Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Julio To Titans Deep Dive: Statistical Nightmares, Schematic Possibilities & Titans News Round-Up

Episode Date: June 10, 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, this Thursday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast is presented by the Peacock and Williamson podcast. NFL analyst Brian Peacock and former NFL scout Matt Williamson host Locked On's Peacock and Williamson every Monday through Friday. Brian and Matt give you a national perspective on all of the latest NFL news,

so make sure you check out the Peacock and Williamson podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, wherever you get your podcast. So obviously, this entire week has been dedicated to breaking down the Julio Jones trade. On Monday, we obviously had all of the trade details, the big picture takeaways. On Tuesday, we dove into the timeline of the Julio Jones trade, looking at the past and the future events that surrounded the deal. On Wednesday, we talked about the salary cap situation, how the Titans were converting Ryan Tannehill's salary to make it work, the cap space that they'll have left afterwards, which they'll have a little bit of extra to play with now, we know from yesterday's breakdown.

But today, today what I want to do is talk about how this affects the Titans on the field. So of course, on the Locked On Titans podcast and on Twitter, at Tic Tac Titans, I have put a large focus on the X's and O's of the game, schematically what is actually happening with our favorite football team, and I want to do that today. And we are going to start off looking at some very interesting statistics in certain situations that should benefit the Titans offense this year now that Julio Jones is on board. And then in the middle of our show, I'm going to give you guys

all of the schematic things I am hoping to see now that Julio Jones is in Nashville, not only with the addition of Julio Jones, but with Todd Downing being the offensive coordinator, I have some really good nuggets and a specific example of how the Titans can utilize the physical wide receivers that they have to help out the entire offense. So we're going to have a schematic discussion in the middle of the show. And then to cap off today's show, I'm going to dive back into some big news that happened over the weekend for the Titans that kind of got washed away with all the Julio Jones information.

And that was the retirement of newly signed free agent cornerback Kevin Johnson. So I'm going to talk about how that impacts the Titans going forward as well and give all of you guys an opportunity to get what you want and finally be happy that Kevin Johnson I'm going to talk about how that impacts the Titans going forward as well and give all of you guys an opportunity to get what you want and finally be happy that Kevin Johnson wasn't on the 2021 Titans, something that I supported, but seems like a lot of you guys did not want the guy on the team. So we'll talk about his surprise retirement to cap off this Thursday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast.

Let's get it. Titans fans, we are going to kick off this Thursday show by diving into some situational statistics that should give you even more optimism for what the Titans offense can be in 2021. And remember, this statistical conversation is going to set the table and set the stage for the schematic conversation that we have in the middle of the show. So excited to dive in with you guys. Before we do, I want to remind you that I'm going to be putting out

Monday through Friday daily Tennessee Titans content, not only during the season, but all year long. Make sure that you never miss an episode by following or subscribing to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream. Also, follow me on social media at TicTacTitans on Twitter and at LockedOnTitansPod on Facebook. But let's get into these interesting statistics. And first and foremost, I have to give a big shout out to Teron Davenport, the ESPN beat writer for the Titans, who tweeted out these statistics based on the research department

that he has behind him. Unfortunately, I don't have that sort of high-level research department. I am the research department, so big shout out to Teron for putting out this tweet, but it breaks down the different situations that the Titans could see and how each individual player has been incredibly successful against that particular situation. So the situations that we are going to describe is how many men are in the box on defense. And just to break things down as simple as possible, when you think about the quote unquote

box for a defense, you're talking about the front seven, basically from where the tight end is to the offensive tackle. If there are two tight ends, one on each side,, basically from where the tight end is to the offensive tackle. If there are two tight ends, one on each side, it's tight end to tight end. Basically, the width of the offensive line, you can add in the tight ends in there as well. And basically, if you think about where the quarterback could get an intentional grounding, that's the pocket.

Well, the pocket is basically the box on the other side for the defense. It's where you're going to see the linebackers and the defensive line. Well, however many defenders are in there defines the situation. And of course, with the Titans having Derrick Henry, they're going to see much more defenders in the box than a normal team would see because other teams are trying to stop the run. So the more players you put into the box, in theory, gives you a better chance to stop the run. So the Titans saw a ton of eight-man boxes. That's going to be the front seven defenders, your typical defensive line and linebackers.

And then usually, other teams will drop a safety down into the box to try to help out with the run game. So with the safety in the front seven, that's eight men in the box. Typically the base defense, you'll have three linebackers, four defensive linemen, or a three, four, three defensive linemen, four linebackers. You'll have seven in the box. And then in sub packages and passing situations, usually you have your four down linemen and then your two linebackers and then five defensive backs.

