Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Crossover with Locked on Cowboys

Episode Date: October 31, 2018

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Welcome in to another crossover edition. I am Terry Lambert, host of Locked on Titans, joined today by Landon of Locked on Cowboys. Landon, thanks for joining me today. Hey, thanks for having me. I'm excited to do this. Marcus usually gets to do all these, so I'm excited to talk to people in other parts of the country and other teams.

It's always exciting. Yeah, these are a lot of fun. I think the listeners really like them. They get a different perspective. So anyways, you know us. We write for musiccitymiracles.com. Me and Jimmy do. Jimmy's off tonight.

Part of the SB Nation umbrella. So if you need to find any of our work, you can always go over there for the latest information so uh Landon we'll just kind of dive right in tonight I want to know about Amari Cooper uh the new addition to the Cowboys passing game I know it's been a struggle this year what was your initial take when you found out it was Amari Cooper uh for a first round pick well I mean you and me both want to know about Amari Cooper, right? So I'm excited to see him too.

Yeah, I think the interesting thing is, I mean, just a little behind the curtain, is that my podcast partner, Marcus Mosier, actually happens to be the editor for the Raiders Wire, which is the USA Today segment that does all the different individuals, a lot like SB Nation kind of where they do individual team pages. Marcus happens to be the editor for that, so he kind of had heard rumblings about that and obviously had some information about how the player was. I think as football fans, when we go through the draft process, we become pretty familiar with all these players.

And so it definitely wasn't a name that I was unfamiliar with. I think the initial thought for Cowboys fans was about the price. I think that there had been talk about Amari Cooper potentially coming to the Cowboys. And essentially because he felt like such a good fit. potentially coming to the Cowboys and essentially because he, he's felt like such a good fit. He was, he's a route runner, which is kind of what we're putting a premium on currently with,

with Dak is wanting guys who could separate to get open and present a target to him. Um, and I think, you know, the fact that he's 24 years old is, is a huge, huge bonus for us to another young player.

Who's going to grow with the team that, that they're really trying to plan for the future, you know, again, but no one I think was immediately prepared to have to give up a first round pick um and i think that the last week has really been the kind of you know salving of that and seeing well you know okay he's 24 years old we get him at a young you get him at a young age i mean he we could have gotten a wide receiver in the in the draft and picked him in the first round,

and he'd probably still be 24 years old and still not be nearly as good as Amari Cooper. So I think the price is what really kind of initially got people wondering, but I think the idea of having Amari Cooper come in here, not only does it work just because the Cowboys passing game needed receivers, it kind of helps slot all the other receivers. We have a team filled with second and third receivers. So getting a guy at the top kind of actually helps slot everyone else sort of properly. So yeah, and that plus some other stuff that happened in the bye week has really kind of

made Cowboys fans more interested than I guess depressed over losing against the Redskins the previous week. It's kind of interesting I think the Titans and Cowboys are really similar teams yeah both needed a playmaker Cowboys went out and got one they were aggressive you know maybe maybe perhaps too aggressive giving up a first round pick we'll see um but you know it it kind of beats the titans perspective right now who didn't add one so titans fans are are really upset tonight uh that they just kind of kept the status quo at receiver so um i wanted to talk about jack prescott you know we watch a lot of cowboys football because it seems it seems like they're always on the TV. I just don't know what to think about the guy. Has it been, are you putting things

more so on his receivers to him? Tell us a little bit about that. You know, it's been obviously a major topic of conversation in Dallas. I mean, I think after you see what he did his rookie year and then the very first part of the second year, you think how could things have gone so poorly since then? I think that a lot

has been asked of Dak and that's been a lot of part of the issue. Do I think that right now he's you know aaron rogers or even you know like carson wince no i don't think he is but i also think that he uh is a fourth round pick that we got and i think is can definitely win is a is a guy that you can win with a lot and win big i think all the way big, if you put the team around him correctly. And I think that what Cowboys fans have kind of been used to is what Tony Romo provided,

but I think that even Cowboys fans forget what Tony Romo himself was like early on in his career and that he needed a supporting cast to help him along before he developed into that kind of elite processor in the pocket mental side and developed the rest of his game to that point. And I think that that's an issue with a lot of young quarterbacks in the NFL

