What to Expect From Second Half of Titans' Season

Few expected the Tennessee Titans' follow-up season to their miserable 3-14 effort in former head coach Brian Callahan's first year to go as poorly as it has gone, at least at this midseason juncture of the campaign.

A Laundry List of Reasons

Throughout the offseason, last year's letdown was consistently excused by inaugural coaching season woes, a question mark under center, nagging injuries and, primarly, the franchise's overarching state after moving on from longtime lead-man Mike Vrabel. While much of it may have been little more than hope in retrospect, it seemed like the Titans fanbase had plenty of reasons to think that this season would be different.

At 1-7 (0-3 in the AFC South), not only has Tennessee let those hopes down, but they've outright suffocated them with a plethora of new problems in the place of those older aforementioned ones.

Now the team's quarterback tiff, while different, feels eerily similar. Cam Ward's occasionally promising rookie season - after being selected first overall in the 2025 NFL Draft, no less - has, so far, been stymied by poor protection from his offensive line, a thousand-and-one issues with the team's receiving room, and his own inability to take care of the ball.

What results is a struggling team build preemptively around their struggling first-year signal caller. Given the season is just now reaching the halfway point, where is it that the Titans can go from here?

Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward fumbles | Denny Simmons / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Improve, Even if Slightly So

The biggest metric for "success" in Tennessee's second half of their 2025 run is, unlike just about every other team, not necessarily to win games. At this point, the Titans would essentially have to win out for a solid shot at a playoff spot, and even then it isn't guaranteed, given the 7-1 Indianapolis Colts reign at the top of their division.

No, Tennessee shouldn't spin wheels in trying to crawl their way to an extremely unlikely, and arguably unhelpful, postseason. Rather, the rest of the year should be about figuring out who's going to stick around when a new head coach is eventually hired.

If everything goes as well as it can, Ward will continue to develop on offense with rookie wideouts Chimere Dike and Elic Ayomanor; the defense, on the other hand, may be trending towards a reset as the trade deadline approaches and names start to expire.

It's a "fold now and pick up the next hand" sort of situation for the Titans franchise, and for the time being, they can at least be thankful for any semblance of potential on the offensive side of the ball. Take what you can get.

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