Best may be yet to come for Arden Key, Titans' energetic edge rusher

Oct 02, 2023

Arden Key

In the moments before every practice, Titans edge rusher Arden Key takes part in an interesting ritual: He jumps in the cold tub. That’s right, before practice, not after.

“It’s just to shock the neurologic system,” Key said. “Really shock it — just get it up and get going. It works. You should try it.”

While Key’s routine gives him a quick daily eye opener, it’s fair to say his career has featured a slower awakening process.

Once considered a potential top-five pick in the NFL Draft, Key has endured his fair share of ups and downs over the years. The former LSU star suffered a 2018 draft-day tumble to the third round, primarily due to off-the-field concerns. Then Key spent three largely disappointing seasons with the Raiders, who cut him in the 2021 offseason.

But that’s when things began to change for Key, perhaps in part due to the reality check of a team releasing him.

In his last two stops — playing on one-year deals in San Francisco and Jacksonville — Key has played more like the pass-rushing prospect analysts saw early in college, totaling a combined 11 sacks, 32 quarterback hits and 10 tackles for loss for the 49ers and Jaguars.

The 27-year-old Key, who signed a three-year, $21 million deal with the Titans in March, arrives in Nashville full of energy and enthusiasm — a more mature person than he was earlier in his career and a player expected to make a significant contribution to an imposing front seven.

Is it possible the best is still yet to come?

“Yeah, definitely so,” Key said, sweat still streaming off him after a post-practice autograph-signing session earlier this week.

“The first three years for me was a learning experience. Then when I got to San Francisco, I think it started progressing on how I would want it to. I would say I was a late bloomer. But I still haven’t hit my prime yet. I’m still waiting to see that. But I’m still young and we’re still going.”

In the early forecasts for the 2018 draft, Key was considered by many to be a top-10 selection, rising to No. 7 overall on Mel Kiper’s big board at one point. That wasn’t too surprising, considering Key had set an LSU record with 12 sacks as a sophomore in 2016.

But as the draft drew closer, Key’s stock dropped precipitously, the result of his acknowledging to NFL teams he’d undergone rehabilitation for a marijuana problem in 2017, and because he’d under-performed during an injury-hampered junior year at LSU.

When the Raiders finally ended Key’s long wait by drafting him with the 87th overall pick, Key vowed to prove he was a different person and player than he’d been portrayed.

But it didn’t happen.

Key saw significant snaps as a rookie, but didn’t start a game over his last two seasons for the Raiders. In his three years wearing silver and black, Key missed 11 of 48 games and posted a combined total of just three sacks. He didn’t see the final season of his four-year rookie contract.

“I wasn’t really attacking things at work the first three years,” Key said. “I was just pretty much happy to be in the NFL and I wasn’t attacking it. When I got to San Fran, I learned practice habits. I learned how to watch film, learned how to watch football, learned how to be a pro. I took those things and those tools that I had and they’ve been with me ever since.”

It was indeed in San Francisco that Key seems to have begun a physical and mental transformation, as he started trimming down from 280 pounds to his current weight of 240 and also realized it was time to start taking his occupation more seriously.

“My whole career, it’s always been about the process,” Key said. “[But] I just felt like early on in my career, I didn’t respect that process. I just went off talent, no work. Now that I know you have to put in the work to get the results, it’s the process. You’ve got to trust the process.”

His improved focus and dedication have produced good 2021 and 2022 seasons, with Key totaling especially impressive analytical numbers last year in Jacksonville.

Key graded out at 81.1 overall defensively per Pro Football Focus in 2022, more than 10 points higher than his previous career high. One of his best games of the year came in the Jaguars’ season-ending win over the Titans, when Key racked up a season-best seven quarterback pressures (three hits, four hurries) and earned an 89.6 overall grade from PFF.

In each of the Jaguars’ last five games last year (regular season and playoffs), Key recorded at least three quarterback pressures.

Those were the kinds of numbers the Titans no doubt had in mind when committing to him with a multi-year contract.

“I was always trying to find a place I could call home more than a year, and I was blessed to have this opportunity to be here — and then especially with an organization like this, with the front seven like this who was interested heavy in me,” Key said. “It was an opportunity for me to come in, start and also make a home. So I’m here.”

Key has yet to play for the Titans of course, but his offseason work and his enthusiasm have drawn rave reviews from teammates and coaches.

His contagious energy, even after spending multiple days in the sauna-like atmosphere of training camp, seems never to wane.

“It’s fun to coach guys like that,” Titans defensive coordinator Shane Bowen said. “Guys with energy, guys that bring other guys with them ... So we embrace that. We encourage that as much as we can.

“When he’s in the meeting room, you see the energy, all that stuff. It doesn’t go away, right? But there is a level of focus and intention with what we’re trying to get accomplished in the meeting room as well.”

Added Titans defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons: “Arden is going to be Arden. He’s going to fly around and he’s going to have fun with it. He’s loud. He brings the energy. I bring the energy, [too], and it just translates to the back end, so that’s what we need on our defense.”

Key has at least a couple of personal goals heading into the 2023 season.

One is to play more often on first and second downs, as opposed to the third-down, pass-rushing specialist he was in San Francisco and Jacksonville. Key played in all 17 games over each of the last two years, but was on the field for just 374 snaps in 2021 and 475 last year. He’d like to bump up that count by a few hundred in 2023.

Heading into his sixth season, Key also wants to become more of a team leader, a role that didn’t necessarily suit him in his early years.

“Last year, I kind of stepped into being a leader,” Key said. “The years before that, I wasn’t ready to be a leader.

“A lot of guys gravitate towards me. That’s always been me throughout life. But now I feel like I’m ready and mature enough to step into that leader role, and I have stepped into it here.”