With every passing week, Tennessee Titans rookie T'Vondre Sweat converts more of his detractors into believers.
The rookie DT was given the biggest task of professional career in Week 4: hold down the fort without Jeffery Simmons on Monday Night Football. Not only did he pass the test, but he did so with flying colors.
Impact Plays
When the Titans drafted Sweat early in the 2nd round of the 2024 draft, it was a highly controversial decision. Many evaluators were concerned with his character, weight, and ability to be a three-down player.
But the Titans vision was clear: we think this guy can be a fantastic player on his own, and and even bigger force-multiplier alongside star DT Jeffery Simmons.
Well, Simmons was a late-breaking addition to the Titans inactives list in Miami. And so, we got our first glimpse of what the rookie could do on his own.
T'Vondre went out there and had easily his best game as a pro.
Sweat finished with 2 hurries and 3 total tackles in the 31-12 beatdown, and his box score doesn't really do the performance justice. Take a look at this cut-up of his biggest moments from the game:
He looked totally in control down-to-down, demonstrating consistent gap integrity and an effective pass rush tool kit. The big man drew the attention of legendary NFL evaluator Brian Baldinger for a second consecutive week:
I always tell people that PFF is an incredible tool, but their basic player grades are the least useful thing in their database. They aren't terrible, they're just often far too reductive.
But with that large grain of salt in mind, I do think their grade on Sweat aligns completely what we've seen on the broadcast and later confirmed on tape. Through the month of September, his 80.1 overall grade is tied for 7th best of any interior defender in the league.
His Week 4 grade of 91.0 led the entire NFL this weekend. Sweat's immediate impact on this Titans defense is more than most bargained for.
Snap Count
Another big area of praise for Sweat is how much he's been on the field. This was a major sticking point for draft dissidents: he's too big to be on the field enough to justify a high draft pick.
Whether he simply wasn't in good enough shape to stay out there, or he wasn't athletic enough to truly be a three-down player, folks didn't think Sweat would be able to play a high percentage of snaps.
So far, that hasn't been close to true.
Every week, T'Vondre's snap count has gone up. He's averaging 42.4 snaps/game, which is nearly 6 snaps more than the average rookie rate of the highest-paid DTs in the league today.
Meanwhile, the only DT in the 2024 draft class with more snaps than Sweat (170) so far is Braden Fiske (177). In fact, they’re the only two rookie DTs with more than 90 defensive snaps this season.
Sweat has been everything the Titans signed up for and more. Both he and his coaches would tell you he still has a lot to improve on, but so far, it's nothing but green flags for the talented rookie.
