Tennessee Titans Week 17 Snap Report

Written by Tom Gower on .

The NFL this year is keeping track of player participation information and releasing that information to the media on a weekly basis. Here's how the Titans officially lined up in the Week 17 home win against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Offense (54 total)
QB: Jake Locker 54
RB: Chris Johnson 39, Quinn Johnson 23, Collin Mooney 10, Darius Reynaud 4
TE: Taylor Thompson 53, Brandon Barden 23
WR: Kenny Britt 35, Nate Washington 31, Kendall Wright 30, Michael Preston 15, Lavelle Hawkins 6
OL: Kyle DeVan 54, Deuce Lutui 54, Michael Roos 54, Byron Stingily 54, Fernando Velasco 54, Mike Otto 1

Defense (74 total)
DE: Kamerion Wimbley 60, Derrick Morgan 59, Jarius Wynn 19, Scott Solomon 11
DT: Sen'Derrick Marks 47, Jurrell Casey 45, Mike Martin 30, Karl Klug 27
LB: Akeem Ayers 73, Zach Brown 62, Tim Shaw 12, Will Witherpsoon 1
CB: Jason McCourty 74, Coty Sensabaugh 63, Tommie Campbell 52, Alterraun Verner 31
S: Al Afalava 74, Michael Griffin 74

Xavier Adibi, Jordan Babineaux, Patrick Bailey, Beau Brinkley, Mitch Petrus, and Tracy Wilson each only appeared on special teams. Jamie Harper and Matt Hasselbeck were active but did not appear in the game.

Notes

 

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Tennessee Titans picks in 2013 NFL draft

Written by Tom Gower on .

With the regular season just concluded, the NFL has yet to officially determine the 2013 NFL draft order, but as far as I can tell the Tennessee Titans currently hold the following selections in the 2013 NFL entry draft:

1st round, 10th overall (own)
2nd round, 34th overall (via trade)
3rd round, 70st overall (own)
3rd round, 97th overall (compensatory)
4th round, 107th overall (own)
5th round, 142th overall (own)
6th round, 202nd overall (compensatory)
7th round, 248th overall (compensatory)

The Titans currently hold four of their seven original selections, having traded away their sixth-round pick, 166th overall, to the Minnesota Vikings for the 211th overall pick in the 2012 draft, which they used to select DE Scott Solomon and on the second day of the draft, and their second-round pick, 40th overall, and seventh-round pick, 216th overall, plus a 2014 third-round pick to the San Francisco 49ers for the 34th pick.

The Titans were also awarded three compensatory picks, in the third, sixth, and seventh rounds.

When there are updates to the Titans' picks, I will update this post.

UPDATE (2013/02/21): NFL released the official draft order, updated numbers.
UPDATE (2013/03/18): Compensatory picks announced. Updated accordingly.
UPDATE (2013/04/26): Second-round trade added.

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Four return TDs lead Titans past Jaguars, 38-20

Written by Tom Gower on .

The Tennessee Titans got four return touchdowns in a five minute span wrapped around the first half and used those to defeat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 38-20, in the season finale at LP Field today. Zach Brown returned two Chad Henne interceptions for scores and Darius Reynaud returned two punts for scores as part of the barrage.

It looked early like the game would be a shootout on both sides, as the Jaguars scored touchdowns on their first two possessions and the only reason the Titans didn't score two of their own was Nate Washington failed to catch the deep downfield pass by Jake Locker. Little did we know, though, that neither offense would find the end zone again, as both teams reverted to their normal stretch of incompetence. The score didn't move from 14-7 until Brown finally took advantage of one of Henne's repeated attempts to give them the football. The Titans extended their lead to 38-14 with a Rob Bironas field goal, then the Jaguars returned a blocked punt late for the final score.

With four return scores, the Titans didn't get as many chances to run offensive plays as they otherwise would have. Chris Johnson unsurprisingly struggled to find running room. Locker finished 9 of 15 for 152 yards with a couple drops and took two sacks. Collin Mooney got five carries late in the game. Taylor Thompson and Brandon Barden seemed to get a little bit of playing time with Stevens out. 

