Today game between the Tennessee Titans against the New England Patriots may ultimately save the franchise. This game has critical importance not to the 2024 season but to the 2025 season. Yes, this game may prove to be just that important. The Tennessee Titans are in control of their own destiny for the #1 pick in the draft. Today’s game against the Patriots will have varying implications for where the Titans will draft come April ‘25.

It’s already been established that the season is over. Only 1 team has ever made the playoffs after starting 1-6 — the 1970 Cincinnati Bengals. In addition to the season being over after week 8 the Titans may be in line to replace HC Brian Callahan. During one of Callahan’s press conferences this past week he reinforced his support for special teams coach Colt Anderson. The Titans special teams unit is one of the worst in the league. That will assuredly continue to be the case as Callahan may be more stubborn than Vrabel when it comes to making changes to the coaching staff. Regardless, keeping Colt Anderson around can only help the Titans organization find their future starter at QB come next season. The top two QB’s are Cam Ward of Miami and Shadeur Sanders of Colorado. Even if you’re not all aboard a the train on a new QB the idea of Travis Hunter — who could theoretically play both offense and defense — in Nashville should also excite you. The Titans currently carry the 2nd pick in the draft as the only 1-6 team — thanks to the early bye week. The Panthers pose the biggest threat to the Titans achieving the first overall pick as they are probably an even worse franchise right now than the Titans. Below you can see the current 2025 NFL Draft order:

Will Levis was marked officially as questionable is expected to once again be absent from the game via Adam Schefter. Mason Rudolph getting the start certainly won’t make fans excited to show up on Sunday. I expect the stadium to be around 50-60% full as the motivation to spend hundreds of dollars to watch the some of the worst teams in the NFL take the field. However, in that same tweet Schefter did say that Tony Pollard is expected to get the start. That’s good for the Titans because Tyjae Spears is still injured. This will be the first game this season that Bryce Oliver is elevated to the 53. It will be interesting to see if Oliver is just a standard game day elevation or if he’ll actually be activated during the game. The Titans have struggled to consistently get the ball to their receivers the entire season. Calvin Ridley had shown some glimpses early on in the Detroit Lions game but then disappeared mostly after the first quarter. Consistency has been the Titans biggest issue all season. I expect more of the same today as they’re expected to play all four quarters in lieu of one.

On the other side of the ball Drake Maye is expected to start for the Patriots after suffering a concussion last week. Either Drake Maye or Jacoby Brissett would find success against this atrocious defense that’s now limping through the next 10 games. The Titans defensive injuries have shown up big as starters from Jefferey Simmons, L’Jarius Sneed, and Chidobe Awuzie have missed several games. The Patriots offense isn’t spectacular but they will probably have their get-right game in a couple of hours from now. The Titans run defense should be able to handle Rhamondre Stevenson and Antonio Gibson. If the Patriots are to win this game it’ll be through the air on offense, pass coverage on defense, and just existing on special teams. New England Patriots Coach Jerod Mayo is coming off an impressive win last week against the New York Jets. Granted that was mostly due to Jacoby Brissett. However, I wouldn’t put it past the Patriots to play a hard close game against the Titans.

Verdict:

The Titans will play a close game and make their fare share of mistakes ranging from: penalties, turnovers, special teams etc. They’ll try and give you hope — but alas, it’ll be too late. The Titans lose the game 21-17 and this only further incites Amy Adams Strunk. Hopefully, she makes the right decision soon enough. Watching the Titans the past 7 weeks has been as torturous as spending a week in Guantanamo Bay circa the early 2000s.