That's six men in the box. So let's talk about these different situations and how different Tennessee Titans on the offense now can take advantage. A six man box with five defenders outside. Derrick Henry, that sounds like a perfect setup for him. He averaged 5.3 yards per rush over the last two years against six man boxes. He only averaged 4.3 against rushes that had more people. Seven man boxes, that's four defenders outside. Well, A.J. Brown can take advantage of that alignment. Over the last two years, A.J. Brown has averaged a league high

4.3 receiving yards per route run against seven-man boxes. Now, you really want to stack the box and try to stop Derrick Henry. Well, that's when Julio Jones is going to eat. Over the last five years, against eight-man boxes, Julio Jones has had 634 receiving yards total. That's 163 more receiving yards than anyone else. He's averaging 4.7 yards per route run against 8-man fronts.

The best of any wide receiver with 100 plus routes run against 8-man boxes. So let's sum it up again. A 6-man box, Derrick Henry is's gonna rush for over five yards per carry a seven-man box AJ Brown is gonna have four point three receiving yards per route run That's a league high an eight-man box. Julio Jones is gonna put up 634 total yards or four point seven yards per route run And that's the best of any receiver with the qualifying amount of attempts. So either way you want to cut it, six-man box, Derrick Henry's eating you.

Seven-man, A.J. Brown's eating you. Eight-man, Julio Jones is eating you. If that doesn't make you as optimistic as possible for the season ahead, then I don't know what could. Well, actually, I have an idea. It could be a schematic conversation breaking down how the Titans can utilize their wide receiver group that now has Julio Jones to be even more explosive than they were last year. And we are going to get into that next.

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of the Locked On Titans podcast as we zoom in on exactly what Julio Jones could do for the Tennessee Titans offense. We talked about the statistical aspect of that conversation in our first segment. A six-man box, Derrick Henry is going to destroy with over five yards per carry. A seven-man box, A.J. Brown is going to destroy with a league-high receiving yards per route run, an eight-man box. Julio Jones has been the most dominant wide receiver over the last five years against an eight-man box. So either way, the Titans are going to be able to have a solution to what defenses throw at them. At least that's what the statistics say. But schematically speaking,

from an X's and O's standpoint, what can the Titans do here with Julio Jones? Well, I have a few things that I want to talk about with you guys. I've hinted at it a little bit earlier in the week, but throughout watching different teams throughout this all season, just checking out film on different teams, and then also when I'm scouting Titans opponents throughout the year, I watch film and I watch other teams that aren't the Titans. And one thing that I saw when scouting the Chicago Bears earlier in the year, I watched their game against the Los Angeles Rams because of course, the Rams run a similar offensive style to the Tennessee Titans. Wanted to see how the Bears

would counteract that. Well, one thing that I noticed after watching the Rams and it led me to watching the Rams more because obviously their head coach, Sean McVay, while having an embarrassing loss in the Super Bowl and the Rams aren't going back to the Super Bowl every year like everybody surmised when Sean McVay busted onto the scene, he's still one of the most gifted offensive minds in the NFL. He's an innovator with his West Coast zone scheme system. So I wanted to take a look at what he was doing. And I noticed something big time that I think will really impact the Titans going forward if Todd Downing chooses to utilize it.

The Titans used more multi-tight end sets last year than any other team in the NFL. And I know you're thinking to yourself, well, they lost Arthur Smith and they lost John U. Smith. They didn't really replace John U. Smith. Anthony Ferkser isn't quite the blocker that Johnnie Smith was. So can the Titans go to multi-tight end sets as much as they did last year to keep things similar and keep that continuity going? Well, my answer is no.

Quite simply, the Titans don't have the talent at tight end this year to utilize multi-tight end sets as much as they did before. And I also have a feeling that that is an Arthur Smith-centric thing. While I expect the offense to be very, very similar to be a cousin of what it was against Arthur Smith, I don't expect it to be a twin brother. So from that perspective, I don't think that the Titans will use multi-tight end sets as much as they did last year,

even if they had John U. Smith back or a third tight end that we all felt comfortable with outside of Swaim and Ferkser. So what do the Titans do to give those multi-tight end looks while utilizing more three wide receiver personnel? So I talk about personnel groupings and the numbers behind it. 11 personnel is three wide receivers because there's one running back and there's one tight end. 12 personnel is two tight ends and two wide receivers because there's one running back and two tight ends. 12, the running backs come first, the tight ends come second. That's how you diagnose. 13 would be one running back, three tight ends.

