Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Coaching Staff Complete, Division Rival Round-Up & Friday Mailbag

Episode Date: February 7, 2020

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Welcome to the Locked On Titans podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, we have a defensive coaching staff. The Titans finally hired an inside linebacker coach to take over for Tyrone McKenzie. So we are going to talk about who that is and what that means for the responsibilities of this coaching staff going forward. Then, we are going to talk about this division I want to remind you guys next week is our ultimate division crossover we are going to have five straight episodes with all of the hosts of the locked on podcast from the AFC South so I hope you guys enjoy that we are getting that all set up for you so that'll run next week in preparation for that I want to talk about the offseason storylines and the news and notes so far this offseason with all of our division rivals in the AFC South. So we're going to go

over all those teams and it is quite fun. I'm not going to lie. It's going to be a good time for us Titans fans talking about that, getting ready for that ultimate division crossover next week. And then we are going to cap off the Friday show as we have come to do with a nice mailbag. So a lot of you guys sent in questions to me on Twitter at TicTacTitans. Also put some questions in the reviews and in some of the Facebook communities. So I'm going to answer your questions as we get ready to head off into the weekend. A lot to talk about. Let's get it.

On Thursday, the Titans announced that they would be hiring NFL lifer Jim Haslett as the inside linebacker coach. Haslett has coached for 24 seasons in the NFL, 12 of those as a defensive coordinator with the Washington Redskins, the St. Louis Rams, the Pittsburgh Steelers where he met and began his relationship with Mike Vrabel who was a player at the time, and for the New Orleans Saints. He also was a head coach for the Saints for five years, where he actually won coach of the year in 2000. Here's an interesting fact about Haslett. He was an NFL player for eight seasons as well, drafted in 1979. Mike Vrabel said that he was going to be filling this position with a veteran, and that is exactly what has happened. Vrabel had this to say about the hiring of Jim Haslett. Quote, adding quality coaches to our staff has always been my priority with the ability to

teach, develop, and inspire. I have known Jim since my rookie season at Pittsburgh and was impressed with how he taught and developed the players on our defense. Over his career, he has experienced success as a head coach, defensive coordinator, and linebacker coach. He brings great experience in our defensive system along with great energy and passion for his players. We are excited to enhance our defensive staff and be better teachers and developers of our players." What may be more interesting than the Hazlitt hire itself is the way that it was announced on social media.

The Titans official account on Twitter used the term finalized, that the hire would finalize the Titans coaching staff. That leads us to believe that the reports from Teron Davenport a few weeks ago were 100% correct and that the Titans will not be hiring a defensive coordinator and that Mike Vrabel will be taking over most of the responsibilities that come with that role. As we've mentioned before, there are other examples of this in the NFL. Sean McDermott for the Bills calls plays on defense. Mike Zimmer of the Minnesota Vikings, although they have co-defensive coordinators, he calls

the plays. You see it quite a bit on offense with the young offensive coaches like Cliff Kingsbury and Sean McVay, Matt LaFleur, Kyle Shanahan. So these are things that do happen quite often. Will Vrabel delegate some of that responsibility now that he has an experienced veteran coach on his staff who has been a defensive coordinator for quite some time? It would make sense if Mike Vrabel was installing the game plan,

making sure that the coaches understand what needs to happen but would allow a veteran like Jim Haslett to actually call the plays someone who's had experience calling plays for over a decade or will Mike Rabel divvy up some of the other responsibilities to Jim Haslett or someone like Anthony Midgett who he brought over from Houston and converted from the Texans, and then do the play calling himself. Either way, there is an example of it in the NFL. If he decides not to call the plays, if Vrabel decides not to call the plays and hands that off, well, New England is an example of that. And while you don't want to take too much from New

England because it's quite a unique situation, it is still an example in the NFL of that sort of power structure working out. Now, we are still left with questions about how the inside linebacker coach position came up anyway. Speaking of that report from Teron Davenport, I find it as no coincidence that the day that that report came out, also quickly came the reports of Tyrone McKenzie leaving to take the exact same role for the Detroit Lions. Not a promotion, not an upgrade, anything like that. Clearly, it's fair for us to speculate as to whether or not Rabel's decision to take

over that role and not hire a defensive coordinator or promote a defensive coordinator from within his current staff made a difference on whether or not McKenzie stayed around. Now, there were some other dominoes that took place because of the decision for McKenzie to leave and the staff shaken up a little bit with Coombs leaving and Pease retiring. There were some other defensive changes, although slightly less important. We still want to make sure that you are updated. Ryan Crow went from a defensive assistant to the assistant special teams coach. Matt Edwards went from assistant special teams coach to a defensive assistant. So Crow and Edwards sort of swapped positions there.

