Earlier this week the Tennessee Titans Offensive Coordinator search officially wrapped up when they promoted 2022 Passing Game Coordinator Tim Kelly.
The move comes as a bit of a surprise, and the fact that Mike Vrabel yet again elevated one of his own guys from within is especially frustrating for some of the team’s fans.
The organization dragged out the search for so long only to hire an in-house candidate, which was strange to many Tennessee Titans fans. That certainly does not mean they did not do their due diligence throughout the process, but for the team to spend a month “searching” for the best candidate only to end up with the guy that Mike Vrabel wanted to hire for the OC job two years ago, is strange.
Try to treat the Tennessee Titans hire with an open mind
All of that being said, those who are critical of the move very well might end up being surprised, because Kelly is a proven offensive mind who has been successful in the NFL.
Again, this isn’t just promoting from within for the sake of continuity, when the Tennessee Titans lost Arthur Smith, the team reached out to Houston to see if they could talk to Kelly for the job, but the Texans blocked them from interviewing him at the time.
We are about to look at what makes Tim Kelly an exciting candidate, but take a second to think about what Kelly did with the Titans last year. Outside of being a sounding board for Todd Downing, he was essentially the TE coach for Tennessee.
What the offense ended up looking like while he was the TE coach isn’t a reflection of his ability as an OC. Ask yourself, was Todd Downing a great coach just because he was the TE coach underneath Arthur Smith? Both times the OC was the author of the offense.
Let’s take a deep dive into Kelly’s track record and why it should excite those who are uninspired about the hire.