Titans Bet on Muscle Memory in Jermaine Johnson Trade
You can always spot a defensive end who is thinking too much. The feet chop in place, the eyes linger in the backfield a split-second too long, and the get-off loses that violent urgency required to turn the corner. It usually happens for one of two reasons: the player is trying to process a new scheme, or he’s trying to trust a surgically repaired tendon.
Jermaine Johnson II has been dealing with both.
The Sunday morning news that the New York Jets dealt the former Georgia and Florida State standout to the Tennessee Titans for nose tackle T'Vondre Sweat is being framed as a blockbuster. But from where I sit, this is a logistics play. By reuniting Johnson with his former head coach Robert Saleh, the Titans are betting that schematic familiarity is the quickest way to fix what a torn Achilles broke.
The Cost of Hesitation
The stat sheet tells you Johnson had a down year in 2025—just three sacks after returning from that Week 2 Achilles tear in 2024. That’s expected. The medical clearance sheet says a player is ready to play; the film usually says he’s ready to survive. The explosion—the ability to plant that outside foot and bend without a conscious thought—is always the last thing to come back.
When you combine that physical hesitation with the coaching turnover he faced in New York, you get a player playing slow. Saleh knows Johnson’s leverage points. He drafted him 26th overall in 2022. He oversaw that jump from 2.5 sacks to 7.5 sacks in 2023. This trade is the defensive equivalent of putting on a pair of cleats that have already been broken in. There is no installation period. There is no "getting to know you" phase in the meeting room. There is just the work.
Trading Horsepower for Speed
The price tag here is significant. T'Vondre Sweat is a nose tackle, and in this league, a good nose tackle is like a reliable stunning sled—not glamorous, but essential for the operation. Sweat has established himself as a force in the run game since the 2024 draft. Moving him is a risk for Tennessee.
But the Titans clearly looked at their roster construction and decided they needed a spark more than they needed ballast. They are trading a known quantity in the middle for a high-ceiling variable on the edge.
Johnson has traveled this road before. He went from Independence Community College to Georgia, where he was a rotational piece in a crowded room, to Florida State, where he finally found the snaps to become the ACC Defensive Player of the Year. He understands transition. He knows how to pack a bag and find his locker.
The Titans aren't asking Johnson to learn a new language. They're bringing him to a coach who speaks his mother tongue. If Saleh can get Johnson to stop thinking and start reacting, that 2025 slump will look like a blip on the radar rather than a trend line.