I’m curious.. I must have missed the press conference when Vrabel blamed the players.
So if the Titans defense is much better this season you will admit you are wrong about Vrabel and Bowen. That it was the players?
I've said before, and I will say it again, the scheme sucked last year. Corners played too far off, the Titans rushed 3/4 men far too often (and those rushers at times were assigned with mostly containing the QB), and clearly there were massive communication issues as there were way too many busted coverages. In addition, players like Landry and Clowney were playing way too many of the defensive snaps. The coaching staff isn't 100% responsible for the defense, but they put together the gameplans and they are ultimately responsible for the players properly implementing their gameplans.
Beyond the first game of the season, the Titans as a defense were mostly worked by opposing offenses on a fairly consistent basis. After the Steelers game, opposing offenses settled in to consistently throwing underneath and allowing their receivers to rack up yards after the catch as the corners were playing about 10-12 yards off the LOS far too often. The Titans coaching staff never really made an adjustment to opposing offenses dinking and dunking them to death and opposing offenses exploited it. Although Pees ran a similar defense, he was saavy and found ways to create pressure without a dominant defensive line. Injuries racked up and the defense only got worse, not that it was even mediocre to begin with. However, to give Bowen/Vrabel some credit, starting with the Packers game the defensive scheme did adjust a bit and the Titans started sending 5 man rushes more often..
The organization clearly thinks it was primarily a players problem, they are attempting to upgrade seemingly every position group on the defense while at the same time, the defensive coaching staff remained relatively intact. Will the defense be better? I would certainly hope so as it is hard to be as bad as they were over the course of last season and I expect it to be better. A year of experience calling plays certainly can't be a negative for Bowen and he no longer has to pull double duty as a LB coach. Vrabel should also be able to shift away the added focus on the defense he probably gave it and that will be a benefit. I'm happy that Robinson and the organization have made it a priority to upgrade the pass rush. The Dupree move doesn't give me the excitement that it does for other posters, but I am a big fan of the Autry signing as Simmons needs help. A better pass rush would certainly benefit any defensive scheme. But if they are going to continue to play corners 10-12 yards off the LOS, teams will still dink and dunk them to death. Even a great pass rush can't get to a QB in less than 2.5 second. The back end of the defense has to hold up as well and playing corners that far off prevents that from happening. Sucks that they had to cut both Butler and Jackson (particularly Butler as he fits in well with the man coverage they want to play), but the salary cap dropped and it is what it is.
Without the Titans offense being as exceptional as it was, the Titans could have been a 7/8 win team. After the 5-0 start (where 3/5 games came down to last minute field goals against teams that all finished under .500), the Titans finished the season 6-6 (that includes the playoff loss) and looked far from being a superbowl contender. No amount of homerism covers that up.
Overall I think the Titans are doing pretty well this offseason. They're focusing on the defense, even it means having to sacrifice some of the offense. The question will be can the near identical defensive coaching staff do much better with what they feel are better players? I hope so, but I have my doubts as making substantive scheme changes has not been a hallmark of any defense under Vrabel.