And then Scott Booker went from a defensive assistant to the safeties coach. So a nice upgrade there for Booker. As the Titans account said, though, that finalizes the Titans coaching staff, so that's the last conversation we will have to have about that until Mike Vrabel answers some more questions about how he's going to delegate the responsibilities, but I would imagine that will come much, much later in the offseason. We are going to jump into a little bit of a primer

for our Ultimate Division crossover that will take place next week. We are going to talk about all of the headlines surrounding the Titans Division rivals so far in the offseason. Can't wait to talk about that. We talk about physical fitness a lot, but there's another side of the game that's just as important. I'm talking about mental fitness. Calm, the number one app for sleep and meditation, has teamed up with LeBron James to help you train your mind. LeBron and Calm know that your mind is like any other

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Unlock content that helps you focus, ease stress, and sleep better. Get started at calm.com. That's calm.com. It's a Friday. Let's have a little bit of fun with like i mentioned the ultimate division crossover coming up next week let's talk about each of the titans division rivals the texans the jags and the colts and just check in on how their off seasons are going so far like i said it's friday let's have a little bit of fun here guys let's start with the houston texans well the biggest news there other than some coaching changes that they

had is that bill o'brien officially announced as the general manager he somehow has gotten to a position where he has some of the most power of any person in the NFL. He's calling all the shots on the field, calling all the shots in the front office. It's pretty incredible. And there are reasons that that responsibility is split up into two different jobs. When you're a head coach of a football team, you got to worry about winning right now. Everything you do has to be geared towards winning immediately when you're a general manager while you want to put the best

team out on the field possible you have to think about the future as well it just doesn't make sense that a coach and one person would be able to do both roles now of course some of you are saying right now that Bill Belichick basically is that in New England and while you're right no one is Bill Belichick I mean even Bill Parcells wasn't given that sort of autonomy so it's pretty wild that Bill O'Brien has somehow gotten here especially after the complete collapse that they had in the playoffs against the Chiefs I don't understand how that could happen and you look back at some of the moves he made. Carlos Hyde for a fifth.

Duke Johnson for a third. The Laramie Tunzel trade with two first round picks. I mean, all of that screams win now. It doesn't look like the type of moves that a general manager would make. And I, as a Titans analyst, as a Titans analyst as a Titans fan cannot be any happier about that development Bill O'Brien the general manager is gonna run that team into the ground so can't can't take that as anything but good news for the Titans it's just fascinating and hilarious quite frankly that you know the way that the Texans went out in the playoffs

turned into Bill O'Brien getting even more power within that organization. So just wild turn of events there down in Houston. Moving on to the Indianapolis Colts, and while they didn't have anything catastrophic take place so far, it's still time to sit back and take a look at how much Andrew Luck really left them in a bad position. It's clear now that Jacoby Brissett is not the answer. We're hearing rumors of all the quarterbacks that they're looking at in the draft and free agency. It is obvious that they're going to have to find another solution at quarterback. And this time, they're not getting a number one pick to save them.

So, that in itself is something to laugh at. But it also appears that their stud left tackle, Anthony Costanzo, may be retiring. And one of the things that Colts fans have hung to so tightly in the past few years is that vaunted offensive line that they have now. Well, if you're losing the left tackle of that line it's definitely going to be a detriment it's going to be something that they're going to have to focus on and now do they shift their focus in the first round from being able to take a quarterback trading up for a quarterback to having to take an offensive tackle which there will be a lot of good offensive

tackles in the first round this year in the NFL draft so it puts them in a very tough position and back-to-back off seasons to lose their star quarterback and then to lose their rock solid left tackle. So from a Titans perspective, hey, can't be mad about that. Moving on to the final division rival, the dumpster fire going on down in Duval. The Jacksonville Jaguars have had an embarrassing offseason, starting with all of those player grievances against Tom Coughlin and the Jags organization, and then the statement that the NFL Players Association put out, basically telling players not to sign with the Jaguars. Well, they ended up firing Tom Coughlin for that, and you would think that Doug Marone,

who led such a disappointing season and the Jags were getting blown out big time before they got that win against the Raiders they had a couple of losses in a row of double digits 20 points they completely quit on Marone so you figured that he would be out Caldwell had done a terrible job of getting a quarterback in there who could actually lead and then had to give up Jalen Ramsey so you would suspect that those two would be gone and that the Jaguars would clean house and try to start anew well no that wasn't the case they fired Coughlin but kept Marone kept Caldwell and then just recently they hired Trent Balke if you recall Trent Balke was one of the people who put together that San Francisco 49ers team that went to the Super Bowl, led by Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick

with Jim Harbaugh as the head coach. Well, Baalke didn't have a great track record at the end of his tenure there in San Francisco. He got on the outs with Jim Harbaugh, causing Harbaugh to leave the organization. Then he hired terrible coaches back-to-back with Jim Tomsula and then Chip Kelly. He got in disagreements with the ownership there and eventually was gone from San Francisco as well. So bringing him into the fold sounds like an excellent, excellent hire. Then the cherry on top.

