Mailbag: Why Have Hope for the Titans, Cam Ward's Personality and More

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A shocking mid-week mailbag to keep you all on your toes…

Here’s the best of what you’ve sent me and the best I can answer, presented to you by Edley’s BBQ and VIPPlay. 

They hired a GM and high-ranking people around him who have shown they have a plan, but they’ve got a long, long way to go and we haven’t seen the first round of players they’ve brought in work in meaningful action yet.

Wins and star players bring a struggling team back to national relevancy.

I’d expect them to win more than three games. The league is built for teams to be 8-9 or 9-8 and obviously the Titans were horrible a year ago. Also, a lot of things didn’t go their way, so I’d expect some regression to the mean. 

So much depends on Cam Ward, who deserves patience and reasonable expectations but needs to grow into a quality quarterback in order for this iteration of the Titans to have a chance to be notable.

This team is incrementally better, at least, on the offensive line, in overall depth at receiver and maybe with their top tight end. On defense, they’ve got a better top inside linebacker, a better second and third safety and a different approach at edge – which is at least a strategy.

The Titans hired a quality special teams coach who should have a good bearing on the direction of what’s been a terrible unit. 

I don’t think it’s a big conflict. It’s too simple to say any of those guys is just one way. Joe Burrow has plenty of swag and Patrick Mahomes has plenty of cool.

Ward is pretty mild-mannered and business-like, but he’s super driven and there is a fire under there. I think that’s a pretty solid personality package. Of course, how it translates to football effectiveness is key.

But there is not one way a guy needs to be for it to work, and it’s all more complex than some people may think.

Jim Belaskie All else the same, wouldn't we be better with Harold Landry still here? 

Not at $17.5 million. It’s just not cost-efficient to overpay him for mediocre production and lost burst. He got $26 million fully guaranteed over three years, an average of $8.7 million, in New England. For that, maybe having him here would have been fine, considering Lorenzo Carter is also 29. 

Still, Dre'Mont Jones for one year at $8.5 million and Carter at $1.42 million vs. Landry at $8.7 million while they develop Femi Oladejo and probably go pass rusher in the first round next year? You have the money, but I need some wins, not just clean up sacks and Landry was doing very little straight-up winning.

But Landry didn’t want a pay cut in Nashville, he wanted to get out on the market and see about a second act somewhere else. Now he’s reunited with Mike Vrabel and it’s probably better for everyone. 

Yeah, it’s still the same offense. They are modifying it forward. But if Levis had to play, they’d shift back to the elements of it that favor Levis.

It’s a good time to point out that there is an element out there that somehow think that Brandon Allen is a more favorable choice as Ward’s backup because he’s familiar with Brian Callahan’s system. 

Who do we think is more familiar with the current iteration of Callahan’s system? Levis, who ran it last year as the starter, or Allen, who ran Zac Taylor’s version of it as a backup playing most recently in 2022? It’s unquestionably Levis.

Don’t let your contempt of Levis from last year’s bad mistakes somehow convince you that Allen is some find.

Treylon Burks was at 80 percent in minicamp, so he should be close to all the way back when the Titans reconvene on July 22.  

I don’t think he’s in their plans given how many receivers they’ve spent capitol on. Tyler Lockett got $3.5 million guaranteed and the team spent fourth-round picks on Chimere Dike and Elic Ayomanor. The Titans also have hopes for Van Jefferson, who got $1.17 guaranteed.

Burks gets a $2.66 million guaranteed base salary this season and counts $4.47 against the cap. Those are not numbers that can prompt anything regarding his place on the roster. The Titans aren’t going to make decisions at the position based on sunken costs.

He’s on his way out. If he came in a had an amazing camp while Jefferson bombed they could adjust. But history is largely written. He’s played 53 percent of the games he’s been in the league for because of a variety of injuries and he’s got one touchdown catch.

Josh May I absolutely did not expect last season to be that bad. Like I thought 7 or 8 wins was reasonable. Was it really all Levis? A good deal was, but how much? Can I expect a lot of improvement, like to 7 or 8, or will I have to be delighted with progress to 5?

You can’t just assign wins and losses to people. Football sells itself as the ultimate team game, and in many ways that is true.  

No, it wasn’t all Levis. He made some terrible decisions that a team can’t win with. But he also had a bad offensive line, bad receivers, bad special teams that gave up field position and a defense that tied for 25th in the red zone and didn’t take the ball away very often.

I don’t know how much better they will be in win total. I don’t think you should be delighted with five, but I don’t know that it will be dramatically higher.

Darrell Clark What moves would you make on the waiver wire?

We can’t predict waiver wire moves without knowing who’s cut. They should be looking at any inside linebackers who come free, maybe corners. I don’t think you’re going to see edges who are of any intrigue at this stage. 

Certainly, there could be someone they like at virtually any spot that slides free and they shouldn’t hesitate, but there isn’t typically a lot of roster movement in the one real dead month of the NFL year. And they oversell just how much help they can find from having the No. 1 spot.

Bobby Andrews What was your favorite coach upgrade this off season and why? And which was your least favorite and why?

Not much changed. 

John Fassel is clearly the biggest, as the new special teams coordinator, talking over for Colt Anderson who brought no experience to the job and whose unit had a terrible season. Fassel is well regarded, if overly upbeat. The unit stands to improve a lot, as he will influence decisions on who the Titans keep at the backend of the roster to help him, something last year’s brass barely considered.

Tony Oden replaced Chris Harris as the cornerbacks coach/ defensive passing game coordinator, Luke Stocker was promoted to replace Justin Outten with the tight ends, Mike McCoy joined as a senior defensive assistant and Travis Smith got a newly created spot, defensive run game coordinator.

I like the idea of McCoy being around. He’s a veteran who’s called plays before, who gives Bran Callahan more of a sounding board. 

I don’t know any of the others well enough to not like any of the moves.

Tony Yayiod Why didn't the Titans brass bring in Perrion Winfrey??..great upside for cheap

The guy bombed out with two of the other worst teams in the NFL in the Browns and Jets. The Browns disciplined him twice as a rookie. And he was in a pretrial diversion program to get out of a misdemeanor assault charge in 2023 after allegedly causing bodily harm to a woman he was dating during an argument with a woman he was dating.

Fourteen games, half a sack and two passes defensed and out of the league in 2024. I’d find my “upside” elsewhere, personally. Seems perfect for Dallas, where he’s landed.

Cron Job Starts