Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Derrick Henry Wins OPOY, Super Bowl Recap & Monday Mailbag!!

Episode Date: February 8, 2021

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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, it is the Monday after the official end to the NFL season and once again Tom Brady the GOAT himself reigned supreme over the NFL in a shocking outcome not because the Bucks won the game but in the in the fashion in the manner in which they won the Super Bowl but either way the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are Super Bowl champions led by the greatest of all time, Tom Brady.

And of course, we are going to talk about that game. But first, we did get some big Tennessee Titans related news over the weekend. The NFL Honors, the NFL's award show for the 2020 regular season did take place. And not only did we have a Tennessee Titans player bring home a major award, but we had a Tennessee Titans fan bring home a major award. So we will talk about both of those winners to start off today's show. Then we will get into a recap of the Super Bowl game that was. Talk about the outcome. Talk about, of course, some things that really stood out schematically speaking. And then talk about the MVP of the game.

And then, of course, it's Monday, which means it is time to get back into our Monday mailbag. So I have some questions to answer from you guys. Going to be giving you my answers, shouting you out. Remember, you can always get your questions in to me on Twitter at TicTacTitans or by leaving your question as a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. But we're diving into everything today on this Monday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast. Let's get it.

We are going to start off this Monday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast talking about the Titans awards that were won over the weekend. But before we do, I want to remind you guys that this week on the Locked on Titans podcast is going to be a free agent frenzy. Starting with tomorrow's show on Tuesday, we are going to start diving into all of the different free agent options that the Titans will have on the open market. And we're going to go position by position, starting with the offense all the way through the defense. So make sure that you don't miss any of that.

And you subscribe to the Locked on Titans podcast on Apple Podcast, follow on Spotify, Google Podcast, or whatever platform you do stream. Let's dive into these awards, and it was really no surprise to me whatsoever, but maybe a surprise to some, that Derrick Henry, the 2K King himself, took home the NFL's Offensive Player of the Year award. And obviously, deservingly so, Derrick Henry rushed for 2,027 yards, only the eighth time in NFL history that a running back has gone over 2,000 yards.

He had 17 touchdowns on the year, and he completely deserved it, an All-Pro award winner as well so Derek Henry no shock there now there were times where I was a little worried about let's say Travis Kelsey who had a fantastic season and was one of the top receiving options in the NFL at tight end which isn't normal when you think about the the talent at wide receiver so seeing a guy like Travis Kelsey kind of have his best season ever, I thought there was a chance that maybe Kelsey could get the Offensive Player of the Year award,

but no, Derrick Henry was able to stiff-arm Kelsey away from the OPOY. So a great year from Derrick Henry and a deserving award, but something that was really, really cool for me was Derrick Henry not only had an excellent suit as he accepted his award for Offensive Player of the Year, but he also presented the first ever NFL Fan of the Year award to a Tennessee Titans fan, and it's a guy I've interacted with on Twitter before, and a big congratulations to Brandon Galloway at BG901 on Twitter. Brandon was awarded the first ever, as I said, NFL Fan of the Year award.

So congratulations to Brandon. One thing that I do want to mention here, though, is Derrick Henry did not get a single MVP vote. And I just want to say, if a running back goes over 2,000 yards and scores over 15 touchdowns, and he does something that's only been done 8 times in the history of the NFL while his team wins their division, how can the guy not get a single vote for MVP? How can the guy not get a single vote for MVP? I believe Aaron Rodgers got 44 votes, ultimately bringing home the MVP trophy.

Josh Allen got four votes as well. And then Patrick Mahomes got two votes. I do believe that's how things ended up shaking out. So Derrick Henry didn't get a single MVP vote. and it just kind of proves that this is a quarterback award, and if you go for over 2,000 yards and over 15 touchdowns and lead your team to a division championship, and you somehow, someway can't possibly even get a single vote for MVP, I mean, it's a quarterback award.

They need to just rename it, make Offensive Player of the Year a non-quarterback award, make sure that a quarterback can. They need to just rename it, make Offensive Player of the Year a non-quarterback award, make sure that a quarterback can't win that award, and then continue forward like that. That's the only real fair way to do it going forward if that's the way that this is going to work out. Again, I don't think that Derrick Henry should have won MVP. That's not what I'm saying. I don't agree with that.

But to not get a single vote, I think that's pretty crazy as well. But some other awards that were given out, Comeback Player of the Year, Alex Smith, after everything that he went through. Defensive Player of the Year, that was a little controversial. Aaron Donald got that for the third time. Only three defensive players in NFL history have gotten Defensive Player of the Year three times.

