Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Bud Dupree Returns to Titans Practice & Titans v Steelers Primer Conversation!

Episode Date: December 16, 2021

The Tennessee Titans saw the return of edge rusher Bud Dupree on Wednesday as his 21 day activation window opened. This could mean Dupree returns for a revenge game against his former team the Pittsburgh Steelers. Tyler also goes over the rest of the practice injury report and what it means. Then, Tyler is joined by Dave Schofield from the Behind the Steel Curtain site to help preview the Week 15 matchup. They discuss the Steelers injuries, the issues in the run game and Chase Claypool's antics!Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPodSubscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP3332GMOh4y5PX3q9NFybwSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.StatHeroStatHero is the first of its kind Daily Fantasy Sports platform where it’s YOU vs. the HOUSE in head to head fantasy matchups - winner take all. Sign up for FREE - RIGHT NOW - at StatHero.com/LOCKEDON and use promo code LOCKEDON for a One Hundred Percent Deposit Match. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, it is a Thursday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. And on today's show, I only have one question for you. Where is the Bud? And the answer is at Tennessee Titans practices. Bud Dupree returns to Titans practice for the first time since being placed on IR. I'll tell you how that is the case and what it means going forward.

Also, we have a special guest on the show today to help preview the Titans matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers. All of that and more on a Thursday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Let's get it! You are 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. Titans fans, it is a Thursday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. I'm ready to dive into Bud Dupree's return to Titans practice

and get you guys ready for the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Before we get into all of that, do want to thank you guys for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. If this is your first ever listen to the Locked on Titans podcast, make sure you subscribe on whatever platform you do stream. Make sure you check out the Locked on Titans YouTube channel. Subscribe

and smash that notification bell so you know when all of my content goes live. Also, gotta check me out on social media, on Twitter, at TicTacTitans for all my film breakdowns and film clips, and check out the show Facebook page at LockedOnTitansPod. But the first thing that we're going to discuss is the return of Bud Dupree. Where is the Bud?

The Bud is at Titans practice, and I want to let you guys know that this does not mean exactly that Bud Dupree will be able to play a revenge game against his former team in the Pittsburgh Steelers this week. That's the most optimistic outcome. And that's definitely possible now that Bud Dupree has been activated off IR, but he has entered a 21 day window where he doesn't necessarily have to be activated to the 53-man roster. But again, it is a possibility, and based on some of the clips that we saw of Bud Dupree today in practice or on Wednesday in practice, Bud does look like he is refreshed and ready to go. So a 21-day window, but very optimistic that Bud Dupree will be out there on Sunday

based on what I'm seeing. Some other injury updates from Wednesday's practice. Not spotted out there during the open portion to media, Jackrabbit Jenkins, who missed the last game. He was not there for practice. Dane Cruikshank, and that's one I want to stop on for a second. Definitely disappointing to see Dane Cruikshank, and that's when I want to stop on for a second. Definitely disappointing to see Dane Crookshank's name there because Dane came off of IR just this week for this game against Jacksonville.

So to see him already missing practice, the first practice available after the game, never a great sign. And the thing is, Dane Crookshank played less than 10 snaps in that game. He wasn't really out there a ton. So it's not like he got injured on the field that we could tell. It's not like we saw anything that stood out that would have been a re-injury for Dan Cruikshank. And Cruikshank is definitely a valuable piece for the Titans going forward as that dime linebacker and that matchup nightmare for tight ends at 6'1", 210.

He can kind of match up athletically with all of the tight ends in the NFL, and he has the speed necessary to be out there if he gets matched up on a wide receiver as well, although, of course, you would rather have him with that man matchup on a tight end. But either way, that's something to monitor going forward. Also, we didn't see David Long out at practice on Wednesday, and it just continues to boggle my mind what's going on with David Long. He's got a hamstring injury. We know that, but he has missed so much time now.

I believe it's been four games, including the bye, and it just makes you wonder why David Long was never placed on IR, and it also makes you wonder why David Long was never placed on IR and it also makes you wonder why the heck David Long was out there playing against the Rams in a blowout win late in the game. That injury and that decision has definitely had a negative impact on the Titans so far since that happened but David Long's still not practicing and you just start to wonder when David Long is going to be able to come back.

