Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Dan Orlovsky breaks down Matt LaFleur, Marcus Mariota

Episode Date: February 28, 2018

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Welcome in to Locked on Titans. I am Terry Lambert steering the ship today. Jimmy is out, but that's okay because we've got former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky. He's going to join us in just a few minutes here. For those of you that don't know, he was in camp with the Rams last year and played under Matt LaFleur. So he's going to be able to give us a first- firsthand look at how LaFleur operates as a coach, how he's going to attack things, how he's going to affect Marcus Mariota. So it's going to be a really fun chat with Orflowski. He's transitioned into an analyst role after retiring from the league,

and he's really, really good. So we're excited about that. First things first, we write for MusicCityMiracles.com, part of the SB Nation family. We run this podcast, Locked on Titans, three or four times a week. So it's been heavy on the draft and free agency stuff, so we're going to kind of shift gears and go back to really what went wrong with this Titans offense with Marcus Mariota and how they can get better. So coming up here right after these commercials, we are going to be joined by Dan, and we're

going to get into Marcus Mariota. All right, we are back, and we are joined by Dan Orlovsky now. Dan, thanks for joining us. I know you're a busy man since you've kind of transitioned into this analyst role, but thanks for squeezing us in. Oh, no, absolutely, man. Appreciate you having me. I wanted to ask you a little bit about Matt LaFleur.

You were in camp with the Rams last year. Kind of break down how he is as a teacher and as a coach. Yeah, you know, my time with LaFleur goes all the way back to 2010, to be honest with you, when he had first joined the NFL. Ranks coaching-wise, I was a player down with the Texans, and he had come on in his first year coming from, I don't know if it was Cincinnati with Brian Kelly or not, but so I've known him for a long time and I've kind of seen him grow and we've stayed in touch over the past almost decade.

So coaching-wise, you know, he's got a lot of strengths. He really understands defenses and how to attack defenses. He understands the quarterback position really well, mainly because, you know, it always helps if you play the position, not like it's going to be the end-all, be-all if you did, but he did play the position in college, so that does help. He's had really good people to learn from when it comes to the NFL, both coaches and players, when it comes to Kyle Shanahan or Gary Kubiak

or Matt Schaub or Matt Ryan or Sean McVay you know so he's got really good pedigree and in his coaching style he's he's big upon you know setting a standard and meeting that standard he demands perfection out of you in everything you do and as a as a younger guy or if you're a guy that's very new to his teaching style, it's a little frustrating early on because football is such an imperfect game. But if you can buy into that concept and believe that truly it will work, you'll see dividends, you'll see it pay dividends, and it'll make you a much better player. And I think that's something that LaFleur will absolutely bring to Mariota.

Speaking of Marcus Mariota, he's kind of the focal point of the offense. He's a quarterback. He showed so much in his rookie season, his second season. Came out this year and it just didn't work. What's kind of your view of Mariota? What were your thoughts on the offense that he was playing in? Were his problems predicated on that offensive system? And what kind of bad habits did he fall into? Yeah, I can't necessarily tell you the bad from last year, I guess, if you want to call it that.

I can tell you the good that can come from the situation that he's in now. I think that when it comes to professional sports and really the NFL, and if you take it even more finite when it comes to the quarterback position, there's just not a lot of people in the world walking the planet that have all the physical skill sets that are needed, that are necessary to play the quarterback position in the NFL. And then if you take all those things and add the athleticism and the intangibles, there's just not a lot of people on the planet that are able to do it. And there's

not a lot of people blessed with that talent. And so Mariota is one of those people that check all those boxes, that has the size to do it, has the arm talent or the ability to throw the football that can do it, has the brain to process information, has the athleticism that is super rare, especially in the NFL. You have this guy that you want to take and utilize all those skills. That's the biggest thing is can you take all those weapons that he has and utilize them. And I'm not going to say that he wasn't last year,

but what I can tell you is this offense is tailor-made to fit a guy with his skill set. This offense is not predicated on somebody being a statue. This offense is not predicated on somebody being at the line of scrimmage and changing the protections a bunch and audibling a bunch. This offense is built upon somebody who can be deceptive with ball handling, which is a strength of his because that's a paramount part of the spread offense that's in college with play action and play fakes and the RPOs.

