In a move that surprised many, the 1-6 Tennessee Titans have relieved Ken Whisenhunt of his coaching duties.
After such a promising season opener the Titans lost six consecutive games and rank dead last in what is widely considered as the worst division in football. This was enough for the back-room staff in Nashville to grow tired of the Whisenhunt era.
The #Titans announce that coach Ken Whisenhunt has been fired. Wow.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 3, 2015
Tennessee fire Head Coach Ken Whisenhunt
After only 23 games at the helm of this Titans team, Whisenhunt posted a 3-20 record, which is enough for any coach to lose his job. Nevertheless the move seems harsh when considering that Whisenhunt was building a young offense around a rookie quarterback in Marcus Mariota. It seemed only fair that Whisenhunt was given a season to see how far his team could progress but despite a promising start from the rookie -including a perfect passer rating in his opening NFL game- the Titans staff “expected more progress on the field”, which explains the unexpected change in direction.
The Titans have a young team which are more than capable of being moulded into something successful, however the powers that be in Tennessee have decided that a change in direction is the best way to achieve success. In order to capitalize on the shortcomings of Indianapolis this season the Titans are very much in a ‘win now’ mindset, in hope that their young starts don’t become too used to the season ending before January.
Tight End coach and former head coach of the Buffalo Bills, Mike Mularkey will become the interim Head-Coach of the Titans, hoping to guide the team to better fortunes for the rest of the season. Hopefully he can have the same sort of impact that Dan Campbell had on a Dolphins team which crumbled under former head coach Joe Philbin.
Make no mistake this is a disaster for quarterback Marcus Mariota, having spent all off-season learning Whisenhunt’s offense, and even generated some ‘offensive rookie of the year buzz’ as a result of a string of good performances. Hopefully he doesn’t become a player who is subject to so many different schemes that it stunts his development.
Nobody wants to see a repeat of the current Colin Kaepernick fiasco in San Francisco.
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