Titans sign former Ravens DL Brent Urban

The Titans drafted their defensive lineman of the future on Thursday night in Mississippi State star Jeffery Simmons. Today, they turned around and added some defensive line depth for today by signing former Raven Brent Urban.

This move makes a lot of sense on a few fronts. For one, he’s got experience with Dean Pees, playing four of his five NFL seasons under the Titans veteran defensive coordinator. Urban also adds some much needed length to the Tennessee front. At 6’-7” tall and 300 pounds with 34.25-inch arms, the big defensive lineman will stand out among a Titans line that features no players taller than 6’-4” currently.

Urban doesn’t offer a ton as a pass rusher with just 3.5 career sacks, but his 22 pressures in 2018 would have comfortably been second best among Titans defensive linemen, trailing just Jurrell Casey’s 44, but easily outpacing DaQuan Jones at 14 and Austin Johnson at 4.

Put simply, Urban is a solid veteran who should contribute in a defensive line rotation right away. This isn’t a signing that moves the needle a ton, but for a team that struggled with defensive line depth and won’t get their 19th overall pick on the field until late in the 2019 season at the earliest, this makes a lot of sense. It wouldn’t be entirely shocking to me if Urban was a starter for Tennessee along the defensive front when the season opens.