The Tennessee Titans’ biggest splashy move in free agency is equal parts controversial and high-leverage. It also happens to be for a position that most people have the least understanding of: offensive line. So I consulted an expert.

I spoke 1-on-1 with Brandon Thorn, owner of the Trench Warfare newsletter and leading offensive line mind in NFL media, about the Titans new OT situation. It was reported on Monday that Tennessee has agreed to sign former Pittsburgh Steeler’s LT Dan Moore to a massive 4 year, $82 million contract.

On the Trench Warfare OL Free Agency Rankings, Thorn had Dan Moore listed as a Tier 4 “Solid/Average Starter”. I started out by asking him for his general thoughts on the signing and his elevator pitch for Moore as a long-term solution at LT:

“Coming off of last year, the first year with Bill Callahan, I feel like when I watch the line on film there was a clear delineation between the left and the right side, with the left side showing a lot of promise. Skoronski took a big step forward, and Latham was up-and-down playing left tackle for the first time in a while as a rookie, but definitely had some nice flashes. And then the right side was really, really poor especially with the right tackle, which was kind of a revolving door.

So with that said, signing Dan Moore to me was about really making two positions better, at least theoretically. at left tackle, you're getting more there at the spot that (Moore) is most comfortable. He is kind of a “Tier 4” type of starter on my 1-7 scale. You know, average or functional. And then you move Latham over to the right side where you would think he’s more comfortable and would be able to really develop and be pretty solid over there in Year 2.

So that's kind of the selling point for me, is making two positions better rather than just one. Now, you did have to really pay for that top of the market sort of deal for a guy like Dan Moore. In a vacuum probably an overpay, but when you look at the landscape of the NFL at left tackle—or just tackle in general—these guys with his experience, 66 starts at 26 years old with no major injuries, from what I've heard he’s a very highly respected teammate and good worker… I mean they overpaid, but I totally understand what they're doing at the same time.”

That’s what this move ultimately is: understandable. It feels like a good thing born of a necessary evil. And that's the "chess, not checkers" of it all: one addition making two premium positions better at once.

Was it an overpay? Absolutely. Will anybody care if the 26 year old ascending OT is a multi-year, league-average solution or better? No, they won’t. But is that really what Dan Moore is? An ascending player? If you’ve paid close attention to national and local media alike in the wake of this signing, you’ve probably seen some conflicting messaging. So I asked Thorn what he saw on tape last year:

“Yeah, I mean I think it's fair to say that there was sort of a steady increase. You know, an incremental development in his career over really the first four years. So yes, this past year was probably his best year. Towards the second half of the year, I think three of those last six or seven games were against Trey Hendrickson and Myles Garrett.”

It was 4 of their final 7 games, with a gauntlet of the Eagles, Ravens, and Chiefs in the middle.

“You know, I think that's good context to add in. That’s probably driving whatever grades there were on him. That's just a huge piece of looking at him on film as well too. I mentioned this on Twitter, just in terms of having the level of competition that he did inside that division at edge rusher with Trey Hendrickson and Myles Garrett. You're gonna face a real drop off, it's gonna get a little bit easier no matter what division you go to compared to that for the most part.

It's never easy obviously, but you know you're not you're not gonna see anybody like Myles Garrett anywhere. And Garrett is…I don't know the numbers, but I would make a big bet that his numbers are drug down significantly by facing Myles Garrett twice a year, and Trey Hendrickson to a lesser degree.”

It’s true, Myles Garrett is single-handedly a significant hinderance to Dan Moore’s statistical profile. His PFF pass pro grade is a 21 against Garrett and a 66 against everybody else. Pressure rate is 10.7% vs. 7.1%. Moore allowed 7 sacks against Garrett and 27 against everybody other rusher he faced, combined.

“So you take those those games out from the sample, and he looks even more solid. At the same time, you can't totally discount that. He's gonna face really good players! But when you have a Tier 4 kind of guy and you face the Tier 1 players, it's not gonna go great. So that's where the environment comes in, the scheme, what you’re asked to do, who you're playing next to. all that sort of stuff. That becomes increasingly important.

And I don't think the Steelers did him any favors in terms of the quarterbacks he was blocking for… not OL friendly guys in terms of how they handle the pocket, their ability to avoid pressure or avoid pressure turning into sacks. I don't think it's been very good there for a while, so that's a huge part of it as well. So I think all that stuff is important to factor into Dan Moore and how people view him.”

The bottom line is that players like this simple do not hit the open market. Tackle is a premium position, and left tackle in particular is one that doesn’t see young, starting-caliber players reach free agency. So when somebody like Moore comes along, a bidding war is bound to break out.

Offensive tackle is considered by many to be a “floor position”, one where the basics and bare minimum offerings from a player are the most important thing when considering who to pay and trust long-term. Everyone loves upside, and truly elite OT play is worth its weight in gold. But the biggest question is “can this guy just be startable?”

“Yeah, finding that at the tackle position is it hard to do. There's just not ever 32 solid starters at either tackle position. Especially on the right side. I think there's more talent on the left, but on the right side, are there ever 16 solid starting right tackles in the league? Probably not. Left tackle, you get into maybe like the 20 range you know before you kind of see that drop off to guys you wanna replace ASAP.

I think Dan Moore clears that bar. And he's just probably somewhere around like 15-20 in terms of the ranking of left tackles. that's kind of what you're looking at.

Which, the Titans right tackle position last year was probably 32nd out of 32. So if you are assuming that Latham is going to immediately be a 15-20 caliber right tackle at least, and then you have that on the left now too, you’re much better. So that's kind of how I see it, and there's still real upside here as well because these guys are so young.

This is the beginning of what should be (Dan Moore’s) prime. So you would imagine his floor is his floor now. And under Callahan and playing next to Skoronski… quarterback is going to be a big determining factor in how he's going to look, how he's gonna grade, how he's gonna be perceived and all that sort of stuff. If Will Levis is back there, he’s not going to look good I would assume. That's a big part of this as well.”

My final question for Brandon was about the younger of the Titans starting tackles, JC Latham. I asked about his perception of him coming out, how he felt his rookie year went when he reviewed the tape, and if he thinks moving to right tackle is likely to be a good thing for him:

“Yeah, I think so. I think that's a fair prediction. I just think you watch him in college and that's where he played really well. There was some talk that he was gonna play left before his last season, but it just didn't pan out. They just kept them at right, so yeah he just never played there since high school. Watching him on film last year I thought he was he was adequate. You know, a below average left tackle, but there were some nice flashes. You see the size, strength, and power in the run game for sure. He had some nice pass protection moments as well, but it was pretty up and down I would say overall.

But you drafted Latham to be a punishing run blocker who has an elite level anchor, he's gonna handle the power-oriented rushers really well and struggle a little bit against the high-end speed guys who can win turning the corner, and I don't see that changing too much on the right side. It's just that he should be I think just a little bit more comfortable, able to settle in there. and I think that's a better long-term fit for him just based on his background.”