is that not all of them come in ready-made for the NFL game, but that doesn't mean that they're not going to eventually develop into really great players. I think we've seen greatness from Dak at times, but I think that if you want to see him take that next step, you kind of have to live through the lumps. lumps now having said that clearly the cowboys think that there were other issues on this team and they've just fired their offensive line coach um and replaced him with a guy that was the assistant coach so and and that was a lot of that was due to the fact that i think dac's been i think sack 23 times already this season so and that's you know considering what the cowboys think about

their offensive line and the resources they spent there that's unacceptable so um you know i i think it's been a very difficult evaluation because they've put a lot on a young quarterback that you know they weren't i don't think necessarily planning on putting on to him but you know because of failures along the offensive line which is the last place that i think everyone expected it um it's made the evaluation extremely difficult. So Dallas has kind of hung their hat on the defensive side of the ball this year. It was from the outside looking in. Yeah, it's funny.

Yeah, not something I thought I'd be saying. But they're third in total defense. How are they doing that? Take us through each level of this defense what's the strengths what's the weaknesses there the crazy thing about the dallas defense is that this was the year that all the chickens came home to roost i mean the the problem has been a if you had if you had asked any cowboys fan about the defense previous to this season, I think a lot of them would tell you that the issue is that they sunk a lot of costs into second-round picks that never paid out. Well, this is the year of the revenge of the second-round pick because Randy Gregory is back on the field.

And he isn't performing up to the level that we saw him perform even at training camp. So I think that there's still another gear for where Randy Gregory's going to go. Jalen Smith has suddenly played like Jalen Smith from Notre Dame and looks like that sort of athlete. He's running around the field. He's chasing slot receivers up the seam for 40 yards. And that was definitely not the Jalen Smith that we were seeing you know previously this year he's got the brace off and now he's playing like the old Jalen Smith

and and I think that you know those two things alone have you know helped you know kind of unlock the rest of the potential of this defense and then on top of that they've got leighton vanderesh who i think again you ask most cowboy fans about leighton vanderesh uh i don't think that they have a very high opinion of him you know they they people weren't really thrilled when he got drafted um you know he didn't do a ton in training camp because he was dealing with some nagging stuff i mean but he's been's been an incredible revelation since he's been – Sean Lee got hurt and he got subbed in and outperformed Sean Lee in a lot of different ways and probably overall. And then I think they have a young secondary that's playing very, very well.

And Byron Jones, if people aren't aware, Byron Jones may be playing like the top three corner in football. I mean, he's really, really, really played well. And I think outside of their safeties, they've gotten really good play from a lot of very young players on at least the first and second levels of the defense. And then at the cornerback play, safety has been a little bit of an issue. But outside of that, they've got a lot of young players and a lot of depth at cornerback, linebacker, and defensive line. Byron Jones is one that I had circled going up against Corey Davis. We assume that's going to be a big-time matchup.

And we've talked a lot about Corey Davis. He's going to have to start beating some pretty good corners in this league if he's going to be a big-time matchup. And we've talked a lot about Corey Davis. He's going to have to start beating some pretty good corners in this league if he's going to be a legit number one. All right, we'll come back after the break, and we will flip the script. All right, we are back. Landon, I'm going to hand it off to you. Fire away with any Titans questions you got. Yeah, so this is important i think

for we talked about this you know before the show because of you know the cowboys fans and titans fans even though titans fans may be forced to watch a lot of unwanted cowboys football because of uh the the national broadcast the cowboys unfortunately don't get to see very much of the titans uh because of different conferences and schedules. So this is going to be great for us because we have tons of questions of what we're going up against. Now, like you, from an outsider perspective, I know Tennessee for their defense. It feels like you hear good things and we know a lot about some of the rookies that you guys have had that have come in, or at least younger players that have come in and kind of really helped turn around that defense. So can you talk to me about young defensive players?

