Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Crossover Wednesday - Titans vs Saints

Episode Date: December 18, 2019

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Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I'm your host Tyler Rowland Titans fans It is crossover Wednesday and we are gonna start our preparation for the New Orleans Saints with a conversation with Ross From the Locked on Saints podcast. I know you guys enjoy our crossover event So I hope you do enjoy the conversation that me and Ross have here in our first segment before we jump into that though We are gonna talk about the Pro Bowl. Pro Bowl rosters were announced on Tuesday night, so we will talk about which Titans made it, which are alternates, and which Titans got snubbed.

So we'll do that before we jump into our conversation with Ross of the Locked On Saints podcast. So I hope you guys enjoy it. Ready to jump into everything with you. Let's get it. Your Tennessee Titans lead story. Two Tennessee Titans were selected to the AFC Pro Bowl roster when the teams were announced on Tuesday evening. Those two Titans are probably the most obvious choices. Running back Derrick Henry, who will be making his first appearance in the Pro Bowl, and punter Brett the Weapon Kern, who will be making

his third Pro Bowl appearance. Both of these guys have been in consideration for the best at their position all year. They've been consistently dominant for the Titans in both of their aspects of the game, offense and special teams. Derrick Henry so far this season has 271 carries, 1,329 yards, 13 rushing touchdowns. That's 4.9 yards per carry. That'd be a career high for him in all aspects. Going into the receiving game, he has 18 catches, 206 receiving yards, two receiving touchdowns. He's played 63% of the offensive snaps. All of that would be a career high for Derrick Henry. Previous to this season, his snap counts for his first three seasons had been in the 40s. So this is a drastic jump for him in snaps and in production.

And it's something that from a Titans perspective, you needed to see before you paid him the kind of money that he is going to command. So clearly he does have the ability to carry an offense and he has been the foundation for the Titans success for the last two seasons. On the other side, Brett Kern, his third Pro Bowl, he's had 67 total punts so far for a 47.5 yards per punt average. 3% of his punts have ended up as touchbacks. 34% of his punts have been down inside the 20-yard line, and that leads the NFL. He's been phenomenal. As I said, those are the only two Titans to make the Pro Bowl this year. However, they did have six players elected as Pro Bowl

alternates. So those players are long snapper Bo Brinkley, safety Kevin Byard, defensive lineman Jarrell Casey, cornerback Logan Ryan, guard Roger Saffold, and quarterback Ryan Tannehill. So Tannehill definitely makes sense. His limited amount of games is probably what's keeping him from that conversation. I mean, the other candidates at quarterback are the other people who made the team at quarterback were Lamar Jackson, Pat Mahomes, and Deshaun Watson. So it's hard to be upset about Tannehill not making it there. Roger Saffold, it makes sense that a Titans offensive lineman would at least be nominated,

at least be an alternate in consideration, considering how well Derrick Henry has run this season. Logan Ryan, in my opinion, should be a candidate to just make the team outright in general, but it is understandable when you see cornerbacks like Stephon Gilmore, Tredavious White, Marcus Peters, and Marlon Humphrey. I think all of those dudes have a right to say that they've been better than Logan Ryan. In a couple of games this year, Logan's had some down games, so it makes sense that those guys made it above them. Same thing with Kevin Byard tough candidates there at safety Minka Fitzpatrick who's been phenomenal for the Steelers

since the trade and Earl Thomas from the Ravens the Ravens are just loading up on Pro Bowl players obviously due to the success they've had this season that kind of comes along with that Kevin Byard so I think he's going to get in eventually, though, with a couple of those teams that are in there. I think one of those will probably have a chance to make the playoffs. Jamal Adams was the strong safety who made it for the AFC, and he's been great as well. Bo Brinkley, unless the long snapper makes the Super Bowl, then Bo is probably not going to get an opportunity.

