Tennessee Titans: Mularkey Hiring was Uninspiring

The Tennessee Titans’ announced on Saturday evening that the interim tag had been removed from Mike Mularkey‘s name and he would get an opportunity to navigate the muddy waters that surround this franchise on his own terms in 2016.

The response via Twitter ranged from uninspiring to “I won’t be renewing my season ticket package” and responses I can’t include in a family oriented article.

But in the end, managing owner Amy Adams Strunk was smitten with Mularkey and he will get an opportunity to show us what he has.

Mike Florio from ProFootballTalk reported yesterday that one of the reasons former Tampa Bay Buccaneers Director of Player Personnel Jon Robinson was hired to fill the General Manager role vacated by Ruston Webster, was he didn’t have a problem with keeping Mike Mularkey as the head coach.

Mularkey, per the source, is the clear and obvious preference of owner Amy Adams Strunk. The two developed a strong relationship late in the 2015 season, and Strunk wants Mularkey to remain on the job.

That preference had an obvious influence on the search for a General Manager. Candidates like Chris Ballard and Chris Polian did not want to keep Mularkey. And they said so. So they didn’t get the job.

By agreeing to keep Mularkey, Jon Robinson will guarantee himself a “Cinderella Year” with a chance to build a team and the ability to argue that he was not allowed to hire a coach of his choice if it doesn’t work out.

TitansOnline.com has indicated that a press conference will be held at the team’s facility on Monday where Robinson and Mularkey will be formally introduced as the new brain trust for the 2016 season.

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I don’t understand why the Titans waited until the other six teams who had coaching positions to fill did their hiring before offering Mularkey the job, and didn’t wait until the Patriots were done in the playoffs and at least interview offensive coordinator, Josh McDaniels.

Sources say, his ability to assemble a new staff played a part in making the announcement on Saturday, and it was peculiar that the word came out as the Patriots were beating the Kansas City Chiefs and look to be a couple of weeks away from having access to McDaniels.

Many of the Titans players like Mularkey and expressed their opinions about his new status including Marcus Mariota.

Mariota was driving in an Oregon mountain range when he got the news and told Titans Online Senior Editor Jim Wyatt:

“I am excited for him. He is definitely a man that deserves the job,’’ Mariota said. “I look forward to being able to work with him. He is very excited. We are going to focus on what is going on now and finding ways to get better. I can’t wait to get there and work.”

“Our relationship has been great,’’ Mariota said of Mularkey. “He did an incredible job with what happened this year and handling everything. I am very excited to have him as a coach and I look forward to getting to work.

“I am sure guys are excited. He’s definitely a players’ coach, and we are very blessed to have him. We can’t wait to move forward.”

The bright spot that comes with the hiring of Mike Mularkey is continuity for his young quarterback.

Mariota has already had to deal with one head coaching change when the team let Ken Whisenhunt go, and a third coach along with a third system in his first two years would have slowed his development.

Next: New GM Brings Hope to Music City

Like many of the fans who were uninspired with this decision, I too was hoping for more, but on the other side of the coin, we will get a chance to see if Jon Robinson can make some progress with this lineup and bring in some players that can make a difference.

A .500 record in 2016 would be an improvement, and we probably weren’t going to the Super Bowl next year anyway. If Mularkey and Robinson can put a good product on the field, most of these uninspiring opinions will turn into excitement.

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