Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Crossover Thursday Conversation: Titans @ Vikings, Initial Injury Report

Episode Date: September 24, 2020

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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, today's crossover Thursday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast is brought to you by Visa. Help support your local businesses, whether they're your corner stores, coffee spots, or favorite shops. Local businesses have always been on your

team supporting you and your community. But right now, more than ever, local businesses need our support. So let's be there for them. The next time you go shopping, make the choice to shop at local businesses and look for the contactless symbol and tap to pay with a contactless visa to help support your community because where and how you shop matters. Visa, everywhere you want to be, official partner of the NFL. And we will have an official partner for today's Crossover Thursday, and that is Luke from the Locked On Vikings podcast. Have an excellent two-segment conversation ready for you guys today

as we begin our prep for the Minnesota Vikings. But we are going to get to that conversation after we talk about the most recent injury report for both teams. We got an injury report from both teams on Wednesday, so let's take a look at some things that we should be concerned about, some things that we should have less concern about, and take a look at how both teams could be affected after an insane week in injuries in the NFL in week two. So a lot to talk about as we begin our preparation for the Minnesota Vikings. Make sure that you are subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast and following me on Twitter

at TicTacTitans as we go through this crossover Thursday conversation and eventually get to our Football Friday game preview where I go over my keys to the game, players to watch, a schematic deep dive for what you should be looking for, fantasy, gambling, and much, much more. But a lot to talk about today on a crossover Thursday on the Locked on Titans podcast. Let's dive into the first injury report of the week for the Tennessee Titans and the Minnesota Vikings for their upcoming week three matchup in Minnesota on Sunday.

On the Titans side of the ball, there were six players who did not participate in Wednesday's practice and then four players who were full participants. And there is good and bad news when it comes to these different players on the injury report. Let's start by talking about the players who did not practice on Wednesday. And no surprise, A.J. Brown continues to miss practice with a bone bruise in his knee after he missed the game against the Jags in week two. Cornerback Malcolm Butler, who fought through a quad injury to play on Sunday, did not participate with that quad injury on Wednesday in practice. Rookie cornerback Chris Jackson, who has struggled throughout the season, sat out practice on Wednesday with a hamstring injury. Right tackle

Dennis Kelly, who has performed relatively well this season, sat out practice on Wednesday with an illness. Same with outside linebacker Derek Roberson, who sat out practice with an illness. And then finally, in what is a concerning addition to the injury report, is tight end Jonu Smith, who missed practice with an ankle injury. Now, one thing to consider is that Wednesday is the most common day in the NFL week to give your veterans a maintenance day. That means although they are injured and they are dealing with some sort of injury, they aren't really at risk to miss the

game, but you want to keep them healthy. You want to keep them fresh and don't want to put them through any additional pounding that they don't need to take throughout the week because these are players that you will need on Sunday. Taking a look at this injury report, some of the players who I think that makes sense for is right tackle Dennis Kelly. Illness and did not participate. He didn't seem to have any issues on Sunday throughout the game. So it seems like just a maintenance day for the veteran tackle. Similarly, somebody like Jonu Smith has performed at an incredible rate and has been a vital part

of the Titans offense maybe their most productive offensive player outside of quarterback Ryan Tannehill this seems to be just a maintenance day for the veteran tight end as well let's get into those players who were full participants in practice on Wednesday and we got some very optimistic news in terms of outside linebacker Vic Beasley and rookie running back Darrington Evans who at this time would be a huge upgrade for the Titans at those spots the Titans have been relying on center ice Perry who was moved to the IR earlier this week and Jeremy McNichols who has spent the majority of his time on the Titans practice squad Darrington Evans was drafted in the third round so that he could spell Derrick Henry and it not

be such a drop in talent also Evans gives the Titans more versatility and complexity on offense as he can be used more in the screen game and also be used in more of a variety of routes out of the backfield. Talking about Vic Beasley, the Titans have only suited up three outside linebackers in the past two games, and Kamalei Correa has gotten a very limited amount of snaps. So the Titans right now are running Jadavion Clowney and Harold Landry into the ground. They're using them in over 80% of the snaps on defense, and at some point in time, the Titans have to find some other rotational pieces at outside linebacker to be able to keep those players fresh and healthy throughout the entire season. Obviously, a player like Vic

Beasley was paid a good amount of money to come in and do just that. The other two players who were full participants, guard Jameel Douglas with a hand injury, and then cornerback Jonathan Joseph with a calf injury. Joseph left the game on Sunday for a little bit of a time with that calf injury. Good to see that he was a full participant on Wednesday. That should spell good things for Joseph and the Titans defense going forward. For the Vikings, some major concerns at the cornerback position.

