How Tennessee Titans new OC Arthur Smith will change the offense without restarting from the ground up.
When the Tennessee Titans promoted Arthur Smith to OC, it was a surprising double-down on the offensive coaching staff that had led down the team in 2018.
Don’t forget, Tennessee averaged just 19.4 points per game in 2018 which was the 6th worst number in the league. So why would you make an in house promotion when the result was so bad?
Well, because Arthur Smith isn’t just someone who helped installed and coach that offense. As many of us all know by now, Smith is a veteran of four coaching staffs with the Tennessee Titans.
While that is impressive in its own right (because coaches always want their own guy unless there is someone clearly better in house) the most important thing is that it gives the Titans something that very few teams have.
That is the ability to have a coach who has seen his quarterback thrive and struggle, and who should be able to take the aspects where he thrives and implement them more frequently. At the same time he should be able to remove the things that make him struggle, at least in theory.
This isn’t just a guy coming in and watching cut ups on a player and trying to figure out what happened, he knows exactly when it was Marcus Mariota‘s fault and when it was someone screwing up an assignment.
He knows every player on that roster and has been with the team since nearly all of them were signed or drafted to the Tennessee Titans.
With that in mind I expect some big changes in 2019, but all the changes should be rooted in something that we have seen with past OCs. Here are the five changes that make the most sense to me.
5. Derrick Henry on the goal line
This one is simple, but something that we didn’t always see from the Tennessee Titans. Before the second half of the 2018 season, we saw a lot of nonsense on the goal line or in the red zone over the last few years.
Whether that means Delanie Walker jet sweeps, fullback dives, tight end dives, QB runs, DeMarco Murray runs, Dion Lewis runs, etc. Derrick Henry has just been underutilized too much in that area.
I don’t expect to see the team completely one dimensional, but with him being so utterly dominant there during the back half of 2018 you have to force teams to stop him before you try something else.
The revamped offensive line should have plenty of power at LT, LG and center not to mention Delanie Walker’s presence scaring linebackers into backing up off the L.O.S to make sure they don’t get cooked in coverage.
Arthur Smith has been around long enough to know that Henry and the goal line are a match made in heaven, and while I wouldn’t condone an “all-Henry” approach on every 3rd/4th & 1 there is just something different about him when he has the potential for points in front of him.
4. Non-traditional “fullback”
Something that was lost last year was the creativity of the past Tennessee Titans coaching staffs. Now, not all creativity is a good thing, but there were some wrinkles that worked in 2016 and 2017 that weren’t used well enough in 2018.
One of the most interesting things done over the past few years was the idea of moving different players into the backfield. Sure, guys like Luke Stocker and Jonnu Smith were lined up there at different times, but that isn’t what I am talking about.
There were times when receivers lined up in the backfield in the past and that is something that should be revisited. While some guys like Adam Humphries and Tajae Sharpe do their best work in their route running and with their hands, there are plenty of guys who would thrive back there.
Guys like A.J. Brown and Taywan Taylor would be strange players to line up in the backfield and they obviously would be used as receivers or runners and not blocking. Still, even if you know that how do you match up with that? What ripple effects does an adjustment like that have on a defense?
The Titans need to take a page out of their past offenses and a page out of what the L.A. Rams are doing now and try to force defenses to their heels so they can’t get comfortable. If an offense isn’t dictating the pace of a game then the opposing defense will, the Titans can’t let it get to that point.
3. Wildcards
For a long time the Tennessee Titans offense had to manufacture big plays and one of the most interesting ways that they did that was by using defensive players on the offensive side of the ball.
I think everyone remembers how good Adoree Jackson looked in brief chances on offense and it is something that the Tennessee Titans should definitely get back to going forward.
How much more dangerous is the wildcat package if Henry is back there and Adoree Jackson comes streaking across the field? Or if he goes in jet motion before the snap only for Henry to pull it and pitch it to Taywan Taylor who is lined up as the back behind Henry?
Then you can throw in reverses, double reverses, screens, throwbacks, etc. But it all comes from having this Olympic athlete on the field who scares defenses into either panicking and chasing him or staying flat footed to make sure they don’t go after the wrong guy.
Outside if this, doesn’t it just seem like the Titans are going to use Rashaan Evans or Jayon Brown on offense at some point? Mike Vrabel may be behind this more than Arthur Smith, but with two incredibly athletic and fluid linebackers you would expect Mike Vrabel to think long and hard about trying to recreate his offensive success with them.
Also, I am completely here for Jurrell Casey lining up as the fullback a few times on offense just to get a touchdown or create a diversion.
2. Jumbo Package
Someone explain to me why the Tennessee Titans didn’t run this 50% of the time last season?
Let me break it down like this, on one hand you have a talented right tackle recovering from major knee surgery. Now, this tackle has always held his own on an island but thrived when next to a tight end.
On the other hand you have a swing tackle who has played on the outside of tackles before and who has looked really good all season.
So if you have both of those things, why wouldn’t you improve the offense!
It is very simple, if Jack Conklin struggles again and the Titans don’t want to start Dennis Kelly for whatever reason, then your offensive line needs to look like this for 50% of the game:
LT: Taylor Lewan
LG: Rodger Saffold
C: Ben Jones
RG: Kevin Pamphile
RT: Jack Conklin
RTE: Dennis Kelly
Conklin is protected from speed rushers which is one less thing for him to deal with and you get a talented offensive lineman on the field. Truly a win-win.
Now, the argument is that you aren’t going to throw the ball to Dennis Kelly, but why not? You don’t have to do it consistently, but if you targeted him once or twice per game in that situation it is enough to force a defense to cover him.
Let me stop and say that in 2019 the Tennessee Titans shouldn’t have to run this and should outright replace Conklin if he is still hurt and can’t perform at the level he needs to. But, adding this wrinkle back into the offense is a no brainer that would make the offense so much better just like it did in 2017.
This isn’t a run-only look either, you can use this personnel grouping and still pass. In fact, you can still even use three wide receivers and a running back out of this and just give yourself more protection for your QB.
Speaking of three wide receivers…
1. Three wide receiver sets on offense
This is a must for the Tennessee Titans in 2019.
Look at what the Titans have invested in wide receivers over the last few years:
–Corey Davis (1st round pick, 5th overall)
-A.J. Brown (2nd round pick)
-Taywan Taylor (3rd round pick)
-Adam Humphries ($9 million per year)
You don’t have to force all four on the field at one time, but you definitely need to find a way to get three of them on the field consistently.
The Titans can be the run-heavy team that they want to be and still run these 3WR sets. In fact, the spacing and deception would actually help Derrick Henry where he struggles most.
If the offensive line can take advantage of the confusion that this look presents in the run game and beat them early, then Derrick Henry’s indecisiveness at the line of scrimmage isn’t as big of a deal.
Now you get a chance to see Henry vs DBs and LBs even more because defenses have to get smaller in response to the personnel change, and that makes it even more likely that this look will lead to big runs.
It just makes so much common sense to do this in the modern NFL and with the investment made at the WR position this change has to be coming right?
Right?…