The Tennessee Titans are making a move to ensure pass coverage, the issue that's plagued its defense time and again over the past two years, won't be an issue any longer.

Dennard Wilson reportedly will become the Titans' next defensive coordinator, joining coach Brian Callahan's staff after one dazzling year as the Baltimore Ravens' defensive backs coach. Wilson's Ravens allowed the fewest yards per pass attempt and sixth-fewest passing yards per game this season despite facing the second-most pass attempts in the league.

Numbers like that are becoming a trend for Wilson. In 2022, when Wilson was the secondary coach for the Philadelphia Eagles, his defense allowed the fewest passing yards per attempt and per game.

Here are a few reasons Wilson's defenses have had so much success, and a few ways his style will be immediately differentiable from the Titans of recent years.

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Dennard Wilson's defenses get their hands on the ball

The 2022 Eagles and 2023 Ravens came about their coverage success in different ways. Namely, while the Eagles set a 21st-century record for sacks to speed up opponents' clocks, the Ravens relied more on blanketing the field. But the results were more or less the same. The 2022 Eagles broke up 85 passes, fourth-most in the NFL, and the 2023 Ravens broke up 92, second-most in the league. The Titans' 55 pass breakups in 2023, meanwhile, were fewest in the NFL.

Interestingly, Wilson's defensive backs were near the ball a lot more often but committed significantly fewer penalties. In 2023, the Titans led the NFL with 33 combined defensive pass interference, defensive holding and illegal contact penalties. The Ravens had only 19, right at the NFL average. And the 2022 Eagles were penalized for only 16 such penalties, among the fewest in the league.

It's important to give players their credit here, too. Baltimore had four defensive backs who ranked among the 20 best players in the NFL this season in passer rating against, and four of the top 30 by completion percentage allowed. Safety Kyle Hamilton and cornerback Ronald Darby ranked first and third among qualified players in allowing the fewest yards per target.

Wilson won't get to bring his Baltimore roster with him, but the philosophies that led to success the last two years should be transferrable.

Identity is different than philosophy

One of the reasons the Ravens defense was so good in 2023 was its flexibility. Mike Macdonald, the Ravens' defensive coordinator who was hired as Seattle's coach this week, rarely featured the same game plan twice. Depending on the week, the Ravens could be a Cover-1, Cover-3, Cover-4 or Cover-6 team. Hamilton's ability to line up at linebacker, nickel and free safety allowed the Ravens to show varied formations and personnel packages to confuse offenses.

Wilson spent only the one year in Baltimore. But seeing the way the Ravens succeeded by mixing things up, it would stand to reason that Wilson would want to instill at least a little bit of that multiplicity into what he does in Nashville.

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Don't ignore who Dennard Wilson's mentors are, though

Before his time in Philadelphia and Baltimore, Wilson coached defensive backs for the St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams (2015-16) and New York Jets (2017-20). That means two of the defensive masterminds Wilson spent his formative coaching years working alongside were Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles and veteran defensive coordinator Gregg Williams.

If there's one trait Bowles and Williams share, it's their love of the blitz. Since 2018, no Bowles- or Williams-coached defense has ranked outside the top 10 in the NFL in blitz rate, and only one has ranked outside the top six. Philadelphia's and Baltimore's defenses haven't blitzed nearly as much in recent years; nor have the Titans, for what it's worth.

But having Bowles and Williams as influences is the defensive equivalent of an offensive coach coming up through the Air Raid system. Blitzing is in the core of what those guys do, and it'll be interesting to see to what degree Wilson emulates that.

The bottom line

The Ravens held 14 of their 17 opponents below their regular-season average for passing yards last season. That's pretty remarkable when you consider just how much time the 13-4 Ravens' opponents had to spend playing catch-up.

Put simply, the Titans allowed three more completions than the Ravens in 2023 despite defending 63 fewer passes. Callahan said in his introductory news conference that he wanted a defensive coordinator who would've given him fits when he was an offensive coordinator. Considering that four of Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow's 16 worst games by passer rating and five of his 16 worst games by yards per attempt came against Baltimore, Callahan didn't have to think hard to find that.

Now it's up to the Titans to build a roster that can replicate Wilson's past success to complement Callahan's offense.

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Titans defense should change with Dennard Wilson. Here's how