Tennessee Titans: Calling All Wide Receivers

If you have watched the Tennessee Titans this year like myself, you have to wonder what happened to the deep threat. Interim head coach Mike Mularkey is wondering the same thing.

Mularkey said in his Monday presser that the coaching staff is not asking for Odell Beckham type catches, but just asking his wide receivers to make the normal catches that other receivers around the NFL are making.

“We had chances, Marcus is giving these guys chances,’’ Mularkey said. “But we’re not making the plays…It’s the go routes outside that it just feels like we’re getting hit on them, and we’re not hitting ‘em. We have to make a play on those plays, because (Marcus) is giving us a chance to make them.

“They’re getting called, and they’re getting called to the right guys. We’re giving DGB a chance, and I’d like to see him with his size to go up and pluck that thing out of the air…I’d like to see (Wright) do the same thing.”

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The Titans have hit on seven plays all year for over 30 yards with the league average at 18 plays at this point in the season.

The Oakland Raiders had four against the Titans last Sunday. Amari Cooper hit on a 41 yard play with Seth Roberts hauling in a 38 yard pass enroute to a 116 yard day.

I have felt since training camp broke up and then head coach Ken Whisenhunt keeping on four wide receivers and five tight ends, that this would turn into a problem.

Especially not considering injuries to wide outs during the season. They put all of the season eggs in the Kendall Wright and Justin Hunter basket, and these two are just not the playmakers on the outside that Marcus Marriota needed during his rookie season.

A lot of hope went into Dorial Green-Beckham, but he is a raw talent that because he didn’t play in 2014, and needs to be coached up.

The Titans have depended for most of the season on short passes that turn into big gains with a good run after the catch.

For the most part, Delanie Walker from the tight end position and Dexter McCluster from the running game have provided the lion’s share of the yards after the catch, and have somewhat skewed the the 20th ranked numbers the Titans have.

They spent a second round draft pick on Dorial Green-Beckham and could have had a kid like Tyler Lockett from Kansas State who went in the third round and currently has 106 receptions for 1515 yards and 11 touchdowns, or Stefon Diggs out of Maryland who went to the Minnesota Vikings in the 5th round and has 40 targets with 604 yards and two touchdowns.

Next: Tennessee Titans power rankings around the NFL week 13

In Sunday’s loss against the Raiders, receiver Harry Douglass fought off a defender to make a tough 13-yard touchdown catch, something Mularkey mentioned in his press conference on Monday. Mularkey also gave props to tight end Craig Stevens for his juggling, 20-yard touchdown catch across the middle.

Young playmaking receivers need to be at the top of the list for the 2016 draft, no matter who is a the helm of this team when they kick off the 2016 season.

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