NASHVILLE — Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel will have an opportunity over the next few weeks to learn from a big mistake that he has already made once before.

If we learned anything about the Titans' from an embarrassing 27-3 loss to the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, it's that starting left tackle Andre Dillard is not fit for his current role. Dillard got bullied for four quarters by Browns defensive end Myles Garrett, who was being chipped for a portion of the game and still had 3.5 sacks.

After the game, Garrett even gave Dillard some pointers on how to improve his game as a pass rusher. Dillard was appreciative of the constructive criticism.

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This feels like a movie we've all seen before. Last season, Dennis Daley took over as the starting left tackle after Taylor Lewan tore his ACL in Week 2. 

At the time, Daley seemed like the best option Tennessee had, but over the course of the season, he proved to be a major detriment for the Titans' offense.

According to PFF, the Titans finished the 2022 season dead last in team pass blocking grade (52.4) and of the 57 offensive tackles who played at least 50 percent of offensive snaps on the season, Daley was graded the 55th of 57 in pass protection. His 12 sacks allowed were more than any other player in football and he had nine games in which his PFF pass block grade was below 60.

None of it mattered to the Titans coaching staff. Tennessee rolled Daley out there anyways, starting him for the final 15 games of the season and leaving him on the field for a total of 942 offensive snaps in 2022.

To be fair, the Daley situation was a little bit different from what the Titans are dealing with now. Last season, there was a legitimate argument to be made that there were no better options available. Whenever Daley did take snaps off, it was Le'Raven Clark that took over. The grass legitimately may not have been greener.

But this year, I have a hard time believing that there isn't a better solution available at left tackle than Dillard at the moment. Tennessee drafted Peter Skoronski (a college left tackle) with the 11th overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. The Titans developed him in the offseason and preseason and left guard, but I don't think you pick Skoronski that early if you view him as an interior lineman longterm. 

If I had to venture a guess, I'd say the Titans didn't expect Skoronski to be available at pick 11 (Ran Carthon and Mike Vrabel are on the record saying as much) and when he was, they had to pull the trigger. But because the Titans are the Titans, they wanted to have their cake and eat it too.

Because the team had already signed Dillard to a three-year, $29 million contract in free agency with $13 million in guarantees, I think they felt obligated to gets some starts out of him. You don't give $13 million guaranteed to a backup and Skoronski is versatile enough that sliding him over to left guard was an option.

But so far, this thing just hasn't worked. You can look at Sunday's game against the Browns for evidence of that. Now it's time to consider making a change before more damage is done.

Skoronski is currently unavailable while he recovers from an appendectomy he had just over a week ago, but when he returns, the Titans need to consider moving either him or Dillon Radunz (the current stand-in at left guard) over to left tackle. Both Skoronski and Radunz played left tackle in college, so it is not foreign to either one of them.

Worst case scenario Skoronski and Radunz aren't able to handle left tackle, they struggle like Dillard did, you move them back and at least you tried. But Mike Vrabel needs to learn from 2022. You cannot give another long leash to a weak left tackle who is going to kill your playoff hopes, and maybe your quarterback, with poor pass protection.

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