There weren’t really any positive takeaways from the Tennessee Titans’ embarrassing shutout loss to the Houston Texans. If there’s one player whose performance was worthwhile, it was sophomore linebacker Cedric Gray. Gray enjoyed a career-best day, making a personal-high 17 tackles on defense.
Pro Football Focus also saw Gray’s performance in a positive light. His 90.2 overall defensive grade and 90.0 run-defense grade were both career highs. Gray was PFF’s second-highest graded overall linebacker
in Week 4, trailing just superstar ‘backer Fred Warner (90.9).
What’s perhaps most impressive is Gray wasn’t credited with a single missed tackle. PFF had him with an 18-tackle day (12 solo tackles, six assists). Gray was credited with six run stops, a positive result for the defense that constitutes a “failure” for the offense, per their definition. It was the most single-game tackles by a Titans LB since Akeem Ayers in Week 3, 2012 (vs. DET), per James Foster.
Gray’s performance was particularly notable. After playing a significant amount of snaps in Weeks 1 and 2, the sophomore fourth-rounder saw his playing-time cut by a large margin in Week 3, with practice squad call-up Kyzir White getting a rotational opportunity. Gray was back to a full workload versus the Texans, and the coaching staff will think twice about benching him again.
If Gray struggled in one area in Houston, it was as a coverage defender. PFF credited him with allowing six receptions on six targets. Those catches only gained 54 yards, less than a first-down conversion (9.0) per completion. Coverage continues to be a weak-point of Gray’s game, however.
The winless Titans are searching for answers. Gray isn’t a surefire long-term solution yet, but the sophomore linebacker is enjoying a much better season after watching his rookie campaign be totally derailed by injury. The Titans were totally embarrassed in Houston, but Gray’s arrow continues to trend upwards.
