While Carnell Tate climbs the offensive leaderboards, another Titans rookie looks to defy longshot betting odds and flourish within Robert Saleh’s revamped Tennessee front four.
The Tennessee Titans have a couple of rookies who have already been tied to NFL awards, and the regular season hasn't even started yet.
As of Sunday, receiver Carnell Tate had the second-best odds of winning the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award on DraftKings Sportsbook. He came in at +600 and is only second to Arizona Cardinals running back Jeremiyah Love (+550).
The people have spoken, and there's another Titans rookie who's predicted to be in the mix for an award.
NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year is up for grabs, too. People have begun predicting who will take home that award on Kalshi, a real-world event prediction market.
So far, fans think that New York Jets outside linebacker David Bailey is going to win the award. Bailey is the favorite at 24%, with Tampa Bay Buccaneers edge rusher Reuben Bain (18%) Jr. and Dallas Cowboys safety Caleb Downs (14%) close behind.
If you look a little further down the list, you can see Keldric Faulk receiving 1% of the votes. Faulk was recently highlighted in the preseason for having a top-five grade among first-rounders from his performance in the first game against the San Francisco 49ers.
The Titans had already used their first-round pick on Tate, selecting him No. 4 overall. Just before the first round ended, the Titans saw that Faulk was still available and took a risk.
Tennessee traded back into the first round with the Buffalo Bills to take Faulk at No. 31.
As it stands, Faulk will need to compete for playing time with fellow edge rusher Jacob Martin. However, there is a lot of upside for Faulk with this Robert Saleh 4-3 system.
In the past, Saleh has been open to using players who can line up across the entire defensive line at his previous stops. There have been players he's coached, like Arik Armstead, who have really benefited from this in the past.
Saleh was able to transform Armstead into a force on the 49ers' defensive line. He went from having a career high of three sacks in 2018 to a 10-sack performance in 2019 after using him to take advantage of mismatches between the trenches.
As fate would have it, General Manager Mike Borgonzi compared Faulk to Armstead shortly after the Titans drafted him in April.
It seems the plan is to start Martin ahead of Faulk until he is ready for a bigger role.
If Faulk can come into his own for the Titans, we may see him work his way into the NFL DPOY conversation.
