Codeblue Titans Unofficial Blog

The Signing D-Hop to the roster has made for a palpable excitement. Will Tanny return to lead us into the playoffs with his new weapons? Will this free Derrick Henry up spring some big 200+ yard games? From a glance it all looks exciting. New GM, New OC, Hopkins, Burks, coupled with the return of Henry and Okonkwo. Dare you to make us spread the ball mentality.

We can run sets that would make it impossible to stack the box. WE HAVE FUCKING TALENT.

Which is why all offseason I have torn myself apart with the one appalling hole in the offense.

WHO IS GOING TO BLOCK?

Ben Jones is gone, Nate Davis is gone, Taylor Lewan is gone (some may say he was never there post 2020) Roger Saffold is gone.

We all remember when Radunz, Levin, Kendall Lamm, Jordan Roos would come in for a few snaps right? like we are all on the same page that it was abominable?

Yet for the start of 2023 it seems like no one in the Titans front office is remotely concerned. We draft Peter Skoronski first round out of the Hot News Northwestern University. We don’t hear a word on how he will fit, how he looks, will he be a Tackle or Guard?

So it is with a heavy heart that now Titans fans find out that maybe there should have been more attention paid in the offseason.

LT – Eagles Back up Andre Dillard will be taking first team reps. We are looking for starter experience. The whole point being we have so many offensive weapons yet starting at arguably the most important offensive line position is someone else’s backup. Cool. Confidence level 3.3 out of 10. And tell me it should be higher but do not forget that the eagles needed lane johnson so bad that they still put lane in injured over a healthy Andre Dillard.

LG – Rookie Peter Skoronski. I actually am kind of happy we are not putting him out at tackle. In the past few years our offense has revolved around “Man-Reach” Blocking. Its how Derrick Henry gets his production. The last thing titans need is a rookie trying to man-reach a 7 technique for a “Welcome to the NFL baptism”. Confidence level 5.2 out of 10. Hard to prove you are good if everyone around you is bad.

Center – The commander of the offense, the man who needs to know everyones responsibility. Aaron Brewer. He has a “meh” season under his belt at Left guard and whilst making the switch to Center he will be relied upon to know his Shit. My confidence level is 4.2 out of 10. He started at center twice last year and it was so unimpressive I pushed it out of my memory just to get a decent nights sleep (thanks therapy)

RG – Jordan Roos. I like Jordan. He’s a hard worker, boots on the ground shovel in hand mentality. I legitimately think he might be good. Hard to tell as he is in his 30’s and has changed teams and that in of itself paired with the non-starting experience we already have makes me give this a 6.4 out of 10 confidence rating

RT – This one has me RATTLED. Nicholas Petit-Frere decided to give himself the first six games off. First two days of camp we hear that there is a battle between Jamarco Jones (Backup RG) and Jaelyn Duncan. Then, today we sign Chris Hubbard and that is all I need to know to run to the bank and tell them the Titans are worried. Confidence level 2.3 out of 10 ( as Vrabel checks his week 7 calendar)

TLDR: I am a firm believer in building inside to out. Going into the offseason it felt like the Titans had two options:

1. Spend a bunch of money and get some vets in here to keep trying to push for a playoff success
2. Blow it up. Find a way to get rid of tanny, don’t sign any big talent at WR, trade Derrick Henry and build from scratch

and honestly I would have been fine with blowing it all up. It almost made sense. Vets are gone from Offensive line, Tanny had a balloon payment pending and the defense had Simmons and Byard but other than that it was not looking flashy.

So we go to war with an offense anchored by a mixed bag of one rookie and a bunch of FA and undrafted FA. Does this make sense? Am I being to critical? Can you honestly say the titans put their best foot forward this offseason.

-Phil Terhaar