The Tennessee Titans have officially promoted tight ends coach Todd Downing to offensive coordinator and given outside linebackers coach Shane Bowen the title of defensive coordinator, the team announced on Friday.
Bowen served as the team’s defensive coordinator last season, as head coach Mike Vrabel revealed after the Titans’ playoff loss to the Baltimore Ravens, but wasn’t given the official title. Now he gets it.
A report on Friday morning revealed that Downing was set to take over as the Titans’ offensive coordinator after two seasons as the tight ends coach, so we saw this move coming.
It wasn’t a good season for the Titans’ defense under Bowen. Tennessee finished 29th against the pass, 19th against the run and 24th in scoring, so the move to keep him in that role will come with controversy.
Of course, not all of that is on Bowen, as the defense saw lackluster performances from several key players and dealt with injuries, but Tennessee’s seeming inability to adjust on the fly was also an issue.
As for Downing, this will be his second offensive coordinator job after serving as the Oakland Raiders’ in 2017. Downing has a grand total of over two decades of coaching experience.
On top of announcing these two moves, the Titans made the hiring of assistant defensive line coach Kenechi Udeze official, and the team promoted Luke Steckel to tight ends coach, Ryan Crow to outside linebackers coach and Matt Edwards to assistant special teams coach.
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