But nice to see him recognized. He's been on the team for so long and handling his business for so long. It's just nice to see him get any recognition. I'm sure he's happy about that. I don't see, I want to mention this. I don't see how Jarrell Casey is a candidate here. The interior linemen that made it were Cameron Hayward of the Steelers, Chris Jones of the Kansas City Chiefs, and Geno Atkins of the Bengals. I just don't understand how he's, and I love Jarrell Casey. He's been phenomenal, been the best player on this team for plenty of years in some of the dark ages, but now he just hasn't had the productive season

that you would have hoped for, and Harold Landry's been the best Titans player on the defensive line. I know he's technically an outside linebacker, but he could have made it in as a defensive end with how much he plays on the edge,. I know he's technically an outside linebacker, but he could have made it in as a defensive end with how much he plays on the edge, especially in sub situations. So I was curious to see that. Hopefully the Titans don't have to send anyone

to the Pro Bowl because they are in the Super Bowl themselves. But that is something we will have to wait and see on and the Titans will need some help. That is going to do it for our first segment though. We are going to jump into our conversation with Ross from the Locked On Saints podcast for Crossover Wednesday. Before we do, I want to remind you that if you are looking for a last-minute fun sports

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I'm doing well, man. I'm really, really glad to be here with you. Very excited about this Titans team. Very excited about this game. And of course, very excited about the Saints. So this is a really, really, really fun one for me, man. Looking forward to it. Yeah, the Saints are a fantastic team.

And being on the NFC, they're one of my favorite teams to watch since they typically don't have anything to do with the Titans. For all our Saints listeners, my name is Tyler Rowland, host of the Locked on Titans podcast. I appreciate you guys checking out our conversation today. Well, I will jump in. Let's start with Monday night. You know, what a game. Drew Brees breaks the all-time touchdown record,

breaks Peyton Manning's record, beats the Colts, which actually has become super important for the Titans that the Colts lose games. So just your initial thoughts on how legendary Drew Brees has been, what he's meant to the Saints organization, and then what he's meant to this season dealing with the injury he came back from. Yeah, man, absolutely. I think one of the things that we can really take away from all of this

is that particularly with this performance, as well as last week's performance against the San Francisco 49ers, Drew Brees has really shown that that thumb injury has recovered. And one of the things that's really, really great about this is around, this is about the time last season where we kind of started to see Drew Brees maybe trail off a little bit. The arm strength was kind of dwindling. The offense was struggling a little bit. Interior pressure was a big issue for him. And now all of a sudden we're seeing him start to hit his stride here, weeks 14, weeks 15, with five games earlier in the season that he didn't play, including you could

essentially say a sixth game because he only played a series and maybe a couple of plays of the Rams game week two. So he's been on rest for about six weeks this year. And then now all of a sudden he's starting to turn it on this season when we saw it all start to kind of taper off a little bit last year. So that's one of the big takeaways. The other thing is that it's just, it's an incredible thing to acknowledge and to be able to understand what we're seeing here in New Orleans in terms of what Drew Brees is doing,

the records that he's setting, the way that he's playing and the way that he leads this team. I mean, just in terms of, you talked about him in terms of as a legendary status player, he really has become that for the city of New Orleans,

for all of really the Gulf Coast and a lot of fans all over the world who consider themselves a part of the Houdat Nation. And so it's very exciting to see that, but it's really, really important to see it all happening at this point in the year. Yeah. Yeah. I definitely agree. I agree with your assessment last year. It seemed like maybe he got a little tired, his arm got tired and maybe that break will help him kind of push through. The Saints are one of those teams that, like I said, I enjoy watching. I root for them on the other side. I'd love to see them in another Super Bowl

and see Drew Brees have the opportunity to put another Super Bowl in his mantle there and help his conversation as one of the best quarterbacks of all time. But moving forward past that into the Saints offense, just this season in general, a juggernaut of sorts, top 10 in yards, passing yards, points per game, 16th in rushing yards per game, but with how effective Kamara is out of the backfield catching the ball, that's not as important as you would think it would be.

So apart from the stars that we know, Breeze, Thomas, Kamara, who has been helping this offense be so efficient and be so effective? Well, let me first make sort of acknowledge the offensive line here because they've been a huge part of it, of course. And you expect that from the good teams in the NFL. And the thing about this offensive line is that you've seen them operating now without their starter at left guard, And pete so nick easton is in there uh he's been playing really well at left guard this is a team that's had to play without now pro bowler taran armstead who uh you know they've had to play without him a couple of times he's a guy that tends to miss a few games every season with some type of injury and then we saw larry warford the right guard go down in the last game against the

colts as well on monday night no status or update on him yet, but we should get that on Wednesday later on. And so you look at the offensive line and really that's been a big part of that, what you've been able to see so far. It's been a big part of the run game. You look back to Latavius Murray having two straight 100-yard performances. Now I know that Titans fans and the Titans are not at all strangers to their running backs having 100-yard performances, but they've come few and far between for the Saints because of the way that they utilize both Alvin Kamara and Latavius Murray. So I want to give credit to that. But also, look, Drew Brees hasn't been sacked three games in a row now, and it's shown as

something that's been very beneficial for this team with the way that they're putting up points. So I would say the offensive line. And then I'd also mention, I'd mention over on the special team side, because that ends up being the hidden yardage game that helps the offense. Deontay Harris, also a pro bowler, named as a pro bowler on Tuesday.