The dumpster fire got gasoline poured on top of it when the Jaguars announced that they would be playing two home games in London. The Jaguars are basically guaranteed a London game every single year because they want to go do that. The owner, Shad Khan, wants to do that. He's trying to capitalize on that European market over there and develop a big fan base in London and a lot of people have made jokes about the Jaguars moving to London it's something that gets joked about on social media quite a bit but this

is the first time that we've seen any real true evidence to kind of start putting those pieces together the Jaguars will be playing not only two home games in London, but they're going to do them back to back. So their players are just going to stay overseas. There are a few different wrinkles to this that make it pretty interesting. And that's that taxes are way worse in London than they are in America. So players are not going to be enticed to play for the Jaguars knowing that eighth of their game checks every year are going to have way harsher taxes on them

than they face here in the States. Now, compensation for that is there are no state taxes in Florida, so that helps them out a lot with taxes when they are playing at home. But hey, you only get eight home games a year to take advantage of the tax rate because you pay the taxes based on where you're playing the football game. So you only get eight games per year. And now two of those are going in London where not only do they have tax, but it's much higher than you're used to in the United States.

Very interesting. You're seeing a petition go around online of Jaguars fans basically saying not to play those games and that they're not going to buy season tickets anymore. A lot of the fan base is really disappointed in Jacksonville about this development. As a Titans fan, you just got to sit back and say, hey, told you so. That owner wants to move the team to London. Whether it happens five years from now, ten years from now, however long it takes, Conn is going to move the team to London. And whether it happens five years from now, ten years from now, however long it takes, Khan is going to move the Jaguars out of Jacksonville into London. It's going to happen, and it's going to happen progressively.

They're going to play two games the next couple of years, and then all of a sudden it'll be four games the next couple of years. So keep an eye out on that, and everyone who ever joked about the Jags going to London, well, jokes always take on reality and it appears that that is getting closer and closer to being the Jaguars reality the London Jaguars I mean it even has a ring to it so let's all share a laugh at the Jaguars expense before we move into our ultimate division crossover next week. That's going to be great.

I hope you guys enjoy that. I'm going to be doing Google updates every day. So if you guys don't know, I also do Google news updates so that you can ask your phone for an update if you have a Google device and it'll pop up with me giving you the most recent story on the Tennessee Titans. So I'm still going to be recording those fresh every day for the most recent news. Otherwise, all of these Ultimate Division crossover shows, we are going to get together with the other Division, you know, AFC South locked on hosts and record all these shows

for you guys in one sitting, just logistically makes the most sense. So if you want the most up-to-date content if news drops anything like that happens next week check out those google news updates and you'll be getting me giving you all the most recent information now we are going to close out our show with a mailbag third week in a row we are doing that going to keep it rolling throughout the off season of course appreciate all you guys asking me questions. Get started now. If you would like, ask more questions on social media at TicTacTitans. Leave a review for me and leave your question in there,

and I will read it as well. Make sure we keep this mailbag going for next week, and I'll get some questions in the hopper so that we are good to go for next Friday. We'll come back with that next let's head into the weekend with a mailbag so we will start off with a question from Jossu Moffitt asking will Cam Wake be back well my answer to that is most likely not based on his cap hit he's set to make about eight and a half million dollars next year cannot pay him that much money based on what we saw last season at his age so i would expect him to be cut if he's unwilling to restructure his deal he He was very productive in his limited

snaps throughout the season due to injury, so if the Titans were able to bring him back, but at a much lower rate, then I could see him back on the team, but if he's unwilling to do that, then no, I would not expect to see him back. Tyler Williams asked, if I could only sign one, Logan Ryan or Jack Conklin, who would it be? My answer is Logan Ryan. I think not only on the field, but his leadership off the field and in the film room is very important to the culture of this football team. I also think that it's going to be a lot more difficult to find a good cornerback than it is to find a good enough tackle for the Titans to keep things going so I would rather have Logan Ryan back over Jack Conklin and I think Logan Ryan will be cheaper

as well Sean Grant Lamal asked what lower tier pass rushers would I be interested in if we couldn't get you know the top crop and Gawkway Cl Clowney, Barrett. And I would be looking at a couple of different people. You don't want to pay too much for these guys, so you'd be looking to get a bargain. But Bud Dupree from the Steelers, Dante Fowler, who played for the Jags and the Rams, Robert Quinn from the Cowboys, the veteran, who was pretty productive last year.

