The Tennessee Titans have sported one of the best offenses in the NFL the past two seasons, but despite the fact that this unit is set to be even better personnel-wise in 2021, Pro Football Focus doesn’t see it as elite.
PFF’s Sam Monson placed every team’s offense in tiers, and the Titans landed in “Tier 2: On the Verge” in these rankings, outside of “Tier 1: The NFL’s Elite.” Here’s Monson’s write-up on Tennessee:
The addition of Julio Jones has massive potential within this offense and was a move the team needed to make, given the losses of Corey Davis and Jonnu Smith in free agency. Jones has been banged up lately, but he ranked fourth in the league in yards per route run last year, a statistic he has owned during his career. The threat of Julio on the outside should open things up significantly for A.J. Brown on the other side of the formation and Derrick Henry in the backfield. Ryan Tannehill has already proven he can exploit favorable matchups when they present themselves.
Ranked in Tier 1 are the Kansas City Chiefs, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Green Bay Packers, Cleveland Browns and Buffalo Bills.
It’s hard to accept that the Titans aren’t ranked among the league’s elite here, especially when you consider the Titans averaged more points per game in 2020 than the Chiefs and Browns, more total yards per game than the Bucs, Packers and Browns, and more rushing yards per game than all of them.
The only major statistical category where the Titans didn’t perform better than multiple teams ranked ahead of them in these rankings was in passing yards, but they still had more per contest than the Browns.
But this isn’t just about what happened last year, or even the last two years, for the Titans. We’re also factoring in that Tennessee’s offense stands to be as good, if not better than it was thanks to some upgrades.
A Titans offense that already sported Ryan Tannehill, A.J. Brown and Derrick Henry now has Julio Jones and Josh Reynolds, both of whom are upgrades to the receiving corps. from what the team had in 2020.
Granted, the Titans did lose Jonnu Smith, but he didn’t contribute much as a receiver last season and Anthony Firkser is more than capable of replicating his production, or even bettering it.
As far as the offensive line is concerned, it might be the most underrated in football. The group upfront was able to pave the way for Henry’s 2,000-yard season and surrendered 31 less sacks than the year prior without its star left tackle, Taylor Lewan, who missed the final 11 games with a torn ACL.
Bottom line: in no world should the Titans not be ranked as an elite offense going into the 2021 season.
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