What Amy Adams Strunk and the Titans can learn from the Chiefs Super Bowl LVIII win

Kansas City defeated the San Francisco 49ers (again) in Super Bowl LVIII 25-22 five years after the Chiefs dispatched the Titans in the 2019 AFC Championship game. Everything Strunk's organization has done since then has been in an effort to get back to the NFL's biggest game. Tennessee has not appeared in a Super Bowl since January of 2000, where they were defeated in heartbreaking fashion 23-16 by the Los Angeles Rams. 

While the league lays relatively low for the next few weeks preparing for the annual scouting combine on Feb. 28, all eyes locally will be focused on how the Titans attempt to dig themselves out of the hole they have been in for the last two seasons. Tennessee finished 7-10 and 6-11 respectively in the 2022 and 2023 campaigns.

The 49ers Super Bowl LVIII team is the model that these current Titans are chasing. Quarterback Will Levis enters the second year of his four-year rookie contract in 2024, providing the advantage of cost control at the sports most important position. Tennessee GM Ran Carthon will have the second-most salary cap space in the sport at his disposal to further address the positions of need on this roster around Levis in that effort to maximize the young passer's potential.

San Francisco and the Philadelphia Eagles before them in Super Bowl LVII had done everything correctly, both getting up on Kansas City in their respective championship appearances against them by double-digit margins. 

Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs stormed back both times to defeat them anyway. Kansas City became the first NFL team to successfully defend their title since Tom Brady's New England Patriots did it in 2003-2004.

Strunk recently fired a member of that New England team as her head coach, moving on from Mike Vrabel at season's end last month. The 68-year old daughter of club founder K.S. "Bud" Adams, Jr., will break ground on a new stadium for her team on Feb. 29. She has raised the standard for the franchise since she took the reigns in 2015.

Former Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan's hire to replace Vrabel is the latest movement in that effort.

Strunk wants that for her new venue. Her product on the field still has a long way to go after a last-place finish in its division. The message from her fan base is clear: improve the product, or we'll find something better to do. 

All the maneuvering in the world by Tennessee and every other organization in the sport will be to figure out the best way to break up the Chiefs dynasty. The Patriots went a decade without winning it all, only to circle back at the end of Brady's career to win three more before he departed New England and won his seventh and final title as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Kansas City took the dynastic mantle from New England, putting every other AFC fan base in a stranglehold that looks insurmountable.

While Mahomes feels as much if not more inevitable than those Brady-Patriots teams did, the NFL's parity eventually comes for us all. The question for Strunk and the Titans is whether they can be the ones to capitalize on those ever-shrinking windows and steal a championship. 

As I've said time and time again, I will never shy away from saying that I have extremely high expectations for our football team and really our entire organization," said Strunk on the day she introduced Callahan as the next coach of her team. "I expect us to build a team that is going to have sustained success and bring Lombardi trophies to the city of Nashville. I am confident that we have put the right pieces in place to bring that goal to life and build a future that Titan fans will be proud of."

One Lombardi Trophy would be a start, if Tennessee can ever be capable of catching Mahomes and Chiefs slipping.