Tennessee Titans running back Bishop Sankey is one of several rookies seeing significant playing time for the Titans. If nothing else, this uninspiring season is giving them valuable experience.

-- Ap Photo/Mark E. Tenally

As the Tennessee Titans reassemble from their bye week, there is some sense of optimism that somehow this team that went 2-6 through the first half of the season can put together something to make the final 2014 ledger look somewhat respectable.

If you’re one of the few remaining glass-half-full Titans fans, then there is a precedent for stumbling badly out of the gate and righting the ship.

The Titans did it a couple of times during Jeff Fisher’s tenure – first in 2006 when they rallied from an 0-5 start behind the play of rookie quarterback Vince Young.

They finished 8-8.

Three years later they started 0-6, capped by one of the most embarrassing weeks in franchise history.

To jog your memory, think 59-0 loss to New England and Fisher in a Peyton Manning jersey the following day at a charity event.

“I just wanted to feel like a winner,” Fisher explained after introducing Colts Tony Dungy.

Again, the Titans rebounded to finish the season at .500.

In truth, this season’s Titans more closely resemble the 2006 team than the 2009.

That ‘06 team had been losing for a couple of seasons following the Titans’ initial successful run. It needed a jolt of confidence and got it when Young took over.

The NFL had not yet caught up with Young in terms of how to stop him, and the Titans benefited from that to overachieve and finish 8-8.

And while there are those who say there is no carryover from year to year in the NFL, it is pretty easy to connect the dots that the playoff teams of ‘07 and ‘08 were born from that ‘06 resurgence, even as Young himself regressed due, in part, to immaturity and poor work habits.

The 2009 team, which ironically improved after Young again became the starter, was a different animal.

That was a team expected to do well, but seemed unable to get out of reverse, hitting rock bottom on a snowy Sunday in New England by equaling the worst loss in modern NFL history.

So what do those teams have to do with the 2014 Titans?

Maybe nothing, other than to show that as bad as this year’s team has been, there is a precedent toward building something that might become a cornerstone for the future. Or at least saving face for Coach Ken Whisenhunt in his first edition of the Titans.

“We’ve talked about that,” Whisenhunt says. “I think we’ve talked about the fact that those situations happen. It seems to be people are going to react weekly on a game-by-game basis.

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“You’ve heard this phrase, ‘you are what your record is,’ and that’s what we were the first eight games, but that doesn’t mean that’s what we have to be over the next eight, and that’s the way we’re going to approach it.

“We understand we have areas that we haven’t played well, and we’ve got to focus on getting better in those areas.”

For now, there appear to be two objectives for the remainder of the 2014 season.

Whisenhunt just stated the first one – trying to salvage something by playing better and winning some games in the second half.

The other should be even more of a priority.

The Titans are finally showing some sort of commitment to rebuilding – even if that is a dirty word to veteran players and long-suffering fans.

For the first time since the 1970 merger, the franchise will have rookies starting at quarterback, running back and left tackle in Zach Mettenberger, Bishop Sankey and Taylor Lewan.

Mettenberger at quarterback is obviously the biggest key.

If he can play well enough to encourage the Titans that they don’t need to spend a high pick in 2015 on a quarterback, it puts the Titans’ rebuilding plans that much farther along.

But while Mettenberger is the focal point, his development is only part of the equation.

Other rookies like Avery Williamson and Marqueston Huff are getting chances to play meaningful snaps on defense, and many second- and third-year players – from the heralded Kendall Wright and Justin Hunter to the unheralded Daimion Stafford and Mike Martin – will also get a chance to prove they can be part of a core group that can help rebuild the franchise.

Over the next eight weeks, some of those will show promise, while others may falter, flame out and have to be replaced.

But if you’re looking for something worth watching over the final two months of the season, more important than winning five or six more games to save face in 2014 is finding out just how far away from respectability and contention the Titans truly are.

Terry McCormick covers the Titans for TitanInsider.com and is a blogger for 247 Sports NFL Insider.