Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Cam Ward SHINES at Tennessee Titans Rookie Mini-Camp | Xavier Restrepo & 2025 Draft Class IMPRESS

Starting point is 00:00:00 Cam Ward does exactly what he's supposed to do at Tennessee Titans rookie mini camp and absolutely shines. I'm going to break it all down on today's edition of Locked on Titan. 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 rolling Titans fans. Today's edition of the Locked On Titans podcast is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use the code LOCKEDONNFL at MonarchMoney.com for 50% off your first year on today's show. We are going to recap everything that

Starting point is 00:00:52 happened at Tennessee Titans rookie mini camp over the weekend. Cam Ward shined during the process, but also a ton of guys from the Titans rookie class impressed, including Xavier Restrepo, Gunnar Helm, Femiola Dejo. I'm gonna go over all of their performances plus I got some Roland's Rants for you guys on haters out there trying to stop Titans fans from enjoying rookie mini camp and I simply don't understand. Before we get into all of it, do want to thank you for making Locked On NFL your first listen

Starting point is 00:01:22 Locked On Titans. You can tell I just did the Locked On NFL show and you should check out the Locked On NFL your first listen. Locked On Titans, you can tell I just did the Locked On NFL show, and you should check out the Locked On NFL show as well. But thank you for making Locked On Titans your first listen each and every day. Remember, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content all year round, always for free. Make sure you get subscribed. Stay subscribed. It's your team every day. Shout out to my every dayers out there as well. Tune in in Monday through Friday. If you aren't an every dayer, you need to be one. The Titans are smack dab in the middle

Starting point is 00:01:47 of off-season workouts. The schedule comes out on Thursday, and I'm gonna have a ton of content for you guys, including my schedule wish list, which I like to do every year before the schedule actually comes out. But with that being said, Cam Ward did exactly what he needed to do

Starting point is 00:02:03 at Rookie Minicamp. When I did my Rookie Minicamp preview and what I wanted to see from Cam Ward did exactly what he needed to do at rookie minicamp. When I did my rookie minicamp preview and what I wanted to see from Cam Ward, what I wanted to hear from the rest of his teammates, he was able to do exactly what I expected and check the box that he needed to check. Number one, out on the field making the throws. Just look good out there. Look the part out there. Get it done. Look like the number one overall pick. And according to Jim Wyatt from Tennessee Titans.com, Ken Ward looks smooth.

Starting point is 00:02:33 He was making throws rolling to his left, rolling to his right. Also said that he was mostly accurate and was victimized by a few drops. Austin Stanley from A to Z said that he can sling it and he was all business out on the field. Tyron Davenport said he had a unique release, but it has zip on it. Like Cam Ward is out there in shorts and a T-shirt or shorts and a jersey.

Starting point is 00:02:55 It's rookie mini camp. He's throwing to rookies. The Titans didn't even do a highly competitive rookie mini camp like other teams did. They didn't do seven on seven. They didn't do 11 on 11 and all of that. It was more of just get the rookies up to speed, more of an orientation process than true practice. So of course you're not going out there and saying, Hey, look, cam ward, do you see that slant throw to

Starting point is 00:03:16 Xavier Restrepo and shorts and a Jersey cam ward's a hall of famer. We knew it. We knew it. That's not what you're doing and that's not what I'm doing here. But again, the expectations that I laid out personally for Cam Ward going into rookie mini camp, he did exactly what he was supposed to do. And look, we're talking about the on field, making the throws, his release, his accuracy, all that. But the biggest thing for me when it comes to checking boxes this weekend was Cam Ward off the field, or maybe not off the field because he's on the field being a leader. But the other things outside of the physical aspects of playing the game, I wanted to see Cam Ward be a leader.

Starting point is 00:03:53 I wanted to see how he felt and what he had to say about the concepts that he was running with the Titans. I wanted to see all of those things and immediately Cam Ward said at his own press conference, he's been in the playbook since the day after he got drafted. And the Titans, it's like in school when your teacher is like, hey, we need to read chapters one through three by next Friday. You need to have chapters one through three read by next Friday. That's the same way with a playbook. You get this huge binder of a playbook, okay? And Brian Callahan is telling Cam Ward, hey, for rookie mini camp, we need you to get this far into the playbook. Cam Ward said, I've been in

Starting point is 00:04:33 the playbook and I've been peeking ahead. So Cam Ward is already ahead of his playbook study, so far from where he's supposed to be at rookie camp. Check, check, check. That's what I want to hear. That's massive. Okay? And if Cam Ward's lying, then I'm sorry, you're the liar. Because Cam Ward ain't lying to us. Alright? I believe that. He also displayed leadership.

