5 areas of concern for the Tennessee Titans in 2022
The 2022 NFL season starts in exactly 100 days, and there are a lot of reasons to be excited about the Tennessee Titans. However, there are several concerns as well, and five stand out most.
With rookie camp and nearly half of the voluntary OTAs already behind us, we are about to enter June which is the month with the least amount of football activities.
This time of year, every hangnail is amplified and analyzed ad nauseam. Does the offending nail threaten to derail the upcoming season? Should the team sign an insurance policy out of “an abundance of caution?”
Specifically, we are in the “Does a rookie WR need to use an inhaler? He’s a bust; fire the GM.” part of the offseason right now and it couldn’t be less interesting. Doom and gloom hang over the Tennessee Titans like a Titan Sized rain cloud. (See what I did there?)
But fear not fellow fans. The team will take the field for preseason games before we know it, and we fans will be ready to fit some undrafted rookie free agent with a Hall of Fame jacket soon. So, let’s wallow in a little more misery before that happens.
Let’s talk about the five most concerning things about the Tennessee Titans.
Tennessee Titans’ top concern
1. Derrick Henry’s health
The Titans’ run game didn’t fall apart after Henry went down last year, surprising everyone. But yardage doesn’t tell the complete story.
The team averaged 28.4 points per game with Henry in the backfield. Without him, they averaged just 21.3. That’s a TD difference per game. But his absence wasn’t only felt on the scoreboard. With Henry in the lineup, Ryan Tannehill averaged 243.5 yards passing per game. Without him, Tannehill managed just 192.4 yards, a difference of 52 yards per game.
Henry forced teams into more loaded boxes which opened up the passing game. Without Henry, opposing defenses abandoned the strategy of overloading the box and forced Tannehill, and a banged-up receiving corps beat them. They weren’t up to the challenge.
The King’s health is vital to the offense.