After posting putrid field goal numbers in 2019, the Tennessee Titans must add as many options as possible for their kicker competition set to happen in training camp. The competition options the team currently has simply aren’t enough.
Tennessee saw a revolving door at kicker last season and made just 8-of-18 field goal attempts, which was not only the worst mark in the NFL, it was historically bad.
Adding to that, Titans kickers had issues achieving touchbacks, which led to an infuriating and embarrassing failed experiment with a kickoff specialist that only wasted a spot on the roster.
The only reason the Titans weren’t impacted by their field goal unit during their second-half surge to the playoffs was because the offense was scoring touchdowns at a ridiculous and unsustainable pace.
Since Ryan Tannehill took over in Week 7 (including the playoffs), the Titans have scored a TD on 34.6% of their drives (2nd-most in football). They've kicked a FG on 3.1% of them (32nd). They've scored 31 red zone TDs (most). They've had 1 red zone FG (least).
— JJ Zachariason (@LateRoundQB) January 12, 2020
Tennessee can’t depend on that kind of fortunate situation once again this season.
If nothing changes, the Titans are set to have a competition at kicker between Greg Joseph, who attempted one field goal for the team last season, and undrafted free agent kicker out of Missouri, Tucker McCann.
If we’re being honest here, this competition would really be Joseph against himself, which doesn’t make it much of a competition at all.
The lack of faith in McCann speaks for itself, as he has zero experience in the NFL and was signed off the scrap heap after the 2020 NFL Draft.
Despite general manager Jon Robinson and head coach Mike Vrabel recently expressing confidence in him, Joseph himself really doesn’t have much experience.
Robinson said the @Titans have a lot of confidence in kicker Greg Joseph. Said the team is looking to add an undrafted free agent to compete with him
— Jim Wyatt (@jwyattsports) April 26, 2020
The Florida Atlantic product has attempted just 20 career regular season field goals since entering the league in 2018, making 17. He has just seven career attempts from 40-plus yards (made five) and two from 50-plus yards (made one).
Joseph’s 85-percent success rate overall is no doubt solid, but there’s no question the jury is still out on how good he truly is.
At the very least, the Titans need to add more to this competition, and ideally that would come in the form of a veteran with far more experience.
On the high end of those options is former New England Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski, who became a free agent this offseason.
Gostkowski is recovering from hip surgery and it might take some time for him to be signed with physicals being difficult to obtain, but he should be at the top of the list for Tennessee with his Super bowl experience.
On the lower and more realistic end, the Titans should consider other free agents like Nick Folk and, dare I say, Adam Vinatieri. Hell, at this point I wouldn’t even mind giving Ryan Succop a shot to compete.
Of course, all of those players — even Gostkowski — are incredibly flawed in their own ways and naming them is by no means an endorsement to give them the starting job by default.
It’s simply to suggest that there are still veterans out there who can make this a real competition in order to help the Titans find the absolute best man for the job.
If Joseph were to beat out McCann AND one of the veteran options listed above, I’d feel a lot more comfortable that the Titans have done just about everything possible to make sure they have the right man for the job.
However, having Joseph compete with an undrafted rookie alone simply isn’t a good enough attempt at fixing what was the Titans’ biggest weakness in 2019.
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