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Titans Position Analysis: OLB

Now that we’ve looked at the man in the middle of many defenses, it’s time to look at the players who will be flanking him.

I feel like a broken record for saying this, but the starters at this position are quite clear: for the seventh consecutive year, Keith Bulluck if healthy will start all 16 games at one of the outside linebacker positions. For the third consecutive year with the Titans, and sixth overall, David Thornton should start every game when healthy at the other outside linebacker position. So far, so good.

The question is, of course, what the Titans will do if Bulluck or Thornton goes down for an extended period of time. As Andrew mentioned, MLB Stephen Tulloch has a good shot at the primary backup role. Next year, it would probably be Stanford Keglar, a fourth round pick this year out of Purdue. One player I doubt it will be is Ken Amato-he’s primarily the long snapper and only appears on the defense in the occasional goalline and rare short yardage situation.

One potentially intriguing player is veteran Josh Stamer. The ex-Bill has been primarily a special teams player, but has enough special teams experience he might be a useful replacement, or at least not much worse than Peter Sirmon was at OLB in 2006 when Thornton was injured (I was in Indy at the game where the Colts trapped Sirmon on the field against a 3-WR package-seeing Peter try to cover Stokley was a harrowing experience). Another special teams vet who might get a shot is Jorge Cordova, who was a late season acquisition off the waiver wire last year. The other guy is Kurt Campbell, who was signed to the practice squad when Cordova was elevated to the active roster. NFL.com actually has him listed at CB, but at 6′1″ 227#, I kind of doubt that. Anyway, he was originally a 7th round draft pick of the Packers in 2005 and has yet to appear in an NFL game or even make the active roster. Now ineligible for the practice squad, he’ll be the first of the guys mentioned in this post to get cut.

Bottom line: if you’re confident in the Titans starting outside linebackers, we’re in complete agreement. Both Bulluck and Thornton are good and have enjoyed pretty good health over the course of their NFL careers. Bulluck has probably lost a step from a couple years ago, but is still an above-average player, and Thornton I have no worries about. But, the Titans remain thin behind them. If either starter gets hurt, hopefully Tulloch can make the move to the outside or Keglar is ready quickly. Preparing a potential replacement starter will be position coach Dave McGinnis’s biggest challenge of training camp, and I don’t envy him his task.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 10:55 pm and is filed under Players, Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.