My Two Cents: Just For Fun, Here's My Perfect Titans Schedule For 2023

With the NFL schedule finally being released next week, we thought we'd have a little fun today and put together our favorite version of the Tennessee Titans' schedule. Three Florida trips and a hop over the London sounds like fun, especially on all the perfect weekends.

NASHVILLE — The 2023 NFL schedule is supposed to be announced next week, and it's always one of the most enjoyable days of the year because then we can start mapping out the new season that lies ahead. 

We already know the Titans' 17 opponents — and we have for a while — but next week we'll know everything. We can start thinking about some road trips, where a winning streak or two might be, all of it.

But since we've got a week to still wait, I thought I get a jump on it. Here is my purely selfish ''this really works for me'' schedule. It's totally just for fun, so take it as such. And feel free to comment on the social media threads. Let's have a conversation.

Here's what I'd like to see for this 18-week journey, with eight home games, eight road games and a trip to London in the middle. Let's have fun.

Week 1: Texans at Titans

• Date: Sunday, Sept. 10
• Last year: The Titans won 17-10 at Houston in Week 8, but lost to the Texans in Nashville 19-14 in Week 16. 
• The skinny: The Titans were doing a lot of draft-day maneuvering to get up to the No. 3 pick to take quarterback former Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud, but the Texans beat them to it and drafted Stroud at No. 2. He's going to be a pain in the Titans' side twice a year for a decade, so we might as well start the battles right off the bat. And I'm really selfish about wanting a home game in Week 1, because they'll still be undefeated and optimism will remain high. We're going to have a fun tailgate party to get things started. That's a promise.

Week 2: Titans at Steelers

• Date: Sunday, Sept. 17
• Last year: A year ago, the Titans played the AFC West and went 2-2. This year they get the AFC North, and this is the first matchup, a big trip to Pittsburgh. If you have to go north, I'd prefer to go early in the season when the weather is better.
• The skinny: Pittsburgh is one of the most iconic franchises in the NFL and used to be division rivals with the Titans/Oilers for years before 2002. The Steelers won the last meeting 19-13 in December of 2021. We'll get at early look at new quarterback Kenny Pickett. This is a great place to watch a game, too.

Week 3: Seahawks at Titans

• Date: Sunday, Sept. 24
• Last year: Last year's NFC bonus game was with the Green Bay Packers, and the Titans won 27-17 on Nov. 17. It would be the last game they'd win all year, losing seven straight afterward.
• The skinny: This is the bonus NFC game on the Titans' new-ish 17-game schedule, and it comes early in a rare showdown with Seattle. They only played once every four years before the new schedule. The last meeting was in 2021, with the Titans winning 33-30 in overtime.

Week 4: Colts at Titans 

• Date: Monday, Oct. 2
• Last year: The two teams played twice in a three-week period in October, with the Titans wining both games.
• The skinny: Everyone gets at least one prime-time game game every year, and this will be it for the Titans, a home Monday night game. It's also back-to-back home games and first look at Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson, who's likely to be thrown into the fire from Day 1 in Indianapolis, unlike Titans' second-round pick Will Levis, who will more than likely get time to grow into being an NFL quarterback.

Week 5: Titans at Saints

• Date: Sunday, Oct. 8
• Last year: A year ago, the Titans played the NFC East and went 1-3, and this year they get the NFL South. Here's the first matchup, with the New Orleans Saints.
• The skinny: Short week after a Monday night game, but it's an easy trip at least. I'm guessing we'll get plenty of Tennessee folks making the trip to get a little Bourbon Street action in.. 

Week 6: Panthers at Titans

• Date: Sunday, Oct. 15
• Last year: Back-to-back NFC South games.
• The skinny: Carolina had the first pick in the draft this year and took former Alabama quarterback Bryce Young. This is our first look at him.

Week 7: Bengals vs. Titans (London)

• Date: Sunday, Oct. 22
• Last European trip: The Titans last played in London in 2018.
• The skinny: This is a great high-profile matchup for the national TV audience with a team like the Bengals, who are a Super Bowl contender. The 2018 game was at Wembley Stadium, but this one will be at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, a beautiful place that was opened in 2019. I've never been to London, so I'm really looking forward to this trip.

