NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- After the Titans cut Michael Griffin, the team's biggest hole on defense is free safety.
One popular prediction is that the Titans will move cornerback Jason McCourty to the spot.
Is McCourty, coming off a four-game season interrupted by two sports hernia repair surgeries, still a cornerback?
“He better be,” defensive backs coach Deshea Townsend said. “I haven’t had a chance really to dig into the personnel. We have time to get in and watch tape and look at what we have. Being a football fan myself, he’s been a good player for a while and I don’t see that changing.”
The Titans currently have three guys listed as strong safeties in Da’Norris Searcy, Daimion Stafford and Josh Aubrey. Marqueston Huff is the lone free safety, and the position is a priority in either free agency or the draft.
Townsend said the Titans will ideally have two do-everything safeties rather and distinct strong and free players.
“The game nowadays doesn’t allow you to use a strong and a free,” he said. “With so much of the tempo stuff that teams do, you have to be interchangeable with motions. You’re lined up a certain way, but the offense can get you in what they want to get you in. Safeties nowadays have to be able to do it all.”
It’s a tall order to find two guys who can come forward and go backward with equal effectiveness from the safety spot.
Hopefully for Townsend, the free safety the Titans bring in is well-rounded and allows them increased flexibility.
