Robert Saleh's Tennessee Titans start looks awfully similar to Titans of old
· Yahoo Sports
It was a little bit of 2022, when the offense couldn't complete a pass even if the receivers were wielding nets.
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It was a little bit of 2023, when a talented run defense inexplicably fell apart.
It was a little bit of 2024, where special teams miscues were the Titans' love language.
And it was a little bit of 2025, when the Titans' best hope of sustaining a drive was waiting until they were already down a couple of scores and the opposing defense had let up.
It's 2026, and the Tennessee Titans of today looked an awful lot like the Tennessee Titans of yesteryear in their 23-10 season-opening loss against the New York Jets at Nissan Stadium.
"The result feels a lot like what we felt the past couple years," guard Peter Skoronski said. " . . . It feels like a lot of the same old (expletive) a little bit. But it's Week 1."
No team has ever won a Super Bowl in Week 1, just as no team has ever been eliminated from contention in Week 1. It's almost impossible to avoid overreacting to September results. But the point remains that coach Robert Saleh's first game at the helm of the Titans went about as well as the average game from Brian Callahan's reign or from the last two years of Mike Vrabel's run.
The Titans were outgained by 172 yards. They were beaten so decisively in the physicality department that the Jets controlled the ball for 38:46 of game clock, their third-best regulation performance in a decade. The offense didn't register any explosive plays and had as many three-and-outs as third-down conversions. Heck, even the punting after the three-and-outs was awful; Tommy Townsend's 33.86 net yards per punt would've been the NFL's worst mark for a full season in every year since 2021.
Some of the Titans' leaders fought back against the idea that this outcome felt like a rerun. Quarterback Cam Ward says 2026 doesn't feel like 2025 because the players have more input and more agency in what's going on. Defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons is adamant that the "newness" that defined this team's offseason is real. Skoronski says the team's "ingredients" are good.
Be that as it may, the Titans just lost decisively to an opponent that's projected to be just as much of a basement-dweller in the AFC standings. Fans knew the context. The boos started midway through the third quarter and never really stopped. Saleh drew criticism from the bleachers for conservative fourth-down decision-making. Ward drew criticism from the bleachers for missing easy throws. The defense drew criticism from the bleachers for missing tackles.
"When you lose," Saleh put it pithily, "you're a loser."
The Titans are 15-48 (23.8%) since the point in the middle of the 2022 season when Malik Willis made his first start, effectively signaling the beginning of the end of the peak Vrabel years. They're 6-29 (17.1%) since Derrick Henry left in free agency. They're 3-15 (16.7%) since drafting Ward with the No. 1 pick in 2025. That's an absurd amount of losing.
Now the Titans are 0-1 under Saleh, the latest in the long line of new faces brought in to reverse whatever has been ailing them since 2022.
The early returns aren't good, but someone has to keep the faith.
"This is not the end of our season, so I hope all fans can stick with us," Simmons said. "We're going to go through them growing pains. At the end of the day, we've just got to come back, take the corrections and get ready for Week 2."
Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at [email protected]. Follow Nick on X @nicksuss. Subscribe to the Talkin’ Titans newsletter for updates sent directly to your inbox.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Robert Saleh's Tennessee Titans start looks awfully similar to Titans of old