Zach Mettenberger's Decisions Must Improve to Be Long-Term Titans Answer

To show the Tennessee Titans that he can be trusted as their long-term answer at the quarterback position, Zach Mettenberger needs to show he can be trusted to make good decisions. 

No, I'm not talking about losing his White Goodman hair. (Though that was, technically, a bad decision.) Nor am I talking about SelfieGate, where J.J. Watt's sack celebration mocked Mettenberger's penchant for Instagramming his life. 

I'm talking about his penchant for trying to fit balls into windows that are too tight for his arm to cash. 

While I was unimpressed by Mettenberger while watching the game, a closer review of the Game Rewind showed that he wasn't totally overmatched by the Houston Texans.

I worry about his pocket presence, because despite Watt's presence, I don't think Mettenberger will get quite so many clean pockets going forward. Asked to adjust and reset himself, Mettenberger is probably more dangerous to the Titans than he is to their opponents. 

Per Football Outsiders, Mettenberger's game ended up producing a DYAR of minus-10, not too far off replacement level. The problem is that he padded these stats in the shadow of a 21-point deficit against Texans second-stringers who, to be honest, looked like they quit on a few plays. 

At the same time, Mettenberger's slow start was hampered by penalties creating play-calling situations that traditional NFL coach-think would view as give-up opportunities. 

Mettenberger's Titans went 2-of-12 on third downs. But faced with situations like 3rd-and-21, 3rd-and-18 and 3rd-and-20 in the first half, it's not a surprise the numbers look that grim. Mettenberger will need to improve, though, on third downs where he actually has a prayer of picking up the first. His accuracy waned a bit on some of those throws.

Scenario	Conversions/Attempts	Mettenberger's Stats
3rd-and-10 or more	0/5	4/5, 35 yards
3rd-and-6 through 3rd-and-9	0/2	1/2, 7 yards
3rd-and 5 or less	2/5	2/4, 54 yards, TD, Sack, Fumble

But the area where the Titans should be focused on making Mettenberger improve the most is in the intermediate field. Mettenberger has just enough college experience and arm strength to think that some of the throws he tried on Sunday are possible, and until that gets beaten out of him, he has the potential to be a liability.

I'll give a pair of examples from the first half. This first one is a sideline comeback route lifted right from the Jake Locker playbook, but Mettenberger's timing on it is just a bit late.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

Before the ball is even out, Houston's defensive back has already turned his hips and diagnosed the play, with a plan to drive through it. The result was a broken-up pass, but if the corner had shown a little more burst, this throw had the potential to be a pick-six. This is a throw Mettenberger (and pretty much every NFL quarterback) can't chance. 

Secondly, here's his lone interception of the game, with D.J. Swearinger picking off a pass intended for Delanie Walker on a corner route. 

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

Not only was this ball thrown with Swearinger right in Walker's hip pocket, but it also was thrown into a zone where even a leading touch pass would've been dangerous. 

These are the kinds of mistakes that could keep an otherwise-promising quarterback from being looked at as a future solution, even for a franchise that desperately needs one. 

It's much too early to shut the door on Mettenberger as an NFL prospect. He did show a few positives considering that this was his first start. Regardless of the score at the time, he did at least show that the raw talent is there to be molded. 

My guess is it won't all come together perfectly. Mettenberger's pocket limitations and scattershot accuracy are the kinds of markers that make me think placeholder rather than future star, and that's assuming his decisions improve. 

But given that the Titans weren't going anywhere anyway, it makes sense to find out. Quarterbacks who throw the kind of deep ball Mettenberger can will always get extra chances. The only potential downside is talking themselves into Mettenberger being a solution if he doesn't prove it on the field. The Titans need to be able to be completely objective about his prowess.

The starting point wasn't bad, but the Titans will need to see more before they can commit to Mettenberger for 2015.

Rivers McCown is the AFC South lead writer for Bleacher Report and the co-host of the Three-Cone Drill podcast. His work has also appeared on Football Outsiders and ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter at @riversmccown.