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NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A second MRI revealed Jake Locker's got a sprained right hip to go with his sprained MCL in his right knee.

That's probably as good an evaluation as possible.

The team said he'd miss a few weeks. I expect that means he misses the next three games -- against Kansas City, at Seattle and against San Francisco.

The Titans then have a bye week.

Locker will have had 31 days to recover if he returns Oct. 30 when the Titans begin to prepare for their Nov. 3 game at St. Louis. Hopefully he'll be ready to return at that point.

The Titans will have to make a roster move to create room for a backup quarterback in the meantime. I still think promoting Rusty Smith from the practice squad is the most likely scenario.

The Titans tried out some veterans Tuesday, and David Carr and John Skelton are the two names that have been reported.

A weekly examination of the Colts’ ESPN.com Power Ranking:

Preseason: 10 | Last week: 9 | ESPN.com Power Ranking since 2002

The five remaining undefeated teams are the only things standing between the Indianapolis Colts and a top-five ranking. So an argument can’t be made that the Colts aren’t getting any respect in this week’s rankings. I was a little surprised the Dolphins are ranked a spot behind the Colts since they beat Indianapolis on the road in Week 2. Voters John Clayton and Dan Graziano feel the same way because they had the Dolphins ranked higher than the Colts. The Colts are the fourth-best team in the AFC based off this week's rankings. They should move up even higher if they beat the undefeated Seattle Seahawks at Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday. With a win against Seattle, the Colts should move past at least Kansas City because the Chiefs are playing Tennessee, which is without starting quarterback Jake Locker (hip).

Here’s where each voter ranked the Colts this week:

Ashley Fox: 6

Mike Sando: 6

Kevin Seifert: 5

John Clayton: 7

Dan Graziano: 8

Jamison Hensley: 6

A weekly examination of the Texans' ESPN.com Power Ranking:

Preseason: 7 | Last week: 13 | ESPN.com Power Rankings since 2002

Another loss dropped the Texans again, though not as far as last week. Houston fell two spots to No. 15 after its 23-20 overtime loss to the Seattle Seahawks. While I thought last week's nine-point fall was an overreaction to Houston's loss to the Ravens, as I examine the list of teams now ahead of the Texans, it's hard to argue with most of the teams ahead of them.

Last week, the Texans fell below the Indianapolis Colts in the division. This week, both the Colts and Tennessee Titans are ahead of Houston. Though I'm not sure how impressive Tennessee's win against the New York Jets is, they have looked like a good team all year, even in their overtime loss in Houston. The Texans are one spot below the Ravens and one spot ahead of the Falcons. This week's opponent, the San Francisco 49ers, are ranked eighth.

A weekly examination of the Jaguars’ ESPN.com Power Ranking:

Preseason: 29 | Last Week: 32 | ESPN.com Power Ranking since 2002

There are four winless teams, but the Jaguars pretty much cemented their hold on the bottom spot in the ESPN.com Power Rankings with a dismal performance in a 37-3 loss to the Indianapolis Colts. Despite what Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger says, the Jaguars are the NFL’s worst team.

They’ve been outscored by nearly 100 points, have scored only five points in two home games and rank 30th or worse in the three major offensive statistical categories. The bulk of their yardage (68.3 percent) and points (74.2 percent) have come in the second half when the games have already been decided.

Jaguars coach Gus Bradley said this week that the staff has already begun evaluating personnel and schemes to see what, if any, changes can be made. That’s a process that usually occurs during the bye week, but the 0-4 start has pushed it up a month. It’s not as intense an examination as they will conduct after the team returns from London at the end of this month, but it’s a start.

A weekly examination of the Titans' ESPN.com Power Ranking:

Preseason: 27 | Last Week: 17 | ESPN.com Power Ranking since 2002

Their blowout win againstf the New York Jets served the Titans well in the AFC South standings and boosted them four spots to No. 13 in ESPN.com’s NFL Power Rankings.

The Titans have six games to come against five teams that rank ahead of them, including their next three. It starts with Kansas City on Sunday. The undefeated Chiefs stand fifth.

