Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Depth Chart Review and Tic Tac Tuesday

Episode Date: September 4, 2019

We breakdown all the news swirling around the Taywan Taylor trade, review the Depth Chart and step in the film room for Tic Tac Titans Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Rowland. Thanks for kicking it with me. We are almost to Sunday, Titans fans. We're getting closer by the minute. I do want to remind you that I am going to have a show for you every weekday covering the news and notes out of Nashville. I'm also going to be taking a deep dive every week into the game film

and giving you all the X's and O's behind what the Titans are doing out on the field this year. Please follow me on Twitter at TicTacTitans. Please follow the show at LockedOnTitans. Also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you stream your podcast. Today, we're going to take a look at some of the hot topics, like I said, some of the news, some of the roster moves that came out after yesterday's show. In our second segment, after a little bit of a break,

we're going to go over the depth chart that has unofficially came out. And then in our final segment, we're going to jump into the film room, and I'm going to go over something that I saw schematically during the preseason that I thought was very interesting in our first installment of Tic Tac Titans. Before we do that, I do want to let you know that the show is sponsored by Mack Weldon. Mack Weldon is a premium men's essentials brand that believes in smart design and premium fabrics. Mack Weldon is better than whatever you're wearing right now. I can guarantee that. Promo code LOCKEDON gets you 20% off at MackWeldon.com. Once again, that's

promo code LOCKEDON at MackWeldon.com. Let's get it. Welcome back, Titans fans. As I said, we will go ahead and take a look at some of the roster moves that have taken place since yesterday's show. I literally said on the show yesterday at the end that there were probably moves that happened between when I finished recording and when the show got published. And, of course, that's exactly what happened.

Josh Kalou has been placed on IR. The flip side of that is the Titans have signed Chris Milton after he cleared waivers. He was on the Colts, so we're going to bring him over. He is a defensive back like Josh Kalou. He provides a little bit of versatility in the back end, can play a little corner can play a little safety honestly i wouldn't expect him to do much other than maybe contribute on special teams

if necessary also over the weekend ben jones did receive an extension jones is solid i would say he's an average nfl starter he does have the ability to play guard, obviously starts at center, so the versatility adds to his value as well. He's been a constant in the locker room, really the type of guy the Titans are looking for, the type of mentality the Titans are looking for, so not surprised to see him get a really economical extension. It's about $13.5 million for the next two years, so pretty solid move for John Robinson there, just keeping the core of the offensive line intact. Now I think eventually we will need a talent upgrade at either right guard or center,

and Ben Jones will either stay at center or kick over to the guard spot if the talented young asset we bring in is a center. But for now, I think having a pretty solid average starting center is a good move to lock him up on an economical deal. Moving forward, Dennis Kelly did not practice yesterday. Mike Vrabel said in his press conference explicitly that it's something that should not be worried about. If the head coach of the team, Mike Vrabel, who is not very open about injuries in the first place, is telling us not to worry, then I would advise all of y'all to not worry either. Can't do it. Now, our next topic

is going to be something I like to call Roland's Rants. I'm going to talk a little bit about Taiwan Trader. I mean, Taiwan Taylor. Sorry about that. So we'll get into that in just a second. Rollins rants. Okay, guys, I have to take a second and just talk about all the news surrounding Tywon Taylor going to the Browns. We're seeing the quotes. It's a dream come true. Rashard Matthews is commenting on his Instagram about how the Titans will regret it. He's telling the Browns coaches all of our playbook secrets and what our scheme is. Okay,

this guy not only couldn't catch the ball, but struggled with remembering his own routes and his own playbook. So he's going to turn around and be able to tell the Browns coaches what our defense is doing. It just seems hysterical. It's comical, quite frankly. This guy, like I said, not only struggled with catching the ball, which is something that doesn't have to do with the playbook. It's just a fundamental skill of a wide receiver. it's just a fundamental skill of a wide receiver he's telling us that he was so immersed in our playbook offensively that he's going to be able to tell them what everyone else is going to be doing what our scheme is our our plan what our play script is going to be it's pretty funny and one thing i'm going to use to to point this deficiency. Remember, these quotes are about a guy who's going

to inform our opponent what we're doing schematically. From Rob Moore, Titans wide receiver coach, talking about trading Tyjuan Taylor and what he told him after he was traded. He said he needed to, quote, find a way to get more immersed in the playbook and know what he's doing so he can play at a high level, play fast, end quote. Here's another quote from Rob Moore. Wherever he goes, he needs to understand the offense and how to best help his football team, end quote. We know from experience that NFL coaches are not going to come out and bury players. It doesn't look good. It doesn't make players going to come out and bury players. It doesn't look good. It doesn't make players want to come play for that coach. They're not going to come out and

