Titans Veteran Says Stinnie Proved Himself With Playoff Run

Nobody in the NFL has had a more exhilarating stretch run than Aaron Stinnie.

An undrafted free agent who signed with the Tennessee Titans in 2018, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers right guard played in nine games this season. However, he had not started an NFL game until the postseason. After starter Alex Cappa broke his ankle in the wild card round, the Buccaneers thrusted Stinne into action. From there on out, he was the starter.

Quarterback Tom Brady claimed his seventh Super Bowl title on Sunday, and thanks to Stinnie and the other Buccaneers offensive lineman, he had a clean pocket to do it from. In the 31-9 Super Bowl LIV victory over the Kansas City Chiefs at Raymond James Stadium, Tampa Bay’s home field, the Buccaneers surrendered just one sack. Stinnie played 100 percent of offensive snaps.

At least one of his former Titans teammates took to Twitter to express excitement and admiration for him.

“If Aaron Stinnie isn’t a starter next season, ima be sick af,” defensive tackle DaQuan Jones wrote. “He’s been holding his own against the league’s best.”

The game essentially came down to what happened in the trenches. The Buccaneers, in addition to allowing the one sack, didn’t allow many Kansas City Chiefs defenders to sniff the backfield. Brady was only pressured five times overall. In the postseason as a whole, the Buccaneers gave up four sacks (one in each game).

Stinnie, 26, spent roughly a season and a half with the Titans. In 2018, the then-rookie out of James Madison University spent the entirety of that season on the roster but appeared in just one game (he was inactive for 14 and did not play in another).

Tennessee cut him midway through the 2019 season after he played 14 offensive snaps over three separate contests.

Tampa Bay claimed him off waivers, and he has been with that franchise ever since. Through the end of the 2020 regular season, he had notched 32 snaps on offense in six appearances for the Buccaneers.

After Cappa suffered his injury, Stinnie started in the NFC Divisional and Championship games. Just like the Super Bowl, he played 100 percent off offensive snaps in those.

“One of my favorite quotes is ‘every setback is a setup for a great comeback,’” Stinnie said in the days leading up to the contest. “I try to live by that. Growing up I had a lot of people telling me I’d never be able to do this and not be able to do that … when people tell you things like that, just put a chip on your shoulder and use it as motivation.”

Set to be a restricted free agent this spring, Stinnie’s feel-good story and performance may earn him an extended stay in Tampa Bay. Or, perhaps, elsewhere.

But for now, he should enjoy the journey he just completed. From practice squad, to becoming a starter on short notice, it ended on the highest, sweetest note there is in the National Football League.

Based on his father’s Twitter account, Stinnie has certainly enjoyed every minute of elation.

“People keep asking me if it has dawned on me that I’m going to be playing in the Super Bowl,” Stinnie saidlast week. “I tell them that it hasn’t yet, I’m gonna let that hit me after the fact.”

By now, it probably has set in.