Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - 10/4/17 Locked on Titans: Titans sign Brandon Weeden

Episode Date: October 4, 2017

Talking through the Titans decision to sign Brandon Weeden. Should they have kicked the tires on Colin Kaepernick? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Minimum purchase required, U.S. only. You are Locked On Titans, your daily podcast on the Tennessee Titans. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in to another edition of Locked On Titans. Jimmy Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you tonight? Doing good. Did you ever think we were going to be talking Brandon Whedon this season for the Titans?

You know, it's quite a place to be, but this is where we find ourselves. It happens. We're going to get to all that here in just a minute. Starting off, though, we have to remind you about xbet.ag uh sponsoring the podcast this week and we're really excited to have them on board um you can check out their website they have a really good mobile website you can log in bet on any game you want to from your phone you can bet before the game you can bet during the game they update live odds and that stuff as the game goes on so everybody check that out again that's xbet.ag and if you use the promo code xbet you get up to 100 deposit bonus on your first deposit so if that's the type of thing that you like to do check that out um we also have a promo going on

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Again, that's go to Locked on Titans on iTunes. Please do that anyway and subscribe. It leaves a review there. Leave your Twitter handle in the review and you'll be eligible to win. So a couple of cool things going on top of the show right there. All right. So, yeah, the big news terry mentioned today the titans uh quote kick the tires and that was a i guess florio's words from uh what's the name of his website well pro football talk there you go yeah uh pro football talk um they brought in a few guys ended up signing brandon whedon um so terry just kind of give me

your initial thoughts on that. I don't think it matters too much. Brandon Whedon, Matt Barkley, Matt McGloin, TJ Yates were the guys that they brought in. As I was telling you before the show, it's all the same guy. So, insurance. That's all

this is. If something were to happen to Marcus and he can't go, this guy's going to be your number two. And the odds of him playing are very low. So it's just simple insurance, nothing more than that. He'll probably be cut the following Monday. Yeah, and that's the thing to keep in mind here, is that whoever they're going to sign today it is the guy that's probably going

to be on the roster for a week maybe two um we'll know a little bit more about that as we go through practice this week and find out if marcus mariotta is going to be able to go if he's able to go on sunday comes out of the game fine then brandon whedon will be cut next week um they they did cut josh carraway um to make room for Whedon on the roster. But, you know, and there's a lot of talk, and we're going to talk a little bit about Colin Kaepernick tonight and about, you know, if we think the Titans should have signed him or not in this situation.

But the important thing to remember before we get into all this is that this guy is here for a very short amount of time. We hope that it's a week. It could be two weeks, again, just depending on how Marcus' hamstring responds to treatment this week, next week, depending on if he's able to go. So I'm not sure that it's even a situation that Colin Kaepernick would have been interested in. Now, you know, obviously the argument is they didn't even call him, didn't give him a workout, whatever. So, I mean, I do get that, and I think that it's a discussion, like I said,

that's worth having. But it's important to remember that this wasn't that the Titans decided they liked Brandon Whedon better than Colin Kaepernick or they think Brandon Whedon's a better quarterback than Colin Kaepernick. It was just for whatever their specific needs are right here, Whedon was the guy they felt like was the big fit, the best fit. Again, with the thought in mind, or the hope in mind, that he never has to see the field.

Right, and you think about Colin Kaepernick, he's just removed from a big multi-year contract. He's probably looking for something a little more solid. A multi-year deal. He's not looking for a one-week gig. That's not looking for a one-week gig.

That's not what he's looking to do. If you want to have the conversation about Kaepernick versus Matt Castle, I can entertain that. It's not Whedon versus Kaepernick. That's not what this is. And, unfortunately, that's what it turned into on Twitter today. You saw a lot of national guys. I know Pete Frisco was one of the first to say it. The Titans picked Brandon Whedon over Kaepernick.

No, they did not. Kaepernick's not going to come in and take an insurance job and get cut in a week. It's just not something he's looking to do. So, again, if you want to have the conversation about Colin Kaepernick being the long-term backup, we can have that. Joe Rexroad had a column on the Tennessean about that, and I agree with it. There's things that Kaepernick does. He's obviously a runner. He can do the RPOs. He can do the read options. Would he fit as a QB2 in Nashville? Probably so, but you've also got to keep in mind Mike Malarkey

clearly, you know, without going too far down the rabbit hole here, he clearly kind of shies away from the attention of this national anthem and protest. So I just don't think it's a good fit.

Yeah, and that's the thing. I mean, I guess we can have that conversation at this point about Kaepernick versus Castle, because I do think that on the surface of if your starter in Mariota goes down, then you have a guy who can step in and run a lot of similar stuff to what you're doing now. Now, I will say this, too. on a lot of similar stuff to what you're doing now.

