Titan Sized
FanSided

Tennessee Titans next OC is likely coaching today

By Will Lomas

NEW ORLEANS, LA - OCTOBER 07: Interim head coach Aaron Kromer of the New Orleans Saints watches play during a 31-24 win over the San Diego Chargers at Mercedes-Benz Superdome on October 7, 2012 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
NEW ORLEANS, LA - OCTOBER 07: Interim head coach Aaron Kromer of the New Orleans Saints watches play during a 31-24 win over the San Diego Chargers at Mercedes-Benz Superdome on October 7, 2012 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Even money that the Tennessee Titans next OC is coaching today.

Let’s face it, there is very little that anyone knows about the Tennessee Titans Offensive Coordinator search.

As far as we can piece together these are the facts:

-They do actually intend on having an OC in 2019.

-Art Smith is an in house candidate and probably the leading candidate at that.

-Pat O’Hara is likely the only other in house candidate that will get or has gotten an interview.

That is it. So, now it is time for some good old fashion guess work.

The biggest thing is the timing of all of this, if they were going to just hire an in house candidate it doesn’t make sense for them to wait this long to do so.

While I think they have a real chance at just promoting one of those guys, the longer Mike Vrabel and Jon Robinson wait, the more likely it is that they get hired to new coaching staffs as coordinators for other teams i.e. Miami and Cincinnati.

So the only logical reason is that there is at least one position coach left in the playoffs that they can’t interview right now. No matter who wins this week, I believe that every position coach and coordinator gets a chance to interview for non-lateral jobs this week.

What that means is that if there is a QB coach that the Titans are waiting to talk to, whether or not their team wins today is irrelevant, though an official hire wouldn’t be made until after the Super Bowl if their team does win.

I wrote on Wednesday that there were two position coaches left still in the playoffs that the Titans could and should take a long hard look at.

More from Titans News

Kansas City QB Coach Mike Kafka is the man I would put money on as the guy with the most connections to this team.

First of all, he was with the Patriots as a practice squad player for part of 2013 (Jon Robinson’s last year with New England) which is small but kind of interesting. What makes that even more interesting is that when Jon Robinson left to go be the right hand man in Tampa Bay, he brought Mike Kafka with him.

Usually QBs like that who bounce around practice squads are guys that do well in locker rooms and have the intelligence to run scout teams and show a lot of different looks well. If he left a positive impression as a player, then imagine what helping hone Patrick Mahomes into an MVP candidate in his first year as a starter has done.

If the Tennessee Titans want a QB coach with experience as a play caller, then the prime target is Joe Lombardi QB Coach of the New Orleans Saints.

While his resume as an OC is underwhelming ranking around the high 20s in PPG during his two years with the Detroit Lions, it is interesting that the teams actually won a lot of games. During that stretch the Lions won 18 games, which is as many or more games than any other two year stretch in Detroit since 1994-1995.

After three years with New Orleans it is fair to imagine that he has had time to work around one of the best offensive minds in football, while having an up close and personal look at the process of Drew Brees. While not perfect, he is definitely an intriguing option.

The one other name that I would mention just as an interesting potential option is run game coordinator Aaron Kromer for the LA Rams.

First of all, probably no one else in the NFL is as acutely aware of the meteoric rise of Matt LaFleur than Aaron Kromer. Just two years ago they were both coaching on the same staff (Kromer as the OL coach and LaFleur as the non-playcalling OC) and less than 24 months later LaFleur is the head coach of the Green Bay Packers.

I wonder if the idea of coaching for the Tennessee Titans may intrigue him. Honestly, I think this is a perfect fit for the Titans if it could happen.

Kromer is an offensive line coach at heart, spending 13 of his 14 years as a positional coach with the offensive line (the other year he coached running backs). He was actually so well thought of that he was the interim HC in New Orleans in 2012 before going to the Chicago Bears the next year to be the OC.

More from Titan Sized

In his first year as OC he guided the Bears to the 2nd best offensive in the NFL in points per game showing he could win games with Josh McCown at QB. In that offense, Matt Forte, Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery all had over 1,000 yards which is about as perfectly balanced as you can get in the modern NFL.

The next year the offense sputtered as Marshall, Cutler and Forte all started their downward spiral towards the end of their careers. I don’t know whether or not you should blame that on Kromer or just bad timing with all the players passing their prime at once.

Either way, his offensive line expertise has translated to wherever he has gone and in fact Justis Mosqueda ranks him as the 6th best OL coach in the NFL.

So with that move they could offer Kromer a chance to call plays again and a clear stepping stone for him in his path to be an HC, while gaining one of the best offensive line coaches in the NFL and someone who has proven that he can call plays at a high level.

Home/Titans News