Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Mariota update, new combo on the OL?

Episode Date: November 20, 2018

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Welcome in to another edition of Locked On Titans. I'm Jimmy Morris. Joining us as always is Terry Lambert. Terry, have you recovered from the disaster in Indianapolis? You know, I have. I'm watching a really fun football game, recording this on Monday night, just wondering how in the world the Titans are in the same league with these two teams. Yeah, that's what we were talking about before we got on here. It's like it's not even the same sport as the Chiefs and the Rams. They're supposed to have the Rams offense, right? Matt LaFleur was going to bring that

to Nashville. That hasn't exactly happened yet. Maybe it will one day. We'll see. But anyway, in the meantime, we'll talk about the Titans. I said on Twitter, I hope the Chiefs and the Rams fans realize how lucky they are that they get to watch this week in and week out.

They're not stuck with what we end up watching a lot of weeks. But anyway, we've got a few things to get into tonight. The Mike Vrabel press conference from Monday, updates on Mariota, Dean Pease. Take a look at some snap count, some interesting things from the snap count on Sunday, and then talk just a little bit of the discussion around the offensive line. Before we do that, I remind you to write for MuseumMiracles.com where we cover the Titans for SB Nation. You can follow us on Twitter.

I'm at jmorphsmcm. Terry's at TLambertFB. You can get the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Just search out Locked on Titans and you'll find us there. All right, yeah, so Mike Brable obviously had his regular Monday press conference today. Said that the injury to Marcus Mariota was a stinger. It was not a re-injury of the ligament in his elbow that he had injured earlier in the season. So, I mean, I guess that's good news because, you know, we know how long it took for him

to recover from the injury in Miami, basically six, six and a half weeks. That's about all the time I've left in the season. So if we're going down that road again, you could pretty much go ahead and pack in the rest of the season. Says about him getting a second opinion for the stinger. You know, that's the thing with the nerve. It's a different nerve, I guess, than the one he hurt in his elbow. But, I mean, I guess that's good news.

And then I guess we'll just kind of have to watch the practice reports this week to kind of see, you know, how that shakes out and how confident we are that he's going to play on Monday. The question is, do you buy it? You know, because I'm kind of on the fence here. And we know Vrabel has not exactly been forthcoming with injury information. And nobody's forcing him to. He shouldn't be, and that's a competitive advantage and all that.

You just saw Marcus on the sidelines. You had the announcers talking about what hand is he squeezing the bottle to get some water with. Yeah, I forgot about that. That was a big deal. So I don't know. Now suddenly it's a head injury, and he may be telling the truth. I just don't know.

It seems like there's some gamesmanship at play there. I hope I'm wrong because if he's re-aggravated that nerve again, you can pretty much put the wrapper on this season here. So it's going to be interesting to follow. You can pretty much put the wrapper on this season here. It's going to be interesting to follow. Not going to get too many updates with it being Thanksgiving week. But if I see that glove come out, I'm pretty much done with them. Yeah, that would be the thing to watch, I guess.

I don't know if they have to get on the practice field or if we have to get any updates from them until Thursday with it being a Monday night game. So we'll just kind of watch and see, like you said, what goes on there. I think the thing that does concern me, like you said, I mean, he basically said that a stinger is a head injury, but he's not in the concussion protocol. But, you know, during the game, they said elbow. You know, they have to give a body partner in the game, and they said elbow.

So that makes me a little bit nervous, and maybe he's, you know, again, I don't know. But I was really excited when I heard that, when I heard him say at the press conference that it wasn't the elbow, but the more I think about it, the more, like you said, I'm just not sure if that's actually the truth or not. But like I said, we'll kind of keep an eye on that. The other thing of note, really, from the press conference, Dean Pease was on his way back from Indianapolis. Paul Koharski had tweeted out later in the afternoon

that they thought he might be having a mini stroke. That's what was going on during the game. Turned out to be something with an issue with a nerve in his eye or something. But all the tests that they got back were positive, positive in a good way. When you hear about testing positive in medical, it's usually a bad thing. But the results of the tests were positive, and he was on his way back. Ray Wilson said that Dean Peay said he wanted to come into the office today, but Vrabel told him to go home and basically said he'd be working banker's hours this week.

Didn't commit to him what his role would be on Monday night in Houston. I would assume if everything goes as they hope that it will, that he'll be the one calling Monday night. I think we all feel better about this defense if he's doing that. But either way, I think that he'll make a decision on that at some point pretty early in the week. And so at least if Mike Vrabel does have to call the defense on Monday night, you know, he'll go into the game knowing that he's going to be doing that, which I think would be a much better situation to be in

than what they found themselves in on Sunday. Yeah, absolutely. First and foremost, you know, you just hope Dean's all right, and it sounds like he is. But, you know, that was a big loss for the Titans. That's a brain on the sidelines that you didn't have. That's a guy that has proven Multiple times this year that the you know, the defense has been the backbone of this team whenever the Titans need something man

That defense has stood tall Dean Pease is the guy pulling the strings there. He's the guy calling the plays so to force Vrabel in to you know, it's something he's done before let's be real, but it's something he wasn't prepared to do. So that's quite the curveball. And just think about what Mike Vrabel's been through in his first year as head coach in this league. It seems like he's gotten a decade's worth of experience, you know, from that just bizarre opening game in Miami, all of these injuries, the ups and downs of the seasons.

