Looking at the Schedule Based on Opposing QBs
In the National Football League, seemingly everything revolves around the quarterback. That includes the schedule release.
Michael Lombardi of The Athletic wrote this week that coaches and front-office executives consume themselves with which quarterbacks they face and in what order when they finally get a look at their slate of games. Lombardi wrote that this factor alone could make or break a team’s season.
“When those in charge look at a schedule, they’re never focusing too much on home or away; it’s always who we are facing under center and when (with a heavy emphasis on the when),” Lombardi, a former NFL executive wrote. “It’s never the team name you worry about; it’s always the quarterback.”
Looking at the Tennessee Titans’ schedule from this perspective means that the season could be decided by their Week 13 Bye. In their first nine games in particular, the Titans face a bevy of the league’s most notable quarterbacks.
It starts early for the Titans. In Week 1, the Titans will meet the Arizona Cardinals, who are led by quarterback Kyler Murray. The dual-threat No. 1 overall pick from 2019 enters his third year off a season in which he improved significantly from his rookie season.
En route to the Pro Bowl, Murray set career-highs in completions (375), completion percentage (67.2), passing yards (3,971) and touchdown passes (26). He finished second among quarterbacks in rushing yards with 819 and 11 touchdowns.
The very next week, the Titans face Seattle’s Russell Wilson, who completed 29 of 49 passes for 373 yards and four touchdowns the last time he played Tennessee (2017). A seven-time Pro Bowler, Wilson is one of the most accurate and efficient passers in the game, and his deep ball is better than just about anyone else’s. He’s thrown for 30 touchdowns in five seasons and has never finished with a completion percentage lower than 61.3. Wilson increasingly has been in MVP discussions, and that should be the case once again this season.
The Titans will face two of the game’s top quarterback’s in consecutive weeks. In Week 5, the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes visits Nissan Stadium. The Titans are 1-1 against the 2018 MVP and three-time Pro Bowler, defeating him in Week 10 of the 2019 season, and losing to him in the AFC Championship game in that same season. In those games, Mahomes passed for a combined 740 yards, six touchdowns (three in each game) and had zero interceptions. He had a rushing touchdown in the postseason meeting.
Mahomes is so difficult to stop because he has arguably the most talented set of playmakers around him, including the fastest wide receiver in the league (Tyreek Hill) and a tight end who has done his part to revolutionize the position (Travis Kelce).
Eight days later, on Monday night football, the Titans will see Buffalo Bills’ quarterback Josh Allen, an early favorite to win MVP this season.
Last season, the Titans defeated the Bills, 42-16, in Week 6. That was arguably Allen’s most frustrating effort of the season, and he still passed for nearly 300 yards and two touchdowns. Two interceptions, however, held Buffalo back in that one.
Last season, Allen broke several franchise records and joined Drew Brees as the only two quarterbacks in league history to have three games of 375 passing yards, 3 or more passing touchdowns and a 130-plus passer rating in a single season.
Much like the Chiefs, Buffalo boasts an explosive offense full of playmakers, headlined by wide receiver Stefon Diggs, who led the league in receiving yards last season.
Both of these stretches could be even more difficult. Say what you will about Carson Wentz. After an impressive 2017 season, which ended prematurely due to a torn ACL, his performance has fallen off significantly, especially last season. Wentz gets a fresh start with the Indianapolis Colts, the Titans’ biggest threat in the AFC South, after the Philadelphia Eagles traded the 2016 No. 2 overall pick. The move reunited him with coach Frank Reich, who was his offensive coordinator in 2017.
The Titans face Wentz in Week 3 after playing Murray and Wilson back-to-back, and again in Week 8 after playing Mahomes and Allen back-to-back. If the 2017 Pro Bowler returns to the form he was in that season, the difficulty of those stretches only increases.
And don’t forget about Matthew Stafford. After spending 12 seasons with the Detroit Lions, Stafford will have his best chance to make a significant postseason run with the Los Angeles Rams. It’s hard to believe that Stafford, who the Titans will face in Week 9, has only made one Pro Bowl appearance in his career (2014). He’s been one of the most consistent passers over the last 10 seasons. He has thrown for more -- often well more -- than 4,000 yards in eight of those seasons, including in 2020.
The possibilities of what he can do in Sean McVay’s offense, with playmakers like Cooper Kupp and Robert Woods, are intimidating.
Mahomes, Allen, Wentz and Stafford are presumably quarterbacks that most coaches and executives would rather not play in consecutive weeks. The same could be said about Murray, Wilson and Wentz.
But for the Titans, that’s reality. And there is no way around it.
