The work is mysterious, and the numbers are scary.
Last season, beleaguered former Tennessee Titans right tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere allowed the second-most sacks in the NFL with 10, per Pro Football Focus. JC Latham, the first-round pick the Titans installed at left tackle as a rookie, surrendered 11 quarterback hits, the third-most in the NFL.
Of the 36 quarterbacks who were pressured 75 or more times last season, Titans passers Mason Rudolph and Will Levis ranked second and fifth in percentage of pressures that happened, at least in part, because of a blocking mistake made by a tackle.
So here’s the fix: Latham is bumping out to the right side, the position he played in college. And as his replacement, the Titans signed former Pittsburgh Steelers tackle Dan Moore Jr., the only player who allowed more sacks than Petit-Frere last season.
Again: scary numbers, mysterious work.
“I’m always looking to get better regardless of what the numbers say,” Moore told reporters on May 20, his first meeting with Titans media after signing in March. “I thought I played well last season. The Titans thought I played well last season… The film that I looked at, numbers say I gave up however many sacks. But if you look at technique, you look at the film, I’m in front of defenders. That’s what I’m focused on.”
Using raw statistics to grade offensive line play is a famously difficult task. Without knowing exact play calls or individual responsibilities, and without allocating blame to quarterbacks for running into pressure and without being able to draw a clear differentiation between coverage sacks, scramble sacks and blocking sacks, it’s important to always take these numbers as a starting point, not the end point.
The problem, of course, is that Moore’s starting points have never been particularly great. He didn’t just lead the NFL in sacks allowed in 2024. Per PFF, the 55 pressures he allowed in 2023 were the second-most in the NFL. In Moore’s best season by sacks and pressures allowed, Moore still played some responsibility in 29.1% of Pittsburgh QB Kenny Pickett’s pressures.
By comparison, that was the year the Titans employed Dennis Daley at left tackle, and PFF credited 31.9% of the pressures quarterback Ryan Tannehill faced as having some left tackle responsibility. So in Moore’s most productive season, he was still only about 3% more valuable to his team than one of the easiest fan punching bags in Titans history.
Context, of course, matters. Pickett ranked among the league’s leaders in time to throw in 2022. In 2024, Steelers quarterbacks Justin Fields and Russell Wilson both ranked among the league leaders in time to throw and scramble rate. The longer a quarterback holds onto the ball, the longer a tackle has to block for. Consider the fact that in 2024 alone, Moore faced matchups against Nik Bonitto, Khalil Mack, Maxx Crosby, Myles Garrett twice and Trey Hendrickson twice and it starts to make a little sense why the numbers are where they are.
Then again: Titans rookie QB Cam Ward was known in college for how he likes to extend plays by being patient in the pocket. And the Titans’ schedule in 2025 features matchups against Bonitto, Mack, Crosby and Garrett as well as Danielle Hunter, Will Anderson and Nick Bosa.
The Titans signed Moore to a contract worth up to $82 million this offseason. That makes him the fourth-richest left tackle in the league. Clearly the Titans have confidence in his ability. His durability ― Moore’s only missed two games as a pro and only missed one in his final three years of college ― is a bonus. Combine Moore’s projectability with Latham moving back to his natural position and it’s reasonable to believe the Titans are going to be better at tackle than they’ve been any of the last three seasons.
Now that Ward’s coming in as the Titans’ new precious commodity to protect, fixing the tackle problem is an obvious must.
Not that Moore thinks of his job that way.
“I would like to say my expectations are higher than whatever anybody else has for me,” Moore says. “Whoever is back there, whether it’s Cam or whether it’s not, I’m going to still do my job regardless.”
Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.