Success is a product of opportunity. Against all odds, the Tennessee Titans took a massive step forward in 201. They were, in essence, without their two best offensive weapons, starting a completely ineffective middle linebacker for much of the year, and what started as a year laden with potential fizzled out down the stretch for Matt Hasselbeck. Oh yeah, and there was an entirely new coaching staff.

Despite all this, the Titans were two bad losses against the Colts and Jaguars from going to the playoffs. Not a whole lot of this should come as news to Titans fans and outside observers, what I think many people underrate is just how important it is to be proactive in 2012 to take the next step forward.

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NoMoreMustache linked to this in the fanshots yesterday, but I just could not let it go without a mention. Jeff Diamond, who was formerly the president of the Titans and still does some work on Nashville radio, wrote an article for SI.com suggesting that the Titans will franchise Michael Griffin:

The Titans have major potential free agents in the secondary with CB Cortland Finnegan and S Michael Griffin. Don't expect them to meet Finnegan's lofty demands, but they likely will franchise Griffin, then look for more secondary help.

Maybe Diamond knows something I don't, but I do not see any shot that the Titans would tag Griffin. At his best, Griffin might be one of the better safeties in the league. The problem is we have only seen him at his best in one of the five seasons he has been with the Titans. Franchising him at $6.2+ million (number per FO) would be the worst decision since franchising Bo Scaife.

This really seems like one of those times where the player just needs a change of scenery. For whatever reason, it really just has not worked out for Griffin in Tennessee. It is time for him and the franchise to move in a different direction.

A little less than a year ago, Jake Locker polarized this fan base on draft day. What a difference a year makes. Today, Jake is the poster boy for the bright future of the Titans organization. In a cliche and hyperbolic sense, he embodies hope for the franchise. Even better, a lot of that optimism stems from live game performance. I've seen with my own eyes what this kid is capable of in a real, meaningful, NFL football game. It was phenomenal. Not without imperfection, but more than enough to breath life into an organization that's clearly in rebuilding mode.

The interesting thing to me is the stark contrast of the offense when Locker came into the game. Many of the concepts are the same, but one was always front and center: The Vertical Game. Hasselbeck is clearly a West Coast guy that excels in the quick game. I don't want to take too much away from his deep ball, as he has flashed an arm at times. It's just not his strongsuit. The opposite appears to be true for Locker, who clearly excels in that department. And, all was on full display when Locker would come into action. None of this is to say that Locker can't work in a West Coast offense. It's evident that the deep ball comes naturally to him, though. This alone makes one wonder just how much of his talents may have been wasted in his final years of college by constantly forcing that square peg into a round hole. No less, we don't seem to have that problem in Tennessee as Old Man Palmer has showed no hesitations in letting Jake cut the deep ball loose.

Today, we'll look at why these simple concepts can be so effective, and how the team can work to improve the situation through free agency, the draft, and adding Kenny Britt to the mix. This won't be a piece that dives into specific players we can acquire. It's more about what we need out of the receiver positions to really make this offense hum.

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As it turns out, the "What Does MCM Want?" post ended up yielding some really good ideas. However, one really stuck out to me as something I'd like to feature this week. The idea of promoting the various charities for players on the Titans' roster seems like one of the more noble ideas that was suggested (and a fine h/t to oilertitan for his contribution) so I'm choosing to run with that first.

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With just the Super Bowl left to play and no coaches of great importance to replace, let's face it, this gets to be a fairly boring time to be a fan of a team that isn't the Giants or Patriots. What can I say, sometimes, the imagination just runs wild and you start internalizing things and before you know it, you're talking about some serious acquisitions after preaching patience and conservatism for the large part of two seasons now. Well, that's just the nature of the beast, sometimes we go a little crazy.

Perhaps some sexier options than last time await you after the jump.

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Keep in mind here that the offensive line provides two things to a football team. One is run blocking. I think we can all agree here that the offensive line was terrible when it came to run blocking this season. The interior of the line was especially bad, but Michael Roos and David Stewart weren't blowing people off the line either.

The line was not helped by Chris Johnson looking like he forgot how to run the ball for half of the season, but even when Johnson was running well there were times where it seemed like he was getting tackled as he got the handoff.

The other function an offensive line carries out is pass blocking. This offensive line was very good at pass blocking. They kept Matt Hasselbeck, who has been nothing short of fragile for the last few years, upright for most of the season. That was what allowed Hasselbeck to put up the numbers he did this season.

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Sit back down MCM, take deep breaths, try to contain your emotions. Just remember, fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. I feel like I might take a bit of heat for the title, so let me explain. No, I don't mean that because Houston won the division this year that they automatically are set up to continue to do so for the next several years. However, there are a number of other factors that lead me to believe that this might be the case. Is this a guarantee? For those that read MCM on the reg, you should know by now that nothing I say is ever a guarantee, I just throw stuff at the wall until something sticks, and in this case I'm going to try to take an objective look at our biggest rivals (time to finally admit it) and their newfound success.

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Typically here at MCM, we'll link stuff on the front page and offer our own insights. Every once in a while, though, something comes along that's so powerful (and in this case, ignorant) that it doesn't warrant further commentary. That's exactly what happened this morning when I headed over to PFF to check out their All-AFC South Team:

Guards: Leroy Harris, TEN and Jake Scott, TEN

It was like watching a different Harris this year, who looked much better in Year 2 as the Titans’ starting left guard. Both he and Scott were better with their pass protection, but given the level of play from the guards this year (featuring a real down year from Wade Smith) that was enough for both men.

...

Safeties: Michael Griffin, TEN and Antoine Bethea, IND

This wasn’t the easiest spot to pick, but in the end, we looked past Michael Griffins’ habits of biting hard on play fakes to link him up with the active Bethea who made 21 more tackles in run defense than any other safety.

Feel free to click through the link as there are other Titans on the list that actually deserve to be there. I love PFF and all the time they put into their work, but these latest evaluations really give me pause. If these three can slip through the cracks and be considered best in division, can any of their evaluations be trusted?