NFL Training camp season is always a time for irrational exuberance. Every team thinks it can win the Super Bowl, even though 31 of those teams will end being horribly wrong. And so, to preview the upcoming NFL season, which could be the most unpredictable ever, we now give you five reasons why your favorite team could win the Super Bowl. Today, it's the Tennessee Titans.
1. Because Cop Speed will get paid. Running back Chris Johnson is currently holding out, and with good reason. He's one of the five best running backs in football (if not the best) and he'll get paid less than a million bucks this year. Now, he's still well paid relative to you and me, but Johnson knows running backs have zero longevity and knows he has to make his money while he can. And he knows that both the Titans players and fans are only going to tolerate this holdout for so long before wanting to know when Johnson will take the field again. At some point, they'll give him his money and he'll be back in the lineup. And when Johnson is in this lineup, you could have a cadaver playing at QB and this team can still win games. Speaking of cadavers...
2. Matt Hasselbeck! Don't we already have definitive proof that this organization can win games with a seemingly over-the-hill quarterback? Back in 2008, no one expected this team to do much of anything, nor did they expect much of Kerry Collins once he got plugged into the starting lineup. They won 13 games that year and were good enough to win the entire AFC. Now they have a similarly aged quarterback in Matt Hasselbeck, whose back is shot but is still less than a year removed from having the game of his life in a playoff win against New Orleans. Is it really out of the question to think that, should Johnson return, Hasselbeck is good enough to get them to win more games than they ought to? After all, who can forget...
3. The Kenny Britt Show starring Kenny Britt! Britt will likely be suspended for the beginning of the year thanks to a handful of... misunderstandings... during the offseason (he got arrested a lot). But when Britt is in the lineup, well now, my goodness. Even with Collins throwing him the ball, Britt was terrifying at times last season (9 TDs in just 10 games, including three amazing ones in a single game versus Philly). There's enough offense here to make you go WHOA HEY, THE TITANS JUST HUNG A C-NOTE ON HOUSTON! (UPDATE: Britt will NOT be suspended.)
4. Maybe no one will notice the defense is kind of horrible. Outside of Jason Jones and the always feisty Cortland Finnegan, this defense is terrible. But the Titans play games against the likes of Houston and Cleveland and Cincy, who all have their own problems. They could easily end up surprising you by winning a ton of 34-31 games that rack up four million points for fantasy owners. Until Jake Locker gets tossed into the rotation and they mail it in the rest of the way.
5. No Jeff Fisher! The only coach the Titans have ever known during their time in Nashville is gone now, and sometimes that kind of break is good for both a coach and a team. Your new coach is Mike Munchak, who doesn't exactly dazzle anyone. Then again, maybe Mike Tice 2.0 knows something I don't.
