Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel explains why he hired offensive coordinator Tim Kelly

Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel didn't have to look far to find his new offensive coordinator.

Vrabel and the Titans promoted Tim Kelly from passing game coordinator to offensive coordinator on Tuesday. Kelly held that post for one year after serving in various roles for the Houston Texans from 2014-21, including offensive coordinator from 2019-21. Vrabel and Kelly worked together for four of those seasons in Houston.

Given their familiarity, Vrabel explained why he feels Kelly is the right person to take over the Titans' offense.

"I think what Tim is able to do is provide some familiarity and carry over to what we’re doing," Vrabel said. "Because I don’t think everything’s broken. I don’t believe that. But he can also add some things that really help us and take advantage of some opportunities. I’ve seen him call games in this league against us. I feel like he has a great feel for this game.

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The Titans' offense was fifth-worst in the NFL in scoring and third-worst in yardage in 2022 under previous offensive coordinator Todd Downing. The passing offense, which Kelly coordinated, ranked 30th in total yards and touchdowns, but 19th in yards per play and 20th in passer rating. Injuries to quarterback Ryan Tannehill and consistently bad offensive line play limited the passing game, as did the absence of wide receiver A.J. Brown, whom the Titans traded to the Philadelphia Eagles prior to the season.

Kelly's Texans teams made the playoffs once in his three seasons as coordinator. In 2019, the Texans won the AFC South while ranking No. 13 in the NFL in total offense, No. 14 in points and No. 12 in yards per play. The Texans' record cratered to 4-12 in 2020 but the Texans led the NFL in yards per play with 6.39. Despite this, Houston only averaged 24 points per game, below the league average. In 2021, with quarterback Deshaun Watson sitting out every game waiting to be traded, the Texans finished last in the NFL in total offense and third-worst in points and yards per play.

Since Vrabel's first season with the Titans ended in 2018, Vrabel has only hired internal candidates for coordinator positions. Vrabel promoted Arthur Smith to offensive coordinator in 2019, Downing to offensive coordinator and Shane Bowen to defensive coordinator in 2021 and now Kelly.

"I’m confident that there will be new ideas, new concepts," Vrabel said. "Again, there’s a lot of things that you can invest your time with. We’re fairly certain that where we’ve invested a lot of our time has been in one particular system… every offense and every defense, everybody has to have an identity, which is critical. In my interactions with Tim, I’m very confident we’ll be able to continue to do the things that we do well."

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on Twitter @nicksuss.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Why Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel promoted Tim Kelly to OC