Free agency and the draft sunk the Titans

They traded Casey and Correa, and Woodyard is too old

 

Ok- yes traded pro-bowl Casey for a 7th and Correa swapped 7th for a 6th. And as stated, I understand the Woodyard and L Ryan moves and don’t feel they were that impactful.

 

Is a combination of everything.The one thing that pisses me off is the play calling on defense Pees loved the soft zone on 3rd down but was a master at chaging zones and looks.

Right now on 3rd and longs we aren't doing beep the lack of imagination from a so call defensive minded coach is just unreal we are running a classic bend but not break defense.

 

I absolutely think the Titans need a DC but I will look at some positive. This team, going into last year as well, defensively has made good adjustments, typically after halftime. It's not every game but I'd say the large bulk over the passed two seasons had rough defensive starts with stronger finishes.
I think last year they did a better job getting takeaways than this year even despite the couple well timed takeaways earlier this year.

Considering the 8-4 record (3-1 in the div), I can't say either FA or the draft "sunk" this team. I see a few swings and misses among a team that was already pretty good.
If there was something I'd point at for responsibility of "sinking" the team (I don't think they are "sunk") it would be injuries. The LT injuries suck big time but the DB injuries are the killers to me. AJ25 not playing a snap is just awful among a struggling secondary. I'd like to think if Fulton doesn't get hurt, we are talking about how well he has improved throughout the season based on his draft speculations.

 

Woodyard's still a free agent isn't he? He's washed but could be useful in a leadership role. I wouldn't be opposed to bringing him in on a vet min deal if we can keep his snaps limited.

 

I think Ryan's leadership is missed more than anything.

 

I think it IS fair to say FA or at least off-season sunk the D. No DC- huge allowance by JRob. Swung and missed on pass rush- Clowney didn’t do jack pre-injury and Beasley nothing. Awful, awful scouting/assessment however you want to phrase it- the buck stops with the person in charge. Letting Correa and go were BAD decisions. And yes- hindsight is 20/20 but we judge both great and poor decisions with hindsight so that argument is irrelevant. Letting Ryan and Woodyard go is understandable, we thought we had replacements and injuries DID effect the performance of those positions.

So my only point is let’s not give JRob a pass on the D sucking. The drop is definitely assigned to his responsibility list. And before people think I’m saying JRob is terrible, credit for how the offense is performing well gets assigned to his responsibility as well. So he’s not a terrible GM. In the balance of things, he’s above average, trending upward (8-4 speaks to that) which is better than “slightly” above average as before.

 

It was a big ass joke to me that they wanted a pass rusher and went after Clowney..... he averages 4 sacks a season. He is not a pass rusher.

 

Here's the contracts for the top 5 DE/OLB free agents for 2020 outside of Clowney and Beasely and how many sacks they have in 2020:

Dante Fowler (26) - 3 years, $15M/yr, 2 sacks
Mario Addison (33) - 3 years, $10M/yr, 4 sacks
Jordan Phillips (28) - 3 years, $10M/yr, 2 sacks
Shaq Lawson (26) - 3 years, $10M/yr, 4 sacks
Carl Nassib (28) - 3 years, $8.5M/yr, 1.5 sacks

At very least our guys were just 1 year trial runs and we don't have them stuck on our team going forward.

The simple fact of the matter is, it was an absolutely terrible year to need pass rush help. The free agent market had no talent, and the draft was no better. Outside of Chase Young, there's only 1 rookie defensive player with more than 2 sacks, and that's some mid round guy at Minnesota with 3.

There was nowhere for us to turn to get defensive help without selling the farm to trade for someone like Ngakoue (who's on his 3rd team in one season already anyways).

I don't want to sound like an apologist, but give JRob credit for taking swings at two players who were as good a bet as anyone else out there to help our pass rush. The fact that it didn't work out sucks, but let's not sit here and act like there were any better choices.

 

Jrob had the right idea for the most part... Simmons plus 2 good rushers should have worked, our safeties and lbs should have been good enough, adoree and the 2nd round Cb along with marginal cb pick ups should have worked....

The problem is every pick and fa signing failed and we have no DC.

I'd say it's not possible to have a worse FA and draft than the titans just put together, on top of that we signed off on having no DC coming off last season when have a well run defense was the obvious most important ingredient solidifying the team