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The Tennessee Titans are in the group that nobody in the NFL wants to be in — the group of teams that hasn’t won a Super Bowl yet.
While the Houston Oilers were able to win a pair of AFL Championships in 1960 and 1961, they were unable to win a Super Bowl after joining the NFL.
Since moving to Tennessee in 1997, the franchise has appeared in the big game once, and we need not repeat what happened in that contest.
The group of teams without a Super Bowl victory in its history also includes the Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Los Angeles Chargers, and Minnesota Vikings.
Of those teams, NFL.com’s Adam Schein believes the Titans have the third-best chance to win their first Super Bowl in 2021.
Julio Jones changes everything. Jones and A.J. Brown are now the best receiving tandem in the NFL. Ryan Tannehill, who has been an absolute stud since taking the reins in Tennessee, could go up another level. And this will open up boxes for the pulse of this team, running back Derrick Henry. Back-to-back 2,000-yard seasons? It’s more than possible, given how much opponents will have to respect Tennessee’s dynamic duo out wide. The defense added three starters in free agency (DE Denico Autry, LB Bud Dupree and CB Janoris Jenkins) and drafted athletic freak Caleb Farley, a high-upside cornerback who would’ve been long gone by the Titans’ No. 22 pick if not for some injury concerns.
Mike Vrabel is a fantastic head coach who has yet to log a non-winning season. He’ll continue that trend this year. In fact, while I rank Buffalo and Cleveland ahead on this list, there isn’t much separating these three teams. They’re definitely the cream of this crop.
The only teams ahead of the Titans on Schein’s list are the Bills (No. 1) and the Browns (No. 2). Tennessee faced both teams last season with very different results, as the Titans crushed Buffalo but got blown out by Cleveland.
Following a 2019 season in which the Titans made an improbable run to the AFC Championship Game, the team had realistic Super Bowl aspirations in 2020, only to fall short after getting bounced in the Wild Card Round via a loss against the Baltimore Ravens.
Going into 2021, expectations are about as high as they have ever been for the Titans, with the team coming off its first division title and double-digit win season since 2008, and after trading for Julio Jones and revamping its defense, which was among the worst in the NFL last season.
Now, it’s Super Bowl or bust in Nashville, something we haven’t been able to say for quite some time.
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