Tennessee Titans lessons from Week 14
After rewatching the Tennessee Titans vs the Jacksonville Jaguars, there are some important lessons that are being overlooked.
The most important thing for the Titans is that they won and they won convincingly despite the fact that they are still missing several key pieces. In fact, despite the bye week the Tennessee Titans only played three new starters: Rashaan Evans, Nate Davis, and Julio Jones.
Despite the fact that there are still several starters healing up, the difference on the field was clear. Offensively there seemed to be less pressure for every play to be perfect which meant Ryan Tannehill wasn’t forced to do things he was uncomfortable with, hence the 0 turnovers.
On defense, Mike Vrabel had hoped to see a group that had more energy and he got players flying around and making smart plays every single drive.
In an ideal world the Titans cash in on their long drives with touchdowns instead of one made field goal and one missed field goal and they go into halftime leading 21-0. However, a dropped pass here or a missed blocking assignment there means that the Tennessee Titans probably left 11-18 points off the board.
Instead of splitting hairs between what could have made this a “thrashing” instead of a “beat down” let’s look at the three things we learned about the Tennessee Titans after that game.
1. The Tennessee Titans defense will be scary soon
After the loss to the New England Patriots, it is easy to forget just how good the Tennessee Titans defense was playing in the middle part of the season. However, yesterday should have served as a taste of what this defense can be.
The scary thing is that they are about to get multiple upgrades at every single level of the defense.
Rashaan Evans and Jayon Brown collectively had their best game since 2019, both in pass coverage and in run support. This looked like the duo that had Tennessee Titans fans confident about the future of the defense.
However, there is a good chance that one or both of these linebackers is going to spend the rest of the season in a subpackage or on special teams because the linebacker position is about to get a big upgrade in the form of Zach Cunningham and a returning David Long.
At defensive back, the Titans should get back Jackrabbit Jenkins and Chris Jackson at some point soon, but the trio of Kristian Fulton, Elijah Molden, and Buster Skrine is going to prompt the coaching staff to let those guys get as much rest as possible given their level of play.
On the line, Harold Landry, Denico Autry, Jeffery Simmons, and NaQuan Jones have looked strong all season. However, they are going to get more rest and have more options as soon as Bud Dupree (who is eligible to return this week) and Teair Tart are back in the mix.
2. Nothing will be easy with the Tennessee Titans’ offense without stars
On Sunday there was one play on offense that stuck out more than any other. The Titans brought everyone tight to the line of scrimmage except for Julio Jones which put nearly every defender in the box except for a cornerback covering Jones on the outside.
Ryan Tannehill took the snap and threw a bullet to Jones before the defense could react. All Jones had to do was beat one man and it would have been a footrace to the endzone between him and the deep safety.
Instead, he failed to beat the cornerback and just fell forward for a one-yard gain.
While Julio Jones makes a lot of sense in this offense as a big possession receiver who still has the speed and body control to make some plays down the field, he isn’t a YAC guy anymore.
The guys who can make one man miss and take a play to the house are sitting on I.R. right now in Derrick Henry and A.J. Brown. Until they are back (which could be within a month), this offense is going to be a grind and it is going to take methodical quarterback play and fewer mental errors from the offensive line (missed blocks) and receivers (drops) if they are going to score on long drives.
Maybe someone like Anthony Firkser or Racey McMath can emerge as the YAC guys they have the potential to be or maybe Todd Downing can get creative with the way he uses guys like Jeremy McNichols and Dontrell Hilliard. Other than that, it is going to have to be based on taking what the defense gives you.
3. This offensive line is running out of time to figure it out
You could make the argument for replacing every single one of the Tennessee Titans starting offensive linemen this offseason.
Taylor Lewan is a good tackle and fans should be more optimistic that he will be better in 2022 once he is a full 18 months removed from his ACL injury. However, it really took him a while to look like himself this year, and right now he has 3 years left on his contract with $5.5 million left in guarantees but a cap hit of $42 million ($14 million AAV) over that time.
Rodger Saffold is a warrior, but it is just brutal watching him go out of every other game (sometimes multiple times in the same game) with whatever neck/shoulder injury is bothering him. Like Lewan, Saffold is over 30 and he is scheduled to make $25 million ($12.5 million AAV) over the next two years with just $7 million in guarantees.
Ben Jones is great and I actually think he is the player that the Tennessee Titans coaching staff and front office would keep if they had to pick just one, but he is scheduled to be a free agent this season and they have to ask themselves what they want to give a 33-year-old center.
Nate Davis looked great in the 2020 offense, but in Todd Downing’s new system he has struggled and hasn’t been able to stay healthy. While it doesn’t make sense to cut him, there really hasn’t been a dropoff between him and Dillon Radunz or Aaron Brewer when they have been asked to play.
Finally, David Quessenberry is somewhere on the borderline of being bad and fine. His problem is that his bad games are among the worst in the NFL but his good games are… nonexistent. Instead of good games he just has games where you don’t notice him, so at this point, even his strongest supporters like Mike Vrabel would even have to admit that he was wrong for playing him for so long.
Despite a good game against New England, this group struggled to move the ball with any consistency on Sunday against a bad Jacksonville Jaguars team with nothing to play for, and they should all be desperately trying to convince this front office that the first 13 games of the season were a mirage and that they are actually worth the money they are being paid.