The Tennessee Titans will have an improved defense when they take the field in 2021. Their offensive line is top-notch. They have the best running back in the Milky Way Galaxy. They’re set on the sideline with Mike Vrabel and his coaching staff. They have a top-ten general manager in Jon Robinson.
That’s a long-winded way of saying something that should be obvious. Not only are the Tennessee Titans the defending AFC South Champions, but they’re also set up to make a return to the top of the AFC’s food chain and make a deep playoff run at the end of the 2021-2022 regular season.
This is a good football team, and they have the potential to be competitive for a while. You’ve all watched enough of the NFL to know this for a while though. The analysis of every NFL team is subjective, so it shouldn’t surprise you when someone takes a concept that should be obvious and spins it in the opposite direction.
That’s something that Titans fans have been seeing over the course of the past few months, and recently, they were disrespected again. This time it comes by way of the worldwide leader in sports.
ESPN believes the Tennessee Titans window is already closing.
You’d think that a team that fought its way into the AFC Championship Game at the end of the 2019-2020 season and won its division last year would be getting tons of love, especially after they made some key additions in the offseason. Recently, however, the Tennessee Titans have been undervalued on more than one occasion.
They’ve found themselves ranked 12th in an NFL power ranking, one spot behind the Indianapolis Colts. They’ve even heard a former fan favorite state that Tennessee isn’t a city that a legitimate NFL star can get his just due in. Now, ESPN seems to be having its doubts.
They recently ranked every NFL team based on their chances of success over the next three seasons. The Titans were left out of the top ten on that list as well. They finished near the middle of the pack at number 14. Here’s some of what was said about the biggest reason for worry. Credit Louis Riddick for this one.
"For the Titans to make real noise, they need All-Pro level performances from two of their new additions this offseason on the defensive side of the ball: linebacker Bud Dupree and first-round cornerback Caleb Farley. Dupree is among the 25 highest-paid defensive players in the NFL despite recovering from an injury, and Farley was the best man-coverage corner in the 2021 draft but opted out of the 2020 season and is recovering from back surgery."
This time they finished five spots behind the Colts. Rounding out the rest of the 13 spots ahead of where the Titans landed were the Kansas City Chiefs, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills, Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Rams, New England Patriots, Seattle Seahawks, Los Angeles Chargers, New Orleans Saints, and Green Bay Packers.
Again, these types of things are subjective, and you guys can argue among yourselves or who the Titans should or shouldn’t have been placed ahead of. Still, it’s hard to understand how they landed three spots behind the Chargers or, as strange as it sounds, eight spots behind the 49ers.
Regardless, it’s often relatively easy for teams to look great on paper. We’ll need to see these teams on the field. and when we do, you can probably guarantee this. Tennessee figures to climb a few power rankings when that happens.