He's somebody that has been excellent in that hidden yardage area in terms of setting up good field position, plus field position for the offense to be able to take advantage of that so they never feel like their back is up, you know, their backs are up against the wall and their play selection is limited. They've been able to have some breathing room

so that they can continue to be creative with Sean Payton, Taysom Hill, somebody else to lead in there, four touchdown, five touchdown passes from actually now. He got his fifth yesterday. So, you know, there are a couple of people out there that have been really big for the Saints outside of those big name guys to keep an eye on. Yeah. I mean, obviously when you have an offense that is successful, the way the saints offense is, it's going to be more than just the stars. So that's definitely something I like asking.

Speaking of the offensive line, I like that you shouted them out first. The big guys never get enough credit. We just saw the Titans offensive line, even though Derek Henry is a leading rusher, not really get a lot of consideration for the pro bowl. And it's like, how can all the offensive linemen be so bad if the guy is at almost tops in

the league in rushing? So I appreciate that as a former offensive lineman as well. You've given them that credit. The question I have for you is with the offensive line only given up 21 sacks on the year, they've been incredibly effective. How efficient the offense is, as we mentioned, they're a 43% conversion rate on third down 55% in the red zone. That's top half in the league in both of those.

What can teams do or what have teams done to try to slow this juggernaut of an offense down? A big part that I would mention in there would be actually, I know I just talked about the offensive line, but a lot of the things that the opposite, you know, that the opposing teams will tend to do to try to limit the Saints is interior pressure in particular. Interior pressure is something that has given the Saints, you know, nightmares before. And the offensive line has done a really good job at guarding against that. But when there are teams that are successful and that are able to make that happen or able to produce that type of pressure, that does make a big difference. So if you can beat the Saints offensive line, you can disrupt the way that the offense works. The other part of it is just taking advantage of mistakes and forcing the Saints to sort of be in their heads a little bit.

And this can happen pretty, I don't want to say easily, but it happens more away from home than it does at home, of course. But things like we've seen the Saints many, many times shoot themselves in the foot with penalties, driving themselves back. And so the mental aspect of the game, which I know sounds a little ethereal, but it's certainly something that is manageable and something you can hope to take control over in your home stadium, which is what this will be for the Titans and Titans fans. That is another way to sort of take advantage of what the Saints want to do on offense and sort of turn it on their head there because you end up making them beat themselves just as much as you are trying to beat them, if that makes sense. Yeah, no, it definitely makes sense. And as you said, Titans fans would be familiar with a running back going over 100 yards.

Titans fans would also be familiar with the only way the team can lose is to beat themselves. So that's something that the Titans struggle with. And we see it last week with the Texans. I don't know how much of the game you caught, but a huge play at the goal line that, you know, the Titans kind of beat themselves with a mental mistake out there. So I understand that completely. Now, my, my question for you moving towards the defense is because the offense is going to be a struggle. And like you said, the only real way to beat them is have them kind of beat themselves.

But the defense, dealing with injuries, Marcus Davenport, Sheldon Rankins on the defensive line, going down on IR. The defense has been incredible, though, for the most part, and produced 44 sacks on the season, which is fourth best in the NFL. But losing those two guys, how has that affected the defense? And how do you think that might affect the way that they play against the Titans? Well, it's funny, really. I mean, you saw it really negatively affect the team in the middle of the San Francisco game, right? 162 Russian yards given up in that game. But then they bounce back against one of the better offensive linemen. I'm

sorry, one of the best offensive lines in the league against the Indianapolis Colts. And then they allow 1.7 yards per carry to Marlon Mack, who maybe isn't the greatest running back in the league against the Indianapolis Colts. And then they allow 1.7 yards per carry to Marlon Mack, who maybe isn't the greatest running back in the world, but he's certainly a very effective running back. And we've seen him be that several times. And so they did a really good job, even despite having some of those big guys missing, as you named Marcus Davenport and Sheldon Rankins.

