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One of the sneakier additions of the offseason for the Tennessee Titans
was the addition of veteran linebacker, Ben Niemann.
The
former Arizona Cardinals linebacker is coming off a season in which he played
in all 17 games for Arizona, starting in nine of them.
The
Iowa product wasn’t dominant by any means, but he did provide a steady and
relatively reliable presence for the Cardinals whenever his number was called.
In fact, Niemann was one of nine
players who didn’t miss a single tackle throughout the entire 2022 campaign
(minimum 45 tackles), finishing with the third-most tackles (70) without
accounting for a single whiff.
What’s most impressive is Niemann didn’t exactly have a small sample
size. According to Pro Football Focus,
he played a total of 484 defensive snaps, with 249 coverage snaps and 195 snaps
against the run.
In
total, Niemann accounted for 70 combined tackles, two tackles for loss, and one
quarterback hit en route to finishing the 2022 season with an overall grade of
71.0, per PFF.
Looking ahead to 2023,
Niemann is vying for one of the starting spots at linebacker for the Titans.
He’ll be competing against guys like Azeez Al-Shaair, Monty Rice, Chance
Campbell, Jack Gibbens and UDFA Otis Reese.
