Tennessee Titans
Projected Cap Space: $42.7 million
Draft Picks: 8
- 1st (No. 1)
- 2nd (No. 35)
- 4th (No. 102)
- 4th (No. 119, SEA)
- 5th (No. 142)
- 5th (No. 169, KC)
- 6th (No. 179)
- 7th (No. 241, GB)
Notable Free Agents:
- LB Jerome Baker
- OL Dillon Radunz
- WR Nick Westbrook-Ikhine
- G Daniel Brunskill
- DT Sebastian Joseph-Day
- S Quandre Diggs
- WR Tyler Boyd
- CB Daryl Worley
- TE Nick Vannett
- QB Mason Rudolph
- LB Raekwon McMillan
- K Nick Folk
- P Ryan Stonehouse
- LS Morgan Cox
Top Three Needs
1 – Quarterback
No three-win team like the Titans ever has just one issue. But it’s hard to argue the biggest problem in Tennessee last year wasn’t the quarterback position. Second-year QB Will Levis got the nod for first-year HC Brian Callahan with all parties understanding it was an evaluation year. Levis could have asserted himself as a long-term solution with a good year.
Instead, he struggled with turnovers and sacks and was in and out of the lineup for injury and performance reasons. Levis threw 12 interceptions, fumbled 10 times and his sack rate of 12 percent was worse than every other quarterback besides Deshaun Watson. It wasn’t just the raw numbers, it was how Levis compiled those stats, becoming a meme for ludicrous decisions like trying to a pitch a ball to a teammate while in the grasp of a defender.
Levis is under contract for two more years and the Titans have told him he’ll have a chance to compete for a role. But it’s hard to imagine Callahan wanting to tie his fate to Levis again if he can avoid it — and make no mistake, after all the changes in Tennessee over the past two years, Callahan is on the hot seat if things don’t improve. Tennessee turned the ball over a staggering 34 times in Callahan’s first year and the quarterback was responsible for most of those.
Expect the Titans to be among the most highly motivated teams to find an alternative at quarterback this offseason. They do have an advantage over the numerous teams in the QB market by having the No. 1 pick — it just happens to be a year where there are serious doubts about whether there’s a quarterback worth that pick.
2 – Offensive Line
There are few different pithy turns of phrase that capture how the discourse surrounding the NFL has changed dramatically in the last several years. One is “Sacks are a QB stat.” For ages, the blame for all sacks was laid at the feet of the offensive line without understanding that some quarterbacks inherently cause more sacks by holding onto the ball longer or not managing the pocket as well. You can’t discuss the Titans’ offensive line without noting that Levis had the second-highest sack rate in football.
But the offensive line isn’t blameless either. Tennessee has put a lot of resources into the unit with a huge deal for C Lloyd Cushenberry last year and back-to-back high first-round picks on LT J.C. Latham and G Peter Skoronski. Those two are growing into roles while Cushenberry was solid before getting hurt eight games into the season. The right side of the Titans’ offensive line was awful, however, especially right tackle which became a constantly rotating cast of street free agents, late-round picks and former UDFAs.
Getting a legitimate NFL right tackle in the building will be one of the Titans’ biggest priorities after addressing quarterback. Not only do they need a new starter, but they need depth as well to prevent getting as thin as they were this past season. A new right guard is also probably needed with both Radunz and Brunskill set for free agency.
3 – Wide Receiver
I’m sticking on offense not because the Titans don’t have needs on defense — edge rusher, linebacker and cornerback stand out as potential sore spots — but because fair or not, Callahan’s job security is probably tied more to how the offense performs given his background. And there are major, major issues on that side of the ball.
Tennessee went after veteran WR Calvin Ridley with a huge deal in free agency to shore up their group after former first-round WR Treylon Burks failed to develop. They added Boyd, who knew Callahan’s system from their shared time in Cincinnati, to provide another veteran presence and started the year with a trio of Ridley, Boyd and DeAndre Hopkins. Ridley topped 1,000 yards receiving but it was a struggle to get him the ball for a variety of reasons, whether it was Ridley or the quarterbacks throwing to him. On 120 targets, he had just 64 catches.
No one else topped 500 yards receiving. Hopkins was traded away at midseason. Boyd tied for fourth on the team in targets and didn’t score. Burks caught four passes in five games before getting hurt again. Tennessee’s No. 2 receiver proved to be Westbrook-Ikhine, a former undrafted free agent and career over-achiever who somehow scored nine touchdowns on 32 catches. He and Boyd are both free agents, leaving Ridley, Burks and not a whole lot else on the roster for 2025. Whoever the Titans’ quarterback ends up being, the team also has to make sure he has enough weapons to succeed.
One Big Question
Can the Titans find a vision they like and stick to it?
With all of the roster needs that have been articulated here, it’s easy to see how Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk could have been dissatisfied with the work of former GM Ran Carthon. In Carthon’s two years, it’s hard to say the Titans did anything but go backward.
However, Strunk should bear the brunt of the blame for the current state of the franchise. To quickly recap, Carthon was hired in 2023 after former GM Jon Robinson was fired during the 2022 season. There were a variety of reasons but the biggest was Robinson’s decision to trade WR A.J. Brown to the Eagles instead of signing him to a contract extension. He used the pick on Burks and Tennessee went 7-10 in 2022. Robinson was fired two days after a 35-10 loss to the Eagles that Brown dominated.
Fast forward another year and Strunk was so impressed with Carthon’s job performance despite a 6-11 season that she surprisingly canned former HC Mike Vrabel and promoted Carthon to an even more senior personnel role. They hired Callahan and also added Chad Brinker to the front office from the Packers.
Fast forward to this offseason. After a 3-14 season, Carthon gets the boot. Brinker gets promoted to president of football operations, and the Titans go out and hire Chiefs assistant GM Mike Borgonzi to replace Carthon as GM, except now the GM reports to Brinker instead of Strunk. Neither of them were part of the process to hire Callahan, putting him next on the chopping block if things don’t improve.
This sounds like a fast and loose way to run a football team. Strunk hasn’t done a whole lot to explain her decisions other than cite the team’s losing record and trumpet a need to “modernize” the front office. In the process, she ran a successful and highly-regarded Vrabel out of the building, and he was one of the top candidates in this past coaching cycle. Perhaps now the Titans finally have the right pieces in place to start building forward but given recent precedent, there could be a few more significant changes in store before Tennessee is back among the league’s successful teams.
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