The Tennessee Titans managed a gritty win over the New England Patriots in Week 9, despite the fact that they did so with two backup linemen on the field for most of the game.
Backup Daniel Brunskill played RG all day for a banged-up Dillon Radunz, and backup Corey Levin came in to replace C Lloyd Cushenberry after he went down in the middle of the 3rd quarter.
In the wake of celebrating a badly needed victory to improve to 2-6, the Titans learned that Cushenberry's injury was a season-ending Achilles tear, as first reported by Paul Kuharsky.
This is a brutal break for the Titans young OL nucleus. Cushenberry was a marquee free agency acquisition in the spring. The Titans paid him more money than any other center on the market, making him the 3rd-highest paid center in the entire NFL.
His $50 million dollar contract is for four years, and his first season with the ball club is coming to an end after less than half the year.
The silver lining of this timing is that he should be able to get surgery and recover in time to begin the 2025 season ready to go. The recovery time for Achilles tears is seemingly shortening with every passing year, and we've recently seen players return in as little as 6 months.
At just 26 years old, age isn't a concern for Cushenberry's ability to make a full recovery. But he was brought in to be the rock of this young offensive line. Now that he'll miss the remainder of 2024, the path forward for the Titans interior OL is in question.
Veteran Corey Levin finished the game for Cushenberry and did a fine job, though his snapping of the ball was erratic and nearly spelled disaster a couple of times. It took all 6'5" of Mason Rudolph's frame to pluck a couple high snaps out of the air, and a fumbled exchange near the goal line in overtime could have cost the Titans the game.
The Titans primary backup interior offensive lineman is Daniel Brunskill. Not only is he their best backup interior lineman, but he's spent most of the year training specifically as the Titans backup center. But he was already slotted in as the starting RG against the Patriots, so Levin took over snapping duties.
What the Titans do with who replaces who will be interesting going forward, and primarily depends on when Radunz comes back from his foot injury. If he's back this week, expect Brunskill to slide over to fill in at C for the remainder of the year. If he misses more time, perhaps the way they finished against New England is what they'll roll with in Week 10 against the Chargers. We could also see a week of practice tryouts to earn the second starting IOL position alongside Brunskill.
