One of the biggest knocks on the Tennessee Titans’ offense under former offensive coordinator Todd Downing was how predictable it was.
One example of this was the Titans finishing with the eighth-highest run-run-pass rate in 2022, per Pro Football Focus’ Arjun Menon.
But new offensive coordinator Tim Kelly, who was on the staff as the team’s passing-game coordinator, doesn’t believe the Titans were too predictable.
“I didn’t think we were predictable last year,” Kelly said while down at the NFL Combine, per Paul Kuharsky. “I think there’s some times where certain games, certain things, weather, people you have available, things along those lines, there are a lot of elements that go into predictability or perceived predictability, so I wouldn’t say that we were predictable last year.”
Kelly was then asked if the Titans leaning heavily on the run on first downs made the offense predictable. His response was the same.
“I didn’t, but again, like I said, there are a lot of things that go into calling a game,” he said. “Last year was last year, but moving forward I can tell you what we’re going to do and what we’re going to try to do and how we’re going to build this offense.”
As far as how the Titans can avoid being predictable, Kelly said the team needs to be versatile.
“One of the things that we want to do as an offense is we want to be versatile,” he explained. “So, whether it ends up being multiple personnel groupings, multiple formations, playing in multiple tempos, just doing things to try to keep people off balance. That’s what we’re going to look to do moving forward. We want to put our guys in the best position possible.”
While Kelly denying the offense was predictable last season is alarming, it’s also possible he’s just trying to avoid throwing Downing under the bus.
I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and go with that as an explanation for his comments here because nobody in their right mind can say this offense wasn’t predictable.
Tim Kelly doesn’t think the #Titans were predictable last year. pic.twitter.com/DL5U8D7LFE
— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) February 28, 2023
