Unheralded propel Titans
The (Nashville) Tennessean
INDIANAPOLIS – A victorious locker room celebrated as Titans defensive lineman Jurrell Casey put into words why his team has grown.
“Sticking together, that’s been the biggest thing,” Casey said. “It’s everybody understanding that as long as we continue to fight and we keep on swinging, we can do something. Don’t quit. Don’t fight on the sideline. Don’t show no hissy fits.
“And we’ve been doing that all year long.”
Such a statement feels like a cliché, something all players say, a description apt to being dismissed. But a player like Casey, a veteran Titans leader, has seen it when it’s not that way.
Once again, though, the Titans (7-5) are making a late run. With each week, there is hope building that this season could bring more, could be special in a way that previous ones have not been.
The Titans have played all but one game this season on Sunday afternoon. As usual, they’ve largely been off the NFL’s national media radar.
If you haven’t seen, their games have been deliciously thrilling most weeks, coming down to the final quarter and often the final minute.
The lack of national interest has more to do with a lack of superstars and a lack of storylines and drama.
One might assume an NFL team’s absence of star power to be a curse, and sure, it can be. The Titans aren’t going to overwhelm an opponent on either side of the football, like the Chiefs’ or Ravens’ offense or a Bears’ or Patriots’ defense.
Talent is everywhere in the NFL, meaning it is often about who is special. Who are the players capable of great, standout plays at key moments?
Without a wealth of gamechanging talent, the Titans have been inconsistent. They aren’t dominant, and that often makes them counterpunchers, susceptible to the flow of games and weekly shifts of fortune based largely on what the other team does or does not do, not necessarily what the Titans are able to control.
The trade-off, however, to that lack of star power is the lack of drama.
It’s not as interesting, but it without question is a blessing for this team.
In building this roster, something the Titans’ management got right – and coach Mike Vrabel and his coaching staff have nourished – is the culture of cohesion that exists in the locker room. It’s a good group. Those high-priced, high-maintenance egos, you don’t see them among these Titans.
“We said it at the beginning of the year, and I told you when even it wasn’t looking good, ‘This is a special locker room, a special team, special guys,’ ” cornerback Logan Ryan said Sunday.
Theirs tends to be a distraction-free culture, which in many ways, is remarkable in today’s NFL.
But so is the financial makeup of this team.
The Titans’ highest-paid player – benched quarterback Marcus Mariota – isn’t even playing right now.
Meanwhile, Tennessee’s most productive quarterback (Ryan Tannehill), running back (Derrick Henry) and wide receiver (rookie A.J. Brown) collectively count for about $4.63 million of the Titans’ salary cap space, according to Spotrac.com.
The combined total for the team’s kicker (Ryan Succop) and punter (Brent Kern) is more than $6 million, for example. And the cap hit for both Succop and Kern is at least $1 million more than that for Tannehill, Henry or Brown.
Kern is worth what he’s making, for sure, but try finding another team in the NFL with that kind of discrepancy for its top offensive skill players.
It’s not going to last, of course. If the Titans want to keep Tannehill and Henry beyond this season, it’s going to require new contracts and much more cash.
Henry has been asked about his contract and his future and has steadfastly refused to discuss it publicly, which is true to his nature. He’ll rarely speak about himself, saying repeatedly after his Week 13 performance that it spoke for itself. That fits this team.
And just last week, Brown was asked by a reporter if he views himself as a No. 1 receiver. It’s a tricky question. Of course, he’d say yes. There’s not an NFL receiver that would say no. Each at some level has surely been the best receiver on his team. But it would come across a selfserving statement, especially for a rookie.
So Brown said this: “I don’t really know how to answer that question. I’d rather not.”
Not an entertaining but a smart one.
Not page-turning stuff, but as the season progresses, such a culture is again helping the Titans do things that many had decided they could not. response,