Now you've got Dean Pease having to be rushed off to the hospital. Hopefully something will calm down here and the Titans will just kind of return to being somewhat of a normal NFL football team here. But it was a rough situation for Vrabel to be pushed into, probably something that he wasn't prepared for. But, yeah, hopefully Dean Pease will be back on the sidelines on Sunday, or Monday night, excuse me, because that's a big deal for the Titans. Yeah, and, you know, Jim Wyatt asked mike vrabel at the press conference you know is that unprecedented and vrabel basically along the lines of what you're saying here said you know we've seen a

lot of things this season that have been unprecedented so um yeah it's been just you couldn't have like i guess i said last night you couldn't have, like I said last night, if you'd have written all these stories before the season started, you'd have called people crazy for, you know, making up the stuff that's going on in this season. So hopefully it's all going to calm down. And like we said, the biggest thing is you hope DMP is okay. It sounds like he is.

He's doing better. He's got to come back home today. So that's got to be a good sign. So, you know, again, just keep an eye on that. And I don't know, again, who knows how much information we'll get as far as updates or any of that kind of stuff on that as the week goes on. But if we hear anything, we'll obviously pass it on either here or at museummiracles.com. All right, coming up, we'll talk a little bit about the Snap Count Notes. But before we do that, I'll tell you about about a brand new sponsor to the podcast, Action Heat. Action Heat makes the world's best battery-heated clothing.

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and we thank them for sponsoring the podcast. All right, so one of the things that stood out to me when I looked at some of the snap count numbers from the game in Indianapolis was that Malcolm Butler only played on 76% of the defensive snaps. Now, at first I thought that meant that LaShawn Sims had played more, you know, whatever. But LaShawn Sims only played three defensive snaps. So I guess that just means they were in base more, and we were talking about it beforehand, and you made a good point.

The Colts use two and three tight ends at times, so it makes sense that in this game the Titans would have played more of what's the base personnel on defense. So just again, another clear indication that Adore Jackson and Logan Ryan are your starting corners, and you've got a really expensive nickel corner at this point. Yeah, what stood out to me was the defensive line usage again. There's just a lot going on there,

and no one seems to really be stepping up to the plate. They played Darius kilgo you know i didn't even know how to say his name uh i knew he's on the team but uh got 35 of the reps uh played more than austin johnson more than benny logan uh so they're clearly searching for something on that defensive line rotation and i told you this and i'll go ahead and say it Something that John Robinson has failed to do here Is really bulk up this defensive line and it hasn't been for a lack of trying, you know He's brought several different names in here Drafted Austin Johnson

It's just been okay, you know Sylvester Williams was disaster Benny Logan hasn't made much of an impact at all. Just would like to see something along the lines to help Jarrell Casey. It just seems like Jarrell has been forced to deal with a double team for just about his entire career, and, man, he hadn't had much help up there. So that's a big need, kind of starting to talk about the offseason just a little bit. I know there's a lot of emerging needs, but I don't think we can forget about the defensive line.

Yeah, and again, you go back to the draft where they had three second-round picks, and you ended up with Kevin Dodd, Austin Johnson, and Derrick Henry. You know, Derrick Henry has always been the most productive of the three. Austin Johnson is still here. He's a rotational guy, but not a difference maker. Like you said, not a guy that is taking away any of the focus from Jarrell Casey. So, I don't know. And we'll get into draft needs and all that stuff when,

when that time becomes more appropriate, but it just seems like this team has had the same draft needs for the last 10 or 15 years. I mean, every, every off season, we're talking about an edge rusher, a wide receiver, an interior offensive lineman, a defensive lineman. I mean, you know, it's like the same, same things over and over and over I mean, you know, it's like the same things over and over and over. And, you know, again, John Robinson's done a good job in a lot of areas. There's no doubt this roster is infinitely more talented from top to bottom

than it was when he took it over. But there still have just been a few things that he's missed on, and I think that second round with those three picks, and you can argue coming up empty in all three spots, that's going to be something that comes back to haunt them, or at least just a missed opportunity that they had to really set the franchise on a different course and not really hitting any of those three guys. Speaking of Derrick Henry, he played 21 snaps of the 63 offensive snaps. Deion Lewis out-snapped him by a large margin again.