You can make any combination's how you diagnose. 13 would be one running back, three tight ends. You can make any combination of that you want. 14, one running back, four tight ends, never going to see that, but you get what I'm saying here. You guys understand 10 would be four wide receivers, one running back. You guys understand what I'm laying down at this point in time. So anyways, the Titans are going to be able to show. 12 personnel looks. Two tight end looks. While being in 11 personnel. From a wide receiver standpoint.

The Titans have. 6 foot 2. 220 some pound. AJ Brown. They have 6 foot 3. 215, 220 pound Julio Jones. They have 6 foot 3. 210 pound Josh Reynolds.

Those are monster wide receivers. You even add in the 6'3", Nick Westbrook-Akina, who did a good job blocking last year and is a big physical wide receiver. The Titans can utilize those big physical wide receivers as tight ends. And they can show multi-tight end looks and be in three wide receiver packages and that's something that the Los Angeles Rams utilized a ton with Cooper Cup in the slot because Cooper Cup is a physical guy who's not as big as the Titans wide receivers but he's a hard-nosed guy who's willing to put his hard hat on get in there and block defensive ends block outside

linebackers the Titans are going to need that from their big physical wide receivers. It's going to give them a personnel advantage because the defense is going to want to take on the Titans as if they were in a two tight end set because they have to worry about Derrick Henry. And that might put their base defense on the field instead of having their sub package, their nickel, their dime out there to deal with the wide receivers. So basically, the Titans are going to be going up against defenses that think they have two tight ends on the field, but really they're going to be able to do three wide receivers stuff schematically because the Titans receivers are so big and physical that they can mimic

a tight end. So absolutely love that versatility, that potential, something I picked up from the Rams that I'm hoping the Titans do. Obviously, Todd Downing, when he was in Oakland as the offensive coordinator, utilized more RPOs, that's read pass option, where the quarterback can hand it to the running back or throw it to a wide receiver. Obviously, having a guy like Julio Jones, who not only is a talented guy, but a smart wide receiver and can sit in those zones,

knows how to get himself open. He's going to be very effective in the RPO game as well. And then the screen game. The Titans have to get better in the screen game. One thing that really affected the Titans last year was having the line of scrimmage stacked with six defenders, all not knowing where the blitz is coming from, who is going to be blitzing. The Titans didn't have guys who could get open against man coverage quick enough.

One thing that would have helped that immediately without man beaters at wide receiver Who is going to be blitzing? The Titans didn't have guys who could get open against man coverage quick enough. One thing that would have helped that immediately without man beaters at wide receiver is the screen game. That's a great way to take advantage of an over blitzing, over aggressive defense. But the Titans simply weren't effective enough and couldn't run screens well enough last year to have that as a reliable part of their offense. It has to be this year. And who is a guy who can help you get in the ball in his hands at the line of scrimmage and making a play? Obviously, A.J. Brown, but Julio Jones is a

legendary guy at those sort of things as well. So Julio Jones is not only going to allow the Titans to show 12 looks and 11 personnel, he's going to help them be better in the RPO game, which I expect Todd Downing to incorporate more into the Titans offense as he was pretty effective with it in Oakland, and then the screen game as well. Now, one last thing that I want to mention is a specific route type. So, if you guys have been watching my film breakdowns, we've been talking about this for the last two years. The Titans love running a play-action fake to Derrick Henry and then bringing A.J. Brown five to 10 yards over the middle on a dig route. We've seen it a million times over and over. Play action fake, throw it to A.J. Brown over the middle.

Well, what was Corey Davis doing while that was happening? Corey Davis isn't going to be running the same slant dig route, in route, right over the middle at the same level as A.J. Brown, but the Titans are trying to open up the middle of the field with the play action fake, so Corey Davis would be on a deep crossing route. He'd be about 10 to 12 yards deeper than A.J. Brown going over the middle of the field so that the deep safety couldn't drop down on A.J. Brown. The linebackers are pulled up.

So, the Titans are looking to hit A.J. Brown between the linebackers and the safety. The play-action fake brings the linebackers up. The deep crosser by the secondary receiver keeps the deep safety from coming downhill onto A.J. Well, sometimes teams adjust and they started taking away the middle of the field. Well, that's going to leave Julio Jones open on the deep crosser. But even more so, later in the year, especially in that Baltimore Ravens game during the regular season, I highlighted this in a Tic Tac Titans film breakdown. Corey Davis was faking the deep crosser and then cutting out to the sideline.

