Details sketchy on Titans’ new defense
NASHVILLE — All-Pro safety Kevin Byard believes it doesn’t get much better for him and his Tennessee Titans teammates: First they learned from defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau, and now Dean Pees is in charge on that side of the ball.
“Just having two legends as coaches on the defense, man, I was blessed,” Byard said.
What the Titans’ defense will look like under Pees remains a mystery, though. Neither Pees nor the Titans are sharing many details right now.
“I’d like to be a little more precise, but I really don’t want to talk about scheme particularly and what we’re doing,” Pees said Wednesday when asked about coverage consistency.
The Titans made a change from Mike Mularkey to first-time head coach Mike Vrabel in January mostly to get more production from an offense led by quarterback Marcus Mariota, who’s preparing for his fourth NFL season. Even though the Titans were the AFC’s best against the run and allowed a league-fewest five rushing touchdowns and tied for fifth in sacks last season, they still have plenty of room for improvement on defense.
Maybe because the Titans were so good against the run, they faced more passes than any other defense in the NFL last season, when they also gave up the most first downs through the air. The Titans ranked 25th defending the pass, giving up an average of 239.3 yards per game, and 17th in points allowed. Despite Byard intercepting eight
passes, Tennessee finished with only 12 interceptions overall — tied for 18th in the league.
Last season, Pees was defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens, who ranked 12th in yards allowed per game, led the NFL with 22 interceptions and tied for 10th against the pass by giving up an average of 213.8 yards per game.
Pees, 68, has spent the past 14 of his 45 years as a coach in the NFL. But he hasn’t talked with LeBeau, someone he has always admired and wanted to have a relationship with as a coach. The new Titans defensive coordinator has been busy learning his new players and installing his schemes, with a little more than a third installed as of Wednesday.
Outside linebacker Derrick
Morgan, now on his fifth head coach with this franchise, said the defense remains primarily a 3-4 base. Each coach uses different language to describe plays, and Morgan said learning that is the biggest challenge.
“Once we get across that barrier and kind of on the same communication lines, I think we’ll be fine,” Morgan said. “It’s a different scheme from what LeBeau ran here, but you know, it’s football at the end of the day. So you’ve just got to get the concepts, get the philosophy and understand what we’re trying to accomplish on the field.”
Byard echoed Morgan’s comments.
“We’re not creating a new Cover 2 or Cover 3 or anything like that,” Byard said. “It’s just
we’re trying to execute at a high level, man. DP just brought a great defense, and I think we’re trying to execute it at a high level.”
This spring, the Titans drafted linebackers Rashaan Evans and Harold Landry, additions veteran linebacker Brian Orakpo welcomes. Pees has a reputation for being creative in trying to free up pass rushers to get to the quarterback, and the four-time Pro Bowl linebacker said they’ve already seen some of that.
“Guys getting freed up, guys getting one-on-ones,” Orakpo said. “You see me and Morgan flip-flopping that you’re normally not used to seeing. Just trying to get advantages across the board. We’re just going to keep taking it day by day and see what happens.”