Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Jon Robinson Goes NUCLEAR!! Four Major Cuts, #RewatchWednesday Offensive & Defensive Breakdowns

Episode Date: November 4, 2020

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You are Locked On Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to the Locked On Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, this wild rewatch Wednesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast is presented by Pepsi. Thanks to a lack of natural athleticism or commitment or overbearing sports parents, fewer than 1% of 1% of 1% of people will ever play professional football. But instead of entering the NFL, they've joined another league, the League of Football Watchers.

This football season will be different and Pepsi is here to get you ready for game day no matter how you watch. Pepsi is the refreshment you need to power through any game day because Pepsi isn't made for those who play the game. It's made for those who watch it. Pepsi, made for football watching. Go to madeforfootballwatching.com to check out the latest football watching content from Pepsi. Ladies and gentlemen, Tennessee Titans fans from all over, it has been an insane last 36 hours following an incredibly embarrassing defeat to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. Titans General Manager John Robinson has gone nuclear and over the last day and a half has taken out his axe and chopped off nearly 10% of the Titans roster.

So heads rolled on Tuesday for the Tennessee Titans. I'm going to be breaking down everyone that was cut, why they were cut, and what the Titans should do going forward. And that's how we start off today's rewatch Wednesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. But it is Rewatch Wednesday, which means we need to get into my extra insights, my additional analysis from rewatching the coaches tape multiple times over the last two days. So I'm going to break down everything for you guys. Going to start off talking about the Tennessee Titans offense and what I saw, and then go

into the Tennessee Titans defense to cap off our show. And one thing I will be doing in this edition of Rewatch Wednesday is I'm going to talk about the things I saw specifically from a schematic perspective in the Bengals game, but I also, through eight weeks of the season, want to talk about who the Tennessee Titans are on offense and defense. So a souped up Rewatch Wednesday where you're going to get sort of my season recap so far from a schematic perspective today.

So we are going to talk about the offense first, the defense next, and then when you add that into the just ludicrous news and changes that come to the Titans roster in the last 36 hours, it is indeed a wild rewatch Wednesday here on the Locked on Titans podcast. So excited to dive into everything with you guys. Do want to remind you I'm going to be pumping out Monday through Friday content covering the Tennessee Titans, all the news and notes coming out of Nashville, as well as all of the schematically driven analysis that I provide on this show. Tomorrow we are going to begin our preparation for the game against the Chicago Bears, having

a crossover Thursday conversation with Loren Cox from Locked on Bears. He's fantastic. You do not want to miss his insight. Friday will be a Football Friday game preview, keys to the game, players to watch, injuries, fantasy, gambling, score prediction, much, much more. So make sure you subscribe to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform. But we have some major roster cuts to talk about, and we're breaking down the Titans

from a schematic perspective so far this season in this week's Rewatch Wednesday. Let's get it! Coming out of a loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, the Tennessee Titans season felt incredibly different on Monday than it had just the day before. And John Robinson, the Titans general manager, decided to try to get things back on track by shaking up the roster. And the first move we saw to indicate that was a trade for Los Angeles Chargers cornerback Desmond King.

But Robinson followed that up with four cuts to the roster and some major cuts taking place out of those four. The most noteworthy of those cuts was the high-priced free agent linebacker Vic Beasley. And in the offseason, Beasley signed a one-year $9 million deal with the team that could go up to $12 million with incentives. But that was the high point of this transaction. Beasley had an infamous holdout at the beginning of Titans training camp for 10 days, costing himself half of a million dollars, and then was incredibly disappointing in the five games that he played for the Titans this year.

He only had two tackles, one forced fumble, played in 25% of the defensive snaps, and as mentioned, was overall just a disappointment. So the Titans cut bait with Beasley, and although his play was disappointing, what was most disappointing was the effort that he displayed in Cincinnati, and that was ultimately what got him moved off this roster, despite the fact that he had a high-priced contract earlier in the season. The next cut that we saw came in the form of cornerback Jonathan Joseph and this is a little bit less of a surprise but Jonathan Joseph is a 36 year old cornerback.

