The Tennessee Titans' season is officially over after losing 41-7 to the newest AFC South Champions, the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Titans finish the season with only three wins and fourteen losses. This is the second straight season the Titans have finished last in the AFC South, and some fans are wondering when this will ever turn around. The feeling some Titans fans have is similar to that of another AFC team in a different division.
The New England Patriots finished the 2024 season 4-13, which was good for last place in the AFC East. And some saw a long road back for them after that season. Well, if you look at the 2025 season, the Patriots are sitting right there as the number two seed in the AFC South and are some people’s pick to win the Super Bowl. While these types of turnarounds are not usual, the Titans are in a similar position to make one happen.
Like the Patriots, the Titans are looking for a new head coach after a rough season. The Patriots’ decision wasn’t the most popular one with some in firing Jerod Mayo, but in the end, it turned out to be the best they could have made because they hired former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel. The former Patriot came in and established a culture immediately with the Patriots as they began their surge in the AFC. The Titans have not hired a coach yet, and no one knows who the top candidates are right now. If they hire the right coach, they could start their rebuild sooner than expected.
Whoever that new coach is will have a second-year quarterback in Cam Ward to work with. The talented signal caller finished the season with 3,169 yards passing, 15 touchdowns, and seven interceptions. Ward showed growth over the season and demonstrated that he is a determined, hard-working player who can lead and has a hunger for success. The new coach for the Titans will inherit a talented quarterback in Ward, as Vrabel did with the third overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, Drake Maye. In his rookie season, Maye threw for 2, 276 yards, 15 touchdown passes and ten interceptions in 13 starts. He then leaped in his second year, throwing for over 4,300 yards and 30 touchdowns with only eight interceptions. Not to say Cam Ward is Drake Maye, but with the proper support, he can catapult his numbers as well next season, potentially.
Some of the weapons for Maye are currently with the Titans team. There are young pieces, like wide receivers Chimere Dike and Elic Ayomanor, who became the third rookie wide receiver duo with 40 receptions, 400 receiving yards and four receiving touchdowns each in a season in NFL history. But they do need to add more talent on the offensive side and throughout the entire team and thankfully for the Titans, they have the budget to do so. The Titans have over $100 million in cap space this offseason to upgrade their team at positions like cornerback, edge rusher, or whatever position they want to spend money on. That will allow them to potentially make a leap as well if the money is spent on the right fits for their team. The Patriots, with over $100 million in salary cap space last season, added guys like Harold Landry III to help their pass rush and veteran wide receiver Stefon Diggs to help support Maye and their young wide receivers, Kayshon Boutte and DeMario “Pop” Douglas. These moves proved to be great additions that supported their younger pieces and helped bring the Patriots back to prominence in the AFC.
There is a lot of work to do with the Tennessee Titans roster and coaching staff this offseason. And although things seem to be far, far away. And the New England and Tennessee franchises are different. But their turnaround shows that it is very possible to turn things around quickly, and the Titans have similar circumstances to the Patriots going into the offseason. It will be interesting to see what the Titans do with their set of circumstances.