Brian Callahan addresses potential splintering in Titans locker room after dropping to 3-10
NASHVILLE – With a miserable 10-6 loss to the division rival Jaguars at home on Sunday, the Tennessee Titans' locker room at Nissan Stadium was filled with disappointment and disgust. Players on both sides of the ball had trouble finding answers for the regression or words for their displeasure. It's not easy to lose over […]
NASHVILLE – With a miserable 10-6 loss to the division rival Jaguars at home on Sunday, the Tennessee Titans' locker room at Nissan Stadium was filled with disappointment and disgust.
Players on both sides of the ball had trouble finding answers for the regression or words for their displeasure. It's not easy to lose over and over again. It's even harder to keep losing in the same ways. Now 13 games into Brian Callahan's tenure as Titans head coach, it feels like that's all the Titans do…and it's tiring.
Titans players are starting to feel it and they're not shying away from talking about it in their post game media sessions.
Simmons after the game
"All the way around. I'm tired of seeing our quarterback on the ground. Tired of seeing him squirreling on the damn ground, actually. He's getting his block knocked off by their edge guys. I don't know. It's frustrating to see that, especially right before the half," said Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons in reference to the sack that injured Will Levis just before halftime. "They know we throwin' the ball. We know they planning to rush. It's frustrating. At the end of the day, tired of saying we got to do better, we got to play better. I have no answers."
It's never been more clear that the team is sick of losing in the exact same way. It becomes really hard to generate buy-in from the locker room when your team continues to fail and the coaches and players have no solutions.
How is Simmons supposed to be all in on Titans culture and what the organization is building for the future when he watches Levis get bulldozed every week and Tennessee's offensive line fail to block anyone? How is anyone supposed to listen to the coaching staff that claims to have a plan? How are these players expected to not point fingers at one another? It's not Simmons that's allowing all these sacks and scoring six points on offense.
There was a large contingent of Titans players who told reporters after the game that, moving forward, they need to play for themselves and their livelihood. That's what they draw upon when playoffs are out of the question. While some of that is true, it's not exactly what you want to hear as you attempt to establish a culture of players working towards the same team-driven goals.
Brian Callahan was pressed about that very idea during his press conference on Monday afternoon. With the defensive effort Tennessee gave and an unacceptable six points being scored on offense, is he concerned about splintering in the locker room?
"Yeah, those things are all—that's accurate. I mean, two turnovers and the way the defense played and to only have six points certainly is something that I'm just as irritated about as I'm sure they are," said Callahan on Monday. "When you're out of the playoff contention and you're trying to fight, there is an element that guys do—this is their job. They are paid professionals. Their job is to play football. My job is to coach it. That's a part of it"…"They have to play well because some of these guys are looking for new contracts, they’re on one-year contracts. That's all a part of it. So I don't take any issue with that. I don't look at that as splintering at all. I do think one of the strengths of our team is the way that they do stick together and do play for each other and do things the right way in that regard."
Callahan may not view it as splintering…and i may even agree with him. But the real question moving forward is how it's viewed by Amy Adams Strunk and Titans ownership.
This is the first time all season that I've started to wonder if Brian Callahan was going to be with the team in 2025. While I still think that's more likely that not, we know that the NFL is a results oriented league. It's also an impatient league. I know Amy didn't pay all that money for last place, and if she senses the locker room isn't buying in on the head coach on top of that, who knows what happens in the offseason.
Tennessee still had four more games this year to show growth and build for the future, but everything is on the table at this point.
Titans incompetence could make the Jaguars the biggest loser for winning in Nashville
Jaguars could be big losers after winning against Tennessee Titans.
