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Are Tennessee Titans fans wearing rose colored glasses? Or in this case two-tone blue colored glasses? A little while back I conducted a series of interviews with lead writers, editors, and even beat writers of other sites to take a look at how the Titans' competition was doing in the off-season. You can see them here if you missed them. Texans. Colts. Jaguars.
The most interesting reaction by far came from my interview with Nate Dunlevy of ColtsAuthority.com, as well as the comments received from some Colt's fans in regard to the Titans' off season as opposed to theirs.
@gunnelsj Shocked you found the Titans offseason progressive. Thought it was a hot mess. Felt like team building completely wrong identity
— Nate Dunlevy (@NateDunlevy) May 27, 2013
This off season has brought more hope from Titans fans than I can remember in a long time. The approval poll of the front office is at an all time high, and hope is reigning while fans eagerly wait for training camp to start. This time of year always brings hope, and yes everyone is 0-0 at the moment, but the aggressive moves the front office made do make this year a little different.
At one point in our discussions via Twitter following the interview, Nate called the Titans off season "a hot mess" and indicated a base philosophical disagreement with how to go about building a team. Nate is of the camp where you start with a QB and then get pass rushers. The rest is secondary, tertiary, or worse. The Titans focus on the offensive line this off season has him utterly unimpressed.
The Titans have their franchise quarterback in Jake Locker. At least they hope so. There weren't any Andrew Lucks sitting around in the draft this year so the Titans did what they had to do in order to let that quarterback play and live up to his potential.
The Titans went and got the best players available at their biggest positions of need. What else were they supposed to do?
The lack of aggression for pass rushers has others doubting the Titans moves as well. Getting the best free agent guard followed by using a first round pick on a guard seems to have other fans yawning. When Colts fan "kasey_junk" replied to a post, he said his reaction to the Titans building a smash mouth team was "good", obviously unafraid of such tactics. The bottom line is that Locker doesn't scare Colts fans and they apparently aren't worried about how much they run the ball either.
After having years of Peyton Manning at the helm, followed by Andrew Luck at the signal caller position, I could see how Colt's fans feel the way they do about how to build a team. They've had years of dominance in the division and many playoff runs to boot as well as a Super Bowl Championship.
Not everyone has Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, or Aaron Rodgers at the helm. There are a handful of truly elite QBs in the league that can overcome the rest of the team's deficiencies. These are the minority however. Stealing an elite QB isn't an option right now, so the Titans are moving forward the best way possible. Building a team that isn't solely reliant on one player or mode of operation.
Indianapolis Colts' fans seem to view the Titans much in the same way the Titans have regarded the Texans for so many years. Regardless of how hard they played the Titans or how close the games were, the end result was the same. The Colts even managed to take down the Titans after 13 straight losses the year before last while the Titans still had a shot at the playoffs. Until the Titans actually walk away with a win or two, you can expect the attitude to go unchanged.
We'll see how the Titans boring off season will end up next year. Personally, I'm glad the Titans are being dismissed by Colts fans so easily. It'll just hurt all the more if they don't see it coming.