Countdown to Kickoff: 61 Days

Kevin Mawae was the Titans' starting center for 61 games, and the offense kept running the entire time.

The countdown to kickoff continues.

The Tennessee Titans will open the 2020 regular season Sept. 14 at Denver. That is 61 days away. So, today we look at one way the number 61 figures into the team’s recent history.

Kevin Mawae was at the end of his career. Things rarely have been better for the Tennessee Titans, though, than when he was in the middle of their offensive line.

Over the course of his four seasons with the franchise (2006-09), Mawae started 61 games. The Titans won 37 of them (60.7 percent) and consistently had one of the NFL’s best rushing attacks.

Tennessee finished in the top 10 in rushing offense every season (the top five three times), capped by a second-place ranking in 2009, running back Chris Johnson’s record-setting campaign.

The team finished 8-8 or better each of those years, including an NFL-best 13-3 in 2008. It was the only time in the Titans era (1999-present) before the current run of 9-7 records that the Titans went four straight years without a losing record.

Only two players, linebacker Keith Bulluck and tackle Michael Roos, started more games for the Titans during those four seasons. It was an inconsistent period for the offense, which included Vince Young and Kerry Collins trading off at quarterback, three different leading receivers (Drew Bennett, Justin Gage and Kenny Britt) and three different leading rushers (Travis Henry, LenDale White and Johnson).

With the Titans, Mawae made the last two of his eight Pro Bowl appearances (2008-09) and earned his third All-Pro honor (2008). It was a period that helped cement his place on the NFL’s all-decade team for the 2000s and – eventually – as a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2019.