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Tennessee all-time team: Strong safety

I hope all of you had an enjoyable Fourth of July and will continue to enjoy the weekend. Please make it a safe one.

Shifting gears to football, which is why we’re here, three strong safeties deserve your consideration as we continue the voting on our all-time Tennessee team.

Blaine Bishop (1997-2000) — A ten-year NFL veteran, Bishop played for the franchise nine years and earned four Pro Bowl selections, two in Tennessee. He was the “Fire” in the Titans’ “Fire and Ice” safety tandem of Bishop and Marcus Robertson. Bishop was a fierce player, very emotional, a very hard hitter and intimidator.

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Titans 6-10? Sporting News thinks so

For a team that finished 10-6 last year with a playoff birth, the Titans seem to consistently get the short end of the stick when it comes to prognosticators.

According to Sporting News, the Titans will finish with a lowly 6-10 record in 2008.

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Tennessee all-time team: RCB

We have been fortunate to have had four quality players at the right corner position, so this poll should result in a very fine player being named to our all-time Tennessee era team.

Darryll Lewis (1997-1998) — A six-year veteran when the franchise moved to Tennessee, Lewis had already garnered a Pro Bowl selection. In his two years in Tennessee, he accumulated 128 tackles, nine INTs, four FFs, three FRs and one sack.

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Titans re-sign RT Stewart to 6-year deal

As was reported on Saturday and confirmed by the official site on Monday, the Titans have re-signed RT David Stewart to a 6-year deal. Per the Tennessean, the deal includes $10 million in guaranteed money, including a $6 million signing bonus, and is for the nominal amount of $38.9 million. Stewart was a restricted free agent this offseason, and had signed his tender offer.

We’ve already mentioned the Stewart signing in the comments, but I wanted to say a little more on it. Re-signing Stewart was actually one of my biggest priorities in the offseason, behind only a long-term deal for the other offensive line bookend, LT Michael Roos. Roos’s deal was done right before the draft. With the addition of Jake Scott, the Titans should now be set at three offensive line positions for at least the next four years, and probably have their future center as well in the combination of Amano and Harris. Now all they have to do is figure out how to get Haynesworth in town, productive, and in shape for the regular season and get some good players in the draft. What’s that you say? The draft was two months ago? Well, never mind then.

Tennessee all-time team: LCB

This poll should be a lot closer than our last one. No formality here, as we select a left cornerback for our all-time Tennessee team.

Denard Walker (1997-2000) — I never thought Walker got enough credit. This may have been in part because his first two years were in the Memphis and Vanderbilt seasons and he was overshadowed by Samari Rolle the next two years. Walker had 83 tackles and two interceptions in 1998.

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Keith Bulluck — RLB on all-time Tennessee team?

We conclude the linebacker portion of our all-time Tennessee team with the right (weakside) linebacker position. Four players have manned the position as the primary starter:

Lonnie Marts (1997-1998) — A ten-year NFL player, Marts’ best season in Tennessee was 1998, when he had 59 tackles, an interception for a touchdown, four sacks and two forced fumbles. Marts played 30 games with 29 starts in Tennessee.

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Chris Johnson: Future primary back?

As a result of being a first round pick, high expectations have been firmly placed upon the shoulders of Chris Johnson. His ability to make plays running, receiving and returning the football will be counted on heavily as the Titans look to improve an offense searching for playmakers.

Despite his small stature, Johnson packs a powerful punch. According to his draft profile, Chris has room on his frame to carry at least another 10 pounds of bulk without sacrificing his elite speed and quickness.

Could Johnson follow in the footsteps of other smallish backs who became every down RB’s such as Brian Westbrook and Willie Parker?

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Tennessee all-time team: Middle linebacker

The man in the middle. He’s in the middle of the field and middle of the defense. Seven different players have been the primary starter at middle linebacker since the franchise arrived in Tennessee eleven years ago.

Three of them started for multiple years and should deserve the most consideration as the MLB on our all-time Titans team:

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Tennessee all-time team: Left linebacker

Four guys have performed rather well at the left (strong-side) linebacker position for Tennessee.

Eddie Robinson 1998-1999 — Robinson spent the first six years of his career with Houston and Jacksonville before coming to Tennessee in 1998. In his four years with Tennessee, he started in all 64 regular season games, spending his first two years at LLB and then moving over to RLB for 2000 and 2001. Robinson had 83 tackles, six sacks, three forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries in 1999. He missed only 13 starts in his eleven-year NFL career.

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Bo Scaife: Stud, or the next Ben Troupe?

The Titans placed a high priority on upgrading the tight end position this offseason. First, they acquired the services of former Pro Bowl TE Alge Crumpler during the opening days of free agency.

They later swapped tight ends with the Falcons, losing Ben Hartsock to Atlanta while picking up former Falcon/Titan Dwayne Blakley. For the icing on the cake, California TE Craig Stevens was a surprise selection in the third round of April’s draft.

All of these moves were made despite the presence of last year’s starting TE, Bo Scaife, already on the roster. With only a year remaining on his current deal, will Bo Scaife step up in 2008, or will he follow in the footsteps of Ben Troupe, another talented TE drafted by the Titans who was eventually tossed asunder?

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