The Tennessee Titans are on a bye in Week 9, and it's a much-needed week off for the players who've been enduring nagging injuries. Tony Pollard, Carnell Tate, Calvin Ridley, and John Franklin-Myers will all benefit from having a week off to rest and recover, and that's just to name a few.
The first half of the Titans' season has been rough to say the least. There was a huge aura of hope around this team because of the coaching staff changes and the new faces that were brought into the organization. But when the Titans lost their season opener to the New York Jets, people immediately began writing off their season.
They've only won one game so far, but we can count at least three of the Titans' losses that happened because of officiating. No,
that's not an excuse, they still have to play their game and score or stop the other team, but when there are back-to-back game-winning plays on missed false-start calls, you start to wonder.
Tennessee has this week to regroup, discuss what worked and what didn't in the first half of the season, and work on getting players healthy and back on the field for Week 10.
Let's look at the highest- and lowest-graded players halfway through the season, as graded by Pro Football Focus. For this article, players included must have appeared in at least five games.
Top 5 offense
- RB Tony Pollard (85.6)
- QB Cam Ward (74.7)
- RT J.C. Latham (69.1)
- WR Chimere Dike (67.7)
- WR Carnell Tate (66.5)
Bottom 5 offense
- RG Atonio Mafi (41.9)
- C Austin Schlottmann (45.0)
- WR Calvin Ridley (52.8)
- TE Daniel Bellinger (54.0)
- LT Dan Moore Jr. (56.5)
Top 5 defense
- S Amani Hooker (81.0)
- DT Jeffery Simmons (76.7)
- LB Femi Oladejo (74.2)
- DE John Franklin-Myers (65.1)
- DE Jermaine Johnson (64.2)
Bottom 5 defense
- DT Nazir Stackhouse (33.3)
- CB Alontae Taylor (37.6)
- LB Keldric Faulk (47.4)
- DE Jacob Martin (49.5)
- DT Jordan Elliott (49.7)
Top 5 special teams
- ST Julius Chestnut (90.5)
- ST Truman Jones (82.5)
- ST Cedric Gray (67.9)
- LS Morgan Cox (64.5)
- ST Micah Robinson (63.7)
Bottom 5 special teams
- ST Erick Hallett (41.3)
- ST James Williams (46.3)
- ST Femi Oladejo (50.6)
- ST Terrell Burgess (50.8)
- ST Gunnar Helm (52.3)
Other notables
- LG Peter Skoronski (66.3)
- WR Wan'Dale Robinson (64.2)
- TE Gunnar Helm (63.3)
- LB Cody Barton (62.4)
- CB Marcus Harris (61.4)
- CB Cor'Dale Flott (61.0)
- P Tommy Townsend (69.1, punting only)
- RET Chimere Dike (53.6 overall, 49.6 kick ret, 65.7 punt ret)
- K Joey Slye (85.0, field goals only)
This article originally appeared on Titans Wire: Titans' Tony Pollard leads Tennessee's PFF midseason grades
