Will GM John Robinson Rebound this Offseason?

“It’s JRob Season!”

That’s what many were saying as the Tennessee Titans exited the AFC Championship game during the 2020 playoffs. Titans fans were overjoyed by their dynasty destroying, Raven-killing team that had come back from 2-4 to shock the entire sports world. Optimism shot through the roof as fans looked forward to what surely would be another great offseason for GM John Robinson.

Since taking over in 2016, JRob has done an incredible job as the Titan’s GM. His accolades are really worth repeating. He’s turned water into wine with the likes of Demarco Murray and Ryan Tannehill. He’s located under-the-radar talent like Kevin Byard and Jayon Brown. Most importantly, he has set a tone for the Titans franchise, and the tone is winning, dude. It’s five seasons of winning, including three playoff appearances. All of this winning would not have happened if it was not for an exceptional ability to evaluate talent, leverage draft picks and personnel, and manipulate the salary cap for the team’s benefit.

However, the 2020 Titans season and the 11-5 record the team was able to produce was all despite a 2020 offseason that was extremely disappointing. But was it disappointing due to Super Bowl-level expectations (which were ultimately not met), or were the collective moves JRob made really that abysmal?

Let’s take a closer look and see which is correct.

Before we dive into the bad, let’s first stop and appreciate the good.

JRob was able to keep 10 of 11 starters from an offense that looked incredible down the stretch of the 2019 season. This meant retaining Ryan Tannehill, who played himself into deserving a massive contract. Signing the quarterback was never a given with as volatile the QB market was. Of all people, the GOAT, Tom Brady, was bouncin’ around in free agency complicating things and giving Titans fans flashbacks of when Peyton Manning nearly joined the team back in 2012. Eventually Tannehill was signed to a contract that was in the Kirk Cousins/Jimmy Garoppolo range of QB salaries, and Tanny has definitely outplayed both of those dudes in recent seasons.

Also at the top of JRob’s priority list was signing the reigning (and still reigning to this day) NFL rushing champion. This process was also full of twists and turns along the way. At one point King Henry switched to the same agency as Ryan Tannehill, most likely for negotiating purposes. Henry was franchise tagged at one point as well, but finally, in June, JRob was able to provide the King a four-year $50 million deal.

And everyone lived happily ever after…

Not quite.

Although absolutely no one could argue that retaining Tannehill and King Henry were mistakes, the rest of the offseason is a bit of a nightmare that revealed itself gradually throughout the season.

1. The Isaiah Wilson pick was a colossal and unprecedented disaster of a draft pick. When many predicted a pass rusher or a corner to be picked, JRob went for the big man out of Georgia. In the process he left the likes of Yetur Gross-Matos, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, D'Andre Swift, Chase Claypool, Tee Higgins, and many others on the draft board. The mess that is Wilson has been heavily covered and documented, and to go on any further about it will only further make me question my own sanity. As you can see from the video below, the disappointment in the choice of Wilson was pretty much immediate.

2. The Jadaveon Clowney signing was simply light years away from what it was hyped up to be. Anyone else remember “Clowney Watch”? What a joke. Clowney is obviously a talented individual, and if he had been healthier, things would have turned out different. He simply did not produce the impact that matched the time, effort, and money that was necessary to acquire him.

3. Vic Beasley was obviously a huge roll of the dice on JRob’s part, and the gamble looked to backfire almost immediately. Why Beasley didn’t show up to practice at first is STILL lost to the people on the outside. And ultimately, I don’t know what was worse to watch, Beasley glazing over the questions about not showing up to practice in interviews or his play once he actually stepped onto the field.

4. The departures of Wesley Woodyard, Logan Ryan, and Jurrel Casey are the next train wrecks. I loop all of these quality cornerstones of the Titans defense together because they all made an exit during this offseason, and their talent and production was simply not matched by the 2020 squad, not by a long shot. Woodyard was obviously getting very old for his position, but his leadership was sorely missed. Ryan was allowed to walk in free agency, and he ended up going super saiyan for the Giants while the cornerback group of the Titans imploded (see the play of Jonathan Joseph). Casey’s departure was arguably the biggest pill to swallow, and that’s being said during an offseason that saw Marcus Mariota and Delanie Walker leave the team. Casey’s shocking trade to Denver was nothing more than a pure salary dump. Casey was badly missed on the Titans D line, and subsequently, opposing offenses were able to zero in and eliminate Jefferey Simmons’ impact as the only quality difference maker on the D line.

I could bring up the switch from Ryan Succop to Stephen Gostowski, but Gostowski was pretty reliable by the end of the season. I don’t see that decision to be a misstep.

Did I leave out any other glaring mistakes from this forgettable offseason? Let me know.

So JRob managed to keep an offensive nucleus that built on its 2019 success by being one of the best offenses of the NFL in 2020, but his 2020 rookie draft class made a very marginal impact. In addition, his free agency additions were non-factors by the time the season really got underway (some from the very beginning).

Titans fans were expecting another deep run into the playoffs. While an 11-5 record along with a 2,000 yard rusher are quality consolation prizes, they do not compare to bringing home this franchise’s first Lombardi.

Titans fans are heading into another offseason, and the fowl taste left over from last season’s offseason mess lingers still like the stench of an old facemask pressed firmly against one’s nose.

It’s JRob Season again, and hopefully this one will be nothing like last year’s.