The Tennessee Titans played with their food a bit, but ultimately took care of business against the Houston Texans in Week 18 en route to securing the No. 1 seed in the AFC.
While the conference’s top position and the resulting bye week are the big headlines, something I saw during the game stuck out to me even more: the Titans’ passing offense.
The Titans have struggled in the passing game all year and for a multitude of reasons.
The offensive line has cratered in pass protection, allowing 47 sacks on the season, seventh-worst in the NFL.
But the bigger detriment has been health. A.J. Brown missed four games, and left early in a few more. Derrick Henry missed half the season and while he isn’t a wide receiver, he obviously has a tremendous impact on the passing game.
Marcus Johnson only played in seven games. Cameron Batson tore his ACL earlier in the year and only played in four games. Nick Westbrook-Ihkine has been the Titans’ top receiver for most of the year, but with all due respect to NWI, that is just not a good thing.
And then there is Julio Jones.
When Jones was acquired by the Titans in the offseason, hype was at an all-time high. Not only Titans fans, but the national media were incredibly high on the Titans’ potential offensive attack — and for good reason.
The Titans had A.J. Brown and Derrick Henry, and were now adding a Hall-of-Fame-level wide receiver with 12,000 yards and 800 catches.
However, the injury bug hit Julio as well. He made little impact on the team this year outside of a big performance in Seattle in Week 2 (6 catches, 128 yards and what should have been a touchdown) and a crazy tipped catch against the Buffalo Bills.
His hamstring was a season-long concern and rarely did Julio look 100 percent healthy even when he played.
While some may have lost faith and already declared the Jones trade a failure, I am here to say, “not so fast, my friend!”
I understand there may be some skepticism when I try to be optimistic about the Titans’ passing attack. It is only fair after the Titans had the No. 24-ranked passing offense this season.
But, with the reasons I mentioned above, I think expecting that now is a mistake as well. The offensive line is protecting better than it has all year long, and the Titans finally have a full complement of weapons, two things that make it possible for this passing offense to be what we all had hoped for.
Crowded boxes focused on the run game, massive attention on A.J. Brown, and Julio Jones getting one-on-one opportunities; that was the intention all along and I am also here to tell you Julio still got it.
As we do every week, let’s step into the film room and take a look at what this Titans passing offense was supposed to be all season, and what it could be in the playoffs.