The Titans offense has plenty of room for improvement.
But they’ve already delivered in terms of potential fantasy football team names for the coming season.
Via Jim Wyatt of the team’s official website, Mularkey described the offense he hopes to put on the field around quarterback Marcus Mariota, saying when he was in Pittsburgh it was referred to as “exotic smashmouth.”
The gist of it is to simplify the offense to allow players to play faster.
“(Opponents) are going to know we are going to be very hard to defend, and it is going to be a physical football game,’’ he said. “When it is all said and done they are going to know they have been in a fight.”
The Titans certainly have some parts, after investing first round picks in Mariota and tackle Taylor Lewan and guard Chance Warmack the last three years. Coupled with a Pro Bowl tight end in Delanie Walker and an emerging wideout like Dorial Green-Beckham, and it’s easy to see the potential.
Of course, the Titans are still short in the running game, lacking anything resembling a bell cow back. They can’t take one with the top pick, but the top of the second round could still get them the kind of between-the-tackles runner they need if they want to be exotic or smashmouth.
The theme of hard-nosed football is red meat for the masses in Tennessee, who watched a fairly vanilla 3-13 team when they watched them at all.
“I hired guys who like to win, and they like to win by beating the hell out of people,” Mularkey said of his coaching staff. “That’s why I hired them.”
You’ll now pardon us while we pause to consider whether Dick LeBeau is exotic, or smashmouth.