So deception with the ball handling is a big part of it. Can you be athletic enough to make plays outside of the tackle, both throwing the ball and running the ball? And then can you make consistently good decisions? This offense is about good decision, good decision, good decision, launch. Good decision, good decision, good decision, launch. And can you play within that rhythm? Now, people who have a little bit more of the recess athleticism, which Mariota does, usually can play in rhythm better. And if you can play in rhythm in this offense, that's exactly what they need you to do. So I think that his

skill set just marries the offensive scheme so well, and that's why I would imagine or anticipate him really taking jumps, both running the offense and hitting big plays down the field because it matches, it marries very well. So speaking of taking jumps, you saw Jared Goff really pop last year. What were some of the things that you saw specifically in training camp that maybe LeFleur did or even McVay? What did that staff do to really get him going?

Yeah, I think the thing that stood out with me, because Jared had natural talent, the thing that stood out to me was how the standard was raised, how that almost unrealistic line of perfection was drawn in the sand. And it was made very clear to the player, this is the expectation level. This is where you can get to. And this is how we're going to help you get there. And the thing in the NFL is there's a lot of coaches who will tell you, well, this is our standard and this is who we're going to be. But then they just have it be words.

They expect you to do it by yourself. Where Sean McVay had this really unique talent of equipping his players with the tools to go do that. And I think Mike LaFleur has that. I can't tell you for sure because, you know, the proof is in the pudding when the bullets are firing. But I do think he has that ability. And so when a player

you know it's it's in everything it's in warm-ups it's in how you go about your pre-practice routine it's about throwing routes on air it's about handling seven on seven in the huddle it's all those things the standard is going to be raised for Marcus Marietto not that he had a low standard but I promise you it will go up and they will expect him to be perfect. And I think that's what they did with Jared Goff. And what happened is Jared Goff bought into it and he fought it early. It's rigid early because it's, again, it's unrealistic and you fight it and you just, you get frustrated by it because early on there's struggles. And if you can continue to, you know know I guess if you want to call it trust the process or have blind faith easier said than done

but if Mariota can buy in and buy into that concept of raising the standard and chasing perfection in every single thing that he does at that position you're going to see this growth from him in ways that are tangible and can be seen by the eye in ways that can't. You'll just see this growth as a player that will really be remarkable for that organization. Matt LeFleur didn't call plays with the Rams. That was Sean McVay's deal. And, you know, one of the pushbacks, and there's been very few, everyone's excited about him,

And, you know, one of the pushbacks, and it's been very few, everyone's excited about him, is kind of separating Sean McVay and Matt LeFleur. Is LeFleur just a product of McVay? How do you kind of separate those two as coaches? I mean, you can probably do it better than anybody. Yeah, I mean, the answer is, is he a product? You don't know.

But I do know this. You know, Gary Kubiak was a product of Mike Shanahan. And then Sean McVay was a product of Gruden. And so everybody's a product of somebody. It's just if you can turn that product into your own recipe, your own success. And so I can't tell you that Matt LaFleur is going to go out and be as amazing and dynamic and incredible as a play caller as Sean McVay is, but you have to start somewhere. Sean McVay had to start calling plays at some time and people had the same questions about Sean McVay. Well, he's smart and he comes from a good pedigree, but can he call plays? And

the same things were said about guys like Kyle Shanahan. Well, can he call plays? You just don't know until guys go do it. But I do know this. It's just like in anything else. The more you're around people who do things successfully, the more your chances of being able to do things successfully are. And so he's been able to watch and he's been able to learn what it takes to be

a good play caller and how feel and preparation and rhythm and instincts all go into that one thing so yes he's a product of those people but that doesn't have to be a bad thing it could be a good thing you know it's just you don't know until the games come and the season happens and seeing how he goes about calling plays. But I do know this. He'll know how to attack the defenses. He'll know how to prepare. He'll know how to get his players prepared.

Now, if he can add the – and it's a difficult task. If he can add the variable of being a really dynamic play caller, then you've got yourself a head coach in the making somewhere in the next three years shifting gears to the run game uh what's this new run game going to look like you know we've heard a lot about block zone blocking schemes uh you know titans are kind of built to run the football uh but they didn't do it with the zone scheme last year. So kind of give us an overview of zone blocking versus man, and do you think LeFleur is going to be married to that zone concept?

