Titans OC Brian Daboll Spoke on Thursday: What Stood Out

Titans offensive coordinator Brian Daboll touched on a lot of interesting topics during his Thursday press conference.

It was the media’s first opportunity to question the offensive signal caller since the team’s disastrous outing against the Texans last Sunday.

It’s clear that he isn’t the type of coach who’s going to elaborate on a lot of things publicly, but he still touched on a handful of interesting topics and gave us some insight into what he’s seeing out of his unit going into Week 6.

The Importance of the Run Game

Daboll was asked what he thinks the key is to getting the run game going and how much he thinks that could help this offense going forward.

“I’d say early down production is important (to getting this offense going). Whether it’s the run game or the pass game.… Executing on early downs, keeping third downs to manageable situations, or skipping some of those third downs (entirely), but being able to effectively do everything is what we’re striving for.” 

The former Giants head coach also touched on the polarizing topic of running the ball out of shotgun and whether he has concerns about how much that can limit the run game.

“I think you can call any run you need to out of shotgun. Now, there are certain elements that go with the shotgun run game, whether that’s an RPO or you’re just blocking force... But I think there’s a balance. Under center usage is good if you’re effective with it, and the same thing with shotgun.”

QB Cam Ward

ESPN’s Turron Davenport followed up with a question about QB Cam Ward’s usage under center, or lack thereof, noting that approximately 85 percent of his snaps have come from shotgun. Daboll addressed why that’s the case and if he’d like to balance that out a little more.

“If you look at the first three quarters (of last week’s game), on early downs it was pretty balanced relative to that (85 percent mark). But if we think that’s the best thing to do for him, we’ll certainly do that.”

Davenport later asked the Titans offensive play caller how confident he was that Ward’s confidence won’t be shattered by the bad results piling up early in his career.

“I have a lot of confidence in the young man. It has not been easy, you know, the start of his career… I have a lot of belief in him, in the things that he can do, and how he approaches it every week. We got to keep our head down. We got to keep grinding. But we need to do better in a number of areas to give ourselves a chance on game day. We go out here, we practice well, but situational football is big for us to improve on third down and red zone… but he’s a strong mind with a good family, and that’s what you’re looking for with these young guys.”

WR Carnell Tate 

Daboll then discussed what he tells a rookie receiver like Carnell Tate about adapting to the ebbs and flows of an NFL season after he followed up his 145-yard performance in Baltimore with just one catch in Week 5.

“We talk a lot, and I’ve coached receivers for a long time in the league. And I’d say the receiver position is one where you have to have really good mental toughness. Because you can control getting open, but you can’t control getting the ball. Maybe the read takes you (the QB) to a different spot. So, staying locked in whether it’s 10 (targets), whether it’s five, whether it’s two — you make the plays when they come your way.”

Daboll then addressed how Tate is handling that adjustment to the pro game.

“Great. He’s such a mature young man. Outside of football, all the stuff that the young man has been through in his life, he’s got a great perspective on life and the game for such a young player. He’s done a nice job for us.

LT Dan Moore Jr’s Viral Moment

Lastly, Daboll provided a non-answer when asked about the infamous clip of LT Dan Moore Jr. blocking nobody while Ward gets blitzed by a free rusher, and whether Moore did the right thing on that play.

“Look, we need to do a better job all the way around. But in terms of the execution of that particular corner blitz, I’m not going to get into the scheme of all of those guys, but we can do a better job of that.”

Final thoughts

Daboll’s return to the OC chair, along with his pairing with Ward, had a lot of fans excited about the possibility of their quarterback having a similar breakout as the one Bills QB Josh Allen had while working with Daboll early in his career.

To say that hasn’t been the case would be an understatement. The Titans are currently 0-5, their offense ranks 31st in passing offense (164.8 YPG), and 27th in rushing offense (82.6 YPG), all while having scored just 58 points through five games.

One of the major concerns many Titans fans routinely talked about when the team hired Daboll was their fear of this being another short-term hire due to head coaching interest elsewhere.

Unfortunately, that may have been wishful thinking, because with results like that, he may be out at the end of the year anyway, but not the way everyone initially feared.