Lawrence Taylor, J.J. Watt, and then now Aaron Donald. Now, I think I like that because I think it puts him on a level he deserves to be on. He is one of the most impactful defensive players of all time, and I think he's the best non-quarterback in the NFL right now. Some people are saying that T.J. Watt had a better claim, and some of the box score statistics do lean towards T.J. Watt, but I think you can't possibly factor in of the box score statistics do lean towards TJ Watt but I think you can't possibly factor in in the box score TJ Watt not having to deal with the double teams and the triple teams that Aaron Donald had to deal with and Aaron Donald was still close in production and Aaron

Donald was on the number one defense in the NFL so you put all that together and I'm okay with that obviously like I said, MVP goes to Aaron Rodgers and offensive player of the year goes to our own Derrick Henry. So that's going to do it for our wrap up of the awards and then the two Tennessee Titans, one player and one fan bringing home the award for best of the year in their respective categories. We're going to move forward into a conversation recapping the Super Bowl victory for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Before we do, I want to tell you about betonline.ag.

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and you'll get a 50% welcome bonus. Don't sit on the sideline anymore. Get in on the action. Don't forget, use the promo code LOCKEDON and you'll get a 50% welcome bonus with your first deposit. BetOnline, your online sportsbook expert. another Super Bowl victory for Tom Brady that makes seven now 10 Super Bowls seven and three in those Super Bowls and I think you know after a 31 to 9 victory for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at this point Tom Brady is the greatest player

in NFL history. There's no real question. There's no real debates anymore. And I would venture to say that out of American team sports, team sports. Now you start adding an individual sports. You talk about boxing, Muhammad Ali, Serena Williams, talk about Tiger Woods in golf, talk about Simone Biles or Michael Phelps in Olympic athletes, but you look at team sports in America, and I think it's hard to argue against Tom Brady as the best in all of the four major sports. Think hockey, you think baseball, you think basketball, you think football. I mean, Wayne Gretzky obviously has a pretty good opinion or a pretty good say in his collective sport.

And then you look at Michael Jordan, of course, who is the most common comparison now. LeBron James, maybe, you know, maybe that I'm not going to get into that debate on this show, on this football related Titans podcast. But I think it's fair to say that Brady may in fact be the greatest team sport athlete in the history of America. So that's the biggest takeaway. Obviously, he's the MVP of the Super Bowl, but some other things that really stood out to me.

Number one, the reason that the Buccaneers won that game was the pressure they got on Pat Mahomes. You could talk about the injuries to the O-line for the Chiefs. You could talk about Pat Mahomes having turf toe. But either way, we learned what we knew all along and this just confirmed it. If you want to beat the Chiefs and you want to beat Pat Mahomes, the only way, the only way to do that is to get pressure on Pat Mahomes. That's it.

That is truly the only way is to sack him and to not allow him to throw the ball downfield to his targets. Constantly keep him on the move. Get him off this spot. Make him run around. I have never seen Mahomes run around and just frantically, like a chicken with his head cut off, move around the field like he had to on Sunday night. So, that's the big takeaway here. That's the key to beat the Chiefs, and it's not just beating the Chiefs. Think about when Tom Brady lost his Super Bowls in the mid-2000s to the Giants, those two. Those Patriots teams were maybe more talented than any other teams that Tom Brady had ever played on, but the Giants had that front four, Justin Tuck, and Michael Strahan, and O.C.U. Manura, Justin Tuck and Michael Strahan and OCU Manura and and and Jason Pierre Paul as well huh that's funny how that works so they had those guys and they just got pressure on Brady and it didn't

matter how great his weapons were because it was just pressure in his face non-stop and that's the big takeaway for me it was the big lesson that we talked about last week on the podcast when we talked about what we could learn from these two teams being in the Super Bowl, what the Titans could learn. And the number one thing, the biggest thing here that we're learning from the Super Bowl is what we already knew, but like I said, it's confirmation. The Titans have to find a way to go all in for pass rush if they really hope to defeat any of these teams. Because since the dawning of time, like I mentioned with Tom Brady, it's not just the Chiefs. of time, like I mentioned with Tom Brady, it's not just the Chiefs. Anytime you have an elite all-time quarterback, the only thing you can do to equalize him is pass rush. That's why pass rush is the second most important thing in football, outside of quarterback play. It's pass rush.