They were still very effective in the run game. They were also very effective in the pass rush. They didn't break out a lot of sacks. They only had one sack in that game that was shared between A.J. Klein and Trey Hendrickson, but they still put eight hits down total on Jacoby Brissett, and that can affect a quarterback. It's not always about the sacks that you get. If you think about a good sack day, you're probably talking about maybe four or five

sacks, unless you play a game like, was it the Titans not too long ago that had 10 sacks in a game? We gave up 10 sacks in a game uh we gave up 10 it was it was a i believe it was 11 to the ravens but we gave up nine to the jaguars in week three as well so we know a little bit about uh giving up tons of sacks well we've seen that happen with the saints as well the saints gave up five or six against the falcons uh in their first matchup and they got nine against the falcons on their second matchup on thanksgiving day so unless you're talking about a big game like that,

you're really talking about maybe four or five sacks is a good day. And to put that in perspective, that's four or five plays out of 60 to 65, maybe for an offense or for a defense. And so with that being the case, it's kind of a small sample size. The rest of it is the consistency of getting pressure on the quarterback and finding other ways to affect their play and the saints with even without Davenport and Rankins have still found a way

to do that at least over these last couple of games. No, I agree a hundred percent with your, with your theory there. I tend to, when I talk, I do a lot of analytics on Thursdays on my show. We always talk about pressure rates, blitz percentage, quarterback hits, knockdowns, things like that, because you're right. If you just look at sacks, it's not going to really give you a story of the impact of the pass rush. That's not really what it's all about. So I agree a hundred percent. Well, that is the questions that I have for you in regards to the Saints. We are going to come back in our last segment here, and we are going to have Ross ask me some questions about the Titans so I hope you guys join us there before we jump into the second part of our conversation here

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All right, y'all. Welcome back to this episode of crossover Wednesday. You got locked on saints, like the locked on Titans here. I got a couple of questions over here from me to you on the Titan side today. Just as a reminder, everybody, it's Ross Jackson here for Locked on Saints at Ross Jackson ASC on Twitter. And then I'm happily, happily joined here with Tyler of the Locked on Titans podcast. So, Tyler, a couple of questions for you, man. We were just talking about the offensive line for the Saints. So let's start off with the defense over for the Titans.

When it comes to the pass rush, there's a guy on that defensive line that I absolutely loved coming out of the draft. Harold Landry had a little bit of a wild rookie season because of the injury and everything, but has really come back. He had five pressures just in this last game against Houston, 11 total pressures for the team. How are you feeling about what the Titans' pass rush can do against the Saints' offensive line?

Well, I have to be honest with you. I don't feel great about it. And I appreciate you shouting out Harold Landry here. He's been fantastic this year for the most part. He's had a little bit of spells of inconsistency in certain games against certain teams. But for the most part, he's been fantastic. Nine sacks on the year. So he's been our most consistent force in the pass rush,

but unfortunately, that's where the Titans team and roster really lacks, and that's edge rushers getting consistent pressure up the middle. Jarrell Casey's been a stud for multiple years, but he's starting to get in his older age and becoming less effective. Jeffrey Simmons is a really effective rookie, but coming off of an ACL tear and not having a full training camp in the beginning of the season, they limit his snaps to about 50% of the snaps per game. So the Titans don't have now with Cam Wake being on IR

and them rotating a bunch of low-end roster guys or practice squad call-ups, rotating those guys at the other edge rusher position. So that's somewhere where the Titans really lack, and that's my main concern, is will the Titans be able to get pressure on Breeze so that he's not able to pick apart a secondary that's really banged up right now. So that's a very good question,

and I actually think that the Titans won't be able to do that unless they go to their typical scheme, which is blitzing cornerbacks, blitzing safeties, blitzing linebackers. That's what you see from the Titans quite often because they can't get pressure with their front four, which is something that's really vital in the NFL, quite frankly. Absolutely. And look, I mean, blitzing Drew Brees is a risk, but sometimes it pays off. The risk versus reward is there. One of the big differences that you'll see from Drew Brees is that if the middle of the field is closed the blitz tends to work a little bit better but

