Titan Up/Titan Down: Winners & Losers From Titans Week 16 Loss to Seattle Seahawks

The Tennessee Titans lost a close one to the Seattle Seahawks in Week 16, and with a tight score comes some good and bad performances that kept them close, but ultimately lost the game.

The Tennessee Titans fought hard, but lost a close one late to the Seattle Seahawks. Any time you have a close game there are going to be good and bad performances and that is what we saw in Week 16. Here are the winners and losers from Sunday in this week's Titan Up, Titan Down.

Titan Up

Derrick Henry

The sand at the top of the hourglass is getting low for Henry and his time with the Titans. Although Henry is a franchise legend and one of the best running backs of this era, even he is not immune to the rising trend of going cheap at his position.

That means performances like we saw on Sunday where Henry ran for a touchdown and threw for one while totaling 99 yards need to be appreciated or, at least, enjoyed. Henry could be back with the Titans next year, of course, but without knowing for sure, best to give Henry a Titan Up while we still can.

Chig Okonkwo

The second-year tight end had a slow start to the season with a lack of production and some drops, but Okonkwo has put that in the rearview mirror it seems. Okonkwo put up six catches for 63 yards and caught Henry's touchdown pass. He led the team in all categories on the day. 

Okonkwo has 21 catches for 252 yards and a score in his last five games and has gone over 40 yards in four of them. Okonkwo will never be the in-line blocker some are at his position, but he continues to prove he can be a major threat in the passing game going into 2024 like most thought he could be coming into this year.

The Tank

The Titans currently sit at pick seven in the 2024 NFL draft with two weeks remaining. To secure one of the top three position players in the draft based on consensus(Marvin Harrison Jr, Joe Alt or Olu Fashanu), the Titans would prefer to drop into the top five, but they would need some help still as well.

Regardless, the Titans can only control what they can control and putting half the team's starters (hyperbole, I know) on injured reserve over the weekend, they are doing just that. Now, the Titans didn't want to lose to the Seahawks, but they did their job anyway.

Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Titan Down

Ryan Tannehill

Tannehill looked incredibly rusty in this game even if his stat line doesn't show it. Tannehill was 18-for-26 passing for 152 passing yards. He took six sacks on the day. Also, Tannehill routinely missed open receivers or threw the ball late and behind them. Again, incredibly rusty after not playing since Week 6.

However, that has nothing to do with the mistakes Tannehill made at the end of the game in clock management. He took a bad sack on the penultimate play and then threw a short pass to a receiver in bounds with no timeouts. Crazy mistakes for a veteran.

Tre Avery

The former undrafted free agent cornerback has tried his best, no doubt. With Kristian Fulton being hurt or terrible most of the season, Avery has gotten his fair share of opportunities and most of the time, like Sunday, they have not gone well.

Avery was attacked routinely by Seattle and like Tannehill, did his worst work in the biggest moments. On Seattle's final scoring drive, Avery was called for a big penalty that set the Seahawks up to score and he allowed both the final touchdowns for Seattle in one-on-one coverage.

Jaelyn Duncan

The rookie offensive tackle was never expected to be a starter this season, so some grace should be allowed, but Duncan has been so bad as of late that he was benched for Andre Dillard of all people on Sunday. Duncan was said to have a wrist injury, but the move doesn't look entirely motivated by that.

Duncan is only a rookie, so maybe he can continue to develop into a starter, but that is not what he is right now. In fairness to the Titans though, they don't have a starting left tackle on the roster right now anyways.

Related Titans-Seahawks stories

• TITANS PERFECT LOSS: The Tennessee Titans are eliminated from the playoffs, but don't tell the players to shut it down. They aren't wired that way. That's what made Sunday perfect. They entertained us for three hours — but lost anyway and moved up in the draft order. CLICK HERE
• TITANS GAME STORY: Once again, the Tennessee Titans made all sorts of late mistakes and lost 20-17 in the closing minutes to the Seahawks on Sunday. It's the seventh one-score defeat, and their third straight home loss where they've blown a late lead. The Titans are now 5-10 on the year. CLICK HERE
• PHOTO GALLERY: The Tennessee Titans dropped their third straight home game on Sunday, giving up a touchdown to the Seattle Seahawks in the final minute to lose 20-17. Here are the best pictures from the Christmas Eve game. CLICK HERE
• WATCH DK METCALF TD CATCH: The Tennessee Titans gave up the lead for the first time of the game in the fourth quarter when they allowed a go-ahead touchdown pass to Seattle Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf. CLICK HERE
• WATCH ARDEN KEY SACK: The Tennessee Titans came out and got a big play from their defense early against the Seattle Seahawks as edge rusher Arden Key sacked Geno Smith for a big loss. CLICK HERE
• WATCH DERRICK HENRY TD PASS: The Tennessee Titans took an early lead over the Seattle Seahawks as Derrick Henry threw his fourth career touchdown pass. This time, to Chig Okonkwo to give the Titans a 7-0 advantage. CLICK HERE
• WATCH HENRY RUSHING TD: The Tennessee Titans took the lead late in the fourth quarter as Derrick Henry's touchdown run capped off an excellence response from the Titans' offense. CLICK HERE
• WEEK 16 POINT SPREAD: The Tennessee Titans are banged up, and will turn to veteran Ryan Tannehill at quarterback on Sunday against the Seahawks at Nissan Stadium. With all the injuries, the Seahawks are favored to win. CLICK HERE