The Tennessee Titans are tanking for the first actual time… and it is ugly

The Tennessee Titans are tanking for the first actual time… and it is ugly

Tennessee Titans fans, the team is 1-7. Worst team in the league. It is obvious. And now with the Titans trading Roger McCreary to the Rams yesterday. And obviously Roger probably not going to be the last player traded. We know who those other players are that are on the trade block. We’ve got an interim head coach just trying to get us through the rest of this season. It is clear and obvious what is going on in Nashville. the tank is on and the rebuild has officially gotten into full swing. And I will just say this, a lot of Titans fans will hear that and roll their eyes. A lot of Titans fans will hear, “Oh my god, we’re starting to rebuild again. Oh my gosh, it’s here we go again. How many times?” Because it feels like the Titans have started rebuilding two or three times over the last two or three years. I mean, it feels like we’re constantly tanking and starting a rebuild over, but I will just bring this to the table for conversation. In my opinion, the Titans have not actually done an actual rebuild yet. They’ve done like half-hearted rebuilds. They’ve done kind of rebuilds, but they haven’t actually stripped this thing down to the studs and started over yet. They haven’t done it. They they have not done it yet until right now. They’ve had opportunities to do it and they chose to kind of either not do it or do a half-hearted rebuild, but they haven’t actually done a full rebuild. Back before this season started, Chad Brinker and Mike Borggoni made it clear they did not expect this team to win many games. I don’t think Mike Borgzi and Chad Brinker have ever been concerned with the 2025 Tennessee Titans winning games and looking great. I don’t think that’s what they’ve ever been concerned with. And I think that makes Brian Callahan and the job that he did look even worse because they weren’t even looking for a big winning season. They just wanted to see improvement from last year and he couldn’t even give that. But these last two wins or excuse me, these last two losses to the Patriots and the Colts, I think Brinker and Boronzi are content with that because Cam played better. Jim Ray DK and Gunnar Helm and some of these young guys from the last two drafts are playing well. Some of them, not all of them, but some of them. And I think they’re content with just seeing that. I don’t think they care about final scores. I don’t think they care about the record. I think they just want to see improvement from Cam Ward in particular, but from some of these other guys, that’s all they care about because that’s what a that’s what a tank and a rebuild actually looks like in the NFL. That’s what a rebuild actually looks like. Like I said, the Titans have had their opportunities to rebuild in the past. They could have rebuilt during Vrabel’s final year when they came back in that season and it was obvious it was Vrabel’s last year and the Titans weren’t very good. They ended up being six and 11. The Titans could have initiated a strong rebuild in the middle of that season, and they kind of did because they traded Kevin Bard, but they could have traded Derrick Henry and gotten significant draft capital from the Ravens. Instead, they let Henry walk for free at the end of the season. You can’t call it an actual rebuild when you’re still trying to cling to Derrick Henry and you’re still trying to cling to some of these other guys. You know, I understand you can’t get rid of everybody. That’s why I don’t want him to trade Jeffrey Simmons now. But the Titans had opportunities to really initiate a rebuild at that time and they kind of just half-heartedly did it by trading BD but not trading Henry. Then you fire Vel at the end of that season. You could have started a rebuild then. You could have stripped the roster down to the studs then. But instead we went and paid Calvin Ridley 92 mil. Then we went and traded a third round pick for Legious Sneeed. Paid him significant money. Signed Tony Pard to a deal, signed Lloyd Kushenberry to a four-year deal, signed Tyler Boyd, signed a Wooier, signed all of these people, treated it like the Madden video game franchise mode is what we did. That’s what Ran Carthon did. That’s not a rebuild. That’s just that’s just trying to reload with a bunch of free agents and spending a bunch of money on on guys that are older who who, you know, are are not going to do well here because we’re not in a position to start bringing in these high money free agents. You know what I’m saying? that would have been the opportunity to really be smart with our money and and not just get that dopamine hit of, oh, we signed Calvin Ridley. Like, that would have been the time to do it. And in hindsight, maybe it’s a good thing we didn’t do it since Brian Callahan was our coach. But either way, that was not a rebuild. That was not a rebuild. That was just Ran Carthan spending a bunch of money. And I would love to know if that was just Ran swinging for the fences cuz maybe he just thought, “Cool, we have money to spend.” Or was Amy encouraging him to do that? We’ll never know. But either way, the Titans have not done an actual rebuild yet. They’re doing a rebuild now. And it’s ugly. I