The Tennessee Titans are coming off their first playoff appearance in nine years, but it resulted in a coaching change over the offseason. This has seen former Houston Texans defensive coordinator Mike Vrabel effectively take over the helm as the new head coach.
The decision to change directions does bring forth the question of what the offensive game plan will be as Vrabel has made his mark in the league as a defensive coach. With that in mind, Vrabel has stated that he isn't in a rush to push the new offense onto quarterback Marcus Mariota in training camp this offseason, according to Cameron Wolfe of ESPN.
“We’re not going to rush. I think that’s a huge mistake that we could make, is try to rush and try to shove a bunch of stuff down their throats,” Vrabel said. “We do have two weeks before we have a voluntary mini-camp. That will be my job, to kind of evaluate where we’re at. I don’t want to go out on the field with a bunch of stuff and have them not be able to execute. Whatever we feel like we know, then that’s what we’ll run during the mini-camp.”
The Titans under Vrabel are looking to take a significant step forward after Mariota regressed in his play in his third year in the league last season. The 24-year-old posted a career-low 13 touchdown passes and a career-high 15 interceptions while placing 27th in the league with a 79.3 passer rating. This was a notable drop off from the progress he showed in the previous campaign with a career-high 26 touchdown passes and 95.6 passer rating.
Tennessee is hoping that new offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur can play a big part in helping Mariota get back on the right track. LaFleur has a track record of getting the most out of his quarterbacks as he helped Jared Goff last season take a significant stride forward in his second campaign with the Los Angeles Rams in 2017. The year prior to that, he was part of the staff as the quarterbacks coach for the Atlanta Falcons helping Matt Ryan's MVP season in the 2016 campaign.
It will be a process, but the Titans are confident that this change and steadily filtering of the offense as training camp moves along should be highly beneficial to Mariota. He is the future at the position at this upcoming season could go a long in demonstrating that he can be the face of the franchise for the next decade.
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