The Tennessee Titans took a week to self-scout and came to the following conclusion: Converting third downs at the worst rate in the NFL isn’t helping things.

Through nine games, the Titans have only converted 28.45% of their offensive third downs. That’s not just the worst rate in the NFL; across the last 10 seasons, only the 2023 New York Jets have finished a year with a worse third down conversion rate. Since 2000, the Titans‘ 28.45% rate comes in as the 13th-worst conversion percentage the league has seen. While the Titans converted 40% of their third downs in their best performance this year, the league average conversion rate among all other teams is 39.4%.

It’s easy to be glib about the obviousness of what the 1-8 Titans need to be working on, but when only a dozen teams in a quarter century have been worse at extending drives, the problem is pretty notable.

“You talk about scoring more points and doing things; when you’re in the high-20s in third down conversion rate, it’s tough to score a lot of points,” Titans interim coach Mike McCoy said after being asked what conclusions he drew about changes that need to be made coming out of the bye week. “You’ve got to sustain drives. Whether it’s in the red area somewhere where you’re talking about those four-point plays kicking field goals or you extend the drive, or anywhere else on the field where you want to get another opportunity. So that’s a huge focus for us.”

McCoy is a stickler for not talking about scheme or personnel decisions before a game, so he didn’t get too deep into specifics of what he concluded needs to be done about the third down issues. But, speaking in generalities, he talked about his approach to making alterations coming out of the bye.

The first step is identifying core principles that were expected to be cornerstone philosophies but haven’t worked. Next comes analyzing those failures detail-by-detail. Are the formational alignments not giving the right looks? Are players miscast in roles that worked better with different personnel? Are concepts that work not getting enough play?

Then, naturally, come the tweaks.

“There’s a couple of things that I looked at and I said ‘OK, let’s maybe stay away from some of these concepts, maybe we’re not having the success, maybe let’s run more of something else that’s a higher completion percentage that we have more success with,’” McCoy conceded. “So there’s always that every year. There’s things you look back and say ‘Gah, this used to be it.’”

Titans injury updates: Latest on Jeffery Simmons, Calvin Ridley

Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons missed the last two games with a hamstring injury. No. 1 receiver Calvin Ridley has missed three in a row with a hamstring of his own. Given the time off from the bye, hopes are high the team’s two highest-paid players have recuperated.

But McCoy isn’t tipping his hand.

“They’re working extremely hard,” McCoy said. “That’s all I’m going to say right now. We’ve been talking about it for weeks, how hard they work. So as soon as they can be out there to help the team and play at 100% and they want to know they can cut it loose and be themselves, they’ll be out there.”

Two players who will be eligible to return to practice are rookie running back Kalel Mullings and safety Mike Brown. Both are on injured reserve, but both have had their return-to-play windows activated, meaning they’ll be able to return to practice and, eventually, be activated back onto the roster. Brown rejoins the fold after a busy week in the Titans secondary where veteran Quandre Diggs was granted his release and the Titans added Jerrick Reed II off waivers from Seattle.

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at  nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X @nicksuss. Subscribe to the Talkin’ Titans newsletter for updates sent directly to your inbox.