Is Zach Mettenberger the future?

Last Sunday was horrible to watch, but as educated fans, let's not freak out and abandon everything Mett has done to this point. I wanted Mett to play through they injury. He showed toughness and genuine care for our franchise. That speaks volumes about his character as a guy who knew he would get hit a lot. With Hunter, Wright, Oher, Lewan, and Stingly out, what could we expect from him? Is it realistic for us to think that Mett would come in as a rookie playing with Hagan, Durham, and a decimated O-line to hang 40 points in a win? No.

I have to blame Whiz on this one. I know he wanted to open up the playbook to see how Mett could handle his offense but at some point you have to pack it in and play to live another day. The defining moment in the game was when Mett got blasted, got up slowly, looked over at Whiz and gave him a grimacing thumbs up. Mett continued to play through a tough shoulder injury. I love it! That is Brett Favre type stuff. Now Whiz needs to understand that Mett is giving himself up to try and make something happen, and adjust the game plan so he doesn't hurt himself.

It is not time for Whiz to get fired but he needs to learn from this. I only say this because I have seen team hit rock bottom and then be playoff contenders. Usually we are always around .500. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise. We will have a lot of flexibility in the off-season to draft a ton of players to fill our holes, especially on defense.

We are not in contention for the playoffs so when Mett took a shot dial down the offense and play for next week. Whiz believed in Mett and kept trying to go deep. I understand Whiz and his philosophy but at this point in the season put your ego aside.

Now I keep reading all of our fans' comments all over the internet and the jury is split. Half have given up on Mett and half want to see him with a decent O-line. What do you think?

It only makes sense to give Mett another shot, in my opinion. He showed a lot of promise, poise, and toughness literally playing in a horrible situation all year. It is not fair to evaluate him based on the lack of production around him. We struggled as an entire team the entire year minus the KC and PIT games. 

For as bad as the Giant - Titan game was Mett's performance against the Steelers makes up for it! He played well, made plays and overcame the worst start to your Monday Night Football debut. That is the Mett we will get with a good o-line and he will only improve with an entire off-season of work.

Also, drafting a rookie QB will just lead to another year of growing pains and such. Mett is on our team and we have so many other problems that why not give Mett an entire year. If he is absolute garbage then we can draft someone. There is no rush. Patience is the key with the Mett Show. He has all of the tools and he has toughness. He is perfect for Nashville. Give him the chance to be "the guy" and not just a rookie trying to get the job.

The Titans would benefit by giving Mett another year and trading their top pick much like the Rams did with the Redskins. The Rams gave their QB another chance and went out and built a defense. Now everyone is saying they are a QB away from a great team. But they built a dominate defense. I personally think Mett is better than Shaun Hill. If we can build a defense and let Mett develop then I would say our team will be much better.

Trade our pick, move down, draft Amari Cooper and then with the remaining draft choices address the entire defense and some pieces on the offensive line.

Then we will get to see a young QB with a bunch of weapons and hopefully some time to throw. Then every one will be on the Mett Show bandwagon.

#KeepTheMettShow

  Follow @twitterdev

#TitanUp #MettShow #Titans #AlexOnTitans

The Off Season can't come quick enough!

There are so many laughable, disgusting, and down right hard to watch things about the Titans right now. The product on the field is as bad as it ever has been and the sheer lack of excitement would seem to damper the view of the future. As mortified as I am every Sunday, I am surprisingly optimistic for next season. But first let's highlight the bad.

Off Season Acquisitions:

Ken Whisenhunt - Coach Whiz was regarded by the media as being the single greatest signing of the Titans' off season. I was weary of those expectations but I also wanted to believe that a new coach with Super Bowl experience would get our players into the right spots so we could finally have a scary good offense. I am not advocating for Whiz to be fired but his performance has been poor the entire season. On that note, so have many of the players and we expect them to get better in the future so I will hold out hope that Whiz, having a year under his belt in Tennessee, will perform better next season. I firmly believe he planned on the season being an awful one. He didn't want to start Locker and intended on his plan to ride with Mett, Lewan, and Sankey as the Whiz future. I am okay with that. Our Wide Receivers need to be better beating one on one coverage but that will come with consistency as the QB position. Our team is exciting, on paper, but it will take a solid off-season and faith in Mett to produce a playoff team next year. Plain and simple, Whiz needs to step up.

Delanie Walker - Dude is a straight baller and will be Mett's cushion for years to come. No need to elaborate here. We all love the guy.