Deion Lewis played on 44 of the snaps. Neither guy was particularly effective. Derrick Henry was more effective in this game than Deion Lewis was. But the run game, you know, has not been able to get going, and that's, you know, doing a large part to the play of the offensive line. And we're going to get a little bit more into the offensive line and possibly some shuffling that could be going on there in the last segment. But, again, a clear indication that they want to move to Deion Lewis as a feature guy,

but neither one of them being effective at this point. Yeah, I mean, what stands out to me, Jonu Smith seems like he's turned a corner, if there's any positive at all from yesterday. I point to Jonu. He's now strung a few weeks in a row together after showing absolutely nothing for what five six weeks there Merge just didn't trust him. I think that was clear. You know, he look at the other way when Johnny was wide open

So he's really coming to his own which is good to see Titans needed someone to step up Camera bats and plays 62 percent of the snaps That's just mind-blowing to me if you'd have have told me that week one, I would have slapped you. I mean, it's just crazy. But no Taewon Taylor, so it makes sense, right? But those receivers just did nothing. And granted, when Mariota went down, the game was over. So, again, I haven't seen the tape.

I'd love to know, though, were they getting separation? Could they, like you said yesterday, could they handle that zone? I'd love to see what was happening down the field because whatever Marcus was seeing, he clearly wasn't liking. Yeah, and, you know, I don't know. That's a big issue that we've obviously talked a lot about. But on Jonu, yeah, I mean, you know, he's shown up the last couple, three weeks. And so, again, you just hope that that can continue.

And if this does end up being an 8-8 type year and they don't make the playoffs, you know, not all is lost because he's a guy that's gotten a lot of valuable experience, you know, not the way that any of us wanted it to happen Any of us wanted it to happen, him included, I'm sure, with Delaney Walker going down so early in the season. But, you know, they both got a – he's gotten a chance to get some valuable snaps, and then hopefully, you know, when Delaney's back, you know, he's that much more ready to take on whatever role he'll be playing, you know, with Delaney out there.

So, I mean, I guess that's a silver lining in all of this. But, yeah, it's just when they're – and, you know, Cam Batsonny out there. So, I mean, I guess that's a silver lining in all of this. But, yeah, it's just when they're in, you know, Cam Batson didn't really do anything yesterday, but when he's out there for, you know, 39 snaps in this game, that's just not how they had drawn it up at the beginning of the year. So, nothing else that's too interesting from the way things broke down. You know, Ferguson ended up playing 14 snaps, From the way things broke down, you know, Ferguson ended up playing 14 snaps,

and that's just kind of a, you know, product of them needing to throw to catch back up. You've got Corey Davidson and Tajay Sarp playing 58 snaps each. So, you know, the rotation was kind of as you would have expected there. So, you know, it's just hopefully moving forward, they're going to have more offensive plays in games. Hopefully moving forward Marcus Mariota is playing 100% of those snaps. Those are the things that we'll really be looking for going forward. All right, coming up to finish up the show, we'll talk a little bit about the offensive line, the issues there, and some shuffling that might be going on.

Mike Vrabel was asked today about Dennis Kelly and about can he play guard, I think was the question that he was asked, and Vrabel said that he can. I think Kelly played guard early in his career with the Eagles. I don't know. The problem is you've got a couple of different guys that are struggling on the offensive line. We talked last night about Jack Conklin and the struggles that he's had so far this year. Josh Klein has been a guy that a lot of the fans are focused on, and I wrote an article about today.

He's got such a bad grade on the season at that right guard spot. I think Dennis Kelly might be, at this point, an upgrade over both of those guys. But he's been the guy that's been the swing tackle. And so, you know, what do you do? Is it – would it be smart for them to slot him inside and let him play guard over Josh Klein? Is he athletic enough to play guard in this offense?

I mean, there's just a lot of questions there. And I think, you know, we're all looking for answers with as bad as things have been. But I just – it's hard to see – it's hard for me to see them making a change that big at this point in the season. I'm kind of with you. And I'm with you because what have you seen the last three weeks? Take the Colts game out. It was pretty good showings for three weeks in a row, something that we hadn't seen. They were blowing people off the ball.

