NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Titans have taken big steps in four years with Mike Vrabel as their head coach.
They reached the AFC championship game during an impressive wild-card run in his second season, and they are the reigning back-to-back AFC South champions, with their most recent division title accompanied by the conference’s top seed.
If this franchise is to end a drought of reaching the Super Bowl that has reached 22 years and counting, though, they have to figure out how to win again in the postseason.
“We’ve won a lot of games …,” said Vrabel, who won three Super Bowls as a New England Patriots linebacker. “But we haven’t won a playoff game in two years, and that’s when you have to be at your best.”
The Titans can turn their attention to dissecting what went wrong after failing to take advantage of earning the AFC’s top seed for the third time. Turnovers were key in almost all of their losses – especially the three interceptions by Ryan Tannehill in this past Saturday’s 19-16 upset at the hands of the fourth-seeded Cincinnati Bengals in Nashville.
Vrabel’s 43 wins have tied him with Jack Pardee (1990-1993 Houston Oilers) for this franchise’s winningest coach through his first four seasons. The Titans have become postseason regulars after falling short in Vrabel’s first season, and their six consecutive winning records – they won 12 games this season – rank second behind the Kansas City Chiefs for the NFL’s current longest streak.
The Titans also have a core of young players, and Tannehill, running back Derrick Henry and wide receiver Julio Jones are all under contract for another two seasons. That should keep this championship window open, especially with Vrabel saying he has no interest in going anywhere else.
“I’m disappointed,” Vrabel said, “but I’m not discouraged because I know the type of people that we have here.”
Vrabel and the Titans have a track record of being able to fix problems in one offseason.
A year ago, the defense was at or near the bottom in several statistical categories. General manager Jon Robinson swapped out a handful of starters, Vrabel gave the coordinator title to Shane Bowen, and the unit made major improvements.
The Titans ranked second in run defense and sixth in fewest points allowed and third-down efficiency, and they tied the NFL record for sacks in a playoff game with nine against the Bengals.
“I definitely feel like the nucleus of this team, especially on the defense, we have the pieces there to have a championship defense to go out and win a Super Bowl,” All-Pro safety Kevin Byard said.
Vrabel also defended Tannehill, whose contract and salary cap hit essentially ensure he’ll be back in 2022.
“We have to be great around him, but he’s shown signs of accuracy, of decision making, the ability to extend plays and scramble and leadership,” Vrabel said. “So those are all things that you look for in a quarterback, and Ryan has showed us that.”
AP photo by John Amis / In four seasons under coach Mike Vrabel, the Tennessee Titans have become regulars in the NFL playoffs. However, they haven’t been able to duplicate the postseason magic of his second year, when they reached the AFC title game.In reaching the playoffs, the Titans overcame using an NFL-high 91 players, with the most notable injury to Henry, who was out for the final nine games of the regular season with a broken right foot after leading the league in rushing the previous two seasons.
Still, the Titans took a step back in several categories in Todd Downing’s first season as offensive coordinator, where he took over after Arthur Smith was hired as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. Tennessee scored 13 fewer touchdowns and averaged 53.9 fewer yards than in the 2020 season, dropping from a tie for second in most yards to 17th and falling from fourth in points per game to 15th.
They also allowed 22 more sacks this season than in 2020, and Tannehill’s interceptions doubled from seven to 14 – and that’s not counting the three in the playoff loss. Vrabel called Downing a great coach and a hard worker, which is not the endorsement fans want to hear coming off a postseason loss.
What can be done? Well, some of the roster decisions facing the Titans will be easy.
Picking up the fifth-year option on defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons after he followed up a career-high 8.5 sacks in the regular season with three in the playoff loss is a no-brainer. The same is true with eventually extending the contract of A.J. Brown, who was a Pro Bowl wide receiver in his second season (2020) and just set the franchise postseason record for single-game receiving yards with 142 against the Bengals.
Outside linebacker Harold Landry will be expensive to keep coming off a career-best 12 sacks in the regular season (he also had 1.5 sacks among his six tackles against Cincinnati).
The Titans spent big on defense last year in signing outside linebacker Bud Dupree and defensive lineman Denico Autry, although Byard said he’d be happy to restructure his contract to free up space to keep Landry, whose 75 tackles ranked second for Tennessee. He also had 49 quarterback pressures, 14 tackles for loss and one forced fumble.
On Wednesday, the Titans announced Landry would replace Joey Bosa (Los Angeles Chargers) in the Pro Bowl. This will be the first Pro Bowl appearance for Landry, a second-round pick in the 2018 draft.
On offense, left tackle Taylor Lewan missed four games with injuries a year after tearing an ACL, and his contract makes him a potential cap casualty or restructure target.
The NFL draft is April 28-30 in Las Vegas, and currently the Titans’ first pick will be No. 26. In 2019, Robinson wound up selecting five future starters with Tennessee’s six choices, and the Titans could use that kind of draft again.