Now the Titans added Zach Cunningham and he practiced for the first time on Wednesday. So that's a great sign, but you still would like to have the Titans best linebacker out there, even with the depth coming back. I mean, I feel comfortable with Rashawn Evans, Jayon Brown and Zach Cunningham, but David Long has been the Titans best linebacker. So you would love to see him back out there. Torrey Carter, who got hurt in the game against Jacksonville with an ankle, didn't practice. That's significant because it really limits what the Titans can do with their run game

if they don't have a viable fullback. And you could say Swaim or Pruitt could step into that role, but they simply don't play the spot of fullback as well and as physically as Torrey Carter does. So it's definitely a difference. Larell Murchison with a knee didn't practice. Roger Saffold, who's been in and out of games all year long, his age is really showing this year. He did not practice with a shoulder injury that he re-aggravated

in that game against Jacksonville. And Saffold said this week he's going to have to see a specialist for the nerve issues that he's having in his shoulder and his neck that have been reoccurring throughout the year. Tyre Tartt hasn't played in quite some time, and he did not practice on Wednesday either. Now, it's the first practice of the week. The Titans will be cautious, and being led by a former player, Mike Vrabel,

would lead them to being overly cautious when it comes to maintenance days and rest days for their veterans and for their players, especially this late in the season. And that's something that Mike Vrabel has talked about as well. So we know that the Titans tend to rest people on Wednesdays. So we will look at the injury report going forward to try to get a better idea of who will be available and not available in this game, but wanted to make sure you guys were up to date. And of course the big news, Bud Dupree returns to Tennessee Titans practice. Zach Cunningham makes his first appearance with the Titans.

So we are going to move into a little bit of a preview, a primer, for the Tennessee Titans game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now normally, we would have a crossover Thursday. One of my favorite guys on the network, Christopher Carter, who does the Locked on Steelers podcast. Unfortunately, he is traveling internationally right now, and he doesn't have the ability to record, and things like that happen. So no hate to Chris, one of my favorites in the network, so no problem there.

But I didn't want to leave you guys without some Pittsburgh Steelers insight, and I'll be honest, I can't cover other teams as in-depth as I cover the Tennessee Titans during the season. So I did elicit some help. I got one of the guys from the Behind the Steel Curtain SB Nation blog site to come on and chop it up. They got some great stuff on their website. So we're going to head into a conversation about the Titans and about the Steelers game that I think you guys will really enjoy. Before we get into that, though, do want to tell you guys about Stat Hero.

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for a 100% match. Stathero.com slash locked on. Promo code locked on. Terms and conditions apply. Titans fans, I said at the top of the show that we have a special guest on today and I'm ready to bring him on here. As you see, it is Dave Schofield from the Behind the Steel Curtain blog, part of the SB Nation umbrella. I honestly think you guys are one of the best sites out there

for football content that's specifically focused on a team. Going through some of the content today, I mean some of the film articles, all the stuff that you guys do. I know you've got a lot of podcasts yourself, so really good work out there if you're a Titans fan that wants to get yourself more acquainted with the Steelers. One of the film breakdown articles even referenced some Titans film and used some film to discuss how the Titans play, so that's some really good stuff.

Make sure you check that out. If you're a Steelers fan who's checking out the show and you aren't on the Behind the Steel Curtain site, what are you doing? I have no other questions for you other than that. So make sure you check it out. But definitely big thanks to Dave for coming on the show and helping us out here with a little bit of a void in the schedule that we had. Dave, I'm ready to talk about this game.

And it's a really big game. And I think both teams have a chance to win. I know the Steelers' season hasn't been as pretty as it's been in seasons past, but they're still right in the thick of it and coming off a game that they didn't win against Minnesota, but they definitely got some positive momentum at the end of that game. So I guess my first question for you is just what's the vibe around the team right now? What's the fan base feeling like? And what are you thinking this Steelers team could potentially accomplish? Well, the Pittsburgh Steelers fan base, I have to say they are used to excellence. They are, you know, you hear the narratives of all Mike Tomlin's never

had a losing season as head coach going back to 2007. They don't care. They don't care. They want playoffs. They want playoff wins. They want championships. So almost kind of, they're just like, no, this team is not at all what they expect it to be right now with their expectations.