I would be interested in Robert Quinn. And then Matt Judon from the Ravens. Feel like you could get a pretty good bargain there compared to some of the other edge rushers if you went that route. So out of those four kind of second-tier edge rushers, I really like Robert Quinn and Matt Judon out of those. And then he also asked, what are my expectations for edge DeAndre Walker going into 2020?

I just hope that he can stay healthy, get some reps out there, get used to the NFL game, and then possibly contribute on special teams. So hopefully he's just able to contribute to the football team when he was taken with a fifth round draft pick. Shawn Michael Haddam basically asked if Harold Landry was overvalued by Titans fans and I would say yes probably so. This team is so starved for an edge rusher that anyone with potential and some skill out there will really get the fan base going but I wouldn't say that it's fair to say that he's overvalued. That's only because of the fans reaction to what he does not not necessarily for

what he actually did on the field his nine sacks were incredible but it was pretty obvious throughout the end of the season that he wasn't quite the player that he was at the beginning now is that because he had to rush a lot more due to all the injuries in the secondary and the team scoring a lot more points there's a lot of different things that contribute to that I think he's going to get a lot better and get more consistent so right now just because the fans are so starved for an edge rusher I would say he's overvalued but I wouldn't say that he's overrated as a player so I think that's pretty important Adam Grice asked do I think Logan Ryan is going to walk and what is Daquan Jones's value basically I can answer both of those questions pretty quickly I really do think Logan Ryan is going to leave and

go you know possibly somewhere like Philadelphia you're hearing rumors of that unfortunately I just don't think that the Titans are going to want to spend the money necessary to bring him back even if I think that he's going to be generally cheaper than maybe some people are thinking I don't think it's going to be anything much more than 10 million dollars a year for Logan Ryan but the Titans may not be able to pony up that cash and as for Daquan Jones he has incredible value as a nose tackle he had a very good season. Now, I will couch all of that by saying this. The Titans cannot pay Daquan Jones $8.5 million like he slated to make in 2020. As a nose tackle, as a two-down player, he's simply not worth it.

The Titans need to find an interior disruptor so that he is not on the field pass rushing. So you cannot give just a nose tackle. When he was given that contract, he was a five technique. He played defensive end in the 3-4, also played a little bit of nose tackle. He was given more value to the team, was more versatile. But someone like Jeffrey Simmons was drafted to take over that spot so that Daquan could be solely a nose tackle. And the reality is a nose tackle in the NFL doesn't have quite the value

that the other positions around them will have because they're usually only on the field for first and second down for run possible downs. So I think Daquan will have to restructure his contract. He should do that because the Titans cannot afford to give a player of his caliber eight and a half million dollars next season even if he's fantastic in the role that he's supposed to play the role that he plays just simply isn't worth that sort of money so that's

how I feel about those two questions Brandon Reed asked do I see Delaney leaving and yes the answer is a quick yes I think Delaney has seen his last days in Tennessee. I think that's pretty obvious from everything that we saw at the end of the season, his inability to get back out on the field. It didn't really seem like he was very interested in that either. So yeah, Delaney is gone. He played a role here. He was a big part of turning around this team.

So you got to give him his credit. But Jonu Smith is ready to go. Anthony Ferkser is going to be brought back and is ready to play a role like he was able to the last few seasons. I just don't see the need for Delaney Walker at $8-some million. He'll probably be cut and let move on. Hopefully he sees success in the future, but I'm not certain how he's going to

be able to come back and play in the NFL and then the last question comes from Zach Navarette and he asked a non-football question obviously I'm a Lakers fan my tribute to Kobe and my conversation online you've probably been able to pick that up but he said if the Lakers were not able to make it to the finals what matchup would I want to see and I definitely don't want to see the Rockets I definitely wouldn't want to see the Clippers definitely don't want to see the Sixers or the Celtics so I would be rooting for a Utah Jazz and Milwaukee Bucks finals or a let's say say, Portland Trailblazers, because I really enjoy watching Damian Lillard play basketball, a Portland Trailblazers versus Milwaukee Bucks finals.

I really like Giannis Antetokounmpo and his entire story. I think it's one of the least appreciated sports stories we have out there that should get a lot more pub than it does, so I would like to see him get to the finals and have that moment, that national shine. But I would also, on the Western Conference side, if my Lakers aren't going to make it, then I would be rooting for the Utah Jazz. I do like Donovan Mitchell, Joe Ingles, Mike Conley, Rudy Gobert. Appreciate what they do as a team. And then, of course, Damian Lillard is just an

incredible player so it'd be nice to see him get to a finals as well but that is going to wrap up our mailbag that is going to wrap up another week of shows like I said we are going to be back next week with the ultimate division crossover event so we are going to have a lot of good content for you coming from all of the hosts of the AFC South Locked On podcast. It's going to be a really fun time, and I look forward to getting it out to you guys. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked On Titans. you