The fatal flaw Titans must address in training camp

The Tennessee Titans have several areas of concern, but here is the fatal flaw they must address in training camp.

There’s good news for the Tennessee Titans with the signing of their second-round pick, but bad news that they lost their backup quarterback for the season. But here is the fatal flaw the Titans must address in training camp.

Unlike many NFL teams, the Titans don’t have one area that’s of major concern. That sounds like a good thing, right? Unfortunately, it’s not. The Titans don’t have just one area of major concern. They have multiple ones.

An untested rookie will start at quarterback. That’s for sure with Will Levis out for the season with an injury. Their linebacker group is questionable, as is the depth at the receiver position.

Therefore, the fatal flaw is …

Titans have a weak overall roster

Yes, to fix this fatal flaw in training camp, the Titans will have to grab, scoop, and collect more talent when teams start trimming their rosters down to 53 players.

When ESPN ranked the rosters across the NFL, things didn’t go well for head coach Brian Callahan and the Titans, according to espn.com. The Titans landed at No. 28.

ESPN liked the Titans’ interior defensive line. But it found problems with the rest of the front seven.

“Edge Harold Landry III (second among Titans defenders in snaps last season) and linebacker Kenneth Murray Jr. (fourth) were among Tennessee's notable offseason departures,” Mike Clay wrote. “That leaves Arden Key (career-high 6.5 sacks last season) as the team's top edge, with a host of newcomers (Dre'Mont Jones, Lorenzo Carter, and second-round rookie Oluwafemi Oladejo) competing for a prominent workload.

“Linebacker Cody Barton is on his fourth team in four years, but he has registered 100-plus tackles in each of the past three seasons. Though Barton could solidify things, no other LB on the roster played more than 140 snaps last season.”

There’s more with Calvin Ridley leading the wide receiver room. Whether Ridley can be a true WR1 at this stage of his career remains to be seen. Tyler Lockett is past his prime, and Van Jefferson has never shown much prime. Treylon Burks hasn’t lived up to his billing. So if rookies Chimere Dike and Elic Ayomanor don’t pan out, things look iffy for the Titans.

Callahan is under pressure to take this roster and win NFL football games. That’s a tough chore. But at least he has a plan, according to tennesseean.com.

“Coach Callahan has changed a lot with his approach,” Jim Wyatt wrote. “And I think he learned a bunch from his first NFL season. This offseason, he put a big emphasis on building a more competitive and closer team. I think the vibes heading into the year are really good. And, I think he'll be a lot more prepared heading into his second NFL season.”

Waytt said he didn’t want to speculate about whether Callahan had to produce a lot of wins in year two.

“Do I think last year's 3-14 record was all on him?” Wyatt wrote. “No. There were a lot of factors that contributed to last year's dreadful season. And there were a lot of changes in the offseason because of it. I also know this is a results-based league, and Callahan knows that. The team needs to show improvement and win.

At least the Titans have hope on their roster. If rookie quarterback Cam Ward can be dynamic, stealing wins here and there might be doable. Defensive tackle Jeremy Simmons said he’s excited about playing on the same team with Ward, according to Good Morning Football via sportingnews.com.

“It was after a play, we stopped him, and I think I ended up getting a sack,” Simmons said. “All of the sudden, we're talking smack and Cally (head coach Brian Callahan) is giving him the dang play, and I'm still talking smack to him, I'm jawing because that's my game. I want to talk smack, I want to get in your head.

“It didn't faze him. He's still talking smack while Cally's getting the play to him. He's giving the play to the offense, still talking smack to me. When they gave him that play and came to the line, the next play after the smack talk, he threw an 80-yard bomb to Calvin Ridley. So, that right there showed me we got us one. He's legit.”