Stop me if you've heard this before: The Tennessee Titans' offensive line is a problem.
Through the first three games of the season, the Titans' OL is amongst the worst in the league. Or should I say, remains amongst the worst. Titans fans have been through the ringer on the offensive front since the heyday of the Lewan-Saffold-Jones lines.
Now, a slow start in 2024 doesn't entirely come as a shock. A major focus of Tennessee's offseason was OL renovation. They paid top-dollar for the best center on the market in Lloyd Cushenberry, and they spent the seventh overall draft pick on left tackle JC Latham.
The cherry on top, and most people's main source of optimism, was the addition of OL coaching legend Bill Callahan to his son's staff. Finally, we thought, they have a real fixer in the building. He can take these pieces and make the Titans trenches great again!
Brutal Growing Pains
But so far the rebuilding process is off to a very slow start, particularly in the pass blocking department. The Titans are amongst the worst teams in the league when it comes to creating a clean pocket, and those unclean pockets result in a sack at a league-leading rate.
The Titans OL is on pace to give up 85 sacks and 311 pressures this season. That would tie for the 2nd most sacks allowed in NFL history, and would be the most pressures allowed since at least 2017 (I stopped looking any further, it got depressing).
Right before the Titans' season began, I said on a Titans podcast that Bill Callahan was under an immense amount of pressure this year. That argument was very poorly received by fans watching the show, and later on social media. How could Bill Callahan be under pressure? He's already a coaching legend! His track record speaks for itself! He's not going to get fired if this OL doesn't work out!
That Callahan could get fired this year wasn't my point at all. The point was this: is he one of the greatest OL coaches in the game, or isn't he? If he's the reason we all think this line will eventually figure it out, that means he's under pressure to deliver! We can't hold this double standard where Bill Callahan gets heaps of praise if it works, but the blame goes on the players if it doesn't. That's not how this should work. And so far, the line as a whole isn't working.
But it's only been three weeks, and no youth rebuild has clicked in a day. Not even close. History tells us this takes months. A half season, sometimes a full season. There's no avoiding a serious dose of patience.
And when we look at this line as individual players instead of their summary results, there are some reasons for optimism.
Working Around One Tackle
Look no further than their latest 1st round pick, JC Latham. He started slow in his rookie debut, but Latham has since turned in consecutive strong performances. In Week 3, he allowed a single pressure on 44 pass protection snaps.
While it's still early, it certainly seems the Titans have found their first legitimate franchise tackle since Taylor Lewan. And alongside him, LG Peter Skoronski and C Lloyd Cushenberry have shown promise as well. It's been far from perfect, but there's real reason to have faith in the left side of this line becoming a strength in due time.
And this aligns with what Bill Callahan's history has shown us. His biggest successes have been when he's given talented prospects. He's regularly gotten the most out of them, which is a skill that can't be minimized. Teams and coaches ruin great raw talent all the time.
The Titans have made no bones about where their primary issues lie: the right side of the line. But I don't think this is entirely fair.
RG Dillon Radunz has performed perfectly serviceably so far this season. He's gotten unfairly lumped-in with the "right side issues" because of the dumpster fire that is the Titans' right tackle position.
Nicholas Petit-Frere has been the starter so far, but was benched for poor play in Week 3. Jaelyn Duncan came in to finish the game, and showed fans that there's always a worse option. If Petit-Frere is bad, then Duncan is downright unplayable.
This is where we come back around to the coaching. I asked Head Coach Brian Callahan if teams can successfully scheme around having just one reliable tackle in the NFL, and he gave a long and thoughtful answer:
"Yeah, I think so. I think we've—I've been in places where we've done it. Yes, there is a way you can help. Very few people have five All-Pro starters. Very few people have two tackles that are of the same calibers. Some do, but very few do, and you have to find ways to help that. You're always trying to help your weaknesses somewhere. Very few teams are complete when it comes to having everything you absolutely would want to have on a roster. That's our job as coaches, is to find ways to, one, highlight our strengths and, two, try to find a way to minimize whatever our weaknesses are because everybody has them. Everybody's got strengths and weaknesses on the roster, on their team, at whatever positions, and that's my job, to put guys in position to highlight those things and then, again, to help where we consider our weaknesses might be. So yeah, it's definitely possible. I think it happens all around the league."
He's right, of course: quality tackle play is in extremely short supply today. Very few teams have two tackles they trust to leave on an island. And plenty of offenses make do with just one side of the line anchored. This was a sticking point for Titans analysts the past two seasons: you can make it work with one tackle, but you're D.O.A. if you have none.
Well, now they have one. But their pass protection production isn't reflecting that fact. The Titans must do a better job coaching around the right side of their line, because while it's unfair to lean on their rookie LT this early, they really have no choice. It's on Bill and Brian Callahan to show that they can make this line work, and to show signs of progress soon.
