Unfortunately, Simmons found himself in the opposite situation. While he expressed appreciation for Brian Callahan as a person, the four-time Pro Bowler acknowledged that the culture in Nashville has diminished since Vrabel’s departure. Instead of rallying around a specific leader, the Titans wandered the Abyss without much direction or sense of responsibility.
“When you look at it from a player’s perspective, it’s like, ‘What really is our identity?'” he explained. “I feel like as a team, that was something I was trying to help find. Because later in the season we started running the football. It was like, ‘Damn, why couldn’t we do this earlier in the season? I feel like that should have been our identity to begin with to help a young quarterback, which is no knock on the coaches or anything, but I feel like moving forward, it all starts with the foundation. It’s just like building a house: If your foundation isn’t there and it’s not good, you have a s—ty house.
“When Callahan first came in – and that’s no knock on Cally, Cally’s a great guy, a great coach – I don’t think it was just the time. When I left Vrabel, we all knew what it looked like. The guys that have been there, me, Hook (safety Amani Hooker), we knew what it looked like to not let things go through the year, so we couldn’t let things go through the year or the coach. We have maybe six, seven rookies playing at one time or at one point in the season.
“We knew what Vrabel expected. I was telling guys, like the first day of the meetings … I get there and I see guys running around looking for notebooks and pencils. Vrabel, the last year he was here … everybody coming in with notebooks and pencils. And he was like, ‘What are you guys ready to write down?’ I’m not going to talk about anything right now.” We knew what Vrabel expected and we knew what he wanted out of the team. The message was in the locker room and it’s like last year, we didn’t have it.”