absolutely trash a guy. But what other way could Rob Moore say that this guy didn't understand the playbook? That this guy didn't spend time studying what he's supposed to do? Be immersed in the playbook. Know what he's doing. Understand the offense. I mean, his previous position coach is blatantly telling us that he didn't spend enough time studying and that he didn't know what he was doing out on the field. Now that makes sense with some of the drop issues that we saw him have. If you're unconfident about what you're doing out on the field, how can you do something fundamental like catch the ball? You're so worried about what you need to do because you

haven't been studying enough that now you can't focus on the fundamentals of catching the ball. It kind of all makes sense now, seeing those quotes. So it's just something that's been in the news. And I know after last year and the debacle in Miami that we worry about previous players going to our opponents and giving them secrets but I just don't think this is something that we should be concerned about if the guy didn't know his own position and what he was supposed to do based on the quotes coming from his direct position coach, then how in the world are we supposed to be worried about him knowing enough about the rest of the offense to tell our opponent some sort of key information

to give them an advantage? It just doesn't make sense, and quite frankly, it's unprofessional and laughable that that's the route that Tywon Taylor chose to take after the trade. All right, well, that's all the news and notes that we have for today. In our second segment, we're going to take a look at the depth chart. Before we do that, though, I do want to remind you that you can get all your daily fantasy needs filled at DraftKings.com now.

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So go to mackweldon.com, M-A-C-K-W-E-L-D-O-N.com and enter promo code locked on for 20% off your first order. That's promo code locked on for 20% off your first order at Mac Weldon.com today. Let's go ahead and take a look at the depth chart so we are going to start with the offense we'll start with the wide receiver group as i said during the roster cut episode yesterday only one surprise and that was the addition of khalif raymond over taiwan taylor but we've covered that so let's go with the first team wide receivers cory davis adam humphries in the slot tajay sharp on the other side their backups cory davis backup darius jennings khalif raymond will back up in the slot and a.j brown will back back up Tajay Sharp. I do expect sometime during the season, hopefully sooner rather than later,

that A.J. Brown is able to supplant Tajay Sharp in the starting lineup. Tajay's an older player. He's been reliable for us when he's been on the field. But A.J. Brown, in my opinion, is just a more talented prospect, so I'd like to see him beat out Tajay at some point in time during the season. We will go to the tight ends. Delaney Walker, no surprise there. Glad to have him back. Hopefully he can have a productive and healthy season. Jonu Smith has showed to be a really nice complimentary tight end in the passing game. Mecole Pruitt, who will serve more as a blocking tight end and a special teams player. And then Anthony Ferkser, who is a reliable passing target.

Doesn't give you much in the blocking area, so we'll just see him probably utilized on some third down passing situations when it's obvious what we need to do. Moving into the offensive line. Obviously, with the suspension of Taylor LeJuan, we'll have Dennis Kelly starting at left tackle. Roger Saffold starting at left guard. Ben Jones at center. Kevin Pamphile has won the right guard starting position by default, it feels. Jack Conklin starting at right tackle. Hoping to see Conklin have a nice bounce back season now that he's fully healthy and quite some time removed from the ACL injury.

One of the biggest surprises with the roster cuts was losing Corey Levin in lieu of someone like David Questenberry, but our answer is given to us here on the depth chart. Questenberry at this moment in time is the backup tackle for both tackle positions. Now, I would assume if Dennis Kelly or Jack Conklin were to actually go down, Kevin Panfield would slide out to right tackle, and Jameel Douglas, the backup guard, would slide into a guard position. That's what I would see, but our fourth string tackle most likely is going to be Queston Berry. He has the ability to play a little guard and tackle, so the versatility to give us another tackle, especially with the suspension of LeJuan, is probably what resulted in Levin being cut. Jameel Douglas, like I said, is the backup interior lineman for center and guard.

And then Nate Davis, I expected the rookie to compete for starting at right guard, but with all the time that he missed in the preseason due to injury, he is practicing now, according to Mike Vrabel, starting yesterday. But I don't see him, because of the time loss, being able to compete for a starting position soon, but maybe by the middle of the regular season, he'll be up to speed, and we can see him make a difference for the first team offense. Finally, in the backfield, Derrick Henry, no surprise. Deion Lewis, no surprise. David Flewellen, Daylon Dawkins, who was a surprise. I want to explain what the theory probably is there.

David Flewellen is similar to Derrick Henry. Daylon Dawkins similar to Deion Lewis. If either of those two were to go down, you have someone who can replace them who's similar on skill set. Marcus Mariota. Ryan Tannehill at quarterback. Obviously, no surprise there. So we're going to go ahead and take a look at the defense.

