What the Titans standing pat at the trade deadline means and doesn’t mean

So yesterday went from a day of hope to a day of disappointment very quickly. It is clear that the Titans needed to upgrade their pass catchers but weren’t able to do it. According to Paul Kuharsky on The Midday 180 today Robinson talked to 7 teams yesterday and was unable to come away with a deal. I don’t really know what that means other than Robinson tried to get a deal done but found the price teams were asking was too high.

Some people were saying that the Titans not making a deal yesterday means they are giving up on the season. Of course that is ridiculous. Mike Vrabel didn’t shut it down at 3 PM yesterday because Robinson didn’t add a playmaker. They are going to continue to “try really hard” just like Robinson “tried really hard” to get a deal done yesterday.

What not making a deal yesterday does mean for the rest of the season is that this is probably an 8-8 team that will miss the playoffs. Unless we see significant improvement from guys like Corey Davis, Taywan Taylor and Jonnu Smith in the second half of this season the offense just isn’t going to move the ball consistently. They won’t score enough points to win the games needed to make the playoffs.

Now there is another factor in play here. The best quarterbacks in the league raise the play of the guys around them. You all know that I think Marcus Mariota is the answer at QB for this franchise. What he hasn’t been thus far in his career, and especially in the last 2 years, is a guy that raises the guys around him. Now that he appears to be fully healthy, he didn’t have the glove on at practice yesterday, and in an offense that is going to play to his strengths (#allegedly), is he finally ready to take that next step?

At the end of the day, the Titans needed to add some help yesterday and they weren’t able to do that. They aren’t going to mail it in by any means, but it is hard to have any confidence in their ability to make a serious run with what they currently have....unless Marcus....