Dexter McCluster - The Titans literally signed him a minute after Free Agency opened up. Obviously they wanted him and have had plans for him. This season it isn't happening. I don't really know who to blame here but if our offense is going to be successful I think McCluster will be a big part of that. We have seen flashes, but do to our poor execution overall Dexter has not had a lot of impact. He will be better next year, pending Whiz getting him in open space. (How many times have we said that about our coaches ugh!)

Michael Oher - Eh...He's not horrible. I don't have much in the way of evaluating him. There are times he is a strong RT but other times he looks lost. Who knows! He is the best option on the roster right now unless Stingly is better than we think.

Taylor Lewan - I think this guy is an ANIMAL. He has breakdowns and sometimes stupid penalties but he is competitive and he likes Mett so I think he is the perfect fit for Zach's blind side. I feel bad for Michael Roos. Maybe if he wants to stay in Tennessee he replaces Oher on the right?

Bishop Sankey - I wouldn't say he is an upgrade from Chris Johnson at this point. CJ2K had home run potential every play and always made defenses stack the box, something we have severely underrated. Sankey is shifty but I swear the guy's long run of the year is like 9 yards. I know that is over exaggerating but I don't feel like he has any big plays. I like him and McCluster in the future though.

Zach Mettenberger - We have found our franchise QB now it is time to be patient. I know I crowned him the "guy" a few weeks ago and probably prematurely, but he is the perfect fit for our city and our fans. He has swagger, toughness, and arm talent. I think the guy is going to be a franchise guy who will end up giving Luck some memorable battles for years to come. Now let's just hope his shoulder is okay and he guts through it. If he does that, I am all in for this guy. Give him another off season and more weapons. I am all in on the Bandwagon. But then again I have been since his first start. Zach is the only reason I turn on the TV on Sunday just to see his progression.

Here are my grades for the future of these pickups. Basically I think Mett, Sankey, Walker, and McCluster will be solid players for the foreseeable future. Whiz, well we could do better we could do worse. Oher is just a stop gap until we find something better, low risk signing.

Whisenhunt C+
Walker A+
McCluster B
Oher C
Sankey B
Mettenberger A

Let me hear what you think and let's have a discussion. We suck this year, but so did the Colts right before they drafted Luck! lol

Follow me on Twitter for Blog updates and other random stuff.

  Follow @twitterdev

#TitanUp #MettShow #Titans #AlexOnTitans

Monday Night Football is the Titans' Super Bowl.

My bold prediction last post was wrong. As I sat down and turned on the game I had hope. I guess this can be contributed to Mettenberger, but on queue the franchise known as the Titans decided to fall apart. I expected the Titans to really be in the Baltimore game and after the bye we would see a glimpse of a promising future. 21-7 was nowhere near what I expected but let's get into the game a little bit.

Quote of the day: " I don’t necessarily think it was a matter of punishment, but obviously you’re not happy about those things, it can’t happen." - Ken Wisenhunt (On Shonn Greene not entering the game after the fumble.) Cough Cough Yeah right!

The Titans came out on the first drive and had arguably their best string of plays this season. Mett looked good and got through his progressions. On multiple third downs we converted. I actually thought my prediction had some substance. Was Whiz's plan coming together? Then Shonn Greene fumbled on an opening TD.  The Titans forced a quick three and out and then marched right down the field capping another drive with a nifty shovel pass. Finally some creative play calling!

We all know this part of the game which was followed up with a horrible injury, multiple penalties, and enough three and outs to cure insomnia. But what really shocks me is the calling for Mett to be benched or saying he isn't the future from our fans. This is premature.

Mettenberger has shown his arm talent and ability to stand in the pocket and deliver strikes. His first start was against the best front seven in football and his second start was in Baltimore against a solid Ravens team. I do think we could have attacked their secondary more but that is something Whiz needs to fix. Mett didn't play great but he is only in his second game as a starter. (Josh Gunnels from MCM  has a great article about the sacks here) Let's cool the jets and let him play out the season. Mettenberger has the chance to be our guy and let us draft other needs rather than restarting with a new rookie next season. In my opinion barring an utter collapse we should let Mett start the rest of this season, give him a full off-season, and start him the entire year next season. That way we can draft pass rushers and corners in the draft. He is good enough to be a starter and I have a hunch he will be a great player. This is coming from a guy who didn't think Locker should have been benched.


Monday Night Football is the Titans' Super Bowl this year.


