The Titans are shaking things up again on the offensive line to try to fix a massive problem for their offense
The Tennessee Titans have had a real right tackle problem all season. And to their credit, the coaching staff has done everything they can to rotate options, searching for answers. Unfortunately, they've run out of new choices. And in Week 11, they're going back to a familiar face. "Nick Petit (Nicholas Petit-Frere) will start" said […]
The Tennessee Titans have had a real right tackle problem all season. And to their credit, the coaching staff has done everything they can to rotate options, searching for answers.
Unfortunately, they've run out of new choices. And in Week 11, they're going back to a familiar face.
"Nick Petit (Nicholas Petit-Frere) will start" said Head Coach Brian Callahan on Friday afternoon. "We’ll likely elevate Isaiah Prince to be the swing tackle as well. So, I'll get a chance to see what Isaiah can do. He might play a little bit, we'll see. But those two guys will be up at the tackle spots."
If your head is spinning over what the Titans have done at right tackle this season, I can't blame you. It took me a while to get it straight in my head to even write it down. Here's what they've done:
In Weeks 1 and 2, NPF was the starter against the Bears and Jets. It was… not good. He started Week 3 against the Packers, but midway through was benched for Jaelyn Duncan. As bad as NPF was to get benched in that game, Duncan was worse. So in Week 4, they went back to NPF against the Dolphins. Still, not good. Over their Week 5 bye, the Titans prepared Leroy Watson to start in Week 6 against the Colts. They weren't satisfied with that performance either, so in Week 7 they put Jaelyn Duncan back in there, as the starter this time. NPF was his backup and Watson inactive. Duncan got hurt immediately in that game against the Bills, and so NPF played essentially all the snaps in Week 7. Then in Week 8, the Titans brought Watson back up as the starter (so he went starter, inactive, starter) and rolled with Watson and John Ojukwu as his backup against the Lions. It's been an in-game rotation of Watson and Ojukwu since then, in Weeks 8-10.
Phew. That's a lot. And now in Week 11, with Watson out due to injury, the Titans coaching staff has shuffled the deck once again: NPF returns to start for the first time since Week 4, and newly-added Isaiah Prince will back him up.
Will we see a rotation of NPF/Prince like we saw with Watson/Ojukwu? "I don't know if it'll be that" said Callahan. "We'll see. I'm not totally sure yet how that's going to play out, but there's a chance they could both play for sure."
So has NPF actually shown any improvement in his time since being demoted?
"Yeah. I mean, there's been some positives. It's just like anything else, same thing with Will (Levis). It's like you get a chance to step out of it for a second and take a deep breath and kind of look at your performance and see where you can improve and have some opportunities to improve it without the pressure of having to perform. And so hopeful that's the case and he can play a little bit better. We got a stiff challenge for us this week against this front. So we're going to need his best."
Whether it's a full serving of NPF against the fearsome Vikings defense, or a rotation with Prince, the Titans right side of the OL stands to once again be a glaring hole in Week 11.
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