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  1. Was Bud'sOilers dropped on his head too many times as a child? I ask this only out of heartfelt sympathy for the man.
  2. I know the numbers on this board. I know the vitriol. And I know that I should just shut up and let it be. But that was the second time in the last four games where I was reminded why Mike Vrabel is a better coach than this board ever credits him to be. His defense today was Jaleel Johnson, Ross Blacklock, Reese/Garrow, Edmonds/Garror - plus Autry, Al Shaair, Molden, Landry, Murphy Bunting and McCreary. His o-line is anchored by Rupcich, Dillard, Radunz and Brewer. And yet, playing a team that needs a W to go to the playoffs - his team - which had literally no reason to give effort - absolutely outcoached, out hustled, and out gave a shit more than the Jags. I won't be surprised if Mike is gone. But I won't just take the easy way out on this site and say 'yeah, I agree'. I will stand with Mike Herndon and Zach Lyons and simply say that if Vrabel wants to be back, he should be back. Ok, Oilerman, Iowa, Avg Joe, et all -- I know, you disagree. That's cool. Won't be the first time. It all will play out in the next 7 days. I might be right. You might be right. But I am thankful that despite a typical Tannehill performance - (a little good, a little bad, and two plays that were designed to lose a game for his team), Derrick Henry, Shawn Bowens, Tim Kelly, Spears and Hopkins led the team to an improbable win. Sure, it pushes us out of the Marvin Harrison sweepstakes. That sucks. But clearly the boys wanted the game more than the pick.
  3. Radunz is just a guy - at every position he has played. Could be depth along the line. Could be upgraded. I could easily have left Willis off, and probably should have. I think Tanne gets a better offer than Titans will be willing to match. And Willis remains under contract. Doesn't make much difference to me if it is Willis or Dobbs or you name the street free agent. If we were contenders, absolutely resign Tannehill and protect yourself for the 2-4 games that starter may miss. But I don't think this is a one-year turnaround so Willis is cheap and frees money for the team to sign more valuable free agents.
  4. The Vrabel discussion is now identical to the Tannehill discussion which is now equal to the Henry discussion. All opinions set in concrete and no one will change their mind. So I am going for a different topic - the '24 roster. I think the Titans have 12 of their 22 starters currently on roster. In total, I think they have 34 of the active 53 on roster - though sifting through the bottom 1/3 is always just a game of chance. Here is how I see it: QB: Levis (S), Willis - No, I don't think they have any reason to have faith in Willis. But he is under contract, cheap, and knows the system. I'm guessing Tannehill will go to a team like the Vikings/Jets/Saints where he will be one play away from having the chance to be their starter. RB: Spears (S), Chestnut - I think Henry finds a few more dollars elsewhere. Titans will have to pick up a durable bodied back to support Spears. TE: Okongwo (S) Whyle - Maybe they keep a Rader, Wesco type. Or maybe they find a bigger, better version. Fundamentally, the position needs to be able to support two young T's. I suspect a big body type is brought in. WR: Hopkins (S), Burks, Phillips, Dowell - They need at least 2. Unconvinced that anyone other than Hopkins is more than a 3/4 type. OT: Duncan, Petit-Frere - Both at best back ups. Need starting LT, starting RT, and probably a #1 swing tackle. OG: Skoronski (S), Brunskill - Brunskill is a good swing solution. Need a starting RG and one quality depth player. CENTER: Need both a starter and a back up. In total on offense, I have 5 starters on roster, 6 new starters needed, if 25 slots go to the offense, 10 total new offensive position players. I'm guessing that the Titans don't spend the money to bring back a 33 year old Autry, regardless of his still high level play. I have 7 of 12 starters returning (12 includes the slot db). DE: Simmons (S), Weaver - Lots of interchangeable pieces on the roster today. No idea if any provide quality depth. NT: Peko - Similar to DE. I would guess Peko is the best of the lot, but I don't see a starter in the group today. EDGE/OLB: Landry (S), Key (S) - Need quality depth. Need a guy who could drop into coverage. ILB: Al-Shaair (S), Gibbens, Gifford, Reese - One starter short. The other three guys listed are depth/special teams contributors. DB: Bunting (S), Kendall, Farley - Need a corner opposite Bunting. The other two are depth, with Farley being the prototype of a Jon Robinson pick. SLOT: McReary (S), Molden - Molden as swing slot and S is fine. S: Hooker (S), Wallace, Garner - Need a starter and given Hooker's injury history, maybe 2 here. Seven starters on defense. Need 4 new starters, Have 8 defensive slots to fill. ST: Folk (S), Stonehouse (S), Cox (S) THE PROBLEM: Very little proven elite talent on the roster, particularly at critical position groups (QB, LT, EDGE, DB). NFL ELITE: Jeffrey Simmons, Ryan Stonehouse NFL PROVEN STARTERS: Hopkins (was elite), Landry, Al-Shaair, McReary, Hooker, Folk, Cox POTENTIAL NFL+ STARTERS: Levis, Spears, Okongwo NFL AVG STARTERS: Key, Bunting And that, friends, is why this offseason is going to be a bloodbath in Tennessee.
