It’s Jake Locker’s Time in Tennessee

When quarterback Matt Hasselbeck came to Tennessee he had to know one thing--his time was short. If his age wasn't enough to tell him (he was 35 when he joined the Titans, but turned 36 during last season) the fact that they drafted Washington quarterback Jake Locker with the No. 8 pick of the 2011 draft should have been.

It made sense for the team to sit Locker as a rookie; Hassebeck's 3-yr, $21 million deal almost mandated it. However, a year later Locker appears ready to take the reigns. If that is the case then the Titans need to let him.

Jake Locker--the College Years

When it comes to evaluating talent, no task was tougher than evaluating Washington quarterback Jake Locker. Football players are largely dependent on each other in order for anyone to look good when they play. If a line doesn't block, a running back is probably going nowhere. Quarterbacks can hit wide receviers in the hands all day long, but if they don't complete the catch it makes the QB look bad.

There is no better way to say than to be blunt--Locker's teams at Washington flat out sucked. The poor Huskies were simply devoid of talent for the majority of the time that Locker was at the helm. In his four seasons as a starter he was 16-25 (he missed nine game total, all losses). His pass completion percentage was never very high; his best was as a junior when he completed close to 59 percent of his passes. At his best he recorded 21 touchdowns next to 11 interceptions (in 2010); not exactly stunning.

Yet, in spite of the on-field results or lack there of, there were many people that thought he could be among the top three QBs to go if he  entered the draft after his junior season. One analysts even dubbed as the No. 1 pick in the 2010 draft. All the speculation was for naught since he opted to stay in college.

His senior year was not a stellar one for him, but that didn't stop the Tennessee Titans from taking him with the No. 8 pick. They saw in him what many evaluators did. He was strong and had a solid build at 6-foot 3-inches and 230 pounds, but was not so big he couldn't move. In fact, he was surprisingly mobile for a big guy; he ran for almost 1,000 yards as a freshman and scored 26 TDs on the ground in college.

Jake Locker--the Pro

The story on Locker was that he was a strong, accurate quarterback that could move; the perfect kind of guy to fit into the modern-day NFL. While he didn't have the college results and stats to prove his talent, the Titans were convinced that  they saw enough of the intangibles to take him as high as they did in the first round.

And then, like many QBs, he sat.  The team said that Hasselbeck was brought in to start while he mentored Locker, but you can't help but think that they would not have signed him to three-year deal if that was the case. Why take a QB so high in the draft if you have another guy under contract for so long and so much? Four other QBs in his draft class went on to start; why not him?

A year later that just might come to pass. In the team's first preseason action last Saturday against the Seattle Seahawks he looked better than Hasselbeck. He was 7-13 for 80 yards in limited action, but did engineer a scoring drive of 11 plays for 79 yards leading to a Rob Bironas field goal.

Most importantly, he looked like a guy that belonged on the field. The fact that he threw no interception while Hasselbeck threw two will play in his favor as well. Word around camp is that Hasselbeck has been interception prone there as well (which also plays in Locker's favor).

Can He Do It?

Locker is going to get the chance to start in the next game on Friday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Should he shine against the Bucs it would be surprising to see head coach Mike Munchak give the ball back over to Hasselbeck.

The easy argument against that would be that this is just preseason; anyone can look good and still suck once the regular season starts. However, Locker did get some good playing time last season. In three games he threw for 530 yards and four touchdowns while completing 33 of 64 passes.

Can he do it? At least in part-time duty we can definitely say yes. As a full-timer? We don't have the answer yet but it looks like we will sooner than later.