Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - BONUS: Tennessee Titans Mike Vrabel is LOSING IT, Bizarre Comments to Media & QB Drama Machine

Episode Date: October 25, 2023

The Tennessee Titans are facing the most adversity as a franchise as they have in a long time and one person who is clearly not handling it well is Mike Vrabel. Vrabel has had some bizarre comments in the media this week and has lashed out at the press showing he is cracking a bit under the pressure. What are we to make of all the wild comments? Tyler thinks these sorts of actions actually drum up more drama and hurt the team.Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPodSubscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/LockedOnTitans/videosSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetterHelpThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Make your brain your friend, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/NFL today to get 10% off your first month. birddogsGo to birddogs.com/LOCKEDONNFL or enter promo code LOCKEDONNFL for a water bottle with any order. You won’t want to take your birddogs off we promise you. PrizePicksGo to PrizePicks.com/lockedonnfl and use code lockedonnfl for a first deposit match up to $100!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Last minute tickets. Lowest Price. Guaranteed.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotos.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Right now, NEW customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED in BONUS BETS – GUARANTEED. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel has had a bizarre week in the media. I'm going to talk about what's going on on a bonus edition of the Locked On Titans podcast. Let's get it. You are Locked On Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to the Locked On Titans Podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, a bonus episode here. I'm releasing it early on Wednesday.

Mike Vrabel just had his Wednesday press conference, and I am just absolutely shocked at the way that he is handling things in the media. In my opinion, it seems that Vrabel is kind of cracking under the pressure of the situation a little bit. We're going to dive into what's going on before I get into it. Thank you guys again for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen. Get subscribed. Stay subscribed. It's your team every day, Monday through Friday. Free Tennessee Titans content on all apps.

Make sure that you stay locked in to the Locked on Titans podcast. Throw a thumbs up on the video as well. But it all started. All right, I want to start this story. On Wednesday morning, we woke up to a report from Ian Rapoport of NFL Network saying that Will Levis will be the starter for the Titans in Week 8 against the Falcons. Now, on Tuesday, in Mike Vrabel's press conference, and we talked about it on the last show

that you guys heard from me. Mike Grable said that they may use both quarterbacks. They're going to use both quarterbacks if Tannehill can't play. And that obviously got parsed up. Does he mean they're going to rotate the quarterbacks like the preseason? Does he mean they're just going to use one and use the other one sparingly? And look, I talked about the fact that Mike Grable wasn't transparent, but at the end of the day, all right, he's probably just trying to do gamesmanship, even though I think it's ridiculous and doesn't hurt the Falcons game planning at all. Mike Vrabel's doing the old school, make them prepare for both quarterbacks thing.

You could get why he's saying it. He's probably not literally going to rotate the quarterbacks every couple of series, but he's just, you know, playing the game. All right. Okay. Tyler, calm down. know, playing the game. All right. Okay. Tyler, calm down. You're reading too much. All right. Great.

So then the report comes out on Wednesday from Ian Rappaport that Levis is going to start. Everyone in the Titans ecosystem starts talking about that, getting excited for that. It makes sense. All right. Yeah, Vrabel was doing gamesmanship. The real reality is that Levis is going to start.

Okay, that all makes sense. And then, and then, Mike Vrabel's Wednesday press conference happened. Alright. Vrabel is starting to crack under the pressure, and I think this is showing it. This is showing it. So, on Wednesday, he was asked,

I believe it was Joe Rexroad. I believe, I want to give credit where it's due. He was asked, this interaction was with Joe Rexroad, but he was asked about, well, let me do this first. He was asked point blank about Will Levitz being the starter. Vrabel said, quote, I never said that Will was going to be the starter. Both of them will play if Ryan can't go.

Okay. We will see how Ryan feels. He may do a little bit of work later in practice today. That's where we're at right now. All right, so Vrabel says, Oh, Ian Rappaport wants to report that Will Levis is going to start. I'm going to spit on that report. Nope.

Now, I think that that report is Nope. Blah, blah, blah. Now, I think that that report is correct. We'll talk about that a little bit more later in the show when we talk about the motivations here and what's going on behind the scenes. Because I think this is all interesting, how this is playing out. So, if Rappaport says,

no, I never said Will Levis is going to be the starter. So, that report, he doesn't say this, but clearly he's like, that report you guys all think is right isn't right. No, it's not. I'm going to play them both. And then Joe Rexroad wants him to expand on it. So you're going to play both of them.

