Tag: Todd Downing

Todd Downing attends, coaches drills during Saturday’s Combine session

Todd Downing attends, coaches drills during Saturday’s Combine session

Jets passing game coordinator Todd Downing was in attendance and did a little coaching during Saturday’s on-field drills for quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers at the Scouting Combine.

Downing served as the “main voice” in the quarterback room last season and will continue to have a hand in the position now that Rob Calabrese has joined the Los Angeles Rams.

Wide receiver is a big need for the Jets but there’s also a chance they draft a quarterback late. For now, the only quarterback under contract for the 2025 season is Aaron Rodgers. Zach Wilson is expected to be traded this offseason.

Saturday’s action was highlighted by the quarterbacks throwing, including Michael Penix of Washington, Bo Nix of Oregon and J.J. McCarthy of national champion Michigan.

The biggest highlight came from Texas wide receiver Xavier Worthy as he broke the record for the fastest recorded 40-yard dash at the Combine at 4.21 seconds. The previous record was 4.22 by wide receiver John Ross.

Robert Saleh sticking with Zach Wilson, Nathaniel Hackett

Robert Saleh sticking with Zach Wilson, Nathaniel Hackett

No changes are coming on the offensive side of the football for the Jets despite the struggles over the past few weeks or even months.

Head coach Robert Saleh told reporters Monday he will stick with Zach Wilson at quarterback and Nathaniel Hackett as the offensive play-caller.

At this point, it doesn’t seem like too much of a surprise that Saleh is hanging on with Wilson. Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas have been holding on to hope for so long. The only quarterback move they’ve made since Aaron Rodgers’ injury in Week 1 was adding Trevor Siemian to the practice squad. Siemian has yet to be on the active roster this season.

Saleh continues to defend the play of Wilson. In the last two games, he hasn’t thrown a touchdown pass and has been sacked 10 times. For the season, he has five touchdown passes against six interceptions, with a passer rating of 74.6.

“He’s actually playing pretty well,” Saleh said. “It’s hard to make changes just to make changes to pacify something,” he added.

Saleh did mention the team may look into “personnel changes” to try to get something going on offense.

As for who will call the offense, Saleh is sticking with Hackett as the play-caller despite some perhaps thinking the reins should be handed over to passing game coordinator Todd Downing. Hackett has had his own issues this season, especially in the end zone. But Saleh is going to stick with his guy.

More data shows how dismal Titans’ 2022 offense was on early downs

Todd Downing routinely ran Derrick Henry into a brick wall on first downs in 2022.

[anyclip pubname=”2103″ widgetname=”0016M00002U0B1kQAF_M8036″]

The Todd Downing experiment in Tennessee was disastrous from the start and it didn’t take long to realize how big of a downgrade Downing was in comparison to what Arthur Smith brought to the team during his tenure.

This entire offseason, Warren Sharp of Sharp Football Analysis has done a good job of pointing out just how lackluster Tennessee’s former offensive coordinator was, even calling Downing a “double agent trying to make life difficult for the Titans offense.”

Sharp recently decided to research a variety of topics surrounding first-half offenses around the league, and unsurprisingly, the Titans’ Downing-led offense didn’t fare favorably in either category.

The Titans not only finished with the most first-down runs which resulted in a maximum gain of two yards or less (58), Tennessee also produced the sixth-lowest pass rate on early downs (49.4 percent).

Needless to say, routinely putting the Titans’ one-dimensional offense in 3rd-and-longs was a recipe for disaster, and it’s one of many reasons why Downing is no longer running the offense.

Let’s hope a Tim Kelly-led group produces a more balanced and unpredictable attack on early downs in order to help put the offense in more manageable situations throughout the game.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Analyst convinced ex-Titans OC Todd Downing was a ‘double agent’

One NFL analyst hilariously compared former Titans OC Todd Downing to a “double agent”.

[anyclip pubname=”2103″ widgetname=”0016M00002U0B1kQAF_M8036″]

During his two-year stint as the Tennessee Titans’ offensive coordinator, fans often believed that Todd Downing was actively working against the team thanks to his questionable play-calling.

Part of the issue was Downing’s insistence on running the ball on first down, which would have been fine if the Titans found success.

But that was not the case thanks to teams stacking the box at the fourth-highest rate in the league against them, and Tennessee having a putrid offensive line.

The result was the Titans being forced into third downs often, and many times those third downs were less than manageable, especially for a Tennessee team that struggled to move the ball through the air.

Making that situation more frustrating was the fact that the Titans were actually the third-most efficient team when it came to throwing on first downs, as NFL analyst Warren Sharp pointed out.

When taking everything into consideration, Sharp is hilariously convinced that Downing was a “double agent” working against the Titans, something Tennessee fans have certainly considered.

