Jon Robinson's Tennessee Titans firing was about far more than A.J. Brown | Opinion

This wasn’t just about A.J. Brown, though it’ll surely get portrayed that way.

How could it not?

Less than two days after the receiver whipped a goalpost in celebration to scold and symbolize punishment – and basically humiliate his former franchise – Tennessee Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk fired the man who traded Brown to the Philadelphia Eagles on draft night.

Just like that, general manager Jon Robinson’s tenure in Nashville is finished.

It was shocking news.

Shocking because successful NFL GMs aren’t just fired midseason like that. At least not in the midst of a 7-5 season headed for a third consecutive AFC South title. Not when the Titans haven’t missed the playoffs since 2018. Not when the Titans hadn’t had one losing season since Robinson was hired in early 2016.

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And not when the Titans had just extended Robinson’s contract earlier this year along with head coach Mike Vrabel. In announcing the extensions on Feb. 8, Adams Strunk said the following: “I am proud to say that Jon and Mike will be leading our football team for years to come.”

On second thought, it'll just be Mike.

So what happened?

Obviously, the Brown trade happened.

And it happened weeks after Vrabel appeared on host Rich Eisen's show and said Brown wouldn’t be traded “as long as I’m the head coach.”

At the time, the Titans’ trading Brown had a whiff of exasperation to it. As if Robinson had grown tired of games being played by Brown and his representation. The team’s side to this was that Brown had cut off communication and was asking to be traded. Brown offered a different side, but it didn’t matter much after the fact.

Trading Brown was something a strong GM does when he’s secure in his job, but it was also a move that doesn’t happen without an owner’s approval.

So, I repeat, Robinson’s firing was about more than just one trade and one player.

I don’t get why now. But I get why.

Were this firing just about Brown, I wouldn’t endorse it.

As it is, I do.

While I don't agree with the timing in the midst of a season that still has potential in it for the Titans, I understand the reasoning. This was about trajectory, and the arrow has been tilting down for a while. Anyone paying close attention to the Titans has noticed.

This was an owner looking at her Titans and concluding – appropriately, in my opinion – that there was a problem. And that problem was personnel, not coaching. That the Titans’ talent has been in a slow decline. That Vrabel and his staff have been increasingly propping up a weakened roster that has become insufficiently equipped to challenge for a Super Bowl.

The Titans lost 35-10 to the Eagles on Sunday, and it could have been worse. The Titans looked as though they didn’t belong on the same field. The same thing happened Week 2 in Buffalo. The same thing could easily happen in the playoffs, too.

While the Titans have managed to hold it together this season – ugly win by ugly win over mostly mediocre competition – at no point have you looked at them and believed they were a serious contender. Could you say the Titans of 2022 are better than the Titans of 2019 or 2020 or 2021?

Their window has been gradually closing because of a lack of high-end talent as well as depth, an inevitable consequence of Robinson's poor draft classes in 2020 and 2021. Those misses have been routinely exposed by a chronic inability to stay healthy. That hasn’t just been luck, either.

It was drafting an injured first-rounder in Caleb Farley. It was signing an injured Bud Dupree to an expensive deal and watching him continue to be sidelined. It was failing to find an adequate replacement at tackle while relying on Taylor Lewan after a serious knee injury. Busting on Isaiah Wilson, yes, but also letting Jack Conklin and Rodger Saffold and Dennis Kelly and others walk. The result is an offensive line that’s no longer good enough to let Derrick Henry do his thing, much less to protect Ryan Tannehill, who the Eagles sacked six times while he struggled to find open receivers.

And yes, trading Brown and leaving the passing game woefully unequipped without him.

All that couldn't be pinned on anyone but Robinson.

A rift at the top?

Palace intrigue is unavoidable here. It always is with moves that won’t make sense to most people.

On that note, I can’t sit here and say there was a rift between Vrabel and Robinson. I don’t know that. But I’d also be lying to say I hadn’t at least wondered about it before today.

With the Titans, it had become difficult to ignore how often the left hand wasn't agreeing with what the right was doing. By that, I mean that this franchise would too often make personnel decisions that the coaches didn’t implement in games.

They’d draft Farley in the first round and the coaches end up preferring Tre Avery or Terrance Mitchell or whoever else happened to get added to the roster the previous week.

They’d draft Dillon Radunz in the second round and he can barely get on the field.

They’d draft linebacker Monty Rice in the third round and the coaches end up preferring Dylan Cole.

They’d sign receiver Josh Reynolds and he barely makes a dent in the offense before being released.

They’d trade up and draft Dez Fitzpatrick, who is still wasting away on the practice squad for a team that had only four active receivers in Philly.

They’d sign tight end Austin Hooper and the coaches would sooner play Geoff Swaim.

And so on ...

For a general manager, every move isn't going to be a home run. Robinson deserves credit for the ones he did knock out of the park: Most notably, trading for Tannehill and then the Titans' entire 2019 draft, highlighted by a steal of a pick in Jeffery Simmons.

But you remember that story recently by The Athletic about Simmons? He was quoted as saying the Titans told him, "We don’t know if we’re going to be able to offer you what you think you are worth."

I'm sorry, what? Under no circumstances should the Titans ever say that to Simmons. Not only is it a terrible look to him, but it's a terrible look to any other player in the league, including those on the Titans now. Simmons has earned the second contract he's bound to get. It absolutely should be in Tennessee, but after Brown's saga, how would you know?

Perhaps now, you do know.

The Titans of Robinson had started to look closer to a rebuild than the Super Bowl. Unlike most of her NFL peers, Adams Strunk doesn't often make her presence felt publicly. When she does, however, it's not lightly. The earth can shake.

It just shook at Saint Thomas Sports Park. She'd seen enough whippings.

Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Gentry_Estes.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Jon Robinson's Tennessee Titans firing was about more than A.J. Brown