Tennessee Titans’ plan to fix decades-long receiver mess underway. How much more help is needed?

Here are two simple facts that seem to matter a great deal to the Tennessee Titans:

One, last season’s Cincinnati Bengals — led by then-offensive coordinator and new Titans coach Brian Callahan — had at least three wide receivers on the field for 84.8% of their offensive snaps.

Secondly, the Titans only have two proven wide receivers on roster as their voluntary offseason program begins.

The Titans, as they always seem to be, are in search for help at wide receiver. Signing free agent Calvin Ridley to a four-year contract worth $92 million is an obvious move in the right direction, especially with veteran DeAndre Hopkins back to line up opposite him. This pairing gives the Titans a venerable duo. But beyond Hopkins and Ridley, the receiver room is a collection of unknowns and role players. Callahan isn’t shy about his opinion that the Titans need to add or identify a player who can be relied upon to contribute when the offense runs three-receiver sets.

“We have to have someone emerge for us at the slot-position receiver when we’re in 11 personnel,” Callahan said Wednesday, referring to formations with one running back, one tight end and three receivers on the field, the personnel grouping the Bengals lined up in for 76.8% of their snaps last season.

Callahan brought up three internal candidates to fill that slot role: Kyle Philips, Mason Kinsey and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine. Westbrook-Ikhine is the most experienced of the bunch; he’s caught 53 passes for 755 yards and five touchdowns from the slot over the past three seasons, leading the Titans in slot yards in 2022. Philips was drafted to be the traditional slot option but he’s only played in 13 games over his first two injury-addled seasons. And Kinsey only has two career catches, having spent most of the last four years on the Titans’ practice squad.

One player who Callahan interestingly didn’t mention is Treylon Burks, the 2022 first-round NFL Draft pick who’s dealt with repeated injuries, too. Burks has only lined up in the slot in 26% of his pro snaps, but he took 77% of his college snaps at Arkansas from the slot, so there’s experience there.

Offensive coordinator Nick Holz thinks pigeonholing any receiver into one role means a crisis of imagination. Slot receivers in 2024 don’t all look and play like Wes Welker did in 2007. The NFL’s two leading receivers out of the slot in 2023 were Dallas’ CeeDee Lamb (6-foot-2, 200 pounds) and Detroit’s Amon-Ra St. Brown (6-foot, 202). Cincinnati’s Tyler Boyd (6-2, 203) was the NFL’s fourth-most-targeted slot receiver last year.

“The thing for us is we don’t just want to play (Hopkins and Ridley) on the outside either,” Holz said. “We just started putting in our formations (Tuesday) and we’ve got guys who are moving all over the field. I don’t think we just want to sit those guys on the outside by themselves.”

The Titans have roughly five months to figure out their third option, whether that means devoting a first- or second-round draft pick to the position, adding a third veteran in free agency or developing an in-house player.

But when talking about the Titans’ historic struggles at receiver, it’s important to acknowledge the issue hasn’t exactly been depth. It’s been a lack of top-end production. Think of it this way: The Titans have had 18 wide receivers gain at least 1,000 yards since 2000, more than 23 other teams including pass-first behemoths led by future Hall of Fame quarterbacks for the New England Patriots, Indianapolis Colts, Kansas City Chiefs and Green Bay Packers. But they’ve only had 10 total 1,000-yard seasons from receivers, the fourth-fewest in the league ahead of only Baltimore, Cleveland and the New York Jets.

There’s nothing stopping the Titans from using a top-10 pick on a receiver like LSU’s Malik Nabers or Washington’s Rome Odunze, just as there’s no reason the Titans can’t sign a big-name free agent still on the market like Odell Beckham Jr., Allen Robinson or even Boyd. But in all likelihood, the pressure to produce as top-end receivers is going to fall on Ridley and Hopkins, or perhaps Burks in a best-case scenario.

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Callahan likes to say teams can’t have enough receivers who are fast, explosive and physical. Expect the Titans to keep adding receivers throughout the offseason based on that catchphrase alone. But don’t let the impulse to add depth distract from the fact that the best receiving corps almost always earn that title because of how good their No. 1 and No. 2 options are, not the No. 3 and beyond.

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