The NFL is unforgiving when it comes to injuries, and the Tennessee Titans are experiencing that firsthand right now, with the loss of Taylor Lewan for the remainder of the season. Lewan suffered a knee injury on the Titans’ opening drive against the Buffalo Bills in week two, an injury that is going to end the season of the Titans’ longest-tenured player.
Already at 0-2 on the season after losses to the New York Giants and the Bills, the Titans are in desperate need of finding the win collum if they hope to win the AFC South, although the division is admittedly weaker than others around the league. Missing Lewan for the remainder of the season is a massive blow for the Titans, who struggled to protect quarterback Ryan Tannehill in week two, leading to his benching in favour of Malik Willis in the third quarter.
As of now, it appears as if it will be Dennis Daley stepping into Lewan’s spot at left tackle for the Titans. Daley was a sixth-round draft pick by the Carolina Panthers in 2019, after a college career with the South Carolina Gamecocks. He’s in his first season with the Titans, after coming over in a trade with the Panthers in late August, where he was acquired alongside a seventh-round pick in 2024 in exchange for a fifth-round pick in 2024.
Daley has experience playing at the NFL level, playing in 35 games, and starting in 21 of them, all during his time with the Panthers, but it pales in comparison to Lewan’s 87 starts, all of which came with the Titans.
With the Titans sitting at 0-2, their clash with the 0-2 Las Vegas Raiders in week three is all critical. Very few teams make the playoffs after starting the season with two losses, and the odds get longer with a third consecutive loss. Without Lewan, Bud Dupree, Ola Adeniyi, and potentially Kyle Philips and Zach Cunningham, that test is going to be complicated.
Perhaps the most disheartening part of this development for Titans fans is that they may have seen the last of Lewan in a Titans uniform. Given his injury history, and previous rumours of a potential release heading into the 2022 season, his future is uncertain.
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