It's hard to build a coaching staff, especially when you're a first-time head coach. While Brian Callahan did a good job in various areas, there is one hire that Tennessee Titans fans have groaned about all season long.
Special teams coordinator Colt Anderson was an assistant special teams coach for the Cincinnati Bengals where he spent several years on staff with Callahan. Instead of appointing a recycled special teams coach, Callahan took a chance on Anderson, partially because of their past relationship.
Maybe Anderson was a great assistant special teams coach, but he's proven to be unfit to oversee the Titans' special teams unit, which has been a historically bad group.
His performance this season has been reason enough for dismissal, but Anderson continues to dig himself a deeper hole. When asked about the special teams struggles this season, Anderson said that he "assumed too much" that players knew what to do early in the season and then he made adjustments as the campaign progressed forward. It doesn't even sound like a real quote, but it was confirmed by multiple sources in attendance.
#Titans Colt Anderson says that he maybe “assumed too much” that guys knew what to do on special teams early in the season when he talked about what adjustments he’s made himself this season as a coach
— JT Ruhnke (@jt_ruhnke) December 5, 2024
Anderson needs to know better. It's literally his job to ensure his units have been coached up to execute their assignments. Anderson seems to be indicating he assumed Tennessee's special team units had a better understanding of what to do even though he hadn't told them yet.
Being a special teams coach in the NFL isn't easy, but the bare minimum of your job is to make sure that your units are familiar with their coverage responsibilities and assignments. A good coach can maximize players, and a great coach can put players in positions to exceed their expectations, but no coach can just assume that guys know what to do.
Every rep in OTAs, minicamp, training camp, and during the season starts with coaching up players to familiarize themselves with their roles and finding the right mix. If they don't, you can't just assume they will learn through osmosis, you have to actually teach them and make sure that they are handling their responsibilities appropriately.
The bad news is that Anderson is almost certainly headed back down the ladder to be an assistant coach somewhere after his performance this year, but the good news is that he shouldn't be the Titans' problem anymore and the team can find someone more proven and more qualified to take the job in 2025.