Big changes are in the works for Tennessee Titans defense — and it starts at one key spot

There's no definition without comparison. So, in an attempt to figure out what the Tennessee Titans' defense will actually look like in 2024, here's how cornerback Roger McCreary compares first-year defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson's system to the ones former coaches Mike Vrabel and Shane Bowen devised the past two years.

"It’s a whole new mindset, it’s a whole new identity, and I think that’s great for us," McCreary said. " . . . It’s more versatile. There’s more stuff coming with it. More communication, more plays. I would say that’s great because that confuses the offense. I would say the more stuff we have, the more opportunities we have to get on the ball."

Thinking about Wilson's defense in these terms makes his quickly established, infomercial pitchman-like catchphrase even funnier.

"When he explains a call or a defense, he’ll be like, ‘It can’t be that simple! It can’t be that simple!’ " cornerback Chidobe Awuzie said. "It just caught on. He always says that. It can be any coverage and he’ll go, ‘It can’t be that simple!’ and then look at you crazy."

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Wilson's defense will be built around cornerback play. Nearly every defensive move the Titans made this offseason, as well as the moves they didn't make, point to this.

The Titans didn't use their nearly $100 million in available salary cap to acquire a game-breaking pass rusher, table-setting inside linebacker, front-wrecking defensive tackle or Swiss-Army-knife safety. Instead they got Awuzie, a seven-year pro who has split time between Dallas and Cincinnati, and L'Jarius Sneed, the burgeoning star added in a trade with Kansas City after the Super Bowl champs franchise-tagged him rather than extending him long term.

How Tennessee Titans cornerbacks will play

There's a school of thought that instills ideas such as "the best cornerbacks are the ones you never see." They don't intercept or break up passes. They don't get called for penalties or beat over the top. They avoid the stat sheet like it's gas station sushi. They affect the game by not letting other people affect the game. If they get thrown at, it's a sign they've made a mistake, not an opportunity to make a play.

Wilson, a veteran defensive backs coach who briefly played corner in the NFL, hasn't built his unit according to that theory. Sneed might be the NFL's most compelling counterpoint to that philosophy, actually. Among the 25 cornerbacks thrown at 80 or more times last season, Sneed allowed the second-lowest completion percentage, the third-fewest yards per catch and the fewest receiving yards total. He did so by ranking sixth in forced incompletion percentage, ninth in pass breakups and first in penalties called against.

Go back to 2021 before Awuzie tore his ACL, and you find a player with a strikingly similar profile: a lot of targets, a low completion percentage allowed, a lot of pass breakups and forced incompletions.

Wilson seems to have a type.

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"We’ve got to ask Coach Wilson about his childhood upbringing or something. He’s probably been that way out of the womb. He’s got that (intensity), I’m not going to lie," Awuzie said. "But again, it’s all about matching intensity. This is a physical game, an aggressive game. There’s no other way for it to be played, and he exemplifies it in every which way. We’ve got to match his intensity."

Awuzie said he doesn't think the room is there yet. He and his teammates are in the building habits stage of the process. They're staying on the field after practices to hone specific details. They're crowding around iPads in the locker room, waiting for the day's practice to be uploaded so they can review film. Awuzie joked he doesn't know if players are doing this to get ahead or to avoid Wilson's ire, but it's happening either way.

There's a standard being set. After two years of mediocre-to-bad cornerback play setting the Titans' defense up for failure, the emphasis has changed. McCreary was the NFL's sixth-most targeted cornerback in zone coverage last year. Now he's practicing press coverage every day, saying Wilson's first rule is to attack rather than be attacked. It's that new mindset, that new identity, that new versatility that McCreary says he finds exciting.

"I feel like we’re getting better," he said. "We’re getting more guys. More better players on our team. It helps us out on the back end. I’m happy that’s a new addition to the team because we need all the help we need over here. I feel like that’s great for our organization."

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Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick atnsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.