One thing that really impressed Tennessee Titans coach Mike Munchak about Jake Locker in the Titans' preseason win against the Cardinals Thursday night was the young quarterback’s ability to assess the quality of the protection calls.

On multiple occasions Locker realized the protection was not good for how he saw Arizona lined up and initiated a change.

“… He changed about three or four protections, to keep him from being hot, to avoid problems when he threw the ball, to avoid him from getting hit,” Munchak said. “He does things that people wouldn’t notice. He’s doing that, most young quarterbacks wouldn’t even think or be able to handle (that). Most young quarterbacks and even some veterans, they’re more concerned about the coverage.

“He’s adjusting protections and then looking at coverage, so he’s way ahead of a lot of guys and he did some good things like that. There were a couple of balls that were high, couple of routes that weren’t run right, but overall I was very happy with the fact that again when he played, we scored points and we won the football game.”

One of the protection changes came on the play where Locker threw a 28-yard touchdown pass to Nate Washington in the second quarter. From the shotgun, Locker hit Washington on the right, only about five yards from the line of scrimmage and let Washington do the work from there, racing to the end zone.

“He changed the protection to keep from being hot,” Munchak said of Locker winding up forced to throw an outlet against a blitz. “If we were sliding the opposite way, he would’ve had to get rid of the ball a lot faster, which means he wouldn’t have time to make that throw. He checked the protection, now he has time, he can make the throw.”

That’s nice informative detail from Munchak on his quarterback, and something we should monitor going forward.