Titans’ Landry is bagging up sacks
NASHVILLE — Tennessee Titans pass rusher Harold Landry III’s comeback year has been one for the decades.
Fresh off earning a Pro Bowl nod with his best season yet to earn a five-year contract extension in March 2022, Landry was poised for a strong follow-up campaign — except the 6-foot-2, 252-pound outside linebacker tore an ACL days before the season opener that September.
With a full year for recovery, Landry returned for the first game this season, during which he has 10 1/2 sacks. That makes him just the third NFL veteran since 1982 (when the sack became an official individual statistic in the league’s book) and first since 2001 to miss an entire season and return with at least 10 sacks the next.
Joe Johnson did it with 12 sacks for the 2000 New Orleans Saints, and teammate Charlie Clemons had 13 1/2 the following season.
“It definitely feels good knowing all the work that I put in is paying off,” said Landry, who was selected by the Titans out of Boston College in the second round of the 2018 NFL draft.
Getting back to this level wasn’t easy after what Landry called an injury and recovery that “probably was the hardest thing that I’ve had to go through in my life.”
A slow start to this season didn’t help, and Landry credits his wife and two sons for being his best support.
“It just hurts when you’re not seeing the results just yet,” he said.
Landry’s production since mid-October has put those struggles behind him.
He had only one sack and a tackle for loss this season when the Titans flew to London to face the Baltimore Ravens at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but that’s where Landry started looking like himself. Tennessee lost 24-16 that day to fall to 2-4, but Landry had his second sack of the season and a pair of tackles for loss.
“I just feel like it kind of just started to click for me, and I was able to improve each week and kind of get back into the groove playing like the player that I know I can be for this organization,” he said.
Landry has been one of the NFL’s best-producing pass rushers ever since. He entered this week, the 18th and last of the regular season, tied for sixth in the NFL with 9 1/2 sacks and tied for third in the league with 13 tackles for loss with Maxx Crosby of the Las Vegas Raiders and Khalil Mack of the Los Angeles Chargers since the sixth week. Only the Cleveland Browns’ Jeremiah OwusuKoramoah (15) and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Lavonte David (14) have had more.
As the Titans (5-11) wrap up a disappointing season with Sunday’s home game against the Jacksonville Jaguars (9-7) — Tennessee, on a three-game losing streak, has been reduced to hoping to play spoiler as the visitors bid to repeat as AFC South Division champions — Landry is second in sacks only to Pro Bowl alternate Denico Autry, who has a career-high 11 1/2.
Autry and Landry make the Titans the NFL’s only team with two defenders with double-digit sacks this season. Only 10 teams have more than Tennessee’s 45 total sacks, up from 39 last season and the franchise’s highest total since having 55 in 2000.
Titans coach Mike Vrabel said he just likes where Landry is at with his maturity, consistency, daily approach and work ethic.
“He does a lot of different things for us,” said Vrabel, who is wrapping up his sixth season in Nashville. “I think that he’s really factored in, I think, starting to feel better, cutting it loose.”
Landry ranks fifth on the team in total tackles (69) and third with 46 quarterback pressures, and his 14 tackles for loss are a team high. He has been at his best in the final 15 minutes, with 8 1/2 of his sacks coming in the fourth quarter.
It helps having Autry enjoying a career year to run his total sacks in three seasons with Tennessee to 28 1/2. Landry wouldn’t mind joining Autry by finishing off this season with a couple more sacks for himself — and a victory for the team.
“You always want to set personal records from a production standpoint,” Landry said. “And if I go out there and handle my business from a production standpoint, all that does is help the team find a way to get a win.”