Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Johnathan Cyprien tears ACL; What now for the Titans?

Episode Date: August 3, 2018

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Welcome in to another edition of Locked on Titans. I'm Joey Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert. Terry, what's going on tonight? Not a whole lot. What's going on with you? Not much. We've got football going on, the Hall of Fame games going on as we're recording, so that's a good sign. Things are coming around the corner. We're a week away from the first Titans preseason game, so obviously that's very exciting. Alright, so we've got a few things to talk about tonight. Just kind of a quick camp update from some things that happened today we're going to talk about

a key injury and kind of some ideas to replace that player and talk a little bit about the article that Bill Barnwell wrote a couple days ago saying that the Titans were one of the six teams most likely to slide back

in 2018. So we will talk about all those things. Before we do that, I want to remind you that we write for me at cityofmiracles.com, covering the Titans for SB Nation, so you can check us out there. Follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry's at tlambertfb. The podcast, you can get wherever you get your podcasts. Just search out Locked on Titans Titans and you will find it there.

All right, so today it sounded like at practice that the offense looked good. Delaney Walker got a day off today. It sounded like John Newsmith was making the most of his reps. So that's obviously something that's really good to hear. And again, we talked last week and earlier this week about, you know, that it was going to take some time for this offense, and it was going to take a while for them to get clicking. But it seems like every day they get a little bit closer.

Every day they make a few more plays against the defense. And so, you know, we talked about this, and, Terry, I think you're on the same page here. As long as it keeps trending in the right direction, there's really no reason to get overly concerned. Yeah, I think you're starting to see Marcus Mario to put some practices together, you know, back-to-back-to-back good practices.

The interception's coming down, so we weren't out there today, but our buddy Mike, who writes for musiccitymiracles.com, said he was sharp once again, so that's really good to hear. Probably the biggest development for me was what happened before practice, and that was Rashard Matthews running the route tree and catching passes.

There's a video out there on Twitter, and he looks good. It looks like he's almost ready to return. He doesn't look real hurt to me. I'm not sure why he's being held out. We'll probably never know at this point. But from the video I saw, it looks like he's ready to step back into this offense. And we've talked at length about how the Titans need him. It can't just be Corey Davis out there.

They need some veteran presence in that locker room, in particular at the receiver spot. So looking forward to getting him back. Who knows when that'll happen, but he looked good today. Yeah. And that's the second day in a row. I think that he's been able to do that before practice. So hopefully it's not very far away, like you said,

from them being able to activate him. I think at this point it's probably a long shot to expect him to play in that first preseason game. But, you know, if things keep progressing like they seem like they are, again, we can get zero updates on these guys. But if things keep progressing like they look to be with him, then maybe there's a chance he could play in a second preseason game. And so, you know, again, new system.

He is a veteran. You know, he and Marcus Mariota are familiar with each other. They played together for a few years now. But new system, you'd like to see him get some time out there in that and timing and all that stuff, getting all that down. So, yeah, hopefully he's pretty close to being back on the practice field. All right, before we move on to talk about Jonathan Ciprian's injury and the safeties the Titans are bringing in on Friday,

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That's one word, LOCKEDON. New customers only, and the offer is good to the end of August. Preseason and regular season tickets are available now. The Titans kick off their home schedule here in a couple weeks coming up. So you can be there to see them when they take on the Buccaneers. You can be there for all the excitement and your tickets on vivid seats go to vividseats.com down or download the app and enter the promo code locked on for 10 off of your first order the offseason is over the nfl is back and vivid seats wants to help get you in the game so the big news today was obviously

the injury to jonathan ciprian that yesterday, but the team announced today that he tore his ACL and will go on IR. So he's obviously out for the year. Now, we've talked even back into the draft process about how the Titans were thin at safety with everybody healthy. They did

sign Kendrick Lewis. He actually got hurt today as well, so Mike Braybill said they expect him back. He didn't give a timetable for that. I don't think he's got any serious injury going on. With Cyprian out, they're going to have to bring in somebody because they just don't have enough bodies and safety on the roster. They definitely don't have enough experience and safety on the roster.

I think it was Demontre Hurst. They got some first-team reps today, and he recently converted from a corner to become a safety. So obviously not what you want heading into the year. You got Dan Kruschenk, who was the fourth-round pick. I mean, I'm sure he's going to be in the mix. But it was, you know, through different reports today, we learned the Titans are bringing in four guys for workouts on Friday.

