The Tennessee Titans underwent some significant changes this offseason. They parted ways with multiple longtime roster stalwarts, such as Derrick Henry, and they also replaced Mike Vrabel as their head coach with former Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan.
Callahan brought in his father, legendary offensive line coach Bill Callahan, to be the team's line coach. He also hired former Jacksonville Jaguars passing-game coordinator Nick Holz to serve as Tennessee's new offensive coordinator.
The Titans then splashed the pot in free agency, particularly on offense. They signed Lloyd Cushenberry to to a four-year, $50 million contract to be their center. They swooped in and stole Calvin Ridley from the Jaguars on a four-year, $92 million deal. And they signed Tony Pollard away from the Cowboys on a three-year, $21.75 million deal to work alongside second-year back Tyjae Spears in a running back tandem.
At first, the Pollard signing raised some eyebrows because of the similarities between his and Spears' style of play. Wouldn't the more prudent move, the feeling went, be to sign a bigger, more bruising back to pair with the dynamic, space back in Spears? But to hear Holz tell it, the similarity between the two players is why they wanted to pair Pollard and Spears together.
"Everyone keeps saying interchangeable, and we see it that way," Holz said during a media availability Wednesday. "We don't want any tendencies when those guys are in there. We think they both can have a skill set as pass catchers, skill set running the gap schemes and all the different zone schemes we are going to have. That's where it is really most exciting as we go; you are not going to say 'When this back is in these are the plays, and when this back is in those are the plays.' They can really function on all three downs, and really, they have no scheme limitations. ... We see it 1A, 1B, and they're both just gonna play a ton, get a lot of carries and let 'em roll."
That's a pretty big change from how the Titans operated last season, when Henry and Spears shared the backfield and defenses could key in on the run whenever Henry was out there because Spears was more of the pure "passing down" type of back. More unpredictability -- at least in terms of play-calling being tipped by the personnel on field -- is typically good for an offense, and the Titans feel like they have it with their new backfield duo.