In case you’re not familiar with this spy term, a “double agent” is “a spy pretending to serve one government while actually serving another.”

Thankfully, the Titans came to their senses and fired Downing this offseason.

Since then, Downing has taken the passing-game coordinator job with the New York Jets, which is hilarious considering the Titans sported among the worst and least imaginative passing attacks in the NFL the past two years.

The good news for the Jets’ offense is, Downing is the pass-game coordinator of an offense led by a future Hall of Famer in Aaron Rodgers, so how badly could he really screw it up?

I’ll say this: if there’s anyone who can, it’s Downing.

While Downing certainly deserves the blame, one has to wonder how much influence head coach Mike Vrabel had on this approach. After all, the Titans have pretty much been this way throughout his tenure in Nashville, and we know Vrabel loves to run the damn ball.

If we see new offensive coordinator Tim Kelly running Derrick Henry into a wall on first down all year long once again without an adjustment, we’ll know that, at the very least, Vrabel has more to do with it than not.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Titans’ 2022 offense ranked in middle of pack in 30-plus yard gains

The Titans’ 2022 offense landed in the middle of the NFL in 30-plus yard plays.

[anyclip pubname=”2103″ widgetname=”0016M00002U0B1kQAF_M8036″]

To say the Todd Downing-led Tennessee Titans offense was polarizing would be a drastic understatement. Last year’s offense was one of the most lifeless and inconsistent units in a plethora of different ways.

Whether it was injuries, ridiculous play calls, or controversial personnel decisions, it seemed like the only aspect of the Titans’ offense that was consistent was the fact that Tennessee couldn’t get out of its own way.

Surprisingly, despite the Titans’ offensive shortcomings as a whole, the unit ranked in the middle of the pack when it came to producing plays that gained a minimum of 30 yards.

According to Warren Sharp of Sharp Football Analysis, the 2022 Titans accounted for 24 offensive plays that eclipsed the 30-yard threshold, the 16th-most in the NFL.

Now that Tim Kelly is in charge of the offense, the Titans should be better suited schematically for the modern game, which subsequently should give them a realistic chance of improving their ranking on this list in 2023.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Titans’ 2022 pass rate after 1st down incompletion among lowest in NFL

The Titans had one of the lowest pass rates in the NFL in 2022 following an incompletion on first down.

One of the many gripes with former Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator Todd Downing was his propensity to run the football after the team gained little or no yardage on first downs, whether that be via pass or run.

That approach led to difficult third-down situations that Tennessee’s putrid passing attack simply wasn’t able to overcome.

Football analyst Warren Sharp crunched the numbers and showed that the Titans were near the bottom of the NFL in pass rate on second-and-10 scenarios following an incomplete pass on first down.

The Titans only threw the ball 42 percent of the time after a first-down incompletion, which ranked bottom five in the NFL.

[affiliatewidget_smgtolocal]

The teams with a lower pass rate were the Cleveland Browns, Washington Commanders, New Orleans Saints and Chicago Bears.

Of course, some of that can be blamed on the fact that the Titans’ best avenue to move the ball was on the ground thanks to injuries and overall ineptitude in the receivers room. But, even considering that, this is still unacceptable.

Thankfully, Downing’s ineptitude as a play-caller will no longer haunt the Titans after the team fired him earlier this offseason and replaced him with Tim Kelly, who has nowhere to go but up from here.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbyh7crnrcs3ypf player_id=01eqbvhghtkmz2182d image=]

Video of ex-Titans OC Todd Downing’s DUI arrest released

Video of former Titans OC Todd Downing’s November DUI arrest has been released.

A little over four months after former Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator and current New York Jets passing-game coordinator Todd Downing’s arrest for DUI, video of the incident has been released.

The video of Downing’s arrest comes from TMZ Sports, and in it the officer notes that Downing was doing “easily over” 100 MPH before he pulled him over.

The ex-Titans offensive coordinator, who helped lead Tennessee to a victory over the Packers in Green Bay just hours before his arrest near Nashville on his way home from the airport, apologized for speeding and told the officer he was rushing home to his family because he received a death threat.

“I never meant to go reckless, I’m just worried about my family,” Downing said.

The officer told Downing he smelled alcohol coming from the car; however, the 42-year-old coach denied he was drinking. Downing then went through field sobriety tests, which he failed, prompting his arrest for DUI.

After being put in the police car, Downing can be heard pleading for “grace” from the officer. He then calls someone with the team to let them know what happened before admitting he drank a “victory beer.”

Check out the entire video below.