That's why, in my opinion, the second most important position in football outside of quarterback is your primary edge pass rusher or an interior pass rusher like an Aaron Donald. Either way, a pass rusher, a disruptor, not talking about Clowney, disruptor. I know that gets everybody going, but either way, that was a big takeaway here. Another thing I want to mention on the Buccaneers defense, it's not just the pass rush. Their two linebackers were just incredible. Incredible. Devin White, Levante David, just phenomenal. David gave Kelsey fits all night long. It just makes you think how far away the Titans are from that perspective.

I mean, they don't have a great pass rush, and Rashawn Evans is nowhere near being the type of linebacker that the Titans would need to cover these type of guys. Jayon Brown, you need a guy who can do that, but is Devin White's size and Levante David's size, 6'3", 6'2", prototypical size with that speed that Jayon Brown gives you. Now, David Long is as close as we've gotten.

He's got that Jayon Brown speed. He's 6'1", so maybe he's something to build on, but the Titans need to boost that front seven in a big way if they plan to take that next step. And that's kind of what we learned. Next, three former Tennessee Titans getting rings. Blaine Gabbert, Ryan Suckup, and Aaron Stinney. Aaron Stinney ended up being a starter in a Super Bowl.

That is a stunner to me. No lie there. Going forward, though, Brady was surgical, as mentioned. Fantastic. Can't talk enough about Brady. But Gronk, seeing Gronk get it done. Six catches, 67 yards, two touchdowns. That was very impressive. Another big thing on the Bucs defense, Antoine Winfield Jr. had an interception. Man, seeing a rookie be a playmaker for a defense. Wow. I couldn't relate. I could not possibly relate to that. Another big takeaway though, from the Chiefs side of things, the Chiefs are going to be hungry again, guys. One thing that I did say was one positive benefit that we could get from the Chiefs winning back-to-

back Super Bowls is it's only natural. It's human nature that they may lose some of their hunger and then just logic, the numbers behind it, the odds of three-peating are very, very low. So if the Chiefs would have won, I think that would have helped the Titans just based on logic and what should take place. But now that they have it, the Chiefs will come back hungry as ever. They didn't win.

They'll have that taste of defeat in their mouth, and it's going to be very, very difficult to beat them again next year. So you're not going to get that lackadaisical, that drop back and caring from the Chiefs after back-to-back Super Bowls. You're not going to have that. So the Titans don't get the luckiest outcome there. But my other big takeaway was it just sucked that the game wasn't very good. You know, my big takeaway always, if the Titans aren't in the Super Bowl, which they haven't been

for a long, long time, my big thing is, I just want a good game, and although I told you guys to take the Buccaneers plus three, and you probably hit some good money, now I said I like the over two, and that didn't hit, but I did say plus three would be good. Although I gave you that, it wasn't a good game, and that's disappointing for sure. Now, the last little thing I want to say, since I didn't mention the gambling here, right now the Titans are 28-1 on betonline.ag for the Super Bowl in 2022. That means if you bet $100, you'll win $2,800. Maybe not a bad idea. Maybe not a bad idea.

Maybe not a bad idea right now just to go ahead and do that. Couldn't hurt. You know what I mean? It's a pretty good payout, pretty good odds there for the Titans. So check that out. But we are going to move forward to the mailbag portion of today's show. Before we do, I want to remind you guys about Locked On Today, a new podcast from the Locked On Podcast Network. You can find it on whatever platform you do stream.

Get all of the biggest sports stories in the news in under 20 minutes every day. It's like having the sports section read to you. Make sure you check that out on whatever platform you do stream. Also, I want to tell you about the best tasting protein bar ever, and that is our friends over at Built Bar. Of course, they have a ton of amazing flavors for you to check out. The bars are covered in 100% chocolate. They're soft and easy to chew and I think they're particularly excellent if you put them in the refrigerator but they're not just

delicious. They're also healthy for you as well. Low calorie, low sugar, high protein, high fiber. Make sure that you go to BuiltBar.com and you use the promo code LOCKEDON and you'll get 20% off your next order. Once again, use promo code LOCKEDON for 20% off at BuiltBar.com. Mailbag Monday! Let's open up the mailbag and answer some of your guys' questions before we get out of here for the first episode of the week. Gonna start with a question from Colin. He said,

We keep one. Jonu or Corey Davis, are you taking okay so in a vacuum I'd rather have Corey Davis as the player but when you consider what their price tag might be I think Corey Davis could get anywhere from 11 12 maybe even 13 million million a year. I would imagine Jonu Smith is going to be anywhere between $6 to $8.5 million. So based on the salary demands that each of them will have, I'm going to say I would rather have Jonu Smith back at half the money of Corey Davis. Now if Jonu Smith gets in the $9 million, $10 million range, then I would probably rather have Corey at $12 million than Jonu at $10. But based on what I'm expecting, which is Jonu around $7.5, $8 million, and Corey

about $12 to $12.5, I'd rather have Jonu Smith considering that. From one of the legends of the show, Kevin Scheschventer, KSesh, he says, do you think, well, actually, let me save that one to the end since it's kind of a non-football question, but Dunbar on Twitter, Dunbar Dickey says, man, would love your take about these refs. You guys know how I am. I'm never going to blame the refs. One, I think the first defensive pass interference call, the long one on Mike Evans.

