Former Chiefs safety Kendrick Lewis signs with Tennessee Titans
By Matt Conner
Former Kansas City Chiefs safety Kendrick Lewis has found a home for the 2018 regular season, this time with the Tennessee Titans.
The safety market hasn’t been kind this offseason for veterans. Eric Reid, Tre Boston, Mike Mitchell and plenty of starter-worthy talent remains sitting on the shelf, so to speak, as the free agent market ignores them for reasons that are baffling to everyone on the outside. Fortunately Kendrick Lewis was able to land a new contract.
The Tennessee Titans announced that they’ve signed veteran safety Kendrick Lewis, formerly of the Kansas City Chiefs, to a new deal. To create room on the roster, they released linebacker Denzel Johnson.
Lewis still likely faces an uphill climb to make the final roster after not playing a single down last season. He was released by the Ravens one year ago at this time after only playing sparingly in six games during the 2016 season. Before that, however, Lewis had started 31 games for the Ravens and Houston Texans during the two preceding seasons, so he’s not that far removed from being a significant presence in the secondary.
Lewis came into the NFL with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2010 as the franchise’s fifth round selection under Scott Pioli. Lewis started 50 total games for the Chiefs over the course of four seasons. During that time, he had 176 tackles, 23 passes defended, 7 interceptions (including one returned for a touchdown) and 3 forced fumbles.
Lewis will compete for playing time behind starters Kevin Byard and Jonathan Cyprien in the Titans defensive backfield along with recent draftee Dane Cruikshank.