Why you shouldn’t worry about Dillon Radunz’s placement on the Titans’ first unofficial depth chart

Remain calm.

The Tennessee Titans released their first unofficial depth chart this morning. Jim Wyatt tweeted it out just a few hours ago.

Our fearless leader Jimmy Morris has already written an in depth piece about some of the main takeaways. In case you missed it, you can read it here.

I’ll be honest with you. I think unofficial depth charts this time of year are mostly useless. Take a look at this Titans one, and it’s pretty clear that all rookies are buried way down at the bottom. It sends a clear “you have to earn it” message. The Titans have done this before. A.J. Brown was listed behind both Taywan Taylor and Tajae Sharpe on the initial 2019 depth chart. If you’re taking this seriously, ask yourself if you think Briean Boddy-Calhoun is actually ahead of Caleb Farley (it reads this way). I digress.

I did want to address one thing though. I’ve seen a lot of people complain about the placement of rookie second-round pick Dillon Radunz on Twitter this morning. The draft weekend reaction to the selection of Radunz in the second round wasn’t great, and the outrage seemed to intensify this AM when he was listed as a backup right guard on this depth chart, and was nowhere to be found at right tackle.

I’m here to tell you to calm down. Radunz was drafted to play right tackle and he will start there for this team someday. That day won’t be Week 1 against the Cardinals, though. I think his placement on the current depth chart is an admittance that Radunz isn’t ready to start at right tackle yet. And that’s okay. If you’ve followed Mike Vrabel’s post-practice pressers, he’s made it pretty clear that Radunz is struggling with consistency. Most rookies do.

Your Week 1 starter will be Kendall Lamm or Ty Sambrailo, as you see it listed on this unofficial depth chart. I’ll be personally surprised if Lamm doesn’t win the job to start the year.

While that is the case, I do think the Titans view Radunz as capable of backing up both tackle and guard positions. If he’s not starting at right tackle, why not have him play backup to Nate Davis at right guard? It’s a much better scenario than the alternative (Chandon Herring or Daniel Munyer?). I believe this to be the line of thinking and I’d be shocked if my interpretation was wrong.

So fear not. Radunz may actually see time at right guard if starter Nate Davis were to go down with an injury, but he’s still your right tackle of the future.