Starting point is 00:04:56 Which is what I wanted to see as well. More than any throw or anything that we're going to see in a highlight tape. I wanted to see Cam Ward be in the playbook. I wanted to see Cam Ward be in the playbook. I wanted to see Cam Ward be a leader and just seeing and hearing what happened at Rookie Minicamp. You saw where him and Elec Iomaner weren't on the same page for a rep. Okay. That's something that was talked about during the press conferences afterwards. Him and Iomaner weren't on the same page with a rep, so what'd they do?

Starting point is 00:05:27 They reloaded it. They did it again. Hey, we're not just satisfied with getting the rep in and, hey, we'll get it better next time. No, we're doing it right now. We're correcting it right now. That's the type of, and Camor even said, all right, hey, let's reload this. We're doing this again. Not every rep is going to be perfect. You're gonna make mistakes. That's what practice is for. Being able to immediately correct those,

Starting point is 00:05:48 get on the same page with your wide receiver. Remember, this is day one of rookie camp. So this is exactly the example I gave when I talked about what I wanted to see from Cam Ward in rookie camp is, hey, if you're off on something with a wide receiver, correct them immediately. And I thought it was funny that IOManner said,

Starting point is 00:06:03 you gotta get it why it's hot. That's what they say, you gotta get it why it's hot. So reload it, get back into it, do it right, get on the same page and rep it. Don't just say, hey, we weren't on the same page there. Next one, well, no, next one's right now. We're figuring it out now. That's good leadership. Again, doesn't mean Cam Ward's going to be a Hall of Famer, but these are the boxes that I wanted to see checked at Rookie Minicamp. And look at some of the things that his teammates had to say about it afterwards. Gunnar Helm said that they've been doing film watching sessions in the morning before they get into their meetings and stuff like that. Gunnar Helm, Cam Ward, some of the wide receivers like

Starting point is 00:06:40 Xavier Restrepo, probably DK and Elec Iowomander and all that, they're watching film together in the morning as a group to fully understand it. Hey, I see that. That's what I want to do. Hey, I would prefer something to be different. And they were watching film probably of their practice from Friday because we saw the one on Saturday that was open to media. But Friday they had a practice all in private. So that sort of stuff,

Starting point is 00:07:05 Cam Ward with his receivers and his tight end watching extra film in the mornings already before rookie mini camp, like that is exactly what I wanted to hear. That's exactly what I wanted to see. And the fact that Cam Ward didn't bring it up, that it was one of his teammates in Gunner Helm, we're gonna talk about the rest of the rookie class here

Starting point is 00:07:24 in just a second. I don't know how much I can handle, man. I'm so excited about this group. And at the end of today's show, I'm going to tell you why you should be excited. You should be hyped. You should love every video you see. You should get excited about these players and what they can be. And anybody telling you different is a lame, and I don't want to hear from them. But that's at the end of the show. More comments, Elec Iow Manor, of course he pointed out the bad rep and how they reloaded it and all that, but he also said one thing about Cam Ward is you better be prepared. He said because, quote, if you're late, you're late.

Starting point is 00:07:58 And he even said Cam Ward's always going to be on time, always going to be on time. He pointed that out like multiple times in the same sentence. Every time, all the time, Cam Ward's going to be on time. So you think about that rep that Ellic Iow Manor and Cam Ward went and reloaded. Probably Cam Ward was earlier than Iow Manor was expecting the ball to be there. He wasn't necessarily prepared, didn't catch the ball. Now it's like, oh, okay, I can't be late on my break. I got it. And that's the type of leadership that sets the example. All right.

Starting point is 00:08:32 It's little stuff like that of, Cam's gonna be on time every single time. So I cannot be late. I cannot be late on my stuff. I cannot fail at my job. I cannot lower my standard because I know my quarterback isn't going to lower his standard and if his quarter, and if the quarterback doesn't lower the standard

Starting point is 00:08:50 and I do, I'm going to look pretty bad. Those are the small non-spoken things that set an example and that create leadership. Chim Dike said his presence, his leadership, he does it the right way. He's confident. He even talked about how, you know, he's not overconfident, but you got to have that confidence and Cam Ward has. So he's already getting high praise from his teammates. He's already organizing extra work.

