QB

Vince Young

(+) Can make plays with his feet – 12 rushing TDs in 45 games
(+) Kenny Britt looks real good, and the addition of Jared Cook helps the overall corps.  However, these kids need to season a bit
(–) The Titans ranked 28th in the league in pass attempts last year while playing a conservative run-first offense
(–) Vince struggles in reading coverages and is not an accurate passer
(–) Tennessee is one of two teams to throw for under 200 yards per game since Vince Young was drafted

RB

Chris Johnson

(+) Despite the recent restructuring of his contract for this year, he still wants a whole new one drawn up after this year
(+) His speed as a running back is unprecedented
(+) The Titans, especially with the limited passing skills of Vince Young, are fully committed to the run
(+) Without LenDale White or a proven backup RB behind him to steal carries/red-zone action, Johnson will be in the top-5 in carries this season
(–) The best a running back ever did in the year after his 2,000-yard season was Barry Sanders, Barry fell off 35.1 yards/game (562 total yards) and 7 TDs (11 down to 4)
(–) The average fall for a 2,000-yard rusher from one year to the next was 3.6 games missed due to injury, 8.8 rushing TDs, and 1,033.6 yards a season
(–) Go to Chris Johnson’s Player Profile on pyromaniac.com (http://www.pyromaniac.com/players/chris-johnson) and check out The Curse of 350+ Carries.  ‘Nuff said

Javon Ringer

(+) Javon has some nice skills, particularly working in open space.  His speed and quickness are definitely a plus
(+) The Titans clearly felt good about him as the #2 after letting go of Lardale White
(+) Chris Johnson’s excessive workload in ’09 points favorably to him missing some time this season.  Javon will be the benefactor of some additional snaps, the key being that he can actually do some damage with those snaps
(–) When healthy, Chris Johnson will be the centerpiece of this offense, and Tennessee was not shy about his workload last year
(–) Ringer runs hard and is undersized (5-9, 205 lbs).  In the event of a major injury to CJ, an extended role for him would be very challenging

WR

Kenny Britt

(+) Britt is a freak athlete in the mold of a Terrell Owens or Andre Johnson
(+) He’s a 1st-round pick who’s already the best wide receiver on the Titans
(+) Not surprisingly, we have a hunch teams will game-plan against CJ2K this year, thus leaving the receivers a bit more open than usual
(–) Tennessee uses a run-based offense that limits the targets of their wide receivers
(–) Vince Young is one of the least accurate QBs in the league (57.6% for his career)
(–) Despite his talent, Kenny has been branded as a lazy player and still has to beat out highly-paid Nate Washington to start

Nate Washington

 (+) Will likely still be a starting WR at the beginning of 2010
 (+) Has big-play capabilities (averages 15.1 YPC over his career) and caught the most TDs in his career last year (6)
 (+) Vince Young has said that after working with Nate in the offseason, their chemistry is great going into the season
 (+) The Titans stated that they would like to get the ball in Washington’s hands more this season
 (–) Washington will have to battle Justin Gage, Kenny Britt, and Damian Williams for targets this year
 (–) Tennessee was in the bottom five in the league for passing attempts in 2009, a stat that doesn’t look to change all that much with Vince Young still at the helm
 (–) Put up by far the worst YPC in his career within the Titans conservative passing game last season (12.1 YPC)

Justin Gage

TE

Bo Scaife

-  The Tennessee Titans came off a 2008 season in which they finished 13-3 with Kerry Collins at the helm
          and kept him as the starter entering 2009
-  The Titans started the season 0-6 with Collins as the helm before switching to former ROY Vince Young
          in week 8, they then went on a 5 game winning streak
-  The Titans finished the season third in the AFC South with a 8-8 record missing the playoffs but were 8-2
          under Vince Young
-  Tennessee scored 354 points while allowing 402 points against

2009 Total Points Rank:         10th (118 tot pts)
2009 Average/Game Rank:     12th (7.4 pts/gm)

FR=Fumbles Recoverd, PA=Points Allowed, FP Rank=Fantasy Points Rank, FP/G=Fantasy Points per Game

2010 Titans Defensive Outlook... 

For some zany reason, we’re in love with the idea that the Titans should always be great on Defense.  It’s either the fact they can’t pass the ball, Jeff Fisher’s mustache, or the fact they called themselves the Titans.  We’re putting early money on the mustache, but either way, the dream isn’t coming in this year.  

