The Tennessee Titans have a penalty problem. Still. And it’s going to eventually cost people their jobs if they don’t get things cleaned up. I know that’s a dramatic leap, but the reality is that something has to change. Either the penalties stop, or people will be swapped out of their roles. Players? Coaches? It’s all on the table if they can’t get this train on the tracks. We aren’t close to that point yet in 2025, but that fact doesn’t make this inexplicable problem any less infuriating.
The Titans committed 10 penalties for 62 yards against the Rams in Week 2. They committed 13 penalties for 131 yards against the Broncos in Week 1. Add those together, and guess what you get?
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Titans Top The League In Penalties
That’s right, the most penalties in the entire league through two weeks. 23 total penalties. Their 193 total penalty yards figure is second only to the Giants at 195. They’ve also had 5 penalties declined, and their 28 total penalties accepted and declined also leads the league. One final way of looking at it: they lead the league in net penalties and penalty yards. Subtract their opponent’s infractions from Tennessee’s, and you get 13 penalties for 119 yards. That’s worse than anybody else so far.
When Brian Callahan was asked in his postgame press conference about the disconnect between penalties and the emphasis they’ve tried to place on them all offseason, he gave a pretty honest answer:
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“It’s something that I’m still trying to figure out. I think we had a couple of false starts today. We had just an illegal lineman down field on the first drive, which is, you’ve just got to come flatter on the screen play. Just things that are frustrating, very frustrating to be in that spot. It’s obviously something that we had a problem with last year. It was a problem before. It’s still a problem, and we’re trying like hell to get it fixed. So far, we haven’t been successful doing that.”
I’m running out of words on this topic. Penalty blame is hard to pin down. A lot of fans tend to blame coaching and culture. I’ve long felt that’s sometimes reductive and lazy. The kind of penalty matters a lot when you’re trying to pinpoint the problem. When procedural, pre-snap, and discipline penalties take place: that’s more a culture or teaching issue. 9/23 Titans penalties so far have been pre-snap in nature, for what it’s worth.
But when players are getting flagged for cheating because they’re getting beat (holding, DPI, etc), then I tend to look to the players. At the end of the day, coaches can’t physically keep the players from committing penalties. Player accountability has to begin somewhere. LG Peter Skoronski had this to say in the locker room after the Week 2 loss, and he didn’t mince words:
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“It’s not complicated in my opinion, we can’t have them. Especially the pre-snap, the false starts, just can’t do it. It’s just we’ve got to be disciplined and there’s not much— there’s no tricks or anything to not having them. It’s just, don’t do it. It’s pretty simple. We’ve got to be better at that. That’s killing the offense.”
He’s right. It is killing the offense. I don’t have all the answers for how they get their act together, but I know they’d better figure it out soon if they don’t want this to become a larger problem. Patience is growing very thin.
This story was originally reported by A to Z Sports on Sep 15, 2025, where it first appeared in the NFL section. Add A to Z Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.