Titans 2025 Season in Review

Cam Ward took 55 sacks as a rookie. 55. That's the number that defines Tennessee's 2025 — and the door into everything else: how the passing game cratered, why Tony Pollard quietly put together one of the more overlooked seasons in the league, and what a defense with real teeth but no takeaways actually looked like. Three wins, 14 losses. No playoffs. The Titans finished ninth among AFC non-playoff teams, and by every available measure, the year was a muffed one — but there are threads worth pulling.

Start with the team-level portrait, because the numbers are stark. Tennessee's offense finished at −158.9 in total expected points added — a measure of how much every play helped or hurt their chances of scoring, and −1 59 is thirtieth in the league, ninth percentile. The defense allowed +99.5, 20-eighth, sixteenth percentile — and on defense, you want that number going the other way. Third down is where the season lived and died: 33.2 percent, dead last in the NFL. Can't move the chains, can't get off the field, you lose 14 games. And this wasn't boom-or-bust — outside the Week 16 smashing of Kansas City, 26 to nine, this was a steady, grinding floor. Seven losses by 16 points or more.

Now let's talk about the passing offense, because this is where the season got muffed the hardest. Tennessee threw for 190.6 yards per game and finished at −137.3 in passing expected points added — 30-first, sixth percentile. Ward threw for 3169 yards with 15 touchdowns and seven picks, and his completion percentage came in three points below expectation, 30-second among qualified starters. But the headline is the protection. 56 sacks allowed on 646 dropbacks — an 8.7 percent sack rate, sixth-most in football. You can't develop a rookie quarterback when he's hitting the turf every 12 dropbacks. The brutal example came Week 17 against New Orleans — second quarter, first and 20, Ward gets sacked, fumbles, and the Saints scoop it for a 33 yard touchdown. −8.8 expected points on a single snap. That play was the season in 11 yards. The lone bright spot in the receiving room: tight end Chig Okonkwo, 56 catches, 560 yards, two touchdowns — and the team's leading receiver, which tells you everything about the wide receiver group.

Now let's dig into the rushing offense, and here's the one genuine smash story of Tennessee's year. Tony Pollard. 242 carries, 1082 yards, 4.5 a clip, five touchdowns — and +112.7 rushing yards over expected, meaning he gained a hundred 12 more yards than an average back would have given the same blocking and the same boxes. Trended up as the volume grew. As a unit, though, the rushing offense still finished at −25.1 in expected points added, 20-seventh, because volume couldn't flip the math when the passing game was a black hole. 4.2 yards per carry as a team, thirtieth. But the Pollard tape — the Week 14 win in Cleveland, his 65 yard touchdown run on first and 10 in the first quarter — that's the kind of explosive play this offense almost never had. 51 explosive plays all year. About three a game. Pollard was carrying water for an offense that couldn't get out of its own way.

Next up, the pass defense, which is a more complicated story than the bottom-line ranking suggests. Tennessee allowed +93.39 in passing expected points added — sixteenth percentile, not good — but the pass rush showed up. 42 sacks, 50-ninth percentile, with Jeffery Simmons living in opposing backfields. The problem was the takeaway column: six interceptions, six fumble recoveries, 12 total — 20-ninth in the league, thirteenth percentile. They got pressure. They didn't finish. When they did, it was season-defining — Week 14 in Cleveland, fourth quarter, Tennessee up 21 to 17, cornerback Roger McCreary punches the ball out on a completion, Cody Gray scoops it and returns it to the Cleveland eight. That single play swung the game by more than six expected points and got them one of their three wins. They had the juice up front. They just didn't get their hands on enough footballs.

And the run defense — this is the soft underbelly. 116 yards per game allowed, 21 rushing touchdowns surrendered, and a per-carry expected points added of +0.01. 30-first in the league in run defense expected points added — second-worst in football, steady floor of bad all year. Opponents converted 41 percent of their third downs, and a big chunk was second-and-medium becoming third-and-short because the front couldn't hold up between the tackles. No individual to single out here — when your run defense is bottom-of-the-league, it's a structural problem, not a personnel highlight reel. That's where the rebuild has to start.