 Berger #7 VS. Berger #7:
The Titans generally don't garner a ton of prime-time coverage. ESPN does't talk about us. Our Thursday Night Game is against Jacksonville. Andrew Luck overshadows us and takes all of the media's attention. These are the facts, we aren't a marketable team. So on MNF we can change that a bit. Here is a chance for us to make a national splash. Mett is making his MNF debut and we all hate the Steelers. This is the biggest game of our season. We need to clean it up real quick and put on a show on Monday if we want to have TV games in the future. This is also a great opportunity for Mett to make progress in becoming a "Franchise QB." Wouldn't it be nice to listen to a post game interview where Mett is talking about his 4 TD performance and his clutch come from behind game winning drive in the final two minutes?

Titans 31 Steelers 27 (Why not us? For once!)

I am sick and tired of us not scoring points and playing conservative. Open it up Whiz and let's pull off some Monday Night Magic.

What do you think? I want to hear how Titans Nation feels about Mett and MNF! Let's Discuss. Here is a look at past results as per Jim Wyatt's Twitter account: (Date, Place, Titans' Outcome, Score)

PS. I am watching this game with a good friend who is a Steelers fan! #TitanUp Follow me on Twitter for Blog updates and other random stuff.

  Follow @twitterdev

#TitanUp #MettShow #Titans #AlexOnTitans

After the Bye Week (2-6) A Bold Prediction.

I have expressed optimism in my previous posts but now it would probably take a miracle to get to 8-8. That being said Vince Young did it a couple times. All things considered it won't happen this year (I hope I'm dead wrong). At 2-6 the Titans look as bad as they ever have been the last several seasons. But I firmly believe the Titans will play a lot better against the Ravens than people expect.

It is The Mett Show time in Nashville and that is a good thing. Most other teams are viewing him as a random third stringer who is just a patch until we draft Mariota, Winston, or Hundley. Whiz wouldn't like any of those QBs as we could tell with his treatment/play calling with Locker. Whiz likes the big, strong, pocket passing type of QB. Plus he already groomed, literally, Mett to look a certain way. Mett is the designated "Franchise Face" of the Titans. Now it is up to Mett to make Whiz look like a genius.

Teams generally don't draft 6th rounders to be the face of the franchise, but this is a unique situation. Mettenberger is as arm talented as any QB drafted in his class and Whiz believes he can turn that talent into a star. I believe too. Mettenberger has all of the moxie and swagger of a star QB. He has the talent and the weapons. Whiz built this team to fit his strengths, plus he drafted his blind side man in Lewan. Whiz envisions Mett and Lewan being the core of the Titans for years to come, and for once it would be nice, for us Titans fans, if it actually worked out. Let's do a skill position roster recap and see where we are headed.



QB Z. Mettenberger (His job to lose plain and simple if he has some success he is our guy)

RB1 B. Sankey (Really confused here. Whiz and him need to talk)

RB2 D. McCluster, S. Greene (Both of these guys have a role. Dexter needs to be more like Woodhead)

WR1 J. Hunter (All the talent will get better having the same QB for more than two games at a time)

WR2 K. Wright (Probably our best all around weapon up there with Walker)

WR3 N. Washington (Sad to say, I am calling it that he is gone and Whiz drafts another outside receiver)

TE D. Walker (Having hands down the best season and will help Mett a lot)

Looking at this on paper paired with our investments in the offensive line we should be a good football team. But what we lack is a leader, a franchise guy who can put it all together. CJ2K was always our face so we never relied on the QB position. Our defense was good, we ran the ball, and VY made some plays. That was our recipe for success (after the McNair Era). Now we have a whole bunch of weapons and still when teams play the Titans there is nobody they "have" to key on.

I am saying it now because this blog is meant for fans to discuss topics that Paul Kuharsky and Jim Wyatt can't. The Titans will beat the Ravens and we will have the first glimpse of our future. Mett will be solid, he may make a mistake but he will make plays down the field. Whiz will finally see the offense he imagined with his guy behind center, being protected by his guy, throwing to a bunch of talented wide receivers. After this bye week I fully expect the Titans to look a lot more like a good offensive football team. I am predicting a lot of Luck - Mettenberger match-ups for many years. I am going out on a limb and this may be crazy, but who wants to write or read a blog that doesn't take risks. I hope all who read engage in a debate calling me nuts or praising the guts. (That rhymed lol). You heard it here, Zach Mettenberger will be the Franchise QB for the Titans. It is his job to lose and I think he will take the opportunity and run with it.

