Another Swing and a Miss From a National Media Member on the Titans

Last night on MCM Radio we talked about how the national media doesn't take the time to actually investigate what is going on with the Titans. They just search for headlines and develop their story lines from there. Need evidence of that? I give you this paragraph from Mike Tanier's (formerly of Football Outsiders now of Sports on Earth) preview for the AFC South:

Undersold Story: The loss of center Eugene Amano was a huge blow for an otherwise solid offensive line. Fernando Velasco replaces Amano, which means Leroy Harris (the weak link of last year’s line) won’t be pushed by Velasco. Remember that if Locker does not make great strides from his preseason performance, this line will be entrusted with the safety of the 37-year-old Hasselbeck.

There is one thing right about that paragraph and oh so many things that are wrong.

He is right that the injury to Amano took away the competition for the interior spots that we wanted to see, but Amano's loss was not a "huge blow for an otherwise solid offensive line." There were clearly problems with this offensive line last season, yes, but Amano was a huge part of those problems. No one wanted to see him lost for the year with an injury, but the odds are really good that Velasco would have won that spot anyway.

And I am oh so tired of people assuming that Jake Locker is going to fall on his face this season. There is no doubt that Locker will have his struggles this season, but he is going to be just fine. The coaches would not have made this move if they didn't know that to be the case.

Please don't confuse this as one of those cases of someone whining because the Titans don't get any respect. I am just asking that these media people actually do their homework before publishing a preview of the 2012 Titans. I really don't feel like that is too much to ask.