This season has aptly demonstrated that Vrabel's ego has had an adverse affect on the Titans.
While the defense was never elite under Pees, the defense did enough not to put this much stress on the offense. The wholesale regression into a bottom 5 unit is in my mind mostly on Vrabel and the defensive coaching staff. I'm not saying the defensive players are blame free, many of them are underperforming, but with this many players regressing and the same mistakes/mental errors being made week in and week out and the scheme not being adjusted in any significant way, the coaching staff has to start taking most of the blame.
The fact that Vrabel thought he could be the behind the scenes DC and somehow teach Bowen how to do it in the long-term was laughable given Vrabel's one-year stint as the Texans DC.
The defense is what it is for this season, but I expect a DC to be brought in next season. Whether Vrabel does it on his own, or Robinson has to force him to remains to be seen. (I think Vrabel will do it on his own)
Last edited by a moderator:
Oh I totally agree. I want this team to have that swag about it but right now they know they are so bad on defense. I see very little confidence other than maybe Butler. Dude comes out ready fight every game.
Did you see Vrable on the sideline on Sunday? Every time they cut to him he was crouching with his head down shaking his head. HOW IS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE INSPIRING?! The team was down and kept making mental errors, we didnt need dejection and looks of hopelessness from the head coach... he needs to be in peoples faces and getting people hyped to stage a comeback. That pissed me off the entire game. WAKE UP VRABLE!
They had the talent. Clowney has talent. Hate on Beasley all you want, but he has talent (just no motivation). They had talent with Casey but threw it out after we got Beasley. Even without bum Beasley, Clowney and Correa would of sufficed. Correa has enough talent. Byard has talent but somehow forgot how to play. Evans has talent but apparently can't use it.
The problem isn't talent. It's scheme, it's communication, it's teamwork and trust, it's adjustments, and it's also motivation. All of that... is coaching. More specifically... coordination.
Sounds to me like bad personnel choices.
He's a better HC than he is a coordinator: "leader of men", motivator, in-game tactics. That's fine, but then you need to know your weaknesses and hire people better than you: Xs and Os, scheming, adjusting on the fly.
I'm also not sold on how he is at developing talent. TBD. Tyrone McKenzie was an underrated loss.
Pees has literally come out and said he's willing to coach again. He lives in Nashville. You're telling me you couldn't convince a competitive person to come take a swing at a legitimate Super Bowl and get to use a jigsaw piece like Clowney? You could even bring him back as a "consultant" so he doesn't have to deal with the day-to-day practice. I don't think Vrabel wanted him back. Maybe that was Tyrone's problem. Maybe he was up for the "DC job without the title or paycheck and being undermined role" and refused.
To his credit, he still does put the team in a close position to win. Even what should of been huge blowouts against the Steelers and Browns, we were in position late in the game for a comeback.
One bad personnel choice... Beasley, who did have 8 sacks last year and got hot at the end of the season. I'm not mad at the choice on a one year deal. If you take a swing, I'll accept a strike out on occasion.
We can't know for sure that coaching wasn't also a problem there. Probably both. A bad signing but couldn't even get what Atlanta got out of him in a prove it year.
I blame Beasley more than the staff signing Beasley...he didn't want to play.
We are missing Woodyard, Ryan and Casey more than we thought we would.
Coombs and Pees as well.
We are missing Woodyard, Ryan and Casey more than we thought we would.
Coombs and Pees as well.
The problem is multifactorial.....
What gets me is that we knew that lack of pass rush was a major, major issue with our team last yr. We address that by signing 2 older vets to 1 yr deals and then do nothing in the draft to address it.....so even if Beasley and Clowney had balled out for us we were going to be in the exact same boat this offseason....we really needed to draft an edge guy and last years draft had a bunch of depth.
JRob is certainly going to be hitting the OLBer market this off season again.
What gets me is that we knew that lack of pass rush was a major, major issue with our team last yr. We address that by signing 2 older vets to 1 yr deals and then do nothing in the draft to address it.....so even if Beasley and Clowney had balled out for us we were going to be in the exact same boat this offseason....we really needed to draft an edge guy and last years draft had a bunch of depth.
JRob is certainly going to be hitting the OLBer market this off season again.
Clooney didn’t do squat when he was healthy. We got essentially nothing out of him. Letting Casey walk, letting Corrrea walk bad choices. Logan and Woodward, understand. Bowen as DC- bad choice. Can’t really expect much out of the draft classes maybe Wilson big time bust
They traded Casey and Correa, and Woodyard is too old
Ok- yes traded pro-bowl Casey for a 7th and Correa swapped 7th for a 6th. And as stated, I understand the Woodyard and L Ryan moves and don’t feel they were that impactful.
Is a combination of everything.The one thing that pisses me off is the play calling on defense Pees loved the soft zone on 3rd down but was a master at chaging zones and looks.