Defensively, the Titans struggled tackling early once again. In the second half, they got to Chad Henne a lot, as they did in the first matchup. This time, Derrick Morgan led the way with two of the six sacks. Tommie Campbell got to play corner for Alterraun Verner in the second half. Jaguars tight end Marcedes Lewis had a career-high 103 yards receiving, because of course he did. Akeem Ayers and Jason McCourty failed to haul in catchable balls before Zach Brown's first pick-6.

Well, a win is a win. The Titans finish the year at 6-10 and will probably have something like the 10th pick in the 2013 draft. I'll have more on this game later this week, I'm sure, but on to the offseason.

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Jaguars-Titans preview thoughts, gameday thread

Written by Tom Gower on .

I didn't do Enemy Intelligence this week. Given the nature of Week 17 and two teams going absolutely nowhere, my only prediction is that if one team cares, it will win the game. If neither team cares or, somehow, some way, both teams care, the Titans are slightly better than the Jaguars and playing at home. The line of TEN -4 looks reasonable to me, but anything from a close game to either team winning by multiple scores wouldn't surprise me.

Here are your inactives today:

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS: OL Eben Britton, DE John Chick, DT Jerome Long, CB Antwaun Molden, OL Uche Nwaneri, RB Montell Owens, TE Allen Reisner

TENNESSEE TITANS: OL Daniel Baldridge, DT DaJohn Harris, C Kevin Matthews, CB Ryan Mouton, QB Rusty Smith, TE Craig Stevens, WR Damian Williams

For the Jaguars, Nwaneri had a concussion and was ruled out. Owens, who has some moves and a tendency to bounce everything and not run with enough power, apparently tweaked something in warmups and is a surprise scratch. That means more carries for Richard Murphy, who didn't stand out to me. Apparently Keith Toston gets the start. He hasn't had a carry in two seasons. Really.

For the Titans, Collin Mooney is active after being added to the roster. Matthews and Stevens were already ruled out. Mouton and Williams both sit after being listed as questionable, while Jamie Harper, Chris Johnson, Scott Solomon, Will Witherspoon, and Kendall Wright all play with the same designation.

I'll be interested to watch Byron Stingily, whom Munchak said this week will be getting the start at right tackle. Expect Mike Otto to still play some as a blocking tight end with Stevens out. I'll be curious to see how much the Titans use Taylor Thompson, who seems disfavored under Loggains, and Brandon Barden, who has yet to see a snap on offense. Al Afalava apparently gets the start at strong safety for Jordan Babineaux, which is a rearranging deck chairs thing in my book.

As always, I'll be chiming in during the game on Twitter, so follow and yap at me there if you wish, and will also have the normal postgame recap of what I'm sure will be the game of the year.

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On Jake Locker

Written by Tom Gower on .

So it has come to this. Late last season, I wrote a post on a Titans offense that was fundamentally nonfunctional. Three hundred seventy-six days later, the offense is once again fundamentally nonfunctional, for similar but not exactly the same reasons. For this post, though, I'll concentrate on one of the differences. In that post a year ago, I declared Matt Hasselbeck was neither the problem nor the solution. I'm having a very hard time saying the same thing right now of Jake Locker.

Three weeks ago, the great Greg Cosell of NFL Films discussed Locker on his weekly podcast with Adam Caplan. I've mentioned Cosell's thoughts on here before, and I think it's worth excerpting his comments in detail. First excerpt:

 

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The Jaggernaut answers Total Titans' questions about the Jaguars

Written by Andrew Strickert on .

Thanks again to Shane Clemons, who runs the fine Jacksonville Jaguars blog, The Jaggernaut. Shane joins us this week to give us a Jaguars viewpoint in this week's question and answer exchange. You can read my answers to Shane's questions here. Following are his answers to our questions.

Total Titans: One of our regular readers, Scott, asks, "Like the Titans, the Jaguars failed to take a step forward this year. Both teams actually look like they are moving in the wrong direction and have multiple weaknesses. With that in mind, where do you see the team going in the draft? Is it time for another QB, or are they satisfied enough with the Gabbert/Henne tandem for at least another year?"

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On the Titans positioning for the 2013 draft

Written by Andrew Strickert on .

According to the NFL, if the season ended today the Titans would have the eighth overall pick in the 2013 draft.  Since there are still a full slate of games to be played, the Titans will draft somewhere from fifth to thirteenth, depending upon the outcome of some of those games.

If you want to know who to root for on Sunday, as it affects the Titans' draft position, here's your info.

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