Rookie Cam Dantzler did not participate with a rib injury. Cornerback Mike Hughes did not participate with a neck injury. The Vikings would be down to their 4th, 5th, and 3rd string cornerbacks on Sunday if those players are unable to go. Running back Mike Boone with a concussion and linebacker Troy Dye were also out on Wednesday for the Vikings. And then tackle Riley Reif was limited with an ankle injury, but news is that he will most likely be able to go. But what we should do is hear more about how these injuries could potentially impact the

Minnesota Vikings on Sunday directly from someone on the ground, and that is Luke Braun from the Locked On Vikings podcast. He is here for a crossover Thursday conversation previewing the week three matchup between the Vikings and the Titans. So we are going to jump into part one of that conversation after I tell you guys a little bit about rockauto.com. With the ever increasing number of makes and models, it's basically impossible to stock all the parts you could potentially need at any chain storefront. So why would you go in there, get different kinds

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in the how did you hear about us box right underneath your shipping information so they know that I sent you. Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need. rockauto.com. We are back for a week three crossover Thursday conversation for the upcoming matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and the Tennessee Titans. Of course, I am your host of the Locked on Titans podcast, Tyler Rowland. We have Luke Braun, the host of the Locked on Vikings podcast, ready to dive into this matchup.

And both these teams are going in opposite directions, but the Titans can't, you know, let up at all or think that because the Vikings started out 0-2 that they can relax at all as the Vikings do still have a lot of talent. But let's get into some of the struggles that we have seen from the Vikings on the offensive side of the ball. My question, Luke, really comes down to this. Has Kirk Cussens completely lost it? Is it losing Stephon Stefan Diggs is it losing Stefanski what is it do you think that is mostly to blame for the lack of success on the offensive side of the ball for the Vikings so far this year I think of like those three I would go with Diggs and Stefanski um I mean listen Cousins has been abysmal and in these first couple of games, and he is kind of prone to just like laying an egg sometimes.

But that typically when you see that from Kirk Cousins, that kind of game from Kirk Cousins, it doesn't persist throughout the entire season. Now, this is an atypical season, so anything's possible or whatever. But I think losing Stefan Diggs is really, really hurt. The Vikings have been able to attempt a lot of deep passes, and the offense has just not been productive on those like at all. And Kirk hasn't been as accurate as he usually is. So there is some of it, but a lot of this is coming down to the receivers or Smith couldn't haul one

in over the middle. You know, Adam Thielen, only one guy he's been himself. He's been fantastic, but he's only one guy. Kyle Rudolph is clearly, I mean, he's really getting up there in age now and they haven't really seen much deep from BC Johnson or they've seen some from Justin Jefferson, the rookie. So the, the, the deep passing definitely misses Stefan digs. And I think there are elements of the offense that complex, like that complicated the offense, like a motion at the snap and different concepts that Kevin Stefanski would

kind of borrow. He was with the organization for 14 years. So he would borrow concepts that he learned under Brad Childress when Childress was here, Pat Shermer concepts from 2017. And he would mix those in. And now we kind of only have the Kubiak thing and Hey, that Kubiak scheme is great. It's working awesome for you guys over in Tennessee. But right now it's just a little bit more of a vanilla version of that. And that's nothing that anybody hasn't seen before. Yeah, yeah, that that makes a lot of sense. And obviously, with Stefanski getting a head coaching job, he had a lot of creativity on the offensive side of the ball that allowed the Vikings offense to succeed a lot last year. But I want to ask one

more question about the offense. It's kind of out of all of those areas that we just spoke about and that's about this offensive line for years it feels like Vikings fans and and Vikings analysts say the offensive line needed to improve I see here just from looking at box scores and looking at the stats that they've only given up two sacks on the year as an offensive line group and they are averaging over 100 yards per game on the ground with 214 total rushing yards so far this year so is the offensive line holding up their end of the bargain and and basically going back to your answer to the first question really we're just looking at a lack of skill talent that's that's hurting this offense I would probably agree with the conclusion there although I'd get there in a different way.