Starting point is 00:09:18 He's already setting an example on and off the field. He's already, again, does all this rookie camp excitement mean that he's going to be a Hall of Famer? He's going to save the Titans and he's going to be everything that we want him to be. It doesn't. But by God, it's a good start and I'll take it over other Titans first round picks and their rookie mini camp experiences. Cam Ward checked every single box that we needed Cam Ward to check in this rookie mini camp and it doesn't mean that he's gonna be a Hall of Famer but dang it you should be excited about what happened this weekend and you want to get more excited let's

Starting point is 00:09:52 talk about the rest of the rookies cuz I am hype. Do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Do you ever check your bank account and wonder where did all my money go between dining out, online shopping, entertainment? It is easy to lose track, but that's where Monarch Money comes in. Your personal CFO giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch isn't just a budgeting app. It's a complete financial command center that can track all your accounts, investments, spending all in one place.

Starting point is 00:10:26 Stop just managing your money and start building wealth. I didn't realize just how much money I was spending on online shopping, but now that I have Monarch, I can budget smarter, I can save more, and I can do it all from one app instead of having a bunch of different apps to track all my different things. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use the code LOCKEDONNFL at MonarchMoney.com for 50% off your first year. That's MonarchMoney.com code LOCKEDONNFL for half off your first year. Titans fans, let's continue today's rookie mini camp recap edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. We talked about Cam Ward and how he checked every single box, but now I want to talk about everybody else.

Starting point is 00:11:26 That we gave Cam Ward his time and he shined and he did what he had to do. And I'm very excited, but man, my excitement level for the rest of this draft class is just through the roof. And it's not even just the draft class. We got to include undrafted free agent Xavier Restrepo, who, in my opinion, outside of Cam Ward was clearly the biggest piece of excitement throughout the weekend. Like everyone was freaking out about Xavier Restrepo to the point where

Starting point is 00:11:55 the haters tried to put fans down for being excited about Xavier Restrepo. And I'll talk about that to end the show, but let's talk about Restrepo. Had some good catches that we saw some highlights of a really good slant catch from Cam Ward. But again, this was a low competitiveness rookie mini camp for the Titans. They didn't do seven on seven, didn't do 11 on 11. You know, it's not like any of that is stuff that they were doing. So we're not going to get out here and say that Xavier Restrepo had

Starting point is 00:12:21 some incredible performance or anything like that, but he looked clean, man. And again, like with Cam Ward, he just look, Cam Ward looked like everything that we wanted him to look like. And it may be rookie mini camp, but Xavier Restrepo looked like everything we expected. Is Xavier Restrepo, and Brian Callahan even said this, he's not the biggest. He's not, you know, the most athletically gifted, but he's a guy who's just been super productive and he's a good football player. And I would continue to say there are more undrafted free agents in the Hall of Fame than there are number one overall picks. That's the correct stat, which I kind of butchered last week on a show, but Restrepo looked really quick, really locked in, hands looked really good.

Starting point is 00:13:04 And Teron Davenport called him the most polished of the wide receivers looked really quick, really locked in, hands looked really good, and Teron Davenport called him the most polished of the wide receivers at Minicamp. Austin Stanley said that he was the best of the four wide receivers at Minicamp, and that he would second Teron's statement. So, this is what we expected from Xavier Restrepo. Come in right away, have a connection with Cam Ward, be polished, be experienced, be ready to go. That's why I refuse to believe that Xavier Restrepo won't make this roster. He's just too productive, too ready to play right away. And when you have a Tennessee Titans wide receiver group with Tyler Lockett, who's at the end of his career,

Starting point is 00:13:40 Calvin Ridley, who's still a really good player, but Van Jefferson has always been just another guy in the NFL. He's not anything to write home about. You have a ton of other young wide receivers. Are you telling me that Xavier Restrepo isn't going to be better in year one than Chim Dike? I mean, maybe I'm crazy and I'm wrong, but I think Xavier Restrepo is going to be the better player. And with the Titans wide receiver group, you need as much help as

