Brian CallahanNASHVILLE, Tenn. – Titans players don’t really care that the team has the No. 1 pick in the draft.

But what led them there certainly means something.

“Definitely motivation,” Peter Skoronski said as players finished cleaning out their lockers and headed into the offseason. “It’s a little bit embarrassing to be honest -- being, obviously, the worst team in the league, 3-14. So that’s definitely a motivating factor for sure and it will drive us, I think, throughout this offseason and into next year.”

The Titans tied the Browns with a league-high 34 giveaways, one of their key issues. That led them to be the second-worst team in the league in turnover differential at minus-11. Their expected points added per play on offense was -0.12, twice as bad as in 2023. They were tied for 30th with 7.8 penalties per game. They allowed opponents to score touchdowns nearly two-thirds of the time they crossed into the red zone. 

Brian Callahan ticked off a lot of those things at the start of his season wrap-up press conference on Monday.

And he agreed with Skoronski and other players’ assessments.

“We’re all prideful, we’re all competitors," he said. “I’m incredibly prideful, I’ve won a lot of football games in this league and I’ve lost plenty too. I know I’m a good football coach. I know I’m going to be a good head coach. This is certainly not the results I had anticipated and I’m going to have to do a much better job. 

"And it is embarrassing. I don't like standing up here talking about picking first in the draft. I don’t like it. I don’t like the fact that we won three games. That’s not the standard I have set for myself. So yeah, I get where they are coming from. That does motivate me. No professional that likes to compete likes to be embarrassed there are feelings of that when you’ve only won three games, and I’m determined to not let that happen again.”

There is so much that needs to change.

Callahan talked about turning over every stone to find a quarterback and to getting back to his Cincinnati roots. Bengals coaches do a lot of scouting work. Along with an infusion of new players, he will look in detail at how his first season played out and try to refine how he works. He's certain to spend more time with the defense and the special teams.

Player development must improve.

And Ran Carthon and Chad Brinker, whose job statuses are not yet known, must do better at player acquisition. Health luck has got to get better at some point -- but a torn Achilles for Lloyd Cushenberry or a Lis-franc injury for Quandre Diggs still seem largely unavoidable.

"We have a lot of great players, a lot of talent," JC Latham said. "To be 3-(14) is not a standard that we want to hold ourselves to. That's not the environment that we are going to hold ourselves to. So we're gearing up to recultivate, make an identity for ourselves, and a culture for ourselves, raise the standard all the way through the roof."

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