100 Questions: Fantasy Football 2024 (Tennessee Titans)

As we head toward the start of the 2024 NFL and fantasy football season, FTN Fantasy editor-in-chief Daniel Kelley is asking (and attempting to answer) the 100 most pressing questions in fantasy football. This is 100 Questions. Today: The Tennessee Titans.

You can never credit a single move for any team’s success or failure, with the very small possible exception of quarterback. It’s just too hard for a single player to make that big a difference in a game like football.

Just … don’t tell Titans fans that.

The 2016-2021 Titans were among the league’s better teams. They went 9-7 four straight years 2016-2019 before taking it to the next level, going 11-5 in 2020 and then 12-5 in 2021, claiming the AFC’s No. 1 seed. They and the Chiefs were the only two teams to finish over .500 every year 2016-2021 (the Steelers had a year at exactly .500, in case you thought I made a mistake).

After the 2021 season, the Titans, not wanting to commit big money to A.J. Brown, dealt him to Philadelphia and used the pick they got to draft Treylon Burks. In theory, it was a soft reset. In practice, the Titans started 2022 well enough, getting to 7-3, but they lost their last seven games of that season and went 6-11 the next, meaning they’re 6-18 in their last 24 games, 13-21 in their last two seasons. Brown took his career to the next level — he maxed out at 1,075 yards in Tennessee but has topped 1,450 each year in Philadelphia. And Burks has totally failed to launch, missing 12 games in two years and totaling 665 yards and 1 touchdown through two years. He’s not even a lock to make the roster in 2024.

Yes, there were myriad factors that contributed to the Titans going from one of the AFC’s elite teams to the team drafting seventh overall in 2024. The offensive line went in the tank. The defense took a step back. Ryan Tannehill went from late-career resurgence to unemployed. But the A.J. Brown trade was the clearest delineation, and it might be a move that Titans fans look back on with the most regret years from now, if and when Brown finds his way to Canton.

The Questions

95. Tony Pollard, Tyjae Spears or Both?
96. How Do We Value Calvin Ridley?
97. Is Will Levis Interesting for His Football Stuff, or Just for His Mayo Stuff?

100 Questions for 2024: Tennessee Titans

Tony Pollard, Tyjae Spears or Both?

Tony Pollard was one of the biggest disappointments in fantasy football last year, with some places hyping him as high as the overall RB1. He came back slow from injury and let everyone down, with not even the RB-desperate Cowboys trying that hard to bring him back.

He finished as the PPR RB14.

Tyjae Spears was a revelation, electric and exciting out of the backfield. He took more work from Derrick Henry than anyone expected. All that despite being essentially undrafted in fantasy (his 2023 ADP was RB62).

He finished as the PPR RB34.

It’s not that simple, of course, but it definitely illustrates how much preseason perception affects postseason opinion. I would bet a poll of general football fans would have had Spears and Pollard putting up approximately equal numbers last year, based on one being a disappointment and the other being a big surprise. Instead, Pollard had his borderline worst-case scenario, and he still outgained Spears by 500 scrimmage yards and doubled him up in touchdowns. And after Pollard started the year slow from an elusiveness standpoint, he got back to normal later in the year (see below), showing — at least to me — that he was still dealing with his injury from the 2022 postseason.

Current ADP does have Pollard ahead of Spears (RB26 to R35), but not by enough. Getting in on a bounceback is the best way to find an undervalued fantasy resource, if you’re right, because the player’s disappointing season will have soured a large number of drafters on him. Pollard is the bounceback of your dreams in 2024, and he’ll have a top-15 fantasy season.

How Do We Value Calvin Ridley?

Speaking of 2023 disappointments, a lot of people were all in on a big return-from-suspension season for Calvin Ridley last year in Jacksonville, with him carrying a WR16 ADP. By fantasy finish, he actually didn’t let people down that much, putting up a WR18 season, but one of his biggest games came in Week 18, and generally he didn’t have many pop weeks. People were disappointed. They were disappointed to the point that Ridley’s ADP for 2024 is now WR32.

He’s on the older side, 29 years old (30 in December). On the other hand, his top receiving teammates are both older, with DeAndre Hopkins turning 32 in June and Tyler Boyd reaching 30 a month before Ridley. Hopkins is already banged up (though expected to be ready Week 1). Add it all up, and Ridley’s set for roughly a similar season to last year … when, again, he finished as WR18. It was just a disappointment because people envisioned such heights. His ADP has doubled (WR16 to WR32), which more than accounts for any drop in expectation. He was a disappointment last year. He’ll be a pleasant surprise in 2024. And he could have the same season both years.

Is Will Levis Interesting for His Football Stuff, or Just for His Mayo Stuff?

The fragrance you’ve been craving is here. Introducing Will Levis No. 8, Parfum de Mayonnaise. Daily supply is limited.https://t.co/JKguMXqV7d pic.twitter.com/cJZVYNQlNC

— Hellmann's Mayonnaise (@Hellmanns) August 13, 2024

Among 45 qualified quarterbacks last year, Will Levis finished 32^nd in PFF passing grade (61.6). The only guys lower than him slated to be a starter in 2024 are Daniel Jones (54.4) and Bryce Young (52.6), and let’s just say those two aren’t the quarterbacks you want your young quarterback to emulate.

The Titans spent this offseason going with the Eagles-/Dolphins-of-late strategy of “We don’t know if our quarterback is good, so we’re going to build up around him so it doesn’t matter. They signed Calvin Ridley, Tony Pollard and Tyler Boyd. They hired an offensive-minded coach in Brian Callahan and got the package deal of his dad, maybe the best offensive line coach in football in Bill Callahan. They used a top-seven pick on an offensive lineman (JC Latham) and spent in free agency on another (Lloyd Cushenberry). It’s still not an elite unit (we ranked them 21^st in our offensive line rankings), but there’s plenty of room for growth, especially under Callahan’s guidance, and this was maybe the worst line in the league last year, so even 21^st is a heck of an improvement.

So at this point, it’s up to Levis. After a stirring debut last year (4 touchdowns in Week 8, a QB6 weekly finish, the best you can say about him the rest of the way was that he didn’t force the team to bench him. In his final eight games, Levis had only 4 more touchdown passes against 4 interceptions and he didn’t have a weekly finish over QB15. He ran for only 57 yards and misses two and a half games with an ankle injury. This after Levis — who had been hyped as a top-five pick and maybe top-one in the draft — fell to the second round last year, showing teams didn’t believe in him to any level matching the hype.

For my money (and I’m a Kentucky fan! I should love him!), if Levis is going to thrive in 2024 (which the above Ridley/Pollard/etc. sections kind of need), it’s going to be due to coaching and personnel. I don’t think Levis is that good. But his surroundings can be. You aren’t drafting Levis in one-QB leagues, and if you do in two-QB/superflex it’s just because you need someone. You certainly aren’t excited to have him. But he should at the least be able to be functional enough in this setting to make his weapons worthwhile, even if he isn’t that impressive himself.