He played in 75 percent of the defensive snaps for the Titans this year and when Jonathan Joseph was signed in the all-season that was not the role that was expected of him. So Joseph just simply couldn't perform to the level that he was being asked to perform at, not at any fault of his own. Father time is undefeated, and it just appears that the older Jonathan Joseph at 36 just cannot hang in the NFL at this time. So the Titans let him go and look at some younger options on the roster, and then of course the addition of Desmond

King helps out with that loss as well but then the Titans also let go of long-term long snapper Bo Brinkley and Brinkley has spent eight seasons with the Tennessee Titans but over the course of the last two weeks he did have some off-target snaps the worst of them being the last extra point attempt on Sunday in Cincinnati when Bo Brinkley snapped the ball to the inside of the holder Brett Kern. It caused a botched snap and ultimately resulted in punter Brett Kern, who is the holder on extra point situations, being contacted by a Bengals defender resulting in an injury. And now reports are indicating that Brett Kern could miss multiple weeks. So Bo Brinkley's mistakes not only costing the Titans points but also costing them other players. So ultimately it was time for the Titans to move on. The Titans will look to practice squad long snapper Matt Overton to come up to the roster

and ultimately take Brinkley's spot. to come up to the roster and ultimately take Brinkley's spot. And then finally, the last cut that John Robinson made was actually the first cut that he made chronologically speaking, and that was defensive lineman Isaiah Mack. Mack played in six games this year for the Titans. He had one tackle in his 85 snaps. He did play 17% of the defensive snaps this year for the Titans, was the backup to Daquan

Jones on the defensive line. But ultimately, Mack had not been performing very well after being an undrafted free agent out of Chattanooga that the Titans picked up in 2019. The Titans do ultimately decide to move on from Mack. Mack was picked up on waivers, however, by the New England Patriots. Mack was picked up on waivers, however, by the New England Patriots. The Titans also made some other roster decisions on Tuesday, declaring their four practice squad protected players. Those four players were running back Deontay Foreman, who performed well against the Cincinnati

Bengals. Long snapper Matt Overton, who I mentioned before, who will most likely be brought up to the active roster to replace Bo Brinkley. Kicker Tucker McCann, who will most likely be brought up to replace punter Brett Kern. And then linebacker Tazar Skipper, who could possibly be brought up to the active roster to replace Vic Beasley. Now, logically seeing if healthy, we should see more snaps for outside linebacker Derek Roberson but this is

interesting that Tazar Skipper was the one kept because that would mean that he is more valuable to the organization than another outside linebacker who got rave reviews during the preseason and that was Wyatt Ray so obviously Derek Roberson is the next linebacker set to get an increased workload. After that could be Tazar Skipper, and then after that we could see Wyatt Ray. So it'll be interesting to monitor from that perspective. Of course, as I mentioned with the cornerback spot, it's not just the addition of Desmond King that will help out, but right now at this time, Adoree Jackson has been on the designated to return list for two and a half weeks.

The Titans have to make a decision on Saturday Adoree Jackson has been on the designated to return list for two and a half weeks. The Titans have to make a decision on Saturday whether to bring Adoree Jackson onto the active roster or put him on IR again. So hopefully that goes a positive way and Adoree is back on the active roster. So then you add Desmond King and you add Adoree Jackson to help deal with cutting Jonathan Joseph. So there are other ways around that and other possible solutions that we have already discussed for the other two roster spots. So will be interesting to watch going forward. What the Titans do to fill these roster spots.

But what we do know is. John Robinson had had enough of what he had seen. He needed to send a message to the locker room. And he did that over the past two days. Making a major trade with Desmond King, and then cutting four players, including a high-priced name like Vic Beasley. So some very interesting moves from John Robinson as he tries to get this Tennessee Titans season back on track

in terms of having Super Bowl aspirations. It is time to jump into our re-watch Wednesday portion of our show. Going to break down my additional analysis from a schematic standpoint of the Titans offense and defense from Sunday's game against the Bengals, but also through eight weeks of the season, take a look at who the Titans are from that schematic perspective on offense and defense and what exactly they have been doing for a half of a season. Before we jump into the rewatch Wednesday portion of our show, I want to tell you guys about Pepsi.

