Titans Will Have One of NFL's Oldest O-Lines

The end might not be in sight for the bulk of the Tennessee Titans’ offensive line. But it is not that far off.

Even so, don’t expect anyone involved with that unit to look back. At least not anytime soon.

“From our standpoint, it’s trying to ignore what we did in the past and rebuild or start over,” offensive line coach Keith Carter said last month. “You know, you don’t want to forget the lessons you’ve learned. The goal is to remember the lessons we’ve learned over the past several years so we can use those to not make same mistakes and carry with us a little bit of that confidence that we’ve had in the past.”

Actually, there are few current NFL offensive lines that have as much of a past as Tennessee’s. According to a breakdown by The 33rd Team, a site that features analysis from former NFL front office staffers and scouts, the Titans’ line is the league’s fourth oldest with an average age of 27.06 as training camp for the 2021 season approaches. That is nearly one full year older than the league average and more than three years older than the youngest group of blockers, Green Bay at 23.88.

It is easy to see why that is the case. The current 90-man roster includes nine players who are 30 older and three are on the offensive line, left guard Rodger Saffold (33), center Ben Jones (32) and backup tackle David Quessenberry (30). Left tackle Taylor Lewan is 29 as is the leading candidate to be the starter at right tackle, Kendall Lamm, and Lamm’s primary competition, Ty Sambrailo, who will be the swing tackle for the second straight year if he is not the starter.

The average age of the likely starting five is 29.4.

The outlier is right guard Nate Davis, a relative babe at 24 years old. And at 23, Dillon Radunz, the second-round pick in this year’s draft and another potential starter, provides a much-needed dose of youth for a unit that unsuccessfully tried to get younger a year ago with first-round pick Isaiah Wilson.

A rundown of the NFL’s oldest offensive lines, based on average age (source: The 33rd Team):

Team	Average Age
San Francisico 49ers	27.77
Arizona Cardinals	27.40
New York Giants	27.17
Tennessee Titans	27.06
New England Patriots	26.69

Lewan, Saffold, Jones and Davis have been starters together since early in the 2019 season and have helped running back Derrick Henry become a two-time rushing champion and the eighth running back in NFL history to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season. They also have played a part in Ryan Tannehill’s career resurgence.

Two years ago, the starter at right tackle was Jack Conklin, who was just 25. Last year that job belonged to 30-year-old Dennis Kelly.

“It feels good,” Saffold said of the continuity up front. “Of course, we don’t want to use our chemistry and our success as a crutch. What we’re trying to do is focus on the fundamentals, the little details, trying to make those better so that together we can be a great unit.”

Relatively speaking, it won’t be long before Saffold’s career is finished. Same for Jones. Lewan probably won’t be far behind.

For now, though, to focus for those aging veterans – and the unit as a whole – is to start over.

“At the end of the day, our mindset is to rework, re-earn everything that we get,” Carter said. “… We try to use the past as a learning tool, and after that we forget about it and start over. I just think you have to do that to stay on top of your game. You can’t spend too many times thinking about the years before.”

Even if there are more of them than for most.

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