Titans have a lot going for them
The Tennessee Titans are coming off of an 11-win season where they had the best offense in franchise history, so why is the Titans fan base so depressed/angry?
Whether it is Shane Bowen specifically or Mike Vrabel’s decision-making process, the last two weeks have been very disappointing when you look at the moves the team made. Losing the best coach on the roster and promoting arguably the worst coach on the roster tends to be pretty demoralizing.
Despite all of that, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the Titans. In fact, when I was making this list I ran it by Luke Worsham and Matias Wodner (my co-hosts on the No Nonsense Podcast) and had to edit it a few times to cut it down to five.
I’m obviously not a big rah-rah guy, but sometimes it is important to contextualize why Titans fans are feeling a certain way. The reason why this offseason has hurt so badly is because this team is so close to being a Super Bowl contender.
In 2019 they were one half of football away from a Super Bowl and in 2020 they answered some very important questions in route to an AFC South title. The ending was the same ending that 31 other NFL teams have every year.
So, who is the man who can get them to the Super Bowl?
1. Jon Robinson
In 5 years as the Tennessee Titans GM, Jon Robinson has quite the resume. Let me break it down piece by piece.
Trades
He has made several trades to fill out his roster, and the two that involved moving a 4th round pick (the highest compensation he has given up for a player) ended up netting two Pro Bowlers.
We all know and talk about Ryan Tannehill, but when the entire league seems to be offering up premium prices for Pro Bowl quarterbacks, remember that Robinson did it for a Day 3 pick just two years ago.
Speaking of things that get forgotten, don’t forget the trade for DeMarco Murray that helped usher in a new age of Titans running backs. Another player that people were writing off as done until the Titans traded for him, Murray resurrected his career in Nashville.
He also traded for Dennis Kelly who has become a staple of this team and Desmond King who is either going to turn into a compensatory pick or who is going to be a starter for the Titans next year.
Draft and free agency
At this point, Jon Robinson has completely rebuilt the roster from when he took over and everything good about the Titans offense came directly from players that he found. I’m not going to talk about the defense and how the Titans are wasting the talents of guys like Kevin Byard, Malcolm Butler, Rashaan Evans, Jayon Brown, Jeffery Simmons, DaQuan Jones, and Harold Landry.
Instead, I will just say that Robinson has drafted some very talented defenders who have either made the Pro Bowl or All-Pro list under other defensive coaches or who would be at that point with better coaching.
Sure, names like Kevin Dodd and Isaiah Wilson stick out as draft busts, but Robinson has drafted more All-Pros than busts in his top-100 picks, and I will take that track record every day.
2. Amy Adams Strunk
It is hard to see how good an owner is in the moment. Usually, the bad ones have stories leaked out about them after a coach is fired or after a scandal comes out.
The good ones usually sit back and are praised for letting the GM and the HC do their job without fear of being fired in an overreaction. But the truly great ones make the franchise better and they make aggressive moves to improve the team.
Amy Adams Strunk has done that by committing to numerous construction projects from a massive expansion of new offices for staff members to a new locker room for the players.
Most recently she signed off on a project that would update Nissan Stadium and make the experience even more fun for Titans fans and some of the things they are considering are VERY impressive and interesting.
She understands that you get out what you put in and her constant commitment to changing the perception of the Titans franchise from a place where people go to get out of the spotlight, to a destination that free agents and draft picks are excited to play for, can’t be praised enough.
3. A franchise quarterback
What do you look for in a franchise quarterback? If you are looking for someone who is the center of an offense and who is the conduit that everything runs through, then maybe Ryan Tannehill doesn’t fit that description.
But if you expand the title of “franchise quarterback” past the two or three quarterbacks who fit that description and you think about a franchise quarterback as someone who can make plays at any level of the field and who is a coach on the field that identifies and attacks defenses presnap, then Tannehill is your guy.
I don’t need to talk about why he is the guy, I can let the numbers speak for himself.
Since he became the Titans starter in the middle of the 2019 season here are his ranks in key categories:
-ANY/A: 2nd
-TD%: 2nd
-4th quarter comebacks: T-1st
-Game-winning drives: 1st
So he is efficient, productive and one of the best in the NFL with the game on the line. At what point do we start talking about him as a top-5 quarterback in the NFL right now?
4. An elite supporting cast
Another hat tip to Jon Robinson, the Titans roster is stacked with great talent around Tannehill to make his job easier.
Obviously, the first name that comes up is the 2,000-yard rusher, All-Pro, and future Hall of Fame running back Derrick Henry. Right now Henry sits atop the mountain as the unquestioned top runner in the NFL after back to back rushing titles and a record-setting 2020 season.
King Henry is a huge asset to have, but don’t forget the men blocking for him.
The Titans are set to return all five starters on offense in 2021, and those players are Taylor Lewan and Rodger Saffold (aka Team Run Left), Ben “Barefoot” Jones at center, and the duo who played more snaps than anyone else last year Nate Davis and Dennis Kelly at right guard and right tackle respectively.
As if that wasn’t enough, the Titans are also going to have receiver A.J. Brown whose career has started as prolifically as any other receiver in NFL history since the merger. Don’t mistake for contentment either because, after a season of playing hurt, Brown has his eyes set on being the best receiver in the NFL.
All of that is without the potential return of Corey Davis or Jonnu Smith. Davis was the team’s leading receiver until the second half of the Week 17 game against the Houston Texans and Smith had as many or more touchdowns than Stefon Diggs, Keenan Allen, Will Fuller, Nuk Hopkins, or Justin Jefferson.
5. 4 draft picks in the top-100
Here is a breakdown of the top-100 picks that Jon Robinson has had since becoming the GM of the Titans (excluding the 2020 class):
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Great (4): Jack Conklin, Derrick Henry, Kevin Byard, A.J. Brown
Good (6): Jeffery Simmons, Harold Landry, Nate Davis, Corey Davis, Adoree Jackson, Jonnu Smith
Fine (3): Rashaan Evans, Austin Johnson, Taywan Taylor
Bad (1): Kevin Dodd
Doing some quick math that means that history suggests that each one of those four picks has a 29% chance to be great, 71% chance to be good or better, and only a 7% chance of being a bad pick.
Those are some great odds, which is good because imagine how good this team could be if they added a defensive tackle or an EDGE that belonged in that “Great” category or even another one in the “Good” tier.
Draft picks as a whole are generally overrated because they are a crapshoot and you don’t know how long it will take for them to develop. However, Robinson’s picks have rarely been outright misses and even if you think that the 2020 draft class wasn’t great, it won’t bring his numbers down that much.
There is a lot of hope that this year’s class will be better than the last and that the last class might actually have some underrated talent if Kristian Fulton and Darrynton Evans can get healthy this year.