{"id":821170,"date":"2026-03-19T13:17:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T13:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/821170\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T13:17:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T13:17:16","slug":"why-did-the-titans-downgrade-at-backup-offensive-tackle-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/821170\/","title":{"rendered":"Why did the Titans downgrade at backup offensive tackle?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musiccitymiracles.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tennessee Titans<\/a> had a pretty good swing tackle last season in Oli Udoh. Udoh played 341 snaps either as a sixth blocker in jumbo packages, or in relief of JC Latham and\/or Dan Moore Jr. at left and right tackle. He performed very admirably as far as backup tackles go, allowing three sacks and 19 pressures, according to Pro Football Focus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Despite Udoh being a steady hand, the Titans have seemingly made the decision to move on. He\u2019s currently an unrestricted free agent and the Titans have not re-signed him. Alternatively, they recently signed free-agent offensive tackle Austin Deculus, who appears to be the new No. 3 tackle behind Latham and Moore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">It feels like a massive downgrade. Deculus was a downright disaster for the Los Angeles Chargers last season. Did you watch Justin Herbert consistently running for his life? Deculus was a big reason why. PFF credited him with forfeiting seven sacks and 37 pressures en route to a 33.1 pass-blocking grade. He was their second-worst graded tackle in protection.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Good players get sacrificed when new coaching staff regimes come in. The Titans have let some decent rotational players go, like Corey Levin, Sebastian Joseph-Day and Darrell Baker Jr. They\u2019ve replaced them with players the staff and front office is more familiar with, like Austin Schlottmann, Solomon Thomas, Jordan Elliott, and Joshua Williams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">We\u2019d guess something similar is happening with Deculus. He was on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ganggreennation.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York Jets<\/a> in 2023 when Robert Saleh was the head coach. Deculus was also on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canalstreetchronicles.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New Orleans Saints<\/a> for a brief period in 2024 when current Titans assistant general manager Dave Ziegler was with the team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Perhaps offensive coordinator Brian Daboll sees Deculus as a better fit for his scheme. We\u2019d question how such a lackluster pass protector fits any scheme better than Udoh. Most of the Titans\u2019 roster decisions have been upgrades, or at least equal to in terms of talent they\u2019re replacing (Schlottmann vs. Levin, Josh Williams vs. Baker Jr. etc). but this one feels like a confusing downgrade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Titans better hope Moore and Latham stay incredibly healthy throughout 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tennessee Titans had a pretty good swing tackle last season in Oli Udoh. Udoh played 341 snaps&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061],"tags":[7,6,526,394,47985,2413,2411,527],"class_list":{"0":"post-821170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennessee-titans","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-tennessee","11":"tag-tennessee-titans","12":"tag-tennessee-titans-free-agency","13":"tag-tennessee-titans-news","14":"tag-tennesseetitans","15":"tag-titans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116256036998586534","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}