Titans Retrospect: 2023 Free Agency

Let's break down these vrabel/Carthon rumors and talk about the Panthers vs Titans.

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It is not a secret that the Tennessee Titans are having what many consider to be a very odd year. While very few thought this roster was capable of winning a Super Bowl, the majority did think that the Titans would at least be division winners and in the playoff conversation.

It turns out that this roster was just too bad for a glow up. The Titans tried to make the glow up happen but have continued to show they just don’t have the NFL talent from top to bottom to compete. Over the last month and half, and the last week especially, we have seen media members talk about Vrabel’s and Carthon’s current and future outlooks. I have seen one media member, Jared Stillman, call Carthon incompetent seven times in a span of a minute. Goes on to use that word to describe Carthon himself as a GM. He isn’t the only one, fans are doing it too. Wanting to give up on a GM after one year is crazy.

Everyone both in the fan community and local media have described Vrabel the same way. He sucks. He’s stubborn. He’s an idiot. He’s too old school. Too loyal. While some of these are valid complaints, they probably describe about 70% of the NFL head coaches and truly, Vrabel is still a top-10, arguably top-5, head coach in the league. You may forget what he has done because you, as fans or analysts, may be a prisoner of every moment, but sometimes you have to keep in mind how this roster is the state it’s in.

Initially, I was going to do a “by the numbers” look at Titans vs Colts. Yet, I got to my computer, cracked open a Celsius (sponsor me, cowards!) and felt inspired to go in an entirely new direction. You can still get my thoughts about the match up from an analytics standpoint today at 1pm CST on A Football Show. Today, however, I am going to kind of take us back on a journey of the 2023 off-season and how it has translated into the 4-7 Titans we see before us today. An honest look at and assessment of what I missed, the moves made, and how they worked out.

This Roster was in Bad Shape

Honesty time right off the bat: I didn’t think this roster was this bad. Mike Herndon thought it wasn’t good, but hell, even he admitted that it was way worse than he thought. If he thinks its worse than his doom and gloom outlook, then it is 100x worse than I thought. Part of my overlooking the disrepair of the roster was due to the fact that I have seen Vrabel work magic with certain players. The difference is that he still had more quality players playing at a high level than he does now, so he was able to mask the roster deficiencies better.

This roster stinks. You all know how I feel about this, this roster lays at the feet of Jon Robinson. You can argue till you are blue in the face that Vrabel had some hand in it, but you’re just, once again, ostriching. Got that head in the sand because you loved that good ole boy from Union City. You love that tobacco chewing, boat riding, sunnova gun. I get it, I really liked him too, but we have been presented enough information to know that Vrabel isn’t even 25% responsible for how the roster got to this point.

I am sure Robinson took into consideration Vrabel’s and his staff’s opinions, but ultimately, he did whatever he wanted. We know Robinson had ultimate; final say on the 53-man roster. There’s a story Kevin Hogan told about having one bad throw land near Robinson at camp and he was cut a few moments later. Final say lied with Robinson.

There’s a difference between being listened to, being heard, and having power. It’s fairly obvious. Do we really think Vrabel wanted Vic Beasley? Hell, he didn’t even want to pursue Julio Jones. Think about it. Vrabel or Vrabel’s circle of trust, allegedly, leaks stuff to Dianna Russini. Russini went on Buck’s show during that summer of Julio and said she doesn’t expect the Titans to even be in the market for Julio. Then they turn around and trade for him a week or so later. Think about it.

We also saw what happened with the AJ Brown trade. Everyone in America saw it. Robinson finishes the trade off on the phone. Vrabel immediately gets up in disgust and walks away. They were absolutely not on the same page with personnel decisions. Then there was the word of the year for the Titans after his firing: “collaboration”. You don’t tout and use that word over and over if the last guy didn’t. At the end of the day an NFL team’s staying power heavily relies on the draft classes being contributors. Not just guys on the roster or special teams, but active starters or rotational pieces.

Robinson left this team in a lurch. However, the 2023 Titans, Vrabel and Carthon, heavily overestimated how easy it would be to fix this roster in one off-season with a well-known horrible free agency class and limited draft resources. (Thanks, Robinson!)

How’d they do overall?

Free Agency Decisions