Now that Super Bowl 50 is in the books, all 32 teams are officially into the offseason. We have no more football to look forward to for several months.  For some of us, our weekends will return to Saturday and Sunday rather than Saturday and Sit-on-couch-watching-every-game-and-probably-don’t-even-need-to-put-pants-on-day.  The next few months will be spent reviewing team needs, and evaluating talent from both free agency and the upcoming draft class.  Let’s take a look at the possibilities, starting at the first team drafting, the Tennessee Titans.

The Titans started the season with an impressive performance from last year’s first-round pick, Marcus Mariota out of Oregon. They won 42-14 over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Mariota threw 4 touchdowns in the first half, quickly showing flashes of why he was one of the first few players off of the board.  The rest of the season, however, would not go so smoothly.  They would finish with only 3 wins all season, showing that they were missing much more than just a franchise quarterback.

The most glaring hole in their team is the offensive line charged with the task of protecting that quarterback. The Titans gave up 54 sacks this season, for an average of 3.4 sacks per game.  That is absolute last in the league.  Those sacks accounted for almost 400 yards lost.  They had multiple games of allowing 5+ sacks, and even two games of allowing 7 sacks.  The scariest part about that is the fact that without Mariota’s mobility and scrambling, those games could have easily seen them give up 10+ sacks.  Mariota also wound up injured during the year and missing a few games, something that is sure to happen again if they don’t get him some help.

The draft offers a few options for the Titans offensive line in the first round. Mississippi tackle Laremy Tunsil is the best option, and many are projecting that they will be using their first pick on him.  Ronnie Stanley from Notre Dame is also predicted to be drafted relatively early on.  Free agency also boasts a lot of options, but considering the leagues value of the tackle position, the best ones most likely will be signed up before the March deadline hits.  Examples of possible free agents are Cordy Glenn from Buffalo (a likely franchise tag candidate), Andre Smith from Cincinnati, Mitchell Schwartz from Cleveland, and Russel Okung from Seattle.  We will have a better ideas of which of those possibilities are closer to realities in about a month.

To improve their team drastically, however, the Titans are going to need more than just one player. On top of the offensive line issue, they also had a defense that gave up 26.4 points per game.  That is 27^th in the league.  They also showed plenty of woes at wide receiver, as injuries throughout the year to Kendall Wright and Justin Hunter would leave them grasping at practice squad players to start.  Tight end Delanie Walker would seem to be the only truly reliable pass catcher with 94 receptions for 1,088 yards.  No one else on the team even broke 600 yards receiving.

That being said, the Titans best bet is going to be to trade down a few spots and stockpile picks to address the multiple needs above. With the king’s ransom that a number one overall pick can easily generate, they should still be able to get a great tackle and fill at least one other need.  If they do stay put at number 1 overall, however, I agree with them taking Tunsil.  Drafting Tunsil to play left tackle would allow them to shift around some other players on the line like their first-round pick from 2014, Taylor Lewan, and give Mariota a little more time to throw the football.

 

Stats courtesy of nfl.com and espn.com

Cover photo courtesy of scout.com