Jake Locker or Matt Hasselbeck? Tennessee Titans QB battle nears tight finish – NFL News
The Tennessee Titans battle for this season’s offence leader nears to a tight finish as at present both quarterbacks – Matt Hasselbeck and Jake Locker – are neck-to-neck in the fight and victory can fall on the either side.
Both players have their positives and negatives out of the underway competition and both have earned support from different circles of the team’s officials and departments.
For example, Matt was seen leading the race until recently but some sections of media have now projected Jake to be closer to win the call. He is most likely to get the offence leadership role for second preseason game of the team this Friday.
Local newspaper The Tennessean had earlier seen the odds to be in favour of Hasselbeck but now the paper sees Jake as the most likely winner of the competition.
The paper’s beat reporter Jim Wyatt writes:
"Locker has risen to the challenge, and been more consistent than anyone thought he would be, including myself. So at this point, I believe the starting job is now Locker's to lose."
Irrespective of the outcome of the QB battle, which is still awaited, Jake deserves the credit because it was his performance during one of rare opportunities last season that triggered the competition in the first place.
Now him increasingly proving his credentials as a leader again at training camp will certainly put the incumbent Hasselbeck under more pressure.
However, Hasselbeck has guts to show resilience in the challenge. He was under even more pressure when the owner Bud Adams all of sudden showed ambitions to sign free agent and former Indianapolis Colts' quarterback Peyton Manning earlier in the offseason.
The owner as a matter of fact threw everything in front of Peyton to lure him to Tennessee, his college league town, but he landed in Denver instead. Hasselbeck had maintained a composed and confident posture even then, and refused to ask for his release
prematurely.
Although the situation is slightly different here, the QB has already spoken of giving a tough challenge to strongly emerging Jake as a potential leader of the team’s offence. The final announcement of the starter is expected in a week’s time.
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