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This certainly got interesting. According to Ian Rapoport, the Tennessee Titans expect to start quarterback Jake Locker on Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers. Locker suffered a hip and knee injury in the Titans Week 4 win over the New York Jets. He took a nasty hit and was carted off the field. The general belief was that the best case scenario would have him back in Week 9, following Tennessee's bye.
Locker was a limited participant in practice on Wednesday and Thursday, but got in a full practice session on Friday. He took more reps than Ryan Fitzpatrick on Friday, and according to head coach Mike Munchak, Locker would have a big say in his status for Sunday. Of course, that led to this quotation, which was one more reason I didn't think Locker would get the start:
Jake wants it. I don't know that he'll be 100 percent honest with us, unfortunately. ... He knows how important he is to team. But he understands what we have to do and he'll go by ultimately what we decide is best, even though he may not agree with us, because there's a lot of football to go this year. We want to make sure we are doing the right thing.
The Titans are a game back of the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts face the Denver Broncos on Sunday Night Football, so conceivably that opens the door for the Titans to move into a first place tie if they could beat the 49ers. Does anybody really expect 100 percent honesty from their starting quarterback? More power to Locker for wanting to get that W, but I still find this to be a little short-sighted. It's not my hip and knee, so my opinion matters little, but if Locker's mobility is compromised, a Corey Lemonier or Ahmad Brooks sack would be a bit of a problem for him.
Of course, a hobbled Jake Locker is probably still a better option than 100 percent of Ryan Fitzpatrick. The Titans backup QB has been pretty bad these last two weeks. Locker probably will not have the same level of mobility he normally has, but he has to better than Fitzpatrick, right?