Offseason Shows Lack of Faith in Locker

What wins a championship ? DEFENSE Proven over and over again.

I actually think it shows more faith in Locker than anything.

We wouldn't be going after literally everyone if we didn't think Locker was capable of leading us to the playoffs.

Worst thread ever? LOL

1st of all, How is making your team better a knock on the QB? And when was it a bad idea to put a good OL infront of your young QB anyway? Infact, that is normally priority #1 for your young QB's development ... PROTECT HIM!!!

No, This offseason was all about 2 things, (1) getting better now (2) setting Jake up for success.

I realy don't see how this is an indictment on Locker at all. "Oh no, we want to have a good running game and D, so Locker must suck" ... no, that is just how you bring along young QBs. You surround them with a good team, and don't ask them to do too much. That is the EXACT formula used by teams with a young QB this year. Infact, lets look at all the teams with a 'successfull' young QB last year.

49ers - #3 Total D, #4 Rushing O, #24 passing O (ranked BELOW the Titans)

Seahawks -#4 Total D, #27 passing O (ranked below the Titans)

Redskins - #28 Total D (ok, thier D wasn't so great), but they did have the #1 rushing game in the league last year (I know in part thanks to RGIII) and the #20 passing game.

So really, looking at those teams, you could (not saying that you should) make the same argument about the them that you are making about the Titans. Those teams aren't relying on the passing game to win, so they must not trust thier QBs right?

Now I don't belive that. I think all those QBs above can be very good in this league, but if you think that their respective teams put all of thier trust in their QBs arms to win games (like ESPN wants you to believe) then you really aren't watching the games.

The only exception last year was Andrew Luck and the Colts. They didn't have a very good D, and they had a top 10 passing O, but if you watch a lot of thier games (which I did since I live in Indy) You will see that once they get down in the games, they took the ball out of Luck's hands for the most part, and relied on the running game to bring them back. They gave Luck easy completions in those situations, and didn't put ALL the pressure on him to win those games.

And what about some of the other 'younger' QBs like Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan? ... The Ravens and Falcons both surrounded thier QBs with a good D and running game, and let the QBs do a little more than 'manage' for the 1st couple of years. And now that the QBs have developed, they are spending more money to go get weapons for those QBs and put the game on thier shoulders. But it takes time to do that. You still have to develop QBs in this league, believe it or not.

And, If you don't remember, we invested about $50M in CJ. You don't give that much money to a RB, and completely ignore the OL. Its like paying a movie director $50M to make a movie, and then not bothering to buy any cameras to film it with.

This is not as much as a passing league as ESPN would have you believe either. Sure, a lot of teams are putting more emphasis on the pass, but so what? Which 'elite' passing team was in the SB last year? none of them. Good teams win games, period. You don't have to be an elite passing team to do it.

The O-Line might be the single most important part of your team.. at least we have a coach that knows this. Defense is also extremely important, as we gave up like fifth most points in franchise history last year?

Would you have rather us stacked our offense with WRs and TEs? Okay, our run game would be suspect, Locker would spend more time on his back and off the field due to injury, and our Defense would be dotted up like last year. Hello another 6-10 season.

The Titans have to sustain drives in order to win games. You might be asking yourself, "how do you sustain drives?". Well, the answer is simple: with the running game. Our offense may not be the flashiest, but getting those few yards could be the difference between winning and losing a game. Given that our run game has been suspect for a few years...we took some vital steps to ensure that we start taking leaps forward.

If we didn't have confidence in Locker, we wouldn't have started him all year. Right now, we are getting him all the tools he needs to show us that he was worth the #8 overall pick. The kid can play ball...we just have to help him as much as we can. Guys like Levitre, Walker and Greene will help not only the offense, but it will keep the defense off the field by extending those crucial drives. If Locker can't punch it in, we can easily rely on our new acquisitions for help. That's football.

If anything, it was the season that MADE me not have much faith in the kid...

Are people forgetting how bad he was for the most part last year... I'm pretty darn worried about his accuracy, I watched almost every game twice or more, n putting it nicely, he's pretty bad...

But, I'm very OK with what the FO are doing, you kiddin me? I mean, if he flops next year we will be in perfect position to draft a top QB next year, who would come in with talent around him and (by then hopefully) a smash-mouth D....

On the side-note: Elvis belongs in TENN baybe!

I look at it like this. They know that Locker was dealt a shlt hand. Crap OL who couldnt ptotect him or spring cj1yd. Most of the time he was trying not to get killed rather than settling in. I think the guard and te pick up are there to give jake a chance to succeed. I think if jake is confident that he wont be killed on every snap, he'll relax and play better ball.

Just my 2€

As mentioned above, the tried and true method for developing a QB is to have a stout run game and a stout D. A good run game keeps the % of playaction passes high and the % of 3rd and longs low. Locker hasn't had that. A stout run game also keeps your D off the field and the score of the game closer so you can run your offense the whole game and not put the QB in a 3rd and 10 feel for half the game.

A perfect example of the succes/failure of this is the Jets with Sanchez. The Jets built a stout OL, drafted Greene to run it and built up their D. Everyone was impressed with him and they did very well his first couple of years. Then the Jets figured they could put the burden on Sanchez and let their OL and run game fall apart. Asked to carry the burden, Sanchez has been exposed as not being ready.

Also pointed out above, most of the successful young QB's have been given this...Ryan, Flacco, Wilson, Kap. These moves have nothing to do with Jake's talent, but everything to do with his development and giving us our best shot to win NOW and in the future. I thought Jake was over-drafted but that doesn't mean we can't win with him. Put the team in place around him and in another year or two we'll know what we can do with him.

Honestly, Im'surprised they waited this long to help CJ out with a better OL. It took a couple of years but they are finally seeing the light as to what we need! Forget paying FA's for depth, go get Dumervil!!!!!

Gut

Couldn't disagree with the OP anymore here. If they had no faith in Locker then we would all be talking about whatever QB they picked up to compete with him. They aren't even giving him competition to be the starter which to me speaks volumes of their confidence in the kid.

This is also the best free agency we've had in years as far as I'm concerned. We can't win the battles in the trenches because our lines have been garbage, that was addressed. We haven't had a "power back" since LenWhale, that was addressed, our safety play was a joke, that was addressed (kinda.) I love how they did what they did, were not over the cap, there won't be any cap hell because of the way deals are structured AND the fact we can cut/restructure more of our highly paid players.

Jake wasn't great last year. However, IMO he looked a hell of a lot better the first couple games before his shoulder was an issue and before what was left of our garbage oline fell apart. He didnt get a lot of protection, didnt have a reliable run game and didnt have receivers that were fully locked in. I'll be the first to say he has things to work on no doubt, but he's played in less games than RG3 and Luck and so on. I truly believe if our coordinators can put together some solid schemes and game plans Locker will show why we drafted him where we did.

It doesn't show a lack of confidence in Locker. It shows lack of confidence in the run game, offensive line and defense as a whole (poor secondary, LB injuries and depth, mediocre pass rush).