And when you had a team in man coverage who got used to trailing the deep crosser across the field, they'd fall asleep. They wouldn't expect to break back out to the sideline. Well, Julio Jones has been running a specific route his entire career that a lot of people call him the godfather of. He basically runs a deep curl to the inside, fakes to the inside, and then darts immediately laterally

straight out to the sideline. That route is going to pair perfectly with the Titans' over-the-middle-centric play-action passing game. It's just a perfect, perfect schematic counter. The Titans started doing it last year to counter what teams were doing in man coverage against play-action.

Not only were the Titans already on that counter counter Julio Jones is maybe the best wide receiver in NFL history at that sort of route so just a perfect marriage schematically for the Titans and Julio Jones very excited to see what the Titans can do with him going into the season but that's a statistic deep dive on how this offense can just absolutely destroy teams. That's a schematic deep dive on how Julio Jones can alter this Titans offense and help them reach the next level as well. We are going to dive into a miscellaneous news segment to end up today's show. Talk about Kevin Johnson's retirement.

Want to tell you about Julio Jones's new number with the Titans that we do know now. And also going to talk about John Robinson's appearance on Good Morning Football on Wednesday. Before we get into that, do want to tell you guys about betonline.ag, the fastest and easiest way to bet on all your sports action. No, there's no football going on right now, but baseball is in full swing. The NHL, the NBA are in their playoffs, so make sure that before the next pitch or the next shot or the next puck drop, you head over to betonline.ag on your laptop or your mobile device, and you can check out all the great sporting news, sign-up bonuses, and contest information.

Speaking of sign-up bonuses, if you head to betonline.ag right now, sign up for free today, and use the promo code locked on that's one word locked on you'll get a 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit bet online your online sportsbook experts Titans fans, we are going to cap off this Thursday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast, getting into just some miscellaneous news items that I wanted to get into with you guys. And number one, Julio Jones has picked a number. We thought maybe number one. We thought maybe number eight, his college number. But no, Julio Jones has picked neither of those numbers.

And honestly, I'm a little disappointed we didn't get number eight. I know some of you guys have leftover feelings with Marcus, so you don't want him to wear number eight. Me personally, number eight is my favorite number. That's my personal number. Every basketball team, every baseball team, football didn't work out because football numbers didn't work like that at my high school. I was a running back. I had to be in the 20s. Very old school, very traditional. But number eight is the number I would pick every time. I

have a Roland number eight Tennessee Titans jersey, actually. So I wanted to see Julio Jones in my favorite number dominating out on the field but ultimately Julio Jones went with my sister's number number two so number two is a cool number I like it I don't know how I feel about a wide receiver in number two but basically Julio Jones thought process was I was number 11 one plus one equals two I saw some people even saying you know chapter two of his career I could get that a lot of people are making the joke as I have on Twitter Tulio Jones that's kind of corny but hey you guys know me by now you're gonna get a little bit of corniness in here I'm like a corn salsa maybe I'm giving you a tomato I'm giving giving you a pepper, giving you a cilantro, but there's a little corn mixed in there as well.

So Julio Jones is going to be number two. The next item that I wanted to get into is Kevin Johnson's retirement. So the Titans signed Kevin Johnson as a depth cornerback piece earlier in the all season, much to the chagrin of, well, chagrin wouldn't be the right word, but much to the displeasure of what seemed like the majority of the Titans fan base, people who cover the team, came at me about Kevin Johnson, fans who didn't like Kevin Johnson signing had things to say to me because

I thought it was a pretty good signing. I thought as a depth cornerback, a fourth, fifth, sixth cornerback, Kevin Johnson, who was a former first-round pick, made sense Mike Vrabel would get him back under his wing and see if he can squeeze any more juice out of that lemon. And I say that, pun intended, because Kevin Johnson was a lemon, apparently. And he retired over the weekend prior to the Julio Jones trade. And my beat on that is the Titans were going to release him to work on the Julio Jones trade. And beat on that is the Titans were going to release him to work on the Julio Jones trade and rather than be released and go out that way he said you know what I just don't want to play football anymore Mike Vrabel was my last lifeline he's the last guy who was willing

to give me a chance if the Titans are going to cut me then I just don't want to play football anymore now it's a good thing that Kevin Johnson decided to retire rather than be cut because that saves the Titans the 2.25 million dollars that they paid him to sign so not only did the Titans create more cap space with the Ryan Tannehill contract restructure not only did the Titans create more cap space and voidable years within that Tannehill restructure but they had Kevin Johnson retire over the weekend which opened up about two and2.25 million more for the Titans to go out and make some more moves. That helps the Titans with the cap space since they went out and drafted Caleb Farley and Elijah Molden. There really isn't as big of a need for a depth piece like Kevin Johnson.