Because, I mean, you know, sacks can always be a little misleading. One of those sacks was a safety that came off of just an unblocked corner blitz that came against Green Bay. But in, like, pass rush or pass blocking win rate and run blocking win rate, which is ESPN's metric, they rank, like, 22nd or 25th. At PFF grade, you know, they rank really low. So they have, listen,

they're not an elite unit. They haven't been great. I wouldn't even call them above average. I wouldn't even call them average. They've been, I would say a scoach below average, but that's acceptable. And they've definitely like the,

the effect that pressure has on an offense. Isn't really happening to the Vikings. Like I said before, they've been throwing deep a lot and to be able to throw deep a lot, you have to protect for longer. And in those times, the Vikings have either been protecting in those plays or it's been a bootleg and they didn't have to,

which is kind of the design of the Kubiak-like zone, bootleg, Kirk Cousins play action type thing. So they've been, I would call it good enough, but that isn't good. They don't have to be very good. They aren't. And it's like, it's okay. Listen, Riley Reif and Brian O'Neill, the two tackles have been just fine. Garrett Bradbury is off to a really nice start to the season, had some hiccups in run blocking,

but really nice pass protection. He hasn't given up a pressure yet on the year. And it's the two guards that have really been the two guard spots that have really been a problem. Dakota Dozier is not a starter, but he's starting. And at the right guard position, they had Pat Elfline for one game and then he got hurt and they had Pat Elfline for one game, and then he got hurt, and they had Drew Samia for the other game, and he was no better. And that's really where it's been a problem. So for the Titans, and I'm not too familiar with the Titans' defensive line,

but it's whoever's on the interior, the defensive tackles, it's the opportunity is for them more than for the edge rushers to really have an explosive, disruptive game. Right. Well, I have to tell you, Luke, for the Vikings fans listening, that is not good news for the Vikings. And I'll explain more when I'm certain we talk about the Titans' defense in the next segment. But that kind of leads me into a conversation about the Vikings' defense.

That's really what I want to ask about next. Yeah, boy. There's nowhere I can start. I'm going to give them benefit of the doubt here, because I believe that Mike Zimmer is a good coach, especially on defense where he, you know, cut his teeth. Is it the injuries that's just robbing this Vikings defense of any opportunity to be productive? Or are there other issues schematically and talent wise that are also contributing? I'm sure your answer will be, it's a combination, but I guess what would you attribute the majority of the blame to,

the injuries or the scheme and the talent? Well, yeah, the scheme is kind of hamstrung by the talent. They don't have as much defensive talent as we've seen Mike Zimmer defenses have since he really got here in 2014. And a lot of that goes back to just failures in the offseason. You know, they didn't pick up a three-technique defensive tackle. They did pick up a nose tackle and Michael Pierce, but he opted out because he has asthma and it's the COVID year. So, you know, that's unfortunate, but they don't have any defense right now. Their defensive tackles are Shamar, Stefan and Jaleel Johnson.

And I will hold to the take that it's the worst defensive tackle tandem in the league. The corners are really young. They lost Xavier Rhodes. He had kind of lost a step. He was expensive. He was a cap casualty. They couldn't outbid the Bengals for Trey Waynes, and he ended up getting hurt anyways. Mackenzie Alexander didn't want to play here because the Vikings played him in Week 17 in a meaningless game last year. He got hurt.

