Let’s get into the Titans, because last year was about as rough as it gets, and honestly there’s nowhere to go but up from here.

The recap. Tennessee finished 3-14, dead last in the AFC South, and it was ugly basically start to finish. Brian Callahan got fired just six games in after starting 1-5, capping off a 4-19 record across less than two seasons, and Mike McCoy took over as interim coach and went 2-9 the rest of the way. Rookie Cam Ward, the first overall pick, took his lumps behind an offensive line that led the entire league in sacks allowed, and the offense finished 30th in scoring at under 17 points a game. The defense wasn’t much better, finishing 28th in points allowed despite Jeffery Simmons still being one of the better defensive tackles in football. Tony Pollard was the only guy on offense to top 1,000 yards, and their leading receiver, tight end Chig Okonkwo, finished with a measly 560 yards. It was rough pretty much everywhere you looked.

So naturally, the whole coaching staff got wiped out. Robert Saleh comes in as the new head coach, a defensive-minded guy who spent time as the 49ers defensive coordinator and had a run as the Jets’ head coach before this. He brought in Brian Daboll, the former Giants head coach, to run the offense and be the guy who actually gets the most out of Ward. Gus Bradley is running the defense. On paper this is a real staff, way more experienced and accomplished than what they had running things last year, and I do think that alone should help this team take a step forward.

Now let’s get into the offseason additions, because they actually spent some real money trying to fix this roster. On offense, the headline signing is receiver Wan’Dale Robinson, who they poached from the Giants on a four-year, $70 million deal after he broke out with over 1,000 yards and led the league in yards out of the slot last year. They also brought in tight end Daniel Bellinger from New York and added a veteran backup quarterback in Mitchell Trubisky, so between those two moves and Robinson, this is clearly Daboll trying to bring in familiar pieces from his old building to speed up Ward’s development. On defense, they added edge rusher John Franklin-Myers on a three-year, $63 million deal, plus edge rusher Jermaine Johnson II and a pair of new cornerbacks in Alontae Taylor and Cor’Dale Flott to try and shore up a secondary that had basically nothing going for it last year.

They did lose a few players too. Chig Okonkwo, their leading receiver by default, walked in free agency to the Commanders, and edge rusher Arden Key left for the Colts, which is a mildly annoying one since he’ll now be lining up against Ward twice a year instead of protecting him. Dre’Mont Jones was traded away during last season and ended up signing with the Patriots as a matter of housekeeping. None of those losses feel like backbreakers though, especially with what they brought in to replace them.

Then there’s the draft, and this is where things get interesting, because their first-round pick has already turned into a bit of a lightning rod. With the fourth overall selection, the Titans took Ohio State receiver Carnell Tate instead of a defensive player like Arvell Reese or Sonny Styles, both of whom were still sitting right there on the board. And look, I get wanting to give Ward another weapon, especially on top of Robinson, but I have to be honest, I don’t think Tate is anywhere near as good as some people are making him out to be. Skip Bayless straight up called him nothing special and said he wasn’t even the best receiver on his own college team, and Bleacher Report handed the pick a D grade because their own scouting department had him rated closer to the tenth-best prospect in the entire draft, not top five. He’s also had a rocky start to his preseason, with a scoreless debut that had people already questioning the pick before he’s played a real game. I’m not saying he’s a bust already, but taking a receiver that high when there were clear defensive needs, on a team that still has plenty of other holes, is the kind of pick that can look bad in hindsight. They did also trade back into the first round to grab edge rusher Keldric Faulk out of Auburn, who only had two sacks in his final college season, so that’s its own bit of a project too.

So where does that leave the Titans heading into this year. There’s real, tangible improvement here, a legitimately better coaching staff top to bottom, a genuine slot weapon in Robinson, some added juice on the defensive line and in the secondary, and a quarterback in Ward who should benefit a lot from actual stability and a real offensive mind calling plays for the first time in his career. I do think Ward looks better this year just by virtue of not playing behind the worst offensive infrastructure in the league anymore.

But I’m still not fully bought in. The defense added pieces but I don’t trust it to be anywhere close to good yet, not after finishing 28th a year ago, and I have real questions about the Tate pick and whether he ends up being the weapon this team is hoping for right away. This still feels like a team that’s a year or two away from actually competing, even with a much better setup around Ward now than he had as a rookie.

My prediction is the Titans take a real step in the right direction but still miss the playoffs, finishing 5-12. That’s a meaningful jump from 3 wins to 5, and I think it’s a fair reflection of a team that upgraded a lot in the offseason but is still working through real questions on defense and with some of their draft investments.

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