We knew there would be change involving the 2024 Titans after an underwhelming 6-11 finish in 2023.
But the firing of Mike Vrabel Tuesday sets the Titans up for even more questions as they approach this offseason.
Controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk keeps working to get her franchise over the top and into championship mode, but is her continued meandering regarding personnel holding this team back?
Let’s take a little history lesson as we examine future:
In retaining Mike Mularkey back in 2016 and hiring Jon Robinson as general manager, the Titans quickly a contender. But at the apparent behest of Robinson, who saw Vrabel as an upgrade, Adams Strunk listened heeded his advice and fired Mularkey after he had won a playoff game on the road at the end of 2017.
The Robinson-Vrabel relationship did well for a time, even getting the Titans to the AFC championship game in 2019 and division titles in 2020 and 2021. But after the Titans blew the No. 1 seed in 2021, and Robinson traded receiver A.J. Brown to Philadelphia, it looked like the coach and GM general manager began to get a little sideways with each other.
When the Titans were embarrassed by Brown and the Eagles toward the end of the 2022 season, Robinson was axed, shifting power to Vrabel. When Ran Carthon was introduced as the new GM nearly a year ago, Adams Strunk preached “collaboration” between the two men.
But as the Titans, beset by poor draft picks and free agent moves, stumbled again this season to 6-11, speculation began to surface that Vrabel and Carthon were not collaborating or even on the same page.
Now, Vrabel is gone and Carthon is the man who will be tasked in large part with finding the next head coach.
My advice to Carthon on that endeavor: Find someone you know you can work with, and make sure the hire is good enough so that you’re not the next one on the chopping block with the Titans.