For Titans Fixing One Offensive Line Spot Shouldn't Impact Three Others

The Tennessee Titans have a hole to fill with the six-game suspension of Nicholas Petite-Frere, but to do so shouldn't mean creating other holes in the process.

Andrew Nelles / Tennessean.com / USA TODAY NETWORK

NASHVILLE - There's no denying that the six-game suspension of Tennessee Titans projected starting right tackle Nicholas Petite-Frere has created an unwanted and unneeded issue for head coach Mike Vrabel and his staff. Still, now that it is a reality, they must address it. 

The website Ourlads.com recently put out their projected depth chart, and what they had to say about the Titans offensive line was quite interesting and troubling all at the same time.  

That projection has Andre Dillard remaining at his presumed left tackle position and Aaron Brewer remaining at center where they worked during the offseason portion of practice. However, the rest of the line we witnessed during training camp changed for this site, with Petite-Frere being out. 

According to this work, rookie Peter Skoronski moved from left guard to right tackle to replace Petite-Frere. Right guard Daniel Brunskill moved to left guard, replacing Skoronski, and Jordan Roos moved into Brunskill's spot at right guard.  

Based on what we witnessed and the five players who looked to be fairly locked into starting spots along that line, the loss of Petite-Frere created one hole that needed to be filled. This projection made three players who would now be in new positions from where they haven't previously worked with this unit. 

I have no doubts that Brunskill would be fine moving from right to left guard, and making this move could be considered to ensure that the left side of the line is as solid as possible to protect Ryan Tannehill's blindside.  

At the same time, however, placing Roos into the right guard position puts a  journeyman player beside a talented but still rookie right tackle in Skoronski.   

 While Skoronksi was a left tackle in college and could play right tackle now, he has only worked at left guard and tackle to this point in his young career. Now he would be asked to begin learning a new position, with new requirements on the fly, to step into a starting role. 

The Titans did that with a rookie last season in Petite-Frere, and while it could happen again this year, the thought of this makes me nervous.   

The easier solution is to find one player to replace one suspended player and leave the rest of the unit alone to continue working to build chemistry and cohesion.  

Granted, there are no sure things on this roster that are guaranteed to be able to fill the right tackle issue, but then neither is throwing another rookie out there as happened in 2022.  

However, if the Titans did this massive rearrangement, then once his suspension ends, this group would be rearranged a second time, and the process of growing together as a unit would begin anew across the board rather than with just one player working to develop within the unit. 

Again, I have no clue what Vrabel and his staff might be thinking here, but it seems wiser to fix one hole with one player rather than moving the entire unit around to fix that one issue for six games.  

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