Ownership and the Defense

Hopefully Amy has nothing to do with the football stuff

Owners own, let the football minds do their thing

 

Nah when owners get involved you end up being the Cleveland Browns or the Washington NoNames

 

You hold them accountable with wins and losses. That’s all that matters to you.

 

I don't think ownership doesn't need to make ultimatums per se, but changes need to be made by both Vrabel and Robinson.

Even before this season, I think most would agree that this defense was lacking in areas, particularly the pass rush. Robinson's attempts at upgrading that area failed. The loss of Pees as DC and the ascension of the combo of Vrabel/Bowen as "DC" has been an unmitigated disaster. What was at least an adequate defense has turned into a league worst defense. Many of the players whom fans thought were rising stars have all regressed with the exception of Simmons. (I dont count Butler as a rising star)

I have said this in other threads, but I think the first step in addressing the problems of the defense is a purging of the current defensive coaching staff and an outside DC needs to be brought in with his own staff. While I am not under any delusions that a new DC would change the scheme significantly, a competent DC would at the least allow Vrabel to focus on what he was hired to do, be the head coach, and hopefully have a competent playcaller on defense that he does not have to babysit.

Right now Vrabel plays both HC and DC and that is too much, particularly as he wasn't a very good DC in his one season in Houston and Bowen has had no real coaching experience outside of riding Vrabel's coattails wherever he went. A much more able and competent playcaller, even in a similar scheme, would help immensely in my opinion. I mean the scheme the Titans are running isn't dramatically different than what Pees ran, but Pees had the ability to scheme his players into ideal positions to mask some of their limitations. Logan Ryan was a great example, not a great coverage guy, but he was quite effective lining up as a LB on obvious runs and he was an effective blitzer. Vrabel and Bowen have shown little ability to do this in my opinion.

Would the defense be elite or above average with a DC? Probably not, but all this team needed was an average at best defense and the Titans certainly do not have that. The big takeaway for this season will be that the Titans went from an average to at times ok defense to the lowest ranked in a single season.

Given how bad the defense has been, if Vrabel attempts to persist in not getting a DC (or even trying to hire Bowen or any other internal defensive coach as DC), I see Robinson stepping in and putting his foot down in a similar vein as what he did with Mularkey. Given that, I think Vrabel will hire a DC.

Having said all that, personnel is also a problem and that falls squarely on Robinson to help correct. He tried to fix the pass rush with FA pickups this offseason and that blew up in his face. The draft picks he has made on defense aren't panning out even when considering the scheme (Landry, Evans, etc.).

Like I wrote in the Packers post-game thread, Robinson will have his hands full this offseason with the lower cap figure and the near certainty that Butler (arguably the best or second best defensive player this season). will have to be a cap casualty due to his salary. Robinson will have difficult decisions whether he wants to re sign Jayon Brown, Desmond King, and Dequan Jones. Vaccaro's salary and performance means he's likely gone as well. Does he extend Adoree Jackson? All of this has to be addressed and at the same time he has to figure out how to bring in some players to create some semblance of a pass rush. The Byard contract looks to be an albatross if his play doesn't improve. Does Robinson say screw the defense and work to keep the offense intact (Corey Davis)? Rebuilding a team from 2-14 and 3-13 is one thing, keeping that team a contender is another.

I think Robinson's priority in the offseason (as it has been for a while) is to try to fix the pass rush. It's the worst part of this team and improving it will help the most. I'm not sure who is available in the draft to be honest.