A new(ish) rumor about who is the favorite to land the Tennessee Titans defensive coordinator job.
The Tennessee Titans haven’t made a defensive coordinator hire after the retirement of Dean Pees. In fact, there hasn’t even been a candidate interviewed…at least not any from the outside.
According to Adam Caplan, the expectation is that the Titans will promote from within and promote Shane Bowen.
Expectation in coaching community is that Bowen takes over as DC... https://t.co/jOnsiBjDT8
— Adam Caplan (@caplannfl) January 24, 2020
Some people like Bowen as the position coach to promote, and it hard to completely disagree. While I think Tyrone McKenzie has been more productive with his players, you could argue that Bowen has had less to work with and he has turned two UDFAs into productive pass rushers in Sharif Finch and Derick Roberson.
I think promoting Bowen would be an interesting move because it would show potential future position coaches that you are going to have a chance to earn a promotion in-house instead of relying on someone else noticing your work and promoting you.
Where the hire loses some luster to me is that you are giving your defense over to a coach who has never been a defensive coordinator or called plays. Even back when he was a coach at Kennesaw State, he was a linebackers coach for three years and was never offered a DC job anywhere in the nation.
Continuity is important, but Bowen shouldn’t be hired for trying to reproduce what Pees did last year. First of all, the product on the field wasn’t great for the majority of the season and secondly a copy is very rarely as good as the original.
Now, the counterargument to this is that Arthur Smith took his lumps early but then developed into a nice play caller. However, the difference there is that Ryan Tannehill came in and called some of the plays on his own and helped take things off of the OC’s plate.
Are the Titans going to bring in a Pro Bowl EDGE halfway through the season and let him call the plays on defense? Alright, the analogy kind of loses it’s legs at the end but you know what I mean.
I feel like the Titans not doing due diligence on a proven blue-chip DC like Wade Phillips is a pretty weak move considering you can still hire whoever you want, so why not take an interview and just check?
Time will tell, but the latest rumor is unsurprising and not particularly impressive.