Here’s our weekly update on where the Titans stand:



In the AFC South, the Colts are sixth, the Texans are 15th, and the Jaguars are holding steady at 32nd.

Tennessee's win over the Jets dropped New York from 18th to 22nd.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Quarterback Mark Brunell will be back on the field with the Jaguars one more time.

The team will honor him at halftime of the Dec. 15 game against Buffalo at EverBank Field as the newest member of the Pride of the Jaguars. He joins offensive tackle Tony Boselli, running back Fred Taylor, and previous owners Wayne and Delores Weaver in the organization’s hall of fame.

"This is real special," Brunell said Tuesday. "The passing records, they get broken eventually. The other individual awards, Pro bowls and those things, big games, sometimes get forgotten. But the opportunity to be on the Pride, that goes on. That lives on."

Brunell played nine years in Jacksonville (1995-2003) and still owns or shares 23 franchise passing records, including career passing yards (25,698), single-season passing yards (4,367 in 1996), single-game passing yards (432 vs. New England in 1996), touchdown passes (144), and 300-yard passing games (six).

He led the NFL in passing in 1996 and helped guide the Jaguars on an improbable playoff run to the AFC Championship Game in just the franchise’s second season. Brunell led the Jaguars to a franchise-best 14-2 regular season and another appearance in the AFC title game in 1999. He is a three-time Pro Bowler and was the game’s MVP in 1997.

"I was very fortunate," Brunell said. "I’m a firm believer that to do well as a quarterback in the NFL you’ve got to have good people around you. From the first day that I stepped foot in Jacksonville I was very thankful that I had very good people around me, starting with the head coach in Tom Coughlin, a great coaching staff, and like I said, great teammates like Tony, Fred, and the list goes on and on."

This will mark the third consecutive season in which the team has inducted someone into the Pride of the Jaguars. Boselli was the first player inducted in 2006, followed by the Weavers in 2011 and Taylor last season.

"It has never been a question of whether or not Mark belonged there," Jaguars president Mark Lamping said. "It was only a question of when."

 

 

INDIANAPOLIS – Indianapolis Colts receiver LaVon Brazill returned to the team Monday after serving his mandatory four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy.

Brazill is able to practice but there’s no guarantee he’ll be on the active roster for Sunday’s game against the Seattle Seahawks.

The Colts have a one-week roster exemption they can use before activating him. Coach Chuck Pagano said they haven’t decided yet if will activate Brazill.

“He’s been here the whole time (during the suspension),” Pagano said. “Only thing he couldn’t do is practice. But he could meet, lift in the weight room and do all those kind of things. Couldn’t do anything with the team. So he stayed in it mentally so now we get the luxury of bringing him back out and letting him practice now.”

It wouldn’t be surprising if the Colts activate Brazill for Sunday’s game after he practices all week because of they have a shortage of receivers. The Colts released receiver Griff Whalen on Monday to make room for fullback Robert Hughes. That leaves Reggie Wayne, Darrius Heyward-Bey, TY Hilton and David Reed as the only receivers on the active roster.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Ryan Fitzpatrick is starting at quarterback for the Tennessee Titans on Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs, and very likely for a while beyond that.

While Jake Locker is out with hip and knee injuries, the Titans need a new backup.

Dowell Loggains said during the preseason that he'd stand on the table for Rusty Smith, though Smith was cut and then signed to the practice squad.

The likely move to back up Fitzpatrick would be to promote Smith to the 53-man roster. But Mike Munchak hardly offered a ringing endorsement of the 2010 sixth-round draft pick out of Florida Atlantic.

"We haven't decided what we're doing yet at that position," Munchak said. "...He knows our offense well, he knows what we are doing well. So you have to take a lot of those factors into what's the best thing if something does happen now to Ryan? What's the best thing for this team to win. We'll consider our options before we decide what to do."

But why have Smith on the practice squad if he's not technically the third quarterback?

"I didn't say he's not going to be the two, we're always going to take a look at the situation before we make a decision," Munchak said. "Standing right here, I'm not going to make the decision right now. We haven't made any decisions right now. We're just going to make sure it's the best decision when the time comes."

"If he's not the guy, I'll explain to you why at that time."