He missed the playoffs. He was so upset about that that it would have cost like a premium to keep Mackenzie Alexander here instead of going to the Bengals. So all of those failures, and now they're starting rookies and guys like Chris Boyd might start now that Mike Hughes is on the injury report and Cameron Dantzler is dealing with a rib injury, but they were starting rookies and like backups anyways. And when you have that dearth of talent, you're going to have a really tough time scheming something that isn't like super vanilla. Cause I mean, these guys are like Jeff

Gladney just got to the NFL like nine seconds ago. He's not going to be able to take on the complexities of what Zimmer wants to do on defense, which is all kinds of alignment shifts and all sorts of, you know, tricky deceptions and all this. And they can't really do that when you have, you know, rookies that are going to get confused by all of that right away. And it's not until they've been in the league for a couple of years that they can handle some of those layered complexities. And that's why, you know,

the Zimmer defense, I think needs people to kind of come along over time and they just haven't had the time to do that. So it is definitely an execution thing. I don't think they've been like the play calling has been like a problem or like they've been covering coverage shells that make sense for the down and distance and stuff. And all the play calls like make plenty of sense. It's just that the things that Zimmer typically wants to do he just doesn't have the horses to do and now Anthony Barr tore his peck and he's out for the season and he enabled some of the most interesting and

dynamic pressure packages that Mike Zimmer would always uh employ he would line up on the line of scrimmage and then back off into coverage it would screw up protections and it would make free sacks for somebody blitzing from the other side of the formation. Vikings were good for like one or two of those a game for the entire time Anthony Barr has been here. Now that he is gone, they have to be vanilla about that too. And you have to hope that guys win one-on-one. And when those guys are Shamar, Stephan, and Holton Hill, things start to fall apart really quickly. And that's what you've kind of seen in these last two games. Yeah, I mean, that makes a lot of sense. And Zimmer likes to be creative on defense. And when you lose veterans and you lose talent, it makes it difficult to do

that. The Titans dealt with that last year in the secondary. The Titans like to be creative. They like to disguise on defense, do different exotic pressures. And it's hard to do that when you have young players who you can't really rely on to do their job. And for good reason, they're still young. It makes sense. But my last question for you after we've kind of just talked about the negative side of how bad they played. My question is, if the Vikings get off the schneid here, they're able to defeat the Titans,

what will the game look like for the Vikings? Oh, that's difficult to imagine because things have been pretty bad over here. Right, I understand. I think it has a lot to do with pressure. It would probably have a lot to do with like selling out to stop play action. That's how the Vikings have lost a couple games. The Packers and 49ers kind of laid out a blueprint for how to do that.

And you basically just key on play action and hope that your guys hold up against the run. I think you'd need to see fairly surprising performances. There's probably a lot of Eric Kendricks in that game. Eric Kendricks is playing just as well as he always did. So there's probably a lot of Eric Kendricks flying all over the field, keeping Derek Henry in check. And then I think defensively for the Titans, you'd have to see like a big Adam Thielen game,

or you probably have to see like a breakout game from Ola B.C. Johnson or Justin Jefferson, who are the other kind of two wide receivers who have been involved, but relatively quiet. And you'd have to see like Justin Jefferson go beat up Christian Fulton in a battle of the rookies or something like that. I think that would be the storyline where, you know, players who haven't done much thus far suddenly kind of break out, figure it out and find a way to have more impact. Well, question just real quick. Do the Vikings have fans? Are they going to have fans in this game? No, I don't think they're going to have fans throughout the whole season. Okay. Well, I guess the general, this is a basketball adage, but role players play better

at home. So maybe being at home in Minnesota will light the fire for some of those role players and it'll be a competitive game. I'm not ready to call it a guaranteed victory for the Titans, despite what the Vikings have looked like. But we're going to talk more about that in the next part of our crossover Thursday conversation, where I get in the hot seat, and Luke throws some fiery darts in the form of questions my direction. Before we do, let me tell you about MyBookie.

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I'm Luke Braun, Locked on Vikings. This is Crossover Thursday. We're going to talk about this Titans-Vikings thing. So I need to learn about the Titans. I need to really get to know them to be able to preview this properly. And I guess there's a lot of similarities between the Titans and Vikings schematically. The Titans have their Derrick Henry, the zone runs that he does. He's super powerful and is able to kind of like have the agility you need for his own run scheme, but also run somebody over at the end of the run, which is pretty cool. And then Ryan Tannehill and Kirk Cousins have been compared quite a bit as

well, because there are guys that, you know, have really good play action fakes throw a lot of bombs and can really, you know, take over a game. Kind of like we, what we saw in week two from, from Tannehill against the Jaguars. That was an excellent game from him. But I guess my biggest question, so A.J. Brown is questionable, and he's kind of week to week with a bone bruise in his knee, I think.

