Tennessee Titans head coach Ken Whisenhunt named rookie Zach Mettenberger the team’s starting quarterback for Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans at LP Field.

Jake Locker has missed the past two games with a thumb injury, and the naming of Mettenberger could signal the end of Locker’s days as the Titans’ No. 1 quarterback.

“We are going to go with Zach at QB this week,” said Whisenhunt, who said the decision was made Tuesday. “We were still waiting to see where Jake’s hand was going to be as far as whether he was going to be the backup or not depending on if he could do that. We feel good after two good days of practice with Jake that he can do that. So that’s the order in which we’re going to go from this point.

“Unfortunately that (news) got out before we had the opportunity to announce that, but that’s the direction we’re going. We feel like it’s an opportunity to see what Zach can do just like a number of our younger players that have already started to contribute, and we’re looking forward to seeing where we go from here.”

Mettenberger was a sixth-round selection in this year’s NFL Draft, but he had a strong preseason, completing 69.1 percent of his passes for 659 yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions and a passer rating of 97.6.

Whisenhunt said the Titans plan to stick with Mettenberger, even when Locker gets healthy.

Mettenberger has played in just one regular-season game, completing 2 of 5 passes for 17 yards and one interception.

This past week, he was the backup to Charlie Whitehurst, who started Sunday’s game against Washington. Whitehurst was 17-for-26 for 160 yards, two touchdowns and one interceptions in a 19-17 loss to the Redskins that dropped the Titans’ record to 2-5.