After the disastrous ending to the Tennessee Titans’ 2022 campaign, a lot of people are already writing the team off despite all of the notable offseason additions Tennessee made (DeAndre Hopkins, Andre Dillard, Arden Key, Sean Murphy-Bunting, Daniel Brunskill, Azeez Al-Shaair).
What those people clearly don’t realize is how much they’re completely downplaying the potential of the Titans’ offense should everything play out the way they hope from a health and production standpoint.
The last time the Titans had a top wide receiver tandem and an explosive tight end on the roster (2020), Derrick Henry rushed for over 2,000 yards.
Uncoincidentally, Henry saw the lowest stacked-box percentage of his career that year. Back in 2020, Henry only faced eight or more defenders in the box on 27.78 percent of his carries.
Compare that to last season, when he faced the highest stacked-box percentage of his career (38.11 percent), mostly due to the fact that he was stuck playing with an inadequate play-caller/designer, three different quarterbacks, a depleted offensive line, and zero consistency out wide.
Teams were committed to doing everything possible to limit Henry’s impact in order to force someone else to beat them, which proved to be a winning strategy.
To add some perspective to just how many loaded defensive fronts The King lined up across from last year, here is how frequently some of the other top running backs faced stacked boxes in 2022:
- Christian McCaffery (SF): 34.84 percent
- Nick Chubb (CLE): 28.81 percent
- Najee Harris (PIT): 25.37 percent
- Tony Pollard (DAL): 22.28 percent
- Josh Jacobs (LV): 20.59 percent
- Saquon Barkley (NYG): 18.98 percent
- Dalvin Cook (MIN): 18.94 percent
- Austin Ekeler (LAC): 17.16 percent
- Jonathan Taylor (IND): 14.06 percent
- Aaron Jones (GB): 10.8 percent
*All percentages in the article were collected from Next Gen Stats*
Adding to the main point, three seasons ago, A.J. Brown, Corey Davis, and Jonnu Smith combined for 2,599 receiving yards and 26 total touchdowns (including playoffs) between the three of them.
What Tennessee seemingly mastered that year was its ability to constantly force opposing defenses into disadvantageous positions where they had to pick and choose who to help defend.
The real headache for the opposition came once they inevitably limited one guy’s impact, only for Tennessee to then lean on at least one of the other three playmakers who were all capable of taking over in their own right.
Personally, I don’t think the 2023 offense will be as productive as the 2020 group, but I emphatically believe it can be just as lethal and problematic if everything goes according to plan (Treylon Burks and Chig Okonkwo both break out, DeAndre Hopkins is still DHop, health, etc.)
— Deandre Hopkins (@DeAndreHopkins) July 30, 2023
Chigoziem Okonkwo pic.twitter.com/JSFfiTmKjX
— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) June 7, 2023
Making me even more confident is the fact that Tennessee has a real offensive coordinator who won’t find bizarre ways of getting in his own way.
on 1st downs Tennessee had the #2 highest run rate
despite Ds stacking the box at the #4 highest rate
unsurprisingly the runs ranked #4 worst in efficiency
but nothing stopped them from running into loaded boxes
not even the fact that 1st down passes ranked #3 in efficiency
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) June 21, 2023
Truthfully, the offensive line is the true wild card of the entire offense. There really is no telling how that group will gel, but for everybody’s sake, let’s hope they’re at least good enough in 2023.
Otherwise, regardless of how talented Tennessee’s top skill players undeniably are, the team’s ceiling will be limited if the group upfront doesn’t find a way to get back on track in the trenches.