And then eventually I would like to make my way to one of my favorite players on the defense, and that's Gerald Casey. So talk to us about that defense and what's making it work right now yeah well yeah it's hard not to start with drill casey um he's he's one of the best players in the league uh that nobody really talks about so just a short squatty unique guy uh got agility off the charts, quickness off the charts. So he's going to shoot a bunch of gaps. He's going to get after the passer. He's going to stand tall against the run. Just a really unique player,

and he's done it at a high level for many, many years. So he's the best player on this defense to me. Really, there's not just one thing that jumps out at you about this Titans group. They're just kind of solid across the board. Logan Ryan playing the nickel has been pretty good. Dory Jackson's making strides at the number one corner spot. Wesley Wood, your linebacker, has been solid when he's been healthy this year.

And, of course, Kevin Byard is a game changer out of free safety. So just really solid across the board. Now, there's some deficiencies there, and it starts with Malcolm Butler, the big-time free agent that John Robinson chose to sign from New England. You know, everybody's wondering, why didn't he play in the Super Bowl? Why was he benched? We've quickly figured that out. It's not been good.

He's lost something. He gets behind players with speed pretty routinely, even players without speed. He was burned by Jordan Matthews against the Eagles. So Jordan Matthews ran right by him. So he's been one of the worst cornerbacks in football. And the Titans really don't have a choice but to play him. They're paying him so much money.

So he's got to figure it out. If there's one big hole on defense, it's there. Otherwise, everything else is pretty good. Brian Arakpo seems to be starting to slow down. I cannot believe he's still playing. I know. But every time I turn on the TV and I watch you guys, he's playing well.

It's pretty crazy. Ryan Arakpo, it seems like he's starting to hit that wall, though. But the good news is Harold Landry, the rookie out of Boston College, man, he's been really good in limited snaps. So there's a bright side there on the edge. They traded for Kamala Correa, so there's some depth off the edge. So the Titans are deep on the edges, but maybe they don't have the big-time production from their starters.

Adoree Jackson and Harold Landry were two guys that I studied extensively doing draft prep for the Cowboys, and, man, I loved both of those guys a lot, and Dory Jackson specifically. And a lot of people had questions about whether he was going to be able to transition to that kind of cornerback full-time. Because they viewed him as more of a universal playmaker, as a kick-returner guy, and that's where he kind of flashed and everything. But he had all the traits and was physical.

I knew that that dude was going to develop into a great full-time lockdown-type cornerback. And then Harold Landry, just such an unfortunate – I mean, I guess it's not unfortunate. He played through injury so much his senior year, and it really kind of affected his play. On one hand, you want to commend a guy that does that and plays for his team and and showed a lot of of love to boston college by really kind of you know affecting his draft stock by by kind of playing on an injury that maybe you know some guys probably would have just sat down for the rest of the year and and trained you know so uh good on him and good on the titans for drafting because i really like that guy um but yeah i think that you nailed it to me i mean just

again from the outside observer casey is where the whole thing starts and and then byard is such a great ass in the back end uh that that he is you know again very difficult position to find that kind of topper free safety and he plays it he's one of the best in the league at it and of course unfortunately because of titans you know being a market team, they don't get the recognition that they deserve. But those guys, I mean, anybody who watches football knows about Darrell Casey and Byard and know about how Adore Jackson's really turned it on. Let's flip it to the other side of the ball. some of the more visible, more known elements of the Titans to the kind of general fan, I guess I would say, is Marcus Mariota.

Of course, everyone knows the quarterbacks. And I think, again, kind of in the vein of having a very similar type team with the Cowboys, the offense, even though Mariota is the quarterback and the star for sure, the offense seems to be very heavy for the run. I think whether it's in formation or, I think teams have talked about the exotic smash mouth that was coming out a couple years ago. When that was going on, a couple years ago and and i you know when that was going on it was very interesting for the cowboys fans because you know it wasn't unlike

what the cowboys fans were hoping for you know with with offensive lines that you hope can great guys like you know you have guys outside like lewin and conklin who can you know big powerful tackles were able to to kind of grade guys down and grind guys down and taking advantage of that with running backs like Henry and Lewis. So I think, you know, I guess what I'm getting at is that in the same way that the Cowboys, you know, have a mobile quarterback and the quarterback seems to be the kind of thing that everyone knows the team about, knows uh uh knows the team about they they sort of use them unconventionally and use the try to use their strengths uh to help win um how has that like manifested itself with mariotta is he

is he like dac where um is is it a lot of uh bootleg and play action and and and uh zone read you know options with where he's keep or just run plays where he's the keeper a lot? Or are they trying more to force him into being a traditional pocket passer and throwing from the pocket? You saw a ton of zone read stuff with Mike Malarkey last year. That's really started to go away. They really haven't utilized Mariota's athletic ability.

