JACKSONVILLE – Senior writer John Oehser each week during the 2024 regular season will speak with a writer or media member covering the Jaguars' opponent.
Up this week:
Titans senior writer/editor Jim Wyatt about Sunday's 2024 Week 17 game between the Jaguars and Tennessee Titans at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville.
Question: The Titans (3-12), after upsetting the AFC South champion Houston Texans, 32-27, in Week 12, have lost four consecutive games – including a 38-30 road loss to the Indianapolis Colts this past week. What's the state of the Titans entering Sunday's game against the Jaguars?
A: It has been a tough season. When we started the season, there was reason to feel like the team would be more competitive than it is right now. I didn't feel like this team had a chance to win the division. I always thought it was Houston's division, but I felt like going into December the Titans would be maybe contending for a playoff spot and competing with a big group of other teams trying to get in and that just has not happened. The disappointing thing for a lot of Titans fans is there just doesn't seem to be a lot of things to look to where you feel like things are getting better. That's the challenge for the coaching staff and the players and everybody here – just to try to end this season with some kind of positivity. No one's throwing a parade for you for finishing 5-12, but at least it would give you some feeling like you did something right at the end of what has been a forgettable year.
Q: When the Titans and Jaguars played three weeks ago, a theme was that maybe quarterback Will Levis was playing for his Titans future. Now he's out of the lineup and Mason Rudolph is the Titans' quarterback. What's the Titans quarterback situation?
A:They have not written him (Levis) off completely yet. But when you make a move like that, it certainly sends a strong signal of what your thinking is. It's not all his fault what has happened here. They haven't been very good around him from a protection standpoint, from a consistency-in-the-run-game standpoint, just from giving him some positive things around him to make him better. Then him hurting his shoulder in Week 4 hurt him as well because he had to spend a lot of time rehabbing and just hasn't been as healthy as he would have liked through some of this. Things have now kind of come off the rails a little bit for him, the way the season has gone. Again, they haven't closed the door completely on him still being this team's franchise quarterback, but certainly things don't look to be trending that way based on what we've seen develop here over the last week or so.
Q: What are they hanging onto on offense for an identity? Running back Tony Pollard has been productive in difficult circumstances.
A: Pollard went over 1,000 yards. He has had the best year of his career and he has been really tough. He has been everything they hoped he would be when they signed him [as an unrestricted free agent this past offseason]. It was never going to be easy to come in here after Derrick Henry left, but running back has not been this team's biggest problem. The rest of the offense: Just too inconsistent. Protection has been an issue. Quarterback play has been an issue; they have just turned the ball over too much, whether it's Levis or Rudolph. They just have not been able to sustain really anything during this course of the year that you can feel really good about.
Q: The Titans had a rough day defensively Sunday, allowing Colts running back Jonathan Taylor 218 yards and three touchdowns rushing on 29 carries. Was that sort of the low point of a rough season?
A: The defense has not been this team's biggest problem, but on a lot of Sundays of late it has just not really played to a level that it was earlier this season. To give up the most rushing yards that you've ever given up in the Titans era, which goes back to 1999, is really discouraging. It comes on the heels of a game when you gave up a lot of yards passing and big plays [in a loss] to the [Cincinnati] Bengals. So now they have trouble stopping the run. They've had some trouble stopping the pass. They just have not been very good on third down. Sunday was kind of a low point for this team from a defensive standpoint because this team has always prided itself on stopping the run and being physical and kind of setting the tone. They got exposed pretty good on Sunday against a Colts team that you kind of figured was going to be running that ball. They did to the Titans what the Titans have done to a lot of other people over the years. That can't taste very good.
Q: What does the future hold?
A: There are I think still a lot of questions as this season comes to an end. I don't think a lot of people here expected this team to go to the playoffs or to win the division, but I think they expected them to be better than they have. To be sitting here with three wins and two games left, it does lead to a lot of questions about what happens when the season ends. Obviously, there will be a lot of changes on this roster as well. The offseason is now just a couple weeks away and a lot of people wonder maybe what could transpire.
