Dein erstes Forum » I want to wish Delanie Walker a speedy recovery.

First Youth Derrick Henry Jersey , Not only has he been the Titans best pass catcher for the last three seasons, but he’s also an incredible leader and tone setter for this team and the Nashville community at large. Seeing him go down trying to fight for extra yards at the end of Sunday’s game was the last thing anyone wanted to witness. It should also be said that Walker is irreplaceable. He’s one of the top two or three all-around tight ends in the NFL right now. He runs great routes, has sure hands, makes plays after the catch, and blocks his tail off every snap. Those types of guys don’t grow on trees and they certainly don’t grow on the picked over tree that is NFL free agency in September. The Titans have Jerome Cunningham on the practice squad if they’d like to call him up to get a fourth tight end back on the roster quickly. They could also give old familiar names like Anthony Fasano, Phillip Supernaw, or Jace Amaro a call. Maybe even reach out to a guy like Coby Fleener if he has a clean bill of health after being released by the Saints earlier this year with a head injury that he was still dealing with from the previous season. All those guys would be depth moves though. None of them — besides Cunningham and Supernaw — would know the offense and frankly these guys just aren’t that good. There isn’t an instant fix on the market like there was at safety. Walker’s contributions, instead, will have to be replaced from within to the extent that they can be. The bulk of this burden will suddenly fall on second year tight end Jonnu Smith. The Titans drafted him in the 3rd round of the 2017 NFL Draft to be Walker’s long term successor as the team’s leading tight end, but that time frame will be sped up now. In his rookie season, Smith caught 18 passes for 157 yards and 2 touchdowns while being on the field for 54.3% of the Titans offensive snaps. The Florida International product looked natural as a pass catcher. At 6’-3” and 248 pounds, Smith is similar physically to Walker and even offers many of the same explosive athletic traits.What Smith doesn’t have as a pass catcher is the nuanced route running and trust with quarterback Marcus Mariota that Walker had developed over three seasons working as a prime target for the Titans quarterback. Unfortunately — or fortunately depending on your viewpoint — that can only get better with time and reps. Smith will be getting plenty of reps in practice moving forward and will need to take advantage of them. What often gets undersold with Delanie Walker is his prowess as a blocker in the run game. Phantom holding calls aside Navy Malcolm Butler Jersey , Walker is rarely unable to get the job done in the running game. That’s critical for a good tight end as it allows your offense to truly be multiple within the same personnel packages. This is a part of the game that Smith still struggles with. He is a willing blocker, but not a very skilled one at this point in his career. The good news is that blocking is something that can develop over time in the NFL, the bad news is that the Titans don’t have any more time. They need Smith to play well right away.Luke Stocker will certainly see more reps now and can help lighten the blocking load foisted on Smith, but he’s not much of a pass catcher despite his 2 catches for 37 yardsstat line against the Dolphins. Stocker now becomes absolutely critical to the Titans running game. The surprise decision to keep camp standout Anthony Firkser as a 4th tight end now looks pretty good. Firkser, like Smith, is far more receiver than blocker, but he could give the Titans a chance to put some multiple tight end sets on the field that can present a threat in the passing game. His best quality is simply his feel for the game. He has a knack for finding soft spots in the defense and the quickness to beat linebackers. It will be interesting to see how much he is used next week. Of course, Walker was more than “just” a tight end, so it will take more than tight ends to replace him. He was Mariota’s go-to target on third downs, someone that the Titans young quarterback looked for when things broke down. Rishard Matthews seems like the natural fill-in here, but he was virtually invisible in Miami despite being on the field for over 50% of the offensive snaps. That likely has a lot to do with Matthews still being on the mend from a surgery to repair a torn meniscus, but the Titans now need him to be back to his reliable self in a hurry.The go-to receiver for the Titans in Week 1 was clearly Corey Davis who led all Titans with a whopping 13 targets Navy Will Compton Jersey , resulting in 6 catches for 62 yards. I thought Davis played well. Of the 7 targets that landed incomplete, 1 was a desperation throw in the back of the endzone on 3rd down that never gave him a chance, 4 were straight misses from the quarterback (2 for Mariota, 2 for Blaine Gabbert), and 2 appeared to be