This football season will be different and Pepsi is here to get you ready for game day no matter how you watch this season. Pepsi is the refreshment you need to power through game day and become a member of the League of Football Watchers. These passionate fans are the real generational talent that Pepsi fuels. Because Pepsi isn't made for those who play the game, it's made for those who watch it. Pepsi, made for football watching. Go to madeforfootballwatching.com to check out the latest football watching content from Pepsi. It is time to dive into our re-watch Wednesday segment and we are going to start out with the Titans offensive performance

from week 8 against the Cincinnati Bengals. And what I want to mention first is actually about the Bengals defense rather than the Titans offense. It's something that's popping up a lot, especially in the past two weeks. And the Bengals defense, like the Steelers defense, decided to go with man coverage on third and short third and medium opportunities and play tight coverage against the Titans weapons and one thing that I think this exposes is the Titans lack of a true deep speed threat and a lot of you guys can point to Kalief Raymond if you want but I have talked at length

on this podcast about the limitations that he has in terms of route running and at this point when Kalief Raymond comes out on the field it alerts the other team to be looking for those double moves those vertical routes so that the cat is out of the bag you could say with Kalief Raymond and he doesn't offer enough as a pure route runner and a pure wide receiver or even a gadget player that you could run jet sweeps to and things like that options he doesn't offer anything else outside of those double vertical routes so you can't really have that speed element I'm talking about from a player like Khalif Raymond it has to be a wide receiver that threatens the defense in other

ways as well as giving you a vertical deep threat. So Kalief Raymond just isn't that guy and the Titans offense sorely lacks that because defenses are just pressing up on the Titans. Whether it be in zone coverage, they're playing aggressively downhill. They're not worried about getting beat deep whatsoever. And then if it's in man coverage, they're pressing at the line of scrimmage. They're having their robber. They're having their deep zone safety play a lot closer up to the line of scrimmage than you would typically see because the Titans do not scare anybody with a vertical route. It has to be one of those big play action, max protect, long developing, deep double moves down the field with Khalif Raymond.

Those are the only deep shots that the Titans really get down the field. Because they don't have a wide receiver that's versatile enough with that speed. To be able to be out there consistently and make the defense think about it down to down. So teams are starting to really condense the Titans offense. It's making it difficult, not only in the run game, but in the pass game. And one thing that I want to talk about is the fact that while the Titans wide receivers are good, Corey Davis is good. AJ Brown is better than good. He's fantastic. They are not separation receivers. They're not elite route running receivers. That's not the game here.

That's not the scheme for the Titans offense. So these teams like the Bengals defense, the Steelers defense, they're playing press man coverage and saying, who do you got? That's going to create separation outside of the play action fake and what it creates. Who do you have? The Titans have AJ Brown, but if you get a good enough corner, like William Jackson, the third to go up against AJ Brown, he's not going to win every single time. He's not the route runner that an Amari Cooper or Calvin Ridley or Julio Jones is at this moment in time in his career. His best attribute is yards after the catch, getting the ball in his hands short and making some players miss and getting downfield. That is his biggest strength. So the Titans just don't have a lot of players that are really good at creating separation and tight man coverage without the benefit of play action.

