Tennessee Titans positional grades and biggest needs: Week 2

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NASHVILLE, TN – SEPTEMBER 16: Quarterback Blaine Gabbert #7 of the Tennessee Titans dodges J.J. Watt #99 of the Houston Texans during the second half at Nissan Stadium on September 16, 2018 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images) /

Quarterback: B

I honestly thought about bumping this up to an A- and including Derrick Henry and Kevin Byard. But as it stands, I just am going to give Gabbert an outright “B”.

It would have been the easiest thing in the world for him to go out there, get that quick touchdown screen to Taywan Taylor and start believing that he was more than he is. That isn’t a knock on Gabbert, it is a compliment.

Self scouting is one of the hardest things in the world to do. To look at yourself in the mirror and critically analyze what you can and cannot do, is a hard thing. Gabbert did that and knew exactly what his game was.

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He never tested deep boundary coverage like Fitzpatrick used to do when he was getting hot, nor did he try to get cute and scramble for free yards on a bootleg putting himself at risk like Locker used to do.

Gabbert played within himself and came away is a 65% completion percentage, a modest 5.8 YPA, and a TD. Not bad for a guy who was given no chance to win behind a banged up OL by name, including myself.

One more note, in the 4th quarter with the game on the line, Gabbert threw a pass that was tipped back to himself. Instead of taking the loss he threw it out of bounds, which is illegal.

My instant reaction was fury because I thought the penalty would be like a grounding call, meaning a spot foul and a loss of down. That is where I was ignorant and Gabbert made a genius play.

Instead of taking a 10 yard loss and it being 3rd and 20ish, the penalty is only 5 yards AND there is no loss of down. This essentially meant that the Titans gained 5 yards and a down because Gabbert knew the rules. That is why he was bumped up from a B-/C+ his understanding to check into the TD pass and that play were huge plays made from the neck up.

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