Eric Reid, Kenny Vaccaro, Ladarius Webb, and Mike Mitchell. So you've got those four guys coming in, all veteran safeties. Then, honestly, I mean, I don't think that any of them would necessarily be a huge drop-off from Jonathan Ciprian. Yeah, it's kind of funny. As fans, you always point to the top free agent on the board, and we're always like, well, the Titans got to go get that guy. That's kind of what we all did today, except it actually happened.

They brought the two top guys in for visits and two additional ones, so that was kind of interesting. No hesitation from John Robinson. So it's a clear need. He's not comfortable with what they had behind Jonathan Ciprian. So that was good to see. It'd be rough to pin that responsibility on Dan Cruikshank or Kendrick Lewis or anybody else.

So, yeah, I'm with you. I think there's a chance to perhaps upgrade. If you listen to the podcast, you hear us talk about Jonathan Ziprin and how limited he is in coverage. There's a place on this team for him. He's an in-the-box guy. What he does not do is cover well, and the Titans have a chance to get better in that area.

With that being said, I'm not going to sit here and tell you I've watched every snap of Kenny Vaccaro or Eric Reid, but it's guys that have good reputations around the league, proven veterans, experienced veterans, that can come in and help out this team immediately. Yeah, and neither Vaccar nor reed graded out very well last year on pff um and i know reed i think got hurt and they actually moved him to inside linebacker for to move to the linebacker for a little bit um when he came back but i mean that's the type of safety he is we spent a lot of time last offseason talking about you know they're speculating on ways they could use jonathan cyp use Jonathan Ciprian as a dime linebacker or stuff like that.

That was kind of what we thought that they would do with him. And then they ended up basically using him and Kevin Byard interchangeably, which never made a whole lot of sense. I don't know if that's the plan that they have this year or not. So, I mean, depending on, I guess, I guess what they're looking for there, that could go a long way in determining who they sign. Some people seem to be speculating that Kenny Vaccaro could be the best fit. You know, Darius Webb has been with Dean Pease for the last few years, really since like 2010, I think it was when Pease started in Baltimore,

and Webb was drafted in 2009. So they're obviously, you know, those two guys would be very familiar with each other. So, I mean, you would think that that would maybe give them a leg up or whatever. And honestly, they can afford to sign two of these guys. I don't know that they will. And I don't know that, you know, these guys are probably, I mean, these guys are sitting around waiting for situations like this to come up

where a starter on a team gets hurt and they can go in and compete to be a starter. So I don't know that they would necessarily want – like if they signed Vaccaro, I don't know the way I would necessarily want to be here. But on the flip side of that, it's the beginning of August, and they're still on the market. So at this point, I would think they would take anywhere they could get on. But they'll definitely sign at least one of those guys. Like I said, I wouldn't be necessarily shocked if they signed two of them just because of the scarcity that they have in that position.

Yeah, I think you'll see them sign one for sure, like you said. I think the other roster spot, they're at 88 right now. I think they've got to go sign a tackle. We talked about this yesterday. Just not a lot of depth there. Is Kevin Panfield going to be that swing tackle to back up Dennis Kelly? He's still dealing with the Conklin injury. I would put tackle up there as more of a need than signing two of these safeties.

Yeah, and when you get to Panfield, i mean i i just wonder if you're gonna make him i mean i guess you've got dennis kelly assuming that conklin's healthy then pamphil's your you know third guy instead of your second guy but you assume he's also gonna back up quentin spain so i mean do you want you really want him being the primary backup for both of those positions probably not again so that depends on conklin's health so yeah i mean i think you're right about that and i've had so much trouble keeping up with the numbers on the roster um they were did they ever get to 89 before they put stipri on on ir i believe they did i think it's not a defensive lineman i couldn't tell you what his name is that's right right. They signed two guys the other day.

Yeah, okay. And then you've got guys like Matthews and Jack Conklin that are going to have to come off PUP eventually. So, I mean, I can understand them maybe keeping one spot open. But like you said, yeah. And, again, kind of like we talked about last night, I mean, now we're getting to the point where, you know, you're looking for a tackle, you're looking for a tackle,

you're looking for a receiver when cutdowns happen. If you've got to sign a safety, too, it kind of gets to a point where you're really expecting too much out of that period. And again, guys that get cut get cut for a reason. And every year a guy gets cut, catches on another team, and has success. It's not impossible that that could happen but you just don't want to be in a spot where you're really needing to find three guys you know in that week or you know really 24 hours after guys get cut so i like i said they'll definitely sign i

would assume somebody on friday and then we'll we'll just kind of see where it goes from there but i don't know it'll be interesting to watch. And obviously, you know, you hate it for Jonathan Ciprian, right, because he's been a guy that, by all accounts, has worked his butt off this offseason. And, you know, Vrabel even said one of the cool things about Mike Vrabel was just watching the way that he reacted to telling everybody that Ciprian was out for the year today at his press conference. Like, you could tell it really affected him.

