Titans terrible DC decision.
Mike Vrabel was faced with a tough choice when he was tasked with deciding who the next Defensive Coordinator of the Tennessee Titans would be. Unfortunately, he completely failed and picked the worst option available.
Last year the Titans had to replace a retiring Dean Pees, and at the time I thought it was a great chance for them to move away from the more conservative play-calling that had plagued the defense for the better part of 2019.
In hindsight, it turns out that the rare glimpses or aggression were probably from Dean Pees and Mike Vrabel tried to push his own mantra on defense. Somehow Pees was able to make this work and I didn’t give him enough credit at the time, consider this my wholehearted apology.
How did we get here though? Well, the best place to start is right after the retirement was announced.
Mike Vrabel clearly wanted to keep continuity with his coaching staff, which I don’t hate. There is something to be said about promoting a culture in the organization where a coach who does a great job can be rewarded for loyalty down the line.
Sticking with that mentality, there were four coaches who should have been considered. Let’s start with the most obvious choice.
Kerry Coombs, DB coach
If you are picking the best position coach from the 2019 Titans, it doesn’t matter what side of the ball you are talking about, the answer is Kerry Coombs.
The architect of MMCNB, Coombs spent his time in Tennessee turning average defensive backs like LeShaun Sims and Tye Smith into players that you weren’t afraid to see on the field. Maybe, more importantly, he took good players and made them great.
Under Coombs, Kevin Byard became the best ball-hawking defender in the NFL regardless of position. He also oversaw Kenny Vaccaro‘s return to high-level play while finding ways to put Malcolm Butler and Logan Ryan in a position to make plays.
Adoree Jackson’s development also had to be mentioned here and every year he took another step forward and became one of the Titans best defenders last season.
The problem is, Coombs loves Ohio and his two years with the Tennessee Titans are the only two years that he coached outside of the state of Ohio in a coaching career that spans five decades. When he got the call to go be the DC for Ohio State, it was a no-brainer and I’m sure he will go back to mass-producing 1st round picks in the secondary.
Despite a dream resume, Coombs was never an option was the OSU DC job was in play.
Let’s look at the least qualified person for the job.
Shane Bowen, OLB coach
Shane Bowen may turn out to be a great coach someday, but there is absolutely nothing in his resume that gives you any hope. Even Matt LaFleur had a nice career as the “Offensive Coordinator” with the L.A. Rams, despite not actually calling plays.
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Maybe it was the combination of Matt LaFleur’s success in Green Bay proving that Mike Vrabel made the right decision hiring him as the OC, and Sean McVay’s ability to maintain both the HC and OC job and the power that comes with that, that ultimately made Shane Bowen the choice to be the Titans next DC.
Now, people say that Shane Bowen is calling the plays in Tennessee and maybe he is right. But Mike Vrabel is a driving factor in the planning of the defense and you have to consider the circumstance.
Imagine what it must be like for Bowen who spends his week with his boss hovering over his shoulder telling him what he should or shouldn’t add to a gameplan. Then imagine that it is your first year in your new job and every 30 seconds you have your boss in your ear saying, “Hey, do that thing that we talked about all week. Can you hear me? Hey, hey, just do that thing.”
Even if Bowen is calling the plays, there isn’t a second during drives where the Titans on defense where Mike Vrabel is looking anywhere but on the field. He wouldn’t even know where the offense meets on the sideline if he did want to go over there.
Now, the pairing of Shane Bowen and Mike Vrabel is going exactly as many expected when you remember that Shane Bowen has never called plays at any level and the one year where Mike Vrabel called plays, his defense allowed more points than anyone else in the NFL.
What were the other options?
Tyrone McKenzie, LB coach
You could make a case that no position coach on the roster has left a bigger impression on this team than McKenzie.
When he was coaching the Titans linebackers, we were writing articles about how Rashaan Evans and Jayon Brown should be considered the best LB tandem in the NFL. At the very least he was getting them to play with great chemistry and they rarely looked out of position.
Now, you are lucky if Evans and Brown aren’t running in the wrong direction on any given play and that is if they aren’t flat-footed just staring at the running back run right past them. That isn’t hyperbole, there are several plays this season where the Titans linebackers just don’t move despite a clear handoff that they are staring right at.
Maybe McKenzie was harder to work with than Bowen or maybe Bowen was more impressive in meetings or something, but even at the time, everyone thought that McKenzie should be on the shortlist to replace Pees.
Whatever happened in this time pushed McKenzie out the door as conflicting rumors came out on whether McKenzie chose to leave or if he was fired by the Titans. Either way, he is making an undermanned group of LBs in Detroit look pretty solid this season…must be nice.
Terrell Williams, DL coach
Williams has been a great coach wherever he has been. When he got his start in Oakland he made a…less than ideal group of players and made them into a respectable unit.
He was so good that Florida wanted to sign him to be their defensive line coach (which was a pretty big deal at the time consider how great that defense was), but the Miami Dolphins poached him.
That move worked out well for the Dolphins as Williams helped Cameron Wake and Ndamukong Suh have three of the best seasons of their career. I’m not just talking about hollow stats or sacks, they were a talented and well-rounded unit similar to what the Tampa Bay Bucs have had for most of this season.
In Tennessee, all he has done is overseen the transformation of DaQuan Jones from borderline role player to heavy-hitting run-stuffer and helped develop some guy named Jeffery Simmons? I’m not sure, I’ll have to check my notes but I think the consensus is that he is a pretty good player.
Most notably, his unit is the only unit on the Titans defense this year that hasn’t been a colossal trainwreck.
Knowing that and looking at the terrible job Shane Bowen is doing, clearly not knowing how to use his EDGEs (the position he coached!) correctly, it is pretty evident that Williams is the better position coach.
Stacking that up along with the fact that he has more experience as an NFL position coach (8 years) than McKenzie (2 years) and Bowen (2 years) combined, and I still can’t quite understand why he wasn’t even considered.
Maybe I’m wrong and Williams wasn’t an overlooked coach who has the resume to be a great prospect as a DC (I don’t think I am wrong), but I can tell you that when you look at these four resumes and you try to figure out which one should be the DC, I can’t help but scratch my head with the decision that Mike Vrabel made.
It was a bad decision at the time and there is a good chance that it turns what should have been a great season, into a disappointment.