Fisher’s crew does a nice job grabbing Turnovers, but since the super freak Kearse left town, they really haven’t generated enough pass rush.  Haynesworth had a season for the ages a couple years ago, but he’s long gone.

We love Cortland Finnegan, but he’s not enough to walk away from a draft thinking you’re set at Defense with the Titans and Finnegan.  If you do a points allowed league, you can’t be too psyched about seeing the Colts, Texans, and Jags twice each either.

Leave ‘em on the Waiver wire.

-  Stephen Tulloch led the team with 121 tackles, Keith Bulluck had 108
-  The Titans had 32 sacks last season
-  Leading sacker was Jacob Ford with 5.5
-  How can the Titans increase the effectiveness of their pass defense
-  Cortland Finnegan led the team with 5 INTs
-  Team forced 13 fumbles
-  Team forced a total of 33 turnovers

Team PYRO is hyper about Offensive Lines!  Understanding who will be blocking for the players on your roster is vital to your teams Fantasy success.  We take many factors into account when we rank these units, including weight, height, starts together as a unit, starts per year played, rushing average, sacks allowed, draft position, contact situation, pro bowl/all pro honors, Adjusted Line Yardage (ALY) and Adjusted Sack Rate (stats found at the link below).  O-Line Rank is one more piece of the puzzle that directs us towards delivering you a Fantasy Football Championship. 

Here is another great resource for looking at O-Lines…    http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ol

The fantasy lifeblood of the players sitting on your roster boils down to one EXTREMELY important stat.  Drum Roll please……………………………  ATTEMPTS!!!!  Ahhhh, there, we said it.  Before you can make a play, you gotta have the pill in your hands.  It’s pretty simple really, in the immortal words of the maligned Keyshawn Johnson… “Just give me the damn ball”.  There is no “I” in the word “team”, but don’t fool yourself, it’s in the word rotisserie twice. 

For the QB, it’s Pass Attempts, for the RB, it’s Carries, and for the WR and TE, it’s Targets.  If you look at the players in the league who are amassing large quantities of points, they are the ones who are seeing the rock come their way the most often.  Sure, you have to be good enough to do something with the p-skin when you get it, but never forget, you can’t make a play until you have the pill in your hands. 

The PYRO Offensive scheme charts aim to deliver you perhaps the most important information you could attain before and after draft day; Will my player get the chances they need to put out or will they be shut out?  It really boils down to what the offensive game plan on Sunday is.  These charts should provide some perspective on which teams are going to live by land and which are going to live by air. 

By Air

-  Vince Young will be the quarterback for the Titans again this coming season and he has shown a steady
        progression as a passer
-  The Titans finished last season ranking 23rd in the league with 3,031 passing yards
-  Nate Washington and Kenny Britt will battle with to be the number 1 target for Vince Young
-  Justin Gage, and Damian Williams will provide depth at WR
-  The TE position has Bo Scaife to lead the way into next season
-  Chris Johnson is a very effective receiver out of the backfield

By Land

-  The Titans ranked 2nd in the league with 2,592 yards on the ground
-  The Titans have the electric Chris Johnson, who ran for over 2,000 yards on the ground last season
-  Javon Ringer averaged 6 yards a carry in limited action
-  Vince Young is also the best running quarterback in the league racking up 281 yards on 55 carries for a
         5.1 average, he also scored 2 times

RZ Touches (Position Rank) = The first number you see is Red Zone Touches (a pass attempt, a carry, or a target inside the 20 yard line).  The number in the parentheses is where this player ranks amongst the rest of the NFL at that position.

% of Teams RZ Touches (Position Rank) = The first number is the players percentage of touches cut out against the total number of the Teams Red Zone plays called.  The number in the parentheses is where this player ranks amongst the rest of the NFL at that position.  So, if Thomas Jones received a touch in 45 percent of the Jets Red Zone calls last year, and Knowshon Moreno received a touch in 38 percent of all the Broncos plays last year, Jones would be ranked higher at his position than Moreno would be.

RZ TD Success Rate (Position Rank) = The first number is the percentage of which an individual player was able to score a TD against his total number of touches.   The number in the parentheses is where this player ranks amongst the rest of the NFL at that position.

