The Tennessee Titans made quite a few mistakes during the 2024 season. That goes from the top of the organization all the way down to the players on the field. You certainly don’t just “get unlucky” and look up with a 3-14 record.
Some of the organization's mistakes were so obvious that fans saw them coming from a mile away and pointed them out in real time.
If you ask any Titans fan for some thoughts on Brian Callahan’s first season as Titans head coach, you would likely get some mixed reviews. But almost everyone would probably bring up the way the coaching staff managed wide receivers Nick Westbrook-Ikhine and Treylon Burks at the beginning of the 2024 regular season.
It often felt like the Titans' coaching staff was trying to fit a square peg into a round hole with Treylon Burks in Tennessee’s offense. No matter how clear it became to everybody watching that Burks was not cutting it, the Titans kept trotting him out there while sitting Nick Westbrook-Ikhine on the bench.
Through four games, Burks even had more offensive snaps played than DeAndre Hopkins. Westbrook-Ikhine had played a limited amount and was not targeted with a pass through four weeks.
When Burks suffered a knee injury in early October and went down for the season, NWI was forced into action and never looked back. Over the next 13 games, Westbrook-Ikhine had 32 catches, 497 receiving yards, and nine touchdowns. By the halfway mark of the season, he was the Titans' WR2 and playing on almost every offensive snap.
As Titans fans the NFL world watched NWI's breakout season unfold, you couldn't help but criticize the Titans' coaching staff for taking so long to get him on the field. Had it not been for that knee injury, we may have never seen what Westbrook-Ikhine was capable of.
Callahan explains not playing NWI sooner
It's a clear knock against head coach Brian Callahan. but it's also not something Callahan is hiding from. In an exclusive interview with Easton Freeze of AtoZ Sports, Callahan was brutally honest about the decision he had to make between Burks and NWI early in the season.
"It's hard because you see a guy like [Treylon Burks] who's got talent and our job as coaches is to try to get the most out of the talent. You try to give opportunities to improve," said Callahan. "He came back in phenomenal shape at training camp. He was he was dialed in. He knew what to do."
But let's be honest...we all know that Burks' extended opportunity as a started was not really based on merit. The on-field results had not been good. It had everything to do with where he was drafted, and Callahan admitted as much.
"Again, he's a first round pick, you know? Those guys that are first round picks and have talent often times are afforded a longer opportunity than others. And that's just the nature of the business in the NFL. That's how it works," said Tennessee's head coach. "You have your high draft pick and we're a new staff, so we're trying to get the best out of the talent that was at hand."
"Could we have gotten Nick involved more often earlier? Yeah, there's certainly things that I think we could have done to involve him earlier. I told him that at the end of the year that I wish that I recognized his value quicker. I think that he has a huge value in terms of what he does in the run game. [Nick] can play all three positions. He makes contested catches. He's big, he's strong. Those are things that that we could use. I told him after the season that I wish I would have found a role for him earlier on."
That's the ugly truth about the NFL. Players like Nick Westbrook-Ikhine who possess fewer physical tools are consistently overlooked. NWI was undrafted. He initially made an NFL 53-man roster as a special teams contributor. Even after working hard and proving himself capable at receiver, he is passed up for the former 1st rounder with a significantly worse track record.
It makes his nine touchdown catches and other successes in a Titans uniform even cooler to see.
I still have some doubts about Brian Callahan's (and the coaching staff's) ability to scout internally. I'm not out by any means, but misses like the Burks/NWI situation are hard to ignore. I think the right tackle play last season was another example of poor pro scouting within the organization.
It doesn't really matter how good your scheme is if you can't identify which players will help it operate effectively. Hopefully these are lessons learned and buried in 2024. Perhaps it's something GM Mike Borgonzi will help improve as well.