And then, of course, now Corey Davis is kind of coming out of nowhere after being really, really quiet for the first parts of his career. So I guess my question is, with the problems that the Vikings have at cornerback, we're super familiar with it. We just talked about it on your show. If with the problems at cornerback, is this, I mean, is Corey Davis for real and is AJ Brown going to play? Well, I, I won. I personally, I don't think that A.J. Brown plays. I think that they would love to have him out there, but a bone bruise can be a very serious issue if it's not fully healed. And I think that with the injuries to the Vikings secondary,

and like I don't want to downplay the Vikings here because that's how you get dunked on on Twitter when the Titans lose, but the Titans should win this game based on. Right, right, it is. It's all in the game. But the Titans should win this game based on right, right. It is. It's all in the game, but the Titans should win this game based on how injured the Vikings are and how poorly they're playing right now. Not saying that the Vikings can't play better in the season, turn things around, but just right now, the way things stand, the Titans should win the game. And I do

believe that they're Vegas favorites right now because of that. So when you, when you take that into account, a big part of that is Corey Davis is playing well, and he's not playing as well as a fifth overall pick should, though. His separation is typically schemed. He doesn't do a great job of creating separation just on his own through his precise route running or his skill. He has to be schemed open. Now, when he's schemed open, he's a big physical guy, so he can make contested catches. He can run with the ball after the catch, things

like that, but he's not going to defeat a cornerback just based on the crispness of his routes, but that plays into the Titans' advantage in this game with the Vikings having a banged-up secondary, having cluster injuries at the cornerback position. So although I don't think that AJ Brown plays in this game, and although I don't think that Corey Davis is all of a sudden becoming the stud number five overall pick that we were hoping that he would be, I still think that because of the injuries to the Vikings secondary, Corey Davis should be a good player to watch, a key player for the Titans, and should be able to make plays throughout the day. Yeah. It'll be super interesting because this is deaf. I mean, he,

this is not a game with a Devante Adams in it. So hopefully the secondary can kind of find a way to, to get its feet under it. But I want to switch to the other side of the ball. Cause obviously the Vikings have had an issue with the guard position for like 900 years. And I am not very familiar with the Titans on the interior of that defense. I'm familiar enough with, you know, now you've got Clowney and then there's like Harold Landry

and kind of linebackers plugging things up. And of course that secondary is really interesting. But I'm not too familiar with the, the, the meat grinder right up there at the, in the defensive tackle position. So listen, the Vikings have two bad guards. If you're the Titans, who are you trying to, who's, who's going to take advantage of that? And who are you trying to put kind of on that easy matchup? Well, there are two different names that really stick out a third. That's kind of a mild answer. I'll start with the mild answer before we get to a medium and hot, I guess, to keep the analogy going. But Daquan Jones is the Titans. How Southern of you. Yeah, I know.

Hey, you know, got to keep it legit to the area. But Daquan Jones is the Titans' nose tackle and secondary defensive tackle. He's not really much of a pass rusher, but he does a good job in twists and stunts. Like, he does his job, and that's usually to soak up two linemen to get somebody else free so daquan's a very reliable player he's much better in the run game than the pass game but if he has an advantageous matchup like a you know a poor guard like you're talking about for

the vikings he might be able to help but the real issue for the vikings in the interior is gonna be jeffrey simmons big jeff so simmons is a name that's rising in nfl circles right now he was a in the interior is going to be Jeffrey Simmons, Big Jeff. So Simmons is a name that's rising in NFL circles right now. He was a rookie last year. He was supposed to be a top five, top ten pick based on talent coming out of Mississippi State. He tore his ACL in February. He had a video resurface of him hitting a woman when he was 17. Now there's a big backstory to that between the family. So I

don't want it to sound as bad as it does, but the reality is that's what the video was. And the ACL along with the video caused him to drop to 19 where the Titans scooped him up. He wasn't able to play in the first six games of the year last year. He showed up against the Chargers. I almost said San Diego, like always the Los Angeles Chargers. He played the rest of the season, and all of the goal line stands that people probably remember seeing the Titans do in the playoffs against New England, against Baltimore, the goal line stand to win the game against the Chargers. The Titans had some goal line stands already this year on fourth and short.

