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#5, Monty Rice, Tennessee Titans (Linebacker)

Denver Broncos v Tennessee Titans

Despite “only” being a three-star recruit in 2017, Rice was able to emerge among all the top-rated names that make it to Athens on the defensive side of the ball every year. He ended up starting his final two-and-a-half years with the program, racking up just under 200 tackles combined, five passes broken up and three fumbles forced.

So far with the Titans, he’s started ten of 23 games he’s been available for and been a special teams ace, combining for 102 total tackles, but only four of those for loss, no sacks and just two passes defensed. He missed six games as a rookie and then the entire 2022 preseason with a strained achilles.

Arguably the most impressive statistical unit last season and certainly the least appreciated was the Titans' run defense. They finished the year at number in EPA per rush (-0.199) and rushing success rate (33.0%), despite playing with the second-lightest boxes (with six or fewer defenders in the box) among all NFL teams.

David Long Jr. has been integral for the way they’ve excelled in that area, but looking at the numbers when he wasn’t available, I can somewhat understand why they were comfortable with letting that guy move on to Miami.

In the five games Monty Rice stepped in for the injured Long, Tennessee never allowed more than 87 rushing yards and a minuscule 2.56 yards per carry (125 attempts for 320 yards), even if the rushing offenses they faced were mostly on the weaker end.

Rice’s ability to sort through traffic, not get pulled off his landmarks by eye candy and track the ball carrier’s movement looks more like a veteran already, rather than somebody who’s logged just 545 career snaps. He’s tremendous with the way he IDs and approaches combo-blocks – whether he has quickly filled before a guard can peel off to him or the point of attack is a little further out and he needs to display patience, in order to not put his teammates in a tough position.

Plus, he understands how quickly the ball carrier makes his decisions and where the “bubble” (open gap) for the offense will be that they want to hit/aim towards, in order to shut runs down short-yardage runs.

Along with the way he processes that information mentally, he’s sturdy in tight quarters with linemen climbing up to him and trying to cut off his angle, packing a strong punch-and-release. And then he provides tremendous effort in pursuit across the field and on plays strung out towards the perimeter, to force the ball carrier out of bounds, where he can either fight over the top or suddenly dip underneath blockers.

Rice improved his PFF grade from 56.1 to 63.3 last season, in particular cleaning up his tackling in a major way, going from a miss-rate of 18.4% as a rookie to just 4.7% in year two, despite basically doubling his snap total (366 total in 2022). He hits with a square chest, really shoots those hips through contact and is able to create legitimate stopping power that way, rather than dragging guys down from the side or allowing the pile to move.

In terms of the other phase of the game, he’s only been used as a blitzer on 20 on 293 total passing downs for his career so far, which resulted in four pressures. However, I certainly like his ability to run through the back in protection, especially after being mugged up pre-snap, to force quarterbacks to release off their back foot.

More importantly, there’s plenty to like about Rice in coverage. That 4.58 he ran at the combine isn’t totally indicative of his play speed, thinking back to some plays where he’s flying underneath a deep in-cut after being mugged up in the A-gap or carrying guys like Jaylen Waddle at Alabama down the seams almost stride-for-stride. He’s had a few moments like that in the pros as well, where Tennessee was in a double A-gap mug look and bailed out into Tampa-2.

Generally, he does a nice job of identifying threats down the seams or coming in deep across the field and sinking underneath them as the picture clears up and there’s no target in front of him to account for.

In quarters or cover-three with no threat in his hook zones, he gains good width in order to force quarterbacks to turn down out easy routes by the slot receiver, yet he also ended up having to match the running back releasing into the pattern quite a bit, when lined up towards the side with fewer eligibles. He was able to slide in front of those guys on option routes, but also carry them wheeling downfield.

When playing true man-coverage, he was physical and sticky against tight ends on stick or out routes. Looking at the raw numbers, he’s allowed 78.6% of the targets his way to be completed, but only for 8.1 yards per catch and 3.9 of those coming after the grab on average.

He’s tremendous at closing the distance to the intended target just as he sees the quarterback initiate the release, maintaining his leverage by tracking the near-hip and making sure they get that guy to the ground. And when the quarterback leaves the pocket, Rice also typically also showcases a good feel for when to work downhill, without just leaving a target behind him unoccupied.

I’d say generally Rice isn’t the most fluid lateral mover, which is why you see him commit his shoulders too aggressively and overrun (wide) zone runs from the backside in the process. Due to that and not having the smoothest change of direction – unless he’s just gaining depth after taking a couple of steps up towards the line of scrimmage against play-action – there’s a certain delay redirecting against boot action and now he’s a step behind routes designed against the flow.

Tennessee subbed him off the field on third downs and for two-minute drills quite a bit, in favor of bringing on Andrew Adams as this dime backer. Part of that is Mike Vrabel’s New England background, where they use six-DB sets a lot in those situations, but there are also things Rice can improve upon in that regard.

He’s still looking to find the right balance between staying on the initial threat to his area in zone coverage before he can pass it off and still being ready to transition to the secondary target.

He does sort through traffic pretty well already, to not get stuck and attach to who he’s ultimately responsible for, but aiding teammates to take care of their assignments without hindering himself and understanding when to basically transition to man-coverage is something he’s still working on. And I’d like to see him rake through the hands of the intended target more effectively.

The Titans let a former first-round pick in Rashaan Evans walk in free agency this past offseason. They allowed their very underrated duo of David Long Jr. and Zach Cunningham to follow suit this year and now it’ll be up to Monty and Azeez Al-Shaair coming over from San Francisco to replace them.

The latter has been a very effective player in a limited capacity and could be labeled a breakout candidate on a later timeline himself. Rice is actually quite similar to Long Jr. in the way he can decipher through information between the tackles and make up for snap counts against their favor, because of the way he can read the blocking and track the ball carrier simultaneously.

Plus, as his feel for field spacing as a coverage defender improves with extended time on task, I believe he can be a valuable piece in what is a pretty diverse unit in the different looks they like to give opposing quarterbacks.

With a rangier player in Al-Shaair next to him, this LB corp may not see a significant downgrade, despite the fact I’ve always believed the tandem they had there last year was already underrated.