the middle of the field is open so if you're playing a cover four or a cover two it looks much different for drew breeze who really does have the opportunity there to pick apart a defense especially if you're sending a linebacker in a cover two look or anything like that or a cover unfortunately the titans because they have tremaine brock who they got off waivers leshawn sims who's their fourth cornerback finally came back after missing a few games with injury but they also have practice squad guys like ty smith kareem or they just signed back to the roster so um they've been running you know when you have new guys who don't know the scheme you're gonna run man because you've been playing man since you were you know in the back in the schooly going to run man because you've been playing man since you were in the schoolyard

when you were five. You've been playing man coverage. They've been playing a lot of man, and that really exposed them in the fourth quarter against the Texans. DeAndre Hopkins ate them alive in the fourth quarter. It makes me nervous as to what their plan will be for Michael Thomas. He's been even more consistent and better than DeAndre Hopkins this year. Going man and trying to stay in man all day and blitz linebackers and safeties to

rush five, that's not going to work against the Saints team. So I'm curious to see what the Titans plan will be. I think they will need to play more zone. But the problem with that is if you give Drew Brees a chance to survey the zone and know where everyone's at, he's going to pick you apart too. So how Dean Pease decides to come out in the first half and his defensive game plan, which hasn't really been solid the last few weeks, will tell us a lot about how the game will go.

So obviously Saints and Titans fans be really looking for how the Titans play defense in that first series because that will tell you a lot about what they're trying to do on the day. Yeah, absolutely. And that pretty much answered my next question about what the Titans plan was with Michael Thomas. Unless you have anything else to add about the Michael Thomas conundrum that every defense has to deal with, I'd like to move on to ask you about one of the guys that Saints fans are really excited to see him sort of have a bounce back game and Saints fans have

been waiting for it for quite some time. How do you feel about linebackers matching up with Alvin Kamara if Alvin Kamara can get back to his 2017-2018 ways well the closest person that I could compare Alvin Kamara to would be Christian McCaffrey and the Titans struggled with him and I think it was because they were trying to get too cute with different coverages and miscommunications happen um so I think that the Titans are actually in a decent spot when it comes to that uh Logan Ryan I would expect to get matched up on Alvin Kamara quite a bit coming out of the backfield. I think you've got to put a cornerback on Kamara out of the backfield,

as you've seen people do to James White with the Patriots. That's been pretty effective. I think the Titans should copy that against the Saints. So Jayon Brown, in my opinion, is one of the most underrated linebackers in the NFL. He is undersized, but he's been phenomenal for the Titans. He's really fast. He's a great pass coverage linebacker.

So if you can get a combination of Logan Ryan and Jayon Brown switching things up to stay on Kamara, I think they have a pretty good shot of limiting Kamara. It's Thomas and some of the other weapons that worry me the most because the Titans are hurting outside. I think Jayon Brown and Logan Ryan and maybe Kenny Vaccaro at safety, those three together can try to limit Kamara's best. I guess there's a better chance of that than there is of Michael Thomas being limited. We're talking about two of the best players in the NFL.

It's all about just trying to take away as much as you can at that moment in time. But that's a place linebackers covering Kamara out of the backfield or who may cover Kamara, where I think the Titans actually have more of an advantage than they do elsewhere. That's good. So going along with that same thing, when you look at that, and you know, we talked about Alvin Kamara, Michael Thomas, how do you limit them? But also Saints have a new big addition. It's a big tight end number 87, Jared Cook. What do the Titans do in terms of trying to limit these three guys as much as they can? Yeah, absolutely. I think in that situation, what you're going to need to do is you're going to try to play like some complex zones where you have some man coverage included. I think that has to be the key. The Titans will have to go and dime packages. I don't really think the Titans are

going to fear the Saints, you know, running attack. The Titans do pretty well against the run game. So I think what the Titans should do is go into a lot of dime personnel where you're only going to have three linemen out on the field, two linebackers, have six defensive backs out there, and try to play zone and maybe try to have an underneath slot like Logan Ryan man up on Michael Thomas with the rest of the defensive shell playing zone I think you know quarters cover two cover three mixing all of those together to

