With L’Jarius Sneed, Titans have put together sneaky competitive team

Ben Arthur

AFC South Reporter

Just a few weeks ago, outside expectations for the Titans entering 2024 were understandably low.

New coach in Brian Callahan. Back-to-back losing seasons. An unproven quarterback in Will Levis. One of football’s worst offensive lines. Derrick Henry‘s inevitable departure.

Many team observers saw the Titans’ biggest priority for the upcoming season to be not about wins and losses, but to simply figure out if Levis is the team’s franchise quarterback.

While that’s still the case, Tennessee’s trade for Chiefs cornerback L’Jarius Sneed served as a punctuation to a growing reality: The Titans may have the chance to shock the NFL world in 2024.

Sneed was acquired from Kansas City on Friday for a seventh-round pick swap this year and a third-round pick in 2025. With the star corner, whose acquisition isn’t official until he passes a physical, the Titans have cobbled together a sneaky competitive roster for 2024, one that can contend in a rising AFC South.

On paper, Sneed’s addition gives Tennessee one of the best cornerback trios in the NFL — playing under new defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson, a well-regarded defensive backs specialist, to boot.

Sneed was one of the best cornerbacks in football last season. He was heavily penalized — he led the league with 18 penalties, according to NFLpenalties.com — but he was outstanding in coverage for Kansas City. Of the 47 cornerbacks who played at least 400 coverage snaps in 2023, Sneed was one of just four to not allow a touchdown, according to Next Gen Stats. He didn’t give up a score until the Chiefs’ divisional-round playoff game against the Bills.

Like Sneed, Titans third-year pro Roger McCreary is another of the four qualified cornerbacks who didn’t give up a touchdown last season. Sneed and Chidobe Awuzie, who signed a three-year, $36 million deal with Tennessee in free agency, give the team competent, veteran experience on the outside (McCreary slots in at nickel, where he primarily played last season).

Of the 77 corners who played at least 300 coverage snaps last season, Sneed, Awuzie and McCreary all ranked in the top half of the league in man coverage rate, at 12th, 28th and 38th, respectively, per NGS.

They fit Wilson’s vision for the defense.

“We’re going to be an attacking defense. We’re going to be violent in our approach,” Wilson said at his introductory press conference last month. “We’re going to play coverage. We’re going to play man-to-man. We’re going to be multiple in everything we do. … We’ll be versatile. We’ll present problems for offenses in how we approach it.”

The Titans have made significant investments on the offensive side of the ball as well.

Calvin Ridley is a No. 1 option who brings explosiveness and an elite separator to the wide receiver room, forming a potentially lethal tandem with DeAndre Hopkins. Free-agent acquisition Tony Pollard and second-year pro Tyjae Spears form a running back tandem tailor-made for Callahan’s pass-first attack. Lloyd Cushenberry, who signed a four-year deal with Tennessee for $50 million, is viewed as a significant upgrade to what the Titans had at center last season.

Tennessee still has plenty of holes, including left and right tackle. It needs a starting-caliber edge rusher, defensive tackle and linebacker, depth at safety and another receiver.

But on paper, with ample cap space, Callahan and general manager Ran Carthon have constructed a roster that can win. If second-year quarterback Levis can become what the franchise hopes, contention doesn’t feel like a stretch.

What the Texans and Colts did last season, posting winning seasons after rough 2022 campaigns? Who’s to say that can’t be the Titans in 2024?

Ben Arthur is the AFC South reporter for FOX Sports. He previously worked for The Tennessean/USA TODAY Network, where he was the Titans beat writer for a year and a half. He covered the Seattle Seahawks for SeattlePI.com for three seasons (2018-20) prior to moving to Tennessee. You can follow Ben on Twitter at @benyarthur.