Once again this offseason, I'll be writing about the 2012 season that was, including picking some team MVPs, highlighting various statistics and trends, and trying to give you a better idea of the season that was. That should lead into our positional analyses, and then we'll start talking about the 2013 draft and free agency. If there's anything in particular you'd like to see, post it in the comments and I'll consider it.

Last year, this was a pretty easy choice. The Titans had a surprisingly efficient passing offense, even without Kenny Britt for most of the season, and that was because of Matt Hasselbeck. 2012 presents a more difficult challenge, as the Titans were not nearly as successful as they were last year. Even more important in terms of picking an MVP, there wasn't really anything on offense the Titans were reliably good at. The run game was productive, some of the time, and terrible unproductive as much or more of the time. The same was true of the pass game. 

In the end, I had to sit down, come up with a list of every candidate I couldn't immediately dismiss, and eventually pick a winner. So, here's how it went down, with candidates listed in order by last name.

Starting this weekend, the 12 best teams in the NFL will participate in postseason play while the Tennessee Titans and 19 other teams will watch their superiors perform.

It should be no surprise to anyone who watched the Titans this past season to learn the Titans did not fare well playing against those teams.  Overall, the Titans did not fare well at all, but they were especially outclassed, and usually embarrassed, by the teams they faced who went on to postseason competition.

When you evaluate a team by how well they fared against the best competition they faced, the Titans came up woefully short in the measurements.  These are some stark realities.

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Per Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean, Tennessee Titans owner Bud Adams has informed head coach Mike Munchak his job is safe and he will be back to coach the team in 2013. Adams indicated to Wyatt he believes Munchak needs the right people around him. It's easy for me to think that believes Jerry Gray will not be back as defensive coordinator in 2013, but we'll see.

Not returning to the team for next season for sure will be Senior Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer Mike Reinfeldt.  As Adams told Wyatt, "He had two years left on his deal but I thought we'd be better off without him. He is out." Reinfeldt served as general manger of the team from 2007-2011, then was promoted to COO last January when Ruston Webster was installed as general manager. In his job as COO, he oversaw all football and non-football operations.

It's difficult to know what exactly led to Reinfeldt's ouster. I was not really a huge fan of the job he did as general manager, but he's no longer general manager. It could be the failure of Bud's pursuit of Peyton Manning, especially with the Broncos taking the top seed in the AFC after finishing with a worse record than the Titans had last year. It could be business-related. It could be a delayed evaluation of the job Reinfeldt did as general manager. It could just be Bud wanted to see somebody's head roll after a fall in the record from 9-7 to 6-10. Either way, Reinfeldt is gone.

It'll be interesting to see what the Titans do now in the front office. Adams also indicated to Wyatt that GM Ruston Webster will remain with the team. I assume that means as general manager, but the Titans still have that COO vacancy. I assume there's basically no chance Steve Underwood comes out of retirement, but could Bud bring somebody else over from his non-football operations and have them run the off-the-field side of the business? I highly doubt Webster takes over both roles, but it wouldn't surprise me if he becomes the sole man to answer for football decisions. We shall see what the Titans do.

Due to the regular rotation of the NFL schedule, we've already known 14 of the 16 games the Titans will play in 2013 and now that the 2012 regular season is concluded, we know the final two opponents.

The Titans, who finished third in the AFC South this year, will face the New York Jets, who finished third in the AFC East, and the Pittsburgh Steelers, the third-place finishers in the AFC North.  The Titans, as well as the other AFC South teams, will also face the AFC West and the NFC West next year, in addition to their regular home and away division games.

Although we don't yet know when the games will be played, we do know where.  Here's the slate of games (with the 2012 records of the Titans opponents) and some thoughts after the jump.