The best players they have on the team that do that are Anthony Ferkser and Adam Humphreys. And then Adam Humphreys got hurt at the end of the first half. So the Titans offense was just really struggling. And another thing, Tannehill, his skill set, he is not a pinpoint accurate guy all the time. That's not his greatest skill that if we're looking at his pros and cons it'd probably be one of his slight cons is that he's not incredibly pinpoint accurate he's got a strong arm he's athletic if you give him a good read a good

window he's going to fire it in he's going to take chances he's going to trust his guys but he's not some precision passer who's going to find the holes in the zone. Joe Burrow is already better at that than Ryan Tannehill is. So if you take away the guys that can create separation against man coverage in somebody like Adam Humphreys, or you just put a good matchup on Anthony Ferkser, and those guys are not fantastic at that already, that's a limited skill set there. And then you add in the fact that Tannehill struggles with accuracy in those holes in the zone sometimes when he doesn't have play action it just bogs down the Titans passing offense outside of those play action opportunities that they have so teams are condensing the field

they're playing tight up against the Titans the Titans don't really have the players or the skill set to open up the field down the field they don't really have enough players who can separate against man coverage and it's just making things difficult for them in the passing game the Titans ran for over 200 yards in this game and I'm going to talk about the running game schematically here in a second but even though they did that the passing game wasn't consistent enough for them to win the game and score more than 20 points so that's something that we have to look at this team needs to to improve on that, if not in this season, but going forward into next season. It's something that I asked for in the offseason was a speed threat.

A lot of people thought Kalief Raymond was that guy, and it's obvious the Titans don't have that guy on the roster. On early downs, first and second downs, teams are matching up a cornerback and man coverage against Janu. That's why Janu's been kind of eliminated the past two weeks. Also, Janu is not a fantastic route runner either. So they take him off the field and put on Ferkser sometimes on third downs when they want to go with three wide receivers and one tight end.

So that's something to watch as well. Some of the limitations we're seeing from Janu Smith being exposed here. Diving into the Titans running game, one thing that I did notice is when they ran their outside runs, their outside zone, they like to do that with a fullback. And one thing that the Steelers were doing and the Bengals were doing, very aggressive coming downhill trying to shoot gaps in the run game. So what happens is, is the Titans have each of their offensive linemen and their tight ends blocking a guy. And then the other team will have someone shoot through the line of scrimmage and get to Derrick Henry in the backfield.

Well, one way that the Titans were combating that schematically is by having a fullback on those outside zone runs. So when all the linemen and the tight ends are matched up with their guy in their zone blocking scheme, and that one guy shoots through the line, Kari Blossom game can take on that guy, and then in theory, Derrick Henry still has the opportunity to find an open hole. What they were doing for their inside runs is they would have, instead of a fullback in the backfield with Derrick Henry, they would have two tight ends usually on the same

side, and they'd run that split flow action like we talked about throughout the season, where one of the tight ends would peel back to the opposite side of the run and take the cutback defender and that would give an open lane up the middle to not only Derrick Henry but Deontay Foreman as well. So that's what the Titans were doing in the run game. Another thing back to the passing game that I just want to mention real quick before we move on was that the Titans run a lot of hook routes where their guys just go down the field to the first down marker

and then just turn around and try to get in the hole in the zone. And as I mentioned earlier, that works a little bit better when you have Adam Humphreys out there and Anthony Ferkser doing that. But Adam Humphreys is gone. They have Anthony Ferkser who's really only passing down tight ends, struggles sometimes in blocking. So it just limits what the Titans can do schematically because they don't have the talent to challenge people downfield consistently.

They don't have guys who get open against tight man coverage consistently, and they only have a few guys who are experts at sitting down in those holes in the zone. We've already seen Ryan Tannehill be off on a couple of those holes to the zone throws to Corey Davis and A.J. Brown, and we've seen Corey Davis and A.J. Brown not settle down in the right places. So the Titans have to use guys who have specific skill sets. They need more versatility in the wide receiver group going forward. So that's just something that's limiting the Titans' offense right now. And as the Titans' offense as a whole, I've been teasing that.

I'm going to make it quick. The Titans are an execution offense. They don't try to trick you. They don't try to trick you. They don't try to confuse you. Now, of course, the play-action fakes that they use to Derrick Henry, that is meant to confuse, trick, and influence the middle field defenders. But overall, the Titans, from an overall schematic offensive perspective, they don't try to trick you.

