NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Second-year veteran Keith Bulluck has banked nearly $2.5 million but the Tennessee Titans' first-round draft choice of a year ago started only one game as a rookie and, given his status as the No. 4 linebacker on the roster, might not do any better than that in his sophomore year either.

Veteran cornerbacks Michael Booker, DeRon Jenkins and Dainon Sidney have all been atop some franchise's depth chart at various points in their career, but all of them might play behind a rookie in 2001. Half the backup defensive linemen in camp here might be starters in other league precincts and could be relegated to role-player status in the Tennessee pecking order.

	Samari Rolle, left, and new coordinator Jim Schwartz had a hand in making the Titans' defense No. 1 in the NFL.

The team lost longtime defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, who became the head coach of the Buffalo Bills, and replaced him with Jim Schwartz, a brainy, computer zealot who wasn't even a position coach until a year ago. To take Schwartz's place, the Titans hired former Kansas City Chiefs head coach Gunther Cunningham, only one of the NFL's most fertile-minded defensive schemer.

The point of all this enumeration: The championship rings on the fingers of the Baltimore Ravens' defense, and the fact that it surrendered the fewest points ever in a 16-game schedule last year, no doubt reinforces the notion it is the NFL's most dominant unit. But it is the Titans, who actually ranked statistically as the NFL's top defense in 2000, who figure to enter the 2001 campaign with the deepest unit.

Truth be told, in the era of the salary cap and at a time when virtually every personnel decision comes with a dollar sign attached, it isn't supposed to happen like this anymore. Spending limits have promulgated a general greening of NFL rosters, left coaches with unproven youngsters in key backup roles and rendered depth a nebulous commodity.

Apparently, however, the league-wide memo about perilously thin body counts never reached the Tennessee defense.

"It's to the point now where, even if you're an established starter on this defense, you better be out there working hard every day," said end Jevon Kearse, arguably the defense's most celebrated player. "Don't be looking over your shoulder, because there's probably someone behind you who is chasing after your job. I mean, we have a lot of players, man."

Indeed, the most obvious element of the combined workouts here between the Titans and the Indianapolis Colts was the number of talented players on the Tennessee roster. It was in stark contrast to a Colts team that returns one of the NFL's most potent offenses but a defense under heavy scrutiny and which added few reinforcements during the offseason. Indianapolis coach Jim Mora stopped shy of conceding he would have liked to steal out of town with a few of the Titans' backup players in tow. He acknowledged the unique depth his opponent possesses.

"Oh, yeah, everywhere you look, at every position, they have good people," said Mora, whose team will become a divisional partner of the Titans in 2002 when the league's realignment plan is enacted. "They're solid everywhere."

In fact, you can bet that Tennessee preseason games will draw scouts from all over the league, looking to assess defensive players the Titans might not be able to retain when the mandated roster cutdown dates arrive.

The depth is most obvious on the defensive line, a position where every team struggles to find viable players. The D-line is traditionally the most difficult unit to fill out on a roster, which is why so many franchises will "reach" in the draft for a wide-bodied front-four player, but the Titans could fill out two defensive lineups.

	“	We are a bunch of lunch-pail guys. Nobody here cares who gets the credit and long as we're playing well. ”
		— Eddie Robinson, Titans linebacker

Young and unheralded backups like Robaire Smith, Joe Salave'a and Keith Embray will be part of the Tennessee rotation in 2001, as the coaching staff rotates linemen to keep them fresh, but all could start elsewhere. The return of five-year veteran Josh Evans from a year-long suspension for repeat violations of the NFL substance abuse program has afforded the Titans a defensive tackle corps no one else in the league can even approximate.

By trading for former St. Louis Rams standout defensive end Kevin Carter, currently slowed by a strained groin, general manager Floyd Reese upgraded the pass rush and permits Kearse to switch to the weakside spot, where he won't have to fight through so many double-team blocks.

"We're loaded at tackle, no doubt about it, and that's pretty unusual in this league," Fisher said. "But the competition is great. It keeps everybody on their toes. And it's the competition that, to me, creates the depth, not the other way around. Everybody wants playing time, right? And the battle we've got going at left cornerback, well, that's about as fierce as it gets."

The vacancy created by the free agency departure of Denard Walker to Denver has spawned a competition that probably won't be settled until well into the preseason schedule. The bountiful list of possibilities for the spot opposite emerging star Samari Rolle includes Jenkins, Sidney, Booker, second-round draft pick Andre Dyson and third-year veteran Donald Mitchell, who is coming back from knee surgery but looks like the guy the coaches want to win the position.

Said Mitchell, a former "nickel" corner who was making a move on a starting job last summer before tearing up his knee: "It's a dogfight every day. These guys are all good players and they all want to start. There's probably playing time for everyone. But there's just one starting job. You don't want to get caught having even one bad day, because you'll fall behind the pack."

Nor do the Titans like to be drawn into discussions about the differences between their defense and the Ravens' unit, arguably the most suffocating in the last decade and a half. Still, while the Ravens were setting a league record by allowing just 165 points in 2000, the Titans surrendered only 1.6 points more per outing than Baltimore, and people seem to ignore that. Tennessee also allowed just 238.3 yards per game, the fewest in the league.

So why does the Baltimore defense command so much attention, while the Titans' defense is treated like a house full of stepchildren? One reason is that Tennessee lacks the flamboyance that is the trademark of the Ravens, a team whose whoof is as big as its bite.

"We are," said weakside linebacker Eddie Robinson, "a bunch of lunch-pail guys. Nobody here cares who gets the credit and long as we're playing well."

Strong safety Blaine Bishop seconded that sentiment. "I think we're most business-like," he said. "We come out every day, work hard, then go home and put our feet up and grab the remote control for the TV. We're just regular guys."

A ninth-year veteran and three-time Pro Bowl performer, Bishop suggested that the defense assembled by the then-Houston Oilers in his 1993 rookie campaign might have challenged the current edition in terms of depth. The secondary that year included safety Bo Orlando and cornerback Steve Jackson and himself, all backups who ended up logging plenty of field time. Upon reflection, though, Bishop conceded the 2001 club has more overall depth.

It is, Fisher allowed, a happy situation in which he finds himself. Where most teams have little, the Titans have luxury. And they should be as good in 2001 as they were last season.

"Look, if we (fixate) too much on Baltimore, then we do an injustice to ourselves," Fisher said. "Why should we sell ourselves short?"

Especially with such a long list of talented defenders that is the envy of most every other team in the league.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.