While the Tennessee Titans’ 2019 passing attack was about as successful as this franchise has seen in many years, there is still room for improvement going forward, even in the face of what seems like inevitable regression.
Of course, Tennessee needs to stay true to itself and keep utilizing the run game in order to set things up through the air, but there are other ways the passing attack can help itself out to truly make the Titans’ offense unstoppable.
Limit sacks
While the Titans did a better job at limiting sacks as the season went along in 2019 after a disastrous start, they still finished with 56 allowed, the second-most in the NFL.
In the first six games with Marcus Mariota as the starter, the Titans allowed 25, which works out to about four per game. In the 10 games after Ryan Tannehill was named the starter, Tennessee averaged a shade over three.
There is a silver lining there despite those horrid numbers. The Titans allowed the third-fewest quarterback pressures, per Pro Football Focus.
Limiting sacks isn’t just about offensive line play, though; although that should improve drastically now that the group upfront has more experience playing together. It’s also about Tannehill not holding on to the ball for too long, which is something we saw him do a bit too often last season.
Get RBs more involved
When you have a big-play waiting to happen like running back Derrick Henry on your roster, getting the ball in his hands in space and with a full head of steam should be a priority.
Despite knowing that, Henry saw just 24 targets in 15 games last season, an average of 1.6 per contest, and he saw one or fewer in eight games. That simply isn’t enough.
Of course, that isn’t all offensive coordinator Arthur Smith’s fault. Henry has proven to be a lackluster pass-catcher when given the opportunity, and the Titans’ screen game was a mess for much of the 2019 campaign.
Smith has got to go back to trying to pass Henry the rock in 2020, and he’ll also have an explosive new toy to utilize in the passing game in third-round pick Darrynton Evans, who should be an upgrade over Dion Lewis.
Not only does involving the running backs more in the short passing game put the ball in the hands of one of the Titans’ best play-makers more often, it also makes Tannehill’s job much easier when those plays are successful.
Take pressure off A.J. Brown
As much as we enjoy seeing A.J. Brown taking short to intermediate passes to the house by running defenders over, the Titans are going to have to get their other pass-catchers more involved.
Now that Brown is on the map of opposing defenses after a sensational rookie season, there is going to be a lot of extra attention on him in 2020, which could make increasing his target share difficult.
That should open things up for the rest of the Titans’ pass-catchers, and namely tight end Jonnu Smith and wide receivers Adam Humphries and Corey Davis, all of whom need to step up when Brown is double covered.
Humphries in particular simply wasn’t utilized enough in 2019. In the 12 games that he played during the regular season, Humphries saw less than four targets per game, and had three or less in half of those contests.
Chemistry is likely the cause of Tannehill not going to his other pass-catchers enough, as he didn’t really have much of an opportunity to work with Davis, Humphries and Smith during training camp because he was the backup.
That will change this season, as Tannehill has already been working with Smith regularly down in South Florida, and he has made improving his chemistry with Davis a point of emphasis.
If Tannehill can regularly hit Humphries and Smith over the middle, and Davis can have the kind of breakout season we know he’s capable of, opposing defenses simply won’t be able to key-in on Brown, making the Titans’ air attack impossible to stop.
Improve on non-first-read throws
Part of getting other pass-catchers involved in the offense has to do with being able to go through progressions, which is something Tannehill has struggled with the past two seasons.
According to Pro Football Focus’ Sam Monson, the gap between Tannehill’s grade for first-read throws as compared to non-first-read throws is among the largest in the NFL since 2018.
On first-read throws, Tannehill has posted a grade of 79.6, but on non-first-read throws, his grade is a much lower 41.9, a difference in grade of 37.7. That amounts to the second-biggest drop-off in the NFL.
With Brown being his No. 1 target and likely to get extra attention this season, Tannehill has to be able to move on to his other options when it isn’t there with his favorite receiver in order to avoid forcing the ball into bad situations.
