Chris Johnson ended 2009 on an 11-week, 100+ yards rushing streak.
The Tennessee Titans went 13-3 in 2008, finished ahead of Indianapolis and won AFC South title. With expectations for 2009 once again high, they started the season with a close 13-10 loss to Pittsburgh and never seemed to get it out of their minds as they ended up losing their first six games.
While head coach Jeff Fisher was able to right the ship over the next 10 games, it is hard to know what version of this team is going to show up in 2010.
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After spending a tumultuous second half of 2008 and the first half of 2009 on the bench, QB Vince Young was able to win back his starting spot for this NFL football betting season after coming in last year in relief of Kerry Collins. Young led the team back to respectability by helping them win eight of their final 10 games to finish at .500 for the year. In his 10 starts, Young threw for 1,879 yards and completed close to 60 percent of his passes. He also added another 281 yards on the ground, displaying the athleticism he had become famous for earlier in his career.
A big part of the Titans’ success down the stretch was the emergence of RB Chris Johnson as the premier running back in the league. In only his second season, Johnson gained 2,006 yards on the ground and added another 503 receiving yards to lead the league in both rushing and total yards from scrimmage.
Tennessee’s success in 2010 will rely heavily on Johnson’s ability to duplicate this kind of production. To avoid a potential holdout over a contract extension, the Titans decided to rework the final two years of his contract, keeping their star back happy and focused on another big year in 2010.
If the Titans are going to have any chance of competing with the Colts and Texans in the division, they are going to have to do a much better job with their passing game. WR Nate Washington was their top receiver with 47 receptions for a total of 569 yards. WR Kenny Britt needs to play a bigger part in this offense given the fact that he only had 42 receptions last season but led the team with an average of 16.7 yards per catch. Another player that could make an immediate impact is rookie Damian Williams from USC, whom they selected with their first third round pick.
Defensively, the Titans need to improve in just about every phase of the game. Last season they were ranked 28th overall and 31st against the pass. They gave up an average of 25.1 points and 365.6 yards per game ranking them near the bottom of the league in both of those categories. In order to address some of these concerns, Tennessee used the 16th overall pick in the draft to select Georgia Tech DE Derrick Morgan.
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Morgan has excellent speed and can rush the passer from the outside as well as play the run extremely well. Another rookie that could have an immediate impact is its other third round pick, LB Rennie Curren, who also was known as an excellent run stopper in his college career at Georgia.
The Titans are currently listed at 7/2 NFL betting odds to win the AFC South, 15/1 to win the AFC, and 28/1 to win the Super Bowl. With Indianapolis still loaded for bear and Houston continuing to improve, I do not see any real value in these bets.
The 'over/under' on a projected win total is 8.5. This too will be a stretch as they will be hard pressed to have a winning record in their division and have to face the NFC East which could easily add three or four more losses to their total. Given their overall situation, a realistic record for this team would be 7-9.
Of immediate concern is the first five weeks of the regular season. After opening the schedule at home against Oakland, Tennessee faces Pittsburgh, New York (Giants), Denver and Dallas in the next four weeks and could very easily be in for another slow start in 2010. The Giants and Broncos games are on the road.
The real key to the Titans’ success will be how well will Vince Young hold up to the pressure if his team gets tagged with a couple of early season defeats?