They're an execution offense. You know when you face the Titans, you're going to get inside you. They're an execution offense. You know when you face the Titans, you're going to get inside zone. You're going to get outside zone. You're going to get heavy tight end packages. You're going to get play action boots looking to throw the ball over the middle. You're going to get A.J. Brown on slants and crossers. You're going to get Corey Davis on slants and deep crossers. You're going to get those hole in the zone opportunities from Anthony Ferkser, from Adam Humphreys. Teams know what the Titans are trying to do. The Titans, when I say the Titans are an execution offense, it means the Titans are going to line up and they just try to

out execute the other team. The other team knows what the Titans are trying to do on offense and the Titans just try to out execute them and do it better than what the defense is trying to do on offense, and the Titans just try to out-execute them and do it better than what the defense is trying to do. And that's great, but when the Titans are having days where they aren't executing at their best, they don't always have a secondary pitch or a third pitch to go to outside of what they do schematically, and they don't do it well enough. So the Titans can't just line up and shotgun spread it out like the Bengals did to the Titans. Go five wide receiver, spread it out, hunt matchups. The Titans can't necessarily do that.

They don't have the skill sets to do that on offense. So if the Titans aren't rolling with what they do well, we're seeing what can happen in the past two weeks. So from the Titans' offensive perspective, that's all I have. We are going to move forward into the Tennessee Titans defense, breaking down what they did schematically against the Cincinnati Bengals, but also I will give you guys a little bit of a overall analysis of the Tennessee Titans defense so far through the first half of the season. Before we get into that, I want to tell you guys

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You can use promo code LOCKEDON at BuiltBar.com and you'll get 20% off your next order. And while supplies last, you'll get a free cooler with your purchase. So once again, use promo code LOCKEDON for 20% off at Built bar.com. Let's get defensive. And I mean, let's get defensive in terms of capping off today's show with our rewatch Wednesday about the Titans defense. So let's dive into what exactly the Titans defense did against the Cincinnati Bengals and then where the Titans defense is right now halfway through the season. And I will give you my perspective on that through the lens that I just explained the

Titans offense from a general perspective. So let's dive into the individual game here though, the Cincinnati Bengals game that we're going to talk about. And one thing that I want to mention, and it's the exact same thing that the Steelers did. They went all shotgun. Well, not all shotgun. There are a few plays from under center, but majority of their offense was run out of shotgun for the day. And not just that, but they spread it out. Very rarely did the Bengals have multiple tight ends or multiple running backs on the field. It was primarily all 11 personnel, that's three wide receivers, out on the field. And why not? The Bengals have a great group of wide receivers.

And one thing that they were doing early on to create matchups, that's what all of this is about. When you spread out a defense like the Steelers offense and the Bengals offense did the last two weeks, all you're trying to do is make it easy for your quarterback to identify where his matchups are, his advantageous matchups, which is going to be in this game, just like it was for the Steelers. It was Deontay Johnson against Jonathan Joseph. It was Juju Smith-Schuster against Chris Jackson. Well, no shocker here. It was going to be Auden Tate and Tee Higgins against Jonathan Joseph,

and it was going to be Tyler Boyd against Chris Jackson. And you don't know all the time who's matched up with who, but what you do know is if you put Tee Higgins slash Auden Tate and Tyler Boyd on one side of the field, and you have Chris Jackson and Jonathan Joseph over there, well, you know that one of those guys is going to be guarding one of the receivers that you want to go to. So you know that either way, you have a matchup that you want when you have both those guys on one side of the field. So that's what the Titans started to see from the Bengals.