Starting point is 00:14:02 you can get right now, while also being able to build to the future. And having Cam Ward have a safety blanket, having his pacifier in year one, that's just so valuable. So if Xavier Restrepo came out there today and people were like, or this weekend and people were like, Xavier Restrepo looked a little sluggish. Man, that lack of speed is so clear. He looks so much less than everybody else. But no, it was the opposite. Wow. This guy looks very polished. It's the best wide receiver at minicamp. Like he's exactly what

Starting point is 00:14:31 we expected him to be. And you're allowed to be excited about that. You should be excited about that. Even if things haven't worked out in the past in these situations, which I'll get more into, but very excited about Xavier Restrepo, that combination, man. We got so, so lucky to be able to get him. And I would also point out, Xavier Restrepo's 40 time was not very good, but I'm pretty sure when you look at Chim Dike's 3-Cone, which is the 3-Cone Agility Drill, that Xavier Restrepo had the same exact 3-Cone. It's like 6.83. So the 40 yard

Starting point is 00:15:06 dash may not have been great, but his other little agility drills weren't absolutely miserable too, and they're very similar to other people. So anyways, I'm very excited about Xavier Restrepo, and I think he is going to make this roster. Chim Dike, the speed is obvious just from the, the, you know, the highlights the team puts out, the media videos that were taken in the small window. Like you could just see Chim Dike move and it's like, oh, like he is fast. Cam Ward said he's an explosive route runner. He said the same about Elec Iomaner too. Folks, watching Iomaner move at six foot two, 210 pounds, he ran like a couple of out routes on tape.

Starting point is 00:15:49 They were doing a wide receiver drill where they were going through cones, working on their footwork and then running through, catching a quick one, kind of like an out route. And then they did it back, like it would be an in route. But watching him move on some of those short to intermediate routes, it's just like guys six foot two, 210 pounds don't typically move as smooth as

Starting point is 00:16:08 Elec Io Manor is moving out there. And I know again, it's on air, routes on air. It's going to be different when you got a defender. But I'm sorry, you can look at a guy his size and say, well, he moves pretty well for a guy his size. I don't need to see him go against press coverage to be able to make that determination. You know, like that's just, how does this guy move? That's why teams go to pro days. That's why teams go to the combine. That's why teams go to the shrine bowl,

Starting point is 00:16:34 the senior bowl and all that stuff. Cause sometimes you just need to see these dudes move. You just need to look at them, be like, oh, okay. So, really excited about the young pass catchers. And honestly, the number one on my list is Gunnar Helm. Everything Gunnar Helm said in his press conference after practice was awesome. He looks impressive out on the field. He moves so smooth for a guy his size, his hands are so reliable. Like again, just like with Restrepo, there is

Starting point is 00:17:09 no way in my mind, there is no way in my mind that Gunnar Helm is not the number one tight end on this team. He just, and let me also say this, I'm a potato compared to Gunnar Helm athletically. like JV running back, high school football level athlete, you know, five five was 160 in my prime, you know? So when I say this, remember that, keep perspective here, but watching Gunnar Helm at his press conference, it's clear that he can add more muscle and add more mass. Just his build and how his body looks right now, it looks like a college athlete, not a professional athlete.

Starting point is 00:17:52 So I am even more, I'm even more emboldened with my prediction on Gunnar Helm now than I was before, looking at him and being like, bro, you can add so much more muscle and so much more strength to your frame right now. Like, it's clear. So, so excited about Gunnar Helm and the way he talked, like, the way he talked in his press conference had me fired up, literally fired up. He's just so smart, so intelligent, breaking down Cam Ward. He had a quote about his development. He said, Gunner Helms said that he didn't actually get

Starting point is 00:18:33 on the field in high school until his junior year. A guy who went to Texas on scholarship, couldn't get on the field until his junior year of high school because he needed time to develop. And then he goes to Texas and he's like, look, I liked my coaches. I believed in the system. I knew that I wasn't a guy who, you know, was developed right away. It was going to take me some time. He's like, some guys, it takes some more time. Some guys take more time to develop. And that was me, you know,

