3 things we learned from the Tennessee Titans win over the Jacksonville Jaguars
By Will Lomas
3. This offensive line is running out of time to figure it out
You could make the argument for replacing every single one of the Tennessee Titans starting offensive linemen this offseason.
Taylor Lewan is a good tackle and fans should be more optimistic that he will be better in 2022 once he is a full 18 months removed from his ACL injury. However, it really took him a while to look like himself this year, and right now he has 3 years left on his contract with $5.5 million left in guarantees but a cap hit of $42 million ($14 million AAV) over that time.
Rodger Saffold is a warrior, but it is just brutal watching him go out of every other game (sometimes multiple times in the same game) with whatever neck/shoulder injury is bothering him. Like Lewan, Saffold is over 30 and he is scheduled to make $25 million ($12.5 million AAV) over the next two years with just $7 million in guarantees.
Ben Jones is great and I actually think he is the player that the Tennessee Titans coaching staff and front office would keep if they had to pick just one, but he is scheduled to be a free agent this season and they have to ask themselves what they want to give a 33-year-old center.
Nate Davis looked great in the 2020 offense, but in Todd Downing’s new system he has struggled and hasn’t been able to stay healthy. While it doesn’t make sense to cut him, there really hasn’t been a dropoff between him and Dillon Radunz or Aaron Brewer when they have been asked to play.
Finally, David Quessenberry is somewhere on the borderline of being bad and fine. His problem is that his bad games are among the worst in the NFL but his good games are… nonexistent. Instead of good games he just has games where you don’t notice him, so at this point, even his strongest supporters like Mike Vrabel would even have to admit that he was wrong for playing him for so long.
Despite a good game against New England, this group struggled to move the ball with any consistency on Sunday against a bad Jacksonville Jaguars team with nothing to play for, and they should all be desperately trying to convince this front office that the first 13 games of the season were a mirage and that they are actually worth the money they are being paid.