They were just motioning Tyler Boyd over to the same side as Odden Tate or Tee Higgins and then throwing over there to both Chris Jackson and Jonathan Joseph, who both won't be on the field for the Titans on Sunday, have been replaced or let go in some fashion throughout the last 36-48 hours. So that's one thing that I noticed instantly is the Bengals motioning Tyler Boyd in the slot over to the side with Jonathan Joseph and Chris Jackson so that they could get that two-on-two advantageous matchup. Now what the Titans did early was play man coverage because the Bengals were going to

be taking advantage of the Titans in zone coverage all day. So on third and shorts, the Titans would go to man coverage. So what the Bengals started to do, because you've got to think about how this progresses. So at first, Tyler Boyd is being motioned over, two wide receivers on one side, now with Tyler Boyd on one side. Well, what the Titans started to do was go man and try to flip it so that they didn't have those matchups. And then the Bengals responded pretty quickly by going with bunch formations and having

three wide receivers or two wide receivers and a tight end in a trips bunch formation so that if the Titans are running man coverage, it's going to be very difficult for them to assign who is taking who post snap. Because a lot of times what the Titans will do is they'll line up in a triangle of defenders and man coverage. The inside guy says whoever breaks inside first, I'll take him. The outside guy says whoever breaks outside first, I'll take him. It's not that they have their assignments defined before the snap. Now sometimes they do. Sometimes they say, hey, I'm taking this guy no matter what. I'm taking this guy no matter what. But sometimes it's about

alignment. Whoever comes towards me, I'll take them. Whoever comes towards you, I'm taking this guy no matter what. I'm taking this guy no matter what. But sometimes it's about alignment. Whoever comes towards me, I'll take them. Whoever comes towards you, I'll take them. And those communication errors can cause problems for the Titans, and they did in the red zone for the Titans. We saw a Jayon Brown play where he gave up the touchdown in the flat to Giovanni Bernard, and that was a miscommunication on man coverage pre-snap. So when the Bengals go into these bunch formations, they're trying to deter the Titans from playing man coverage, which forced the Titans to go into zone coverages when they played those

bunch formations, and then the Bengals were able to pick apart the Titans in zone coverage because they were playing those soft zones that they have to play with Jonathan Joseph on the outside, and the Bengals were just finding ways to make that work on offense. So another thing I want to mention here is that the Bengals and the Steelers both used the run game and were successful in the run game, but they also used the short passing game as an extension of the run game and were able to get really good yardage on early downs by just completing those short passes out to the flat against Jonathan Joseph. That's just the reality of the situation here.

That's what happened. Now, talking about the run defense a little bit more than the pass defense, I do want to say that just Jeffrey Simmons was uncharacteristically terrible in run defense in this game. I mentioned it in Titan Downs on Monday's show, but I just want to reiterate here, I had not seen him play that poorly all season long. I mentioned, you know, a possible injury. Don't want to make excuses,

but on both the Bengals' touchdown runs and a couple of the big runs that they had during the game, Simmons just got moved way out of his gap. And against a Bengals' offensive line that I wouldn't have expected to see that. It was disappointing to see Jeffrey Simmons' worst game of the season come against the worst offensive line that he's faced. So curious to see how he stacks up in the next game against a Chicago Bears offensive line that's not that great either.

Now, let's get into the Titans defense from a season-long halfway through the year overall perspective here so when I talked about the Titans offense I said they are an execution offense they're not really going to try to trick you a bunch they're going to line up do what they do and try to beat you doing what they do best the Titans defense on the other hand, tries to be a disguised defense. That's what the Titans want to do. They want to disguise everything they're doing. They want to bring stunts and, you know, different types of twists up front with the defensive line. They want to blitz from this slot, blitz this linebacker, drop this lineman, drop this safety, inverted cover two, where the two slot defenders drop back

into the two deep zones and the safeties that are deep come up forward playing zone defense downhill. They want to trick the offense, show cover three, roll to cover two, two high safety look into cover three, single high post safety look into cover four, into cover two, all these different things. They really want to confuse the offense, which is different than what I said with the Titans offense, that they're just going to line up and try to beat you at what they do best. The Titans defense is going to try to confuse you and not let you know what they're doing.

