NASHVILLE — It has been a season of letdowns for the 0-5 Tennessee Titans, but the biggest one under coach Robert Saleh is the one few saw coming. A longtime NFL defensive coordinator was supposed to fix the Titans pass rush, maybe not overnight, but quickly. Instead, Tennessee has struggled to generate consistent pressure outside of defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons.

Relative to expectation, no unit on this roster has been more disappointing.

Jeffery Simmons is winning, and the rest of the Titans pass rush isn’t

Teams are double-teaming Simmons on a regular basis and trying to take him away in as many ways as possible. Nobody would call that an easy task. Still, opponents are having reasonable success with it because other Tennessee defenders aren’t winning when Simmons gets mitigated.

This isn’t a knock on Simmons. When he gets a clean shot at the passer, he still wins at an elite rate.

Per ESPN’s pass rush win rate metric, Simmons leads all defensive tackles at 30% with 27 wins on 91 plays. Two Atlanta Falcons defensive tackles sit behind him on that list. If you combine every edge rusher and interior lineman into one group, Simmons would rank no lower than fourth in the league through five weeks.

So why isn’t the rest of the Titans pass rush benefiting?

Tennessee has 10 sacks, tied for 19th with Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Baltimore, and New Orleans. The Titans’ 6.1% sack rate ranks 15th, matching New England and sitting just behind Pittsburgh at 6.3%. Middle of the pack doesn’t look like the end of the world on paper.

The pressure numbers tell a different story. Tennessee ranks 31st in total pressures, and a couple of its sacks came on plays where the quarterback simply ran out of bounds. The Titans are pressuring opposing passers on only 21.5% of dropbacks, which ranks 30th and sits above only the Jets and Pittsburgh. The Steelers have T.J. Watt, which proves one great player doesn’t make an entire unit great. Simmons was also part of the 2020 Titans defense, which posted the worst third-down defense in the NFL since the merger.

Robert Saleh points to game script, but admits it has to get better

Some of this falls on an offense that has been putrid. The Titans can’t sustain drives, so the defense keeps playing an exorbitant number of snaps, defending short fields after turnovers or rushing back onto the field after three-and-outs. Any defense wears down under those conditions.

Saleh addressed the pass rush in his Monday Zoom press conference after Tennessee’s loss to the previously winless Texans.

“There’s a couple things, and I don’t want to make excuses for the guys because there are situations where we’re in one-on-one situations and we have to be better,” said Saleh. “I felt like on a couple of those third downs, I thought we did a really nice job getting to the quarterback pretty quick. Credit to CJ [Stroud], he was able to escape the pocket, made two elite plays, one on the third and 11 and in the end zone on the touchdown.

“But overall, you know, when a team can sit in their first and set, when they have their whole playbook available to them, it’s just a little bit harder to tee off, which is what you saw Houston in the game yesterday.”

“I felt like we’re okay, you know, first half, it’s 12-3, chance to go into the locker room with a one-score game despite some of the turnovers,” Saleh continued. “But as soon as it became a dropback game where Houston could pin their ears back, they ate. And that’s kind of where I’d love to see our pass rush before I go off and truly judge them. I’d love to see our pass rush in a situation where we can just go eat and pin our ears back and just have fun getting after the quarterback, creating all kinds of games and line twists and one-on-ones.

“But to answer your question, when we do have those one-on-one situations, has it been as consistent as I like? It hasn’t. It has to get better up there, especially if teams are going to continue to try to take away Jeff. But at the same time, I do think they’re doing some good things. It’s not— it hasn’t been awful, but it could be better.”

Saleh did a good job articulating why this is happening. His tone wasn’t inflammatory, but he clearly expects more. I do too.

Tennessee’s investment up front hasn’t paid dividends

John Franklin-Myers was the biggest-ticket item in a league-high offseason spending spree, and he simply hasn’t been a viable complement to Simmons. He hasn’t taken advantage of the one-on-ones that come from teams sliding toward Simmons.

The draft capital hasn’t helped either. Second-round pick Femi Oladejo may be a viable run stopper, but he has been a non-factor as a pass rusher. Keldrick Faulk has one sack as a rookie. Tennessee traded back into the back end of the first round to land him, and expectations for a late first-rounder should be tempered (he’s no David Bailey, who went second overall). It’s still a first-round pick.

The Titans put meaningful investments up front under a coach who should be able to maximize them, and so far the pass rush has not shown up.