Titans Sign OLB With Lengthy Injury History

A 2018 Los Angeles Rams draft pick, Justin Lawler once went more than two years without playing a game.

Kirby Lee/USA Today Sports

Justin Lawler never got the chance to put his best foot forward with the Los Angeles Rams.

Foot injuries caused him to miss more than two full seasons, and then a broken hand ended things for him four weeks into the 2021 campaign.

Under general manager Jon Robinson, the Tennessee Titans have not been afraid to gamble on players with questionable medical history.

The fact that they signed the 27-year-old outside linebacker to a contract for 2022 on Wednesday, therefore, is very much according to form. In fact, it mirrors a move they made a little more than a week earlier when they signed defensive lineman Da’Shawn Hand, who has spent time on injured reserve every year of his NFL career.

Lawler was a seventh-round pick by the Rams in 2018 out of SMU, where he recorded 20.5 sacks over four seasons. He was an all-conference player in 2017, when he led the American Athletic Conference with 9.5 sacks.

As an NFL rookie, he played all 16 games, primarily as a special teams performer. He also appeared in all three playoff contests capped by the loss to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII.

The next time he took the field was Aug. 14, 2021 in the preseason opener against the L.A. Chargers. He made five tackles, including one tackle for a loss, and had two quarterback sacks in that contest, which raised optimism about what he could finally contribute to that team. He made three more tackles before the end of the preseason.

Lawler played in three of the first four games of the regular season but was on the field for just 18 snaps on defense and 14 on special teams. He was credited with one tackle on defense before he sustained the broken hand that sidelined him all the way through the Rams’ victory over Cincinnati in Super Bowl LVI.

Robinson and the Titans have used two of their last three first-round draft picks, defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons (2019) and cornerback Caleb Farley (2021), on players with notable injury issues. Tennessee's highest-priced free-agent addition last offseason was Bud Dupree, who agreed to a five-year $82.5 million deal four months after reconstructive knee surgery.

To date, the move with Simmons has been the best of the bunch.

Lawler's addition is much less of a risk, but the Titans hope it will pay off to some degree.