compared statistically, and how Vince Young compared to quarterbacks of other teams who changed signal-callers at midseason.  Part two covered how starting field position affected drives.  For this third part, I thought I'd take a break from statwork and look at some actual plays.

Going back to part one, Young improved over Collins in a couple areas, and the biggest was probably interceptions.  As a starter last year, Kerry threw 19% fewer interceptions per attempt than an average quarterback.  This year, overall, he threw 10% more than an average QB.  Back in 2007, Vince as a starter threw 22% more interceptions than an average quarterback, while this year he threw 3% fewer, and did better than that as a starter.  So, given these stats, I thought it'd be a useful task to see how they each QB threw their 2009 interceptions.

Who was the Titans' best sixth round draft pick?

Written by Andrew Strickert on .

Now that the 2010 draft is over, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to look back at previous drafts, focusing on one round at a time, and selecting the best draft pick from each round. Looking at the Titans' seventh round picks, Cortland Finnegan stands out as the best selection the Titans have ever made in that round. No contest. Therefore, we'll now proceed to the sixth round.
 
Several years from now, when we look back at sixth-round picks, we can discuss how this year's sixth-rounders, Rusty Smith and Myron Rolle, stack up against previous Round Six picks. Today, I ask you: Who do you think is the best player the Titans have drafted in the sixth round?
 
All of Tennessee's sixth-round picks are listed after the jump. I've only gone back to 1997, when the franchise moved to Tennessee.

The Titans' undrafted agents

Written by Tom Gower on .

The Titans added to their draft class by signing 15 undrafted free agents.  The full list of signees is:

C Kenneth Alfred  - Washington State; RB LeGarrette Blount - Oregon; TE Gerald Harris - Mississippi; T Nick Howell - USC; RB Stafon Johnson - USC; DT Joe Joseph - Miami; LB Jacob Lewko - Pennsylvania; RB Dominique Lindsay - East Carolina; G John Malecki -Pittsburgh; C Kevin Matthews - Texas A&M; WR Mico McSwain - North Alabama; TE Steve Pfahler - Montana; FB Willie Rose - Florida Atlantic; WR Bobby Sewall - Brown; LB Patrick Trahan - Mississippi

Obviously, most of these guys have a very limited shot of making the roster, as the Titans the past few years have been about the hardest team to make as an undrafted free agent.  The most obvious candidates from the above list are the guys at the position where the Titans are weakest, running back, so that means Pac-10 backs Blount and Johnson.  A bit of an interesting pair, as both sat out most of last season.

For more, I thought I'd peruse the draft guides I have for more nuggets of info about these players:

The Tennessee Titans and their untested depth at RB

Written by Drexel Perry on .

As a result of this weekend's trade of LenDale White to the Seattle Seahawks, the Tennessee Titans are faced with an interesting situation at the running back position.

Of course, all-world runner Chris Johnson will continue to serve as the Titans' primary ball-carrier but behind him is where things get a bit intriguing.

Outside of CJ, the rest of the Tennessee Titans' running backs have combined to run for only 286 yards in the NFL. The paltry amount of yardage comes from two sources: second-year running back Javon Ringer and journeyman Alvin Pearman.

Drafting safeties was a good move by the Titans

Written by Andrew Strickert on .

While the focus of the 2010 draft will rightfully be on the first and second day selections, the Titans' selection of safeties Robert Johnson and Myron Rolle on the third day should be recognized for its foresight.
 
It's true the rookies will provide immediate depth behind Chris Hope and Michael Griffin but the hope is that one or both of the newly drafted safeties will become starters.
 
For some reason, the contracts of Hope, Griffin and Griffin's backup, nickelback Vincent Fuller, all expire simultaneously, at the end of the 2011 season.

The Titans draft DT David Howard with seventh-round compensatory pick

Written by Andrew Strickert on .

The Titans conclude their portion of the 2010 draft by selecting Brown DT David Howard. The selection was made with the Titans' seventh-round compensatory pick, the 241st overall.
 
The 6' 3", 293 pound Howard had a good pro day with some outstanding measurables: 39 bench reps and a 5.03 forty. That's better than a lot of DTs who have worn the two-tone blue.
 
Playing against smaller Ivy League linemen, Howard was frequently double teamed. We'll see how he does going against NFL o-linemen in training camp. He has something in his favor, 39 bench reps indicate he won't be outmuscled by anyone. 
 
Like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates, you never know what you might get from a seventh-round pick. Previous Titans' drafts have found  a diamond in the rough (Cortland Finnegan) and contributing starters Kevin Long, Carlos Hall, Eugene Amano and Reynaldo Hill. Those are the exceptions, the guys who didn't pan out are more numerous. Some seventh round draft picks spend a year on the practice squad, as was the case with last year's seventh-rounders, Ryan Durand and Nick Schommer.
 
Howard will fill the void left with the loss of Kevin Vickerson and will compete to fill out the back end of the DT rotation.