Jeffrey Simmons is always the key to all of those stops that you see. He's 6'5", He's over 250 pounds. He's a monster of a man. Think Fletcher Cox. Think Geno Atkins. Think Grady Jarrett. Think of Chris Jones. Chris Jones and Fletcher Cox are probably the best comparison.

But Jeffrey Simmons is a monster up front. He needs to get better in his pass rushing moves. But as a run defender, he just dominates the line of scrimmage, and his performance against the Denver Broncos was absolutely stellar. He just controlled the offensive line at all times. The Titans got a goal line stop against the Broncos on a tight end shovel pass on the one-yard line. It was Jeffrey Simmons who destroyed the center,

moved down the offensive line, swallowed the tight end, pushed him back, and got the Titans the ball back. So Jeffrey Simmons is going to be a nightmare for the Vikings offense if the guards perform as poorly as you're insinuating they possibly could. And then the last thing I want to mention is Jadavion Clowney. The Titans use Clowney as a movable chess piece. He doesn't just line up outside on the edge. They use him as inside linebacker and have him blitz through the A-gaps.

They move him all up and down the defensive line. So if you're saying that the Vikings guards in the interior are really struggling, the Titans coaching staff most certainly sees that as well. I would expect to see a ton of Jadavion Clowney blitzing through the A-gap against the Vikings, trying to create pressure from the interior this Sunday. That's something Vikings fans should definitely be looking for. Yeah, and it sounds like stylistically it could present a problem for the Vikings too, because the guards,

I mean, they've, they've been just like generically bad, but their style is the zone run. You know, they're a little bit smaller. They're not as powerful and they're more about agility and getting reach blocks and kind of getting,

you know, better angles and leverage and stuff by just being quick, but in past protection. And in certain situations, if you just get blown off the ball by somebody like a Jeffrey Simmons, a lot of that's, you know, a lot of that like delicate scheme stuff stops matter over. Yep. It's over. If there's penetration on a zone run, it's going to be very, very difficult. The Titans aren't having all the success in the world on the ground right now, either the run game has been a little up and down through two weeks. And a lot of it is the Jags had a very,

um, penetration, heavy defensive line, the Broncos, same thing is the Jags had a very penetration heavy defensive line the Broncos same thing Vic Fangio has a very penetration heavy defensive line so that can definitely disrupt a zone run scheme pretty easily yeah well I don't know if we're going to be able to do that because right now the Vikings defensive line is Charmin ultra soft but I guess before we move on to like picks and kind of wrap this up we should probably probably talk about the, the elephant in the room. So for those who don't listen to locked on NFL, you should listen to it. Subscribe right now.

Locked on NFL, the mothership. Exactly. And Ross Jackson of lockdown saints. And I do Tuesdays on that. And we had a segment after a week one that was like, basically who are we like, like week one overreaction

like concern stuff basically looking at the teams that lost and like oh you know is it time to hit the panic button and we talked about the Titans and I kind of I was I guess wishy-washy about it because I still like the Titans like I still have the Titans I have money on them to win the division

I still feel pretty good about that but I did have a concern that Ryan Tannehill, similarly to Kirk Cousins, I have this same criticism of Cousins, is if you get into a game situation where play action is not an option, and the Titans have not seen many of those, and it's super like not impossible

that they don't see a lot of those all season. Like you can go a season with a lot of leads and just like dominate teams and stuff and just be very good. And the Titans could achieve that. But in situations where, you know, you're chasing the game, you're down two scores, it's two minute warning and stuff. And suddenly the run fake isn't an option. The play action split between Tannehill with play action and Tannehill without play action is really, really wide. And I would get a concern that, you know, if you can get the Titans down early, you can kind of keep them from, from staging that comeback. And that's a concern. I