try your best to confuse Drew Brees and just not give away what the coverage is pre-snap just try to mix in a bunch of different coverages with man as well the Titans haven't mixed up a lot of coverages half to half they've been like solely doing man in the second half against the Texans. They went man against the Raiders in first half and then eventually switched to zone. So I hope the Titans switch up the coverages a lot more often against the Saints, and I know they have a lot of new guys playing at corner, and that may be difficult to get them on the same page,

but that's what they have to try to do. So that's what I would expect them to do to try to take away Cook in the middle because then you can have your linebackers like Rashawn Evans, Jayon Brown, safety Kenny Vaccaro taking care of the middle zones, and then Logan Ryan maybe manned up on Michael Thomas to have the rest of the five defensive backs play in a zone. That might be your best chance, but that's a tough riddle to crack, quite frankly,

and most NFL defensive coordinators haven't been able to do it as the Saints are 10-3. Yeah, absolutely. It's a tough, tough thing for them to bring up to any defense at all. And, of course, Saints fans and the Saints are very familiar with Kenny Vaccaro. Everybody's very, very – there's a hot fandom for him because no one wanted him out of New Orleans. So glad to

see him finding success. Had an interception last week against Houston that looked really beautiful. Just a great play on the ball there and something that we've missed with him. But certainly hopping over to the Titans offense. Look, I mentioned that and we seem to both have a lot of respect for each other's teams here. And certainly the Titans have been a fan. I've been a fan of the Titans for quite some time. Actually, first non-Saints jersey was a Derek Mason jersey. So big fan of the wide receivers back then. And of course, Javon Kirst.

But there's a new wide receiver or new couple of wide receivers out there for Tennessee that's playing very, very well. And rookie A.J AJ Brown sits atop that list for me. What can you say a little bit about what AJ Brown does well and what is it that has made him or is really just sort of credited or what is it that you can credit to his big resurgence at the top of the season or the top of his career rather? Yeah, absolutely. It's funny that you bring up AJ Brown. I actually do a-driven breakdown, my Tic Tac Tuesday segment, where we break down the X's and O's every Tuesday on my show.

And I also put up a thread on Twitter to kind of marry my audio breakdown with the visuals there. And A.J. Brown was my focus this week. He's had 47 catches on the year, 893 yards, seven touchdowns. All of that leads the Titans. As a rookie, it's been incredible to watch his development happen so quickly. So one of the things I focused on is his hands are monstrous. He is a huge physical guy.

So at the beginning of the year, he was just good after the catch. We would run him short intermediate routes, get the ball in his hands, let him run. He's kind of like the, the comparison that you see a lot now, Eddie George actually said it today. I've made it in the past as Terrell Owens. He's so physical with the ball in his hands afterwards that that's how we were utilizing him early in the season. He's developed throughout the season. It's something I showcased on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans that his route running, he had a couple of plays against Bradley Roby, some out routes where he had Bradley Roby on the ground because he broke so quickly to the outside, his strength,

his physicality, also his mental awareness. He just does a lot of things where he's very aware of the goal line, the sideline, where his body needs to be, his body control. And then overall, his just athleticism, his speed, his agility, his quickness. He's kind of putting everything together right now. And the last four weeks he's been dominant, averaging over 100 yards, averaging a touchdown catch per game, having over four catches each game.

He's just been great as he's developed later in the season. So seeing his impact on the offense and what it kind of allows the Titans to do has been a big part of how this offense took off in the middle of the season, along with Tannehill coming in. But, you know, a lot of it had to do with not just Tannehill. Like I said, it's A.J. Brown's development as a as a total package at wide receiver and not just an underneath yards after catch specialist. I highly recommend for the Saints fans listening to go and check out Tyler's episode from, from Tuesday,

the Tic Tac Tuesday episode. I listened to it earlier today. Incredible breakdown, man. Great, great work there. And then check out also, of course,

of course, at the minimum, just check out, you know, the Twitter account at Tic Tac Titans. If you want to see a little more about what AJ Brown does and, you know, Saints fans will obviously have to stop him this week.

So it might be something you're interested in checking out as well. Yeah. Very, very, very good stuff over there. What would you say, you know, Marshawn Lattimore is the corner that's probably going to be with him and Marshawn can play a little bit of that speed corner roles where, you know, he's going to essentially just try to keep up with whoever he's lined up across, but he can also be very physical as well. So you can play a little bit of that sort of physical and finesse role. Is it going to take a little bit of both or does it take a little bit of more, more of one than the other?

