After enjoying two years of very good production from their passing game, the Tennessee Titans struggled to move the ball through the air last season.
Not only did quarterback Ryan Tannehill struggle with turnovers and overall ineffectiveness, the Titans’ group of receivers was riddled with injuries and didn’t do him any favors.
A.J. Brown missed four games and exited multiple others early, and Julio Jones was limited to just 10 games as he battled hamstring issues all year.
With those two in and out of the lineup and multiple other wideouts injured, the Titans had to piece together their receiving corps. with lackluster options, while also not getting much out of their disappointing group of tight ends.
So it comes as no surprise that separation was an issue for Tennessee pass-catchers in 2021. Quick Shot data analyst intern Ajay Patell crunched the numbers and the Titans ranked dead-last in the metric.
a look at the best teams by separation in 2021
-fair to say the chiefs are definitely gonna miss tyreek
-oh giants#nflverse pic.twitter.com/dxma8khFCZ— ajay (@ajaypatell8) July 15, 2022
Looking ahead to 2022, the Titans no longer have Brown, who was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles during the 2022 NFL draft, or Jones, who was released earlier this offseason.
Tennessee hopes to replace both with veteran Robert Woods and 2022 first-round pick Treylon Burks, both of whom come with question marks. Burks has had issues staying on the field at practice, and Woods is coming off a serious knee injury and may not be himself the first year back.
The Titans did make some upgrades at tight end with the additions of free-agent acquisition Austin Hooper and 2022 fourth-round pick Chigoziem Okonkwo, so hopefully those two can help improve this ranking.
Whatever the case may be, the Titans need more out of their pass-catchers — especially availability — and quarterback in 2022 if they want to secure another division title and make a deep playoff run.