Mike Evans is 6'5". To call that pass uncatchable and determine that he couldn't get to that, I think that's underestimating the athleticism of Mike Evans and just NFL football players in general. So I agree with the pass interference that had the most impact at the beginning. And then the next pass interference that happened in the back of the end zone, yeah, that was a little ticky-tack, but it was first and goal from the five. So it's not like it was a fourth down or a third down

where the refs bailed the Buccaneers out. I mean, it was first and five. First and goal from the five. So, I'm just not going to blame the refs for what happened. It was 31-9. The Bucs defense was just swarming on the Chiefs offense all night long. So, I'm not going to blame the refs, but typical me. Next question, Cameron Gren said,

What are the chances the Titans roll the Brinks truck up to Shaq Barrett's house? Okay, out of all of the options that I've seen that are in the $16 million range or so, Shaq Barrett's one I would go after. The dude has proven that he's got what it takes. He can get it done. Got, obviously, a championship under his belt now. May look for some money. I would do that.

But, in my opinion, there is zero chance that Tampa Bay is going to let him leave. They're not going to let that happen. They just can't. After winning a Super Bowl with Tom Brady, they're going to do everything they can to bring that team back and try to win another Super Bowl again. They owe Tom Brady that since he signed up to play football for Tampa Bay. They owe giving him the greatest possible Super Bowl chances, and that would include having Shaq Barrett still on the team. So I don't think he's going to hit the open market for very long or very seriously. Next, Tyler Collins said, is Vrabel taking note on what a competent defensive game plan looks like? Todd Bowles, the defensive

coordinator for the Buccaneers, is one of the absolute best in the business, and he's a much better defensive coordinator and defensive mind than Mike Vrabel will ever be. So Mike can look at the defensive game plan all he wants, but he simply doesn't have the chops and doesn't have the defensive mind that a Todd Bowles does. The Titans need a guy like Todd Bowles to run the defense, not Mike Vrabel and the puppets that he employs now. So will they ever have that? I don't know. I don't know. But next question from Slappy.

He says, if Tyler Rowland was GM of the Tennessee Titans this offseason and seeing how a pass rush can neutralize even the best offenses as we've seen in the Super Bowl here, how would you go about fixing the Titans' pass rush this offseason? And I've mentioned this before, and I'm sticking with the plan. I want the Titans to, with free agency money, get an elephant-type role, like a Jadavian Clowney, like a J.J. Watt, somebody in that mold who can play as a 4-3 defensive end,

a 5-tech defensive end in a 3-4 alignment, or play outside linebacker in a 3-4 alignment. I want a versatile piece like that that's big enough to play on the interior as well. So a Clowney, a Watt, there are some other options available who kind of fit in that mold. Maybe they go that way for the draft, but I want a guy like that, and then I want them to attack outside edge rusher with a cheaper veteran option like a Ryan Kerrigan, for example. So you get a Clowney, then you get a Ryan Kerrigan, and then you draft two pass rushers in the NFL draft. Get a guy early like a Quincy Roche, like a Joseph Asai, like a Jalen Phillips, some other options, Quiddy Pay.

Get a guy like that in the first round and then double down in the fifth round or the sixth round and get another young edge rusher to come in like they did with DeAndre Walker. Take another chance like that. So that's what I want the Titans to do. I want two veterans in free agency, one a little more expensive, one a little

cheaper, and then I want two edge rushers in the draft. One a little more expensive in the early rounds, and one a little cheaper in the late rounds. Throw everything you can because what we learned is the Titans can have decent defensive backs and it means nothing without pass rush. The Titans can have decent defensive backs, and it means nothing without pass rush. The Titans can have decent defensive backs, but they'll look incredible with a good pass rush. Pass rush is always going to be more important than coverage, at least in my mind. You can have the best cornerbacks in the world,

but they can't cover for 10 seconds. You've got to have a pass rush. You can have okay cornerbacks if you get to the quarterback quick and make it easier on them. So the Titans really need to focus all in on that. So two answers in free agency and two answers in the draft. I think that's the only way to go this year for the Titans. So that's how I see things.

