Joe Rexrode

The Tennessean

For the latest edition of “Columns I Almost Wrote but Thankfully Decided to Hold Off,” let’s go back a few weeks in this NFL season.

The Tennessee Titans were scratching for every point, three-and-outs more plentiful than downfield attempts. Not completions, attempts. The passing game appeared to have the ceiling of a dollhouse in a 1-3 start.

Meanwhile, Dorial Green-Beckham was getting some run in Philadelphia, 10 catches for 108 yards in his first four games — nothing special, but not bad for a guy in a new system who supposedly couldn’t decipher his Titans playbook before he was traded. A 6-foot-5, 237-pound fast guy who appeared to have more upside than any of the Titans receivers he left behind.

That potential, some of it tapped in a 32-catch, 549-yard rookie season in Nashville, was shipped Aug. 16 for a reserve offensive lineman named Dennis Kelly. DGB for WHN (what’s-his-name). And the “Jon Robinson’s First Major Mistake as Titans GM” column was percolating.

Well. Since then the Titans’ offense has turned into one of the scariest in the NFL, Marcus Mariota taking and hitting shots like he’s Steph Curry. Green-Beckham has eight catches for 86 yards.

And the Titans and their fans can thank what’s-his-name, and Robinson for grabbing him. Taylor Lewan should buy him dinner, or hair product or whatever he wants.

Kelly’s bail out of the ejected Lewan is a big part of why the Titans are 5-5 today, zeroing in on a gigantic game at Indianapolis after a 47-25 thumping of the Green Bay Packers. That you probably didn’t notice the 6-foot-8, long-maned Kelly much Sunday is a compliment to his ability and preparation for such moments.

“He played unbelievable,” Mariota said of Kelly, who entered the game when Lewan was ejected with 10:24 left in the first quarter for slapping aside the hand of an official — enraged at the time that Letroy Guion had jumped offsides and taken a free shot on Mariota.

Kelly, who had 30 games and 15 starts in his first four years in the NFL, had 39 offensive snaps in 2016 entering Sunday. He got 58 against the Packers.

“It has its challenges obviously, just because you’ve got to prepare for both sides,” Kelly said of being ready for such an emergency. “It might not ever happen. Obviously the first (nine) games I haven’t really been needed. But it’s kind of in the job description. Part of the gig.”

TITANS 47, PACKERS 25

And upon review, the Titans couldn’t have asked for much more from him. On third-and-14 after the ejection, he warded off Julius Peppers with textbook punch as Mariota hit Tajae Sharpe for a first down.

On the next possession, he delivered a perfect cut block on Nick Perry on a screen to Delanie Walker. Then Kelly and left guard Brian Schwenke handled a Packers twist, switching assignments deftly, on another third-down conversion.

The Packers threw Jayrone Elliott and Datone Jones at Kelly as well; the Titans let Kelly handle his area alone; and he was sound all day. Review the DVR of the game and you’ll see consistent pass blocking and run blocking from Kelly.

“I’m proud of him,” Lewan said, “and when he came in (to the locker room) I said, ‘Great job, but don’t do any better because you might take my job.’”

That won’t happen, of course, because Lewan and Jack Conklin make up one of the best tackle combos in the league, young first-round picks from Big Ten rivals (Michigan and Michigan State) with exceptional ability. Kelly is the fifth-round pick from Purdue.

And though Lewan was correctly ejected Sunday and remains a threat to melt down at any moment, another look at that entire sequence crystallizes this point: He had a right to be upset about the Guion hit on Mariota, and some of Lewan’s teammates could have displayed a little more anger at that moment.

Lewan will be back leading the offensive line against the Colts in the most important Titans game in years. What’s-his-name will be back in a just-in-case role. But what a luxury for this team to have Kelly, and what a performance he delivered in the biggest win in years.

“They’ve got some guys outside that are a threat and I thought he did an unbelievable job stepping in there,” coach Mike Mularkey said of Kelly. “Jon (Robinson) getting him here with that trade was as big a trade as we had this year.”

And that was a heck of a column to hold off on writing. Now just forget all the other ones that were written about how the Titans won’t be able to throw the ball this season.

Follow Joe Rexrode on Twitter @joerexrode.