Bud Dupree: I will make sure I’m as healthy as…

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When the Titans signed edge rusher Bud Dupree last offseason, they knew he was coming off a torn ACL. And that injury occurred late in the 2020 season, with the surgery coming in December 2020.

Nevertheless, Tennessee brought in Dupree on a five-year, $82.5 million deal. Dupree ended up playing 11 games with six starts, recording 17 total tackles, two tackles for loss, eight quarterback hits, 3.0 sacks, and a forced fumble. He also had one of Tennessee’s nine sacks on Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow in the AFC divisional round.

Dupree dealt with the aftereffects of his knee injury early and then had an abdominal injury during the season as well. But he’s getting to feel more like himself entering the 2022 offseason.

“At the end of the [2021] season I started to feel good, but they always say after the ACL, that second season is when you start to feel all the way back,” Dupree said, via Jim Wyatt of the team’s website. “So, I am looking forward to that. But at the end of the day, there is no excuses. Once you go on the field you have to get stuff done, fight through injuries, people go through that all the time. I will make sure [next] year I am as healthy as I’ve ever been and keep going.”

Dupree noted he was planning to train in Atlanta this offseason with a pass-rushing specialist to be closer to his peak in 2022. Dupree registered 11.5 sacks in 2019 before reaching 8.0 in 11 games in 2020 before suffering his torn ACL.

He said the 2021 season reminded him of his second season in the league when he missed several games with a sports hernia injury.

“I have to take this offseason and make sure everything is at its highest ability when I come in Day One,” Dupree said, adding he wanted to make sure there were “no setbacks and nothing to get right and everything [will] be in a mode to turn up.”