The Tennessee Titans may make the NFL Playoffs, but they still need a coaching overhaul to reach their full potential moving forward, particularly on offense.
There was certainly reason for optimism concerning the Tennessee Titans entering the 2017 NFL season. And with two weeks remaining in the regular season, there’s still hope. The team sits at 8-6, currently occupying one of the two AFC Wild Card playoff spots. Of course, they have two tough games remaining against the Los Angeles Rams and Jacksonville Jaguars, but the door is still open for a postseason berth.
Yet, it’s hard to get remotely excited about this Titans team in their current form. Looking at the roster without the context of 14 games played to this point, that might seem surprising. After all, they have two Heisman Trophy winners on the roster in quarterback Marcus Mariota and running back Derrick Henry. What’s more, they have one of the best offensive lines in football and an improving litany of weapons on the outside — especially when rookie Corey Davis is healthy.
However, that’s not the case. In fact, most would include the Titans among the hardest teams to watch. And while there have certainly been injuries and some poor performances this season, it’s hard not to look at this offense and place a lion’s share of the blame on head coach Mike Mularkey and offensive coordinator Terry Robiskie.
Perhaps the most obvious example of this lies with the aforementioned Henry. Despite it being apparent right out of the gate that he was running better than DeMarco Murray, the coaching staff has consistently had the veteran as the No. 1 running back and given him the bulk of the carries. But a quick look at the most basic of stats shows how ludicrous that is.
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On the season, Murray has carried the ball 169 times for just 611 yards and five touchdowns. That’s good for just 3.6 yards per carry, and he has only three carries of 20 or more yards on the year as well. Meanwhile, Henry has toted the rock 140 times in 2017, going for 668 yards (4.8 yards per carry) and five touchdowns while also racking up five runs of 20 yards or more. That the combo of Mularkey and Robiskie stubbornly continue to not give the reins of the rushing offense to Henry is baffling.
More than that, however, the way that the coaching staff approaches the run game negatively affects the overall offense, including Mariota. According to NFL Matchup on ESPN, Mariota is the fifth worst quarterback in the NFL in terms of rating on third down this season. If you watch the play-calling in Tennessee, though, it’s not hard to see why. There’s no variety in the slightest with the offense. It’s run-run-pass so often that you could basically set your proverbial clock to it. Not only does that limit the effectiveness of your running backs on first and second downs, but then hurts your quarterback on third down.
In case you think this is just baselessly putting blame on the coaches, though, there’s plenty more evidence that something is awry with the men holding the clipboards. On the final play of the Titans’ Week 14 game against the Arizona Cardinals, they ran a pass play to cornerback Adoree’ Jackson. Given Jackson’s talents and versatility, that’s not unheard of, though questionable in such a critical moment.
However, what’s criminally bad about the play call was that, per Cameron Wolfe of ESPN, the Titans had never practiced the play before; the coaches simply told a rookie defensive back to run a particular route and then let him loose on the most crucial play of the game.
The evidence keeps mounting against the likes of Mularkey and Robiskie, too. In the Week 15 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, the Titans offense clearly looked their best when Mariota was running the no-huddle offense and calling the plays. Considering how he played (and succeeded) in college at Oregon, that shouldn’t be surprising. And it’s something that his teammates have taken notice of.
ESPN’s Wolfe reported on Monday that wide receiver Rishard Matthews wants to see more of that no-huddle style and have Mariota calling the shots:
"“I’d rather have Marcus calling the shots,” Matthews said. “There’s proof in the success when that happens. I’d like to do no-huddle more. I know we’d all like to do it more. We definitely talk about it a lot. Sometimes we go into it a lot. Sometimes we don’t. This game we stayed in it, and I feel like we were pretty good when were in it.”"
Wolfe also added that this isn’t an uncommon sentiment among offensive players in Tennessee either.
At some point, the Titans are going to have to come to terms with the fact that their coaching staff is holding them back. Are they a perfect team as currently constructed? No. Mariota still makes mistakes regardless of play-calling and they could stand to upgrade in a few areas. However, it’s impossible to look at the talent level side-by-side with the film and production and not think that they aren’t close to reaching their potential right now. Given all of the evidence that the coaches are at the root of those shortcomings, it’s hard not to call for some kind of shake-up on the sidelines.
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Maybe the Titans make the playoffs still this season. That’s fine, and it’s a good sign for the franchise moving forward. However, this team has another gear that Mularkey and Robiskie clearly have no idea how to shift to currently, despite some of the answers being plainly in front of them. If there’s not some sort of change moving forward after this season, it’s hard to imagine this Tennessee squad meeting the expectations many had for them coming into 2017 anytime soon.