Downing, who was fired by the Titans in January and hired by the Jets the following month, eventually served a 48-hour sentence in February.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Ex-Titans OC Todd Downing to be ‘main voice’ in Jets’ QBs room

Former Titans OC and current Jets pass-game coordinator Todd Downing will serve as the Jets’ “main voice” in the quarterbacks room.

Tennessee Titans fans should get a kick out of this one: New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh said his new passing-game coordinator, Todd Downing, will be the “main voice” in the team’s quarterbacks room this season.

Saleh said so last Thursday while down at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. He also spoke highly of the former Titans offensive coordinator and pointed out some of the quarterbacks he’s worked with.

“Todd Downing, bringing him also from Tennessee. His experience with quarterbacks, he was with (Matthew) Stafford in the early years of his career,” Saleh said. “He was with Derek Carr at the early years of his career and obviously with (Ryan) Tannehill during Tannehill’s resurrection, if you will. He comes with a wealth of knowledge of quarterback play, so he’ll be kind of a, God rest his soul, that Knapper (Greg Knapp) role in terms of running the quarterback room and being the main voice in that regard.”

While Downing was on the staff for Tannehill’s “resurrection”, as Saleh so aptly calls it, he was coaching the tight ends during Tannehill’s two best years in Nashville (2019 and 2020), so he had little, if anything, to do with that.

He then took over as offensive coordinator in 2021 with disastrous results, as Tennessee’s offense took a step back two years in a row and struggled with throwing the ball in particular. Of course, Tannehill struggled, also.

Granted, Downing didn’t have a ton to work in 2022, but there was never a point where we could say he elevated any part of the offense or made things easier with his play-calling, and especially not the quarterback position.

Knowing that, it’s almost comical to see what his new role with the Jets will be, both as the “main voice” for quarterbacks and the passing-game coordinator.

Maybe Downing will be better suited in those roles than as a play-caller, but even then that won’t be saying much. It’s also possible he won’t have to do much if the Jets can find a way to land Aaron Rodgers.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbyh7crnrcs3ypf player_id=01eqbvhghtkmz2182d image=]

Todd Downing to serve as ‘main voice’ in quarterback room

Todd Downing to serve as ‘main voice’ in quarterback room

The New York Jets are going to have a new quarterback leading the charge on the field and they’ll have a new voice leading the way in the quarterback room.

Head coach Robert Saleh told the media Thursday that pass-game coordinator Todd Downing will serve as the main voice in the quarterback room this season.

“Todd Downing, bringing him also from Tennessee. His experience with quarterbacks, he was with (Matthew) Stafford in the early years of his career. He was with Derek Carr at the early years of his career and obviously with (Ryan) Tannehill during Tannehill’s resurrection, if you will. He comes with a wealth of knowledge of quarterback play, so he’ll be kind of a, God rest his soul, that Knapper (Greg Knapp) role in terms of running the quarterback room and being the main voice in that regard.”

Knapp was hired as the quarterbacks coach in 2021 and started being a voice for a player like Zach Wilson. Unfortunately, Knapp passed away that summer due to injuries sustained when he was hit by a car while riding a bike in California. Matt Cavanaugh was brought in as a senior offensive assistant later in 2021 before Saleh decided not to have someone in that role in 2022 because he wanted to “quiet” the quarterback room.

Now someone will be in that role again in 2023 and that will be Downing, who has the background, as Saleh mentioned, of working with Stafford, Carr and Tannehill. The question now becomes which quarterback will be the main one Downing and quarterbacks coach Rob Calabrese will work with next season.

Todd Downing has connections to two potential options at quarterback for Jets

Todd Downing has connections to two potential options at quarterback for Jets

The Jets are searching for a new quarterback this offseason. They also just hired an assistant coach that has worked in the past with two of the names linked to the Jets’ search.

The Jets are bringing in former Titans offensive coordinator Todd Downing as their new passing game coordinator under new offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. Coming from the Titans creates the connection with Ryan Tannehill, who the Titans could be moving on from as they can save about $18 million in cap space.

The other connection is soon-to-be former Raiders quarterback Derek Carr, who recently told the team he will not help facilitate a trade to any team and is expected to be released.

Downing spent three seasons from 2015-2017 with the then-Oakland Raiders, spending the first two seasons as their quarterbacks coach, meaning he helped develop Carr during this early years in the league. Downing became the offensive coordinator for the Raiders in 2017.

While the hiring of Downing doesn’t guarantee one of those quarterbacks will be coming to the Jets just like the hiring of Hackett doesn’t necessarily guarantee they will be getting Aaron Rodgers. But it is interesting to note the work Downing has done in the past with some quarterbacks.

While he obviously isn’t a quarterback option for the Jets, it’s also worth noting that Downing also worked with a young Matthew Stafford in Detroit. Downing spent five seasons (2009-2013) with the Lions.