Why the Titans may be hoping their Week 6 opponent gets their starting QB back in time for Sunday's game
The Tennessee Titans are headed into a third-straight week of playing an opponent with an uncertain QB situation. Only this time, Tennessee may very well prefer to face the Colts' starter. Elite™️ QB Joe Flacco Joe Flacco is unequivocally the best backup in the NFL. After a decade-plus of being poked fun at in arguments […]
The Tennessee Titans are headed into a third-straight week of playing an opponent with an uncertain QB situation. Only this time, Tennessee may very well prefer to face the Colts' starter.
Elite™️ QB Joe Flacco
Joe Flacco is unequivocally the best backup in the NFL.
After a decade-plus of being poked fun at in arguments over how "Elite" he is, and the humorous nature of the Super Bowl MVP he has to his name, Flacco's game has aged incredibly gracefully.
Everybody saw just how capable the 39 year old passer still is when he led the Browns down the stretch of the 2023 season into the playoffs. And now in Indianapolis, he's picking up exactly where he left off:
17 touchdowns in 7 games is nothing to scoff at! In Week 5 against the Jaguars, the Colts lost on a last-minute FG. But their loss had practically nothing to do with the QB play. Flacco suffered 4 sacks on a blistering 49 dropbacks, and yet threw 3 touchdowns and put up a rating of 121.3.
This is a guy who can absolutely still win football games. Is he statuesque by modern standards? Of course he is. Though, the old man still showed a willingness to get on his horse in Jacksonville with a 21 yard scamper! He isn't going to make huge mistakes, he's not afraid to push the ball downfield when he needs to, and he's efficient.
Riding The Richardson Rollercoaster
Titans fans, stop me if you've heard something like this before. Here's a tweet from A to Z's own Destin Adams in regards to the Colts' QB situation earlier this week:
It's funny just how similar of boats the Titans and the Colts find themselves in with their young QBs right now. Both teams are deeply committed to development and patience with each in 2024. Both Levis and Richardson are banged up, their health for Week 6 in question. Both have had disappointing starts to their sophomore campaigns. And both fanbases are, at least in part, clamoring to see their backups get some run instead of them.
Richardson has, at least statistically, regressed a bit from his brief rookie season. He's attempted nearly the same number of passes so far this year as he did as a rookie, so the comparisons are fair and stark.
His completion percentage is down from 59.5% to 50.6%, and his interception rate has jumped from 1.2% to an unacceptable 7.8%. He does have more total yards and is pushing the ball downfield more than he did as a rookie.
Richardson remains extremely raw. The flashes are still there. He is still capable of making one or two plays a game that can kill the opponent. And his prowess on the ground hasn't changed, he's a serious threat. But right now, he's as boom-bust as they come. Not just game to game, but snap to snap. It's a violent rollercoaster ride.
Pick Your Poison
Who the Titans get under center for the Colts this week may radically change how the game unfolds. Richardson and Flacco are just so different from a game planning standpoint.
Ultimately, I think the Titans would be much better off facing Richardson this week. I was and still am a believer in him eventually figuring it out, but the volatility he brings at the current moment is far too exploitable. He is undoubtably the higher ceiling player. But if Tennessee faces Flacco, the simple truth is that they'll have to beat some other element of the Colts than the QB.
That's not to say Flacco is infallible, but he is very very good at limiting mistakes. His ceiling is lower, he may not be the reason you win games, but he won't be the reason you lose them. Tennessee will need to shut down their skill players, or pull a monster pass rushing performance out of… somewhere, or dominate in the trenches, or have a fantastic offensive outing; they'll have to rely on a different way to win.
But against the current version of Anthony Richardson, he may very well be your path to victory. He may eliminate the need to lean on other elements of your team to pull out the victory.
Long-term, both teams are committed to their young starters for the season. But which combination of passers we see in Week 6 is up in the air. And in this rare instance, I think the Titans should be hoping to see their opponent get their starting passer back in time for Sunday.
