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Wednesday, March 28, 2001
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Potential steal in the works for Titans
Tennessee trades for Rams pass rusher Kevin Carter
By Andy Hanacek, Associate editor
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| On March 11, the Titans lost a top defensive
lineman, DE Kenny Holmes, to the Giants via free agency. Today, they replaced him with a
former Pro Bowl defensive end from the Rams, trading their first-round pick (29th
overall) for DE Kevin Carter. The fact that they gave up just their first-round pick for
Carter is one bonus. The other bonus is Carter himself. Would I rather have Holmes on my
team than Carter? Based on last season’s contract-negotiating issues and work-ethic
issues alone, yes, I’d rather have Holmes. But I think Carter will bounce back in the
Titans’ system. I’m not going out on a limb here when I say that I bet
we’ll see Carter’s production go up a bit from last year’s numbers. Carter
had 17 sacks in 1999, the year the Rams won the Super Bowl. He won’t duplicate or
surpass those magical numbers, but I’d expect him to at least match and even top last
season’s sack total of 10.5 (which isn’t that disappointing, given the fact that
Holmes had just eight sacks last year).
Pairing Carter with Jevon Kearse will do wonders for Carter’s game as well as
Kearse’s game. It did the same for Holmes’ development. Last year, in
Kearse’s second season, he had 11.5 sacks. There was talk earlier in the season that
Kearse was drawing double-teams, which helped free Holmes up on the other side. Now, with
Kearse and Carter, the Titans have two pass-rush specialists on the ends who are young
(Carter is 27) and have had success in getting to the quarterback. They are specialists,
but they are every-down specialists.
If Carter can keep his game at least at last year’s level, he will help the Titans
forget about the loss of Holmes. If Carter works hard, don’t be surprised to see both
Carter and Kearse improve on their numbers from last year.
One would think the Titans — last year’s real No. 1-ranked defense —
couldn’t get any better. But getting Kevin Carter from the Rams does improve their
pass rush, in turn helping the secondary and linebacking corps. If their offense balances
itself out a bit more, relying less on RB Eddie George, the Titans could easily find
themselves in the Super Bowl once again, and soon. Carter won’t be the catalyst for a
Super Bowl run by himself, but he could be part of the reason the Titans stay in the top
tier of the NFL, if he keeps his head in the game. |
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