The Titans' final reason for optimism is broken and the response will determine the franchise's future

Will this tell-tale sign of dysfunction finally rear it’s ugly head for the Titans?

Easton Freeze — Tennessee Titans Beat Writer
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Tennessee Titans head coach Brian Callahan walks off the field after the game at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tenn., Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024.
© Denny Simmons / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Tennessee Titans reached a new low in Week 14.

You can feel it in the air. They've done more than their fair share of losing this season, but the 10-6 home loss to the worst-team-in-the-league Jaguars was different. It's the kind of loss that can break a football team. So that means this week, whether they realize it at Titans headquarters or not, the number one job of the administration of this franchise is to keep that from happening.

I've been somebody who has been a staunch defender of the underlying vision and culture Brian Callahan's football team has been working on. I've preached belief in the bones of what this group is building. And that hasn't been based on blind faith or an effort to pump sunshine through a difficult season. There are a laundry list of reasons why I've felt this is a team worth betting on, which is a broader discussion for another time.

But atop that list is the primary reason I haven't given up: because the team hasn't.

Consider other teams where dysfunction and firings have taken place in recent memory. Look at how the Bears looked before they fired OC Shane Waldron, and then how they sounded before they fired Matt Eberflus. Or how the Saints looked on their weeks-long skid before finally firing Dennis Allen. When there is dysfunction within the football operations of a franchise, the cracks in the cultural foundation show themselves. There are signs. And the Titans haven't yet showed them. The messaging from Callahan, coordinators, position coaches, and players has been pretty consistent. The vibe in the locker room has passed the eye test even after the most brutal weekends. The opportunities for discord, pettiness, and finger-pointing have been aplenty. And they haven't taken them.

Well, if that was going to suddenly change, this sure feels like the week! And in the first locker-room availability after their loss at home to Jacksonville, we got our most explicit example of somebody calling out another area of the team. This wasn't just any old player, either: This came from defensive leader Jeffery Simmons:

"I'm tired of seeing our quarterback on the ground" Simmons opined at his locker. "I'm tired of seeing him squirrelling on the damn ground, actually. Getting his block knocked off by their EDGE guys, and… I don't know man, like it's frustrating to see that, and especially right before the half. We know that we're throwing the ball, we know they're fixing to rush… It's frustrating, like I said. At the end of the day, I'm tired of saying we've got to do better, we've got to play better… it just, I don't know. I don't have any answers, just that complimentary football wasn't there."

Now, I'm certainly not trying to stir anything up here. Just making an observation. I can't tell you how a postgame comment like this will be received by his teammates on offense, because I don't truly know the relationship and the conversations that have been had there. Perhaps this is a comment based on a frank discussion that had already taken place. Perhaps his teammates are the type who can handle such criticism from across the locker room, especially when it's as fair as this piece was.

But it doesn't take a genius to realize this is the kind of thing that you're liable to hear from a team that's at it's wits end. It's the kind of thing you're likely to see happen before the roof caves in on the current vision for a franchise. One heat-of-the-moment comment immediately after a brutal loss is far from proof positive of the beginning of the end. But could it be the canary in the coalmine for what will prove to be a very short era of Titans football? Pay close attention to what comes out of St. Thomas Sports Park starting this week to find out.

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