NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Dennard Wilson came here excited about opportunity, eager to put together an aggressive defense that combined difference-makers and parts who could make things difficult for offenses, produce big plays and minimize scoring.
Twenty-six games into his tenure as the Titans' defensive coordinator, it isn’t easy to assess him because of what he’s been given to work with. A coach has to make the most of what he’s got, but has he really had a chance?
His unit, already stripped of all three opening-day cornerback starters, had finally been generating some pass rush. And away goes the guy who’s led it, Dre’Mont Jones. The deal is the right thing for the long-term interest of the franchise, but guess who’s not going to be part of that?
Maybe Wilson chimed in on Kenneth Murray, but Ran Carthon and Chad Brinker gave the coach an inside linebacker with incomplete instincts. Then Mike Borgonzi and Brinker replaced Murray with Cody Barton, who’s smarter but slow and not discernibly better.
Wilson backed L’Jarius Sneed hard last year and this, but he didn’t have much of a choice, and he got five games from the cornerback in 2024 and seven this year when few expect him to return from his quad injury. None of those appearances showed him to be the elite defender for whom the team thought it traded.
The Titans dealt Jarvis Brownlee after two games and Roger McCreary after eight, leaving Wilson and Tony Oden with scraps at corner.
Outside of Jeffery Simmons, who’s raised his game this season but is currently out of the lineup with a hamstring injury, Wilson’s got no elite player, and it’s difficult to name his second-best guy.
Amani Hooker got a new contract before the season and has played poorly, perhaps in part because of the temptation to overextend.
Beyond kid cornerbacks, Wilson and his staff have three slow safeties in Hooker, Xavier Woods and Quandre Diggs, with Kevin Winston offering a bit of hope but not exactly busting onto the scene now that he is finally healthy.
Early on, Wilson tried to compensate for a lack of talent by scheming things up. But then his personnel couldn’t handle that and he needed to simplify.
He was given a weak group of edge rushers and left to count on Simmons and T’Vondre Sweat to produce inside pressure. And Sweat missed five games with an ankle injury.
They managed six sacks in their first five games. But things started to come together and they took the quarterback down 15 times in their last four games with Jones leading the way with 4.5. Wilson and Ben Bloom and Tracy Rocker had something going with their guys up front.
And on Monday, while they were working, they got news that Jones was traded to Baltimore.
#Titans edge rushers
— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) November 4, 2025
Jihad Ward
Arden Key (hurt)
Jaylen Harrell
Truman Jones
Wilson was passed over when the Titans chose Mike McCoy as the interim coach after Brian Callahan was fired on Oct. 13. I would have leaned to John Fassel.
But it became clear quickly that McCoy was a terrible choice. He’s changed little on offense, played conservatively and is a boring, uninventive, uninspiring coach – the exact opposite of what you want in a replacement guy who should spark a team.
Wilson, who has some actual fire in him, likely sits and listens to McCoy in team meeting,s wondering how in the hell he was passed over for him, all in the name of not disrupting the defense, right before the team traded McCreary and Jones to disrupt the defense.
It’s for the greater good of the franchise, a franchise that will fire Wilson and the vast majority of the staff with a year left on their contracts sometime after the season ends.
Wilson and 21 other assistants pulled into the parking lot early this morning to continue to try to get something out of this miserable team. Many of them are part of the problem. Some of them are not. I don’t think Wilson is.
But a new head coach will want to fill out his own staff and he should. A team this bad needs a big overhaul and as that happens, people like Wilson, who never really had a chance here, will find their next job and continue to try to climb in a very tough industry.
He’s likely coaching defensive backs somewhere in 2026, hoping he gets a Darrell Baker type to play as he did in 2024 rather than how he’s played in 2025.
Why was Baker a nice contributor who looked promising last year, and this year he’s facing the wrong direction with his back to Keenan Allen on the boundary as he catches a pass? The fact is, Baker shouldn't be on the field.
Wilson is bright and motivating. We don’t know for sure he’d be good given a good 
situation.
I feel certain we can’t judge him on this.
On a sketchy defense that’s been down Simmons and Key with injuries, that got nothing out of the disappeared Sneed, and that has dealt Brownlee, McCreary and Jones.
He’s hardly alone. There are similar people in his business facing similar fates. That doesn’t make it any easier for Wilson, who I’m certain will fight to get what he can out of what he can, somewhat helplessly, through Thanksgiving and Christmas, while the Titans think about the future and he waits to get fired.