Munchak said the Titans would have available quarterbacks in for a look on Tuesday.

There is hardly a quality list of available quarterbacks. It includes veterans like Charlie Batch, Byron Leftwich, Tyler Thigpen, David Carr and Trent Edwards.

There are also young quarterbacks on other practice squads the Titans could sign, though they can't try those guys out and making that move would be the biggest possible indictment of Smith.

Those quarterbacks include Indy's Chandler Harnish, Buffalo's Thad Lewis, Oakland's Tyler Wilson and Cincinnati's Greg McElroy.

If Locker doesn't go on IR-recall, which Munchak made sound unlikely, the Titans will have to cut someone to make room for Smith or an outsider.

Offensive tackle Byron Stingily and rookie defensive end Lavar Edwards have both been inactive for every game. Rookie cornerback Blidi Wreh-Wilson re-aggravated a hamstring injury in the win over the Jets and they could put him on IR to create room.

Let's keep talking about Texans quarterback Matt Schaub, shall we?

Earlier today I linked a story by Grantland's Bill Barnwell in which he contends the Texans can win a Super Bowl with Schaub. Now here's a story by my friend Mike Silver of NFL Network, who counts Schaub and Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton as the two quarterbacks holding back their contending teams.

Silver says when the Texans were overachieving underdogs, Schaub was fine. But now that expectations have risen, Silver says, he's not good enough.

"In reality, the bulk of the anger shouldn't be directed at Schaub," Silver writes. "Rather, Texans fans should be ticked off at general manager Rick Smith, who didn't explore other options, and [coach Gary] Kubiak, who clearly has more faith in his quarterback than logic suggests he should."

The Texans have been criticized a lot recently for the four-year extension they gave Schaub last year on the eve of the 2012 season opener that totaled $69.7 million. Here's what I found while examining his contract:

The deal averages $15.5 million per year, with a $17.5 million signing bonus. It guarantees Schaub's base salary of $7.25 million this year. Between the signing bonus, this year's base, last year's base and a few workout bonuses, the Texans will have paid Schaub about $29.7 million of that contract by the end of this season.

If they decide Schaub isn't part of their future, they don't have to pay him one cent more. Schaub's 2014, 2015 and 2016 bases aren't guaranteed and in each of those seasons he has a roster bonus that pays him $1 million total if he's active for 16 games. That's $40 million the Texans would not be on the hook for if they didn't want to be.

Whether they will or not will depend on how Schaub plays the rest of this season. As I've been writing, I don't see his performances so far as evidence that the Texans should move on from him.

An examination of five topics from the Indianapolis Colts’ 37-3 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Feeling at home: Colts nickelback Darius Butler is making Jacksonville a second home. Butler intercepted a Blaine Gabbert pass and returned it 41 yards for a touchdown on Sunday. The touchdown was the second in as many games in Jacksonville for Butler. He had two interceptions, a touchdown, a fumble recovery and two passes defended in the Colts' win at Jacksonville on Nov. 8, 2012. Butler was named AFC Defensive Player of the Week for his performance in that game. “I’m originally from Ft. Lauderdale, so I guess it’s the Florida ties I have here,” Butler said, laughing.

A lot of carries, not a lot of yards: Running back Trent Richardson got his first start in place of the injured Ahmad Bradshaw. Richardson got a lot of carries (20), but he had a difficult time finding running room. He finished with only 60 yards rushing, with 12 yards being his longest run. Donald Brown rushed for more yards (65) than Richardson on 17 fewer carries. Richardson is averaging only 2.9 yards a carry. Bradshaw’s status for next week’s showdown against Seattle is uncertain. It’ll be interesting to see who coach Chuck Pagano starts if Bradshaw is ready to play. “I feel real good,” Richardson said. “I know the big run is going to come. I know I have to contribute more to the offense, but when it comes to the time where it’s play-action and they’re not touching [quarterback Andrew] Luck and our receivers are catching the ball, that’s also a good day for me.”

Continuing the winning ways: The Colts ended September with a 3-1 record and tied with Tennessee for first place in the AFC South. The Colts have a league-best 26-10 record in September games since 2003 -- one more victory in that span than New England and Seattle.

