NASHVILLE – Bud Dupree spent last offseason rehabbing his torn ACL while gearing up for his first season on a new team.
Following his initial season with the Titans, Dupree is looking forward to Year 2 in Tennessee, and finding ways to make even more of a splash.
"This (2021) season reminds me of my second year in the league, when I had a sports hernia and missed like 10 games," Dupree said of his 2016 season with the Steelers. "Battling through stuff … you get through it and the next year you come back strong. I have to take this offseason and make sure everything is at its highest ability when I come in Day 1, there is no setbacks and nothing to get right and everything would be in a mode to turn up."
After spending his first six NFL seasons with the Steelers, Dupree recorded 17 tackles, three sacks, 15 quarterback pressures and two tackles for a loss while playing in 11 games, with six starts, with the Titans in 2021, along with two tackles for a loss, a pass defensed and a forced fumble.
Dupree, who recorded 19.5 of his career 42.5 sacks in the two years before arriving in Nashville, said he felt better as the season went on during a year when he was slowed with the knee early, and later with an abdominal injury.
Dupree had surgery on the ACL in December of 2020 while in Pittsburgh.
"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. "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 said he plans to train this offseason in Atlanta with pass rush specialist Chuck Smith and others to get ready for 2022.
He said he's excited about the prospects of being able to focus more on his training than his rehab, although he knows some rehab work will continue to get himself right.
Dupree is also excited about his new home, in Nashville, with the Titans, and what's next.
"You have to look at the positive side of things, and you just have to keep grinding," Dupree said. "The city of Nashville is lit, I would definitely say that. I did not know anything about Nashville (before I got here).
"(And) the organization, there's a lot of different things I didn't know about. It's a family family-oriented organization, and guys really look out for one another. The players are very close-knit, the guys are really looking to know one another outside of football, outside the building, which plays a big part when you are going to battle with your brothers on the field and that is always a plus."
