The Tennessee Titans have had a handful of days to digest their deflating 20-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers last Thursday, a game that wasn’t a pretty contest by any means.
There were a lot of moments the team certainly wishes it could have back. In fact, if the Titans somehow find a way to go on a second-half run but fall just short of making the playoffs, this is the kind of game that they’ll look back on as one that got away.
Despite the loss, there were some players who found a way to improve their individual stock ahead of a Week 10 matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
On the contrary, several others ended up lowering theirs by the end of the weekend.
Scroll down below to see which three players we felt raised their stocks and which players/coaches ended up lowering theirs after the disappointing defeat at the hands of the Steelers.
Stock up: QB Will Levis
Will Levis didn’t have the impressive stat line he had in his debut. However, he emphatically silenced his naysayers who said he wouldn’t be able to overcome poor play around him.
The Titans’ offensive line struggled throughout the game, especially along the blindside. Yet, Levis never seemed flustered and punched back more often than not.
All you had to do was take one quick look at Twitter to see how much hype he was getting throughout the game, both locally and nationally.
The future is very bright for the Kentucky product as long as the team makes an effort to surround him with adequate help going forward.
Stock down: LT Andre Dillard
When it comes to Andre Dillard, it’s simply time to put an end to that experiment. As I’ve stated, I’d rather see Dillon Radunz get a chance at playing his natural position instead of going back to the disaster that is Dillard.
The veteran lineman allowed a whopping nine pressures to Alex Highsmith, per Next Gen Stats. Dillard also leads the league in sacks allowed with eight.
Tennessee cannot keep putting its young quarterback in harm’s way by continuing to trot out the human turnstile wearing No. 71.
Stock down: OT Nicholas Petit-Frere
An injury might have saved Petit-Frere from an absolute embarrassment on Thursday evening. T.J. Watt constantly beat him with ease, either forcing a sack, tackle for loss or penalty on what felt like every other play.
Some want to see him take over at left tackle again once right tackle Chris Hubbard returns, but I’m not one of those people. I want to see the Titans trot out their best five offensive linemen, and I believe Radunz has earned the right to fall in that category.
He consistently held his own against arguably the best pass-rusher in football to the point that they started to move Watt around due to the success the former second-round pick was having.
A left side that consists of Radunz and Peter Skoronski intrigues me much more than any tandem that includes NPF.
Stock up: OL Dillon Radunz
Radunz has sneakily been one of the team’s most reliable offensive linemen this season, even though he’s mostly been a backup. Radunz looked much better at right tackle than Petit-Frere, who was getting abused by Watt prior to getting hurt.
The North Dakota State product deserves to be a starter somewhere along the offensive line, preferably on the left side once Hubbard returns.
Stock down: Titans’ defensive line
At this rate, the Titans’ defensive line will find itself in the stock up section next Sunday before coming back to the stock down category the following week — that’s just the type of inconsistent trajectory this D-line has been on.
One week, it looks like the group we all expected it to be. The next, the unit looks like a bunch of overpaid defenders.
If the Titans want any chance at turning their season around, they desperately need this group to get back to playing consistently dominating football.
Stock up: CB Kristian Fulton
Earlier this year, Kristian Fulton was one of the most scrutinized players on the team — and rightly so, because he was often a liability on the backend. At one point, opposing quarterbacks had a perfect passer rating when throwing his way.
With that said, if we’re going to point out his low moments, it’s only fair that we praise him when he performs well.
Over the last three games, Fulton has only allowed an average of 16 yards per contest when targeted. This is the level of play many of us expected from the Titans cornerback, so it’s nice to see him finally getting back on track.
Stock down: Offensive coordinator Tim Kelly
Tim Kelly has often been praised this season due to his creativity, even if the execution wasn’t always up to par. Unfortunately, the performance he had last Thursday certainly wasn’t one to remember.
The worst part about his day is how his biggest blunders came at the most inopportune times.
Kelly chose to be conservative at the end of the first half when the team was at the 10-yard line. Tennessee ended up settling for three points instead of going for six in a game that it lost by four.
His worst decision of the day came on a third-and-four in the fourth quarter, where Kelly decided to hand the ball off to Tyjae Spears to no avail before seeing Levis take an unsuccessful deep shot on fourth down.
Kelly has mostly been solid in 2023, but Week 9 was not one of those outings.
