Bad teams find ways to lose.
Sometimes it’s embarrassing. Sometimes it’s heartbreaking. But one of the main reasons for the Tennessee Titans’ struggles this season stem from leadership – or maybe the lack thereof.
Most good teams around the NFL have a strong identity, an established culture and locker room leadership that polices everything enough that if a team is good enough, the coaching staff doesn’t really have to concern itself with that aspect of the game.
When you look at Bill Belichick’s dynasty run with the New England Patriots, a very underrated portion of what that team established in winning six Super Bowls over a nearly two-decade period was that there was a certain way that business was conducted and an expectation that the job get done.
It starts with coaching, but it quickly trickles down through locker room leadership and veterans who teach the young players the way that team does business. You heard “The Patriot Way” for how guys like Tom Brady, Tedy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel and others imposed their will in the locker room and on teammates to let them know that business came first and that the only business that matters is winning.
It’s part of how the Pittsburgh Steelers have established a culture that stretches back 50 years and how the Baltimore Ravens always have certain types of players who just fit what they do.
And that brings us to the Titans, which had an established locker room culture for a while under Vrabel – and in fairness, it was established under Mike Mularkey when the team rose from the ashes of the Ken Whisenhunt fiasco back to respectability.
But now the Titans franchise has no real locker room culture beyond a couple of guys and no true identity as they pass from the power running game spearheaded by Derrick Henry into what they hope can be a pass-oriented style with Brian Callahan at the controls.
In trying to establish that culture, sometimes it is forged with losing and learning from losing, which the Titans are doing plenty of right now in a 3-12 season that mercifully will be over in two more weeks.
Culture not automatic
Callahan admits that trying to establish this team’s identity and creating a culture and a standard in the organization has been tougher than he expected it would be.
“It’s a challenge. You’re bringing guys in from all over the place. You’ve got young players coming in. We have new coaches coming in, and there’s a lot of getting to know, meshing, all those things,” Callahan says. “There’s a lot that goes into it and it takes more time than even I thought it would take just to find everybody’s niche.”
The Titans are new all over as only seven players on the 53-man roster have been with the team for more than three seasons. Those seven are Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, Amani Hooker, Morgan Cox, Harold Landry, Corey Levin, Dillon Radunz and Jeffery Simmons.
That’s it. Everyone else is either in their third year or less, or they have come from another organization within the past three years – many of those coming to Nashville just this year in general manager Ran Carthon’s spending spree to try and replenish a barren roster.
Free agent guys don’t always become leaders, and even some of the ones the Titans had banked on like center Lloyd Cushenberry and cornerback L’Jarius Sneed were lost early on to season-ending injuries, curtailing their leadership possibilities this year.
“Some of the guys we brought in have gotten injuries, and you’re counting on them to fill some of those roles and they didn’t. And those things happen. It’s not abnormal, but it’s a challenge to get everybody rowing in the same direction in the same place,” Callahan says. “But I think that’s what’s most exciting for us as we move into the offseason in the next cycle of the program is that now we have a ton of young players that are Titans.
“We’ve got a bunch of guys that are free agents now that are Titans, guys that have now been through it. We’ve been through it this year, I think we can all agree with that,” he continues. “And I think it’s going to propel a lot of that leadership and more connection since we’ve all been through it together, coaches and players, these new guys, rookies. That part I’m very excited about.”
Starting in the trenches
As the Titans try to escape the doldrums of losing, Callahan hopes to build a young nucleus to put with veterans like Simmons and Hooker who have been mainstays to build a new core and try to develop an identity from that for the future.
“That’s probably the most critical part of it is just finding a way to keep adding good players, developing our young ones and the guys that I’m excited about leadership-wise are some of these younger guys that have played that I think have really high potential to be really good leaders,” Callahan says. “I was talking to Jeff (Simmons) just the other day about it. Just imagine what it would be like when these guys grow up and it’s Jeff and it’s (T’Vondre) Sweat and it’s Pete (Skoronski) and JC (Latham) as our core, and our biggest trench guys are our biggest leaders.
“They all have the potential to be that, and even a guy like Jarvis (Brownlee) I’m excited about. Jarvis has got some leadership ability too and I’m excited to see him grow up,” he continued. Those are guys I’m excited about and to keep building our leadership group of core players. They’re Titans, and now we’re all sort of in this together.”