Why Should I look at this Chart?

We couldn’t possibly take up a whole minute of your valuable fantasy football research time babbling about the importance of Attempts for your team and then leave out Red Zone Tendencies.

Yep, same drill with these charts, only a lot more important if scoring TD’s is what you’re leagues about.  The PYRO Red Zone Tendencies chart delivers a touchdown focused microcosm of the Offensive Scheme section.

To score a TD, your player needs a touch (pass att, carry, or target), and when they get a touch inside the 20, great things can happen for your Fantasy teams total points line.

It’s really easy, touches are King and converting a touch in the red is Fantasy Gold.

PYRO 2010 Titan Leaders in the Red Zone...

1. CJ28
2. Javon Ringer
3. Kenny Britt
4. Nate Washington
5. Bo Scaife

Grade* = Team PYRO took this number directly from NFL.COM - not a number devised here by us, you know, your friends who don’t sleep?  In other words, proceed with caution knowing the source, but we thought it was at least a worthy effort and could help you gauge just how solid the teams draft was.  We hope it helps, we think it will.

Draft Bits...

WR Damian Williams is off to a slow start.  He might work his way into Special Teams duties, but he’s a late season producer at best.

Team PYRO considers our Strength of Schedule data an essential part of building you a Fantasy Championship.  This data is integral in helping us rank our players each year.  So far, so good.  We go to GREAT lengths to deliver you this PYRO nugget and we know nobody else in the industry is putting forth this type of effort, which puts you at a great advantage if you have been using us as your fantasy football research outlet.  Our SoS considers three factors when determining rankings for schedules for the upcoming year:

1) 75% weight is applied to the strength of defense from the previous season.  This is determine by fantasy points given up (run and pass).  Easy right? Here's where Team Pyro goes deep: before we get to that number, we factor in the quality of teams that these defenses had to face (essentially, a strength-of-schedule for the prior season).

 
2) 20% weight is applied to Free-Agent, Trade, and Injury Returns that will help or hurt the team for the current year.  We rank each players impact to their former team (2008), sum it all up, and then rank each team accordingly.

3) 5% weight is applied to the NFL drafincoming rookie impact.  It's a challenge to successfully gauge a rookie's effectiveness (too many Jamarcus Russells out there) which is why we valued it so low.  Some teams not only drafted highly touted defensemen this year, but will be immediately filling deficient positions from '09 with rookies, and usually, anything is an upgrade when you are starting a rookie.

Chart Key =

Ranking:  1=easiest  32=toughest

QB's, WR's, and TE's

(INDY) Peyton Manning, Reggie Wayne, and Dallas Clark have the EASIEST passing schedule in 2010

(BALT) Joe Flacco, Anquan Boldin, and Todd Heap have the HARDEST passing schedule in 2010

RB's

(SF) Frank Gore has the EASIEST rushing schedule in 2010

(MIA) Ronnie Brown has the HARDEST rushing schedule in 2010

July 13, 2010

Waived TE Gerald Harris and DE Jay Moore.

June 17, 2010

Agreed to terms with QB Rusty Smith on a multiyear contract.

April 27, 2010

Agreed to terms with RB LeGarrette Blount, RB Stafon Johnson, C Kevin Matthews, C Bruce Matthews, C Kenneth Alfred, OL Nick Howell, OL John Malecki, RB Dominique Lindsay, FB Willie Rose, TE Gerald Harris, TE Steve Pfahler, WR Mico McSwain, WR Bobby Sewall, LB Jacob Lewko, LB Patrick Trahan and DT Joe Joseph.

April 15, 2010

Signed RB LenDale White.

April 12, 2010

Agreed to terms with QB Chris Simms.

March 30, 2010

Agreed to terms with CB Tye Hill.

March 19, 2010

Acquired DE Jason Babin after the Philadelphia Eagles declined to match the Titans' offer.

March 15, 2010

Agreed to terms with P-K Ricky Schmitt.

March 12, 2010

Agreed to terms with CB Rod Hood.

March 10, 2010

Agreed to terms with LB Will Witherspoon on a three-year contract.

February 23, 2010

Re-signed S Donnie Nickey to a one-year contract.

February 17, 2010

Announced the retirement of P Craig Hentrich. Agreed to terms with G Eugene Amano on a multiyear contract.