He'll absolutely be married to that zone concept because that's what he knows, and if you're going to hire him, you hire him to do what he knows run game. You know, the difference between man and zone is man is much more downhill. Man is what it sounds like. You're going to have your right tackle is going to more often than not block the guy that is lined up on him and your right guard is going to block the guy that is lined up on him. And so it's, it's what it sounds in. It's much more of a downhill attacking inside your box, your tackle-to-tackle box. It's much more that downhill, physical, imposing your will with inside zone, ISO, power, where somebody pulls and there's down blocks, down blocks, and kickouts. So that's going to be the downhill scheme.

Now, the zone scheme is much more of a horizontal stretch. Their concept is, you know, frontside people create some push off the line of scrimmage, backside people be our saving grace, be our cutoffs, and back, don't dance. You put one foot in the ground and make a cut. And the wisdom is, if the guys on the front side are doing their job and changing the line of scrimmage and the guys in the backside are doing their jobs and cutting off, somebody on that defense will be out of place. And it's the back's job to find that cut, put his foot in the ground and go north and south. So, you know, it's almost, if you hear defenses, you know, Bill Belichick talks about, you know, as a defensive coach, more offenses will beat themselves because they can't go play clean football drive after drive. Somebody will make a mistake.

Well, that's kind of what the zone run game is built off of. They know that at some point the defense will make a mistake. Either some linebacker will try to backdoor a tackle, some defensive tackle will get out of his gap, and that's when you go, okay, one carry for three yards, two carries for three yards, three carries for a yard, and then on your eighth or ninth carry, that back could put his foot in the ground, make one cut, and there's a 25-yard run because somebody made a mistake.

And it stresses the defense doing their job all the time it's not as much of a you know you're not going to stretch them as much physically as you are going to stretch them rules wise and doing their jobs derrick henry is obviously going to be that guy uh or so we think uh kind of talk about how he fits into this equation. You know, he's been a guy that's been up and down pretty inconsistent. Is this going to be the scheme that really makes him blow up as a runner? I mean, if he commits to it, absolutely, because it's a hard scheme. You know, when I was down with the Texans and we were running this scheme, I was there when Aaron Foster kind of had bursted onto the scene.

He had his initial burst onto the scene. And early on, he was this undrafted free agent, and he was fighting this scheme because you hear these running back coaches say, press the hole, press the hole, press the hole. And so often, backs want to make their cut too early. They want to make the cut before the hole and so often backs want to make their cut too early they want to make they want to make the cut before the hole is there instead of trusting the block in truck trusting that that backside guard is going to make that cut off and you could push that step one more yard and then

the hole goes from six inches wide to two yards wide and if hen Henry can have that patience and have that trust, and it takes reps and it takes time, and if he can have that and really master the ability to put his foot on the ground, because that's what Arian did. Arian was patient, patient, and patient. And then finally, you saw it almost happen overnight where it made sense to him. He got it. He understood, okay, he put his foot in the ground, he pressed

the hole, he put his foot in the ground, and then he had this six-yard run and go to a 50-yard run. And it was almost like you get that light bulb in your head of, oh, that's what it looks like. That's what happens when I do it the right way. And you get these guys to do it over and over and over the right way. If Henry will buy buy into that he's custom made for it because he is a stretch one cut go north and south guy and that's what we saw as players with the Texans happened with Arian and Arian had such a great feel for then trusting those blocks putting his foot in the ground and going I think Henry has has that ability. And so if he buys into it, stays patient and, you know, can go through that process, you'll see it. The whole offense is so married together because then you're going to see that run game take off. And then as that run game

takes off, you're going to see that pass game and those chunks come with that pass game. So they'll all marry together, but everybody's got to go through that process. And the biggest part of the process for players in this offense is trust because you know the saying, you know, for anything to work, it's got to get more difficult at the beginning. And there's going to be bumps, and players just have to be impatiently patient and trust that big-p big picture view of this offense. I think we're all excited to kind of come back into the 21st century with this

offense after what we've seen over the past two seasons. So it's going to be fun to watch, but thanks for joining us today. That was great. Again, that was Dan Orlovsky. Tell them where they can follow you on Twitter and get your great breakdowns. Yeah, no, I appreciate it.

My Twitter is at Dan Orlovsky, the number seven. And like you said, I'm just breaking down a ton of football, trying to educate people, get them to understand a lot more about it. And it's been super fun to do, so I look forward to doing it more and more as even the offseason rolls on and then into the 2018 season. All right, thanks, man. Thank you for having me, dude.