Titans hit open date with losses piling up
NASHVILLE — Even with all the offseason changes, the Tennessee Titans have reached their open date where they left off last season.
Losing.
The Titans (2-4) have lost two straight games and 11 of their past 13 dating to last season. Veteran quarterback Ryan Tannehill couldn’t finish the most recent game, a 24-16 loss to the Baltimore Ravens last Sunday in London. He has a sprained right ankle similar to the injury that cost him two starts last season.
Restless fans are ready to see what second-year pro Malik Willis or rookie Will Levis can do with some meaningful snaps. With the trade deadline looming on Oct. 31, some want the Titans to stock up for the future by trading away anyone another team might want.
Others want coach Mike Vrabel fired. That’s despite the Titans reaching the playoffs in three of his first five seasons, with losses in finales keeping that from being five straight postseason berths. Just last season, Tennessee was mere minutes from a third straight AFC South Division title.
The Titans themselves? They’re preaching calm. Vrabel, who is 52-41 as Tennessee’s coach, said he might read some mean social media posts to his team.
“I read all the the funny stuff that they say about us or me specifically,” Vrabel said. “I did that one year. I think we ended up winning 12 games. ‘This coach sucks,’ ‘This guy stinks,’ and ended up having a different tune. Guys all laughed about it.”
DeAndre Hopkins, a fivetime Pro Bowl receiver in his first season in Nashville, has been on teams that went 2-14 and others that rebounded from early struggles with winning streaks. He advised patience.
“We’ve still got a lot of football to play,” Hopkins said.
Yes, Tannehill is hurt. The offense is averaging 17.3 points a game, down from the 17.5 the Titans averaged last season that was 28th in the NFL. Despite a change at coordinator to Tim Kelly, they have the league’s longest active streak and a franchise-worst 24 straight games scoring fewer than 30 points.
The Titans can’t blame injuries that caused them to lead the NFL in each of the past two seasons for most players used, though they have had some key players sidelined. Starting left guard Peter Skoronski, the 11th overall pick of April’s draft, needed an emergency appendectomy Sept. 16, which cost him two games. Wide receiver Treylon Burks, the 18th pick overall in 2022, has missed three straight after aggravating the left knee he hurt in August.
Burks is expected to return to practice and should be available Oct. 29, when the Titans return to action by hosting the Atlanta Falcons. He’ll need the work with whatever quarterback the Titans pick to replace Tannehill while the veteran is out.
Willis was the 86th pick last year by general manager Jon Robinson, who was fired in December. He won his first start as a rookie during a road game against the Houston Texans, an AFC South matchup in which the Titans let him throw once in the second half. Derrick Henry, the two-time NFL rushing leader, ran for 219 yards that day, leading Tennessee to a big win.
The Titans lost the next two starts Willis made, then turned to a journeyman quarterback signed Dec. 21, former University of Tennessee standout Joshua Dobbs, to start the final two games with the team trying to reach the postseason.
With Tannehill going into the final year of his contract, new general manager Ran Carthon traded up in April to No. 33 overall to select Levis out of Kentucky. After the open date, it may be time to see what Levis can do. Vrabel said he sees the rookie being more comfortable after missing the final two preseason games with an injury.
“Coming in this league as a quarterback with an existing quarterback, with a player in his second year, that’s unique,” Vrabel said of Levis. “And I think he’s handled that well. I think his comfort level and just being around here has improved.”
The Titans’ two wins this season both came at home. Oct. 29 will be their lone game in Nashville in a seven-week stretch, and Tannehill likely won’t be available by the following Thursday, when the Titans visit the Pittsburgh Steelers on a short week of preparation.
That starts a three-game road swing against teams that currently have winning records. The crucial date in that stretch is Nov. 19, when the Titans visit the Jacksonville Jaguars — the reigning AFC South champions and currently in first place at 5-2 as the division’s only team with a winning record — for the first of five games remaining inside the division.
Then it’s back to Nashville for five of the final seven games, including the regular-season finale against Jacksonville.
Vrabel, whose contract extension was announced in February 2022, made clear Tannehill is the team’s starting quarterback when healthy. With no game to prepare for, he planned to use this past week to remind the Titans of what they’re doing well, fix what must be better and hold everyone accountable.
Soon enough, though, it will be time to play again, and Vrabel knows what he expects: “We’re going to fight. We ain’t going to quit.”