For the second year in a row, the Tennessee Titans have come to a screeching one-and-done halt at home in the postseason. It didn’t feel like the 2020 team was going to go too far anyway because of its porous defense. But, this year was different. The Titans looked like the most complete team in the AFC. They earned the #1 seed and home field advantage throughout the playoffs. They were getting Derrick Henry back. All of the stars were aligning, and then they squandered the opportunity yet again.
You don’t need me to run through it again – Ryan Tannehill had a terrible game with three interceptions, missing open throws, missing reads, and just generally looking completely scrambled. Todd Downing had some odd calls – I think he leaned on Henry a little too much and was a little too predictable in certain situations. Jackrabbit Jenkins dropped what looked like a surefire pick-six, and with the game on the line, failed to slow down Ja’Marr Chase on a play that put the Bengals in field goal range. David Long Jr and Kristian Fulton missed tackles on big plays. And, they failed to quell Cincinnati’s hope early on. Everything we said couldn’t happen in this game ended up happening, and the Titans shot themselves in the foot multiple times. I’m not trying to make excuses, but I would confidently say that the Titans absolutely should have won that game, and would have if not for their own miscues. Instead of looking forward to an AFC Championship in Nashville, the Titans are left with a sour taste in their mouths. It was bad enough to change the narrative about this team from a dangerous contender that no one wanted to see in January to a team that just can’t get it done in the playoffs.
After 2020, it was relatively easy to identify what the Titans needed to do to correct course. Understanding that the window that was opened during that improbable 2019 playoff run to the AFC Championship was still wide open, Jon Robinson went all in on 2021. This was supposed to be the year, and Robinson was in a position to basically get whatever the Titans needed! Now, he and Mike Vrabel have a much more difficult task on their hands. There’s some reshuffling and rebuilding to do, but because the Titans elected to push all their chips into the middle of the table last offseason, and because the hourglass is starting to run out on some very important rookie contracts, this offseason is going to be tight. It’s complicated.
I’ll be digging into positional needs and potential targets as the offseason goes on, so for the sake of brevity, I’ll just say that it’s not the most ideal situation to be in. They have some clear personnel issues – the offensive line is aging, and the high draft picks invested there haven’t panned out so far. The offense needs more weapons. There are decisions to make on the defense, and on the coaching staff for that matter. Spotrac projects that they’ll have about $10M in cap space (24th most in the NFL), which isn’t a lot of wiggle room. You have to figure out a way to keep Harold Landry. Plus, you have a stellar 2019 draft class that deserves to be paid looming.
So, I really wouldn’t expect too much to change. The Titans are in a position for a relatively quiet offseason in my eyes. If you’re trying to pinpoint the weaknesses on this team, it’s easy to point the finger at Downing and Tannehill both. But, Vrabel set a precedent for loyalty and patience in retaining Shane Bowen after that historically bad third down defensive performance in 2020. Now, there’s a difference between he and Downing, of course. Vrabel and company pounded it into our heads last year that the issues plaguing the defense were personnel issues. I thought it was a way to mask Bowen from criticism, but it turns out that Vrabel was right. The issues with Downing this season haven’t necessarily been personnel-driven. So, maybe Vrabel approaches that evaluation differently. I still say he wants to keep as much of this regime glued together as he can for the sake of familiarity and continuity. That’s my guess.
With Tannehill, it’s tricky. Where the Titans were once simply committed to him, they are now stuck with him at least for 2022. There’s no way that the Titans are going to cut him – even if it wasn’t for the cap numbers ($58M in dead cap money if the Titans were to cut/trade him), who would want to trade for him right now? Tannehill’s stock has never been lower as a Titan. They’re not going to invest a high draft pick in a quarterback either when this window is still open, especially in a year with a quarterback class that doesn’t look to have any legit franchise-changers in it. So, I think it’s much more prudent to evaluate why Tannehill had so many games plagued by dumb aggressive interceptions and see how he managed to change so much from that terrific 2019 run to Saturday’s game. Get back to that, and this team will be fine. Us fans are all guilty of being prisoners of the moment, but I don’t expect the Titans’ brass to evaluate Tannehill off of this one game either. He’s their guy, for better or for worse, for one more year. This braintrust simply isn’t going to blow everything up when they still have a year left with this current form of the roster.
Personally, I believe that there’s a gray area and that multiple things can be true. Tannehill probably does still give the Titans their best chance to win in 2022, but the Titans could also probably use an upgrade at quarterback. This just simply isn’t the offseason to be looking for one based on their cap situation and the available pool of talent in free agency or the NFL Draft. Downing isn’t as good as Arthur Smith was, but he might not have been as bad as everyone seems to think either. The Green Bay Packers are a good football team, but they are also sitting at home for championship Sunday. Shit happens in the NFL.
The Titans need personnel upgrades, sure, but they aren’t in a position to go all in the way they did a year ago. Still, I say don’t be so downtrodden, Titans fans. It feels shitty now, but keep in mind that this is the same formula that took the Titans to the cusp of a Super Bowl in 2019 and won them the AFC South in consecutive seasons. It’s still possible, and this window is still open – at least for one more year.
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Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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