One of the positives coming out of the Tennessee Titans’ ugly Week 12 win over the Carolina Panthers was the performance of rookie offensive tackle Jaelyn Duncan, who made his first career start at left tackle.
Duncan wasn’t perfect by any means and certainly showed some of the flaws you’d expect out of a rookie making his first start. However, the Maryland product held his own throughout the contest and was certainly better than anything we’ve seen out of Andre Dillard this season.
The rookie accounted for at least two pressures, one against Brian Burns and another when he failed to pick up a blitz out of the slot. Thankfully, rookie signal-caller Will Levis was able to get the ball out fast enough to avoid sacks on those two reps.
Duncan also committed a false start penalty that turned a third-and-short into a third-and-long.
Other than those three plays, we didn’t hear much more about Duncan, which is always a good thing for an offensive lineman. Overall, it’s safe to say his first start was a success and he deserves another opportunity next week.
#Titans HC Mike Vrabel: Jaelyn Duncan was "OK, some good snaps" at LT. Mentioned some technique that needs improvement, but thought he settled down
— Jim Wyatt (@jwyattsports) November 27, 2023
Duncan rightly classified his play as “pretty good” but noted there’s room for him to be better.
“I think it went pretty good,” Duncan said, according to Paul Kuharsky. “Of course, there’s a lot of room for improvement. A couple of pressures but it’s the game, you’re going to make a mistake, but like I said, I think it went pretty good.”
When you consider the circumstances and what the Titans have gotten out of the left tackle position in 2023, Duncan’s performance was just about as good as anyone could’ve hoped for.
Now, it’s all about stacking good games, something Duncan will look to do when the Titans host the Indianapolis Colts in Week 13.
