FanPost

The Titans Renaissance: December 30, 2013 - September 06, 2014

Long time lurker, first time fan post. I love the in-depth insights from Super Horn, and I really enjoy the (mostly) thoughtful discussion on the boards, even if some of you are too hard on Lomas. This level of competence and civility doesn’t happen often on fan sites. I look forward to being more active in the future. With that being said, from everything I’ve read here and elsewhere, this is basically how I feel about the offseason going into the Whisenhunt era.

I am still somewhat conflicted about the Whisenhunt hiring, but he is doing a lot to win me over. Twenty percent of the League overhauled their coaching staffs for the upcoming season, and I really think that when this offseason is looked back upon, the Titans, Vikings, and Bucs will be viewed as the teams who made the best decisions. Personally, I was hoping we would wait for Dan Quinn to become available, but I admit that would have been risky. Whisenhunt would have been in Detroit and we would have been scraping the barrel if Quinn turned us down. After doing more research on Whisenhunt and Horton, I think we actually will have the most innovative offensive and defensive philosophies in the NFL. The staffing decisions Whisenhunt made have been fantastic. It could easily be argued the Titans, not only have the best staff they have had in 40 years, but they have the best staff in the League going into 2014. My personal favorite staff hires are Lou Spanos (Linebackers) and Mike Mularkey (Tight Ends). That’s a ton of toughness and experience. The offseason player additions of Dexter McCluster and Bishop Sankey have gotten me more excited than any other moves. The play of Hunter, Locker, and Mettenberger in the offseason has me more excited about our QB position than I have been since we locked out McNair.

I think Whisenhunt’s perception as QB whisperer may be overrated, but less so than say, John Gruden’s perception as a QB authority. Nonetheless, there are reasons we should be happy. With his first job as an offensive coordinator with the Steelers, he took a 6-10 team to a 15-1 record with a rookie quarterback. The very next year they won the Super Bowl. After winning the Super Bowl the Steelers lost a lot of talent, and that was the offseason of the infamous Roethlisberger motorcycle accident. The team regressed to 8-8 and did not qualify for the playoffs, but Whisenhunt’s performance was impressive enough to the Cardinals brass that he was made head coach in 2007.

In 2007, Whisenhunt took a 5-11 team to an 8-8 team that missed the playoffs by one game. The next season they went to the Super Bowl with a 9-7 record. The 2009 season was Whisenhunt’s best record, leading the team to 10-6 with a second round playoff loss. The Cardinals lost all of their QB talent with the retirement of Kurt Warner. In 2010 the team went 5-11, and according to Football Outsiders was the worst team in the NFL that year. After hiring Ray Horton as DC, the team improved to an 8-8 record, barely missing the playoffs. Unfortunately, due to poor offensive play, the team finished the 2012 season with a 5-11 record and Whisenhunt lost his job in the desert.

In 2013 Whisenhunt was picked up by the Chargers as OC. He was allowed to rebuild the offensive staff, and with the help of a revamped offensive line, he created a system for Philip Rivers that revived his career and led the team to the playoffs. Jason Michael (OC) and Charlie Whitehurst followed the Whiz to Nashville to help integrate the new system.

I keep hearing that Locker is not the Whisenhunt mold of a quarterback. He isn’t the tall pocket passer with a high completion rate and low interception rate. Locker’s second biggest negative trait (second of course to injury) is inconsistency. I don’t see that. Whisenhunt was most successful with Kurt Warner (6’2 214 lbs), Ben Roethlisberger (6’5 240 lbs), and Philip Rivers (6’5 228 lbs). As far as size is concerned, Locker has the height of Warner and the weight of Rivers. Locker has a lower career interception percentage of 2.7% than Roethlisberger (2.8%) and Warner (3.1%). And though those three QB’s have a career pass completion rate of 65.5%, 63.3%, and 64.4% respectively while Locker is currently sitting at 57.2%, all three of those QB’s looked worse in their first three seasons than those numbers reflect, and did not have to contend with regularly changing offensive coordinators and systems. Locker has shown impressive consistency in the preseason and is poised to have his best season ever.

Worst case scenario as far as I can tell regarding our quarterback situation is that the Locker critics get it right. He gets hurt, misses a few games and comes back playing inconsistently. If that’s the case, and that is indeed the worst case scenario, we can extend Locker out for another year and make him compete against Mettenberger. He was a steal in the 6th round and his preseason performance has made me very comfortable at the position overall.

We have the best starting wide receiving corps we have ever had, but our depth is a concern. Our tight ends are extremely inspiring. The multiple running back system is a huge upgrade from CJ who has been lackluster the last several seasons. We have good depth at the offensive line, but the"Blind Side" is a point of concern. Luckily, it’s the only point of concern on the offense.

Ray Horton gets more love from the fan base than Whisenhunt, but that may change early on if there are, and there appear to be, kinks in switching to the hybrid system. When he became the Cardinals DC in 2011, he took the 30th ranked defense to the 17th best. That number stayed steady in 2012, even as the team lost 11 games. That’s good. A somewhat worrying sign is that in 2013 he took the 19th ranked defense of the Browns to the 23rd ranked. That’s bad. They were behind a 16th ranked Titans team.

The defense gives me ulcers. We have great depth at DE, DT and SS. I am extremely concerned about our left side corner, the speed of our linebackers, and the strength and lack of depth at NT. I am mostly concerned that it will take nearly half the season to get used to the Horton defense and schemes. We could see a regression in our defense in Horton’s first season because we are not built for a 3-4. The 2015 free agency has some talent coming up. Honestly, I like Aldon Smith. Yes, I get it. He has had a lot of off-field issues, but he’s played in the best 3-4 defense in the NFL in San Francisco, is one of the best edge rushers in the NFL, and will likely come at a "threatening to blow up the airport" discount. The 2015 draft will (I hope that is) focus on OLB, ILB, NT, and RT.

I expect us to barely miss the playoffs with an 8-8 record. I think we will split the division games 3-3 and we will beat the Chiefs, Cowboys, Browns, Giants, and Jets. If Locker stays healthy and the defense clicks early, I would add the Redskins and the Steelers to that list. If Locker does not stay healthy and the defense takes 6 or more games to click, I could see us losing to the Chiefs and the Giants. I realize that isn’t a bold prediction, "Well, I think we’ll go somewhere between 6-10 and 10-6", but there genuinely isn’t enough data out there to make a stronger prediction. We have an all new staff, with all new philosophies, new players, new strengths and new weaknesses, but there is a lot to be hopeful about. All we have to do now is #TitanUp and beat the Chiefs. I’m calling it 34-31, Tennessee.

So what do you guys think? Am I factually incorrect about any of that? Am I overstating, overlooking, or underestimating an aspect's importance? I look forward to your thoughts and insights.

Go Titans!