He said he was devastated. Devastated was the word that he used. And he said, we've got a guy here that's been busting his tail this whole offseason, and you hate to see that for him. And the secondary has a great group chemistry. They've been working out together all summer and all that stuff. So you hate to see that for a guy. And, you know, Kaharski asked him because yesterday instead of like,

when Ciprian got hurt, instead of just moving the ball and continuing practice, they stopped. And like the whole time he was down, they weren't practicing. And Brable said, you know, that's just respect for a guy who's done everything you've asked him to do, who's been a great leader for your team. When he goes down, you have enough respect to give him a chance to get up and to see what's going on with him. So that, to me, is the cool part of Mike Vrabel, the head coach.

Again, I'm not sure that it matters. It translates to wins or losses. But what I will say is I guarantee you the guys in the locker room respect that, and I do think there is something to you know if guys buy into their coach i think they'll they'll play a little bit harder for him yeah and you know it sucks about this is you've got a new coordinator in town so cyprian might not have been used the way he was used interchangeably with kevin byard so they might have had a different role a plan for him and that's something that we're just not going to get to see now this season.

Now it's been ripped from him. So you can understand the frustration, certainly, Kurt, and what day six of camp and you lose your entire season. So it sucks for a guy who, by all accounts, is a great teammate, great competitor. Hope the best for him. Hope for a speedy recovery. But now it's going to come down to who the Titans sign, hopefully, tomorrow.

Yeah, absolutely. So check out museummiracles.com. We'll have all that for you as it becomes available tomorrow. All right, at the end of the show, we'll talk a little bit about the Bill Barnwell article. But before we do that, tell you about NordicTrack. Guys, sometimes i know it's hard to find time to go to the gym right you got a lot going on in life it's tough to get there the benefit of nordic track is you can get a machine from them that you keep at your house so you have your own gym there in your house

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So last thing tonight, Bill Barnwell wrote the article the other day, teams that are declined in 2018. If you notice at the beginning of the show, for some reason, I couldn't come up with the word decline. Um, but that's,

that's, that's what I was looking for. Um, and look, I, I couldn't come up with the word decline, but that's what I was looking for. And look, I'm not saying that he's ridiculous for including the Titans in this, and I'm not saying that I think there's a 0% chance the Titans decline, at least record-wise, in 2018. I do not think their play on the field is going to decline. But we've talked about this a lot.

They could be a better team. They could play better on offense and defense and not win non-games. That's possible with the schedule they have compared to last year and all that stuff. So, you know, just kind of getting that out there up front. So it wasn't necessarily that he put the Titans on the list was what I took issue to. It was kind of some of the stuff that he used as the reason for the Titans being on the list. And most of it revolved around the criticism of Marcus Mariota.

And if you've listened to this at all, if you've read our work at all, you know we're both very high on Marcus Mariota. I think that he's going to be absolutely the Titans franchise quarterback. And think that the system that the Titans ran last year was not conducive to any quarterback um but especially

they didn't do anything really to play to Mariota's strengths um so that was the biggest deal for me I think and I'll let Terry got time in on his thing next but like when he said that you know the system wasn't good the Marcus Marcus Mariota didn't transcend the system and I mean I said in what I wrote about the other day i don't i don't know that there are very many quarterbacks in the history of the league that could have transcended that system um you know when you're when you're only getting one chance to throw on each set of downs when it's you know third and generally very long because the running game is not working at all that's just not a recipe for success for any quarterback and we talked about markets and how

they need to get him in a rhythm early uh he does a lot better he's more successful when they do things like that so you know and again we're not this is not the nfl of you know the 70s and 80s and even the 90s where you know you had your system you ran it no matter what and you were going to impose your will on the other team that's not how the game's played anymore the game's played now you look for strengths from your team you look for weakness on the other team you attack those things and the titans did none of that last year just look at the browns game i mean that the browns

game is the one that i always go back to they were the by far the worst pass defense in the league and the titans did not change their game plan at all came out and tried to run against them and their run defense was good and it was just stupid, and the Titans almost lost that game. So that was kind of my biggest issue with the whole thing was the way that he approached Marcus Mariota from the standpoint of using it as a reason the Titans were going to decline. Yeah, I think I've said on here that I could see the Titans finding a way to decline because they won a bunch of games that they probably shouldn't have last year.