Actually, a lot of the fan base had low expectations with this team coming in, having to play a lot of the fan base that had low expectations with this team coming in um having to play a lot of young players starting tons of rookies and things like that that the pittsburgh steelers don't usually do but because of that there's they are so night and day uh the this team you never know which steelers team is going to be showing up, not even from game to game, but even half to half and quarter to quarter. If you watch that game on Thursday, you saw what that team stunk it up for 40 minutes and then had a furious comeback in the last 20. And it's just, you can't maintain that if that's what you're wanting to do in the national football league. Yeah, I hear you.

And just from my, you know, obviously I'm not diving into the Steelers tape every week, like I do with the Titans and things like that, but it seems like a team that maybe doesn't have the talent. You know, you're talking about starting some rookies and things like that. It doesn't have the talent that they normally have, but they're still well coached. So they can kind of ramp it up and have those good moments, but the talent doesn't allow them to do that overall. Would that be somewhat of a fair evaluation? I love that evaluation because that is the evaluation for most of the NFL. I just wish Steelers fans would listen to that evaluation because the way they think of it is that all the problems with this team is the coaching. All the coaching is letting them down. Oh, it's all about the coaching. Oh, someone gets injured. We got to fire the strength and conditioning coach. Cause there's an injury. You know, it's, I wish other, I wish

Steelers fans would listen to what other teams have. They've been there, you know, these two franchises, in my opinion, have two fantastic coaches. Now I don't know how much the Titans, how much they like their coach. I think, you know, former Pittsburgh Steeler, third round draft pick Mike Vrabel, I love as a coach. So, but the problem is, is so many times when you're so tied into your own team, you get so caught up and don't, and don't always see the big picture. I think that's spot on the, the talent, especially the depth. Like whenever.j watt goes out of a game the steelers lose whenever t.j watt does not play in the game the steelers lose when t.j watts coming back from an injury and not quite himself the steelers lose when t.j watts playing full strength the steelers have won

the only the only exception is the tie which i count as loss. So when you look at things like that, you're just like the talents there, but there's, you can't expect to have another TJ Watt waiting behind him to come on the field when it's over. So this, I mean, the Steelers have a lot of young players with that dreaded P word in potential, you know, cause all potential means is that you haven't done it yet. Yeah, exactly. But I mean, players like Najee Harris and Pat Freremuth that are, that are becoming huge pieces in the Steelers offense, and they're still in their rookie season. That's not normally how the Pittsburgh Steelers operate. I mean, starting two rookie offensive linemen all season, it's, it's, it's been a very interesting

year from that standpoint. Well, we'll hit on the offensive line and how that kind of manifests in the numbers, but you talk about TJ Watt and his, you know, absence when he plays his health issues. If you could, what, what's kind of the injury vibes around the Steelers right now? I know that Watt was hurt in that game, but there's some optimism there. Who are you concerned about from an injury standpoint? And who's kind of on the fence right now to play? Well, of course, TJ Watt is the one everyone's paying attention to. He did practice in the first practice of the week. It was limited.

You don't, you know, the fact that it was limited and the Steelers were, they were, there was a fully padded practice. They don't always have them, but since they had the extended time, they definitely said they were going to be putting the pads on on Wednesday. People that are coming back from injury, maybe they don't do everything. So he was limited as long as that progression's there. And the other outside linebacker for the Steelers, Alex Highsmith, he left that game early.

They were left with none of their starters. He was limited as well. But honestly, Joe Hayden has not played for the Steelers in four games. He only played, I think, nine snaps against Detroit before he was injured. The Steelers are one in three since he's been out. They've only won one game since 2017 when Joe Hayden's been out of the lineup. And he, once again, did not practice in the first practice. So when those corners kind of get bumped, you know, hey, you're the number two corner and then you have to bump up to one and three is two. You see a big difference in there

when someone like that's not in the game. Yeah, absolutely. And when you look at the Titans team that literally the only wide receiver of any concern for most teams is going to be Julio Jones. You want to at least have Joe Hayden to match up with him. So that is something to watch going forward. But we are going to talk more about the actual on-field product, talked about kind of the vibe around the team, talked about the injury situation. Before we get into that, do want to tell you guys about Stance.

