Titans Fans Remain Cautiously Optimistic

There aren't many, if any fanbases out there that currently have it worse than the Tennessee Titans. Most people project them to follow suit after a three-win 2024 season. Some projections have them much better than that, but the general consensus is in.

The Athletic released their "NFL Hope-O-Meter" for the 2025 season. With the Eagles and Cowboys kicking things off on Thursday night, the Titans are one of many teams left waiting for Sunday, September 7.

Not often does a team go from 12 wins to three wins in the span of three seasons. Mike Vrabel is long gone as HC Brian Callahan has his work cut out for him. No. 1 overall pick QB Cam Ward is certainly a step in the right direction, but fans know it's going to take a lot more than a rookie quarterback to succeed.

"Hard to be more pessimistic after last year. They’ll still suck, but I hope Cam Ward might have the “it” factor. Hard to tell in preseason, but he doesn’t look like a bust," one fan wrote.

The whole point of the "NFL Hope-O-Meter" is for The Athletic and its readers to gauge interest on each team's opinion of themselves. Tennessee ranked No. 25 with only 52.6% optimism. At the end of the day, that's still more than half.

While optimistic responses were reported, pessimistic ones were as well. One read, "Fully anticipating the ruination of another young QB," while the other said, "A team still trying to recover from trading away AJ Brown, but also seemingly hell-bent on mediocrity, at best."

Offense was addressed in the offseason. Tennessee drafted a duo of rookie wide receivers who were competing to earn a starting spot. Ultimately, that role went to Elic Ayomanor. Chimere Dike doesn't sit far behind as there's plenty of room for him to overtake his 22-year-old counterpart.

"There’s just a sense of optimism that Cam Ward provides. His ability, work ethic — not feeling like we’re making the playoffs this year, but do feel like we can make some big strides and show some major growth after last year’s dismal performance," said the other optimistic fan.

Six of the seven teams ranked below them all had optimism less than 50%. Only the Steelers (51.1%) fit into a similar situation as the Titans. Elsewhere, five of those six teams were under 20%.

With the reigning Super Bowl Champions sitting pretty at 98.3%, the only team that ranked higher than them was the Titans Week 1 opponent. Tennessee heads to Denver to open their 2025 season against a team that ranked No. 1 with 98.7% optimism.

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