You know, what's crazy is I think that the, the biggest aspect that will help Marshawn Lattimore going against AJ Brown is his intelligence, his football IQ. AJ Brown has developed quite a bit as a receiver, but where he's lacking most at this moment in time is still his route running. He doesn't have a complete route tree and he's still developing there. Seeing those developments, like I mentioned, are great, but he's no Adam Thielen or Michael Thomas out there

with his route running at this moment in time. He still relies heavily on his athleticism and physicality as a player. So if you're Michael, or I'm sorry, if you're Marshawn Lattimore, what your plan is going to be is probably to try to mentally beat A.J. Brown, know what routes are coming through film study, because I think if Marshawn Lattimore is so quick twitch that he can athletically hang with A.J. Brown, so if you mentally can beat A.J. Brown, kind of figure out his routes,

what he likes to run, how he tips his routes, things like that, I think Marshawn Lattimore can beat him to the spot, because what you don't want is A.J. Brown with the ball out his routes, what he likes to run, how he tips his routes, things like that. I think Marshawn Lattimore can beat him to the spot because what you don't want is A.J. Brown with the ball in his hands because once the ball is in his hands, he's going to be a nightmare for any defense running down the field. So I think it's important for Marshawn Lattimore to use his football intelligence, which has shown time and time again, cornerbacks aren't just good because they're physical and athletic. They have to be incredibly smart to play cornerback in the NFL. So I think if Marshawn Lattimore does enough film study, can figure out the routes that A.J. Brown likes

and the formations that the Titans run those certain routes out of, he can beat A.J. Brown to the spot on a couple footballs, which will give him opportunities to make turnovers, but primarily just make sure that he doesn't allow A.J. Brown to get the ball in his hands and get momentum. Yeah, absolutely. All right, last question for you. We talked a little bit about his weapons already. Ryan Tannehill, I guess, second to last question, Ryan Tannehill. How do you feel when you look at Ryan Tannehill when it comes to him performing with no pressure versus

under pressure? You look at his PFF grades, 95.2 with no pressure, which is fantastic. 55.3 though under pressure. How do you feel in terms of the offensive line keeping ryan tannahill clean against a guy like cam jordan and some of the other running mates that he's got with him there well quite frank frankly i don't feel great about it uh the titans have given up 51 sacks on the season that's you know top three in the nfl and sacks allowed and why I should say bottom three because saying top anything when we're talking about sacks doesn't feel right I mean I can't feel the Titans offensive line has been improved in in recent weeks even given up

zero sacks against the Raiders so you like to see that but against more talented defensive lines and, and pass rushing units this year, the Titans have just been eaten alive, especially if you have interior pressure. So what I would do if I'm the saints, I would try to find a way to get cam Jordan matched up one-on-one on rookie right guard, Nate Davis. He's been exposed quite a bit with guys who can turn speed into power. They can bull rush him and then use a speed move to get right around him with the space they've created and cam jordan if you've

ever watched his film breakdowns on like baldy's breakdown on the nfl youtube channel and things like that that guy is going to be a stud in the media when he's done playing football he's so intelligent and it's it's not just being smart the ability to communicate his pass rush moves and his step-by-step breakdown and his internal monologue of what he's doing on these pass rush moves and his counters. It is just amazing to watch. I love watching him break down film. So I hope he goes into the media when he's done.

But if you can find a way to get a technician and a savvy vet like that matched up against a rookie right guard who is better in run blocking than he is pass blocking at this moment in time, because he's kind of got a squatty butt to say. It sounds funny, but he's very heavy in the back end and it gives him balance issues, quite frankly, in pass protection. So if you can get somebody like Cam Jordan to get him off balance with a bull rush and then use a speed move inside or outside to get to the quarterback, I think it's going to give the Titans offensive line a ton of problems. And what they'll need to do the Titans offensive line a ton of problems. And what they'll need to do is they'll need to use heavy packages

and kind of move Tannehill within the pocket with bootlegs as they typically do to get him away from that pass rush. If it's just set up Titans O-line versus Saints pass rush, I don't care how banged up they are. The Saints are going to get in there. So they're going to have to do a couple of different things to try to eliminate that threat. That's fantastic insight.