Starting point is 00:19:00 I loved that perspective and being able to think about that. So many people want it right now. I won't lie to you guys. I sent his quotes to my nephew who's 14 going into high school, plays offensive line. I'm like, dude, remember this, you know, like when you're not playing on Friday nights or this and that, like it doesn't happen for everybody overnight. It's not everybody right away is freshmen starter, all star, amazing, like we do in our video games. So I just love Gunnar Helms perspective on things. Him, he was the one who said you know we're watching film in the mornings and

Starting point is 00:19:32 stuff. He's just so locked into football. It really does make you feel even more confident about the draft. These guys really are the intelligent football driven guys that Borganzi and Brinker told us that they were. And finally, I waited because I want a full couple of minutes on Femi Oladejo. I will not forget the pushback that I saw to the Titans drafting Femi Oladejo at 53. When everybody's on board, I will not forget that I felt like a man on an island. Okay. Femi was maybe, now he's a defense guy. So, but maybe Femi Oladejo might have been in a vacuum more impressive than Cam Ward. Like Cam Ward obviously gets way more attention in

Starting point is 00:20:23 the spotlight and he should, but I would argue that Femi Oladejo was as impressive, if not more. Seeing Femi Oladejo move at practice out on the field, 6'3, 260 pounds, did you see Femi Oladejo in some of those drills? He looks, and I forget who said this, I've been trying to credit folks, but somebody said he just like looks different than those other guys. And the Titans posted a video of Femi miked up

Starting point is 00:20:51 from Rookie Minicamp on Sunday on their Instagram. Dude, he is like, don't walk on my field. He literally said to one of his teammates, don't walk, run off the field, don't walk on my field. Now, the way that his personality is, he's like jovial and joyous. Like, come on, don't walk on my field. Don't walk, let's go. Don't walk. Like, he's like upbeat about it, but he even said in his press conference, he was an extrovert.

Starting point is 00:21:15 He was leading the chance when he was stretching. And I'm sorry, but that was me. So I'm like, Femi, my guy, I didn't even know that you were the type of personality that I liked so much, one that I relate to until now, and I liked you already. Femi was one of my guys in the draft. Any of you guys that listen to my draft stuff knew. He just looks so big, so dominant.

Starting point is 00:21:35 His personality is so dominant. He is a true alpha out there on the field. And I'm sorry, but like like stock up for Femi. His personality, his body type, his potential, him talking about, yeah I'm a downhill player, now I can just get downhill. Whoo! Had me too, too excited, like fired up for this draft class, man, and they know it too. They were talking about, hey this draft class, Gunner Helm, back again my guy. Gunner Helm is like, you know, they drafted a draft class of leaders and that's what we intend to be. They know the assignment and they're ready for it. Let's go. But now, I got a Roland's rant for you guys. You're allowed to be excited, you should

Starting point is 00:22:20 be excited and don't let anybody tell you anything different Titans fans, let's cap off today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast, breaking down rookie mini camp over the weekend. We talked about Cam Ward checking all the boxes, doing exactly what I wanted him to do. It's just rookie mini camp, but Cam Ward did exactly what his job was. And the rookie class outside of Cam Ward impressed. I talked about the pass catchers with Xavier Restrepo, Femi man. I do want to mention Kevin Winston and Calo Mullings

Starting point is 00:23:15 did not participate. They're coming back from injury. We know about the ACL with Winston Mullings had a core muscle injury during the season that he had surgery for in the off season. Those guys, I told you, they're going to take their time with any, this draft class was, it's going to help in 2025, but this is about the future folks. So don't forget that.

Starting point is 00:23:34 But with that being said, I'm so sick and tired of seeing people try to stop fans from being excited. Be excited. Look, I'm looking in the camera. I'm talking into the mic. Be excited. Don't let people tell you it's just rookie mini camp. It doesn't matter. Nothing to be hype about. Oh, why are Titans fans trying to proclaim that, you know, Xavier Restrepo is a burner and blah, blah, blah. Nobody's saying any of that, okay?

Starting point is 00:24:06 Number one, I didn't see anybody over the weekend say, man, Xavier Restrepo, he's a speed guy. We all know who he is. We're just excited about what he is, because you don't have to be a 4-4-40 guy to be successful. The NFL is awesome, because there are 360-pound dudes, and there are 156 pound dudes. And guess what? They can both be great.

Starting point is 00:24:28 That's why football is great. And let's also say this. Why did you start watching the Titans? Why do you watch my show? Why do you care about the sport of football? Joy. It brings you joy. It makes you happy. Look, I'm going to get a little existential here for a second,

Starting point is 00:24:44 but it's a Roland's rant, and that's what happens Life is hard, bro Put it on a shirt whether you're an adult watching this if you're a kid watching this life is hard either You know it or you're about to find out there are only two stages in life either You know how hard life is or you're gonna find out real soon Bills, death, sadness, loneliness, depression, struggles. Life is so hard from start to finish. From the moment you're born, life is hard. So yes, we turn to things like football and music and movies and things to find joy

Starting point is 00:25:21 in times where it's not that hard or just to take our mind off stuff. So many of you guys reach out to me, Hey, you know, I'm going through this. I'm going through that. I'm in this situation and your show helps me. And that stuff gives me so much life. You don't because it's bigger than football, but the point is football is supposed to bring us joy. So when you've got a bunch of Titans fans online or watching the clips or, you know, on YouTube, watching the interviews and they're excited excited, and their Cam Ward's gonna be the savior,

Starting point is 00:25:46 and Xavier Restrepo's gonna make the team and be awesome, and that, like, is it all gonna come true? I don't know, but does it matter? Does it matter? At the end of the day, every single step of it is to bring us joy and to bring us happiness, so I'm just so sick and so annoyed of these lame people trying to pretend like they're geniuses by telling everybody rookie mini camp doesn't matter. You're not a genius. You're not smart. You're not better than everybody else. You're not breaking news. We all know, everybody knows that rookie mini camp doesn't have this massive sway on what the career is going to be for these guys. Everybody knows that. You don't got to tell anybody online, hey, this is just rookie mini camp.

Starting point is 00:26:33 Well, duh. But I'm going to get excited anyway because I'm a football fan. I love the Tennessee Titans. I love the sport of football. And the whole reason that I'm a fan in the first place is to feel joy. The happiness that I feel while watching clips from Rookie Minicamp is exactly what liking sports is about. So I'm just tired of everybody acting like they have some groundbreaking opinion or they're so much smarter than, you know, everybody else because they're like, hey, you know, this doesn't matter.

Starting point is 00:27:01 And also, let me say this. Cam Ward was a zero-star recruit, right? Cam Ward was a zero-star recruit. Well, by the end of college, Cam Ward was the number one overall pick. He went from zero to one, zero stars to number one pick. Well, if mini-camp doesn't matter, and OTAs don't matter, and training camp doesn't matter, and OTAs don't matter and training camp doesn't matter and preseason games don't matter. And if nothing matters except the first Sunday in September to the first Sunday in January, then how come players change and who's best and who's better and who's the... Was Cam Ward the best quarterback in college the first year? Was Cam Ward the best quarterback in college his second year? Was Cam Ward the best quarterback in college his second year,

Starting point is 00:27:46 his third year, his fourth year? No, it took it to the fifth year. So it sounds like what happened between the last game and the next game, it sounds like that stuff matters. Now, does rookie mini camp, again, does a good rookie mini camp mean this guy's going to be a Hall of Famer? No, it doesn't. But if nothing in the off season ever mattered, then number one,

Starting point is 00:28:10 why would they do it? And number two, then why do guys change throughout all seasons? Why do guys get better? Why do guys improve? How does that happen? What about Derrick Henry? Derrick Henry sucked. And then he became the best running back in the entire NFL. He had a bad start to his career. Yes, he was in a rotation and this and that blah blah blah. But Derrick Henry, if you were watching, if you were outside, if you were in the trenches, Derrick Henry was not running the way that he ended up running when he got into his prime.

Starting point is 00:28:41 He just wasn't running. He made a change. Why do guys go from, hey this guy wasn't any good, now all of a sudden he's a pro bowler. Why do guys go from zero star recruit to best player in college football? Because the all season does matter. Because practice does matter. And in my opinion, the people who get on here and tell you, hey the all season doesn't matter. Hey, oh it's just rookie mini-camp. Hey, it's just training camp. Oh, it's just pre-season games. They don't get it. And those are people who make excuses in their life when they don't succeed. Oh, coaching doesn't matter. Rookie mini-camp doesn't matter. Training

