What Mike Vrabel Said About the Staff
Today the Titans made a bunch of offensive staff changes which you can read about in their entirety here. Mike Vrabel just got done with his press conference to talk about the changes and I think there is some important things we gained some clarity on.
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What was Tim Kelly’s actual duties as Passing Game Coordinator
This has been one of the biggest mysteries surrounding Tim Kelly’s stint with the 2022 Titans. We already knew from reports that he essentially worked exclusively with the tight ends during the open portion of practices. So, what did Vrabel say?
First, he confirmed that he did ask Kelly to work with the tight ends. Vrabel doesn’t want anyone at practices just standing around with a clipboard, they need to be doing something with some position coach. Keep this in mind as this comes into play later with two other coaches.
Secondly, he also let everyone know, play-calling was not one of his duties. He wasn’t responsible for scripting the opening drives. He wasn’t responsible for the good play calls or the bad play calls. He was responsible for zero in-game play calls. That is some relief to take away from the hiring.
He did a lot of prep work for the upcoming games. He essentially scouted the opponent’s passing game and said: “here’s what we are can expect.” So, he gets some credit for the defense’s performance against the opposing offenses. Although, the passing defense kind of stunk, but that seemed to be more on personnel and less on them being in the right spot or being caught off guard.
He helped with the passing plays on 1st and 2nd down. Helping draw those up and get them installed. Which is a good thing because Tannehill was 12th in EPA+CPOE on 1st and 2nd Down.
He coordinated very little. Supported and analyzed for the Titans a lot.
The Analysts
While it is still fresh on your mind, I wanted to talk about Pat O’Hara and Luke Steckel’s new role. Vrabel put them in these positions because he wanted to continue to find ways for them to be involved that best help the Titans.
Their roles will be similar to what the passing game coordinator was. They will work with certain positions during practice (probably TE and QBs) but provide some of the pre-advanced work for the opponents of the week and their rushing and passing attacks respectively.
Basically, broader roles that let them still focus on position groups. This seems to be lots of voice talking to Vrabel and him making final calls on the game plan. Could lead to a “Too Many Cooks” kind of scenario.
The OC Search and Why Tim Kelly
At this point I can’t believe anything Vrabel says about a coaching search, so I can only relay what he said. He said he talked to numerous candidates and every interview was extensive. He thoroughly enjoyed Charles London’s interview, and is very glad he is on his staff in his new role.
Here are the bullet points about why he hired Kelly, and why he thinks the offense can be better with him:
The perfect hire and right fit for the Titans at this time
He is able to provide some familiarity and carryover while bringing in new ideas and concepts
Vrabel mentioned several times that Kelly had great feel for the game and play-calling.
Talked about the 2021 Texans games where the Texans completely adjusted for the second game on offense.
In addition, his energy and leadership was apparent every day
Kelly’s experience in different schemes, also combined with London’s time in Chicago
Kelly wants to a build a system with young players in mind that will allow them to play fast and aggressive.
Vrabel also said a coaching change midseason from Downing to Kelly, wouldn’t have mattered. It mattered for other teams throughout NFL history, but just another glaringly obvious example of stubbornness.
New Scheme?
Vrabel mentioned Kelly’s background with the Texans numerous times. There he ran a pro-style spread offense. Finding creative ways to get people open and spread the ball out to multiple players. Vrabel also mentioned that London has familiarity in that system as well.
The next stop on Vrabel’s tour of backgrounds, was specifically bringing up the time London spent in Chicago. That was with Matt Nagy which ran the Chiefs version of the West Coast offense.
Vrabel said while he will be bringing a lot of the pages from the prior playbooks, he said they will only be the successful ones. My words not his exact words. However, he issued confident there will be new ideas and concepts, and that he won’t solely investing in one particular system like he has in all of his prior seasons.
He expects that by the time springtime rolls around, they’ll be very comfortable with a system that includes the stuff they’ve already do very well and bring in new ideas, concepts on top of that.
What Changes can we expect and Ran Carthon’s role
This all kind of ties in together, and also ties in to my article from earlier today. Here some of the changes you can expect:
Play with more tempo
More diverse personnel groupings
Being creative with the players the Titans have
Speed and Versatility on offense
Very confident that fixing the roster will fix the offense
Which now the burden is on Carthon to get him these players that can play fast and can provide versatility. Carthon is already aware of the mission because he talked at the Senior Bowl about getting players that have instincts that allow them to play fast.
Carthon also needs to find players that can be scheme diverse, because the offense needs to be able to attack in different ways, with different personnel, at a moment’s notice. At least that is what Vrabel says. Make no bones about it, the offense will still run through its best player, and until someone else steps up, that player is Derrick Henry.
The task is now for the scheme to be able to take some burden off of him, by being able to spread the ball around to many versatile players. Burks can fit that mold, but can Philips? Don’t forget if you can’t block it doesn’t matter. So, nothing has changed from anyone’s mission statement with the hiring, it just adds another layer of importance to succeeding in said mission.
More Keith Carter Shade
In talking about the hiring of Coach Hoss as the new offensive line coach, Vrabel tried to avoid talking bad about Keith Carter. He inadvertently failed at that. This would be twice by the way.
In Carthon’s presser, Vrabel spoke about people on staff not developing players, and coaches needing to understand that who a player I when they get here, is not who they will forever be. These rookies are not at their ceiling and are not a finished product. Dillon Radunz anyone?
He talked about how Coach Hoss has built a strong connection with all of the players and that is a fantastic teacher. Vrabel also said that it was his best interview he’s ever done. He is excited and happy for Coach Hoss, and Mike Sullivan has already put his support behind him as well.
Conclusion
It is still a supremely underwhelming hire, and this “numerous and extensive” hiring process still feels like a sham, but Vrabel sounded like a man with a plan and distinct vision for what this offense wants to be.
He also sounds like a man that continues to blame players, and thus, Jon Robinson for all of the pitfalls. Make no mistake about it, the success and failure of this offense in 2023 is on Vrabel’s shoulders, in my opinion. While Carthon is getting the players Vrabel wants, he has to turn those players into what the team needs.
Putting the blame on personnel after this year on a first year GM with limited assets at his disposal seems unwise. So, to me, this is Vrabel’s world, and we are just living in it.
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I know you said you were underwhelmed with Tim Kelly, but this article actually makes me feel better about the hire (I did not feel good about it at all earlier lol)
Two things stuck out to me. Less predictable when certain players are on field. Henry less is more? And I thought he was quick to add after talking about Tannehill that roster decisions are to be made about who is under contract or who to bring in.