The plan is to avoid sticking to the plan as often as possible.
This, as new Tennessee Titans special teams coordinator John Fassel outlines it, is the path toward the Titans improving their special teams after years and years of struggles.
“I think in special teams there’s some of that where if you try to be real conservative or real perfect or real scripted or real schemed, I think that prohibits a little bit of the flair that comes with special teams, which is running, chasing, hitting and finishing,” Fassel says.
Special teams haven’t been the Titans’ highest-profile weakness in recent years, what with the recurring let downs at quarterback and on the offensive line. But it’s probably fair to say special teams has been the area where mistakes and low quality have been the most persistent.
The Titans haven’t returned a proper kickoff for a touchdown since 2018 and haven’t returned a punt for a score since 2012. Nor has the team blocked a punt since 2012 or notched a field goal of longer than 56 yards since 2006. Dating back to 2018, the Titans have finished among the bottom 25% of the league in field goal percentage, net yards per punt, punt return average, yards allowed per punt return and yards allowed per kick return a whopping nine times.
In 2024 alone, the Titans ranked in the bottom five in yards allowed per punt return, yards allowed per kick return, net yards per punt and punt return average while also losing five fumbles on returns and allowed two blocked punts.
Put simply, there’s a reason why Fassel’s in the job and former special teams coordinator Colt Anderson isn’t. Fassel’s reputation is impressive.
In 17 years as an NFL coordinator, Fassel’s specialists have gone to 21 Pro Bowls. This includes multiples punters, multiple kickers, multiple return specialists, multiple long snappers and one general special teams ace. Over his five-year tenure in Dallas, the Cowboys ranked in the top-five in the league in everything from net punting to yards per kick return. His 2024 squad set the all-time record for yards per kick return under the first season of the NFL’s new kickoff rules.
Fassel describes his philosophy for special teams as “relentless, with a little bit of wild man.” He wants players to play free, unencumbered by rules or restrictions. If a return is supposed to go left, but one of Fassel’s return men sees a hole open on the right, he wants the returner to trust his vision. He said he believes in “enabling players to play as if there will be no consequences for making mistakes, “freedom without the fear of consequence,” believing that big plays and positive results come less from rigidity or conservatism and more from the looseness that comes from being unafraid of making mistakes.
Fassel coaches, sure, but based on his descriptions of himself he comes across as more of a nurturer and identifier of talent than anything else. As his career has gone on, Fassel says, he’s stopped pigeonholing his schemes based on size or speed. Rather, plucks 11 players and designs a system around what they can do, even if there are obvious, exploitable weaknesses.
“I’ve had big guys that don’t run very well who’ve been really good on teams and I’ve had small guys that you think would be overpowered who are good on teams. I think on special teams I’ve learned that success from a player can come in all shapes, sizes, speeds and abilities,” Fassel says. “It’s my job to figure out what their strengths are and put them in matchups that favor those strengths and not really concern myself with the weaknesses… I really look hard at what a player does good and pick the right matchups and ask them to do what I think they can do at the positions where they’ll win success.”
Fassel says he didn’t spend much time watching back the Titans’ tape from 2024. He wants to build impressions of players based on how they look in his system, not in previous ones. Not that he’d have too much tape to watch. The Titans brought in a new kicker in Joey Slye, a new punter in Johnny Hekker and plenty of competition at the return spot, including receivers James Proche, Chimere Dike and Xavier Restrepo.
“It’s a fresh start for me and a fresh start for them,” Fassel said. “Whatever’s happened in the past, good or bad, doesn’t matter.”
Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.