Tight Ends Tout Downing as Offensive Coordinator

Geoff Swaim and Anthony Firkser have spent more time with Todd Downing than anyone else among the Tennessee Titans.

The pair of tight ends had Downing as a position coach, Swaim last season and Firkser for each of the last two, and they saw his coaching style up close.

Downing has a new role now. After Arthur Smith became head coach of the Atlanta Falcons in January, coach Mike Vrabel promoted Downing to offensive coordinator.

It’s safe to say that Swaim and Firkser believe he is the right man for the job. Both players believe that for different reasons.

“It’s funny, I’ve had a lot of different styles of tight end coaches,” Swaim, who re-signed with the team this week, said. “I’ve played through college and been in the league for a little bit. The best quality of (Downing) in my mind is he’s not a stubborn dude, he wants to work with you.

“As a tight ends coach, it was great. ... We’d have discussions about technique or scheme or whatever it was, whatever in my mind I wanted to talk about he was willing to have those discussions and open to hear what I like to do and how I like to do it. I thought as a position coach that was really, really valuable for me.”

The 40-year-old Downing was the only in-house option who had previous experience as an NFL offensive coordinator. He directed the Oakland Raiders’ attack in 2017 under head coach Jack Del Rio, who was fired at the end of that season.

The Raiders finished 17th in total offense and 23rd in scoring that season. They ranked in the top half of the league in passing offense, and quarterback Derek Carr was a Pro Bowler.

Firkser said Downing’s detail-oriented approach stood out to him most over the last two seasons.

“He does a great job teaching us and coaching us, making slight improvements on all plays and throughout the game.,” Firkser said. “I know he has experience from the offensive coordinator job in his prior years. I’m just excited to see how it progresses with the Titans.”

Downing brings wide variety of experiences to his new role. He has been a quarterbacks coach for three different teams, Oakland (2015-16), Buffalo (2014) and Detroit (2011-13). He has also spent time as an offensive quality control coach and as a defensive and special teams assistant.

“I know his football mind is real sharp,” Swaim said. “I can’t speak to him as a coordinator, I haven’t been around him when he was a coordinator so I can’t speak to him on that, but I know he’s got a really good football background and I’m really excited to get to keep working with him.”