When: 8:25 p.m. ET, Thursday. Where: EverBank Field, Jacksonville, Florida TV: NFL Network

The Jacksonville Jaguars-Tennessee Titans game on Thursday night certainly doesn't have playoff implications. Not with both teams at 2-12.

But the game does mean something. It's a race to avoid finishing in the AFC South cellar and jockey for draft position. The Jaguars and Titans are two of four 2-12 teams and one 3-11 team (Washington) battling for the No. 1 draft pick.

In a way, it's probably better to finish last in the division because that team would end up with a home game against the last-place AFC West team in 2015 -- which is the 2-12 Oakland Raiders. Finishing third in the division would mean a game against either Kansas City or San Diego.

ESPN NFL Nation Titans reporter Paul Kuharsky and Jaguars reporter Michael DiRocco break down the matchup:

DiRocco: We talked earlier this season about Jake Locker. Now I'll ask about Zach Mettenberger. Has Ken Whisenhunt seen enough to know if he's the QB around which he can build the offense?

Kuharsky: We don't know. They got six starts from Mettenberger before he suffered the shoulder injury that meant he'd watch the final three games from the sideline. He showed progress in many areas and fits the Whisenhunt mold -- big guy, big arm, not going to scramble around, will stand in the pocket and face down pressure. But they didn't see him in the fourth quarter of a close game and he was unable to help engineer a win. He and the offense were horrifically bad on third down.

What are the alternatives? They could be in position to draft Marcus Mariota or Jameis Winston. But Mariota's ability to run is a big element of his game, and Whisenhunt doesn't like that. And Winston has a lot of baggage. The free-agent market is always weak. Good quarterbacks get re-signed. Heck, Locker could be the second-best guy coming free.

I think Mettenberger is probably the starter on opening day, but they need to get some reasonable alternative on the roster.

Blake Bortles has been sacked 46 times and thrown 17 picks to go with 10 TDs. The supporting cast is poor, but what else is behind the poor rookie season?

DiRocco: The first thing is to remember that the Jaguars did not want to play him in 2014 and were forced to because the offense, aside from the first half of the season opener, was non-functional with Chad Henne. That being said, Bortles has footwork issues, doesn't make decisions as quickly as he needs to at times and also tries to do too much instead of making the easy play. In short, he's behaving like 99 percent of rookie quarterbacks.

All of those are fixable problems and the No. 1 task in the offseason will be fixing his footwork. He did not get good coaching in this area at Central Florida and it was one of the main reasons the Jaguars did not want him to play in 2014. One coach told me that when Bortles uses the proper footwork -- when he takes the proper drop, when his feet are in the proper position, when he steps into the throw correctly -- the ball leaps out of his hand and he's very accurate. When he doesn't, however, the ball floats and he's not as accurate.

You did hit on another big reason for his struggles. The Jaguars just aren't very good along the offensive line and have had to rely on five rookies in the starting lineup on offense. That's not a recipe for good football.

Was Whisenhunt caught a bit off-guard by how much of a rebuild he was facing? It seems like a lot of us expected the Titans to be better than this (I did) and not locked in a battle for the No. 1 pick.

Kuharsky: He was asked after the Week 4 loss in Indianapolis whether he might have overestimated what he inherited and he said maybe. It's an answer he regretted, because it fueled questions about his ability to assess other things. I thought the Titans would be closer to the Jaguars than to the Colts, but I saw seven wins against a bad schedule. They've lost to some really bad teams and look to be far, far away from being relevant. There are a load of contributing factors, but Whisenhunt's been too stubbornly committed to his systems rather than bending more to what the roster offers.

This is the one look most of the country gets at the Jaguars and EverBank Field this season. Will people see anything to suggest the Dave Caldwell-Gus Bradley regime is making progress? The record doesn't suggest it.

DiRocco: Bradley was asked about this on Monday, because at 2-12 there doesn't seem to be any progress made in Year 2. His response was that he's seeing significant improvement in some of the young players, such as right guard Brandon Linder, center Luke Bowanko, receiver Marqise Lee and Bortles. That isn't correlating to unit progress, though. So while some of the young offensive linemen are better players now than they were in October, the line isn't playing any better.

There isn't much progress on defense from last season in terms of stats. The passing and rushing yardage allowed is similar, but the Jaguars have seven more sacks this season than in 2013. The unit has done a better job of keeping the Jaguars in games, and had the offense not turned the ball over against Pittsburgh, Tennessee and Miami, the Jaguars could be sitting at five victories right now.

The Titans are one of the few teams that have forced fewer turnovers than the Jaguars (18). What has been the biggest reason the defense can't get takeaways?

Kuharsky: The secondary has a tendency to be in position but allow catches, so those guys are often two significant steps away from grabbing an interception. The pass rush is lacking so it doesn't force quarterbacks into bad throws very often. And it's a poor tackling defense, which has trouble getting guys to the ground, gang tackling and stripping the ball loose. Teams have run 49 percent of the time against the Titans, which seems to reduce the chances of taking the ball away.

Sen'Derrick Marks wasn't wanted by the Titans when his contract expired. He seems to rate as a foundational piece for the Jaguars. How has he done and is he a big piece of their plan?

DiRocco: Marks is indeed one of the building blocks on defense, which the Jaguars proved by signing him to a four-year extension last December. He earned that deal by playing the best football of his career (4.0 sacks, 33 tackles, eight pass breakups). What's impressive about Marks is that he's been even better after he signed his four-year, $22 million deal. He is playing at a Pro Bowl level, though he'll have to get votes from the players and coaches to make the squad. He has 39 tackles and 7.5 sacks, which is a half-sack shy of earning him a $600,000 performance bonus. That many sacks from an interior lineman is unusual and shows just how dominant he has been in his second season in Jacksonville. The Jaguars recently signed defensive tackle Roy Miller to a four-year extension, locking up their two defensive tackles for at least three more years.