The Tennessee Titans have been very good over the last three seasons, but is their run coming to an end? Here are three reasons they’ll disappoint.
The Tennessee Titans have been on the cusp of greatness for the past handful of seasons.
Believe it or not, the Titans have at least nine wins in each of the last six seasons. There are very few teams that have had winning records for six straight years, and the Tennessee Titans are one of them.
Over the last two years, though, the Titans have taken another step forward. For four straight seasons, they were 9-7 — good, but not great.
In 2020, they improved to 11-5. In 2021, the Titans won 12 games and not only did they finish in first place in the AFC South, but they also finished as the top-seeded team in the AFC.
How have they done this? With a dominating run game, a very good defense, and dominating the time of possession battle.
But their luck could run out in 2022. As a matter of fact, I’m here to tell you exactly why the Titans will be disappointing their fans in 2022 despite winning 23 regular season games over the last two years and even reaching the AFC Championship during the 2019 season.
Reason no. 3 the Tennessee Titans will disappoint in 2022: Ryan Tannehill
I’m sorry to say this, and I know this might hurt for some, but I’m not buying Ryan Tannehill.
Tannehill had an amazing comeback with the Titans in the 2019 season, coming off the bench in a shutout loss against Denver, leading this Titans team on a remarkable run all the way to the AFC Championship game.
Although it hasn’t been perfect, the combination of Tannehill and Derrick Henry in the backfield for the Titans has worked well.
I just can’t buy in to a team that has Tannehill under center. Regular season? Maybe. But Tannehill doesn’t move the needle in the playoffs.
Maybe it’s the Joe Flacco-like stance he’s taken on mentorship towards Malik Willis, or maybe it’s just his track record of not playing well in the playoffs in the last two seasons (2 TDs, 4 INTs in last two playoff appearances).
Whatever “it” is, “it” is causing me to believe that Tannehill will be a reason for the disappointment of Titans fans in 2022.
Reason no. 2 the Tennessee Titans will disappoint: The AFC is too crowded
Over the last handful of years, the Tennessee Titans have benefited greatly from a crowded but still wide-open AFC.
With the level of quarterback play around the AFC, it’s kind of shocking that the Titans have been able to rise above and finish with literally the best record in the conference, but their window has likely closed.
The AFC is absolutely loaded heading into 2022.
The AFC West alone looks like it has four playoff teams.
The AFC North could have three more.
The AFC East has at least three playoff-caliber teams, and that’s not even projecting the Jets to take a leap forward.
The AFC South is undoubtedly the worst division within the conference, but even if you just single out the Titans and Colts from this division, the AFC as a whole has no fewer than 12 legitimate playoff teams that have mostly all gotten better this offseason.
When we look back at the success of this Titans team from 2019-present, I think we’ll be able to safely say that this team missed its best window of opportunity.
There’s just no room for the Titans at the AFC Super Bowl Contenders table anymore.
Reason no. 1 the Tennessee Titans will disappoint: The hilariously bad AJ Brown trade
It pains me to even relive this one, and I’m not a Tennessee Titans fan.
I still cannot believe the AJ Brown trade actually happened.
The Titans must have felt completely desperate that the value on AJ Brown would go down significantly. Either that or they just thought the world of Arkansas wide receiver Treylon Burks.
One way or another, they traded their best offensive weapon outside of Derrick Henry in exchange for an unproven version.
Over the last handful of seasons, AJ Brown has really established himself and proven himself as one of the top wide receivers in the league when it comes to creating after the catch, other than last year which was limited by injury.
There’s no doubt that Brown’s effectiveness on a per-target basis was down last season, and perhaps the Titans viewed that as a sign of things to come rather than a down year due to injury (Brown was limited to 13 games).
With that being said, this just doesn’t feel like the kind of trade a “contending” team should have made.
We saw the Packers trade Davante Adams, and as bad as that trade is for the Packers, they still have Aaron Rodgers.
We saw the Chiefs trade Tyreek Hill, and as bad as that trade is for the Chiefs, they still have Patrick Mahomes.
The Titans have Ryan Tannehill. They don’t have Rodgers and they don’t have Mahomes.
They don’t have a quarterback that can be the tide raising all other boats, they have a quarterback that needs players like AJ Brown to help make his life easier.
Now, they don’t have AJ Brown, and the wide receiver room as a whole has been shaken up from last season. The Titans now have Robert Woods, Treylon Burks, and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine as their top three.
It’s a bold strategy, we’ll see if it pays off for them.