One final look at the Tennessee Titans wild 2020 season
By Brady Akins
The Tennessee Titans were underdogs
The Tennessee Titans did everything wrong this past offseason.
They signed Ryan Tannehill to a four-year contract. Huge mistake. The former first-round quarterback had been an injury-prone, inefficient, borderline bust since he came into the league in 2012. And because he had a fun 10-game stretch in 2019 he’s the franchise quarterback all of a sudden? Okay.
Tennessee also signed Derrick Henry to a new four-year deal. Even bigger mistake. You’ve seen what happens to running backs after their first contract expires. Todd Gurley and David Johnson are the two poster-children for why you never pay big money to running backs — they’re just too fragile. Just a year after elite seasons for both of them, only to follow those years up with the injury bug and minimal production. Henry is just the next in line.
The beat went on. The Titans built their offense around a small sample size and a fluke playoff run, and they would never be able to match the historic efficiency they had in 2019. But Tannehill once again flourished in Tennessee, Henry made NFL history and an offense from last season that finished the year scoring touchdowns on 75% of their red-zone visits once again hit that mark.
Maybe the Titans shouldn’t have been doubted. After all, they showed us all exactly who they were in 2019. But after going all-in on a roster that was viewed as too much of a flash in the pan to do anything consistently in 2020, the Titans won their division for the first time since 2008.