  5. 1. Derrick Henry is not washed. The King is also no longer an elite back. I think he sits in that D'onta Foreman range. Maybe 30% - 40% of the snaps. Ezekiel Elliot got $2.9 from New England. David Montgomery $2.8 from Detroit. DH won't like it. but $6 million for 2 years to me is the right range. I suspect he will go elsewhere. 2. Ryan Tannehill is the perfect back up QB to Will Levis. He can theoretically win a game or two when Levis is hurt. Pay him the same range I had to Henry for two years. I'd probably keep him for nothing more than $3.5 a year for 2 years - basically Gardiner Minshew to Case Keenum dollars. 3. Despite Denico Autry's age, I'd try to get him resigned for another 2 years. I'd try to extend Al Shair for 3 years. Average cost for an inside LB today is $3.2 million. If you pay him $7 million for the years - he would be around the 10th highest paid at the position. Autry is currently the 14th highest paid player at the position at $9.1. Foley Fatukasi is #20 a t$6.8. That's probably my floor at 2 for $6.8 with ceiling at his current number for same number of years. 4. It's a do-over for me on the offensive line. We have our 10-year starting LG in All-Skro. Cut Dillard. Don't waste the dollars required to resign Brewer. The rest are all expendable. Need two Tackles. One in free agency. One in the draft. Need a C - either in free agency or the draft. 5. Secondary is such a shit show. I suspect we have three pieces in Hooker, Molden and Bunting under contract. K'Von Wallace is a cheap resign. Clearly Fulton is gone. He can take Avery with him. 6. Titans save $8 million by exercising their out on DHop. I was not a fan of his business decision in last week's game. He really can't get separation any longer. And while he caught long balls from Levis, wouldn't say he takes the top off of the defense. But he is a catch machine. And there is no stability on the roster at the position. I think Titans fundamentally have to absorb the cap hit - recognizing that DH and RT will either be 100% off the books, or at affordable numbers. $16 million isn't a No Brainer. 7. My over/under on roster churn, despite a small draft class - will be 18. That's a pile of churn. 8. Vrabel will be the head coach. There will not be a change at either OC or DC. Maybe a new o-line coach. Maybe a new WR coach. That's about it. 9. If the Titans finish with the #3 pick - I think they trade back - trying to get a 2fer WR/OT in the first. And that is plenty for y'all to tell me that I am 100% FOS wrong about.
  6. We are protecting 'the franchise' Ryan Tannehill with an OL of Radunz, Skro-Pro, Brewer, Throckmorton and Duncan. We have one starter/NFL quality player on the d-front in Autry. Garret Wallow or Otis Reese play next to Al-Shaair. Garror and Avery likely open on the corners, with Molden and Edmunds at Safety. Our lineup is literally NFL preseason game #3. DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett and JNS should set NFL records. If the game is within 14 at Final, they should extend Vrabel 5 more years.
  7. He's playing Jon Robinson's garbage heap roster? He's playing more street free agents then draft picks? He wasted 8 games on journeyman Ryan Tannehill? Yep, too many fucking running plays consistently putting the team behind the sticks on first down. Ye, too much reliance on King Henry. Yep, no sense of urgency after a great first drive and an easy pick 6. Today is a day for everyone who hates Vrabel to take a victory lap. Today was awful on the offensive side of the ball. Vrabel is an exceptional coach. He will have a long career in the NFL - maybe here, maybe not. One thing is undeniable, he and his offensive staff were exceptionally bad today.
  8. Today was watching everything you can hate about the Titans replay over and again: 1. Jon f'ing Robinson ... from Isaiah Wilson to Dee Fitzpatrick and everything in between ... a team devoid of offensive and defensive line talent ... a team playing more off the street free agents than draft picks. Having watched virtually every game for the past 10 years, there was a point of time in the second half where there may have been 6 or 7 guys on the defense I had never heard of. The grocery shopping for this franchise is criminal. 2. The fucking insistence on running on first down time and again. My Houston Cougars beat A&M in basketball yesterday. We were up by 21 ... it looked like we were going to run away with it. Then Buzz Williams, the coach of T A&M did a brilliant thing according to Kelvin Sampson, Houston's head man. He STOPPED COACHING. He turned the game over to his best player and let the kid make plays. For guys like Iowa, today must have been the classic shit show that they always bitch about with Vrabel. Just would not stop running Henry. Just would not stop running on first down. Just would not put the ball in Levis hands until it was far too late. 3. I'll say It twice. I love Derrick Henry. But this aint that Derrick Henry. I recognize that Vrabel/Kelly were trying to protect Levis because the offensive line is so pitiful. But ... if you are going to do that. Just put Tannehill in and take the loss. Or Willis. Or run Wildcat. But don't put yourself behind the chains every series of the game. 4. Growing pains with a rookie QB. The INT to Hopkins was only made worse by a wide open Trey Burks who had to have been in Levis field of vision. 5. But what really pissed me off. more than all of that, and believe me the running game commitment had me screaming throughout the game - was the business decisions that DHOP made that ultimately led to Levis injury - particularly the ball that he let glance off of his back shoulder pad knowing he was going to get hit if he made a play on the ball. I thought he went up soft on the deep ball that Levis hit him on as well. DHOPs business decision ultimately led to Levis injury. Just awful effort from an All Pro. This was a helluva day for the fire Vrabel crowd. This was a helluva day for the fire Tim Kelly crowd. This was a helluva day for the bench the King crowd. Today sucked. A brutal reminder that just when you thought we had turned the corner, the car spun out of control directly into ongoing traffic.
