Pees: Wesley Woodyard 'A Dream to Coach'
It is the nightmare scenario for most NFL players. An aging veteran loses his job to a younger player.
Not so for Wesley Woodyard.
Defensive coordinator Dean Pees called the Tennessee Titans linebacker “a dream to coach.” The proclamation came days Woodyard was one of the heroes of Sunday’s goal-line stand that preserved a victory over the L.A. Chargers but had more to do with what happened over the previous six weeks.
Woodyard was a backup and a special teams stalwart until Jayon Brown got hurt early in the Week 6 loss at Denver. He played most of that game in Brown’s place and started Sunday against the Chargers, a game in which he made seven tackles and forced the fumble that ended L.A.’s bid for a game-winning touchdown in the final minute.
It was a different role for a player who had been a starter each of the previous seven seasons (five for Tennessee) and his team’s leading tackler each of the last two. In fact, his 172 stops (104 solo, 68 assisted) in 2017 were the most by a member of the Titans defense since Keith Bulluck had 180 in 2002.
However, at 33 years old, Woodyard simply could not stand in the way of 2018 first-round pick Rashaan Evans, the defense’s leader in tackles this season. Some in his situation might have walked away and called it a career but Woodyard accepted the reality of things and was named one of the team captains at the start of the regular season. Through the first five weeks he had just 11 tackles but made 15 in the last two games after Brown’s injury.
“He’s tremendous,” Brown, who started alongside Woodyard last year, said. “He’s seen a lot of football through his 10-plus years in the NFL. Anything that I got questions on or hypotheticals on, he and the coaching staff help me out on and get me prepared for the games and in practices and helps me try to get things smoothed out and perfect my techniques.”
Hear all of what Pees had to say about Woodyard in the above video.
