What Tennessee Titans' Mike Vrabel said about Todd Downing's performance as offensive coordinator
Mike Vrabel didn’t give any indication the Tennessee Titans will head in a new direction at offensive coordinator for 2022.
At his end-of-season news conference Monday, the Titans coach praised the job of play-caller Todd Downing, who received criticism following the struggles of a healthy offense in Saturday’s 19-16 divisional-round loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
Tennessee's tight end coach in 2020, Downing this season was in his second stint as an offensive coordinator after serving as the Raiders' OC in 2017.
“I think Todd does a great job. He’s a great coach,” Vrabel said. “I think he’s a hard worker. There’s always going to be calls you’d like to have back. There’s plays you’d like to have back. ... I try to see how guys communicate with each other, the players. Are we all on the same page? Is there good communication? How do we do on third down? How do we in the red zone?
“I love the relationship that Todd has with the assistant coaches and the players,” Vrabel continued. “We’ll all continue to improve.”
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Downing led an offense which excelled in several areas despite stars Derrick Henry, A.J. Brown and Julio Jones missing extended time this season (Nine games for Henry; seven for Jones and four for Brown). The Titans ranked first in goal-to-go percentage, fifth in the red zone and rushing yards and eighth on third down this season.
But the Titans’ issues starting games carried over into the playoff loss – Tennessee averaged just 3.3 points in the first quarter this season, including Saturday’s game – and couldn’t get the most out of a healthy Henry-Brown-Jones trio and offensive line in the biggest moment of the season, sputtering to just 16 points. Quarterback Ryan Tannehill also made a drastic regression with 17 interceptions, including three in the loss to Cincinnati.
Vrabel shot down the notion that the transition to Downing from Arthur Smith, the Falcons coach who was the Titans’ offensive coordinator in 2019-20, played a role in Tannehill’s struggles. Tannehill had 13 interceptions combined in the 2019 and '20 regular season, one fewer than he had in 2021.
Vrabel added that the offensive problems in the opening period were not just about the play-calling.
“I think that the scripting is as important as the execution,” he explained.
Asked whethhe anticipates his coaching staff to remain intact for 2022, Vrabel said conversations will take place throughout the week.
“That’s one of the other things I’ll put into consideration,” Vrabel said.
Ben Arthur covers the Tennessee Titans for The USA TODAY Network. Contact him at barthur@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @benyarthur.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: What Tennessee Titans' Vrabel said about Downing's performance as OC
