Buckets

Sigh. Tell me if you have heard this song before. “Promising season in Nashville derailed by a litany of key injuries.” “Once favored to win the division, the Titans end the season with disappointing loss.” “Ineffective play calling leads to another Titan loss.” “Porous offensive line play to blame in latest Titan loss.” I could go on and on. Watching the loss Saturday night in Jacksonville, I could relate to this guy ESPN caught on camera in the cover photo. Here is my immediate reaction to the Titans’ 2022-23 season collapse.

The 2022-23 season ended much as seasons in the past have along the Cumberland River in downtown Nashville – a once promising year, ends with a disappointing loss. A rocky 0-2 start had some rumblings beginning early but the Titans preceded to go 7-1 over their next 8 games. Sitting at 7-3 in an otherwise underachieving division, as a fan of Titan blue I felt pretty good about where they were headed. Given the fact that AJ Brown had inexplicably been traded on draft night, the season was actually progressing above expectations. Then Thanksgiving hit and the Titans never got out of their turkey coma.

Starting with the Bengals game on 11/27, the Titans lost 7 in a row to close out a tumultuous season with a loss Saturday night to the Jags. The instability of the season came to a head after the blow out loss at Philadelphia on December 4th, where former Titan AJ Brown had 8 grabs for 119 yards and 2 TD’s. The following Tuesday the Titans brass made the right decision, in my opinion, by firing GM Jon Robinson. If you combine that with the laundry list of injuries they faced this year, including players Harold Landry, Ryan Tannehill, Bud Dupree, Zach Cunningham , Taylor Lewan, and David Long Jr – to name a few – spending time on the IR, then the 7 game losing streak kind of comes into focus a little better. The season ending loss to the Jags will likely ended up being a blessing for the Titans this off-season, more on that to come in the future. Titans fans deserve better than the offensive product we saw this year on the field. The offensive ineptitude has continued long enough and real changes have to be made.

The Titans have a lot of soul searching to do this spring and summer. Safety Kevin Byard said after the loss to Jacksonville that the organization has a lot of questions to answer, period. First of all, if Todd Downing isn’t fired by the exit interviews this team is clearly not interested in moving forward as a competitive team. Downing’s inability to put together a solid, four quarter game plan, lead to several second half collapses this year, including Saturday’s season ending loss in Jacksonville. For reference, at one point in the 4th quarter the Jags had -1 yards but had scored 10 points. The defense stepped up and did what they had to do to win, but the offense no-showed once again. The Titans’ offense was ugly this year and that’s being polite in a family friendly blog. Time after time we saw Downing bypass King Henry in short yardage plays, not get him more involved in the passing game, and even had Henry on the sideline in late game short yardage situations. The guy is one of the best running backs in the modern era. Even I know to get him the ball early and often, but not just running the ball. Downing called 24 first down runs and just 4 passes last night. Those 4 passes netted 7 more yards and a touchdown than the runs, while the running plays did nothing but play right into the Jags’ defense plan. I could go on but firing Downing has to be a no brainer. Poor offensive line play didn’t help but Downing’s decision making was sub par, and that’s again being nice.

Finding a respectable GM is a must. Vrabel is an incredible, but green, NFL coach and needs someone who can support his continued growth. This is Vrabel’s first time missing the playoffs and it’s not hard to understand why when you look at the roster and injuries he had to deal with. A competent GM can make his life much easier. Don’t get me wrong, Robinson made some solid decisions over the years including drafting players like Henry, Harold Landry, Jeff Simmons, and Kevin Byard. However, in a what have you done for me lately Jon like an NFL GM, the recent blunders lead to his ultimate canning. I think the foundation really split on draft night with the Brown trade, of which Vrabel was clearly not a fan. Time to make a hire that Vrabel can work with to build a competitive team again. More on candidates I would like to come in a future post, and there are several.

Roster moves are going to be vital in the further development of this team, especially on offense. I think it starts with the offensive line and quarterback rooms. The defense played a lot of inspired football this year. It was brutal to watch them run out of gas late in games when the offense couldn’t move the ball. The offensive line went through a lot of injuries and shuffling because of that this year. We missed on first round pick Isaiah Wilson in the 2020 draft, and we are still feeling that today. One constant this year was Dennis Daley was atrocious at left tackle game in and game out. Dillon Radunz showed promise but ended up on the IR after a knee injury against the Chargers. At the end of the day O-line has to be a focal point with our draft pick this year. More to come on my thoughts around the draft as it approaches but a tackle is a must. Now the QB situation is a bit tricky. The Titans could save $27 million by trading or cutting Ryan Tannehill as a post June 1 designation. He has played well in the majority of his games for Tennessee but he has cost the team in big moments, see the ending of last season against Cincinnati for a prime example. Personally, I do like RH17 but his window is closing and I’m not sure he’s going to be the QB that can help the team make the next step. He is who he is at this point in his career. He won’t win you many games but he can definitely lose some through interceptions and inaccuracy late. A new OC could help but the same argument could be made for a new QB with a new OC’s system. Malik Willis isn’t it either. It was painfully obvious he isn’t ready through poor decision making under pressure and his inability to get the ball downfield. Vrabel had clearly seen enough after the Texans loss and opted for Josh Dobbs in the final 2 weeks, after Dobbs had only been a Titan for 9 days. Now, injuries did rush Malik into the starter role this year sooner than anticipated, as it was well known he was a project. I willingly admit that did not help his approach in games. However, he really looked rough in his starts and seemed to be far behind in any development into an NFL QB. Willis right now is a one read QB and instead of capitalizing on his athleticism, he would panic. To me it looks likely that we will see an new QB leading this team next year, likely (hopefully) with a veteran off the free agent market barring an unexpected draft night move.

More to come on draft choices, GM and OC candidates, grading the team, and the Titans off-season. It’s going to be a long year before kick off next September. The Titans are facing a pivotal off-season. The Super Bowl window we thought we had seems to be slammed shut. An injection of talent and a different offensive system could start opening it again but the brass are going to have to make a lot of tough decisions in the coming months. The draft is about 4 months away and I hope the team has found some identity by then. A lot of questions will be answered by the next moves the organization makes. Here’s hoping they point the team back in the right direction before a total blow up is needed.

Titan up.