Now that Mike Munchak has decided to hand the keys to the Tennessee Titans' offense over to Jake Locker, don't expect the coach to go back to Matt Hasselbeck.
Munchak all but closed the door on that possibility during a Tuesday conversation with Steve Wyche on NFL Network's "NFL AM." Asked if Hasselbeck could get his job back in a non-injury situation, Munchak said "probably not" before adding "unless there was a reason to make a change."
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"I think Jake is going to have some ups and downs as any quarterback does in the NFL, but being a young guy he'll have some," said Munchak, who later told Wyche the team has no plans to trade Hasselbeck. "He's shown us when he's had a bad day or a bad throw, he's come back in that same game and made better decisions and made plays. So I think this is a situation where we're very confident in him."
"We feel he's won the position and he's ready to go, so we'll definitely hang with him unless there was, like you said, probably an injury situation."
Don't read too much into some of the hedging in Munchak's remarks here. Barring a complete meltdown -- the prospect of which we've received no hints of in the preseason -- Locker is El Hombre in Tennessee.
Follow Dan Hanzus on Twitter @danhanzus.
