Pro Football Focus recently listed each team’s top three players entering the 2022 season, and the choices for the Tennessee Titans come as no surprise.
According to PFF’s Ben Linsey, running back Derrick Henry, safety Kevin Byard and defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons are the Titans’ three best players. Quarterback Ryan Tannehill was listed as an honorable mention.
Henry was off to yet another prolific rushing stat line in 2021 before he was sidelined by a foot injury. There is some reason for concern about the workload he’s carried in recent seasons and the track record of short-shelf lives at the running back position, but he still enters 2022 as one of the best in the NFL.
Tennessee’s defense is headed by Simmons upfront and Byard on the back end. There are moments — like his nine-pressure performance against the Rams last season — where Simmons is unblockable, as his 62 quarterback pressures during the regular season last year ranked fifth among all interior defensive linemen. Byard is one of the more reliable and well-rounded safeties in the NFL. He has earned 80.0-plus PFF grades as a run defender and coverage defender in three of the last five seasons while playing over 1,000 defensive snaps every year.
No argument from us here.
Simmons emerged as one of the best players at his position in 2021 in what was a career year for him, while Byard was also a key cog in the defense, finishing with the highest overall PFF grade among safeties.
Henry was well on his way to earning another rushing title before going down to injury. There are some out there who question if he can return to form in 2022, but we’d have to see a decline first to believe it.