The Tennessee Titans suffered their second loss in as many weeks by dropping their overseas battle with the Baltimore Ravens, 24-16.
Tennessee now gets to enjoy a brief break away to reflect and regroup, both as individuals and collectively, ahead of the stretch run of the season that could go either way.
If there’s one thing a Mike Vrabel-led football team has shown us over his entire head-coaching tenure, it’s to never prematurely count his team out.
However, this could be too steep of a hole to dig out of this time around, considering the talent level — or lack thereof — that team is currently dealing with.
We’ll have to patiently wait and see to get a definitive answer in that regard, but for now, it’s time to take a look at which players improved their stock heading into the bye and which players saw theirs decline based on their showings in Week 6.
Stock up: QB Will Levis
For somebody who was technically inactive over the first six weeks of the season, rookie quarterback Will Levis suddenly has a lot of people who are campaigning to see him play when the team comes back from the bye.
When you combine the fact that Ryan Tannehill is hurt and Malik Willis was poor in his relief appearance, along with the reality that Tennessee currently sits at 2-4, it’s easy to see why fans are clamoring for the switch.
I want to see him run the play-action game that he does well at with Derrick Henry/Tyjae Spears & DeAndre Hopkins/Treylon Burks instead of whatever he was working with at Kentucky, especially in 2022.
— Shaun Calderon (@ShaunMichaels31) October 17, 2023
Only time will tell whether this comes to fruition or not, but there is at least a realistic chance that we could be seeing the No. 33 overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft come Week 8.
Stock down: QBs Ryan Tannehill, Malik Willis
We touched on it a little earlier, but both quarterbacks that played on Sunday were rather underwhelming.
Tannehill not only got hurt, but his play through the first six games was rather inconsistent — and that continued against the Ravens, as he only completed 50 percent of his passes (8-of-16) for 76 yards and one pick.
Willis, on the other hand, had an impressive game if you didn’t watch and only looked at the box score. The Liberty product completed four-of-five passes for 74 yards.
But what that stat line doesn’t show is how 64 percent of that yardage came on just one screen pass to Tyjae Spears, where the rookie basically did all of the work. Even the passes that Willis did complete were mostly inaccurate throws that didn’t allow the pass-catcher to make a play after the catch.
The Liberty product simply looked like the same player we saw a year ago, which was a player who did not look like a starting NFL quarterback.
Assuming Tannehill can’t go, I personally would rather give all of the first-team reps to Levis these next two weeks so he can have an actual chance to build a rapport with the first-team offense.
Stock up: C Aaron Brewer
Aaron Brewer has been one of the most underrated players on the team for quite some time now.
The Texas State product has his flaws, most notably when it comes to his physical stature. However, Brewer also possesses rare athleticism for an interior lineman, and he often pairs it with high effort.
Heck of an effort from Brewer on this screen pic.twitter.com/0Ma4py9aqz
— Brandon Thorn (@BrandonThornNFL) October 16, 2023
According to Pro Football Focus, Brewer received the fifth-highest overall grade (72.1) on the team last Sunday and second highest on the offensive side of the ball, only trailing Derrick Henry.
Stock down: Titans’ left tackles
Both Andre Dillard and Nicholas Petit-Frere played their fair share of snaps last Sunday. Unfortunately, neither really did much to solidify the job going forward.
Dillard was eventually benched after he gave a poor effort and looked hopeless against the Ravens’ formidable front.
Nicholas Petit-Frere is now in at Left Tackle after Andre Dillard gave no effort on that last drive.
— Courtlandt L.M. Griffin (@thecgriffy) October 15, 2023
To be honest, there was a clear upgrade once NPF went in, at least at first.
Not for nothing, but NPF is looking pretty good as the #Titans LT right now.
— Football & Other F Words (@FWordsPod) October 15, 2023
Sadly, he progressively got worse as the game went on, especially after the quarterback change when he was suddenly tasked with having to hold his blocks longer than normal.
Regardless, the team now has two weeks to figure out who will be on the blindside for the rest of the season.
The @PFF numbers for Andre Dillard and Nicholas Petit-Frere, who split LT time for #Titans:
-Dillard (24 snaps): 4 pressures allowed (1 sack, 2 QB hits, 1 hurry); 34.3 overall off. grade.
-Petit-Frere (32 snaps): 4 pressures allowed (2 sacks, 2 hurries); 32.2 overall off. grade.— John Glennon (@glennonsports) October 16, 2023
It probably won’t happen, but I think these two weeks would be the perfect time to get Peter Skoronski ready to play left tackle again while kicking Dillon Radunz back into the starting left guard role.
Whether any of that happens remains to be seen, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up at this point.
Stock up: ILBs Azeez Al-Shaair, Jack Gibbens
After looking horrendous against the Colts, the Titans’ linebacker tandem bounced back nicely, earning PFF‘s two highest grades among Titans defenders.
They definitely had their low moments where they occasionally whiffed and/or over-pursued on Lamar Jackson and the Ravens’ offense, but they got back to playing winning football for the most part.
Stock down: Titans’ pass catchers
The Titans had four wide receivers catch at least one pass against the Ravens. Sadly, the four of them only combined for a total of 57 yards. Tight ends Josh Whyle and Chig Okonkwo added 29 receiving yards between the two of them.
Between those six players, the Titans only tallied 86 receiving yards.
Obviously, the inconsistent quarterback play had something to do with it, but they could also make life easier for whoever is under center by finding ways to create separation instead of constantly forcing the quarterback to make tight-window throws.
Once the break is over, this team desperately needs Treylon Burks to come back and be the reliable sidekick to DeAndre Hopkins we all expected him to be prior to the season.
Stock down: Offensive coordinator Tim Kelly
Tim Kelly has mostly received a lot of praise over the last few weeks for his creative play designs despite the occasional lack of execution. With that said, it’s probably safe to say the game he called in London wasn’t one of his best games of the year.
The most confusing part of his day was how Kelly would get away from Henry at the most inopportune time despite the success he was having.
Kelly also had play designs that were rather confusing at times, often placing multiple players in the same area, which subsequently created a cluster rather than taking advantage of the entire field.
The Titans’ offensive coordinator has mostly been solid all year long, so I’ll assume this was an anomaly for now. But he deserves to be on the stock-down portion of this article.