Week 8: Bye 

• Date: Sunday, Oct. 29
• Last year: The Titans has their bye week early a year ago, in Week 6.
• The skinny: Typically teams gets a bye week after a European game and that's a good thing. It's a nice time for a break. 

Week 9: Titans at Browns

• Date: Thursday, Nov. 2
• Last year: That win over the Packers was on a Thursday night.
• The skinny: I really dislike the NFL's new practice of playing two games in five days with the Sunday-Thursday scheduling, so I really think they should use these mid-week games between two teams that had a bye the week earlier. That's an 11-day break following by a 10-day break, which allows more time for the bodies to heal and better game preparation. It's likely the first visit with former AFC South rival Deshaun Watson.

Week 10: Titans at Jaguars

• Date: Sunday, Nov. 12
• Last year: Jacksonville won both meetings, including the final week of the season to claim their second-ever AFC South title.
• The skinny: We have to wait 10 weeks for this AFC South matchup, which has a bit of a twist now, with the Jaguars now the best team in the division behind quarterback Trevor Lawrence. It's going to be interesting to see what the Jags do the first eight or nine games of the season. Do they take the next step?

Week 11: Ravens at Titans

• Date: Sunday, Nov. 19
• Last year:  The two teams haven't met since the 2020 playoffs, when the Ravens won. 
• The skinny: Lamar Jackson is back in the fold now with the Ravens after signing a huge five-year contract extension. He'll draw a big crowd in Nashville, with a lot of Louisville people coming down

Week 12: Titans at Buccaneers

• Date: Sunday, Nov. 26
• Last meeting in Tampa: The Titans won 42-14 on Sept. 13, 2015, and it was a fun matchup of rookie quarterbacks Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston, the top two picks in the draft. Mariota, the No. 2 pick, won the showdown.
• The skinny: The Titans are 8-1 vs. the Bucs in their last nine meetings, and here's another selfish choice for me. Tampa Bay has been home for 27 years, and it's where I worked for years. That's still home for family, and it's my birthday weekend, too. A fun holiday weekend in Tampa. 

Week 13: Chargers at Titans

• Date: Sunday, Dec. 3
• Last year: The Titans' bonus AFC game last year was with Buffalo, and they whipped the Bills 42-16 in October.
• The skinny: Another promising AFC quarterback rides into Nashville in Justin Herbert. Kicking off December in style. 

Week 14: Titans at Texans

• Date: Sunday, Dec. 10
• Last year: The back end of the two-game meeting.
• The skinny: A trip to Houston for the second of two games with the Texans. The first was the opener, and a lot will have gone on in 13 weeks.

Week 15: Titans at Colts

• Date: Sunday, Dec. 17
• Last year: Titans won both.
• The skinny: OK, so here's a week with a bit of personal selfishness. I've been covering Indiana and the Big Ten the past four years before coming to Nashville to cover the Titans. I still own our HoosiersNow.com site for Sports Illustrated/FanNation, and the Hoosiers play Kansas in Bloomington on Saturday, Dec. 16. It would be great to do both games, so let's get a Titans-Colts game in Indianapolis this weekend. 

Week 16: Titans at Dolphins

• Date: Sunday, Dec. 24
• Last meeting: Jan. 2, 2022 was the last get-together with the Titans winning 34-3.
• The skinny: The benefit of having three Florida games on the schedule is wishing  for all of them to be later in the season so the weather is nice. Christmas Eve sounds like a nice time to be in South Florida. I spent four years working in Fort Lauderdale too, and have lots of friends there. It's a good place to be for the holidays.

Week 17: Falcons at Titans

• Date: Sunday, Dec. 31
• The skinny: The Titans finish the season with two home games, the first against the Atlanta Falcons. We'll be sure to see some Falcons fans flooding across the border for this one. 

Week 18: Jaguars at Titans

• Date: Saturday, Jan. 6
• Last year: Jacksonville won twice.
• The skinny: There's not going to be a lot of desire for the Titans to be in national TV slots, but let's hope for the best here and hope the AFC South title is still on the line in the final week of the regular season just like last year. This time the game is at home, and maybe the result will be different.