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But now I want to talk about some on-field things like the rushing attack for the Steelers. As long as we've known the Pittsburgh Steelers, they have been a run-the-ball, defense-first team. But now they're really struggling running the ball. And it's surprising because Najee Harris is playing pretty well, doing a pretty good job for a rookie. But they're only the 28th best rushing attack in the NFL, averaging 88.4 rushing yards per game. What is going on up front that is preventing the Steelers from being

that typical run dominant team that we're used to? Well, it's the Steelers last year started off the season hot, running the ball, and then completely fell off and ended up in the bottom two in the league. It really all starts in the trenches. The Steelers are struggling on the offensive line. They only returned one starter from last season. Then David DeCastro was the whole thing with him and his offseason surgery, and the Steelers had to let him go. It's taken a long time to come together.

And then their most promising lineman coming into the season, Kevin Dotson, he's missed the last four games. He's on IR. Don't know if he's going to get to come back from his high ankle sprain or not. But this team, at times, they come together and you see that cohesion and they can get push on the run game and they can protect Ben Roethlisberger. And at other times it's just kind of a mess. It's they're, they're, they're so young. They, I would say they need the time to really be coached up during the

week to be ready for everything that's thrown at them. They didn't have that time going into Thursday night. Hopefully with the three extra days that the Steelers have had, they can kind of get that offensive line together, but they still don't know exactly who's going to be there at left guard. Cause I think they've, they're on their either fourth or fifth starter for the season at this point. Yeah. Well, that's completely understandable. The Titans don't have a bunch of rookies up front and don't have a bunch of upheaval. They have four starters from last year, and the guy who's the fifth starter has been in the organization,

and they still can't pass protect at all. So that's definitely something to worry about for the Titans. I wanted to move, I guess, to a defensive question for you. One thing that I've noticed for the Steelers is they have a minus two turnover margin right now, which is 21st in the NFL. And typically what I've come to see from the Steelers is they're going to be a heavy turnover defense. What do you think is preventing them from taking the ball away from opposing offenses this year? Well, bottom line is, is they haven't been able to stop the run. When you can't stop the run, you're, I mean, it's so much easier to get those takeaways in the passing game, whether it, you know, unleash that furious pass rush, get the strip sack in the

backfield, um, or, you know, getting the interception or the tip ball or things like that. And the Steelers, I mean, just to give you some perspective through the first five weeks of the season, they were the numbered, they were ranked ninth in the NFL in rush defense. They were in the top 10. Right now, they are 30th. They have given up crazy amounts of rushing yards. I mean, they gave up 205 rushing yards to Dalvin Cook alone on Thursday night, coming off of an injury. They are getting gashed. They are dealing with injury. I mean, Cam Hayward's trying to do everything that he can and do it all for the interior of that defensive line,

and he just can't get it done. And when teams can just run on you at will, which in this matchup, the Steelers' poor rush defense and the Titans' great rush offense, that's a strength-on-weakness matchup that's really got to be concerning to Steelers fans because the Steelers, it just seemed like there's, they've got holes everywhere. Their linebackers are getting caught up by

offensive linemen because their front, their, their front five are not absorbing those blocks. They're, they're trying to run away from TJ Watt and Alex Highsmith and run up the middle. It's overly concerning. And if you can't stop the run game, it makes it very difficult to get those splash plays that you do as a defense. Yeah. You don't get as many third and longs. You can't pin your ears back. You can't bring your dime personnel on the field and get more speed on the field to create those turnovers. You're right. It's all kind of a domino effect. Well, Dave, I appreciate you coming on the show. I'm going to get you out of here on this. How frustrated is the fan base with

Chase Claypool? What the heck is he doing? Yeah. I mean, every, it's so funny because Claypool downplayed the whole thing, you know, Oh, I just came up and signaled it. Everyone is because even though you, if you go back and look at the film, it was, it was one of the, the Vikings players came in and ripped the ball away. You know, it should have been a delay game. They should have stopped it. But if he doesn't come up and signal that first down, he doesn't even have a chance to get in there and do that. Right. It's just kind of one of those things that he needs to grow up and grow up fast. He's not a lost cause, but he definitely needs to get it together moving forward because he had a great game from snap to whistle.

