D.C.
09-13-2006, 11:47 AM
For those not familiar with the problems faced/created by the front office in Tennessee here is an interesting part of a Q&A article by Chris Landry (a veteran NFL scout).
Are the Tennessee Titans the worst team in football?
Quite possibly but that can be debated for now I guess. What is not debatable, however, is that the Titans seem headed in the wrong direction more than any other team.
The Titans' self-inflicted salary cap woes have led to a roster purge. When a team starts dumping talent, the best way to rebuild the roster is drafting well. The Ravens are a perfect example as they rebuilt their team quickly through the NFL draft after purging their roster one year after winning the 2000 Super Bowl title.
However, the Titans have combined very poor salary-cap management with very poor drafts. They have not had a good draft since 2000. The 2001 draft consisted of poor evaluations and selections of players like Shad Meier, Justin McCareins and Eddie Berlin. The next year produced picks like Tank Williams, Rocky Calmus, Mike Echols and Tony Beckham. Then, in 2003 they drafted Andre Woolfolk in the first round and Tyrone Calico in the second. In 2004 they reached on Antwan Odom and Travis LaBoy, emergency need picks demanded by the coaching staff to cover up previous bad picks by the personnel department. In 2005, they did poor research on Pacman Jones and made him the sixth overall pick despite having numerous off-field problems in high school and college. To no one's surprise but the Titans, he has been nothing but trouble.
This past draft, despite the urging of coach Jeff Fisher and offensive coordinator Norm Chow to take the more skilled quarterback in Matt Leinart, they selected Vince Young. Another option for the Titans was to trade down and take Jay Cutler, who played at nearby Vanderbilt.
As if this hasn't crippled their future enough, they botched the handling of the veteran quarterback situation. Steve McNair initially was willing to accept an offer far less than he eventually signed with the Ravens. They decided against that and went with Billy Volek as the starter after having four years of service under his belt on the Titans roster, plenty of time to make a decision on his starting potential. The plan was to go with Volek as the starter while bringing Young along slowly, similar to how McNair was developed.
Suddenly they went back against their initial decision to go with Volek and realized they needed a veteran with more starting experience. But instead of bringing in Kerry Collins before or during the early stages of training camp, they waited until right before the season opener. So you have Collins, notoriously slow at picking up an offense and error prone even in ones that he knows, starting in a system that he knows very little about. They then decide to play Young on a few snaps in the opener against the Jets, long before he is ready. The problem here is that he continues to develop even more bad habits.
No wonder offensive coordinator Chow is contemplating heading back into the college ranks, according to team sources. Jeff Fisher, one of the more respected coaches in the NFL, has a clause in his contract that triggers at season's end. The Titans must make him an offer equal to the highest five paid coaches in the league or he may be coaching elsewhere. There are teams in the league that would jump at the opportunity of bringing Fisher aboard.
"He would be the top free agent available, player or coach", said one AFC general manager. In NFL circles, Fisher is widely respected and is considered to have made the best of a poorly run front office. "His teams play hard but it's obvious their personnel department is not on the same page with the coaching staff," a rival head coach said recently.
Should they lose Fisher, it is highly unlikely any quality candidate would take the job unless he was allowed more unilateral control to clean a front office and scouting department that is not well respected in and around the league.
SOURCE (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=AiLWHyli6GtTAyqEmZSGkeZDubYF?slug=cl-askthescout091206&prov=yhoo&type=lgns)
You can now kind of see why there are people out there saying the current Titans are the Bengals of the 90's. :(
Are the Tennessee Titans the worst team in football?
Quite possibly but that can be debated for now I guess. What is not debatable, however, is that the Titans seem headed in the wrong direction more than any other team.
The Titans' self-inflicted salary cap woes have led to a roster purge. When a team starts dumping talent, the best way to rebuild the roster is drafting well. The Ravens are a perfect example as they rebuilt their team quickly through the NFL draft after purging their roster one year after winning the 2000 Super Bowl title.
However, the Titans have combined very poor salary-cap management with very poor drafts. They have not had a good draft since 2000. The 2001 draft consisted of poor evaluations and selections of players like Shad Meier, Justin McCareins and Eddie Berlin. The next year produced picks like Tank Williams, Rocky Calmus, Mike Echols and Tony Beckham. Then, in 2003 they drafted Andre Woolfolk in the first round and Tyrone Calico in the second. In 2004 they reached on Antwan Odom and Travis LaBoy, emergency need picks demanded by the coaching staff to cover up previous bad picks by the personnel department. In 2005, they did poor research on Pacman Jones and made him the sixth overall pick despite having numerous off-field problems in high school and college. To no one's surprise but the Titans, he has been nothing but trouble.
This past draft, despite the urging of coach Jeff Fisher and offensive coordinator Norm Chow to take the more skilled quarterback in Matt Leinart, they selected Vince Young. Another option for the Titans was to trade down and take Jay Cutler, who played at nearby Vanderbilt.
As if this hasn't crippled their future enough, they botched the handling of the veteran quarterback situation. Steve McNair initially was willing to accept an offer far less than he eventually signed with the Ravens. They decided against that and went with Billy Volek as the starter after having four years of service under his belt on the Titans roster, plenty of time to make a decision on his starting potential. The plan was to go with Volek as the starter while bringing Young along slowly, similar to how McNair was developed.
Suddenly they went back against their initial decision to go with Volek and realized they needed a veteran with more starting experience. But instead of bringing in Kerry Collins before or during the early stages of training camp, they waited until right before the season opener. So you have Collins, notoriously slow at picking up an offense and error prone even in ones that he knows, starting in a system that he knows very little about. They then decide to play Young on a few snaps in the opener against the Jets, long before he is ready. The problem here is that he continues to develop even more bad habits.
No wonder offensive coordinator Chow is contemplating heading back into the college ranks, according to team sources. Jeff Fisher, one of the more respected coaches in the NFL, has a clause in his contract that triggers at season's end. The Titans must make him an offer equal to the highest five paid coaches in the league or he may be coaching elsewhere. There are teams in the league that would jump at the opportunity of bringing Fisher aboard.
"He would be the top free agent available, player or coach", said one AFC general manager. In NFL circles, Fisher is widely respected and is considered to have made the best of a poorly run front office. "His teams play hard but it's obvious their personnel department is not on the same page with the coaching staff," a rival head coach said recently.
Should they lose Fisher, it is highly unlikely any quality candidate would take the job unless he was allowed more unilateral control to clean a front office and scouting department that is not well respected in and around the league.
SOURCE (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=AiLWHyli6GtTAyqEmZSGkeZDubYF?slug=cl-askthescout091206&prov=yhoo&type=lgns)
You can now kind of see why there are people out there saying the current Titans are the Bengals of the 90's. :(