think it's a minor one. It doesn't make me come off of my Titans to win the South prediction, but you're not kind of wanting to a back and forth. So I guess this is your chance to dunk on me here and respond to that. Okay. Well, first off, I understand the criticism. I want to lay the foundation by saying this, that in my opinion, quarterbacks six through 22 in the NFL are relatively all the same. If they have a good supporting cast around them, they have a decent defense. They play complimentary football, which is something that every football fans heard for their entire life. I think that quarterbacks six through about 22, all can be six or 22 on any day. Vikings fans should really feel this because Kirk Cousins at times can be a top 10 quarterback with the way he plays. He's about top 40 right now. Right. Sometimes he can look like he's a bum who shouldn't even be a starter. So in my opinion, obviously Ryan Tannehill

is not one of those top guys. Lamar, Watson, Wilson, Mahomes, Rogers, he's not one of those top five guys who will carry the team if they're down two scores and can line up and shotgun and toss it all over the field. He's not that. I understand that and I admit that, but I don't have the numbers right in front of me. But in my opinion, the splits in terms of play action, non-play action from week one weren't that bad. And the reality is that the Titans rushing offense has been incredibly inefficient the last two weeks. Teams are stacking the box. They're not letting the Titans get going. They're under four yards per carry both games. So Tannehill has not had a super effective or efficient run game in the first two weeks. And he's been stellar. And even in non-play action situations like the Titans were

in plenty of times against Jacksonville, he still delivered. The Titans are finding a good rhythm with Adam Humphreys, Anthony Ferkser on the inside underneath and sitting down in zone holes so to me while I respect that opinion and you're not wrong because Tannehill is in the 6 to 22 group he can be terrible or good any day I think the the reliance on play action and the thought that he doesn't have the ability to play well outside of having the benefit of play action. I think that while that's not completely far-fetched, I don't think it's as severe or extreme as some folks like to make it sound on Twitter or such.

So that's kind of my point there. And every quarterback is better with play action besides maybe those top five. So to me, that's like saying, hey, Kirk Cousins is worse without play action. Well, pretty much every quarterback who isn't one of those studs is. So I guess I just don't think Ryan Tannehill is as bad without play action as maybe some other people seem to think that he is. Yeah. Okay. So there's a couple of things there for one. Yeah. I agree. Everybody's better with play action. That's like a kind of a well

documented fact. And the concern is that the gulf for Ryan Tannehill is bigger than most. I think it was last I checked, it was like sixth highest in the league or something like that. That's the core issue here is that without the benefit of play action, he's not quite good enough. That's the core of the discussion. Right, right. And his decline is bigger than everybody else's, and everybody does have some decline, yeah. The other thing is, and I think, and you kind you kind of said it is so teams are like stacking the box. And even though the run game hasn't been particularly productive, defenses are still keying on it. And if defenses are keying on

the run game to the, the, the end of making the run game less productive and they're stacking the box and they're biting on play action more, that is the benefit of play action. And I honestly don't think the run game needs to be productive when you've got somebody like Derek Henry, who has this ubiquitous reputation of, Oh my God, we have to stop Derek. I mean,

you ask anybody, any opponent coming to play the Titans, you ask the Vikings right now, they'll say, Oh, we're, we're super worried about Derek Henry. That is going to make those play fakes work.

And like I said, you can survive an entire season on that. This is not something that y'all, once you've done eight weeks of this, you have to figure out something else. You can survive an entire season on that. San Francisco just went to a Superbowl on that. Packers went to the NFC championship on that. It's so prevalent. It's just so prevalent that I think that it's unfair to fault Ryan Tannehill for playing complimentary football and having a compliment in the backfield that helps him out in the passing game. Basically basically I just come back to besides the top five quarterbacks that I mentioned and you could maybe count the old guard in there the the breeze the Brady but to me every single

quarterback Jared Goff Jimmy Garoppolo Kirk Cousins even Aaron Rodgers last year who didn't have his best year throwing the ball was reliant on play action and the bootlegs from the wide zone scheme I mean if you basically outside of those top five studs who can carry a team I think every single quarterback that that we could talk about from there has those same qualifiers as Ryan Tannehill and I guess what it comes down to is I don't think that he's elite in one of those guys but I do think he's in the top tier of the next tier. And I don't think that without that play action success and that run game success, that he would just be totally trash. It's like Jared Goff or anybody else. Yes, they struggle.

