The Tennessee Titans lost a disappointing overtime contest to a division rival for the second time in three weeks after dropping their Week 15 game against the Houston Texans, 19-16.
Tennessee has now lost seven straight division games dating back to last season, secured its second-straight losing season and is now officially eliminated from playoff contention with a 5-9 record.
The good news is, the Titans only have three games remaining before they can shift their focus on trying to rebuild this team back to relevancy in what will be one of the most crucial offseasons in franchise history.
As you can imagine, there were several viable candidates for this week’s stock report, especially when it comes to those who lowered their stock.
However, I decided to focus on the two who I feel lowered their stock the most. I also decided not to include Derrick Henry since he was in last week’s article, even though he certainly lowered his stock even more following his nine-yard performance.
On the contrary, there were a few players who raised their stock despite the loss. So, let’s find out who fell into which category ahead of a Week 16 matchup against the Seattle Seahawks on Christmas Eve.
Stock up: DL Denico Autry
Denico Autry truly does age like fine wine. In Year 10, he produced a new career-high in sacks and now has double-digit sacks for the first time in his career (11).
Autry recorded two sacks on Sunday, and he is someone who makes his presence felt almost every week. Out of all the aging veterans on expiring contracts, he’s the one who has the strongest argument to be brought back.
Stock down: LG Peter Skoronski
The Titans’ most recent first-round pick had the worst outing of his professional career on Sunday.
Peter Skoronski struggled in both run-blocking and pass protection, often looking like someone who was overwhelmed for most of the game. He did admit that he was dealing with a stinger, so that probably contributed to the poor performance.
Nonetheless, his play was not good enough, regardless of what he was dealing with. For everybody’s sake, let’s hope this was an anomaly and not the new norm for the former Unanimous All-American.
Stock up: WR Treylon Burks
Outside of Week 2, Treylon Burks has largely been an irrelevant component of the offense, but he finally made a noticeable impact in Week 15.
The Arkansas product averaged over 20 yards per catch, tallying 62 yards on three receptions. He also could’ve added a long touchdown to that total had quarterback Will Levis seen him streaking down the field on the play Levis tossed an interception on.
Burks’ stock couldn’t have been any lower, so it’s nice to see him building some positive momentum to end the year. Let’s hope he can continue the strong performances over the final three weeks of the season.
Stock down: OC Tim Kelly
If there is one person who drastically lowered their stock following Sunday’s game, it’s 1,000 percent Titans offensive coordinator Tim Kelly.
It’s hardly an exaggeration to say he called one of the worst games I’ve ever seen in my entire life as a Titans fan.
His play-calling and situational feel against the Texans made Todd Downing look like Andy Reid. Despite having no success with the run game, Kelly insisted on sticking with it.
That would subsequently put the offense in disadvantageous situations where the team was forced to convert on third-and-longs if it wanted to extend the drives. Constantly being in those types of situations would be difficult for any quarterback, let alone a rookie.
Kelly’s Week 15 performance was so bad that half the fanbase is legitimately begging for the team to move on at the conclusion of the year. Only time will tell whether or not that happens, but you can’t blame any fan for feeling that way after that disastrous outing.
