The long lonely off-season is here. It just started but, still the Titans have been fairly active. In general, there's been a lot of things going on since the season came to an end. There's no way to mention every single thing that has happened but, I figured it would be fun to mention a few noteworthy things.
Defensive tackle Jeffrey Simmons was named a Pro Bowler for the third time. The Pro Bowl has become a really strange, underwhelming event at this point but, it's not a bad thing to see. Simmons started his career in a big way and while he has not exactly become quite as dominant as I thought he might be at this point in his career, he's still one of the best defensive lineman in the game. Simmons is going to be 28 next season and will enter his seventh year in the league. Simmons is very established and has accomplished a lot but there's still plenty of football left in him and I wouldn't be surprised to see him improve even more as he enters his prime!
The Titans fired special teams coach Colt Anderson the team replaced him with well respected and very experienced special teams coordinator John Fassel. Fassel has been in the league since 2008 and was most recently the special teams coordinator for the Cowboys. Hopefully Fassel can dramatically improve the special teams phase of the team because they have been just awful there for several seasons other than kicker Nick Folk of course. The Titans made several coaching changes/hires in general, including promoting Luke Stocker to tight ends coach. Stocker used to play for the Titans and even went to the Univeristy of Tennessee, pretty cool to see him coaching with the Titans in Tennessee!
Former Titans receiver Derrick Mason was announced to the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. Mason quietly had a pretty elite career and the guy is a huge part of my childhood as a Titans fan. Great to see him get recognized like this. Always amazing to remember the Steve McNair and Eddie George era of football. That era would not have been as great without Mason. Pretty awesome.
The Titans added key pieces to the front office by hiring Dave Ziegler as Assistant General Manager and Reggie McKenzie as Vice President/Football Advisor. Both men have impressive and deep resumes. Ziegler and McKenzie have won five Super Bowls combined.
Ziegler has been in the league 15 years with most of his time spent in New England. McKenzie is an absolute football lifer, and brings a TON of experience to the team. He spent a whopping EIGHTEEN seasons with the Packers, basically throughout the bulk of the Brett Favre era. He was the General Manager of the Raiders and notably helped the Raiders have that excellent season in 2016 with Derek Carr, Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree.
McKenzie really intrigues me since the Titans actually interviewed him for the General Manager position a few weeks ago AND McKenzie is a Tennessee Sports Hall of Famer since he was born and raised in Tennessee and went to the University of Tennessee before becoming a pro. I'm hoping his Tennessee connection might give him extra motivation to contribute in a big way!
All in all there's been some solid, quiet activity around the Titans. There's been a ton of draft and QB talk around the team but, it's anyone's guess what their plan is at this point. But before you know it, the draft will be here. Anything is on the table at this point it seems.
Hopefully all of these moves results in some great results QUICK. I watched this interview with Brian Callahan the other day and I found it pretty interesting. Callahan seems like a decent guy, I hope he proves himself in year two.
Crazy to think Mike Keith is no longer going to announce Titans games! He'll be broadcasting Volunteer football games next year.
Here's some interviews featuring GM Mike Borgonzi and HC Brian Callahan from the Senior Bowl.
Here's some more solid Titans content from the official team YouTube channel.
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Cool drone footage of the new Titans stadium under construction! I would love to take my son and I there in a few years! GOALS!
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Pretty big things in Tennessee!
One more game left in this NFL season, the Super Bowl should be excellent! I know I was upset about the refs the other day but, I'm still an NFL guy HA!
Been awhile since I included some of my Madden content. Here's some old Madden 24 games from ages ago! Fun stuff!
Seven months until meaningful Titans football. Should be a crazy off-season until then.