Right now on 3rd and longs we aren't doing beep the lack of imagination from a so call defensive minded coach is just unreal we are running a classic bend but not break defense.
Right now on 3rd and longs we aren't doing beep the lack of imagination from a so call defensive minded coach is just unreal we are running a classic bend but not break defense.
I absolutely think the Titans need a DC but I will look at some positive. This team, going into last year as well, defensively has made good adjustments, typically after halftime. It's not every game but I'd say the large bulk over the passed two seasons had rough defensive starts with stronger finishes.
I think last year they did a better job getting takeaways than this year even despite the couple well timed takeaways earlier this year.
Considering the 8-4 record (3-1 in the div), I can't say either FA or the draft "sunk" this team. I see a few swings and misses among a team that was already pretty good.
If there was something I'd point at for responsibility of "sinking" the team (I don't think they are "sunk") it would be injuries. The LT injuries suck big time but the DB injuries are the killers to me. AJ25 not playing a snap is just awful among a struggling secondary. I'd like to think if Fulton doesn't get hurt, we are talking about how well he has improved throughout the season based on his draft speculations.
I think last year they did a better job getting takeaways than this year even despite the couple well timed takeaways earlier this year.
Considering the 8-4 record (3-1 in the div), I can't say either FA or the draft "sunk" this team. I see a few swings and misses among a team that was already pretty good.
If there was something I'd point at for responsibility of "sinking" the team (I don't think they are "sunk") it would be injuries. The LT injuries suck big time but the DB injuries are the killers to me. AJ25 not playing a snap is just awful among a struggling secondary. I'd like to think if Fulton doesn't get hurt, we are talking about how well he has improved throughout the season based on his draft speculations.
Woodyard's still a free agent isn't he? He's washed but could be useful in a leadership role. I wouldn't be opposed to bringing him in on a vet min deal if we can keep his snaps limited.
I think Ryan's leadership is missed more than anything.
I think it IS fair to say FA or at least off-season sunk the D. No DC- huge allowance by JRob. Swung and missed on pass rush- Clowney didn’t do jack pre-injury and Beasley nothing. Awful, awful scouting/assessment however you want to phrase it- the buck stops with the person in charge. Letting Correa and go were BAD decisions. And yes- hindsight is 20/20 but we judge both great and poor decisions with hindsight so that argument is irrelevant. Letting Ryan and Woodyard go is understandable, we thought we had replacements and injuries DID effect the performance of those positions.
So my only point is let’s not give JRob a pass on the D sucking. The drop is definitely assigned to his responsibility list. And before people think I’m saying JRob is terrible, credit for how the offense is performing well gets assigned to his responsibility as well. So he’s not a terrible GM. In the balance of things, he’s above average, trending upward (8-4 speaks to that) which is better than “slightly” above average as before.
It was a big ass joke to me that they wanted a pass rusher and went after Clowney..... he averages 4 sacks a season. He is not a pass rusher.
Here's the contracts for the top 5 DE/OLB free agents for 2020 outside of Clowney and Beasely and how many sacks they have in 2020:
Dante Fowler (26) - 3 years, $15M/yr, 2 sacks
Mario Addison (33) - 3 years, $10M/yr, 4 sacks
Jordan Phillips (28) - 3 years, $10M/yr, 2 sacks
Shaq Lawson (26) - 3 years, $10M/yr, 4 sacks
Carl Nassib (28) - 3 years, $8.5M/yr, 1.5 sacks
At very least our guys were just 1 year trial runs and we don't have them stuck on our team going forward.
The simple fact of the matter is, it was an absolutely terrible year to need pass rush help. The free agent market had no talent, and the draft was no better. Outside of Chase Young, there's only 1 rookie defensive player with more than 2 sacks, and that's some mid round guy at Minnesota with 3.
There was nowhere for us to turn to get defensive help without selling the farm to trade for someone like Ngakoue (who's on his 3rd team in one season already anyways).
I don't want to sound like an apologist, but give JRob credit for taking swings at two players who were as good a bet as anyone else out there to help our pass rush. The fact that it didn't work out sucks, but let's not sit here and act like there were any better choices.
Jrob had the right idea for the most part... Simmons plus 2 good rushers should have worked, our safeties and lbs should have been good enough, adoree and the 2nd round Cb along with marginal cb pick ups should have worked....
The problem is every pick and fa signing failed and we have no DC.
I'd say it's not possible to have a worse FA and draft than the titans just put together, on top of that we signed off on having no DC coming off last season when have a well run defense was the obvious most important ingredient solidifying the team
The problem is every pick and fa signing failed and we have no DC.
I'd say it's not possible to have a worse FA and draft than the titans just put together, on top of that we signed off on having no DC coming off last season when have a well run defense was the obvious most important ingredient solidifying the team
- Status
- Not open for further replies.
