After such a strong start to the season, Tennessee Titans fans are feeling down after biblical plague levels of injuries have hurt the team.
However, the bye week should give fans a chance to step back and really look at how far this team has come in just a few years. Specifically, how far they have come in the Jon Robinson era.
If you or someone you know is having a hard to understanding how much better this team is than that team, The Athletic just released their rankings of the 32 GMs.
Instead of being a traditional power ranking of front offices, it is ranked by results instead of opinions. GMs are sorted into one of four categories based on how many drafts they have controlled.
They are sorted into groups of GMs in charge of10+ drafts, 5-9 drafts, 3-4 drafts, and 1-2 drafts.
After that they are sorted by win percentage and then Mike Sando (the writer of the article), provides some context and background on each GM.
It is a really good read if you want to get a better view of what the NFL’s front offices are actually producing around the NFL.
Where did the Tennessee Titans GM rank?
Well, if you read the title you are probably assuming that Jon Robinson ranked highly. You are correct because, among GMs in the 5-9 draft range, Robinson and the Tennessee Titans have the best winning percentage.
In fact, if you eliminate the GMs who have been in charge for less time than Robinson the Titans have had the 4th best winning percentage behind Bill Belichick (New England Patriots), Kevin Colbert (Pittsburgh Steelers), and John Schnieder (Seattle Seahawks).
Reading over the list, it is easy to see how some GMs were lucky enough to walk into dream situations with the foundation built for them. For example, Chris Ballard of the Indianapolis Colts gets a lot of credit, but he really hasn’t done anything special.
Despite walking into a situation where he had Andrew Luck and no one really had room for Philip Rivers, he has only had two winning seasons in his four-year career. Aside from drafting great players at low-value positions, he really hasn’t done anything to elevate his franchise.
On the other hand, Jon Robinson walked into a Tennessee Titans team that was 5-27 over their last two seasons. The starting 11 on both sides of the ball when he joined the team were…astonishingly bad. You can look at the depth chart here, but some of the names include Chance Warmack, Andy Gallik, Justin Staples, Fred Winston, Perrish Cox, Blidi Wreh-Wilson, and Jeremiah Poutasi.
It was so bad that one of those names was fake and you didn’t even notice (Fred Winston).
Since the dark times, all Jon Robinson has brought to the Titans was talent and wins.
It is important to remember where this team has been in the past to remember just how talented and special this roster is when it is healthy. Even banged up they won six games in a row including five teams who were in the playoffs in 2020.
Everyone is hoping for some good injury news after the bye week and the possible addition of a healthy Julio Jones for the first time all year along with an offensive line and running game that looked better against the New England Patriots than they have against anyone all season (even when Derrick Henry was healthy).
While we wait, just remember that the banged-up version of this roster could still beat the 2015 version of the Tennessee Titans by 20 points, that is how much better the depth and the remaining star power is on this team.