NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Titans talk so comfortably about having the right people and enough talent to compete, you’d think a hypnotist had recently worked the locker room.
It is understandable that players are trying to be supportive teammates, staying in their lane, worrying about themselves and not venturing into the personnel department.
But when they say they have sufficient talent — as safety Michael Griffin and right tackle Byron Bell said Sunday and others have said throughout the season — they sound naive and unrealistic.
This team, which lost 34-6 to the Houston Texans on Sunday and fell to 3-12, needs far more talent and there would be absolutely nothing wrong with the best guys in there saying, “We need more help.”
At least instead of saying the Titans are fine as they are, tight end Delanie Walker referred the question elsewhere.
“That’s a question you’ve got to ask the personnel people,” he said when I asked about the Titans’ talent.
General manager Ruston Webster is patient and calm and has tried to funnel players to three different coaches, none of whom he selected. The team praises his ability to work with anyone and to build consensus.
But he needs to have built a better roster through four draft and free agent classes.
The Titans consistently say their effort and plan were good, which leaves an obvious element as the team’s primary shortcoming: The quality of the people making the effort and executing the plan.
It’s a team with receivers who can’t get any separation and defensive backs who are often in the neighborhood but find it nearly impossible to make a play.
A week from this morning, the franchise needs to begin to make the changes at the top to people who will be able to reconstruct this roster.
But frankly, there are only five guys on this team who the 2016 version must be built around, who qualify as indispensable: Quarterback Marcus Mariota, Walker, defensive lineman Jurrell Casey, outside linebacker Brian Orakpo and inside linebacker Avery Williamson.
Others may develop (like Dorial Green-Beckham) or be resuscitated (like Kendall Wright). Some could find the right depth and be better in a different role (Perrish Cox as a nickel corner, perhaps).
But if the effort is fine, as coaches and players say, if practices are good and plans are sound, then they can’t sit and wait on this roster to simmer and turn into something new.
It is what it is, as some many of those player also say.
And what it is is not close to good enough.
These Titans can’t compete with the Texans, a middling team without a top quarterback that is about to win a division.
A new coach, and maybe a new GM, need to settle into team headquarters, get in front of these guys, count to three, snap their fingers and wake everyone out of this spell.