Finding Leadership a Huge Priority for the Titans This Offseason

This r offseason the Titans let all of their veteran leaders, Kyle Vanden Bosch, Keith Bulluck and Kevin Mawae, walk away in free agency.  A lot of people, myself included, questioned who was going to step up and be a leader on the 2010 team.  There were a lot of names thrown around, guys like Stephen Tulloch and Vince Young, but as the year went on it became more and more evident that no one was stepping up as a leader.

The guys in the local media have asked Titan Coach the leadership question at every press conference since the VY meltdown, and he spouts off the same lie every single time about how there is plenty of leadership in this locker room.  Yesterday he side-stepped the question a little bit:

(on the level of leadership on the Titans team)

I have no question about their ability to come back Wednesday, work, prepare and play hard against the Colts.  No question whatsoever about that.

Ideally the leadership you have on the offensive side of the ball would come from the quarterback position.  If you watched the Monday Night Football game last night you saw two quarterbacks that are unquestionably the leaders of their teams.  Matt Ryan is pulling his receivers back in the huddle by their facemasks when they are jawing with opposing DBs.  Drew Brees throws two horrible picks but keeps his head up the whole time and leads his team to a huge win.

I have my questions about whether or not Vince can ever be that guy, but I know that he is never going to be that guy here.  Some of that isn't his fault because there are going to be fans that are going to boo him the first time he makes a mistake, but he has to be mature enough to not let that get to him.  Steve McNair went through that exact same thing while he was the QB here and you never saw him react like VY has.

This isn't all about Vince though.  Even if he were that guy on offense, the Titans still need someone to do the same on defense.  Tully was the guy who had his name thrown out there this offseason, but it is really hard to be a leader when you don't participate in the offseason program because you are unhappy about your contract.

This team fell apart after the VY episode because there was no one to pull them together.  Some people think the whole leadership thing is overrated, and they might be right as long as a team is winning, but the 2010 Titans have shown exactly how important leadership is in the face of adversity.