There is a battle going on for the attention of Tennessee Titans' quarterback Jake Locker. The team loaded up on offensive weapons in the offseason and now some are performing better than others. On Sunday, team veteran Kenny Britt saw first-hand there are rookies ready to take his spot and Justin Hunter did just that.
Hunter was the key to the Titans' come-from-behind win against the San Diego Chargers. He did exactly what the team drafted him to do which was catch balls in clutch situations. On third-and-10, Locker tossed the deep ball to Hunter, having full faith in the rookie. He came up big, snagging the win and the praise of the coaching staff.
"We have a lot of faith in Justin. Justin is going to be an extremely special player," offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains said, via TitanInsider.com. "When we had to have it, that's a guy that Jake wanted in, that's a guy that we wanted in as a coaching staff. We knew we were gonna give him a jump ball, and there was an extreme mismatch no matter who was covering him. He was gonna go up above them and catch the ball."
The rise of Hunter seems to be coming during the fall of Britt. For the past two years the Titans have been waiting for Britt to become the key guy in Tennessee. However, a serious knee injury has the team losing hope in his abilities. Two weeks ago, Britt was benched for sloppy play against the Houston Texans. He was off the field during the game-winning drive against the Chargers. Fantasy owners take notice, Britt is not worth anything. The coaches continue to speak in favor of Britt, but the stats do not lie.
So far, Britt has 43 yards receiving on five catches. He has spoken out against the team after they benched him which could spell trouble for him in the future.
"Were they wrong for benching me? I believe so," Britt said, via The Associated Press. "And I believe the excuse they gave was wrong because at that point in time when they did bench me, it had nothing to do with me having mistakes. We watched film, and they didn't correct me on anything from my route at the time. Don't have any problem blocking or have (a problem with) effort on blocking at all."
With teams getting more active in the trade deadline, Britt better be careful. The is clearly just letting the clock run out on the veteran while Hunter develops into a star.