 Let's discuss! Follow me on twitter and let's win on Sunday!

Shout-out to The TN Stud for having a great discussion that helped me write this post!

Follow @twitterdev

#TitanUp #MettShow #Titans #AlexOnTitans

The Mett Show

As everyone has heard the Titans have tabbed Zach Mettenberger as the starter to face the Texans on Sunday. As you can probably tell from my last post I think this may be premature. But also stemming from my last post now is ZM's Golden Opportunity. The Titans need a spirited leader, plain and simple. Look at all of the great QBs, a lot of them have that crazy competitiveness and raw passion. The one thing I want to see as a Titan fan is Mettenberger embrace the leadership  role and take this team by storm.

Zach has everything the a prototypical QB exhibits, size, arm, and beard, okay the beard isn't a requirement but it is pretty awesome. He showed great promise at LSU but due to a suspension and a knee injury he slipped to the 6th round.I do believe in Zach but I think it could be scary having his first game as a pro against JJ Watt and possibly Clowney. He is an immobile QB who will have a great front seven attacking him at all times. Hopefully he isn't skiddish in the pocket and trying to protect his knee.

The game plan should be to get the ball in our play-makers
hands quick while sprinkling in some deep shots especially to Hunter. If Zach can make some big throws down the field he can gain the support of our weapons and our offense could explode. Whiz loves these types of QBs. He always wants the prototypical QB and while I have my reservations I see the potential.

My theory has always been if you can't protect the QB then get a mobile QB until you can sure up the O-Line. The biggest challenge will be for the offensive line (that we spent millions on) to keep Zach on his feet allowing him to use his deep ball throwing skills. If we can do this, who knows, maybe we have the next Brady! (wishful thinking)

There have been rumors that say Whiz and Locker have a "rift" and haven't talked since the browns game. I am skeptical about the truth of these rumors. If they are true though, Whiz is an a-hole, and his future with the players will not be good. Let's hope it isn't true because we will have some serious problems in the future.

Let me know what your thoughts are.

Follow me on Twitter for Blog updates and other random stuff.  Follow @twitterdev

#TitanUp #Titans #TheMettShow

Jake Locker's Golden Opportunity (The Only Optimistic Scenario)

The Titans are sinking very rapidly as they get ready to play the Texans this weekend. The Titans could very easily be one of the teams on the rise if they could have made one or two more plays against the Browns and Redskins. All of that said, they are 2-5 and being labeled a joke in the NFL.

Here is where it gets really interesting. As many of you can recall Vince Young twice stepped into a large hole (0-5, 0-6) and led the team on miraculous winning streaks. One of them being 6 games early in his career. When a team is at rock bottom, which honestly it feels lower than that currently, one spark can ignite a run. When everything is going poorly it is easy to improve by leaps and bounds because just about any improvement will look like a major gain for this team. Jake Locker has this chance.



Jake Locker should be playing this weekend and he can be the spark for all of Tennessee. Locker has nothing to lose. Most likely he is going to be a free agent and the Titans will look to the free agency or draft to find a franchise quarterback. I will also shed light on another theory that could save this season and our franchise.

With nothing to lose Jake comes out guns blazing, running around, and doing everything in his ability to win each and every play. He needs to harness the passion of a Brett Favre and take chances. He has ability and courage; now he has to merge the two for a great run. If Locker can put the team on his back and lead by ferociously competing for every yard on the field he could ignite our stagnant offense. Wright, Hunter, Walker, McCluster, and Sankey all have talent but no confidence, no leadership. Insert Jacob Cooper Locker. There is a chance the Titans could beat Houston, look what the Steelers did last night compared to how they looked against the Browns. If Locker can scramble, run, fight and claw a tough victory against Houston then we go into the bye 3-5. ESPN will still laugh at us but it isn't over at that point. YES, I know what you are thinking, the schedule only gets tougher. Well I will agree but I will also say a league where the Browns recover from a 25 point deficit, pound the Steelers and then lay an egg versus the Jags, literally anything can happen.

