Zach Mettenberger Injury: Updates on Titans QB's Shoulder and Return

Diposkan oleh silent aja 3:35 AM Post a Comment

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Tennessee Titans quarterback Zach Mettenberger left Sunday's game versus Houston after suffering a shoulder injury in the third quarter.

The Titans confirmed the news via their Twitter account:

#Titans QB Zach Mettenberger has a right shoulder injury and is questionable to return. #TENvsHOU

- Tennessee Titans (@TennesseeTitans) November 30, 2014

Jake Locker took over for Mettenberger and threw an interception on his first play under center, via Sunday Night Football:

Jake Locker comes on for the injured Mettenberger, and throws an interception on his first pass #FNIA

- SundayNight Football (@SNFonNBC) November 30, 2014

A sixth-round pick in May's draft, Mettenberger stepped into the starting lineup before Week 8's game against the Houston Texans. The Titans made the switch after a 2-5 start saw Charlie Whitehurst and former starter Jake Locker consistently struggle to make plays. Locker, a former first-round pick in the last season of his contract, was selected by a previous coaching regime and wasn't given a chance to regain his job after suffering a hand injury.

Darron Cummings/Associated Press

Mettenberger has battled through fits and starts since taking over. Given the past success (or lack thereof) of past sixth-round rookies, it could only be expected that he'd face challenges in certain spots.

But Mettenberger has also impressed in certain areas. Excluding Marc Bulger and Mark Rypien, who were rookies via technicality only, there is only one rookie sixth-round quarterback ( min. 50 pass attempts) with at least as many touchdowns as interceptions: Bruce Gradkowski in 2006, per Pro-Football-Reference.com. Before his injury Sunday, Mettenberger had thrown eight touchdowns against six interceptions.

Mettenberger is also playing his first minutes of regular-season football since tearing his ACL, which brought a premature end to his senior season at LSU.

In other words, there were a number of factors working against Mettenberger when he entered the lineup-not the least of which was Tennessee being a below-average football team. If his injury winds up putting him on the shelf, it'll only be more difficult for Tennessee to see what it has going forward.

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter