ESPN gives Titans offensive line an astonishing ranking in latest NFL best, worst positional groups list ahead of 2025 season

Belief In The Trenches

Clay took the Titans to the woodshed on some of these positional rankings. I won’t spoil the whole list because you should go check out the actual article, but here are a couple teases:

This EDGE group is 30th according to Clay, which frankly might be generous. Cam Ward is already 28th in the NFL before taking a snap. And he ranked the CB room 18th, which feels appropriate given the razor-thin margin for injury they have in that room. Every other position group is ranked in there too, and let’s just say his “overall” roster ranking for the Titans isn’t in the top half of the league.

But the sole bright spot on this team today—relative to the rest of the league—is the Titans largest players in his mind. And while I don’t disagree with him on that (outside of Cam Ward optimism), I’m blown away by Clay’s willingness to rank these groups as highly as he did.

The Titans offensive line came in at 5th behind only Philadelphia, Denver, Chicago, Minnesota. And the interior defensive line came in at 4th behind only Seattle, Arizona, Indianapolis.

First the OL: that’s saying it with your chest, man! I’ve written and spoken about how we shouldn’t be afraid of holding this group to the high standard their talent on paper warrants, but even I don’t anticipate them being a top 5 unit in the league this year. That time could come eventually with a core of LG Peter Skoronski, RT JC Latham, and potential LT Dan Moore proving himself to be a longterm tackle solution.

But in 2025? That would be as dramatic a rise to power as I can remember any offensive line making. If they truly make this kind of leap in Cam Ward’s rookie season, it will go a very, very long way. It’s hard to overstate what it would mean for his development.

The interior defensive line being ranked 4th is less of a surprise. Jeffery Simmons is widely considered one of the best in the game, T’Vondre Sweat’s rookie season was very promising, and Sebastian Joseph-Day is a really nice third player in that room. The thing that’s yet to be seen is whether they (primarily Simmons and Sweat) can live all the way up to this billing. Simmons needs to have a year similar to how he looked in ‘21 and ‘22, not a somewhat disappointing one like in ‘23 and ‘24 were. And Sweat needs to add to his pass rush profile to prove he’s more than a high-level run defender.