Vrabel lashes out. Focus on the Falcons. We're going to talk about the Falcons. The question is about the Falcons game and what you're going to do at quarterback. Vrabel goes, why are you holding your hands like that? Porter's just trying to get a question.

Put your hand up to get a question. Then ask the question. Okay, well, the guy's been trying to ask the question for the last 30 seconds. You've been cutting him off. The reporter says, you want me to put my hands down to ask a question? Rabel says, no, I'm just saying you look ridiculous. Just ask the question. I meanould says, no, I'm just saying you look ridiculous. Just ask the question. I mean, what are we doing here?

We're complaining about a reporter's hands because we don't want to answer the question. That's completely fair. What's your plan at quarterback? And he gets asked, are you going to rotate them? Are you going to have one? And you're going to have a package like, what's the plan? That's a completely fair and valid question from the media. And it has to do with the Falcons game.

So you can't, we're going to talk about the Falcons, but we're only, that doesn't work with this question because this is about the Falcons in the game, alright? And Vrabel finally answered, after lashing out about a reporter's hands, deflecting, because he doesn't want to really answer the question. He says, quote, against a really good defense, we're going to have to run the football, Whoever plays quarterback, we'll figure out the game plan as we work through the week. Side note, you have the whole bi-week to develop a game plan. Are you telling me that you don't have a game plan yet? You're still working on it through the week. What are we

doing here? And I'll talk about what Malik Willis said in a second, but continuing Vrabel's quote, we may run the plays in with them. It could be by series. It could be every two series. Could have certain things that we like. We'll see where Ryan is. But again, I'm excited if Ryan can't play that we get to look at both of those quarterbacks. We'll need both of them to help us win. Yesterday, on Tuesday, Vrabel said they'll both play. And it allowed us to kind of, okay, he doesn't mean literally.

No, he is saying we are going to alternate them each series. We might be every two series. But look, now again, same thing as yesterday. Is he telling the truth? Probably not. Well, the report that he tried to spit on earlier is probably right. Will Levis is going to be the starter and they'll have a package for Malik Willis. So you can't go back and be like, Mike Rabel was a liar. Why'd you say you were going to play them both? He will play them both even if it's five plays for Malik and then all the rest of them for Will Levis. Either way. But the fact that he is just doubling

down here. The fact that he is purposefully trying to lie or not lie but not tell the whole truth, hide from the real truth, only give small details and be vague and all of this, it's just absurd, really, at the end of the day. You are not causing the Falcons any more preparation time or any more headache by doing this. You're going to have the same game plan for Levis that you would have for Ryan Tannehill, and you don't need a specific game plan for Malik Willis. You can stop him with a preseason vanilla game plan. All right, so let's stop pretending like the gamesmanship here is even

a factor. To me, what this is more about, this is more about Mike Vrabel spitting in the face of whoever leaked the information to Ian Rappaport. Whoever gave Ian Rappaport the leak that Will Levis was going to start and Taylor LeJuan on Bustin' with the Boys, who dropped the video, I believe it was Wednesday morning as well, saying that Will Levis was going to start. So Mike Vrabel, I think, is purposefully ignoring the truth because he's mad about leaks coming out of the building.

And again, this avenue, some of you guys will say, this is gamesmanship against the Falcons. It allows them to, it makes them prepare for two quarterbacks. Grow up. No one is spending extra preparation time to prepare for Malik Willis. And Levis is going to be the same skill set as Tannehill in the same offense. And the Titans

we have seen multiple times are not going to run a different kind of offense that caters to Malik Willis' skill set just because he's their quarterback. They're going to try to run Tannehill plays with Malik Willis. So what are we talking about here? In my opinion, this sort of stuff that Mike Vrabel does, blatantly bold-faced lying or telling half-truths or omitting things and being vague on purpose, he's trying to protect his team.

All this does is hurt his team. All this does is create more drama for his players. This creates more drama for his organization. This creates more headlines. People accuse me on the internet of, you make more of this stuff than you need. I think it's because you need content. You know what would get less views?