The run game was alive and well, and suddenly, boom, Marcus Mariota looks good and everything's peachy again. Marks Marietta looks good and everything's peachy again, and then you get you go and get pushed around by Indy who? The Titans made look like Baltimore, so I don't know if it's if now is the right time to make a knee-jerk decision Clearly there's a there's an issue there with Conklin and variable was asked about him and He said he continues to get better. He said he thought he was better to start the game And then he thinks he'll continue to improve. Well, certainly hope so You just kind of you know, you don't want someone to be hurt, but you hope that that's the issue with Conklin You hope he's just not a hundred percent yet

Because it's kind of concerning watching him out there right now. But, yeah, Dennis Kelly is serviceable. I think he could definitely step in at right tackle. I don't know about guard. That just seems like a new issue for him to go figure out. It seems like a pretty big swing because you're talking about a guy that wasn't really

athletic enough to to sustain himself last year when he had to play a little for for lejuan uh when he went down so i don't think a lot of dennis kelly at least as an athlete uh but you know clearly has been serviceable on the right side so i don't know if you get desperate enough it might be worth a shot but i don't think you make that move quite yet yeah he's a very valuable piece to this team clearly uh like you said a guy that can they can fill in at both tackle spots uh you know there's a much bigger drop off from lawan to kelly than there is from conklin to kelly uh you know lawan's a special player lawan's a special athlete even for for an offensive tackle. Conklin's not. Kelly's not. And so I think you just don't notice it as much when, you know,

he's filling in for Conklin as you do when he's filling in for LaJuan. But yeah, I mean, a guy that hasn't played guard at all in his time here, it just seems to me like it would take more time for him to get up to speed trying to do some of that stuff i'm just not sure that it would it would pay off in the short term over klein and listen they need klein to be good i mean they've got a lot of money committed to him um you know they thought they gave him the money and that was going to you know solve that position right position. You don't give a guy $24 million if you're expecting to replace him, especially the first year, but even into that second year. We talked about it.

They're not going to cut Klein next year. Even if they drafted somebody to play that position next year, Klein's still going to be on this roster. They need a center, too, and they're probably going to cut Ben Jones this offseason, so they're going to have to either draft a center or sign a center. So you're going to have at least one new piece there. I don't know.

Like you said, I just think that if you're asking a guy to play a completely new position, it's going to take him some time to get used to doing that, to really know the assignments. Then you've got to talk about the offensive line, the cohesion, all that stuff, and we know that that's important. I just don't know. If you're going to do anything, I think you put Kelly in for Conklin. But, again, I'm not sure.

I'd be interested to see what the difference there would be because I think Dennis Kelly is a serviceable player. sure I'd be interested to see what the difference there would be. Because I think Dennis Kelly is a serviceable player. And I do think it's specifically in that Monday night game when Conklin went out and Kelly came in, the offensive line was better. Conklin was getting worked in that game. So I think Kelly was better in that game. But I'm not convinced that, you know, on a week in and, week-out basis

that Dennis Kelly is a better player than Jack Conklin. Yeah, if that's the case, then I'm going to say that Jack Conklin is still playing hurt and not 100%. That might be the case right now, but hopefully it's not in the future. For me, it falls on mouthful. Get the ball out, scheme up some quick throws, attack the future. For me, it falls on Malfoy. Get the ball out, scheme up some quick throws, attack the perimeter.

I forget where I saw it today, but I saw Mariota's on pace for the Wizard Hunt year where he just kept getting crushed. The way Wizard Hunt actually got fired because Marcus was taking too many hits. That's the level we're at right now.

So I think Matt LeFleur needs to kind of shorten things up. You know, those pop screens, you know, sitting here watching this Chiefs game, you're seeing misdirection, you're seeing screen passes to Travis Kelsey and Kareem Hunt. I realize the Titans don't have players like that, but you can still try. You've got to do something. You've got to change it up. You talked about that Baltimore

game where he was just getting Kareem time and time again. Fleur never changed anything. Never tried anything different. That's what I want to see out of him. Just get the ball out of Marcus Mariota's hands. Don't put so much on mario's plate yeah and that yeah and that's what we thought we were gonna have in matt lafleur

but you know some games he's looked like a genius play caller and then other games it seems like it seems like maybe when his initial plan that he comes into a game with doesn't work he's not to the point yet where he can make those adjustments kind of on the fly. And again, you know, we probably expected too much of him. We kind of expected him to be the savior after what we had last year, and this is a guy that's

in his first year of call and play, so I mean, I think we probably should have expected some growing pains in that and new offensive, you know, him learning the players and all that kind of stuff just kind of takes time. But anyway, I just don't expect them to make any huge changes on the offensive line. I just can't see them subbing Dennis Kelly in for either one of those guys.

Those guys just need to play better and, you know, hopefully Conklin gets more healthy, whatever his issue is. But I think ultimately they're going to go with those five guys that they've been playing as much as they can, and any kind of big changes they would make would be in the offseason. And I think that's probably for the best at this point. All right, that'll do it for tonight. We'll be back tomorrow.

We'll have a crossover episode with the Texans guys. So get where they are, and obviously they're going to be in good spirits with how well the Texans have been playing recently. And then we'll have a preview show for the Texans game later in the week. So between now and then, you can check out musicmiracles.com. We'll have a lot more on everything that's been going on with the Titans. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm.

Terry's at teamlembertfb. So for Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks for listening to Locked on Titans, and we'll talk to you again tomorrow.