Okay, so on the defensive side of the football, we do have Brett Urban getting the first team reps at defensive end. I think the reason for that is Dean Pease always talks about front multiplicity, scheme, versatility. One way that we can be multiple up front showing three-man or four-man fronts is by having Brett Urban, who is so long and at 6'5", 6'6", he can play a traditional defensive end in a four-man front or a five technique in a three-man front. can play a traditional defensive end in a four-man front or a five technique in a three-man front. So he's so versatile that it makes sense that he would be out there until we get someone like Jeffrey Simmons back, who I think that spot right there is exactly where we need Simmons to play.

Daquan Jones, after his transition from that five technique, three-four defensive end to a nose tackle, I think is definitely more valuable to us. So he'll start inside at the zero technique, 3-4 defensive end to a nose tackle I think is definitely more valuable to us. So he'll start inside at the zero technique at the nose and then Drell Casey will be the other defensive end in base packages. Typically though, we play in sub package which means we're a nickel. We bring another defensive back onto the field for rushing linemen. Drell Casey is going to play the three technique. Isaiah Mack, Matt Dickerson, Austin Johnson are going to be the backups on the defensive line. I think we know what we have in Austin Johnson and Matt Dickerson. I'm really excited to see Isaiah Mack

and if he can actually contribute in the regular season. The burst in athleticism he showed on the defensive line, although it was preseason, like I said yesterday, was impressive. So I want to see if he can make an impact. We'll move to the inside linebacker group. Rashawn Evans and Jayon Brown are obviously our starters. Wesley Woodyard, I expect to rotate and play a vital role on special teams.

Darren Bates, David Long will most likely just play on special teams. But I'm excited to see David Long's potential long-term and if he can actually contribute on defense. I think that this inside linebacker group is one of the best units in the entire NFL of any position. Definitely one of the top inside linebacker groups, but you could match them up against any position group in the NFL, and I feel like it's one of the more talented units and rooms that there are. As for the outside linebackers, Cameron Wake and Harold Landry will be the starters. Obviously, Cameron Wake will just be used situationally. I don't expect him to get more snaps than a guy like Shareef Finch,

who will probably play more on rundowns. Cameron Wake, being in his late 30s, it's really difficult to expect him to be able to contribute every single play and be out there. I don't think that was the plan in the first place. We need to keep him fresh so he can help during pass rushing situations. So I expect to see a ton of Sheree Finch. Might even mean we get a lot more of Reggie Gilbert too, who should be healed up from a knee injury here shortly. Kamale Correa I see personally is just a special teams player but he does have some versatility to help out in a pinch we will move to the secondary Logan Ryan and Malcolm Butler are listed as the starting corners this is very similar to how I felt about the offensive depth

chart it's nice to see the modernization of football at least on our offensive depth chart, it's nice to see the modernization of football, at least on our offensive depth chart, listing three wide receivers as starters. Typically, you're going to have 11 personnel out on the field more than anything else in this day and age of the NFL, and that just means that there's one tight end and one running back. So anytime you hear me say a personnel grouping in that manner, the numbers that you're going to hear are anything but the wide receivers. So that'll tell you how many wide receivers are on the field. 11, one tight end, one running back. So there's three wide receivers. Same thing with our cornerback group. Although Adoree Jackson is not listed as the starter, we have three cornerbacks out on the field most of the time. So Adoree Jackson, I would consider a starter. Logan Ryan starts in the slot

and then Malcolm Butler starts on the other opposite corner. Backing them up, Ty Smith, LaShawn Sims, going to be great special teams players. And LaShawn Sims, at least, I believe could really help out in a pinch if we were to suffer an injury. He's been around for a while. Don't want him to be a full-time starter, but he's really good depth. Going to the safety group, Kenny Vaccaro, Kevin Byard, possibly the best safety duo in the NFL. Definitely one of the top three, in my opinion. Dane Cruikshank, who's a special teams dynamo, will back up Vaccaro.

Amani Hooker, the really talented rookie, will be at free safety. Josh Kalou was expected to be that fifth safety. Obviously, with his injury and going to IR, he will not be. We can expect to see Chris Milton, who was just picked up on waivers, to be that fifth safety and most likely just help on special teams. What I would expect a lot of, though, is Imani Hooker to get a lot of snaps. With his snap count, you may be able to consider him a starter by the end of the year as well, in the same vein as Adoree Jackson and how the cornerbacks share that responsibility.