After the bye we have:

@Ravens
Steelers
@Eagles
@Texans
Giants
Jets
@Jaguars
Colts

Not an easy road. Look at it this way. Titans usually play close with average teams. Wins against PIT, HOU (Twice), NYG, NYJ, and JAX is not impossible if the above Locker shows up and we have that story book run (where for once things bounce our way). That would get us to 8-8 almost identical to the Vince Young run we had. Now if we are super lucky we somehow claw into a playoff spot, probably not realistic. Now we look at the other games. Eagles, Ravens, Colts. If we can have one lucky game (Like STL vs SEA last weekend) that puts us at 9-7. This may be crazy but Jake Locker has a golden opportunity with nothing to lose, why not us? At least one time.

Let's discuss leave a comment! #TitanUp

Chris Johnson: Should we let him go?

Chris Johnson, plain and simple:

Johnson has amassed over his career 7,965 rush yards with an average of 4.6 yards per carry. He is one of six players to rush for 2,000 yards and has never posted a season with less than 1,000 yards.  All of these statistics are impressive but apparently to Titan fans not enough to convince them CJ should stay in Nashville. But these are not his most important stats, he has done something many greats have not be able to do.  In seven years of being a workhorse he as missed one game, which was in 2008.  Adrian Peterson, Lesean
Mccoy, Frank Gore, Matt Forte, and so on and so forth can not say the same.

Chris Johnson has dreads, tattoos, and a grill but does that make him a diva? He asked for the ball in clutch situations of the game does that make him a selfish player? He gets a bad wrap for nothing at all.  He is durable, electric, hard working, and one of the best players to lace up his cleats EVERY Sunday in Titan history but we the fans want him gone. Why? Durability is something that does not have a monetary value and when your floor is a thousand yards, the Titans should feel lucky to have a RB of that pedigree.

Have we Titan fans been so blind to the league that we want change for the sake of change? Look at Jamaal Charles and Lesean Mccoy this season. How was Mccoy succes
sful? Answer, heavy dose of outside zone running from spread formations which allowed him to get into the secondary and be himself.  Jamaal Charles was used spectacularly by Andy Reid, in the passing and running game, how 'bout them Raiders Jamaal? These teams have coaches that specialize in offensive strategy and get their players in great positions to succeed, the Titans however do not. I can guarantee you and all of the Titans fans if we had Mccoy and ran him the same as CJ he would have had about 1,077 yards this season.  It is insane to run a small, fast, and nimble running back into 300 pound linemen and ask him to plow over them every time.  This season I watched every one of the Titans' 16 games and I can't count the number of times I cursed at Loggains and Munchack for running CJ right up the middle, that's Shonn Greene's job, let CJ get on the outside and outrun people! Here are two examples of my point.

66 yard TD catch

Chris Johnson catches a short pass and takes it to the house for a 66 yard touchdown against the 49ers defense.  Why did this work? He got past the defensive linemen and made everyone else look foolish with speed. So why did the Titans continue to run him up the middle? Why not try something new? He did the same thing on a fluke flip from Fitzpatrick against Kansas City and took it 49 yards for a TD.

Chris Johnson is our best player. We should have been catering the offense to him all season and let Locker play against loaded boxes. I do believe that was the plan but locker got hurt. That is poor luck and created a team that was even more one dimensional. Shonn Green ran for 3.8 yards per carry and Chris Johnson ran for 3.9 yards per carry. Without Locker and a line that underachieved why blame Johnson? Both running backs had the same issues. Remember that last two games of the season, now think about a torn meniscus, now think about someone who was injured but rather than sit out, kept it quiet and ran as hard as ever, that sounds like a player I want on my team.  He took criticism for having a down season and rather than blame his knee he let his reputation take the hit. We all blamed him. He is a tough man and we need him if we ever want to win a Superbowl for Bud.

If Ken Whisenhunt is really an offensive genius then he should embrace the opportunity to use Chris Johnson as a weapon.  Our problems are at QB right now.  Teams simply line up 8 or 9 men boxes to stop CJ because they understand he can kill them. The focus on Johnson gives our wide receivers a lot of one on one match-ups, which Kendall Wright did well with, but we had a terribly inconsistent QB in Fitzpatrick and became one dimensional. We don't have a problem at RB why would we cut the most durable RB in the league and create another position that we have to fix. Let's fix the QB situation, let Locker compete with a rookie and if Locker gets hurt we will have someone to build on and if not hopefully Locker can get back to the success he had early on in the years, when CJ was averaging 90 yards per game. If our QB can have average success and CJ gets used as the superstar that he is, with our young, talented, WRs we can easily be a playoff team. I mean we were one game out with horrible coaching, a back up QB, and some bad luck. #KeepCJ2K