With Jerry Gray now in the fold, Thorchak can turn his attention back to the offensive staff. Right now the biggest impediment seems to be getting permission to speak to the position coaches Munchak has had his eye one. We've already been shotdown on Bill Calahan, and there's still no guarantee that the Bears will let us talk to Mike Tice (more thoughts on why that might be a good thing below). I can understand why teams covet the guys they already have under contract, but it's still a pretty prick-ish move to not let a guy pursue an obvious promotion. You almost never see guys prevented from seeking a head spot if a team comes around asking, so why is it looked at differently if it's a position coach going for a coordinator spot? Paul K says Jerry Gray will go into the 2011 season looking to deploy a system that fits the personnel he has on hand, even if that system isn't his end goal. That's very good news, because in this league you can't force a scheme that you don't have the weapons to execute... just ask the Redskins' defensive players how that worked for them last year.
Kevin Seifert, the NFC North Blogger for ESPN, takes a look as Mike Tice as the possible offensive coordinator for the Titans, and I gotta say, it doesn't really make a ton of sense to me. Tice comes from the Joe Gibbs school of offense that seems to have more in common with Dinger's schemes than the more Bill Walsh-schooled, west coast-derived offensive minds Thorchak has been targeting. Also, Tice has never been an outright coordinator, or the primary play caller, at any of his NFL stops. Not saying he would be a terrible hire, but I'm more excited by the possibility of Tom Clements than Mike Tice.
It's tucked behind the paywall at TitansInsider, but apparently former-Bengals offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski was interested in the Titans' open position and discussed it with Munchak over the weekend. In the end though, it doesn't sound like the interest was very mutual, and Bratkowski ended-up in Atlanta as the new QB coach. It's easy to try and make a Carson Palmer link to this for Titans fans, but nobody knows if Palmer was mad because the only OC he'd had at the NFL level was fired by the team, of if the team fired Bratowski to try and placate an unhappy Palmer. As such, it's a dicey proposition to try and read too much into that angle. Another note on the TitansInsider site says that there were rumors that Jim Fassel could be getting a call, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen anymore. Fassel is currently the head coach and GM for the Las Vegas Locomotives of the UFL.
The Titans ranked 2nd in the league last year in Rick Gosselin's composite score for special teams (the source page is behind a paywall, so I've linked to an ESPN report on the rankings).
The Ravens have signed yet another ex-Titan. This time it's WR Brandon Jones, who is coming off of a well-paying yet disappointing tenure in San Francisco.
Peter King points out that Jerry Gray has now had 4 employers in 14 months (The Redskins, Seahawks, Texas and now the Titans).
Boclair takes stock of how Mike Munchak THORCHAK got to the head spot in the Titans coaching staff, and what will define his tenure with the team.
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