miscommunications (both with Gabbert, including one where it appeared that Gabbert missed an adjustment that Davis was trying to signal to him pre-snap). I’ll go deeper in to this when the All-22 comes out.If Davis wasn’t already going to be the focal point of the passing game, he certainly will be now. He is the most important non-quarterback on the Titans roster at this point so he needs to stay healthy and be productive. He did a few good things on Sunday, but Tennessee will need a lot more from him moving forward. One other guy that I think factors in to replacing Walker’s production is Dion Lewis. He had an outstanding debut — one of the few bright spots on a gloomy Sunday — and showed his value as a pass catcher out of the backfield. That ability will be extremely important moving forward. It will be interesting to see if the Titans feature more 11-personnel or even go with more 2-back sets in an attempt to get their best 11 on the field together.Walker was targeted at team-high 111 times in 2017 — 24 more than the next closest Titan — so that leaves a ton of opportunity for guys like Davis, Matthews, Smith, and Lewis. Davis was supposed to be ready to take the next step this year anyway, but now that step is more important than ever. Smith Navy Kenny Vaccaro Jersey , on the other hand, wasn’t supposed to be ready this year, but he has to be now. You never know how a guy will respond when he’s tossed in to the fire. You hope that Smith will step up to the challenge, but we will find out starting next week against Houston. He’s not going to be Walker by any means, but if the Titans can get a passable performance from him and some of his other teammates to rise to the occasion, they may still be OK without their best player on offense.Get well soon Delanie. Mike Vrabel has recently been talking about close games a lot with his Titans.After Tennessee pulled out three straight victories by three points apiece, the first-year coach and the Titans are coming off a one-point loss. The Titans had been a league-best 9-1 since the start of 2016 in games decided by three or fewer points.Now Vrabel and the Titans get to see how they react to losing a close game — a 13-12 decision to Buffalo — and Vrabel believes the Titans will find out who they really are."It's not about what kind of team you are when you're winning, it's about when things go bad and you lose," Vrabel said Monday. "Can you stick together or does one side of the ball start looking at the other side? Do people start pointing fingers? That can't happen. I won't let it. I think that's where we have to start."Even before Vrabel was hired in January, the Titans had been very good in close games. Then they added three more such wins before going to Buffalo."This one we wasn't able to pull it off," safety Kevin Byard said. "We win the close games it's like we're celebrating that. When we lose it, it's like the building's falling down and stuff like that. So at the end of the day Navy Logan Ryan Jersey , we just have to regroup and get back together ... correct the things we need to correct and get on the Ravens."Well, the Titans have a few things to fix before hosting Baltimore (3-2) on Sunday in their lone home game in October.The offense matched its season high in turnovers with two lost fumbles and an interception, and the Titans lost both of those games. Dropped passes also have been an issue. Nick Williams, the receiver beaten for position on the interception, also dropped a would-be touchdown pass as Tennessee settled for the first of two field goals in the fourth quarter.The Titans went through a second game without scoring a touchdown, and they rank 29th in the NFL in scoring average at 17.4 points per game.The loss of three-time Pro Bowl Delanie Walker, who broke his right ankle in the season-opening loss in Miami , has been very noticeable with tight ends not catching a single pass over the past two games. Jonnu Smith dropped a pass in Tennessee's overtime win against Philadelphia but didn't catch the two passes thrown to him in Buffalo. Luke Stocker didn't catch the one thrown to him.Asked if the Titans need more from their tight ends, Vrabel said they need more from everybody, including himself."The only two guys we didn't need more from (Sunday) were the kicker and the punter," Vrabel said. "They did their job."Later Monday, the Titans promoted tight end Anthony Firkser from the practice squad.Tennessee is tied for fourth in scoring defense Youth Jonnu Smith Jersey , giving up just one fewer point (86) than the offense has scored (87). But the Titans, who ranked fifth against the run last season, are 26th in that category after giving up 144 yards to the Bills."We're 3-2," Byard said. "We're still ahead of the division. We're still in a good position. We have to play better of course, but there's still a lot of optimism left in this locker room."Notes: To make room for Firkser, the Titans waived RB Dalyn Dawkins.Follow Teresa M. Walker at s://teresamwalker