You know what would get less clicks? If Mike Vrabel was a normal head coach and said, yeah, Tannehill is going to be out this week with the ankle injury. We're going to put in Will Levis, see what we have in the rookie, and when Tannehill's back, he'll be our starter again. That would be normal. Nobody would even talk about that. That would be block C on all the TV shows.

That would not be a major headline. That would not create engaging YouTube videos that everybody clicks on and all the media people are running with. That would be the boring, normal answer. Mike Vrabel doing this stuff, Mike Vrabel is creating more drama and creating more headlines and more of a circus by blatantly lying and again, omitting truths, half-truths, whatever you want to call it. He's not telling the full truth when he's up there about obvious things, and it just makes him, one, look foolish, or two, look like a liar,

and at the end of it, it just makes the Titans look directionless and a poorly run franchise. Vrabel doing this doesn't protect the team. It makes the team look worse. Period. But this doesn't protect the team. It makes the team look worse. Period. But this wasn't the only problem. This isn't the only weird thing that's happened with Mike Vrabel in the media this week. We're going to talk about some more answers that he gave earlier

and another answer that he gave in this press conference that just, it boggles the mind. It boggles the mind. Before we get into it though, It boggles the mind. It boggles the mind. Before we get into it though, I do want to let you guys know that this bonus episode of the Locked on Titans podcast is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs.

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deposit match up to $100. PrizePix. It's daily fantasy sports made easy. Titans fans, let's continue this bonus edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. I do want to remind you guys, later on tonight on the YouTube channel, on Thursday, Wednesday night, Thursday morning, for my podcast folks who listen on their commute, I'm going to have Crossover Thursday still available.

I'll be talking with Aaron Freeman from Locked on Falcons. We're going to be breaking down this matchup, diving into different matchups, giving our predictions, all that. But that's why I wanted to get into all this stuff in a separate bonus episode because there's just too much to go over here. And we don't have time in the Crossover Thursday episode at all. But getting back to Mike Rabel's just weird, strange week.

So we've heard the weird things that he said about the quarterback position. It's going to alternate them. They'll both play. Levis isn't the starter. Tannehill might practice later today. Blah, blah, blah. Just being real strange. It was even weirder when he talked about Kevin Byard earlier this week,

and he said that the record of the team did not matter in trading Kevin Bayard? That is interesting. The exact quote was, did the record factor in? Vrabel said, quote, it didn't. Not in my mind. Focused on the Falcons and where we need to go. Wait, what? So if the Titans were undefeated right now,

you would have traded Kevin Bayard anyways? And Vrabel was asked that, and he just, I'm not going to get into hypotheticals. Because the hypothetical would force you to acknowledge the idiocracy of what you're trying to sell to us. And again, these sort of things, when Vrabel just refuses to acknowledge just reality that everyone can accept.

These things are worse for the Titans organization. They make them look more rudderless, more directionless, more disorganized. Like, it is not good for the Titans, for Vrabel to have these weird, perplexing answers. And it's funny because Arthur Smith is currently giving weird, perplexing nonsense answers when asked about B. John Robinson's absence or lack of playing time on Sunday. What was going on with that? Arthur Smith is like, you guys want to ask these questions, all these things

that don't really matter what you want to ask about politics too. You want to ask about finance. Like politics and war and finance are as relevant as a question about why your best player didn't play on Sunday, even though he was suited up and played one snap late in the game. Like it's a detachment from reality. So you have to wonder like are these coaches just purposefully like trying to basically troll their own customers

and their own media and their own fans and they do it for sport? Or is this cracking under the pressure? It's just when you can't think of a transparent answer, you just lie. You just make up a lie or you gaslight the media and act like they're asking you bad questions. You know what I mean? It's just, it's a detachment from reality from Vrabel that we see on a daily basis that obviously has transitioned over to Arthur Smith. And they think that that's the way to protect their team, to handle it that way.

But like I said before, it is not the way to protect your team. It makes your organization look worse. It makes you as a head coach look worse. So, it's just weird. Another thing I thought, they asked Malik Willis. Malik Willis said he didn't know the plan going into this week. It depends on what the game plan is. Like they don't already know the game plan.

