The Tennessee Titans are one of those teams most New York

Giants probably don’t know a whole lot about. With the teams meeting Sunday at MetLife Stadium we turned to Terry Lambert of SB Nation’s Music City Miracles for help. Terry answers our ‘5 questions’ this week.Ed: As we hit the final three games of the season are the Titans pretty much where New York Giants Hoodie , and what, you thought they would be entering the season?Terry: They’re probably a little behind where we thought they’d be. That’s probably in large part due to injuries. They lost Delanie Walker for the season in Week 1. The same game, Marcus Mariota suffered a nerve injury which hung around for over a month. With a new offense in place, that handicapped the growth of the offense. Rishard Matthews left the team in the first month of the season, too. Mariota has had to learn a new offense with a struggling offensive line and a whole crop of young receivers. It’s just taken a while to come together. With Matt LaFleur coming over from the Rams, we were hoping to see some modern day offense. That just hasn’t happened quite yet. But to be fair, the Titans’ personnel isn’t where it needs to be either. Ed: Near the end of his fourth season, what is Marcus Mariota? A franchise QB you can win big with? A guy who is still developing? A mediocre quarterback? What do you make of him?Terry: Titans fans are split here. I’m in the franchise quarterback camp. He’s shown me he can play at a high level, but he’s had so much instability around him. This is his third head coach and offensive system. He’s yet to really have any true difference makers around him, yet he’s still played well. The frustrating part has been the injuries, which won’t seem to go away. Every year it’s been something with him Youth Customized New York Giants Jerseys , so I certainly get the frustration on that end. I think Mariota is going to be fine, perhaps even great in the long run with some stability around him. Whether or not the Titans can deliver that is a different story. Ed: Thoughts on Mike Vrabel’s rookie season as head coach. Is he a guy who is going to be around for a while with the Titans?Terry: It’s a pretty tough evaluation. He’s blown out the Patriots and Cowboys in big spots, but his team has laid down against the Ravens, Texans and Colts. Quite honestly, this team isn’t any better than Mike Mularkey’s version. I’m definitely not out on Vrabel, but I’m not all the way in either just yet. Ed: If you could take one player off the Giants’ roster and put him in Tennessee’s lineup, who would it be? Why?Terry: Without a doubt, it’s Odell Beckham. Tennessee has a good player in Corey Davis, but nothing consistent after that. I firmly believe they need a veteran receiver to take the offense to the next level. Mariota has won a good amount of games throwing to guys like Tajae Sharpe, Taywan Taylor, Nick Williams www.giantsauthorizedshops.com , Harry Douglas and Kendall Wright. I’d love to see him have a player like Beckham on his side.Ed: You are game planning for the Giants. How are you going to attack the Titans, on offense and defense?Terry: Defensively, I’m attacking the right side of the offensive line. Jack Conklin is out, meaning Dennis Kelly will start. Right guard Josh Kline has struggled all year and can easy be attacked. I’m stacking blitzes towards those two and getting pressure to Mariota’s face.Offensively, I’m giving the ball to Barkley as much as possible. This front has been pretty inconsistent lately, but the Giants have enough weapons (assuming Beckham plays) to beat the Titans will play action off of it. Adoree’ Jackson and Malcolm Butler have proven that they can be beaten deep this year, so I’m making sure I attack down the field consistently.Pro Football Focus believes the Giants’ offensive line is trending up If there is one area where the New York Giants want — need, really — to see a tangible improvement in 2018 over 2017, it is on the offensive line. That was why Dave Gettleman completely tore down and rebuilt the offensive line this past offseason. The Giants made Nate Solder the highest paid offensive lineman in the NFL (at the time), signed Patrick Omameh to a 3-year, $15 million ($10 million guaranteed) contract New York Giants Womens T-Shirt , and drafted Will Hernandez at the top of the second round in the 2018 NFL draft.So far we only have small sample sizes in preseason games, but advanced analytics service Pro Football Focus believes that the Giants’ offensive line is trending in the right direction.According to PFF’s grading system, Nate Solder, Will Hernandez, Jon Halapio, and Ereck Flowers all improved from their first performance to their second. While neither the Browns nor the Lions have monstrous defensive fronts, they aren’t bad either. And players like Myles Garrett and Ezekiel Ansah present serious challenges to any blocker they go against. The Giants seem to have solidified the left side of their offensive line with Solder and Hernandez, and it is encouraging that Ereck Flowers seems to be adjusting to life on the right side of the line. The concern here is on the interior. Jon Halapio seems to be entrenched as the starter getting all the first team snaps in both pre-season games and being named a game-day captain in Detroit. Meanwhile, Patrick Omameh took a step back in PFF’s eye, which is a definite concern. Pat Shurmur said after Friday night’s preseason game against the Detroit Lions that he was happy with how the offensive line performed, and how the running game responded to a mid-game adjustment. “I thought they performed better than the week before New York Giants Hats ,” Shurmur said. “Aside from the one play where the ball potentially got knocked out of Davis (Webb’s) hand, I thought the protection was pretty good. I thought we did a decent job run blocking. There’s certainly plays in there where we can do better, but for the most part, I think they battled. I think they had 25 snaps together, and there were really no communication errors. So it was a solid performance. There’s plenty of areas where we can get better, but each week they’re doing some things better and better.”On the other side of the coin, NFL.com has concerns about the state of the offensive line, writing,I’m not sure which “easy blocks” Hernandez missed, but as Shurmur notes, the snap which ended with Webb’s incomplete pass was an ugly one for the right side. The Giants do have options New York Giants Womens Hoodie , such as Brett Jones at center and John Greco at right guard, if Halapio can’t continue to improve or if Omameh can’t turn his trend around. But for now, with just small sample sizes in preseason games to work with, we should at least be encouraged that the line as a whole is trending in the right direction. The offensive line might not be “fixed”, but if it is at least functional the Giants will be in a better position than they were for much of 2017 and several teams will be in this year.