Pounding it on the ground: Richardson has gotten off to a slow start in his two games with Indianapolis, but that hasn’t stopped the Colts from continuing to be a balanced team. The Colts have rushed for at least 100 yards in all four games this season. The team record for consecutive 100-yard games to open the season is five. They can tie the record when they face a Seattle defense that is giving up 109 yards a game on the ground this season. The Colts are fourth in the league in rushing at 149.5 yards a game. The Colts have run the ball 121 times compared to 131 pass attempts. That's pretty balanced.

Reed finally makes his debut: Do you remember receiver/kick returner David Reed? It’s OK if his name doesn’t ring a bell. Reed was acquired for running back Delone Carter from Baltimore in training camp, but he spent the first three weeks of the season dealing with a concussion and quad injury. Reed finally made his debut Sunday. He returned two kickoffs for 45 yards. The goal is for Reed to be the team’s kick returner if he can remain healthy.

Had a good Twitter discussion Sunday night with some angry fans who cannot be convinced that Houston Texans quarterback Matt Schaub is better than his backups. During it I realized one thing: there is a difference between being a great quarterback and playing great during a playoff run.

There are certainly better quarterbacks in the league than Schaub, even after the four indisputably elite ones (Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers). But there are also many more who are much, much worse. Schaub's pick-six was the most costly play of the week, but he's inconsistent, which means he has great games, terrible ones and a lot sprinkled in between. Schaub's pick was costly, but there was more that went wrong during the Texans' 23-20 loss to Seattle.

I made the point in my post-game entry last night that Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco threw five interceptions in the Ravens' 23-20 loss to the Bills. Flacco isn't a great quarterback. But he did play great during the Ravens' Super Bowl run. Does that change you as a player? His statistics this season would indicate no. Bill Barnwell from Grantland.com drew a similar comparison, using Flacco and Eli Manning as examples of players who have had dubious regular seasons, but won Super Bowls.

Barnwell took an extended look at both Schaub's Week 4 performance and his situation in the grand scheme of things.

Some key lines:

• "It was Schaub's third pick-six in three weeks, but it's not like Schaub has some disease where he throws awful pick-sixes; according to Pro-Football-Reference.com, Schaub didn't throw a single pick-six in either the 2011 or 2012 seasons. He has 10 across seven seasons as the Houston starter, which isn't an egregious average."
• "Pretend, for a moment, that Eli Manning and Joe Flacco had produced the same Week 4 performances this week without any notable run in the playoffs to their name. Would anybody in their right mind look at their days (or 2013 seasons, for that matter) and suggest they were good enough to win the Super Bowl? Of course not! In fact, Giants and Ravens fans would be sitting in the same parking lots saying the same things about how they needed to upgrade at quarterback to have any hope of winning a Super Bowl."
• On Schaub: "he's going to need help from his team, which hasn't offered much: Arian Foster's per-carry numbers are down, as he's averaging 3.8. Andre Johnson got hurt and has missed time over the past few weeks. The team has already been without elite left tackle Duane Brown for the past two games, and star inside linebacker Brian Cushing missed the fourth quarter (when Seattle came back from 20-6 down to tie it up) with a concussion."
• "I feel comfortable saying Schaub is good enough to win a Super Bowl, because I've seen quarterbacks who were worse than him during their season at the helm get hot during the playoffs and win the big trophy. As critical as you are of his throw (and you should be, since it was terrible), there's nothing about it that proves he can't win when it really counts in the longer term."

An examination of four hot issues from the Titans' 38-13 win over the Jets:

Is anyone actually watching? It’s time to start giving Jake Locker his due. He was superb against the Jets, with three touchdown throws in the first half. Yet a national overnight radio host put him in the same category as Tim Tebow and another national personality compared him to Oakland’s Terrelle Pryor. Sure, Locker has had issues with his game before this season. But if you've actually watched him through four games, you see a guy making good decisions and good throws. The Titans are 3-1 largely because of Locker, not despite him. Now they have to see how long he’ll be out with a hip injury and how well they can survive with Ryan Fitzpatrick at the helm.

