Titans fire GM Jon Robinson shortly after AJ Brown revenge game

Timing is everything, isn’t it? Some may look at the Tennessee Titans‘ decision to fire general manager Jon Robinson on a seemingly random Tuesday, December 6, as a bush-league move or ill-timed for a variety of reasons. Perhaps those people are right, but it’s important to note that the timing of the firing certainly feels intentional when you piece two and two together.

Just two days ago, the Titans got absolutely smacked around by the Philadelphia Eagles. That was anything but just an innocent loss during the regular season. The Titans’ loss to the Eagles came with a huge performance from wide receiver AJ Brown, the former Titan who was traded to the Eagles rather surprisingly in the middle of the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft.

Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk released a statement on the decision to fire Robinson:

Titans fire Jon Robinson after AJ Brown, Eagles thrash them

AJ Brown showed the Titans what their passing game is missing this season as he racked up eight receptions for 119 yards and two touchdowns against his former team. The decision to trade Brown was a weird one at the time for the Titans, who decided to send away one of their best players and certainly their top weapon in the passing game in exchange for the draft pick that turned into Treylon Burks.

The Titans didn’t want to pay Brown, which wasn’t uncommon for teams with star receivers in the 2022 offseason, but this Titans team relied on Brown to make plays for them more than, say, a team like the Chiefs with Tyreek Hill.

Predictably, Tennessee has struggled in the passing game. They rank 30th in the league in total passing yards and a player of Brown’s caliber could be the difference between this team being relevant in the playoffs or sneaking in just because they play in arguably the worst division in sports.

There are other moves to point to as failures throughout the Jon Robinson era, but there’s no decision more career-defining than the decision he made to trade AJ Brown. After seeing how good Brown is playing for the Eagles, and how much he’s elevated that offense, the Titans apparently decided they’d had enough.

The expectation at this point should probably be that Mike Vrabel, truly one of the best coaches in the league, should be given more responsibilities in the player personnel department. Perhaps Vrabel has gained enough clout in that Titans front office to be able to pull those strings. Perhaps he was opposed to trading Brown from the start but Robinson overruled him.

One way or the other, the Titans fired the GM, not the coach, for a reason. Vrabel is one of the best in the business but he’s not taking the fall for the current status of Tennessee’s roster. He certainly gets credit for maximizing what he’s got, making lemonade with lemons if you want to look at it that way.

Given the window the Titans are in with Ryan Tannehill, it makes sense that there would be urgency and even impatience from the ownership that the team would move on from its best skill player in favor of a youth movement at receiver.