  9. #90. Very possibly the best linebacker in the history of the franchise. Ofcourse, the Oiler part of franchise history isn't much discussed around here (there aren't a lot of us old one's still around to do so). Without running through old rosters - his is name along with Kearse, Bethea, Bishop, Houston that springs to mind as the best of the best. If I had to choose only two - one from the offense - one from the defense - best ever - my money would be on Earl Campbell on the offense (with McNair, Matthews and Munchak in the conversation), Jevon Kearse on the defense. Admittedly, my time as an Oiler fan is much stronger than my time as a Titan fan (sports matters more when young - or at least, it does for me). Who do you have? Best ever on offense? Best ever on defense? Best coach ever - Bill Peterson. A coach so bad even I could see it. Best coach for the franchise - Bum Phillips.
  10. 1. This is likely the worst Titans team I have seen since they moved to Tennessee - bad everywhere. 2. I think the offense has 5 - 7 guys from this squad in 2023: Levis, Spears, Whyle, Skronski, Brunskill, Hopkins (if they can't trade hm for draft capital), Phillips and Burks. Of that group, none is proven to be an NFL caliber starter - but at least they haven't proven not to be. 3. Maybe the defense returns Simmons, Landry, Key, Hooker, McCreary. 4. JRob should be in the witness protection program. 5. Without a doubt the two best players this season have been Stonehouse and Folk. 6. It's hard to imagine that the coaching staff can't figure out a way to get the ball out of Levis hands in 2.5 seconds or less. But they can't. 7. Tough watching the defense give up or be completely worn down in the second half. It was one, the other, or maybe a bit of both. 8. Texans are proof that it can be turned around pretty quickly - but 2 guards in need of 2 tackles and a center and a defensive line that likely returns only Simmons and Peko (lol) - zero viable linebackers - mediocre edge talent and just a shambles of a secondary. 9. Coaching isn't working but the talent is the root cause.
  11. Coaches can only coach the players they have on the field. Dillard/Radunz - Brunskill/Rupcich - Brewer - Skro - Hubbard (possibly 2 legitimate NFL starters) Gibbens - #2 - Rice (possibly 1 legitimate NFL starter) Fulton - McReary - Molden - Hooker - Murphy Bunting/Avery (possibly 2 legit NFL starters) Chig - Rader - Whyle - Other guy (maybe 1 NFL starter) Easy to go on. This is JRob's mess. I don't think any coach in the NFL does more with it than Vrabel. But ... 3-13, no road wins in an eternity ... really no sense of move forward. Generally you fire a coach when the talent on the field is underperforming. This talent is ... performing to the realistic expectation of a marginally talented team.
  12. 31 street free agents on and off the working roster throughout this season. Vrabel didn't shop for the current groceries - but he was in the room when they were being purchased. 3-13 in his last 16. A guy who builds his team around mental and physical toughness but hasn't put an offensive line together that can match his identity. I think Vrabel is a top 5 coach in the right situation. This may not be the right situation any more. By the end of 2021 it was clear that Tannehill was a slightly better than average NFL QB. By week 10 in 2023, it is clear that the team is stuck in neutral, not getting better - bottom 10 material. As always, I'm not quite where Team Tannehill is on Vrabel. But I can't say that their arguments have no merit.
  13. If the Titans thought Skro-All-Pro could play outside, he would be. Radunz has been nothing but a disappointment. Might be better than Daley and Dillard - but clearly the staff doesn't believe it. Titans are solid from Skro to Brewer to Brunskill. Fix the LT and the RT spot this offseason and Ran has had a helluva off-season.
  14. Kuharsky has this 100% right ... LT, LT, LT ... that's the first pick regardless. Levis looks like he may be the QB for a decade. But only if you protect him - otherwise guys become David Carr - unable to do what they do because they lose confidence behind a bad OLine. Receivers are available in free agency. LT are not.
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