Countdown to Kickoff: 52 Days

No Titans player was more proficient at rushing the passer than Jevon Kearse, who notched 52 sacks during his two stints with Tennessee.

The countdown to kickoff continues.

The Tennessee Titans will open the 2020 regular season Sept. 14 at Denver. That is 52 days away. So, today we look at one way the number 52 figures into the team’s recent history.

They called him The Freak.

At 6-foot-4, 265 pounds, Jevon Kearse had a rare mix of size and athleticism, the speed to run with just about anyone on the field and massive hands that helped him make tackles once he got close to the man with the ball.

The combination made him particularly potent as a pass rusher. Kearse amassed 52 sacks as a member of the Tennessee Titans, the franchise-high over the 21 years since the team was rebranded.

There is something appropriate about fact that Kearse tops that list. After all, there was no more defining aspect of his game than the quarterback sack.

He notched three in his second NFL game, had a streak of 10 contests with at least half a sack during his rookie season and finished that year with 14 1/2, an NFL rookie record that stands to this day. It is also the most in a single season by any Tennessee player of the past 21 seasons.

Kearse led the Titans in sacks four times in his first five years in the league, is the only player of the Titans era to have 10 or more in three straight seasons (1999-01) and has four of the team’s top 10 single-season sack totals over that span (no one else has more than two).

Jurrell Casey, with 51, is the only other player to register at least 50 sacks during the Titans era, and he played 51 more games for Tennessee than Kearse did in his two stints (1999-03, 2008-09). Derrick Morgan, who played 30 more games than Kearse, is third on the list with 44 1/2 sacks.