Optimism About The Future

Given the way the regular season played out, it's hard for any Titans fan to be happy about our current situation (we're not in the Super Bowl.) However, I've been doing some thinking, and I believe that we all ought to be VERY optimistic about the foreseeable future, and here are some reasons, ranked roughly in order of my perceived importance.

1. Chris Johnson. The hottest debate from April-September on this board is now a closed case. CJ showed leaps and bounds of improvement over the course of the season, and proved to me that he could be a feature back if he has a good compliment. The way he handled Pittsburgh in week 16 (that 4th & 2 halfback toss is one of my favorite highlights of the year) then Baltimore in the first half of the playoff game showed me that CJ is absolutely ready to be a top tier NFL RB, if, of course, he stays healthy.

2.a. $30 million under the cap. This is a big deal. I wasn't aware that we were that far under the cap until it was mentioned recently in a post. This gives us the financial stability to assess ALL of our options and make the right moves to help this team move forward. I'm not 100% sure that we will sign Haynesworth, but knowing that we have the money to do so IF it's the right move is comforting.
2.b. We were 13-3. This ties into 2.a. because not only can we afford to sign quality free agents, quality free agents will be interested in wearing Titans blue. Any player that we would be interested in signing would give us at least a second thought, and that's a valuable angle to have on the free agent market.

3. KMFC. We will resign him, we will start him, we will have another above average to good year, and that is all exactly what we need to happen to continue to succeed with our current personnel.

4. Jim Schwartz. Jim Schwartz saw our defense play terrible, and he saw our defense reign supreme, and he was coordinating it the whole time. He did his job, and he didn't do it poorly by any meaure, so I'm glad we had him. I'm also glad he's gone. Reason being: we could completely maim and pillage teams if we had an effective blitz package that incorporated a fifth rusher about 18-25% of the time. Thats a vast increase from our norm, but we're cut out for it, and if we can find a new DC that's worth a damn then I do honestly believe that our D will flourish, with our without Al. (Even though I'd much rather have him along for the ride. Regardless of statistics, Albert Haynesworth is an Ox right in the middle of our D-Line that draws offensive linemen focus and allows everyone on our D to execute better.) QB's simply can't pass against us with our secondary and an effective blitz package.

5. Age. We are a damn young team. All of our playmakers, aside from Keith and Kerry, are in the early-to-mid stages of their career. If we can get some good continuity developed then we can have a dominant team for years to come.

6. VY. Last, and unfortunately least. I'm still optimistic. We have nearly as much reason to think he can succeed as we have to think he will fail. He's young, he just had an entire season to watch a veteran QB succeed in his system without having that much asked of him, and he hasn't PROVED that he will fail. He's proved that he can fail, but he's also shown that he can succeed. His chances have dwindled severely, he's probably got this season and MAYBE next to prove something in a MAJOR way, but dammit lets give him that chance.

That being said, this off season is of vital importance. From now until training camp is more or less a game of Stratego for the Tennessee front office. We have to pick up at least 1 receiving threat, be it a TE or a wide receiver (hopefully the latter.) We SHOULD resign Al, but that will be a costly endeavor and we definitely need to weigh the development of Jason Jones, Jacob Ford, Dave Ball, and Kevin Vickerson against the cost of resigning Haynesworth. With or without Al, our D-Line will be well above average, but he is probably the best DT in the game, and would be a tough one to let go. We need a quality DC, and we need to sort out this QB situation. If the next 6 months play out in our favor, I see another playoff run next year. This was a tough pill to swallow, but I think we'll be better off in the long run. Go Titans!!

 

http://www.gotitans.com/goForum/showthread.php?p=454510#post454510

Refer to above thread for my opinion.