Tennessee Titans

The Tennessee Titans finished 2025 at three and fourteen, dead last in the AFC South for the third straight year and out of the playoffs for the fourth, officially eliminated in Week 13 at home against the Jaguars. This was supposed to be the year the rebuild got a face — Cam Ward, the number one overall pick out of Miami — but it turned into another lost season that started one and eleven and cost Brian Callahan his job in October after a Week 6 loss in Las Vegas, with Mike McCoy finishing as interim. The wins were rare and weird: a one-point escape in Week 5 at Arizona, a shootout in Week 14 at Cleveland, and a genuine stunner in Week 16 over the Kansas City Chiefs. Everything else ranged from uncompetitive to lopsided, capped by a 41 to 7 beatdown in Jacksonville to close the year. Calvin Ridley broke his leg after Week 11, Ernest Jones got traded, DeAndre Hopkins got traded, and by New Year's it was the worst four-year stretch for the franchise since the mid-1980s Oilers. In one word — the Titans got muffed.

By the numbers, Tennessee scored 16.7 points per game (thirtieth) and surrendered 28.1 (twenty-eighth) — an eleven and a half point nightly deficit that tells you almost everything. Total expected points added — a stat that measures how much each snap moved the scoreboard needle — came in at minus 137.5 through the air and minus 21.3 on the ground, so every part of the offense bled value. Turnover math was brutal too: eighteen giveaways to twelve takeaways, a minus six differential, and a 32 percent third-down rate that kept drives short. Steady floor, low ceiling — outside of Cleveland and the Kansas City upset, the Titans scored twenty-four or fewer in fifteen of seventeen games. Consistent, yes. Consistently muffed.

Now let's talk about the passing offense. Tennessee threw for 190.6 yards per game with fifteen passing touchdowns and a passing expected points added of minus 137.5 — minus 0.22 per play, bottom of the league — while surrendering fifty-six sacks, more than three a game. Cam Ward finished his rookie year with 3,169 passing yards, fifteen touchdowns, seven interceptions, and a passing expected points added of minus 109.1, a difficult debut where too many snaps ended in a sack-fumble or a pick. The signature low came in Week 17 against the Saints — Ward got strip-sacked at his own 33, the defender scooped and walked in, a single play worth minus 8.8 expected points. Steady low ceiling all year. This unit got muffed.

Now let's dig into the rushing offense. The Titans averaged 94.1 rushing yards per game on 3.8 a carry with nine touchdowns and a rushing expected points added of minus 21.3 — even the ground game, which usually grades better than its raw numbers, lost value snap by snap. Tony Pollard carried the load with 1,082 yards on 242 carries and five touchdowns, and his two scoring runs at Cleveland — a 65-yarder in the first quarter and a 32-yard dagger in the third — were the clearest proof that when the blocking held, he could still pop one. But explosive runs were thin and red-zone touchdown rate was 20 percent, bottom of the league. Steady underperformance rather than boom-or-bust — not bad enough to blame, not good enough to save anything.

Next up, the pass defense. The secondary and pass rush combined for a passing expected points added allowed of plus 93.4 — on defense you want that number deep in the negatives — which works out to plus 0.17 per dropback given up. Tennessee surrendered 248.3 passing yards per game, thirty passing touchdowns, and forced under one takeaway a week. The pass rush did generate forty-two sacks, and Jeffery Simmons was the clear engine — his strip-sack of Bo Nix in Week 1 at Denver, recovered by Sebastian Joseph-Day, was worth minus 5.2 expected points for the Broncos and showed up on the best defensive snap of the year. But week to week this group leaked chunk plays: sixty-six explosive plays allowed, a 25 percent red-zone touchdown rate against, and 41 percent on third down. Consistent leakage, not boom-or-bust. The pass defense got muffed.

And the run defense. Tennessee gave up 116 rushing yards per game on 4.6 a carry and twenty-one rushing touchdowns, with a rushing expected points added allowed of plus 6.1 — slightly below neutral, not the disaster the pass defense was, but not a strength either. The per-carry number, plus 0.01, is essentially league average, and steady middle-of-the-pack is the story — this unit wasn't costing them games most Sundays, but it never took one over either, and plenty of short-yardage stops died on contact. In a three-and-fourteen season, average against the run is the closest thing the Titans had to a neutral result.