Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Mike Vrabel’s admission an indictment on sad state of Titans offense

By Michael Gallagher | Last updated 10/16/23

The Tennessee Titans offense has been tough to watch over the first six weeks of the season, and head coach Mike Vrabel knows it.

However, his remarks to reporters on Monday following Tennessee's 24-16 loss to the Baltimore Ravens in London certainly don't paint a picture of optimism that things will get better anytime soon.

“If we can stay out of a drop-back passing game, I think that’s really critical,” Vrabel said, via John Glennon of the Nashville Post. “I’ll say that that’s a tall order for us and a lot of other teams. … I think that’s something that we want to make sure we complement our run game within our offense with the ability to move the pocket.”

Avoiding drop-back passing in a drop-back passing league is certainly a tall order.

Some Passing Stats for #Titans vs Ravens:

Tannehill
- 18 Dropbacks
- 22.2% Play-action
- 27.8% Blitz Rate
- 1 Big Time Throw
- 1 Turnover Worthy Play
- 2.60s TTT on Sacks
- 33.3% Comp Under Pressure (2/6)

Willis
- 12
- 16.7%
- 8.3%
- 0
- 0
- 3.10s
- 0.00% (0/6)
— Football & Other F Words (@FWordsPod) October 16, 2023

The numbers seem to support Vrabel’s central thesis that drop-back passing is not Tennessee’s strong suit. Per Pro Football Focus, the Titans entered Sunday tied for the third-highest percentage of dropbacks resulting in sacks (10%) and tied for 19^th in percentage of dropbacks resulting in on-target throws (82%).

There’s no question the Titans are built to be a running team with Derrick Henry. The problem is every defensive coordinator in the NFL knows it. Per NextGen Stats, Henry faces a stacked box (eight or more defenders at the line scrimmage) 44.9% of the time, the most of any running back in the league with 50 or more rush attempts.

But for the Titans to find success beyond just Henry, they have to find ways to adapt in the passing game. Perhaps a switch to either Malik Willis or rookie Will Levis will help with Ryan Tannehill suffering a high ankle sprain in Sunday’s loss to the Ravens and possibly sidelined for a couple of weeks?

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