After finishing last in the AFC South last season, the Tennessee Titans fired their head coach and officially hit the reset button.
Here’s why the Titans should be worried about the 2024 season.
Will Levis is still unproven
Levis certainly had his moments of brilliance last year. He threw four touchdowns in his NFL debut and led a last-minute upset of the Miami Dolphins on “Monday Night Football” in Week 14. But despite all the promise he showed in his brief nine-game stint, some still question whether Levis is the Titans’ long-term answer at quarterback.
There’s no question that the arm strength, the will to win and the work ethic are there. However, the same can’t be said right now for his accuracy (58.4 completion percentage) and decision-making (he took 28 sacks in nine games and had a 59.1 passer rating when under pressure). The Titans did everything they could to surround him with talent, adding running back Tony Pollard plus receivers Calvin Ridley and Tyler Boyd and upgrading the offensive line, but everything else falls on Levis’ shoulders.
New head coach plus offensive, defensive coordinators
Right now, it looks like head coach Brian Callahan, offensive coordinator Nick Holz and defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson are saying and doing all the right things, but the Titans haven’t even taken any meaningful offseason reps yet.
Callahan and Holz have their work cut out in trying to get more out of an offense (sans Derrick Henry) that ranked 28th in total yards (289 per game) and 27th in scoring (17.9 points per game) last season. Adding Pollard and Ridley helps, but things are still very much a work in progress offensively.
Conversely, Wilson lost a lot of the Titans’ key defensive players from last season including defensive end Denico Autry, linebackers Azeez Al-Shaair and Monty Rice, and cornerbacks Sean Murphy-Bunting and Kristian Fulton. The secondary should be improved after adding CBs La’Jarius Sneed and Chidobe Awuzie, but the team will be counting on lots of production from rookies like defensive tackle T’Vondre Sweat, linebacker Cedric Gray and cornerback Jarvis Brownlee.
Offensive line is still a question mark
Yes, drafting tackle JC Latham seventh overall plus signing center Lloyd Cushenberry and guard Saahdiq Charles helps exponentially, as does bringing in Bill Callahan, who’s considered the top offensive line coach in the NFL, but last year’s Titans offensive line was so bad, it may take more than one offseason to whip the group into form.
All three players will be starters next season along with 2023 first-round guard Peter Skoronski and whoever wins the battle right tackle out of Nicholas Petit-Frere and Dillon Radunz. And while that unit is significantly better on paper than what Tennessee ran out in 2023 with Andre Dillard, Chris Hubbard and Aaron Brewer, there’s no guarantee that unit will play up to its potential.