The next question here that I started on but passed on, I want to save it for the end. My boy Kevin, Ksesh, he said, Do you think another MCU character makes a surprise appearance in WandaVision? If so, who do you think or who would you want to see the most? Okay, I'm going to get super nerdy for you guys here. So if you don't like any of this stuff, feel free to go now. Have a great day.

I hope you enjoyed the podcast. But for those of you who are enjoying any of this stuff, feel free to go now. Have a great day. I hope you enjoyed the podcast. But for those of you who are enjoying WandaVision, for those of you who are considering getting into WandaVision, and for those of you who are deep, deep into Marvel culture as I am, hear me out on this. So, and spoilers, spoilers. Some of what I'm about to say is from the comic books and they're popular theories. So if you're somebody who looks for theories or anything like that, or somebody who read the comics, I'm not spoiling anything for you. And as we know with

these things, they adapt themselves from the comics, but that doesn't always mean they follow them to the T. They mix comic books together. They take little parts of different storylines and meld it all together to make a fresh new story. So what I'm about to say comes from the comics, and I'm kind of making some theories too and putting some stuff together, blah, blah, blah. So spoilers if I end up being right about any of this stuff, but if you're in, you're in. Here we go. So episode 5 is out. And I just also want to say this. If you're not up to episode 5, if you haven't watched

episode 5, then leave now. Leave now. It's Monday. It came out at midnight on Friday night. If you haven't watched it yet, it's your fault. And I've given you this warning. Okay? It's been like two minutes of me warning you to leave if you don't want to hear this.

Okay, so. At the end of episode five, Evan Peters, who played Quicksilver in the Fox X-Men universe, shows up as if he is the Quicksilver to Wanda, which we know he isn't. Pietro died in Age of Ultron, and it was Aaron Taylor-Johnson who was the actor. This is Evan Peters playing Pietro. So, is that really

Quicksilver? But here's the question. Did Wanda, who wants to see her brother, who's clearly warping reality, did Wanda bring her brother back? And because her actual brother in this universe is dead she had to bring Quicksilver from a different multiverse so that she could have a brother again and keep that in the back of your mind so is Wanda pulling the X-Men Quicksilver from a different multiverse

because she wants to have a brother so bad in her fake reality that she's creating right now or on the flip side, as in the comics, are Agnes and then that Evan Peters guy working together to make Wanda go crazy, to make babies so they can steal her babies, and that's not actually Quicksilver from the X-Men universe,

that's Mephisto, the devil in Marvel's universe, and he's working with Agnes, who's actually Agatha Harkness, a witch from the comics, and they want, they're, Wanda is creating the reality, but they were the ones who pushed her to it, and they really just want to take her kids. kids. So that's a theory I have now. If Wanda pulled Evan Peters Quicksilver from the X-Men Fox universe to be her brother in this universe, that means that she can take other people from the Fox universe and bring them into this universe to fill family roles. And if you follow the comics, then you know that Magneto from X-Men is Wanda's real dad in the comics. So I think the big cameo that's coming, and remember Kevin's question was, do you think that somebody else, there's going to be another surprise appearance? I do. I think that the original Magneto from the X-Men movies from the early 2000s, the ones I grew up on,

Ian McKellen is the actor's name. I think that Magneto is going to be pulled in from another alternate universe, the Fox X-Men alternate universe, and Wanda is going to have him as her dad. Boom. Boom. Which, all of this stuff comes from the comics, House of M, which is where Wanda basically, through all of her pain and all of her suffering, she goes nuts. She creates a house for herself, House of M. And, you know, all this alternate crazy stuff happens she's a threat to society they got to figure out and basically she ends mutants I think they're going to use this as a different form of

that and have her create mutants but one of the ways she's going to do it is by bringing mutants in from other universes multiverses and that's why we're going to get multiverse of madness with Dr. Strange where he's basically got to stop Wanda from blending all the different multiverses together. But that's my theories. That's what I have. That's a long answer, but I'm sure a lot of you guys are deep into this show as well. But that's going to do it for the mailbag for this Monday.

That's going to do it for me. Remember, it is a free agency frenzy this week. Starting tomorrow, we're going to start diving into free agent options that the Titans will have. I want to remind you that the Locked On Podcast Network Super Bowl recap is on the Locked On NFL show. Make sure that you check that out after you listen to this.

That's going to do it for me today, though, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked On Titans.