Now, I will say this, too. I think that the narrative of that Colin Kaepernick is this great quarterback and it's a travesty that he doesn't have a job has become way overrated. It's kind of taken on a life of its own with all the other stuff circling around it. And Rex Rodman made a good point in his column about the protests at this point. When Kaepernick was doing it, he was the only one doing it when he started doing it. So it's not as big of a deal now as it was then. You know, we've seen it come full circle with the comments from Trump. And again, we're not going to get into how we feel about that or all that. But just from the standpoint of now, it's kind of – it's become more mainstream, for lack of a better term.

And so it's different than it was when he first started doing it. If the Titans were to sign him, he would come in. That would be all anybody would want to talk about for a couple of days. But I think after that, it would die down. Now the first game that they go out there for, obviously there would be a lot of coverage of what he did during the anthem. And quite honestly, I think that if they were to bring him in at this point, that they would probably try to talk him into doing what Richard Matthews did last week

and just stay in the locker room during the anthem, come out after. So it's not as big of a distraction, at least publicly. So I don't think that at this point that's as big of a deal as it was made out to be in the beginning um but when you look at colin kaepernick the quarterback there's been a lot of ups and downs right i mean you've seen games where he was really good and you see the talent he has got a big arm um struggles with accuracy at times obviously can make plays with his feet. That's probably what his biggest threat is, is the dual threat stuff and some of the things that defenses have to do to account for that.

But you've also seen games. I mean, you've all seen the screenshot on Twitter, the game where he was four for ten with four picks or whatever, something similar to that. So it's not like it's just this huge travesty that he doesn't have a job. Now, again, we can get into Brandon Whedon versus Colin Kaepernick, and that's what somebody wants to get into. And, you know, does one guy deserve a job over the other?

And, I mean, I think there's a valid argument there. But I do think that we've gone a little bit far. And I think Rex Rhodes said in his piece that he thinks Colin Kaepernick's probably, you know, somewhere in 30 and 35 as far as quarterbacks on the planet, how good they are. He's somewhere in that range. So it makes sense that he should have a job, and I think that if he really wants one,

I think that he'll be more likely to get one this next offseason. And I do think at this point it's something the Titans should look into because I do think he makes some sense here. But, again, for what they needed right now, I don't think it's worth all of that other stuff to bring him in for a week and then let him go. And like you're saying, like we said from the beginning, I don't think that's something he would even want.

Right. And, you know, I said during the game, the Titans have to do better than Matt Castle at QB2. It's just you can't come in and make the throws that Matt Castle made. You can't turn the ball over. The Titans have to do better. It has to be a priority. But you're probably not going to get that, you know,

gem of a backup quarterback in the middle of the season. So it's probably something that we can talk about this offseason. It may be a spot where they try and draft one on day three. And I think it's definitely worth investing in. You know, Marcus has had, what, three injuries now that have caused him to miss time. So it's definitely on my to-do list if I were John Robinson. But the team clearly feels strongly about Castle

and his ability to go get this team a win in a spot against the Dolphins. Just the whole backlash of Whedon versus Kaepernick today, it just angered me. I don't know about you, but it was just people weren't thinking today. Yeah, and again, it's just not the conversation that we should be having. That's not the point of what it should be. So, yeah, I mean, that's the thing. And that's, you know, it's just funny. And you and I have both done this at different times about different topics.

You get on Twitter and you have, like, this logical thought and this stance that you know is right and you're trying to convince people to see it that way and then you're just fighting everybody all of a sudden and then you're like, why did I even start this in the first place? There's no logic on Twitter. Yeah. So, I mean, we kind of got that way today.

But, I mean, again, it's something that everybody's talking about and so I do think it's something that is worth looking into. And like we're saying, I think that it's something that probably should be explored this offseason. All right, so you know where you might be able to find a prop bet to whether or not Colin Kaepernick will get a job this year is on xbet.ag. And, again, just real quick on them, they have a great mobile website. You need to check it out. You can log in.

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Use the promo code expat. Get up to 100% deposit bonus on your first deposit. All right, so moving on into this, I guess we'll have a better sense when we talk tomorrow about where we think Marcus Mariota is. And some people assume that just because they signed a quarterback today means that there's a – it's fairly a certainty that Marcus is not going to be able to play Sunday. And I don't think that makes sense at all because, again, they don't know at this point. And if you're in that 50 50 thing

even even if it's even if it's you know 70 30 that he's gonna play there's still a 30 chance that he won't you don't have another quarterback on the roster so you have to have somebody that can step in and and be the backup if marcus is not able to go and again it's not going to be a situation where they if he's not ready to go he's not going to be the backup either i mean he's either going to play or he's not going to play at all that's that's kind of going to be the deal that they're in so i don't think that the fact that they signed a quarterback today really means anything at this point and i don't think they know i mean they they you know malarkey basically said as much uh at his press conference on monday that they don't know but you've got to

have somebody that's there in case he can't go, somebody that can be the number two if something does happen to Matt Castle in this game. It's a game plan issue. You can't say, oh, we'll figure out Marcus on Friday, and then Marcus can't go, and then you've got one guy ready to play on Friday afternoon. You're not going to give Stein a guy and get him ready to go.

