The Titans' vision for rookie 2nd round DL T'Vondre Sweat when they picked him was simple: This guy is a monster on his own, but as a force multiplier alongside veteran star Jeffery Simmons, he can be an invaluable asset.
And in Sweat's NFL debut, you could see the vision come to life right way.
He finished the game with a relatively pedestrian box score, just two pressures tallied. but when you turn on the film, his impact is evident all over the defense.
Run Defense
T'Vondre's teammate and defensive leader Amani Hooker told the media on Monday "He's an impact player, especially in the run game. I mean whenever the running back gets the ball and his first step is sideways because you've got 360 pounds in front of you, I mean that takes stress off of us."
The Titans have 650+ points of beef clogging up the middle of the trenches when Sweat and Simmons are in the game together, which requires a very strong (and big) interior offensive line to bulldoze out of the way. Otherwise, you'll be running into a wall more often than not.
Pass Rush
Head Coach Brian Callahan was extremely open with his praise of the rookie following his debut:
"Yea it was really pretty impressive. I think Sweat has sorta been on a consistent arrow up. He's been rising ever since he's gotten here. And every week that went by in training camp he got more comfortable, he got better, his weight went down, he's getting more in shape, he's learning how to play. And that was really really good to see, I mean he was a force. And we have two forces inside, I think, that make life really hard."
A perfect encapsulation of Sweat's impact alongside Jeffery Simmons came on this rep against Teven Jenkins:
The theory is straightforward: when Sweat and Simmons both attack the middle of the line, you force a math problem on the opponent. Both players need to be double-teamed. But you can't allocate that much manpower inside, that is, unless you want to be completely vulnerable on the edge. But when you leave one of them in a one-on-one matchup, it's typically a losing proposition for the offense.
That single-combat dominance is something Sweat showed us all the way back at the Senior Bowl in January. And then again in Training Camp. And then again in his NFL debut.
I think it's fair to say this might be something he's quite good at.
Snap Count
One last thing that was a positive from Sweat's debut: he was on the field a lot!
This was amongst the chief concerns for Sweat detractors in the spring. He's somebody who reportedly gained weight throughout the college football season last year. He's one of the biggest human beings in the league. How much of the game will he actually be conditioned enough to play in?
His coaches talked all offseason about the importance of his conditioning and weight plan. And in Week 1, he demonstrated he's stuck to that plan faithfully to begin his NFL career.
Sweat played 38 of 56 defensive snaps in Chicago. that's higher than the rookie average of the highest paid DL in the league right now. Sweat's 38 snaps are only 7 fewer than Simmons and 19 more than Sebastian Joseph-Day. For reference, here's a graph of other notable rookie DL snaps:
This is an extremely strong start for the big fella. He has to stick to the plan his team has built for him, but if he does, he's positioned to have a fantastic rookie season.