Michael Griffin wavers: A week ago against the Chargers, the Titans free safety went low on a pass-catcher on a play he could have blown up with a high hit, or might have even intercepted. He admitted the reason he approached the play as he did was because of the way the NFL is fining players for high hits. Against the Jets, as Alterraun Verner intercepted a Geno Smith pass on the second play from scrimmage, Griffin hit the receiver, Stephen Hill, in the chin with his helmet. Hill wound up with a concussion, and odds are Griffin will end up with a fine.

Receiver depth showing: Kenny Britt was out because he’s got an injured rib and neck. Set aside any conspiracy theories. The Titans may lack a superstar receiver, but all along we’ve spoken of their good depth. They showed it off against the Jets. Nate Washington was big again. Justin Hunter had a TD catch that was better than the game winner against the Chargers. Damian Williams chipped in with five catches for 53 yards. With or without a functioning and focused Britt, the Titans have guys who can make plays.

Swarming: The Titans don’t have a singular pass-rusher, but if the group effort is like this, they don’t need one. Ropati Pitoitua, a run-stopping defensive end, had two sacks of Geno Smith. Linebacker Zach Brown and defensive tackles Jurrell Casey and Karl Klug also had sacks. He Titans hit Smith an additional six times. He dropped back 34 times and the Titans hit him on just under a third of them.

Analyzing four hot issues from the Houston Texans' 23-20 overtime loss to the Seattle Seahawks:

Was the play call wrong on the pick-six? The play on which Richard Sherman intercepted Matt Schaub was a short pass on third-and-4 with just under three minutes left in the game. The Texans were up seven points and ran four straight run plays on which Arian Foster had gains of 6, 5, 5 and 1 yard immediately before that play. Texans coach Gary Kubiak said it was the wrong call.

"I believe we've got to just run the ball, but we run the plays that are called, and we have to make good decisions," Texans tight end Owen Daniels said.

I say both the play call and the execution were wrong. A run play eats the clock and doesn't have as dramatic a floor as a pass play does. Fumble returns for touchdowns are possible, but much less likely than a pick-six, especially against Seattle's transcendent secondary. If they hadn't picked up the 4 yards necessary, so what? Punt the ball, let your defense do what it did for all but one drive. Further, the Seahawks had that play well-scouted, running it in practice all week. Then again, in the situation in which he found himself, there's no excuse for Schaub to have tried to force the ball to Daniels. Up seven with so little time left in the game, he didn't need the first down.

Is it time to panic? The panic that followed this game was tremendously predictable. Those panicking should remind themselves that the Texans have played only four games and this most recent loss was to what might be the best team in the NFL.

Wilson vs. blitzes: Russell Wilson has been good against blitzes, but he hadn't faced a team yet this season that brings extra pressure quite as much as the Texans do. Wilson was successful against five or more rushers in his first three games, averaging 9.2 yards per attempt. The Texans were much more effective at containing him: He averaged just 4.7 yards per attempt on Sunday in Houston. When Wilson finally got going it was because he used his legs, which he would rather not do.

Rotating guards: The Texans fidgeted with their left guard position on Sunday. Starter Wade Smith rotated with second-year guard/center Ben Jones, who started 10 games at right guard last season. Smith had knee surgery before this season, and last week I asked Kubiak if Smith's knee was still bothering him after he had some rest during the week's practices. Kubiak said it was not, but added that getting Smith ready between games has been a more involved process because of how quickly he returned. Smith didn't appreciate my asking if his knee felt OK. "Why does that matter?" he replied. I said I wondered if the knee was part of why he rotated with Jones and asked what he was told about the rotation. "I felt fine," Smith said, to both questions.

A review of four hot issues from the Jacksonville Jaguars’ 37-3 loss to Indianapolis:

Staying with Gabbert: Blaine Gabbert has thrown five interceptions and has led the offense to just three points in two home games this season, but Jaguars coach Gus Bradley is sticking with him as the team’s starting quarterback. Gabbert has a 5-21 record as a starter and has shown little progress since he was selected 10th overall in the 2011 draft, but Bradley wants to see more of Gabbert in the team’s current system before making any judgments about his future with the team. “I know you say, ‘Gus, we’ve waited to see,’ but I’ve got to see it,” Bradley said. He said some of the issues on Sunday may have been receivers not finishing routes, plus all three interceptions came after receivers bobbled passes.

