Titans fans should love the tank in Weeks 17 and 18

The Tennessee Titans don’t tank. No fan should expect the team to intentionally lose games to defend its position in the 2025 NFL Draft because everyone in the organization is focused on keeping their job for another year.

However, there are some hard truths about the team’s current positioning that need to be accepted.

Winning meaningless games in Weeks 17 and 18 would only hurt the Titans at this point. There will be significant personnel fluctuations and there will be no momentum next season. Any fairy tale about “building a winning culture” just because the team wins two games at the end of the year after starting 3-13 is a fantasy and comes from a state of delusion.

Regardless of the results of the next two games, this franchise will have some thinking to do in the offseason. A loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans, even in the Houston Oilers’ setbacks in Week 18, would put them in a better position to bounce back in 2025.

This Sunday’s contest against the Jaguars is particularly important in light of the current draft order. Jacksonville is currently projected to go third overall and the Titans are in fourth place. The loser will benefit greatly while the winner will end up outside the top 5.

Just a few weeks ago, an AFC scout told Dane Brugler that Travis Hunter was the only player in this draft class who would have been a top-10 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.

As usual, it feels like the quarterbacks are headed to the top of the draft, with Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders the favorites at Nos. 1 and 2 overall. The Giants, Raiders and Browns will likely pursue quarterbacks aggressively.

That means the third pick in the draft could be the winner of the Hunter sweepstakes.

A loss would guarantee the Titans a top-three draft pick. That would mean they could either draft Hunter or trade him for a ton of additional picks. Trading down and still getting a prime target like Hunter, edge rusher Abdul Carter or wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan seems within the realm of possibility.

If the Titans win this weekend, those dreams will be dashed.

So if you’re looking for a way to get the Titans back to prominence as quickly as possible, losing would likely speed up the process. Don’t feel bad about hoping for losses, even against two hated division rivals. They simply understand the most logical path to a successful reconstruction.

The next eight days could determine whether the Titans will have an elite youngster like Hunter on their team for a decade or whether they will play against that elite youngster for a decade.