Thank you very much for that. And the Saints do a really good job at moving those guys around on the defensive line. So not at all. Yeah, not at all out of the ordinary to see Cam Jordan line up on the interior, running a little bit low on time, but really quickly, just a couple of words in terms of how you're feeling with Derek Henry. I know he was on the injury report for a little while, didn't go for over 100 yards this week. So everybody's kind of worried about him. But how do you feel about him coming into this week against

the Saints? Well, the Titans got down 14 to nothing. So it's game flow wise. It makes sense. But Henry still got 21 carries. And there were a few situations where I thought he should have gotten more. But the injury, the injury really did impact how plays were called what personnel packages were used at certain times so it's pretty obvious that he's banged up pretty bad um i think that's fair to say i mean the titans ran a toss sweep to their tight end right now it was 57 yards smith johnny smith yeah yeah john johnny smith johnny smith he's been great so watch out for him if if um if, um, you're, you know, you're looking for some daily cheap daily fantasy options. He's been pretty solid.

He's an underrated tight end, but when you're running a pitch sweep to your tight end, it tells you two things. One, you're starting running back is hurt and you're trying anything you can to possibly give him a little bit of a breather. And two, your running back room sucks. I mean, if you have to go, if you have a backup running back in Deion Lewis who literally can't run that type of play because he's not physical enough and you have nobody else to give the ball to, I mean, that is a problem. We talked about the Titans' lack of edge rushers and that being a roster hole. Roster hole number two is running back.

So probably why Todd McShay mocked DeAndre Swift to the Titans today. But moving forward, yeah, I am really worried about Derrick Henry's injury. His hamstring is clearly a problem. And there is a scenario that if the Texans beat the Buccaneers on Saturday night, there is a scenario there where the Saints game really doesn't matter to the Titans at all. Really, the outcome of it doesn't matter. It's a complicated playoff scenario to explain. I'm not going to bore Saints fans with the Titans playoff paths.

But basically, there's a way that the Saints game, the Titans will know when the game kicks off that the Saints game doesn't matter. So look to see Derrick Henry. If the Saints for some reason get up early, they'll probably limit him in the second half and just kind of chalk it up as a loss and try to get him right for week 17 in the biggest matchup against the Texans.

But if the Titans are able to get up early and Derrick Henry can kind of have some success early, then I would be concerned because later in the game he wears on people. And if the Saints were to get down after that big emotional win on Monday night with less rest than normal, playing a road game against a hungry team who really, really needs it. I could see them getting in trouble and not wanting to tackle Derek Henry by the second half. So like I said when we were talking Titans defense, it really depends on how the Titans play defense in that first quarter,

how the rest of the game will go. But if the Saints get up early, the Titans might just rest Derek Henry and Saints fans will have the biggest threat possible not to worry about. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Saints have been doing a good job here over recent weeks, scoring in their opening possessions to look to continue that and start to set a tone early in this game. Tyler. Yeah, absolutely. Tyler. Great, great, great doing this with you, man. Thanks so much for taking the time. Yeah, it's been a pleasure, Ross. And if you would like, I mentioned my Twitter account a few times. If you want to plug any of your social medias for the podcast or yourself, feel free.

Oh, yeah, absolutely, man. I appreciate that. Titans fans, if you're interested, you can follow me over on Twitter at RossJacksonASC. And of course, you can check out the AllSaintsConsidered.com website as well. Get everything you need to know about your upcoming opponent here in Week 16. It should be a fun game here. I'm very much looking forward to it. Yes, me too, me too. It's been a pleasure talking to you. I love these crossover Wednesday events

and good luck to the Saints in the playoffs. Like I said, I wouldn't mind seeing them in a Super Bowl. Absolutely, man. And good luck getting to the playoffs. I hope that it works out, man, because I'd love to see the Titans back there. Yeah, maybe we'll be able to do this podcast again in February. That would be fantastic. I know, right? I know. Well, take care, Ross. I appreciate it absolutely buddy you too hope you guys enjoyed that conversation between me and ross from the locked on saints podcast very knowledgeable guy does a great job with his show over there i know you guys always enjoyed these i really enjoyed that one as well and like i said hopefully

me and ross can do this podcast again in February. Fingers crossed, Titans fans. Well, we are going to continue our preparation for the New Orleans Saints tomorrow on Thursday's show. So I will be back with you then. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans. Thank you.