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Predicting where the top 20 NFL free agents will land

Brandon Williams, defensive tackle, Baltimore Ravens

It’s looking more like the Ravens won’t be able to retain either tackle Rick Wagner or defensive tackle Brandon Williams. Such is the nature of the beast when you have $55 million in cap space allocated to just four players. Now just $14-plus million under the cap, Baltimore will likely have to look at in-house or cheaper alternatives to replace these two plus-level starters.

What’s bad news for Baltimore could end up being great news for a couple other teams out there. As it relates to Williams specifically, he’s about as dominating of a 3-4 defensive tackle as you can find in the NFL. But as we mentioned with Poe, he’s not solely limited to that role.

Williams, 28, has morphed into one heck of a player in his four professional seasons. A workout warrior at the 2013 NFL Scouting Combine, this former Missouri Southern standout was a surprise third-round selection of the Ravens. All he has done is start 46 of a possible 48 games over the past three seasons — acting as an anchor along a Baltimore defensive line that’s been among the best in the business at stopping the run.

Coming off a 2016 campaign that saw them finish with the second-best run defense in the NFL, some figure the Tennessee Titans might not be in a market for a defensive tackle. That’s until we realize Williams’ primary responsibility in their scheme would be to take up double teams for edge pass rushers. This is an area Tennessee struggled in last season.

They yielded the third-most passing yards in the NFL. A more consistent pass rush would help in this area. And unlike other interior defensive linemen, Williams has proven he can also make an impact from that standpoint. That would surely help the likes of Derrick Morgan and Brian Orakpo continue to excel from the EDGE positions.

It’s also important to note that Tennessee has a cool $64.2 million to spend under the cap. Even if it were to add a Brandin Cooks in a trade, that’s still a whole heck of a lot of cash.

Prediction: Tennessee Titans 

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