Why? The only real loss was Casey. Ryan is offset(and then some) by Joseph and Fulton. Add in a fully healthy Jeffrey Simmons and another rusher(albeit an overrated one) in Vic Beasley and I'm seeing a defense that moved sideways more than anything, with top-10 upside if some young guys(Simmons, Landry, Evans, Fulton) step up.
Also, might mean nothing, but Henry had his 2nd best game against KC last year, and that was his only game the Titans game up 30+ points in.
Casey was a human roadblock that always had at least 2 linemen on him. HOF caliber, team HOF....whatever, just big loss. Simmons is an unknown but yeah I get his promise and potential but people are talking like Simmons-->Casey is a wash. They were both there last year. They lost a stud DL and replaced him with Crawford who is a 4-3 DE. They play nickel a lot so he'd be fine there but he's not the beefy 3-4 DE that they need.
Beasley hasn't done squat and wants to be a minister and he's a speed rusher weak against the run- like Landry.
Finch is on the Raiders
Ryan was their top CB who regularly covered the top WR. They can say he lost a step or his time had come or...but it's like people are ignoring that they chose him over Butler and Adoree more often than not last year with the top assignments.
Fulton has not looked good.
Depth CBs have been playing like depth CBs- make a play, get burned, over n over. They had 5 CBs with starting experience last year.
Simmons and Adoree must be the stars they were drafted to be or else....big difference. The Titans have been a top 10 D sometimes top 5 many times throughout the last few years. They'd crumble in week whatever and the final stats wouldn't show it, but if you were a week to week follower you'd know they were stout. Last year, the D kept them in several games while the offense learned under Smith. I do think something clicked with Smith and the O will be good but I don't think this D can bail him out if he's got more learning to do.
The Titans followed a very predictable pattern last year- run a lot of Henry in the first, Lewis to start the second with Henry maybe not getting carries, Henry beasted in the third, with Tannehill rocking in the 4th Q. To reword that, they were poor in the first halves of games. I think it was like week 16 til they scored an opening drive TD or first Q TD or....I forget now. The second halves were brilliant but the first half was tolerable because the D kept it close enough. What happens if they can't?
Henry had 669 yards in the third Q and around 300 in the other Qs. They were banking on him smashing a D after half time. What if the score is 21-3?
Tannehill had 234 attempts when they were tied or behind, only 52 when they were ahead.
It does lend to some concern