No help: With Marcedes Lewis’ return lasting just the first series before he had to leave the game after reinjuring his calf, the Jaguars were again without any complementary playmakers to receiver Cecil Shorts. It’s one of the offense’s main problems because teams are able to roll coverages toward Shorts and force Gabbert to beat them with the other receivers -- two of whom were signed from the practice squad on Saturday. It didn’t work, obviously. Gabbert completed just five passes to other wide receivers (four to Ace Sanders, one to Jeremy Ebert). Justin Blackmon returns this week from a four-game suspension, so that should help, but Lewis’ absence is still significant.

TE troubles: The Jaguars again struggled to cover the tight end. Coby Fleener caught five passes for 77 yards and one touchdown, a 31-yarder in which he was wide open. Depending on the defense called, responsibility for the tight end falls to a linebacker, safety or nickel back. Regardless of which player had responsibility, there have been mistakes that resulted in big plays. As good as he is against the run, linebacker Paul Posluszny sometimes struggles in coverage, and the Jaguars started a pair of rookies at safety against the Colts. Through four games, tight ends have caught 20 passes for 244 yards and three touchdowns. The Seahawks' and Colts' tight ends combined to catch 14 passes for 183 yards and three touchdowns.

Discipline problem: It’s not the fact that the Jaguars committed nine penalties for 65 yards that’s troubling. It’s the kinds of penalties that are the issue. Eight of the nine were discipline penalties: four defensive offside/encroachment, one illegal substitution, one false start, one roughing the passer, and one unsportsmanlike conduct. Those are mental mistakes that are avoidable. Jason Babin committed three, including lining up offside twice. The Jaguars aren’t close to being talented enough to be able to overcome mistakes like that, especially against a quarterback like Andrew Luck. “We cannot have that as part of our game,” Bradley said. “Obviously our players aren’t getting the message, and that’s on me.”

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The NFL reviews a slew of plays from each weekend, and Adam Schefter reports they will review the hits by Muhammad Wilkerson and Quinton Coples on the play where Tennessee Titans quarterback Jake Locker injured his right hip.

My colleague who covers the Jets, Rich Cimini, spoke to Wilkerson after the game, and Wilkerson said an official told him his hit was legal.

There was no flag. But the league office deciding a game official didn’t call something right hardly qualifies as a rarity anymore.

I think Wilkerson’s hit was OK. He gets one step after the ball is released, and my reading of the play is that he used that one step. Maybe it was a step and a half, and maybe that draws a fine.

But as I review the play, it seems clear that Locker was hurt because he wound up in an awkward position and something freak happened, not because Wilkerson did something nefarious.

I've rewatched the play multiple times on NFL Rewind this morning.

As Locker let go and followed through, his body opened to the left sideline, and that’s where Wilkerson was coming from. He hit him with his helmet in the right shoulder.

Locker kind of bounced off it, and spun around where he faced the left sideline and then wound up with his back to the line of scrimmage. His right foot was planted, perhaps with the foot pointed a bit to his left, and his left leg was bent and up in the air.

That’s when Couples put his right shoulder into Locker’s left shoulder -- the most unnecessary piece of the play and the one that should, in my opinion, earn a fine.

That hit prompted Locker’s lower right leg to fold awkwardly, with his foot still planted wide of his body, and his knee going to the ground under him. He went to both knees, still facing backward, then his body opened up and as he started to roll over from his stomach onto his left side, he grabbed at the hip before he got to his back.

The medical staff was on the field very quickly, teammates circled around Locker worried, some praying, some looking up to see the replay and try to understand what happened. Ryan Fitzpatrick immediately began tossing a ball on the sideline.

There is no predicting league discipline.

In my eyes, Coples' hit was the most unnecessary part of the play and came well after the ball was released. He should be in line for a fine.

I don’t know that Wilkerson really did anything wrong.