You're telling me that you had an entire bye week and then we're into Wednesday and the backup quarterback or maybe the starting quarterback or whatever, a quarterback that you plan to alternate in every two series, doesn't even know the game plan yet? That's multiple people, Vrabel and then Malik Willis, pretending like they don't have a game plan yet. Even if I wanted to lie to the media,

I wouldn't let my lie be that we don't have a game plan yet. That doesn't make me look any good. How can that be the lie that they settled on? Again, some people respond to me and say, this stuff doesn't matter. You make too much of it, blah, blah, blah. But my question is, if somebody leaked to Ian Rappaport that Will Levis is starting

and then Vrabel comes out in his press conference and basically tries to say, no, that's 100% wrong, then who's lying? Is Vrabel lying? Or is Vrabel just trying to make it seem like the report is a lie because he's mad at who leaked it? And who would leak that to Ian Rappaport? Because in my experience with the Titans,

Diana Rossini is who gets all the Titans information and insight. And she, in my opinion, is connected to Vrabel. That is her source, Mike Vrabel. So the Titans don't normally talk to Ian Rappaport. The Titans' big leaks don't always come from Ian Rappaport. So who is talking to Ian Rappaport from the Titans? Well, let me just say this. I don't believe this.

I'm not saying I'm running with this theory, but I'm just going to say this. Is it possible that the person who drafted Will Levis, who decided to trade up and get Will Levis, wants to see Will Levis. Who decided to trade up and get Will Levis. Wants to see Will Levis play. And also leaked to Ian Rappaport that Will Levis was going to be the starter. Maybe it was Rand. Maybe Rand wants to see Will Levis because he knows it's the right thing.

Maybe, and Vrabel said, guys have their personal feelings on it. I have my own personal feelings on it. But we have a job to do when talking about the Kevin Byard trade. Maybe Mike Vrabel's personal feelings are we shouldn't have traded Kevin Byard. Maybe Mike Vrabel doesn't understand that they need to tank. They need to trade veterans. They need to play the young quarterback because he wants to win games. And Rand Carthon is the general manager.

He's like, dude, we got to play the young quarterback that we traded up and drafted. We got to trade some of these veterans. We're two and four. We're not any good. Maybe Rand Carthon is imparting his will on Mike Vrabel, and this is how Mike Vrabel is reacting, the way that he's acting in the media this week. Now, I will say this.

If that is true, that means that my theory that Rand is just basically Mike Vrabel's assistant and the guy who was brought here to do the grocery shopping for Mike Vrabel based on and the guy who was brought here to do the grocery shopping for Mike Vrabel based on a list of ingredients that were made by Mike Vrabel. That would make that theory of mine wrong. And I could be wrong. That could be true. It's a theory.

It could be wrong. I don't have proof. So just interesting. Is Ran putting his finger down on Vrabel and kind of forcing him to do some of these things that we know is the smart thing to do for the team while Vrabel's kind of going kicking and screaming because he wants to try to win as much as possible?

Is that happening right now? I don't know. Or is Mike Vrabel really piloting the ship, piloting the boat, captaining the ship, I should say, and Mike Vrabel is literally just enjoying lying and lashing out at the media for asking good questions because he's just a troll and likes to bully people that way. I mean, it's got to be one or the other at this point.

So curious if we get more answers on that going forward. But just a bizarre, bizarre week for Mike Vrabel in the media, for Mike Vrabel in this situation. The Titans absolutely have to win this game or the season is over. So all this pressure on Mike Vrabel in the media, for Mike Vrabel in this situation. The Titans absolutely have to win this game or the season is over. So all this pressure on Mike Vrabel, I think he's just cracking a little bit. I think he's cracking a little bit. I mean, is he trying to get fired? That's how wild some of this stuff has been.

It makes you contemplate anything. The way that Mike Vrabel has handled it this week allows us to theorize that this could be anything. And that is why it's more harmful for the team for Vrabel to act this way rather than to just be honest. Ryan's going to be out this week with the injury. We're hoping to get him back soon.

We're going to start Will Levis and see what we got in the rookie. Why is that so hard for this team to do? Why is it so hard for Mike Vrabel to just be normal? I don't know. But that is going to do it for this bonus edition of the Locked on Titans podcast again. Crossover Thursday coming out

later tonight. Make sure that you guys tune in. Me and Aaron Freeman of Locked on Falcons. That's going to do it for this bonus edition of the show though. This was Locked on Falcons. That's going to do it for this bonus edition of the show, though. This was Locked on Titans. My whole outro music is chopped and screwed for me right now, so hopefully I was on beat.

Take care.