The theme of the Tennessee Titans’ offseason thus far has been “run it back” after the team has worked to maintain much of the same offense and defense from a season ago.
And that’s not necessarily a bad strategy, as the Titans made it all the way to the AFC Championship Game in 2019, falling just one game short of Super Bowl LIV after a loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
ESPN’s Bill Barnwell recently ranked the offseasons of every team and the Titans landed in the No. 25 spot.
Barnwell points to the Titans retaining Ryan Tannehill and Derrick Henry as positives, and he thinks the move to re-sign Dennis Kelly and draft Isaiah Wilson to replace Jack Conklin was sufficient.
However, he doesn’t believe the combination of Kelly and Wilson will be better than Conklin, nor does he think the Titans did enough to replace the value that Logan Ryan brings to the table. Adding Vic Beasley to improve the pass-rush was another questionable move in his eyes.
Here’s what Barnwell would have done differently if he were running the Titans.
I’m not sure the Titans had much of a choice, but even limiting the Tannehill deal to two guaranteed seasons would have been a much better deal. With hindsight, it’s fair to suggest they might have been better off letting him hit the market and going after somebody like Nick Foles or Andy Dalton at a much cheaper price. Likewise, for a team that has expressed interest in Jadeveon Clowney, the Titans would have been better off just signing Clowney to a one-year deal as opposed to Beasley. Some of that is hindsight, but the Beasley and Tannehill deals raised questions before we even saw how the rest of those respective markets worked out.
Barnwell also believes the Titans shouldn’t give Henry a long-term deal, but rather let him play out the next few seasons under the franchise tag, which isn’t a terrible idea.
Keeping Tannehill in the fold was about continuity, as the signal-caller had immense success during the regular season in 2019. That fact often gets lost in the conversation about Tannehill because Henry carried the Titans to their two playoff wins.
Before that, it was Tannehill being inserted into the starting lineup that helped revive the Titans after a 2-4 start, albeit with the help of a run-heavy offense that uses play action to move the ball through the air.
While the jury is still out on how good Wilson can be, let’s not forget that Kelly replaced an injured Conklin in 2018 and was above-average at worst. I don’t believe there will be a big drop-off from Conklin to Kelly.
As far as Jadeveon Clowney is concerned, I don’t think we can close the door on the Titans bringing him in just yet.
The star pass-rusher is waiting for the ability to get a physical in order to secure the best deal possible, and the Titans still have enough cap space to sign him if they choose to keep waiting.
If Tennessee was to add Clowney, that would certainly change opinions of the team’s offseason and put the defense on another level for the 2020 season.
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