It’s been a busy couple weeks for us: trades, rumors of rebuilds, a new QB, shifting focus midseason, so I’d love to hear from you on pretty much anything pertaining to the Titans and/or this game. Even so, I have some questions of my own.
- What do you think of Arthur Smith so far? Tannehill had a career year under him, and regressed with the lush Todd Downing succeeding him. I’ve seen a lot of frustrations over the job he’s done going into Year 3, so I would love to hear what you think of him.
- How have former Titans like Bud Dupree, Jonnu Smith and others done for you? These guys haven’t done as much as we thought they would have been through their flashes, so I would love to hear from you.
- Teair Tart’s coming back to anchor the run defense, so which skill position do you think is going to take over this game? The secondary lost Kevin Byard through trade, so this pass defense is looking probably even weaker than it’s been the last couple years.
- How has your offensive line done in pass protection as opposed to run blocking? Lindstrom and Matthews have been staples, but what about everyone else?
- Looking at your defense, it has greatly improved from what we’ve seen in recent years. What has driven this? Despite having only 13 sacks, the unit managed to rank top 5 in yards allowed and top 8 in points. Is there a position group like the defensive line, linebackers, or secondary that’s been going off, or is it all three groups going nuts?
- Are there any pending free agents that you would love to have back as opposed to guys that you want/need to part ways with?
I work as a mod for r/Tennesseetitans, so please keep in touch with me through modmail if anyone in our sub gives you trouble not that I anticipate it with hardly any history between our two clubs, and I’ll make sure to keep in touch with you own. The charity that we’re sponsoring for this week is Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee, so feel free to donate whatever you feel comfortable with. Anyways, I look forward to answering your questions and for tomorrow’s game.
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AS - 5.5/10 as a HC Jonnu - Highesr grades Falcons TE OL - 6.5/10 past couple of games, prior to that, a 3.5/10 Defense - Jesse Bates been a great signing. A lot of good changes by Ryan Nielsen in how we play. Prolly a weak season for Aj Terrell by his own standards.
I think this has a classic trap game written all over it, but feel like D might just help us edge it.
Did y’all regress when Arthur left?
What’s going to happen with Tannehill after this season?
Y’all should trade Henry before Sunday.
In terms of points per game and yards, we still had AJ Brown and Taylor Lewan albeit the latter recovering from an ACL tear, so the offense regressed, but not nearly enough to overcome the defense turning from a laughingstock to elite that season. Once AJ Brown was out of those 2021 games, we generally lost, so you can understand why the trade was so bad.
As for Tannehill, we have to move on. We’ve defended him for the last several years, but he’s 35 and showing every year of his age. I anticipate him having a few more years of bouncing around as a backup before signing a one day contract with us to retire. Regardless, we got a lot more out of that scratch ticket to Miami than we had ever thought we would. I wish there were more than what we got, but when we got as many division titles each and combined AFC titles from him leading the way as the likes of Deshaun Watson and Andrew Luck, it’s hard to complain about that.
Arthur Smith - I really like his ability to scheme the run game. I have some issues with his passing concepts. Seems we have trouble with spacing and players have spoken about how complex to blocking, timing, motioning can be. Jury’s still out if he can really call a top offense. He did it once at TEN, but we’re kind of still waiting here.
Former titans - Bud Dupree has been surprisingly good. I feel like his name is called all the time in causing pressure and hurries. Jonnu has more catches than Kyle Pitts I think so he’s been great too.
Main attack - as a team we try to lean on whatever is the open look. Lately as you can imagine, they’ve left open the passing attack which is why Ridder has some pretty impressive passing numbers the past 3 weeks. I’m personally think Tennessee will continue that trend and try to get Ridder to throw. The loss of Byard might hurt.
OL - In the beginning of the season the pass blocking was in a shambles. Almost nonexistent. Last few games, it’s been much much better, coinciding with the better passing attack. The run game continues to be the best part of the OL though.
Defense - have to give equal parts credit to our FA additions and Ryan Nielsen. I saw some stat about our pressure rate and how we do it on 4 man fronts. Part of it too is Jessie Bates and Okudah really adding a lot to the secondary. We don’t have many sacks but we have lots of pressures and I think we owe it to the secondary.
FAs - we should extend Okudah for sure. CP is also on his last year but I don’t think we resign him.
My question for you is kind of what are your general thoughts on your organization and Vrabel? Seems like things are a bit off-kilter. Also thoughts on Will Levis?
The chickens have come home to roost following the three offseasons of awful drafts, signings and trades following the run to the AFC title game. Carthon did what he could with limited cap space and draft capital to at least get some decent players on the roster. I would have preferred a full scale rebuild, but keeping a culture intact matters as much as if not more than tanking for the best lottery ticket of a QB. It’s going to be a long season, but 2024 is the real test to see if we do anything with the new core.
As for Vrabel, he’s still a strong in-game manager with a decent eye for coordinators. Tim Kelly, Matt LaFleur and Arthur Smith were all good OC hires by him with Pees and Bowen doing well for us at DC. He panicked on hiring Downing, but overall, I can trust him to make good decisions for his staff and during games. Soonest I’d fire him is 2024, but that’s all dependent on everything crashing and burning. He’s at least willing to learn and adjust from being a hardass run first coach, so there’s always a shot things improve with actual talent on the roster.
As for Levis, he’s got actual elite traits and is almost certainly better than Malik Willis
If my answers weren’t too much here’s my questions:
-we’re 4-3, though most of the fans think we should have been able to beat the WFT to be 5-2. You’re sitting at 4-2, does that feel correct? Do titans fans feel like they should have been able to close out those losses or that those wins were unearned?
-what was the reaction to drafting Will Levis at the time and how do y’all feel about him now, given that he’s headed for his first start?
-how do fans feel about a rebuild? Is it time, or do they think there’s still a chance to push for something without tearing it all down?
We’re 2-4, and honestly, it’s fully deserved. Sure, we could have beaten the Colts and Saints in their houses, but when you go to the redzone, you have to score, period. This isn’t even an injury bug, we just weren’t that good, on offensive line, missing receivers, secondary not showing up, this is just a flawed team that’s not ready to compete for a playoff spot.
I wasn’t all that ecstatic about Levis when he was drafted, but quickly came around to it upon thinking “Are we really going to trot out Malik fucking Willis as a succession plan?” At minimum, he’s a Big 10 QB that went to the SEC and was dealt a shit hand his final year as opposed to a guy who couldn’t start at Auburn and went to Liberty. If he sucks this game, you’ve got a good defense, it’s his first start, no muss no fuss. Doesn’t remove his elite athleticism and pop on his throws. He got a master’s degree in finance, so I trust that he can learn and grasp the playbook as he goes through this season.
Speaking of this season being a rebuild, most fans have come around to it, with strong doomer sentiments throughout about the playoffs. Those don’t matter nearly as much as sizing up the roster and getting ready for 2024 with all that cap space. If Levis looks like he could be our guy, fantastic. We spent a second round pick for a guy that was supposed to be a top 10 pick if not for Anthony Richardson’s Combine performance and can reallocate what could be a top 10 pick elsewhere. If not, then better know now than later.