Coaching and player changes coming for secondary
Mike Munchak's second season as the Titans' head coach has to be easier than his first year, when he inherited the job, then hired assistant coaches, many of whom had yet to even meet the players they would be coaching.
With a full season under his belt and the organization clearly with his stamp on it after a 9-7 finish, Munchak can now spend the offseason adding to that foundation and improving the areas that desperately need it. He made one move in that regard, firing defensive backs coach Marcus Robertson and Robertson's assistant, Curtis Fuller.
"Letting Marcus go was not an easy thing. He spent so many great years with this organization as a player, front office employee and a coach," Munchak said. "I respect both men, but I wanted to move in a different direction for both of these spots. The interview process might take some time, but we will find the right fits for the secondary room moving forward."
The belief was that Robertson had been targeted as one of the coaches to be let go when Munchak cleaned house upon taking over for Jeff Fisher. However, when Jerry Gray was hired as defensive coordinator, it amounted to a one-year reprieve for Robertson, who had played for Gray back when Gray was the team's secondary coach more than a decade ago.
The firing of Robertson is probably not coincidental given the fact that the Titans have so many free agents in the defensive backfield this offseason. That group includes three of the four starters, plus a couple of other key veterans who contributed. The two key players are former All-Pro cornerback Cortland Finnegan, who has expressed a desire to stay in Tennessee but is not sure he fits into the Titans' future anymore, and free safety Michael Griffin, another former Pro Bowl player. Griffin at times flashed top-tier talent in the five years he spent with the Titans, but he simply was not a consistent enough performer to rank among the upper echelon players at his position.
Griffin was general manager Mike Reinfeldt's first-ever draft choice in 2007, and at times he looked like a building block of the franchise, but with his ups and downs, he now appears resigned to the fact that he likely will be playing somewhere else in 2012.
Strong safety Chris Hope, who lost his starting job after breaking his forearm early in the season, is also likely to move on.
As strange as it may seem, the most likely free agent player to be re-signed in the secondary may be newcomer Jordan Babineaux, who came over from Seattle on a one-year deal. Babineaux was signed to provide depth and because he knew Gray's system from Seattle (Reinfeldt was familiar with him from there, too). But once Hope was injured, Babineaux took over as the starting strong safety and wound up being one of the Titans' leading tacklers on the season.
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