32 Teams in 32 Days, Team #11: The Tennessee Titans

#10 can’t do it by himself. Vince Young is a very talented football player that wins football games. The only problem that this winner of a National Championship has is that he can’t win the football games that he needs to win by himself. There aren’t a lot of playmakers in the Titan offense to help Vince Young get it done and until the Titans address this problem, they will only be good enough to lose in the playoffs. This is the NFL. As fun as it is to watch Vince Young run all over the field, its not enough to get the job done. I am disapointed that the Titans organization did not draft a wide receiver in the first round, a round in which no wide receivers where drafted. Even when wide outs started to go in the second round, the Titans still did not bite. They missed out on a lot of playmakers. They should be ashamed.

The Titan defense is very impressive... only when Albert Haynesworth is playing. When he is in the game, no team can run on the Titans, he shuts everyone down. When Haynesworth is not on the field, the game becomes easier for the opposing team. When you match up Haynesworth and Kyle Vanden Bosh you have a pair of defenders that give the other team fits. They are extremely hard to beat and you don’t get a lot of opportunities to beat them when playing against them. The only problem is that the Titans have to find a way to play at a high level when Haynesworth is not on the field. His absence from the game can not be the only thing that is stopping the Titans from shutting down opposing offenses and making it further into the playoffs.

Lets face it, the Titans are a running team. They run it more then any other team in the league, but that still does not excuse the fact that their passing game is not a great one. The blame can not be solely on Vince Young. Quarterbacks in this league get far to much blame. The blame is on the lack of playmakers at wide out. Roydell Williams emerged as a reliable target last season, but he is by no means a playmaker. Justin Gage caught a lot of passes from Vince Young down the stretch of the season and that did help them reach the playoffs, but he is by no means an elite wide out. The Titans do not have that one wide out that can shake things up. Without that, Vince Young is basically doing it all by himself. More then once last season, I saw easy passes dropped, routes run wrongly, and just a flat out lack of talent at the wide receiver position. The Titans should have addressed this problem in the draft, but instead of that, they will have to hope that their young recievers get the point sooner rather then later. What I do like is that the Titans were able to sign Tight End Alge Crumpler formerly of the Atlanta Falcons. Crumpler is a veteran in the league and will be winding down his career soon, but he can make things happen for this team. Hopefully, Vince Young can find him in the passing offense. His presence will help, but it won’t fix the many problems the Titans have in their passing offense.

The Tennessee Titans run the ball so much. They usually go through 2 running backs a game and even their quarterback tucks the ball and scrambles around quite a bit. Lendale White is not in the greatest shape, but he makes things happen on the field. He is able to plow through the line and get yardage. His game as well as his stomach is big time. Spelling White this year will be Chris Henry who had a pretty decent year last year. He will have to step it up a bit to aid this offense as the number 2 back, but I don’t think that will be a problem. I am curious to see if the Titans first round draft pick in Chris Johnson out of East Carolina can provide some spark to the running game. He may never see the ball because of the way Vince Young plays. Its simple. Vince Young can’t play well when he throws the ball 40 or more times. Young will run. White will run. Henry will run. This team will try to run their way back into the playoffs.

I’ve made many mentions of Vince Young throughout this blog. He is a very talented quarterback. Many people compare him to Michael Vick because of the way they both play, but I think that comparison is lacking in substance. Vince Young is a much more accurate quarterback with a much better arm. Young doesn’t run as fast, but his running makes sense and he is a very shifty runner who can make defenders miss. 9 times out of 10, when running, Vince Young will get to where he needs to be. The Titans hopes of making it back to the playoffs this year will rest on Vince Young’s arms and his legs. He was able to run the Texas Longhorns to a National Championship in 2006. Can he run the Titans back to the playoffs and a possible Superbowl title? Time will tell, but I don’t think he can do it alone.

The Tennessee Titans are without a doubt a good team. They play in the toughest division in the AFC, the AFC South. They have made the division a very difficult one for the Indianapolis Colts to win. The AFC South is going to be a fun division to watch this year. The match ups become that more important. I’m looking forward to seeing some big wins for the Titans this year. They have some hard teams on their schedule, but I think they will win enough games to chase the playoffs. I don’t see a superbowl birth for this team, but it’s a good sign for the future. Vince Young is a really good quarterback, but until he gets the weapons on offense that he needs, this team will not make it to the Superbowl.