It was all the other things beyond that, you know, the 15-yard penalty for putting his finger in someone's face. And it's just things like that that can kill a drive and just ultimately lose you games that you, I'm not putting that loss on what happened with Claypool at all, but I'm just saying those little things can add up and put you in a bad situation. And he's just, he's got to come through it and we'll see if he does or not. Yeah. Well, I, I personally, if it were me and the Titans coaching staff, I would be telling my defensive backs to, to talk trash to him, to be extra physical and see if you can bait him into doing something dumb. But as a person watching the team, that has to be just super frustrating.

Do I have time to turn one of those around on you a little bit? Sure, sure. Go ahead. How are the Tennessee Titans feeling about their big acquisition of Bud Dupree? So I said when Bud Dupree went on IR that it's basically Jadavion Clowney all over again. when Bud Dupree went on IR that it's basically Jadavion Clowney all over again. And people got mad because there's just this terrible taste

in people's mouths from Clowney. But the reality was, I was saying, yeah, the guy's productive when he's on the field and the Titans are worse when he's not on the field. And he's a big money player who can't stay on the field. But the reality is the silver lining, obviously there has to be disappointment with paying him so much money

and then him being hurt as much. But when you sign a guy to a big money deal off a torn ACL, what do you think you're going to get? You know what I mean? So to me, this was expected. But the reality is the Titans defense is nasty when Bud Dupree plays. Like it totally takes the defense up to another level when he's out there. Like with the Steelers, he's a force multiplier. Of course, T.J. Watt and Hayward are the studs,

or Tewitt was the stud last year. Jeffrey Simmons and Harold Landry are the studs. Danico Autry has been a stud. But when you add Bud Dupree to that, now it becomes, in my opinion, the best front four in the NFL this year when they have that together. So Bud Dupree has, yes, in my opinion, and I think I'm one of the more negative people covering the team about Bud Dupree, pretty disappointed with all the time that he's missed,

but he's off IR, he's into his practice window, his 21-day practice window, and if he can get out there and he can produce for the back half of the season in the playoffs, like with Julio Jones, who's missed a lot of time. If you produce when it matters, the Titans have made it this far without those guys for a lot of the season. If they can come through when it matters the most in December and January,

and maybe even February, I think all sins will be forgiven. But Dave, thank you so much for coming on the show. A great question there to finish things off again, guys, go check out Dave's work, go check out the behind the steel curtain site. Uh, where can they find your work? Where can they exactly find you on Twitter and, and anything you want to promote? Uh, yeah, you can find it's behind the steel curtain.com. That's pretty simple to get to through the, through the website. If you go and want to find any of our podcasts, go anywhere you get podcasts,

Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, things like that, and just search Steelers, we're going to be one of your top options right there for Behind the Steel Curtain. Our Twitter account is BTSteelCurtain, that you can find us there. But almost every one of our podcasts also has an article on the website. You could go right there. You can listen to it in a player, right in the article. We've got a large staff

bringing you multiple viewpoints, not just from the editorial standpoint at BehindTheSteelCurtain.com, but on the podcast as well. We even have international flavor. We have two Australians that do a podcast for us. It's Touchdown Under. It's a great podcast that we have there.

So we have all, it's not just a few of us. It's a whole team that brings you as much Pittsburgh Steelers content as we can. So if you're interested in that, just make sure you check us out. Awesome. Well, Dave, thank you so much for coming on a little bit of a scheduling snafu and you really saved the show and save me. So I appreciate that, but thank you so much. And maybe we'll talk

to you again down the line. Hey, it would be great to see each other in the playoffs. If we can get there. Absolutely. All right. Titans fans. I hope you guys enjoyed that conversation with me and Dave Schofield from the Behind the Steel Curtain SB Nation blog for the Steelers. Some really great information there, and they have some really good stuff on their website as I talked about. But I hope you guys enjoyed this Thursday show. I'm going to be back with you tomorrow to get you ready with a game preview for this matchup between the Titans and the Steelers.

Make sure you subscribe to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream. That's going to do it for me today, though. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans. Thanks for watching!