mean, it is ugly. But like I said earlier, I don’t think Brinker and Borghazi particularly care about how bad this team looks this year. If anything, they might even prefer that this team look bad this year so they can get as high of a draft pick as possible. I don’t think they’re concerned with if the Titans go one and 16. I don’t think those guys care. Not that they don’t care about winning, but I think for this season, I think they it’s not about winning for them. They just want to see Cam Ward improve and some of these young guys improve. And I think that’s all they care about because they clear. You can’t say you care about winning and throw a secondary out there of Jaylen Lamar Davis, Daryl Baker, and Marcus Harris. You can’t you can’t sit here and tell me you’re trying to win. You’re not trying to win. You’ve never been trying to win. And that’s fine. Like listen, you can get mad at them for that, but like listen, sometimes that’s how it is. Like, hey, we know we’re not very good. They were asked if this roster was good before the season and they laughed. Like they know this roster is not good. They know it was never great and it’s especially bad now. But this has never been about winning for them. Been about stripping it down to the studs. Let’s watch this past draft class. See how they do. And if they do well, we’ve got a good foundation and we can go get another draft class. We’ve got more cap space to work with and we’re hiring a new head coach. And now we’ll start going in the right direction. That’s the idea here. Whether you believe they’ll pull it off or not, that’s the idea. And Roger McCreary was in the last year of his deal. And for all we know, he didn’t even want to come back. He would have been a free agent. He didn’t, for all we know, he didn’t want to come back here. Or maybe they think there’s another slot corner out there they can get. Whatever. Whatever you think about Roger McCreary, and the Jarvis Brownley thing still is baffling to me. But this has never been about winning this season for these guys. They are they they are stripping this thing down to the studs. And it’s going to be ugly. These next nine games are going to be ugly. They very well may not win another game this year. But I’m I’m asking you as Titans fans and I’m asking myself. I’m looking into this camera and I see myself looking back at me. So, it’s like I’m talking to me. I think for these final nine games, you don’t need to worry about final scores or what the final record is for the Titans because you’re just going to drive yourself crazy if you’re worrying about that. That’s not the story here. It can’t be the story here. It’s going to have to be the development of Cam Ward. This past Sunday, the Titans lost miserably to the Colts, but Cam Ward played pretty good, so that’s that’s what you want to see. Yeah, the Titans were never going to beat the Colts, but you know what? Cam Ward played pretty good, and that’s that’s good enough. Chimray DK played good. That’s good enough. Gunner Helm played well, that’s good enough. And with the rest of this season with Roger being traded, you’re going to see more Marcus Harris, a sixthround rookie in there at slot corner. And if he can come in and do something for you, great. Win or lose, if that kid can come in and show you something, great. Kevin Winston going to be getting more work at safety. If that kid can show you something with the remaining games, great. Cedric Gray continues to play well, great. If JC Laam starts improving, that’s what you’re looking for. Win or lose, you’re going to have to start looking at these guys from the last two drafts and look for them to start playing better. And that’s how you’re going to have to gauge success for this season because wins and losses, that’s not we’re well beyond that. There ain’t going to be many wins, if any. So, you’re going to have to gauge it by how are these young guys improving because that’s all we got. We don’t really have any veterans. The veterans we do have are like the first of all, they’re probably all about to be traded. And if they’re still here, I mean, it’s not like they’re difference makers. So, you’re win, lose, or draw, mostly lose. You’re going to have to watch these young guys and just see how they’re playing. And that’s how you gauge success this season because this is a rebuild. This is a tank. Brinker and Boronzi are not concerned with winning the rest of this season. And I don’t know if they’ve ever been too concerned with winning this season. All they care about is see an improvement. And they weren’t even getting that under Callahan. It’s why he got fired. It’s a rebuild. It’s the first one the Titans have actually done like an official rebuild. Not a half rebuild. Not a kind of rebuild. It’s a full-on we’re stripping it down. We’re we’re getting rid of everybody except the rookies and and the guys from last year’s draft class and even some of them. We already traded Brownley, so who knows if some of those guys will be going. But I’m just telling you, it’s a rebuild and it’s going to get a heck of a lot ugly uglier before it gets any semblance of prettier. Big head coaching hire coming up in January. We got plenty of time to talk about that. Tighten up vibe.

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