NASHVILLE, Tenn. – With the clock ticking faster than ever on coaches, new staffs often start by surrounding themselves with familiar players.
Well-known players shorten the learning curve. They already know the terminology, practice expectations and how the coach wants the defense or offense to function.
When Mike Vrabel took over the Titans in 2018, he didn’t have a wide base of player relationships, but the team grabbed some Jon Robinson connections – Malcolm Butler, Dion Lewis and Kevin Pamphile were added to Logan Ryan from the year before.
Brian Callahan’s first camp roster included a greater number of players he, his staff or GM Ran Carthon were connected to: Calvin Ridley, Tyler Boyd, Chido Awuzie, Sebastian Joseph-Day, Sadiq Charles, Jamal Adams and Geron Christian. The returns on all of that? Not huge money spent, not huge contributions either.
With Robert Saleh, Brian Daboll and Gus Bradley all having been head coaches and having worked for a lot of teams, the web is wider, and the Titans know more people on the market.
Monday’s flurry of Titans' agreements with nine free agents included seven with previous connections:
WR Wan’Dale Robinson played for Daboll with the Giants
TE Daniel Bellinger played for Daboll with the Giants
CB Cor’Dale Flott played for Daboll with the Giants
QB Mitch Trubisky played for Daboll with the Bills
C Austin Schlottman played for Daboll with the Giants
DT John Franklin-Myers played for Saleh with the Jets
CB Joshua Williams played for the Chiefs while Mike Borgonzi was there
That’s a ton of connections, particularly heavy on Daboll.
It’s not necessarily bad. It's far too easy to say the four former Giants played in 63 games for a 4-win team and therefore can't help here.
In New England, Vrabel took the Patriots to the Super Bowl last season in his first year as their coach with several of his former Titans on the roster: Harold Landry, Jack Gibbens, Austin Hooper, Josh Dobbs and Robert Spillane.
It will be a good while before we can judge this Titans’ group and assess the meaning of all the connections.
