NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Too many times it’s been a risky deal to cast something that unfolds for the Tennessee Titans as a potentially pivotal, transformative moment.

But we have our latest entry:

Sunday evening the Chargers twice scored a go-ahead touchdown that was overturned as short by replay, then the Titans made a huge goal-line play when Melvin Gordon tried to run it in, Wesley Woodyard stripped him and Jurrell Casey gathered the football with 15 seconds left on the clock.

“It better be (that moment),” Casey said. “It better be. That’s all we can hope for right now, that this gets us going, gets us on the right groove.”

“You would definitely hope so,” said Kevin Byard, who caught a first-down pass from Brett Kern on a fake punt.

“Wouldn’t it be great?” Taylor Lewan asked of such a scenario after it improbably preserved a 23-20 win for the Titans, boosting their record to 3-4. “This is one win. We have to do a lot better in a lot of different areas. There are still yards out there for runs, there are still protection things we’ve got to get better.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Greetings, devoted readers and thank you for coming into this week's mailbag.

I hope you will check out this week's podcast, which leads off with some thoughts on the switch from Marcus Mariota to Ryan Tannehill.

Lots of good questions from you, and I appreciate all of them. I picked the ones I had the best answers to.

For the #Titans players that are currently in contract years:

Please rank those players from most likely to least likely to earn a contract extension.

Please explain your reasoning for each player. #PKMailbag

— Tres Winn (@TresWinn) October 17, 2019

PK: The odd thing is, there aren’t many guys that HAVE to be back.

Logan Ryan is the clear No. 1. He’s playing very well, he’s a key locker room guy, the secondary is the team’s best unit and I would not mess with the defensive backfield as it stands.

No. 2 would probably be Ryan Tannehill, though that is sight unseen. The Titans are probably going to have a rookie quarterback next year, and they will need a veteran who might start the season to bridge things.

Next I'd say... 

By BLAKE BEDDINGFIELD, special correspondent

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Los Angeles Chargers are a very dangerous team right now but have some major flaws due to injuries.

Philip Rivers has multiple skill players around him, but a suspect offensive line because of major injuries to their starting left tackle Russell Okung and Pro Bowl center Mike Pouncey.

The Chargers also placed WR Travis Benjamin on the injured reserve leaving the team without a vertical threat.

The team has the potential to score points now that RB Melvin Gordan has come back from his contract holdout and TE Hunter Henry has returned from an injury.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – I screwed up Tuesday. I might suffer long-term consequences for it.

I hope not, but either way, I spend a lot of time asking people to be accountable, so I am here to be so myself.

Mike Vrabel gave what I thought was a bad answer to a question about leadership at the start of the week, saying that he didn’t tie production to leadership, he tied production to good players.

On Logan Ryan’s show on The Midday 180 the next afternoon, I asked him about that and he told a story about a gathering of Patriots defensive leaders in which they talked about that very thing and agreed that production was a necessary ingredient in leadership.

I did not preface the question to Ryan with what Vrabel had said, nor did I fill Ryan in after his answer with what Vrabel had said. The moment his time with us on the phone was over, I texted Ryan a tweet of a video of what Vrabel had said. He reflected on it a bit and I texted that he should say what he said there on the record to flesh out the context of the different stances.

He declined and said he wanted to stay out of it.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Depending on how things go for Ryan Tannehill, we could see Marcus Mariota again in the Titans’ final 10 games.

But the team’s hope, frankly, is that it doesn’t need to call on No. 8.

That would mean Tannehill provides the spark they seek and provides at least reasonable baseline-level quarterback play.

Things sure don’t look good at 2-4. Last year’s Titans never feel two games behind .500.

Still, this season is salvageable. There are three winnable games ahead right now, with the Chargers and Buccaneers coming to town before a trip to Carolina.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- In Ryan Tannehill, the Titans are bringing in the paddles and looking to shock their offense back to life.

Ian Rapoport tweeted Tuesday evening that Tennessee is making the change at quarterback and I've confirmed it.

Sure, game-planning, play-calling, pass-protection and receiver-separation have all been issues for the stagnant offense in addition to quarterback play.(Photo courtesy Miami Dolphins)

But Marcus Mariota really bottomed out in Denver before getting pulled in the third quarter, with accuracy issues handcuffing an offense that needed signs of life.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Mike Vrabel's Monday comment about a locker room leader not needing to be a productive player surprised me.

Leadership is not based on production, says Mike Vrabel. (If he’s pointing to Dion Lewis as a top offensive leader, the #Titans’ issues are even bigger than I thought, I say.) pic.twitter.com/B8bb9LEtEV

— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) October 14, 2019

That's the stance of one former multiple Super Bowl-winning Patriot.

I asked another with the same credentials for his thoughts on the topic.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Titans made the change, so they should make the change.

Pulling Marcus Mariota from the Denver game and giving him back the job would be less than a half measure, and the Titans are desperate for full measures. He is a broken quarterback who couldn't complete a screen and other short stuff on Sunday, and with accuracy on even basic short stuff in question, the Titans are a very easy team to defend.Stack the box to stop Derrick Henry and dare Mariota to beat you. With the current poor state of his field vision, decision making and accuracy the Titans have scored seven points over their last eight quarters of football. In their last three losses, they've scored a grand total of 14. [Unlocked]