The Titans need a new DC.
I didn’t think we would be here two weeks after the Tennessee Titans were knocked out of the playoffs, but everyone has to stop defending Shane Bowen.
At this point, Mike Vrabel has distanced himself from Shane Bowen and the defense saying that it was Bowen who called the plays on defense and he was the main voice in creating the game plans for the defense.
Some people think that Vrabel is using Bowen as a scapegoat and other people think that he was trying to protect Bowen early in his career by not pinning the DC title on him but at the end of the day that doesn’t matter. This is a business where results matter and there is nothing that suggests that the Titans would be any better in 2021 with Shane Bowen.
After a historically bad season on defense, there are still tweets like this out there:
I’m not expecting Bowen to be fired. Vrabel has fired one guy as Titans’ coach. D personnel was also terrible. Which OLB did you expect to progress? Landry is a one-trick pony who played hard but way too much. There was no one else.
— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) January 22, 2021
I want to take a look at some of the bad arguments being made that suggest that there was no way for Bowen to succeed this season and that he did as well as anyone could. Let’s start with this idea that the Titans defense lacked talent or that he didn’t have anything to work with this year.
Stop blaming personnel
This one is very easy to disprove. If you are blaming the players on the field let me show you the starting defense in 2019 vs the starting defense in 2020 based on which players got the most snaps.
2019
EDGEs (2): Harold Landry, Kamalei Correa
DL (2): Jurrell Casey, DaQuan Jones
LB (2): Rashaan Evans, Jayon Brown
CB (3): Logan Ryan, Adoree Jackson, Malcolm Butler
S (2): Kevin Byard, Kenny Vaccaro
2020:
EDGEs (2): Harold Landry, Jadeveon Clowney
DL (2): DaQuan Jones, Jeffery Simmons
LB (2): Rashaan Evans, Jayon Brown
CB (3): Malcolm Butler, Desmond King, Johnathan Joseph
S (2): Kevin Byard, Kenny Vaccaro
Even if you think Joseph was the worst cornerback in the NFL last year, it is hard to argue from a pure talent perspective that Kamalei Correa, Jurrell Casey, Logan Ryan, and Adoree Jackson, are significantly better than Jadeveon Clowney, Jeffery Simmons, Desmond King, and Joseph.
Still. Even if you think that group is worse, look at the drop off in two of the most telling stats for a defense:
2019 points per game: 20.6
2019 sacks: 42
2020 points per game: 27.0 (6.4 points worse, 4th worst drop off of any team from 2019 to 2020)
2020 sack: 19 (5th worst drop off of any team from 2019 to 2020)
The fact is, this defense had plenty of talent to put up a fight, but they were constantly misused and conceded easy conversions. It looks like the scheme was broken from Week 1 and teams quickly realized that the Titans were going to give them a soft cushion all day long which neutered this pass rush.
3rd down defense
Everyone should already know this and it shouldn’t even be a slide by itself, but I feel like we need to talk about it again. This defense was the worst 3rd down defense in NFL history.
To do anything for the first time in NFL history is a big deal (either positively or negatively), but to be the worst ever at something so important should be ground for firing immediately. Think about all the pathetic 1-win or winless teams that we have seen over our lifetimes, now understand that Shane Bowen made this defense worse than any of them.
It shouldn’t even be a debate at this point that Shane Bowen is out of a job as the Titans DC, and he should be in an uphill battle to keep his job as a position coach. At no point has he ever elevated talent at the OLB position and on third downs where pass rushers make their money, Bowen couldn’t get anything from his group.
In fact, he was too busy using the team’s best pass rusher as a slot corner to even try to scheme anything that would make this team successful.
Double team rate as an edge (x) by pass rush win rate as an edge (y) for the 2020 regular season.
— Seth Walder (@SethWalder) January 20, 2021
Plus, by request from @DaneBeavers, label colors indicate 2020 cap hit (red = high). pic.twitter.com/b0msKIdttg
It is so frustrating to see that the data clearly backs up what most people could clearly see within 5 minutes of watching a Titans game. But, if you needed to see the data just look up and you can see Harold Landry’s closest pass rush comparisons are guys like Justin Houston (8 sacks), Brian Burns (9 sacks), and Shaq Barrett (8 sacks).
Constant regression
I want to finish with this because I think this is a narrative that is easy to trick yourself into. People keep going back and saying “Well, it is because he didn’t have a real NFL offseason to teach his scheme and to have the players learn it.”
More from Titan Sized
- Tennessee Titans suspiciously quiet about major draft need
- Tennessee Titans agree to new deal with star Jeffery Simmons
- Caesars Promo Code Expires Soon – Claim $1,250 Today
- 3 needs that are being overblown by Tennessee Titans fans
- Tennessee Titans have potential dilemmas in 2023 NFL Draft
Alright, so then what you are saying with that is that more time under Bowen would help. If that is your argument, then you have to explain why he got worse every single month.
That’s right, instead of improving with time or getting a feel for the game and what to do, here are the Titans points allowed per game over each month of the season:
-September: 24.6 ppg
-October: 26.3 ppg
-November: 26.4 ppg
-December: 29 ppg
-January: 29 ppg
Imagine if you were at a job and you started off poorly and you kept making more and more mistakes every week. How many months do you think you could get away with it before the company had to make changes even if the boss was one of your best friends?
This can’t continue and people have to stop using the players on the field or not having enough time to implement his system as crutches to defend Shane Bowen when the evidence clearly shows that those arguments are just wrong.