Ranking the Titans four biggest problems
It's been a season full of turmoil and frustration for Mike Vrabel's Titans, as the team suffered their eleventh loss of the season to the Houston Texans on Sunday. Tennessee has now lost three consecutive games, and the amount of problems this football team has is alarming. Let's take a look at the Titans' four biggest problems that must be solved sooner rather than later...
The Disastrous LT Situation
Words can't fully describe how poor the left tackle play is in Nashville. Jaelyn Duncan and Andre Dillard are hazardous to any Titans' QB, and shockingly, it keeps getting worse and worse. Rookie Jaelyn Duncan played 30 offensive snaps on Sunday versus Houston, allowing two sacks, two QB hits, and three hurries. Duncan was benched for the notorious Andre Dillard, who played 25 offensive snaps and allowed two sacks and three QB hurries. Dillard and Duncan are both Top five in the NFL in sacks allowed while splitting playing time due to their incompetence. That stat tells you all you need to know about the Titans' LT situation... (Olu Fashanu or Joe Alt, please save us)
Burks has struggled to stay healthy in 2023, but the sophomore receiver is a nonfactor even when he's on the field. Treylon played 82% of the offensive snaps on Sunday versus Houston and hauled in just two catches for 11 yards. The former Razorback hasn't had a game with over three catches this season and has had over 50 receiving yards just twice. Moving on from Burks in the offseason will be challenging, as cutting him would be problematic for Tennessee's cap number. Finding a trade partner will be close to impossible as well. The 23-year-old will likely be on the roster in 2024, but there are no guarantees after that if he continues to underwhelm in a passing offense that is in desperate need of a WR2…
Injury Bug
The Titans have been one of the most injury-prone teams in the NFL these last few seasons, and the injury bug struck Nashville once again in 2023. Mike Vrabel's group ranks within the top ten in total players on IR and are tied for first in current players on IR. Jeffery Simmons, Amani Hooker, and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine are three players who made impacts on the team this season and are currently on Injured Reserve. Kristian Fulton and Nicholas Petit-Frere were both dreadful this season and found themselves on IR, but they're better than the UDFAs the Titans are playing in their positions. Let's hope the injury bug gets stepped on in 2024...
Incompetence in the 2nd Half
I wrote an article on this last week, so if you want to read the in-depth numbers, click here. The Titans are one of the league's worst second-half teams, as they are near the top in blown fourth-quarter and second-half leads in the NFL. A prominent reason for this is the sporadic and out-of-sync second-half offense. Tennessee fails to sustain drives and punch the ball into the endzone in the final 30 minutes of games, as they are averaging 7.3 points per game in the second half (31st). As a result of this trend, the Titans' defense gasses out and lets up chunk plays later in the game (we saw this most recently in the Seattle game). An NFL team that is incompetent in the second half has no chance of stringing together a successful season, and the Titans are a prime example...
IMAGES: Titans.com
STATS: John Glennon, TitansStats, PFFR, Team Rankings