Tennessee Titans Offseason WorkBook 2019

Tennessee Titans

2018 Record: (9-7) 3^rd AFC South

2018 Season Recap:

Offense

Points: 19.4 (27^th)

Yards: 312.4 (25^th)

Pass Yards: 185.9 (29^th)

Rush Yards: 126.4 (7^th)

Defense

Points:  18.9 (3^rd)

Yards: 333.4 (8^th)

Pass Yards: 216.9 (6^th)

Rush Yards: 116.4 (18^th)

During last offseason, many discussed the outlook for the 2018 edition of the Tennessee Titans mostly resulting with gleaming reviews for potential outcomes. With a new Head Coach (Mike Vrabel), a number of key additions to the roster, and coming back after finding their way into the divisional round of the playoffs a season prior, things were looking great for Tennessee.

Starting off the 2018 season against the Dolphins, which became the longest game ever to be played in NFL history (delays), the season as a whole was rather up and down when reviewing it objectively.

The Titans never really showed any great consistency offensively that would provide fear to their opponents throughout the season. Being something of a Jekyll and Hyde bunch, the offense at times looked rather pedestrian, then revamped to look like world beaters displacing some of the best in the game. Holding a 3-4 record heading into their bye week (week 8), Tennessee put together back-to-back showings of extreme authority dropping the Cowboys and the Patriots in convincing fashion.

While those contests placed the league back on notice that the Titans were the real deal, they again struggled to muster anything of relevance in divisional showdowns in weeks 11 & 12. While the season was far from over at that point, the Titans managed to ride Derrick Henry in the month of December to the tune of 97 carries, for 625 yards, and a fabulous 8 touchdowns. Finding themselves victorious in four straight in the month of December, it placed the Titans in a season finale against the Colts to stamp their ticket to the post season. 

When all was said and done, Marcus Mariota was unable to suit up for that week 17 contest, ultimately losing to Andrew Luck and starting the Titans offseason weeks earlier than they had hoped. A lot of positives can be taken from the 2018 season, but in that same conversation, some answers still need to be found.

2019 Offseason WorkBook:

The Coaching Staff

Last season saw the Titans bring on Mike Vrabel as their sideline boss and that will continue in 2019 amidst little change over to specific coaching ranks.

The Titans lost their offensive coordinator Matt LeFleur to the head coaching vacancy in Green Bay, only to promote last year’s tight-end coach (Arthur Smith) to take on the position this year. Tennessee will once again install a new offensive system for Mariota and company in 2019.

Outside of that, Tennessee’s coaching staff as a whole is primarily intact and ready to take on the new season.    

The Offense

While we know that we aren’t alone on our opinions on the Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota, we are forced to begin with evaluating him and his future.

There is no question that Marcus is a solid talent that can play quarterback in the NFL, but our concern rests with taking the next step with his progression. Going back to his 2016 season, we truly felt as though that would be his floor moving forward and we would continue to see him raise the bar for his overall play. While Marcus did officially miss two games to injury, he surely was playing hurt in many more. With durability an obvious concern, Mariota placed career lows in nearly every passing category increasing the level of anxiety for his future development. While we seem to place many negatives on his overall game, we must give reasonable thought to the fact that Mariota again will have a new offensive coordinator for the fourth time in his short career. Seeing so much change over for offensive systems is never a sound stepping stone for increasing ones productivity and consistency.

As Mariota has found his struggles, Derrick Henry is becoming a player that no one can appropriately dissect. While most think Henry can become a sound producer on a weekly basis, it appears he only turns on the juice later in the season which was again the case in 2018. Henry was quite ordinary in terms of production until the month of December where he became the hottest back in the league. It was our contention at the start of the 2018 offseason that Henry and Lewis would’ve been able to create a dynamic duo that every defense would fear. Heading into the 2019 offseason, we are far more skeptical to say the least.

Many improvements need to be had on this side of the ball including adding depth to the offensive line and wide receiver positions. The Titans offensive line isn’t far off from returning to levels of a few seasons ago, but the receiving core is one of the weakest units in the NFL. In our eyes the jury is still out on Corey Davis as we still believe he could become a difference maker. Outside of that, the Titans hold only mere secondary pieces and should look to upgrade heavily this offseason.  

The Defense

While the offensive side was clearly under the microscope this season, the defense took a giant leap in the right direction becoming one of the better all-around units in the league.

Outside of hometown coverage, the Titans defense never really gained the respect they deserved on the national stage, even though they managed to generate top 10 rankings in many statistical categories. Like most teams in the NFL, encoring injuries is a normal occurrence which did place a wrinkle in this unit to realize its full potential. The defensive front showed signs of flash and positivity for the future with Jurrell Casey continuing his fine play and up and coming rookie potential star Harold Landry finding his feet later in the season. 

The Titans line backing and defensive back cores were equally as impressive showing fantastic ability in becoming a bend but don’t break unit. For all inclined, ADF is very encouraged with the prospects of this group becoming even stronger this season with key additions. Even though Tennessee lost the services of Brian Orakpo to retirement, they have some depth already on the roster that should compete for playing time come the regular season.   

At this point, the defense is the strength of this club and should grow stronger with another season under coach Vrabel.

Team Free Agents / Team Salary Cap

The Titans have done a fairly decent job managing the books these last few seasons only having to contend with a mere 15 players with free agent status.

Highlighting the group of players set to hit the open market, Derrick Morgan and Bennie Logan are the highest earners from last season’s roster that may be sent packing. Both players did produce and were important pieces to the defensive puzzle, but at this point, Morgan could be a long shot to return simply due to his age. Kenny Vaccaro and Will Compton also have very sound appeal to garner new contracts from the Titans brain trust as both provided fantastic depth and play making ability. Compton could be a no brainer re-sign with the retirement to Brian Orakpo keeping added depth to the group.

Tennessee currently sits with a good deal of funds on the books with just over 40 million to spend (+$40,395,557). The looming question mark for this club remains on how to handle Marcus Mariota and if they are willing to work out an extension this season, or to let him play out his option year. This season Marcus holds a whopping 20+million dollar cap hit which is eating up nearly 10% of the Titans overall cap for 2019. Management has quite the conundrum on their hands in how to handle this situation.

Keeping Marcus on his current deal shouldn’t hamper the Titans all that much this year as they do possess a few options to generate extra funds if they’re so inclined. When reviewing the books, Logan Ryan jumps off the paper as a prime cut candidate holding an enormous cap hit of 10.6 million with literally no dead money attached. Using these funds to secure more talent on the offensive side, while finding Ryan’s replacement in the draft could be the likeliest of scenario’s in our eyes.        

Outside of that potential roster move, the Titans cap looks to be in very sound working order at this point.

The NFL Draft

Heading into the 2019 NFL Draft, the Titans currently hold six selections to date while missing their 6^th round pick, and picking 19^th overall in the first round of the draft.

Tennessee is an intriguing bunch heading into the draft as they could move in multiple directions in each round. Sometimes building on your strength (in the Titans case the defense), could be a very intelligent way to win ball games. However, Tennessee needs to place more talent around Marcus Mariota knowing that assigning an appropriate dollar figure on his services after this season will become an issue.

We could see a very even draft for the Titans as they look to build on both sides of the ball equally.