Titans Keep Winning With Ever-Changing Roster

Mike Vrabel's team is well on its way to setting the record for most players used in an NFL season, yet its win-loss record has not suffered.

NASHVILLE – When Mike Vrabel met with the Sunday Night Football crew leading up to the Week 9 game against the Rams, broadcaster Cris Collinsworth noted that the Tennessee Titans – who’d already used 77 players in their first eight games – were closing in on the NFL’s full-season record of 84.

“You might want to take the over,” Vrabel told Collinsworth. “That’s just a hunch.”

Two games since that tip, Vrabel looks prophetic as the Titans have now used 82 players – with seven games remaining in the season.

The real story isn’t just the number who have participated in at least one game for the Titans this season. It’s the fact the Titans are still winning despite the parade of new faces at the team’s facility. That’s something that couldn’t be said for the five other franchises that used at least 80 players since 1993.

Here’s how those other teams fared: San Francisco (84 players in 2020) went 6-10; Miami (84 players in 2019) went 5-11; Philadelphia (81 players in 2020) went 4-11-1; Jacksonville (81 players in 2020) went 1-15; and the New York Jets (80 players in 2020) went 2-14.

In comparison, the Titans have won six straight games, including five in a row over 2020 playoff teams. They currently sit atop the AFC at 8-2 and have a three-game lead (four, including the tiebreaker) over second-place Indianapolis in the AFC South.

Tennessee currently lists 16 players on injured reserve, including running back Derrick Henry and wide receiver Julio Jones. In addition, edge rusher Bud Dupree left Sunday’s game against New Orleans after just one play, due to an abdominal injury.

Still, Vrabel and his staff have been put the pieces together each week well enough to produce the league’s longest active win streak (no other team has won more than four straight) with victories over Jacksonville, Buffalo, Kansas City, Indianapolis, the Rams and the Saints.

“Having players have success is the reward for me,” Vrabel said. “Watching the players make plays, be excited, win football games, improve, celebrate with their teammates, that’s what is rewarding for me.

“Putting pieces together and finding out who’s available, or where you’re going to put a guy … To me, the satisfaction is telling (recent practice-squad elevation) Dylan Cole to be ready to play in the football game, and watching him go out there to make play to help us win the game. Or Marcus Johnson. Or anybody else.”

The Titans are one of only four teams this season to have used at least 70 players, a group that includes Arizona (72), the Jets (71) and Carolina (70). Prior to this year, Tennessee’s record for players used in one season was 74 in 2020. The Titans also used 70 players in 2014, when they finished 2-14, tied for the NFL’s worst record.

“If I had a concern, who would I tell?” Vrabel said. “When you don’t panic, there’s a tendency for everyone else not to panic. So we find out who we have, find 48 guys that will try to help us win on Sunday -- whether they’re on the practice squad, whether they’re on the active roster -- put a plan in, who it is, what do they know, what can they do and compete to win a football game.”

It should be noted that the NFL’s liberalizing of the practice-squad rules beginning last year likely contributes to the increased total of players used around the league. Specifically, teams can elevate two players from the practice squad to play each week, and then return them to the practice squad.

Still, many of those practice-squad players are getting the opportunity to play because of injured players above them on the depth chart.

“We’re trying to use the rules to our advantage, which we’ve had to,” Vrabel said. “We’ve had to bring guys up, had to promote guys from the practice squad. When they sign early in the week -- or they’re on the practice squad for multiple weeks -- come in every Wednesday and say, `Hey, let’s prepare like you’re going to be a starter. Prepare like you’re going to play in the football game.’ Because the guys that do that and they’re ready for their opportunity, they get more opportunities.”

Vrabel also believes it’s important to establish the right culture and work ethic in the locker room, so that new arrivals will take note of it and perform accordingly.

“That’s important when we bring guys in,” Vrabel said. “The more people we have in our locker room and around our building that have those kinds of attitudes … that when somebody does come in from somewhere else, they quickly realize how we do things, and we hope they adapt quickly.”