Despite heavy off-season investment, Tennessee’s pass rush failed to pressure the veteran quarterback, leaving the defense reeling as they prepare for a formidable Philadelphia offensive line.
The Tennessee Titans were bad in Week 1; there's no other way to say it.
If there were any games on the schedule this year that I would've thought this team could have had a chance of winning, Sundays would've been one of them.
The Titans let the New York Jets embarrass them 23-10 at Nissan Stadium in their final home opener before moving into the new stadium.
The offense was outgained by a 35-year-old Geno Smith. Smith threw for 215 passing yards and didn't even have a touchdown pass. He went 19-of-24, missing just five passes in the game.
The main thing that really got under my skin was that the Titans weren't able to put much pressure on him. There was one play where Jeffery Simmons almost got Smith, but he ducked under the tackle and ran for more yards.
I thought that was very telling of how bad the Titans' defense was on Sunday, but then a quote from Smith caught my eye.
In an article from Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk, Smith said that he felt like he didn't get touched when praising his offensive line. That was the most telling quote from the weekend on how bad the Titans' pass rush was.
“Outstanding. I thought the guys did a tremendous job at giving me lanes to throw through,” Smith said, via a transcript from the team. “I don’t think I got touched at all out there, and that’s always a great sign. I thought we ran the ball well, which slowed them down. And then when we needed to pass the ball, I thought the protection was outstanding.”
This is not what you want to hear from an opposing quarterback after all the investment in the defensive line.
The Titans had a very inconsistent pass rush last year. Simmons had 11 sacks, but everyone else failed to pick up the slack.
The Titans had 42 sacks as a team in 2025, which ranked 14th in the NFL.
Tennessee added John Franklin-Myers, Jermaine Johnson, Jacob Martin, Keldric Faulk, Solomon Thomas and many others this offseason to try and remedy the situation.
If Smith is saying this about the Titans, then that's never a good thing.
The Jets' offensive line doesn't have a ton of star power. The starting offensive line for the Jets consists of Olu Fashanu, Dylan Parham, Josh Myers, Joe Tippmann and Armand Membou.
The Titans are now facing a team on Sunday that has had a pretty reliable offensive line over the years. The Philadelphia Eagles are coming to town in Week 2.
Even now that Jason Kelce has left, the Eagles' offensive line hasn't really missed a beat.
Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata are still the starting tackles. Landon Dickerson is still the starting left guard. At center, they have Cam Jurgens and Tyler Steen is at right guard.
If the Titans struggle to pressure the Jets, they are going to need to have a complete turnaround to affect Jalen Hurts.