I wouldn't be shocked to see Imani Hooker and three cornerbacks on the field, so that's three safeties and three cornerbacks this year. We'll talk more about that in our third segment when we start our first installment of Tic-Tac Titans. I'll talk about something schematically that has to do with Imani Hooker on defense that we did in the preseason. I found it very interesting looking to see if it's utilized in the regular season as well. So we'll cover that after a short break. It's time to celebrate. Football is finally back. In DraftKings, the leader in one-day fantasy football has huge week one contests. The first one starts this Thursday night when Chicago and Green Bay kick off the season in a

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Okay, Titans fans, my plan for the regular season is on Tuesdays in our middle segment or our final segment, do Tick-Tack Titans, where I break down the X's and O's of what the Titans did in the game before. Obviously, the game before this was preseason game four, which is the least interesting, the least important preseason game of them all. So I'm just going to look at something that the first team defense was doing throughout the preseason that I hope to see going forward. And then throughout the season after the game, I'll focus on something from the previous week's game. Later in the week, I should do another segment of Tic Tac Titans where I focus on something for the upcoming game. So to get into what I wanted to take a look at was something on defense. So we know that Dean Pease focuses on having multiple fronts and complex coverages like we discussed with the depth chart.

I wanted to highlight how he's doing that and utilizing some of the talent and masking some of the deficiencies that the defense has. So one of the deficiencies of this team is the pass rush in the defensive line. The Titans seem to have to manufacture pressure through blitzes with linebackers, safeties, cornerbacks. Hypothetically speaking, you would like to be able to get adequate pressure with your front four defensive linemen and allow the rest to drop back into coverage. That's the best way to defeat some of the better quarterbacks in the NFL.

The Titans do struggle to do that. So one way that we're trying to remedy that with Jeffrey Simmons, we're looking to remedy that obviously, but he's not out on the field. Another issue that we have is Rashawn Evans has struggled in coverage at times. And then another issue is we have a talented young player in the secondary, like Amani Hooker, who's going to have a hard time getting on the field with such talented safeties like Kenny Vaccaro and Kevin Byard. So let me tell you how Dean Pease is solving all these issues at once. Something that was being done in the preseason, Rashawn Evans was moving up to defensive tackle

on the defensive line with Sheree Finch, Cam Wake, Jarrell Casey, we can expect that to be Cam Wake, Harold Landry, Jarrell Casey, and then Rashawn Evans also. He's bringing Kenny Vaccaro from safety down to play linebacker next to Jayon Brown. Then we have Malcolm Butler and Adoree Jackson on the outsides. Then we have Malcolm Butler and Adoree Jackson on the outsides. We have Logan Ryan in the slot. At safety, he's bringing in Amani Hooker to play with Kevin Byard in the back. So now we are utilizing all of our pieces. I will try throughout the season to post screenshots and some markings and some things that I'm doing in the film room

on my Twitter account at Tic Tac Titans on Twitter. So follow me and I'll try to accompany this segment with some visuals. I'll be posting them later tonight as well if you want to check them out. Trying to get better with my visuals, making sure that I'm doing things in a way that you guys can see them and understand. But when I describe things here in Tic Tac Titans, I do want to accompany them with a visual aid as well. So I'll post some screenshots and show you exactly what we're seeing. But the description that I gave you should help you get an idea of what we're looking at. That is something that was really interesting in the preseason that I hope to see going forward. Against the Steelers, out of that that alignment we dropped to where we were

just rushing three people and had eight in coverage on a third down and forced a fourth down we brought Logan Ryan on a blitz once out of that formation bringing five people to try to get pressure while the rest dropped in coverage just a lot of interesting things that Dean Pease is doing from that formation and seeing Rashawn Evans at defensive line where he did have some experience at Alabama and does have some skills it allows him to do that even though he's deficient in pass coverage so he's still out on the field being utilized it allows Kenny Vaccaro who's a very physical player to come down in the box and essentially be a small linebacker in passing situations utilizing his talents and

brings a Monty Hooker who's a talented coverage guy who can play in the slot or play safety out onto the field to be used as a weapon as well just really interesting and intelligent from Dean Pease and the defensive coaching staff really looking forward to see that utilized in the regular season so keep an eye out on that okay Titans fans that the show. We went ahead and took a look at all the news and notes, took a look at the depth chart, and then stepped in the film room with a little tic-tac Titans. I want to remind you guys, Wednesday will always be Crossover Wednesday. Tomorrow we'll have the hosts of Locked On Browns on the show

and begin our preview of this week's game. I want to follow that format going forward the rest of the season. Monday and Tuesday we're going to review the previous week's game, and then starting on Wednesday with Crossover Wednesday, we'll start to shift our focus to the new game. Once again, please subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you stream your podcast. Please follow the show at LockedOnTitans on Twitter.

Follow me at TicTacTitans. I'm your host, Tyler Rowland, and this is LockedOnTitans.