Matt LaFleur coming over from the Rams. They want to run the ball really bad. It's just not working right now. The offensive line, learning a new scheme, learning a new system, moving to zone blocking, just hasn't worked yet. Part of it is the

interior offensive line. They've been bad. Quentin Spain, the guard, has been banged up. Corey Levin stepped in and wasn't very good against the Chargers. They did find a little bit of success against the Chargers, but I wasn't really impressed with the Chargers' run defense. So, obviously, a big step up heading to Dallas this weekend. I think

the key to this whole Titans offense is establishing the run. I'm just not real sure it's going to happen this year. It's not totally on the offensive line either. Derrick Henry, he's an interesting guy. I'm not totally

sold that the light's ever going to come on for him in the NFL. He's just not very good in a short area. He's kind of a home run hitter, and that sounds really strange because he's 6'3", 250 pounds, but he operates at his best when he gets up to speed just really because no one wants to get in front of that uh but it takes him a while to get going he doesn't have that lateral burst uh that deon lewis seems to have so um deon lewis though hasn't been spectacular either so i think the run game is

broken i think the titans offense will be broken until they figure out that run game because really what they want to do, they want to establish the run and then build off of play action and then attack down the field deep. But the receivers just haven't established themselves either. So it's really tough on Marcus Mariota, who I think for most of the year has played at a decent level, even though the numbers don't show that. So he's had some key drops.

They should have beat Buffalo. He dropped one in the bucket to Nick Williams, and he let one slip right through his hands. Titans ended up losing that game. But just countless, countless chances like that this year, and they've all come in terrible spots. So I think Marcus Mariota is fine. Everything

around him, though, needs a lot of work. You know, it's funny, because Henry, I mean, you say that it sounds weird to talk about a big-bodied guy that's a home-run hitter, but actually for Cowboys fans, for years and years and years, we played against Brandon Jacobs, who I think

is a less athletic version of of henry but i mean again six four 260 pound running back you know and so big guy and i it's funny because henry too i mean some of the hand-wringing that goes on at times with with some cowboys fans with ezekiel elliott they talk about well we could have instead of having uh zeke and and uh i think it's anthony brown they say we could have had uh uh you know jalen ramsey and and and henry and and so i i it's been kind of an interesting thing to compare those the two running backs and to see if it was worth the cost difference between the fourth fourth overall pick and henry but at times it seems like Henry has had issues

or just hasn't been quite what you'd think he was going to be. He's just such a physical specimen. I think back to that picture of him standing next to, who was it? Mark Ingram. Mark Ingram at the Alabama national title game, I think it was. It's just so funny. It looked like a kid standing next to him. And Lewis, yeah, I think it was. It's just so funny. It looked like a kid standing next to him. And Lewis, yeah,

I think I was surprised because I really liked that move when I read it. I just felt like it was a good fit to have that kind of feedback in this kind of offense. It's unfortunate that it hasn't quite worked out yet. I agree. As a team that has relied heavily over the years on zone blocking, it's not exactly

something that's easy to learn in one offseason. So I think that hopefully there'll be some patience there because I do think you guys have got yourself a nice offensive coordinator. My last little question before we get on to predictions is I did want to talk a little bit more about the guys kind of surrounding Marietta, and you led into that nicely. I think people kind of are aware of Corey Davis and who he is as a first-round pick,

and it seems like from afar that he's starting to show a little bit more in these last few weeks and showing up and kind of developing into hopefully what you guys are looking for as a number one receiver. And tell us a little bit about you know some of the other guys that are are are playing for you i get yeah i know you guys have tajay sharp and and um uh stocker is stocker the starting tight end or is he the backup right now yeah stocker's stocker's the starter now i'll go ahead and hop in uh yeah definitely please it uh johnny smith you know delaney walker's out for the. We lost him in the first game.

