Tennessee Titans need to make wholesale changes.
Dick LeBeau is a Hall of Famer and a legend, but he is not who the Tennessee Titans need right now.
Currently the defensive coordinator is under contract for the 2018 season based on a deal he signed last year, but I am afraid that could limit the Titans in their coaching search.
What I mean by this is that I have been a proponent for Jim Schwartz being the Tennessee Titans next head coach since before the full-time Mike Mularkey hire.
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I think that he is a harder coach to play for than Mularkey, but when defenders (his specialty) are interviewed they rave about how much they enjoy playing for him. Even when they are talking about how they get called out at times, they always back that up with how much they respect him.
His big question mark is that he hasn’t taken his team deep in the playoffs or to the Super Bowl as a HC, but to be honest is that even a good measurement?
We had a coach here a few years ago that yall may remember: Ken Whisenhunt. He took the Arizona Cardinals to the Super Bowl and fell just short of winning the whole thing. Since then, he has only spiraled downwards in terms of public perception.
Even now he isn’t a coveted coaching prospect even as an OC, which is a big fall from being on the doorstep of a Super Bowl title.
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So my point is that I think despite some question marks on Jim Schwartz’s resume, I believe that he is a prime candidate to come in and take over a team. This is even greater when you consider that he could bring the OC or the QB coach from the Philadelphia Eagles over with him to be the OC for the Titans.
That is all a moot point if LeBeau stays however. He isn’t going to start running the scheme that Schwartz runs. Likewise, you aren’t going to hire a defensive minded HC and then make him implement someone else’s system.
It just doesn’t work. Likewise, this wouldn’t work with Mike Vrabel who is another often mentioned name in this Titans coaching search.
Now, if Tennessee manages to get an offensive mind like Josh McDaniels, Matt LaFleur, John DeFilippo, etc. then sure maybe it would be a good pairing with Dick LeBeau.
The question is how long will it last? For as many issues as I have with LeBeau and some things he did, he is an amazing coach and he has shown in the past that he can run his scheme to perfection at times. Those times just seem to be fewer and farther between now.
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Sure you can talk about someone taking over for him in a few years and running the same system, but why not do that now then? Why wait to hire someone to coach a watered down version of this defense in a year or two when you can go after someone now who can run their own scheme well?
LeBeau deserves every ounce of respect and reverence that he gets, but in a time where Jon Robinson has preached the importance of building towards a bright future, I don’t know where LeBeau fits long-term.
There are plenty of teams that could benefit from what LeBeau could bring to their organization like Arizona, New York, etc. and hell even the Steelers could bring him back. But for the Titans I just don’t know that they can bring him back next year and claim to be building for the future.