Titans' Jake Locker Is Still a Flawed Quarterback Under Pressure
Jake Locker has been a polarizing quarterback ever since Matt Hasselbeck was cut loose to pursue other backup jobs. After starting just 18 games over the past two seasons—and playing erratically during those 18 games—the Titans entered this offseason with more questions than answers. Their self-evaluation of Locker was very clear in actions, if not in words.
They refused to exercise Locker's fifth-year option, making Locker a potential free agent after the season.
The words continue to tell us something the actions don't. Both Locker and Nate Washington praised how Locker handled pressure on Sunday, per ESPN's Paul Kuharsky, which makes sense. No team is going to alienate their quarterback through the media.
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On the balance, Locker looked good against the Chiefs on Sunday. He was playing with enormous matchup advantages: Justin Hunter and Kendall Wright exploited a shoddy Chiefs cornerback corps, and the losses of Derrick Johnson and Mike DeVito to injury only further tilted things in favor of the Titans. But still, he was able to exploit those advantages.
Locker should only look better on Sunday when the Titans face the Cowboys. Dallas had a shaky defense last season, when they finished 30th in the NFL in Football Outsiders' defensive DVOA. This was before they lost DeMarcus Ware to free agency, Sean Lee to injury and Orlando Scandrick to suspension. The current incarnation may be the least-talented defense in the NFL.
But let's not confuse this hot Locker start with a player "making the leap." Locker has improved from where he was in 2012 and is surrounded by more credible weapons than he's ever had before.
He still is a flawed quarterback who relies on inconsistent out-of-structure instincts when the play doesn't immediately succeed. Locker also has yet to learn how to throw with anticipation. The Titans clearly baby him when creating their play calls, which involve more comebacks and curls that enable him to "see" an open receiver.
Locker's football instincts create a quarterback capable of big things, both good and bad, when the pocket is collapsed. Here's a look at one of each from last week's game in Kansas City.
Bad Locker
This is from the third quarter with 7:29 left in the half. Locker faces 3rd-and-7 from his own 34, and the Titans come out in an 11-personnel bunch formation.
Chris Owens comes on a blitz that the Titans didn't account for during Locker's pre-snap machinations. Locker's response to this blitz is to freeze, turn his body toward the blitzer and try to juke past him.
Downfield, Locker has no open receivers at the moment, though he does have some who will become open in fairly short order. Wright will be running a dig across the field. Hunter will run a go route and Washington will run a curl right behind a zone linebacker.
There are small creases for either Hunter or Wright to be hit with anticipation throws here. Locker doesn't make them.
Instead, Locker steps up in the pocket. Had he re-established his eyes downfield at this point, he would've found Wright open in the middle of the field.
Locker is instead sacked for a loss by Chiefs defenders who were able to catch him from behind. A good anticipation throw or the ability to reset himself would have found Locker a first down on this play. Resetting himself isn't a consistent element of Locker's game, but it does show up from time to time.
Good Locker
For instance, it showed up here. This is in the second quarter, with 1:31 left and the Titans trying to drive for an end-of-half score. Tennessee spreads the field with another 11-personnel set, and all four of the receivers are beyond the hashmarks. The Chiefs come out in an amoeba look, with only two linemen with hands on the ground.
Locker sees Chance Warmack has been beaten to the outside by Justin Houston, and, anticipating pressure, begins to run up in the pocket.
At the point where Locker begins to jog forward, there is only one open receiver: Delanie Walker underneath on a drag route. The actual target of this play, Hunter, is still beginning to open up the dig route. Locker's neck never turns to the other side of the play.
Rather than dumping off to Walker underneath or scrambling wildly into a pack of Chiefs zone defenders, Locker resets at the line of scrimmage, sets and throws a dart to Hunter to keep the chains moving.
This is the kind of play that Locker needs to make more often. His athleticism and physicality are amazing gifts for him when he scrambles, but too often Locker compromises them with shoddy decisions. He tends to get trapped in the scrambling mentality at the first sign of pressure.
That won't stop him from having a good game against the Cowboys, of course. Only a time machine that can undo all of Jerry Jones' terrible cap decisions could stop that from happening.
But when Locker faces better defenses, like the Bengals in Week 3, he won't have the luxury of making some of the mental errors he did against the Chiefs in Week 1.
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