Johnnie Smith was drafted to replace Delaney Walker, and he has just been not very good. So Luke Stocker has kind of filled in for him. They actually signed a fullback, Jowston Fowler, to take some of the reps from Stocker that he would typically play at fullback. So I think you're going to see them move more to Stocker as the tight end this week. But, yeah, going out wide to the receivers,

it's really Corey Davis' first full season. A lot of people don't realize that Davis missed all of his first trading camp as a rookie, and then he missed half the season with a hamstring injury. That's tough it is tough yeah i feel like yeah i feel like it kind of stunted his growth um he had a huge game against the eagles uh of course i'm sure y'all know that that secondary is i watched it i don't know if you saw yeah obviously we were all watching very closely. Thank you very much for that, by the way. Yeah, I mean, he looks like that and then hasn't done a thing since. So there just seems to be a little bit of a disconnect with him and Marcus Mariota.

For whatever reason, they just can't get on the same page. And that dates back to last year through two different offensive systems. So I hold out hope that eventually they'll get on the same page because I think both are supremely talented players. So still kind of waiting on Corey Davis. He's not a guy that's going to go beat another one corner like Byron Jones. I wouldn't expect him to have a big impact on this one. Outside of Davis, it's Tajay Sharp,

a guy that was really productive at UMass in college. He really came on against the Chargers, was Mr. Reliable on third down. Marcus Moreto seemed to have some chemistry with him. And then it's Taewon Taylor, who has been a disaster this year. A guy that is supposed to be Sammy Watkins in this offense, and he has been, except he can't catch the ball. So, you know, Marcus Marietta will have these guys come open deep. He'll hit them in stride, and they'll drop. Marcus will just miss them. It's just always something with this group.

So, again, it's really frustrating. This sounds very familiar. Yeah, yeah. And that's why I said at the top, you know, I feel like Dallas and Tennessee are really, really similar. So credit the Cowboys. Maybe they gave up a little too much, but they went out and at least tried to fix their receiver room. Titans didn't.

And I tell you, we got some really ticked off fans down here because of it. Yeah, and, you, and the Cowboys, I think they looked at the landscape of the wide receiver group is coming out next year, and they're like, let's just go get a more proven thing. So they may have overpaid, but maybe they'll end up liking it. Maybe so. All right, let's get into predictions. Do you want to go first? Yeah, I'll go first.

You're the visitor. You go first. I'll go first. Okay. I tell you, I just wrote the odds post for this game, and I was shocked to see the Cowboys were favored by seven points. I figured it would

be about four, and it turns out that's where it opened, and money has come in on the Cowboys so much that it's pushed it to seven. So I definitely think the Titans cover. I think these two teams are are very similar uh defensive minded teams I think it's going to be a close game that comes down to the fourth quarter I just kind of feel like the Cowboys are going to find a way to get it done at home on Monday night uh I'll go with something like 24-21.

You know, this is tough. I generally hate doing predictions because it's so difficult and so many variables. But I have to go... I think I'm going to go Cowboys too, but I think seven points to me, that's

Vegas trying to rile up people to gamble on the game. I can't imagine that seven points is what I think is going to happen. I agree that I think it's going to be a closer game. And again, because I think it's very difficult now for me because the Cowboys might look very different with a new wide receiver, a new offensive line coach, especially considering the fact that the offensive line is so inherent to what the Cowboys do. I'll take them 24-20.

Yeah, I probably would not take Dallas if they were playing in Tennessee, but since they're playing at home, Dallas has actually been pretty decent at home this year, so I think that will do it. All right, good stuff. Well, tell my listeners where they can find your work if they want to get a little preview before Monday night. Oh, yeah, thanks. Locked on Cowboys, of course, and I also have another Cowboys podcast I do with John Noning called Best Coast Boys.

So please check that out. You can find them on wherever you find podcasts. Best Coast Boys, so please check that out. You can find them on wherever you find podcasts. You can obviously find Locked on Titans wherever you download your podcast, chat Music City Miracles for the latest written content

and up-to-date news. For Landon, this is Terry saying thank you for listening, and we will see you all next time.