Starting point is 00:29:20 camp doesn't matter. Oh, these are just pre-season games. Ha ha ha. Laugh in your face. When those people fail, they're going to make excuses for why they failed instead of acknowledging what they refuse to acknowledge all along, that the hard work in the shadows does matter. And rookie mini camp does matter, and training camp does matter, and practice does matter, and preseason games do matter. It all matters. The people who succeed are the people who realize that everything matters. matter. It all matters. The people who succeed are the people who realize that everything matters. Not the people who realize, oh, that doesn't matter. So, I'm just sick of it. Enjoy it. It matters. When we look back at these players, sometimes, look at Traylen Burks. Traylen Burks couldn't even get through his first rookie minicamp. He had to hit his inhaler because he wasn't in good enough shape. And guess what? Traylon Burks is a guy who's never taken his football preparation seriously enough

Starting point is 00:30:08 to capitalize on his first round talent. The off season matters. Every single step matters in your life. Learn that lesson early. Stop letting people tell you this doesn't matter, that doesn't matter, but there are people who don't understand. For me, it's very similar to the analytics and football debates. Football guys say, oh the numbers don't matter, I'm going with my instincts, I know football. And the numbers guys say, the instincts don't matter, look the numbers tell the truth. Instincts are biased by human emotion, the numbers are everything. But you can manipulate numbers, you can make the numbers say what you want, really. People do it all the time.

Starting point is 00:30:49 You can make the numbers tell whatever story you want if you weave them properly and you're good enough at it. So the reality is, football guys don't understand the numbers. So rather than try to learn and have the debate, they just dismiss it. The numbers don't matter at all. It's nerds who don't know anything about football. Not only do I not have to learn what you're talking about, I don't even acknowledge its reality. And the numbers guys say, oh, the instincts are completely nonsense. Momentum doesn't exist. Football intelligence just follow the numbers.

Starting point is 00:31:20 Why? Because those guys have never gotten the football instincts because they're not football people. They're analytics people who weren't involved in football. So it's just a battle to make what you don't understand unimportant because then it's not a bad thing that you don't get it. Oh, I don't understand analytics, but they don't matter. So I don't need to. So my opinion is still valid. It's really just a way to invalidate the other person's opinion, but really people just don't understand. And that's how I feel about rookie mini camp. You say, oh, Cam Ward looked good in rookie mini camp. So it says rookie mini camp doesn't matter. Well, you just don't understand how much rookie mini camp doesn't matters because you've never been in the trenches and worked that hard and gone through anything in

Starting point is 00:32:03 your life that difficult. So you don't understand how important it is because you've never been in the trenches and worked that hard and gone through anything in your life that difficult, so you don't understand how important it is because you've never done it. But since you've never done it, rather than that be something where you're unknowledgeable, oh, it doesn't matter, so I don't need to know about that. So my deficiency, it's not a bad thing that I'm deficient here because that doesn't matter. That's all this is. That's all that it is. So I guess overall my point is, shut up and let people enjoy things. Let people get excited about Xavier Restrepo. Let people call Cam Ward the savior. Let people say Gunnar Helm is going to be tight end one.

Starting point is 00:32:37 Let people get hype about Femiola De Gio. We all know that it's rookie mini camp and it doesn't mean they're going to win games. Everyone knows that. You're not smart to point that out. And I saw so many people doing that. It's just like, again, shut up and let people enjoy things. There are times where somebody needs to step in and say, hey, listen, everybody relax. I get that. But it ain't Rookie Minicamp right after the draft classes showed up and it's the first time we've ever seen these guys on the field. So, if you want to be hype about R mini camp, you should be hype because football is about joy. So just keep that in mind man. I'm tired of the haters trying to act smart. No, we're football fans. We love football.

Starting point is 00:33:19 Let's be happy. Tighten up. With that being said though, that is going to do it for today's edition of the Locked on Titan's podcast. Tomorrow, I'm going to have more reaction. I'm going to talk about how they're building the offense for Cam Ward because we got some pretty good insight to the schematics over the weekend. Wednesday, I'm going to have my NFL schedule, Titan schedule wish list. Who do I want to see in primetime? Who do I hope they play internationally? All that stuff. And then Thursday, I'll be here to react to the schedule and we'll do some schedule reaction for a couple of days. But with that being said, that is going to do it for me today, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.

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Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Cam Ward SHINES at Tennessee Titans Rookie Mini-Camp | Xavier Restrepo & 2025 Draft Class IMPRESS

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