Terry Robiskie, Ken Whisenhunt, Jason Michael, for as long as the Tennessee Titans have been in Nashville, it has been easy to find offensive coaches who are clearly out of their depth.
It would be almost impossible to find someone who was able to be clearly worse than some of those names, but the Tennessee Titans might have found their guy.
Enter Todd Downing, the man that every Raiders fan laughed at the Tennessee Titans for promoting to OC two years ago. But, it was going to be different with Tennessee, right?
I mean, Downing had gotten a first-hand look at how Arthur Smith was able to navigate injuries and maximize what the players on the roster did best. Smith’s ability to maintain the run-first identity while also being able to exploit defenses in the passing game earned him a job as a head coach in just two seasons.
Surely someone who had seen all of that first-hand would be able to take an offense that was averaging 30 points per game and keep some continuity.
Wrong. In just two seasons Todd Downing has taken that offense and run it directly into the ground.
Tennessee Titans’ historic failure on offense
You can argue whether or not the offense has enough talent to be successful. Smart people have said that an offense that has Ryan Tannehill, Austin Hooper, Chig Okonkwo, Treylon Burks, Robert Woods, Dontrell Hilliard, Ben Jones, and Nate Davis, should be able to score points every now and then.
Whether it means leaving bad players on the field like Dennis Daley, Geoff Swaim, and (at times) Aaron Brewer, or being one of the most predictable play callers in the NFL, Todd Downing has proven those optimists wrong.
Tennessee Titans fans say, “Will, it can’t be that bad. Remember the Terry Robiskie days?” so here is a fun fact, Robiskie was better at his job than Downing has been.
*pulls the pin and lobs a grenade into the TL*
— Ran GMC(arthon) (@jlomas72) December 14, 2022
Tennessee #Titans in 32 gms w/ Terry Robiskie as the OC: 22.3 points per game
Tennessee Titans in 32 gms w/ Arthur Smith as the OC: 27.9 points per game
Tennessee Titans in 30 gms w/ Todd Downing as the OC: 22 points per game
Despite Robiskie taking over an offense that had Marcus Mariota as the quarterback and Rishard Matthews as the leading receiver, that offense managed to score a paltry 22.3 points per game.
Obviously, that isn’t that much better than what Todd Downing has done but that includes the 2021 season. See, even though the offense was riddled with injuries that year the running game was able to sustain itself and Ryan Tannehill didn’t miss any time. This season is different.
In 2022, the Tennessee Titans have only averaged 18.5 points per game through 13 games.
There is only one offense that has been less effective since the Houston Oilers became the Tennessee Titans, and that is the 2014 offense that averaged just 15.9 points per game.
Given everything that Todd Downing has shown us, there is a chance that the Titans fall that far, but that record might even be beyond his reach in 2022.
Unfortunately for Tennessee Titans fans, all indications are that Mike Vrabel is going to give him another chance to break that record next year, so stay tuned as we all get a chance to potentially watch history.