With new HC Brian Callahan, the Titans should be moving away from an old school run-first scheme to a more modern 11-personnel balanced offense. That means Tennessee will have three WRs on the field most of the time, so we should expect DeAndre Hopkins to run at X, Calvin Ridley to play his more natural position this year at Z, and… Kyle Phillips… or even Treylon Burks in the slot?
Ridley played on the line way too often last year as the X, so the hope is that he doesn’t have to fight off press coverage (his weak link) as much this year with Hopkins taking most of that responsibility (H/T Reception Perception). Burks is even worse against press coverage, so him working as a big slot and after the catch weapon would be ideal for him to finally gain relevance in the NFL, which is exactly how he excelled in college (H/T Reception Perception).
The big question is who will have the better season, Hopkins or Ridley? Ridley will probably have more favorable matchups, but I’m not sure overall pass volume will be there for both of these WRs to thrive.
Based on the offensive pieces, the Titans aren’t building to run the ball. Yes, they have two capable RBs, but grabbing Tony Pollard in free agency doesn’t give off a running identity. In Callahan’s five years in Cincy, the Bengals were in the bottom half of rushing yards and attempts.
Will Levis’ style is throwing down the field, too. That’s his strength – he barely checked it down. He was just launching balls downfield: 20% of his throws last year were deep balls, 1st by a big margin. He also ranked 4th in the NFL in big time throw % (per PFF), and 1st in the NFL in hero ball % (per Fantasy Points). The only issue here is that Will Levis struggled outside of making big plays down the field. Among QBs with 250+ dropbacks, he was last in adjusted completion %, he was last in on-target %, so it’s going to be interested to see how they mitigate this.
The Bengals had one of the lowest rates of first down runs over the last two years with Callahan at the controls. This is what you want; it makes drives less predictable. They did it without Burrow, too… will they do with Levis? Even with Burrow banged up and out for a chunk of the season last year, they were had the 4th highest passing percentage and 3rd highest passing percentage, even when leading by 7+.
We’re looking at a less predictable, more balanced offense. With more weapons now, it could help Will Levis take a step forward. But it’s not going be easy deciding between Pollard and Spears, and deciding between Hopkins and Ridley. We might have to wait on training camp nuggets to answer those questions.