Amani Hooker was quieter than Jeffery Simmons, but he had a keen sense of the Titans' locker room and the people in it. His departure leaves more than a hole in the secondary.
By PAUL KUHARSKY
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – With the trade of Amani Hooker, the Tennessee connections of the excellent 2019 Jon Robinson draft class are over.
First-rounder Jeffery Simmons and a fifth-round pick were shipped to the Bears for two firsts and a fourth, and now Hooker goes to Buffalo with a fifth in exchange for a second.
The two were the veteran leaders of the defense, and in many ways, the team.
A.J. Brown was traded after three years to the Eagles for a first-round pick, 18th overall, that was spent on Treylon Burks, who did not pan out, and a third-rounder.
Nate Davis was a reasonably good starter for most of his four seasons, as was David Long. The only pick the Titans didn’t get a good contribution from was D’Andre Walker, who did not pan out.
Twenty-three draft picks from 2020 to 2022 are gone, none contributing to the 2026 Titans. Peter Skoronski and Tyjae Spears, the two players left from the 2023 draft class, are the longest-tenured drafted Titans on the roster.
That illustrates as much as anything why the roster is so thin and why, after the trades of Simmons and Hooker, the defense stands to be horrible for the final nine games.
