2016 Tennessee Titans Schedule: Full Listing of Dates, Times and TV Info

The Tennessee Titans are, to put it nicely, a bit of a trainwreck. They haven't hit the .500 mark since 2011 and won a combined five games over the last two seasons. Things are so bad that Mike Mularkey's 2-7 record as an interim coach in 2015 was enough to get him the permanent job.

It almost makes you miss the halcyon 8-8 days of Jeff Fisher.

As it stands, the Titans enter 2016 as clearly the worst team in the AFC South. They made a few roster-solidifying signings this offseason but nothing to eradicate the massive talent discrepancy. Their biggest move of the offseason came Thursday morning, when they acquired a boatload of picks from the Los Angeles Rams to move back from the No. 1 overall selection. Tennessee now has six of the top 76 selections in the 2016 draft and a pair of first-rounders next year.  

Marcus Mariota should make a solid leap in his second season, and DeMarco Murray will help matters. Yet these expectations, voiced by Titans CEO Tommy Smith in 2014, rank among the most unrealistic in recent memory, per Marc Sessler of NFL.com:

"

I am not in this business to have a top 10 pick. We are looking for playoff games and Super Bowl. I hope we can start to win more games this season and start off next year and have a good season. I think a realistic expectation is to be in the Super Bowl in 2017. People may be disappointed and say, 'What is Smith talking about 2017 for?' Well, I have to have realistic expectations.

"

The good news? The last five teams to finish with the NFL's worst record improved by an average of 6.6 wins in the subsequent season. Two of those teams even made the playoffs. A six-win improvement vaults the Titans to 9-7, the same record the Houston Texans won the division with a year ago.

Could a similar ascent happen in Nashville? Probably not. None of those teams traded their No. 1 pick. But let's check out their schedule anyway and assess where the team can pick up some wins in 2016.

Schedule

Week	Date	Opponent	Time (ET)	TV
1	Sept. 11	Minnesota Vikings	1 p.m.	Fox
2	Sept. 18	at Detroit Lions	1 p.m.	CBS
3	Sept. 25	Oakland Raiders	1 p.m.	CBS
4	Oct. 2	at Houston Texans	1 p.m.	CBS
5	Oct. 9	at Miami Dolphins	1 p.m.	CBS
6	Oct. 16	Cleveland Browns	1 p.m.	CBS
7	Oct. 23	Indianapolis Colts	1 p.m.	CBS
8	Oct. 27	Jacksonville Jaguars	8:25 p.m.	NFL Network
9	Nov. 6	at San Diego Chargers	4:25 p.m.	CBS
10	Nov. 13	Green Bay Packers	1 p.m.	Fox
11	Nov. 20	at Indianapolis Colts	1 p.m.	CBS
12	Nov. 27	at Chicago Bears	1 p.m.	CBS
13		Bye
14	Dec. 11	Denver Broncos	1 p.m.	CBS
15	Dec. 18	at Kansas City Chiefs	1 p.m.	CBS
16	Dec. 24	at Jacksonville Jaguars	1 p.m.	CBS
17	Jan. 1	Houston Texans	1 p.m.	CBS

Analysis

Mark Humphrey/Associated Press

The Titans are playing a schedule designed for a cellar-dwelling team. Their opponent strength of schedule is tied for 23rd, a mark that rises because the AFC South plays the solid NFC North and AFC West. We can probably throw a Sharpie on a loss in Kansas City, and the Texans and Colts should be solid favorites when they host their division foe.

That said, things are breaking in the right way. Three of Tennessee's four hardest non-divisional games take place at home. The Broncos, Vikings and Packers are each taking a trip to Nashville, where they'll still likely be favorites—just not the touchdown-plus they'd be at home. With Denver still struggling to find a quarterback and Minnesota having a number of questions on its offense, these aren't unbeatable juggernauts.

There is room for improvement. There is also a downside to their supposedly fortuitous schedule: There is only one game, against Cleveland in Week 6, where the Titans are guaranteed to be favored at home.

The Raiders view themselves as a potential playoff team in Derek Carr's third season and might actually not be delusional. The Jaguars similarly see themselves as an outside playoff contender in Year 9,124 of their rebuild.

If the Titans flipped their schedule, it wouldn't be hard to picture them racking up four or five solid wins at home. As it stands, there's a chance they're underdogs in more than three quarters of their games before the season even starts.

It's a classic Catch 22. By playing the Broncos at home, you can talk yourself into a potential upset. But by playing the likes of Detroit and Chicago on the road, games where Tennessee would be favored get wiped off the schedule.

The result should be a series of competitive games. Ones that the Titans win? Those are much harder to find.

Pivotal Matchups

Mark Humphrey/Associated Press

The Titans aren't making the playoffs, so the individual games matter less than for contending teams. It's more important they show vast improvement on both sides of the ball. Looking at the last quarter of the calendar might be the smartest thing, because that's where Mularkey can really show his bosses he's making progress.

Mariota performed like a borderline Pro Bowler when healthy last season and should make strides. The idea that he should spend more time in the pocket is nonsense. Mularkey was correct in calling out the lack of running Mariota did in 2015—even if he was technically the one running the offense. 

"Designed runs for the quarterback, and my feelings are he can protect himself much better running the football than he can standing in the pocket, and you've seen it over time," Mularkey told PFT's Mike Florio. "We're not going to run him like they run Cam Newton with some of these designed counter plays and things up the middle that are going to expose him by any means, but I think he's such a threat in the run game for defenses. It just gives you an advantage.

After watching Cam Newton almost single-handedly carry a below-par offense to the Super Bowl, Mariota turning into a world-beating superstar is Tennessee's best hope. If Mariota makes a gigantic leap, maybe the Titans push for a playoff berth in a weak division.

The overwhelming likelihood, however, is this team is one or two more years away. Their defense still needs a ton of work, and their receiving corps remains without a clear No. 1 option. Perhaps Dorial Green-Beckham becomes that guy, but he was every bit as inconsistent as advertised in 2015. The pieces to a good roster are here; they just haven't coalesced into a team yet.

Getting a ton of draft picks in there over the next two years should be a major boost.

If the Titans wind up 5-11 or 6-10 at the bottom of a much deeper division, they should be happy. Get another top-10 pick to add to the young talent coffers and begin building something special. Smith might have wanted a 2017 Super Bowl berth, but he should settle for his team no longer swirling the other bowl.

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