So the fact the Titans could get that money back on a player that they didn't necessarily need anymore based on new developments, it's a very positive thing. Now, you wish the best for Kevin Johnson in his retirement. I'm not happy to see his career end or anything like that, but it does positively impact the Titans from a cap perspective. So something that had to be mentioned here. I know a lot of you guys are dancing in the rain right now because Kevin Johnson retired and you didn't want him anyway.

I thought it would have been a nice depth piece, but either way, not something that we are going to have to worry about. The next thing that I want to talk about is John Robinson's appearance on Good Morning Football on Wednesday. Nothing too crazy or nothing too interesting, but I did just want to at least read these quotes to you guys so you knew what he had to say. He went on Good Morning Football on the NFL Network and said this, quote, my charge

is to get as many good players on the team as possible, and I'm excited about the guys we had back on the roster, the guys that we added in the offseason, but when you're able to acquire a player like Julio and can add him into the mix of our football team, what we try to do offensively, those don't come around very often. We thought it was a move that we needed to make for us. I know our fans are super stoked to have him here. End quote. Yes, we are, John. We are super stoked. But I love the mindset there.

Yeah, I like the roster. I like the guys we added. But you get a chance at a Julio Jones, you simply can't pass that up. Now, here's the quote that I thought was more fun, more interesting, at least to get a window into what John Robinson is thinking about the pass catchers. He said this, quote, To have both those guys, A.J. and Julio,

with tight end Anthony Ferkser, with Josh Reynolds, with Derek in the backfield, obviously with Ryan, we're excited about how they're all going to complement each other, the stresses they can put on defenses and make defensive coordinators' jobs harder to try and game plan for those guys. End quote. Well, that's what we talked about at the beginning of the show. The statistics bear out that whatever poison you pick, it's still going to kill you. But what I found most interesting here is Anthony Ferkser's name.

To have both those guys, Julio and AJ, with tight end Anthony Ferkser, with Josh Reynolds, with Derek Henry, he didn't mention Jeff Swaim. So to me, that tells me, and this is something that I wasn't expecting. I expected to see a nice committee approach, but that quote right there tells me that the Titans organization sees Anthony Ferkser as a starting tight end in the NFL. He didn't mention Jeff Swaim, guys. He's not looking at the tight end position like, yeah, we got two tight ends who can complement each other as a tandem.

No, Anthony Ferkser is the Tennessee Titans tight end, and Jeff Swaim is his backup and a situational blocker. That's what I get from these comments. Now, we'll see the snap counts, how they're used on offense. We'll determine that. But, hey, that's what I get from that. And that makes me very excited that the Titans have that much confidence

in Anthony Ferkser. From what I've seen Anthony Ferkser do, what we've all seen Anthony Ferkser do, to Titans that then show that level of confidence makes me really excited. Now, the last thing that I wanted to mention here, have a little bit of fun to get out here. I got a five-star review.

And you know I always read every five-star review. I want to shout you guys out if you're listening. Oh, man. So I woke up this morning, had a lot of new listeners this week. Do want to say the Tennessee Titans Locked on Titans podcast is in the top 100 football podcast in America on iTunes. Number eight in Brazil, top 32 in Ireland. Really, really happy and really impressed. Like I said yesterday, thank you guys so much. And I asked for support and I thank you for support. And Marv Isbell,

shout out to Marv. He gave me a five-star review star review he said here's your 5 stars for support but this was his comment you sound like the most punchable person of all time but I still tune in you know I gotta be honest with you Marv if you ask my sister if you ask my best friends

to give me a friendship or a brotherhood rating. It may look a little bit about like what you just said. Sound like the most punchable person of all time, but I still tune in. My friends may tell you that I am the most high, strong, energetic, annoying person that they know, but I'm a five-star friend, and they still love me anyway. My sister would probably intimate a similar sentiment. He's the most annoying brother of all time, but I love him very much. So you know what, Marv? I appreciate it.

I appreciate that. You know, if I have a punchable voice or a punchable face, whatever, if you've seen my videos, but the content's so good that you get over it and you keep tuning in. Well, that's about the best compliment that I can get. So that's going to do it for me today, guys. Wanted to have a little fun to round out the show. Shout out, Marv. I still appreciate you, my man.

But that's going to do it for me today. As always, I am your host, Roland and this was locked on Titans You