I just don't think that he's as bad as like they're speaking at ESPN's win rate stats. Seth Walter from ESPN said on Twitter that he thinks the Titans will cut him at the end of the year and just eat the $62 million in dead money. That's insane. Basically, I would like to say that I'm somewhere in the middle here. Ryan Tannehill is not an elite quarterback and a top-five guy who can help you when you don't have a decent system around him,

but he's also not so bad that if Derrick Henry got hurt, all of a sudden the Titans are sailing out to the ocean without a paddle and they're going to cut him at the end of the year and eat 62 million so i guess i think those takes are ridiculous and it and i find myself somewhere in the middle yeah well that part's insane and i guess to answer the question and and the point about like well it's just like the top five guys and everybody else i think this is a stylistic question right because the way that that Ryan Tannehill plays is different than the way that somebody like a Josh Allen plays. Or a Carson Wentz. Yeah. Or let's go to the total extreme, right? Nobody in their right mind is going to take Jameis Winston over Ryan Tannehill right now,

right? I think that's pretty like cut and dry. But in certain situations, there's this argument that the guy that just hucks it deep and, of closes their eyes and takes all these risks is going to be, like in very specific situations, is going to be preferable. You never take them on your team on the whole because those situations are rare. But I guess that was at the crux of what I was getting at on Locked on NFL. But let's move on to the pick. So right now, as we were recording this, the line is, uh, Titans to win minus 2.5. I think that's completely insane. I would take the Titans by a score, honestly. So if I didn't have a personal rule

against betting against the Vikings, um, I would be slamming the Titans minus 2.5 on this. That's fair. Uh, and from game, uh a gambling perspective, I don't think that that's a that's a crazy call. But I think that the Titans secondary at cornerback is really struggling right now and they won't have a Dory Jackson. Their rookie seventh round pick Chris Jackson has been getting a ton of work in the slot. He has the worst coverage grade per pro football focus of any cornerback in the entire NFL. Jonathan's super interesting because the Vikings have Adam Thielen out of the slot as much as they want. That's going to be a match.

When I do my game preview on Friday, that's the number one matchup I'm going to watch. But what the Titans started doing in the second half is taking Jackson out of there, moving Fulton into the slot, and then playing Jonathan Joseph and Malcolm Butler on the outside. So hopefully they go with that more. If Jonathan Joseph and Malcolm Butler are both healthy, they were both on the injury report. So that's something to watch for Vikings fans. The Titans could be just as banged up in the secondary,

which I think Adam Thielen is a better wide receiver than, than anyone that the Titans have right now with AJ Brown being out. Quite frankly, I think Adam Thielen is better than AJ Brown, but we won't get into that. But either way, I think that the injuries in the Titans secondary and the lack of production on their defense right now could help the Vikings score more than they have in the past few weeks.

And I personally see this as 27-21 Titans. Yeah, that makes sense, which would still hit the minus 2.5. So there's the gambling. I still think it's a good bet. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, Tyler, thank you so much for hanging out and explaining the Titans to me. Yeah, not a problem. Thank you. And speaking of a good bet, tomorrow is football Friday and I will have my game preview ready to

go for you guys. That does include one of my favorite segments, keeping it plus 100, where we talk about all of the gambling information surrounding the Minnesota Vikings game this weekend. So a little bit of a spoiler for you guys, a little bit of a teaser there as to what I might be looking at in terms of how to play the Titans line. So a lot coming up on tomorrow's show outside of just that. We are going to do my beautiful dark twisted fantasy preview, talking about what fantasy

options you will have from the Titans perspective also get into my keys to the game my players to watch and also our schematic deep dive in our second segment so a lot coming up for you guys on a football Friday but hope you enjoyed this crossover Thursday conversation with Luke from Locked On Vikings. He's absolutely one of my favorite guys to talk to on the whole network. And also, as we mentioned, tune into the Locked On NFL show that happens every single day, Monday through Friday. Get that national news that you need to go with, the Titans news that I am providing you.

Make sure that you subscribe to the Locked On Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream so you never miss any of the episodes that I'm providing you. Make sure that you subscribe to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream so you never miss any of the episodes that I'm putting out. And follow me on Twitter at TicTacTitans for additional content, my film breakdowns, and much, much more. But that is going to do it for this jam-packed crossover Thursday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.