NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Tennessee Titans did a great deal of work to become the NFL’s third-best rushing team last season, averaging 136.7 yards a game.
The biggest loss connected to the effort, veteran tight end Anthony Fasano, will see some of his duties go to Phillip Supernaw and some to a draft pick.
Establishing a reliable run game was a huge piece of forging an identity. But running back DeMarco Murray said there won’t be a big difference in the work the Titans had to do in establishing that identity and the work they will have to do to maintain it.
“It’s a new year, so you’ve got to start over and kind of re-create some things,” Murray said. “I think our identity obviously last year, throughout the course of the season, was something that people started mentioning and kind of took notice of.
“But it’s a new season, new players and new everything. I think for us we’ve got to start back from scratch and really lay back the foundation and try to earn that respect again.”
Murray struck similar themes to those shared by linebacker Brian Orakpo and Jurrell Casey as the team started its offseason program.
To a question about whether he’d make any sort of playoff pledge, Orakpo said, “What do I look like, a sucker? We have work to do. Expectations are very high within ourselves. But we are not talking about all that Super Bowl stuff right now, because we have a lot of work to do.”
Murray will allow the Titans to think they got on a good track, but not for the team to expect it will pick up where it left off. “Last year was last year,” he said. “But obviously we’re on the right track. We’ve got each under our belt with each other, knowing each other, knowing the personalities, knowing what it takes to accomplish what we want to accomplish.
"I don’t think anybody is patting ourselves on the back for last year’s nine wins and no playoffs. We want to get better and try to make something happen.”