Played a ton of close games and came out on top of most of those. Game against the Bengals, Ravens, the Browns, all of those mid-season games where they could have really gone either way at the end. So from a win-loss standpoint,

I could certainly see that. But the reasoning he gives here, I just don't buy. The piece reads like a guy who dove into the numbers and statistically based his argument and just really didn't pay attention to the context. If you watch the film, you start to understand some things. You start to understand that, hey, this offensive system is weird and it's not set up for Marcus Mariota to succeed.

When you've got guys running one route, you've got one option to throw to. You've got two options to throw to. I'm just not sure what you're supposed to do as a quarterback. So that was a problem I had with it. Second problem I had was him referencing Mike Vrabel's defensive DVOA numbers as a reason why he won't succeed as Titans head coach. Now, if you paid attention to John Robinson and Amy Adams-Strunk, they said they hired Vrabel to be a leader of men. That doesn't mean he won't do X's and O's and stuff like that, but I don't buy that his poor defensive performance in Houston last year

is going to carry over to the Titans in any shape or form. Keep in mind how many injuries that team had. Defense was bad, don't get me wrong, but still not a lot to work with for Brable in Houston last year. And quite frankly, I don't think it has any merit in this argument. Yeah, and the last thing that I'll add to all that, which I agree 100% on, is he goes into the fact that the AFC South is going to be better. And we don't deny that, right?

I mean, the Colts and the Texans, assuming everybody stays healthy, they're going to be a lot better than they were last year, especially, you know, I mean, the Titans faced Deshaun Watson in the first game, but he wasn't there for the second game. And obviously didn't face Andrew Luck either time. So there's no doubt that the division is going to be better. Teams in the division are going to be better. But when he references Andrew Luck, he's gone 9-0 with a 92.4 rating

against Tennessee. I mean, I just don't understand what possible relevance that has to what's going to happen in 2018. You have zero players from the defensive backfield, the secondary, that have played against Andrew Luck. You have a completely different coordinator. You know, all that stuff. I mean, it's just dumb to throw that out. Yes, of course, Andrew Luck is going to have better games against the Titans than Jacoby Brissett did.

Right? I mean, we would all agree to that. But to say, well, Andrew Luck's going to have success against the Titans because he's always had success against the Titans, it just doesn't hold water, in my opinion, because this is a much better secondary, hopefully a much better pass rush. Just a completely different thing altogether.

So, while, you know, yeah, the Titans probably, I mean, I don't know, they'll struggle to do as well in division games as they did last year because, you know, I mean, the Titans' division record has been bad for a lot of years, and what, they were 5-1 last year in the division. They lost that first game to the Texans and won the rest of their division games. Yeah, I mean, I think it would be tough to go 5-1 in this division again. But again, I think they could play better in some of those games and still lose a game or two.

So, I don't know. Like I said, I'm not 100% willing to say that there's no chance they decline because, you know, I mean, things happen in the NFL, injuries, whatever. I mean, there's a lot of things that could go wrong. But I just, like you said, it's almost like he just pulled the numbers and didn't look at the context at all. And the other thing that makes me mad about Barnwell is he was the one last year that was criticizing Titans fans for being excited about the win,

the playoff win in Kansas City city because that meant mike malarkey was going to stay like he was saying that we should have cheered for a loss so that mike malarkey would get fired in week 17 and week one of the playoffs and now he just like completely ignored the whole malarkey thing when he did this article yeah he actually kind of made fun of us for for wanting malarkey out so that was that was kind of weird. I mean, the whole piece just reads kind of strange, just kind of like he's taking repetitive shots at Titans fans. I don't understand why. Yeah, I don't get it either.

But we'll see. The good thing is they'll get the play out on the field, and we'll see how it all goes. And so, I don't know, I'm encouraged right now. Like I said, it sounds like the offense is starting to hit its stride. And I just really think if they can do that, the sky's going to be the limit for this team. All right, that'll do it for tonight.

Again, we will keep you updated on the safety situation. I think there's a really close to 100% chance they sign a guy on Friday. So we'll let you know who that is, museummiracles.com. You can find that there, and we'll obviously break it down next week. The Titans have two pretty cool practices over the weekend. So if you haven't been out to see them, this would be a good chance. They're going to be at Centennial High School out in Williamson County on Friday night for a practice, and they're going to practice at Nissan Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

So a couple chances free to see. Fans can go out, all that stuff. So try to catch one of those if you haven't been able to be out yet. Remember, subscribe to the podcast, rate and review. We'd appreciate all that. Follow us on Twitter at jmorrismcm, at TLambertFB, podcast account at LockedOnTitans. So for Terry, this is Jimmy.

Thanks for listening, and we will talk to you again next week.