That's what they want to do from a philosophical standpoint. But the Titans are unable to do that with their current personnel. Well, not their current personnel, but the personnel that they've been playing throughout the first half of the season. They're just unable to do it. The Titans had been doing inverted cover too a lot throughout the year, and they just quit doing it after the Texans game when Malcolm Butler gave up that long touchdown to Will Fuller late in the game. That was an inverted cover too, and Malcolm Butler just couldn't get back quick enough to stop Will Fuller on that streak. So if teams are able to identify when the Titans might be doing inverted cover too, they're just going to audible to a nine route with one of their inside guys or one of their outside guys,

and they're going to try to beat Malcolm Butler down the field or beat Christian Fulton down the field when he was doing the inverted cover too. So the Titans aren't able to run their disguises right now because they don't have the cornerbacks and the athleticism necessary in the secondary to be able to have that versatility, which is exactly why you go trade for a guy like Desmond King, who gives you the versatility to blitz off the side and actually take down the quarterback, unlike Chris Jackson, who misses sacks nonstop. Someone like Desmond King, who can drop back in a cover two zone and be a deep safety defender for you and has the athleticism to get back and actually do that job.

So you add in a versatile safety or a versatile cornerback in Desmond King. You add in a Dory Jackson, hopefully, who's one of the better athletes in the NFL and can match up with any of them. Imagine if a Dory Jackson was on Deontay Johnson or Tee Higgins or on Tate. I mean, just imagine if Desmond King was on Tyler Boyd or Juju Smith-Schuster instead of Chris Jackson. I mean, I'm not saying these two guys are going to completely overhaul the defense, but it just changes what everybody else is allowed to do, and it slots everybody into a role that's more comfortable for them. Kevin Byard doesn't have

to be all over the field all the time anymore and cover so much ground. He can trust his guys. Jayon Brown, same thing. They don't have to worry so hard about getting out to the flat to make a tackle because they know that their guy is going to be in position. So it just makes everybody more confident in what they do. And one thing I can say about the Titans defense right now is they're having to do less disguises, which makes them into more of an execution defense. And they don't have the talent to be an execution defense.'s not what they do best that's not what these players were drafted

to do they're versatile they're supposed to be able to fly around the skies do a bunch of different things if you ask the titans defense to just line up and beat somebody like the old seahawks defense used to try to do the legion of boom defense it's not going to work the titans don't have the kind of exact skill sets to run the same defense over and over with success they have to mix things up so the titans defense can't do what they want to do from a philosophical standpoint and that brings me back to a mike rabel quote from after the game when asked about not hiring a defensive coordinator and he said that i can promise you not having a defensive coordinator is not what is causing what's happening on the field to me that translates to it's not the coach's fault and quite honestly some of it is the coach's fault but a lot of what I saw in

Cincinnati was not the coach's fault it was just the Titans players not making plays and they aren't getting the advantage that they normally get from those disguised coverages and those disguised defenses because they can't do as much of it because they don't have the talent to do it so hopefully these two new additions at cornerback with Desmond King and then Adoree Jackson hopefully being activated this weekend that can change things up for the Titans defense and where we saw the Titans defense be very good at the first half of the year last year and then they lose Malcolm Butler and Adoree Jackson gets hurt throughout the back half and then the Titans defense was terrible at the end of the year hopefully we can see the inversion of that the Titans defense struggling at the beginning of the year getting a

little bit healthy in the secondary inverting that and being a better defense in the second half if the Titans can do that it takes some pressure off of the offense. The offense has more of a margin of error. They don't have to feel the pressure to score every single time. It can just let the team relax a little bit, play a little bit more free, play a little bit more aggressive, and play Tennessee Titans football. We're not getting that right now from the team the past two weeks. So hopefully these roster moves from John Robinson and some of the schematic changes that can come from those roster moves will help the Titans get this season back on track. But that's going to do it for me today in this rewatch Wednesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast.

Remember, tomorrow we begin our preparation for the Chicago Bears with a crossover Thursday conversation with Lauren Cox from the Locked On Bears podcast. Excited to bring that conversation to you guys. Make sure you're subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream. But that's going to do it for me today. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans. you