2009 Tennessee Titans surprise performers

Let’s continue our “Damn the offseason, full speed ahead!” approach at Total Titans by taking a look at which Tennessee Titans stepped up with surprise showings last year.

This post will serve as part I in a two-part series of articles that will highlight the players who emerged as unexpected successes and the Titans’ biggest disappointments last season.

Cue the drumroll, please….Up next, the five biggest surprises for the Tennessee Titans in 2009.

Tennessee Titans Positional Analysis: FB

Since Drexel just took a look at the running back situation, let’s follow that up with a look at those guys’ backfield mates, the fullbacks.

Well, make that part of the time backfield mate.  Per the data collected by Football Outsiders and available in Football Outsiders Almanac 2009, the Titans had only a single back in the backfield 59% of the time, and almost all of the time that lone setback was either Chris Johnson or LenDale White.  That’s actually slightly more multi-back sets than the Titans had run the previous two years, but even still, the Titans’ fullback will be spending the majority of the offensive snaps sitting on the bench.

A long week for the Tennessee Titans

Instead of focusing solely on the celebration of Independence Day and enjoying the beautiful summer weather during the doldrums of the NFL offseason, the Tennessee Titans were faced with the cruel reality of losing one of the franchise’s iconic performers.

Steve McNair’s untimely and unfortunate passing has dominated the headlines for the Titans over the course of the last week. The usual emphasis on preparing for the upcoming season was replaced by the tears of frustration and sadness that fell as a result of losing such a beloved former player.  

Who will be the Tennessee Titans’ breakout player of 2009?

In the midst of the doldrums of the 2008 offseason, I wrote an article that speculated who would emerge as the Tennessee Titans’ breakout player of 2008. The candidates were the following: Vince Young (oops!), Michael Griffin, Cortland Finnegan, Justin McCareins (oops again!) and Eugene Amano.

Of the guys mentioned, Finnegan and Griffin were the Titans who lived up to the hype by earning their first trips to the Pro Bowl last year.

With the dog days of this year’s NFL offseason unmercifully upon us, let’s once again take a stab at predicting the breakout Titan for the upcoming season.

Will any starting jobs be decided in Titans’ training camp?

We’ve been hearing for a while from Vince Young that he’s competing to be the Titans starting quarterback again. Drexel had some words of advice  for Vince after his interview with a Baltimore TV station, in which he said “he’s competing,” among other things.

 

We’ve also heard that Ryan Fowler will be competing to become the starter at middle linebacker again. now that he’ll be healthy going into training camp this year.

 

Personally, I believe Fowler has a much better chance of starting this year than Vince does. Barring injuries to the incumbent starters, of course. And Fowler will have a hard time winning the job from Stephen Tulloch.

 

What other battles for starting roles might take place in camp this year?

Thoughts on roster construction, plus links

Before the draft, I wrote a post wondering if the Titans had room for all their draft picks, and speculated the Titans would look to get rid of some of their draft picks by moving up, because they didn’t have room for all of them.  Of course, those wacky folks at Baptist Sports Park then went ahead and not only kept their draft picks, they traded one of the most valuable commodities the NFL has, a second round pick, from next year’s draft to draft another player who’ll beat out somebody who was good enough to play on last year’s 13-3, #1-seeded team.  Does this make any sense?

Kevin Vickerson will have a tough row to hoe

I know that Titans’ defensive line coach Jim Washburn likes Kevin Vickerson. He kept Vickerson as the fourth defensive tackle on the roster last year, even though I thought Antonio Johnson was the better player. Mookie didn’t survive the final cut at the end of training camp, ended up on the Titans’ practice squad and was later signed by the Colts, starting four games for them.

 

Making the roster will be even more difficult for Vickerson this year. Jovan Haye, Tony Brown and Jason Jones are all ahead of him on the depth chart and second-round draft pick Sen’Derrick Marks is also expected to make the team. Bear in mind that in case of injuries at DT, the Titans have an insurance policy in DE Dave Ball, who can move inside to play DT.

 

The one big advantage Vickerson has is his size. Three of the other four DTs all weigh in at 290 or less while Vickerson is listed at 305. He’s the big body, the space eater, which Washburn would like to have on the field in short-yardage situations.

Three reasons why the Titans won’t sign Michael Vick

First, I need to say it’s good to be back in Tennessee after a little time off.

 

Now that Michael Vick has been released from prison the inevitable questions will be asked, “Do you think the Titans will sign Vick?” and “Wouldn’t he be great running the Wildcat for the Titans?”

 

“No” is the answer to both questions and here are some reasons why.

Answering Michael Lombardi’s questions about the Titans

Before the draft, Michael Lombardi of National Football Post gave every team 5 questions they needed to answer entering into the NFL draft.  It’s now been 2 months since Lombardi posed his list of 5 questions about the Titans, so I thought I’d take a look at how well his questions had been answered, whether as part of the draft or otherwise.

Reviewing some of the Titans’ free agents to be

After reading Jim Wyatt’s blog a few days ago about Stephen Tulloch and a possible contract extension, I thought I’d follow up on that by looking at some other Titans in the last year of their contracts. That’s been on my to-do list for a while and I might as well do that one now.

 

Here are some of those players, listed in alphabetical order.

 

Eugene Amano – He’s not a guy you look to lock up early. I liken his situation to that of Jacob Bell, the man he replaced. The Titans will make him an offer next offseason but he’ll probably test the free agent market and then go somewhere else.

 

Tony Brown – Tony will have a chance to cash in as a free agent next year and it might be a good idea to give him an early extension for a second time. At the age of 28, he’s still in the prime of his career.