Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel addressed the situation at punter on Wednesday in the wake of Trevor Daniel’s disastrous Week 10 performance and the team’s decision to release Ryan Allen on Tuesday.
Daniel was inexplicably inserted into the starting role last Thursday night in place of Allen after the latter was excellent in Week 9 against the Chicago Bears.
Vrabel’s reasoning for making the move? Daniel out-performed Allen in practice during the week.
The move proved to be a blunder, as Daniel went on to shank one punt, and had another one blocked, which wasn’t his fault. Still, the shank gave the Colts great field position for one of their scores.
Despite Daniel’s struggles, Vrabel expressed confidence in the punter, per Erik Bacharach of the Tennessean:
“One punt is not going to define Trevor. We believe in him,” Vrabel said.
As far as Allen is concerned, Vrabel said the team could look to add him to the practice squad, which we would assume could lead to a punter competition during the week.
However, as we discovered last week, the player who performs better in practice isn’t always the best choice. Allen’s success in actual game action should have made this a no-brainer from the start.
