Six months ago, the Tennessee Titans didn't have a head coach, they lacked proven playmakers on offense, and the defense desperately needed to help Jeffery Simmons. Now, they have solved those problems, and ESPN took notice with a solid grade in their latest offseason piece by Seth Walder.
The team was given a B- for their offseason moves, and correctly pointed to the hiring of Robert Saleh as the biggest move of the offseason for the team, saying,
"The Titans reset this offseason, handing over the head coaching keys to Saleh and 53-man control to GM Mike Borgonzi," Walder said. "Saleh, the former Jets coach, hired former Giants coach Brian Daboll to be his offensive coordinator. The hope is clear -- that Cam Ward will develop under Daboll the way Josh Allen and, at least briefly, Jaxson Dart did."
Walder hits on the right point here, but he doesn't emphasize enough just how much of a coup it is to land one of the best defensive minds in football to run the team, while one of the smartest offensive minds gets to spearhead the development of the first overall pick. This is something that deserved more than just a quick mention because of how rare it is to have two experts in their field on the same coaching staff together.
The team's HC, OC, and DC are all former head coaches, and Bones Fassel is inarguably the best STC in the NFL. You would be hard-pressed to find a coaching staff with a better mix of experience and ability at all four of those positions.
In the rest of the article, Walder praises the teams for building an intriguing and high-upside group of pass catchers. He also points out that the biggest concern he has with the Titans' big offseason moves isn't the talent or ability of the signings; it is that the Titans might have slightly overpaid for some of the players.
If that is the problem, then there isn't a problem. Remember, the Titans had the most money to spend at the start of free agency, and they are still at the top or near the top of that list, depending on where you look.
When you consider the situation the Titans were in, overspending slightly to make sure that your new coaching staff and front office focus on getting guys who can be impact players in the team's new schemes, how can you argue with that? Football is played on the field, not on paper, and if they fill the role that the team has envisioned for them, they will be worth whatever the Titans had to spend and more, considering the Titans weren't going to be able to weaponize that cap space in any other way.
Considering the tax that small market teams have to pay in most rankings like this and the slight lack of context around the free agency spending, the Titans probably deserved to rank higher on this list, which makes their current "B-" even more impressive. The team unquestionably got better this offseason, and while it isn't perfect or proven by any means, it is still a step in the right direction, and there is a vision in place that hasn't been there before for the Titans.
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