So get Weedon in, get him a little involved, get him a basic understanding of the offense. It's real simple. This was just a real status quo thing that was just kind of blown out of proportion by just the current state of sports media, unfortunately. But Titans are kind of in an interesting spot against the Dolphins. Dolphins are, I think, fourth against the run this far in the NFL season, giving up the fourth least amount of yards.

So they might be in a little bit of a spot where Castle has to beat some Dolphins' corners through the air, which is, if you watched the game last week, you can't have too much confidence in. So really hoping for some good news on the Mariota front before the weekend. Yeah, and quite honestly, I mean, if you watched Castle in the preseason in training camp and stuff, and I know he was coming up with a thumb injury at the beginning of camp, but you just don't have a whole lot of confidence in where his arm is at this point and obviously they would have to go to a very you know short intermediate passing game

you wouldn't see very many throws down the field just because quite frankly he can't make those at this point and you know we talked about um before we jumped on here all the way back to you know the alex tanning debate, and you had written a post about how good he was last training camp, and then this camp I wrote a post about how I thought for the first time he legitimately had a shot to win the backup job if he played well, and we know how that went. But I think that that gives you an indication of how they feel about Castle overall. But it is important at this point to have somebody who's been here

who has familiarity with the offense can go in and run the system, and you're not spending a whole week trying to get them up to speed of the jargon and all that stuff in the system. You need somebody that's ready to step in and can manage the game that way. And then you hope that your run game, your offensive line can

do what they are there to do, and obviously they're supposed to be the strength of this team um you hope that they can that they can go out there and do what they need to do in order to for the team to just be good enough to stay in a close game against the dolphins and you know try to win it late um you know it's a good thing they're playing the dolphins this week um because i think that they do have a chance to go out there and win with Matt Castle if it does come to that. But like you said, I really, really hope that we get good news. I mean, I'd love to see a report that Mariota was at least limited

in practice on Wednesday. And I don't think that's out of the realm of possibility. We've seen before how quickly he comes back from stuff. Remember, when his leg injury happened in the Jacksonville game last year, they had said that he would miss OTAs, wouldn't be ready for the start of camp, probably wouldn't play in the preseason, and he ended up participating in OTAs and was a full participant from the beginning of camp and through preseason and all that stuff.

So I wouldn't be shocked if we see he at least participates on a limited basis on Wednesday. I think more than likely he doesn't participate Wednesday, and you see him try to ramp him up as the week goes along. But, I mean, obviously that's what we're all kind of hoping and praying for at this point. Yeah, and Malarkey said as much in the press conference. He mentioned that he was such a quick healer.

So that gives me hope. He seemed kind of optimistic about it. So even if he misses, though, this is a Dolphins team that you've got to go beat. This is a Dolphins team that this defense should step up and beat. They haven't scored in two weeks. Am I right on that? Something like that. So just really bad against the Jets and the Saints.

This Jay Kettler-led offense isn't doing too much, but they do get to go back home, so it's going to be interesting. My takeaway today was just how far Alex Tanney has fallen. You know, it seemed like such a – if you presented this situation last year, you'd say, oh, they'll call up Alex Tanney, no problem. They don't want any part of him. He was just that bad this preseason. So I thought that was pretty interesting

that he didn't really even get any consideration. And not that he should have. This preseason was dreadful. But to bring in a guy like Brandon Whedon and not even consider Tanning was pretty interesting. Yeah, absolutely. The Dolphins have not scored a touchdown in two weeks. They did get two field goals against the Jets two weeks ago,

but they were shut out in London. So, yeah, an offense that's struggling and, you know, very much one that this defense should be able to take advantage of. Taney's got to go beat. Absolutely. So, all right, so tomorrow we're going to have Kevin Nogle. I think that's the way you pronounce his last name. He's the FinCider, which is the Dolphins' blog on SB Nation. He's agreed to come Kevin Nogle. I think that's the way you pronounce his last name. He's the FinCider, which is the

Dolphins blog on SB Nation. He's agreed to come on tomorrow night, so we'll have him and talk a little Dolphins with him tomorrow night, so get you ready for that game. And again, between now and then, let's just all say a prayer that Marcus is able to go at least somewhat on practice on Wednesday and that he's able to

be a full participant in the game on Sunday. So anything else, Terry, before we drop off? No, we'll see you all tomorrow. All right, so again, don't forget the Pro Football Focus promotion that we're running. Leave us a review on iTunes. Include your Twitter handle in that, and you'll be entered to win a year-long subscription

to the Pro Football Focus premium thing. It's $39.99 value, and there's a lot of cool stuff in there, and there's a lot of stuff that will help you out if you're a fantasy football player, a daily fantasy guy. There's a lot of good stuff in there. So check that out. Again, LockedOnTitans on iTunes. Leave us a review there.

Follow us on Twitter, I'm at jmorrismcm. And Terry, what's yours? At TLambertFB. At TLambertFB. At tlambertfb. So follow us on Twitter. And if you have any feedback on the show, we'd love to hear it there. So for Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks for listening, and we will talk to you all tomorrow.