The Tennessee Titans are in the midst of quite the week after owner Amy Adams Strunk shockingly pulled the plug on the Jon Robinson era on Tuesday.
As much as this midseason firing will dominate the headlines for the rest of the week, the Titans still have games left to play, the first of which comes in Week 14 against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
With so much going on, and with the team on a two-game skid going into this one, the Titans couldn’t have drawn a better opponent, as Tennessee has won nine of the last 10 meetings with the Jags, including each of the last five.
While the Titans can improve their chances of winning the division and snap the losing streak with a win, a victory is even more important for the team’s psyche, as our Tyler Rowland rightly pointed out.
With a new week comes new — and some not-so-new — questions for the Titans to answer ahead of their next game. Let’s see what they are for this week.
Can Titans overcome distraction?
While the move to fire general manager Jon Robinson was a positive one, there’s no doubt such an earth-shattering decision has the potential to create distractions in a multitude of ways.
However, the Titans have great leadership to not only get through them, but to thrive despite them, and that starts with head coach Mike Vrabel, who has proven he can get his team up for just about anything.
Thankfully, the Titans have what should be a soft landing spot in a game versus the Jaguars, a team Tennessee typically dominates.
Get Titans can Derrick Henry going?
With the inconsistencies in the passing game, and with how their offense is built overall, the Titans can’t hope to have much success offensively moving forward if they can’t get Derrick Henry going.
That has been quite the struggle over the last four weeks thanks to poor run-blocking that has Henry getting hit at or behind the line of scrimmage on what seems like every play.
In that span, Henry has failed to break the century mark once, and he’s averaged a putrid 2.8, 3.1, 2.2 and 2.7 yards per carry.
But in Week 14, Henry has the perfect bounce-back spot against a team he has owned. In 11 career games against the Jags, Henry has tallied 103.9 rushing yards per contest and an astounding 14 scores on the ground.
If we don’t see at least close to the kinds of performances Henry has become known for against the Jags, the sky will really be falling when it comes to Tennessee’s rushing attack.
Will Treylon Burks play?
We’ve seen what the Titans’ receiving corps. looks like this season without Treylon Burks on the field, and it’s something we never want to see again.
We got another horrible taste of that in Week 13, when Burks was removed from the game early after taking an illegal hit to the head on his touchdown catch, which was the lone one of the afternoon.
Burks figures to be in the concussion protocol this week, which means his status is very much up in the air for Week 14.
If he sits out, the Titans will need more out of Robert Woods and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, but asking for that is a lot based on what we’ve seen this season, especially from Woods.
Realistically, if any pass-catchers are going to step up, it’s going to be tight ends Austin Hooper and Chigoziem Okonkwo, both of whom have been more reliable options of late than the aforementioned receivers.
Will key defensive starters suit up?
Without Denico Autry in the lineup the last two weeks, the Titans’ pass-rush has not been the same, and that has led to Tennessee’s secondary getting exposed and the defense getting torched through the air.
Autry’s status remains up in the air, and one could argue he’s the most important injured player to keep an eye on this week.
But injury concerns on defense extend to more than just Autry, as both David Long and Kristian Fulton exited last Sunday’s contest with injuries. It goes without saying how important both players are to this defense, too.
Will Dennis Daley keep his job?
The Titans’ offensive line as a whole was not good in run-blocking or pass protection in Week 13, but left tackle Dennis Daley was particularly bad when it comes to the latter.
Daley was a turn style on Sunday, giving up three sacks and four pressures in total, and churning out the lowest Pro Football Focus grade in pass protection among starters at 41.4.
On Monday, Vrabel revealed that fellow veteran lineman Le’Raven Clark would have a chance to compete for the job.
But simply taking Daley’s job and actually doing something with it are two different things, and there’s no guarantee that Clark will be better; however, any change from the norm is welcomed with what has transpired upfront.