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The NFL this year is keeping track of player participation information and releasing that information to the media on a weekly basis. Here's how the Titans officially lined up in the Week 17 home win against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Offense (54 total)
QB: Jake Locker 54
RB: Chris Johnson 39, Quinn Johnson 23, Collin Mooney 10, Darius Reynaud 4
TE: Taylor Thompson 53, Brandon Barden 23
WR: Kenny Britt 35, Nate Washington 31, Kendall Wright 30, Michael Preston 15, Lavelle Hawkins 6
OL: Kyle DeVan 54, Deuce Lutui 54, Michael Roos 54, Byron Stingily 54, Fernando Velasco 54, Mike Otto 1

Defense (74 total)
DE: Kamerion Wimbley 60, Derrick Morgan 59, Jarius Wynn 19, Scott Solomon 11
DT: Sen'Derrick Marks 47, Jurrell Casey 45, Mike Martin 30, Karl Klug 27
LB: Akeem Ayers 73, Zach Brown 62, Tim Shaw 12, Will Witherpsoon 1
CB: Jason McCourty 74, Coty Sensabaugh 63, Tommie Campbell 52, Alterraun Verner 31
S: Al Afalava 74, Michael Griffin 74

Xavier Adibi, Jordan Babineaux, Patrick Bailey, Beau Brinkley, Mitch Petrus, and Tracy Wilson each only appeared on special teams. Jamie Harper and Matt Hasselbeck were active but did not appear in the game.

Notes

With the regular season just concluded, the NFL has yet to officially determine the 2013 NFL draft order, but as far as I can tell the Tennessee Titans currently hold the following selections in the 2013 NFL entry draft:

1st round, 10th overall (own)
2nd round, 34th overall (via trade)
3rd round, 70st overall (own)
3rd round, 97th overall (compensatory)
4th round, 107th overall (own)
5th round, 142th overall (own)
6th round, 202nd overall (compensatory)
7th round, 248th overall (compensatory)

The Titans currently hold four of their seven original selections, having traded away their sixth-round pick, 166th overall, to the Minnesota Vikings for the 211th overall pick in the 2012 draft, which they used to select DE Scott Solomon and on the second day of the draft, and their second-round pick, 40th overall, and seventh-round pick, 216th overall, plus a 2014 third-round pick to the San Francisco 49ers for the 34th pick.

The Titans were also awarded three compensatory picks, in the third, sixth, and seventh rounds.

When there are updates to the Titans' picks, I will update this post.

UPDATE (2013/02/21): NFL released the official draft order, updated numbers.
UPDATE (2013/03/18): Compensatory picks announced. Updated accordingly.
UPDATE (2013/04/26): Second-round trade added.

The Tennessee Titans got four return touchdowns in a five minute span wrapped around the first half and used those to defeat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 38-20, in the season finale at LP Field today. Zach Brown returned two Chad Henne interceptions for scores and Darius Reynaud returned two punts for scores as part of the barrage.

It looked early like the game would be a shootout on both sides, as the Jaguars scored touchdowns on their first two possessions and the only reason the Titans didn't score two of their own was Nate Washington failed to catch the deep downfield pass by Jake Locker. Little did we know, though, that neither offense would find the end zone again, as both teams reverted to their normal stretch of incompetence. The score didn't move from 14-7 until Brown finally took advantage of one of Henne's repeated attempts to give them the football. The Titans extended their lead to 38-14 with a Rob Bironas field goal, then the Jaguars returned a blocked punt late for the final score.

With four return scores, the Titans didn't get as many chances to run offensive plays as they otherwise would have. Chris Johnson unsurprisingly struggled to find running room. Locker finished 9 of 15 for 152 yards with a couple drops and took two sacks. Collin Mooney got five carries late in the game. Taylor Thompson and Brandon Barden seemed to get a little bit of playing time with Stevens out. 

Defensively, the Titans struggled tackling early once again. In the second half, they got to Chad Henne a lot, as they did in the first matchup. This time, Derrick Morgan led the way with two of the six sacks. Tommie Campbell got to play corner for Alterraun Verner in the second half. Jaguars tight end Marcedes Lewis had a career-high 103 yards receiving, because of course he did. Akeem Ayers and Jason McCourty failed to haul in catchable balls before Zach Brown's first pick-6.

Well, a win is a win. The Titans finish the year at 6-10 and will probably have something like the 10th pick in the 2013 draft. I'll have more on this game later this week, I'm sure, but on to the offseason.