Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: New gig for Fisher, Madden Ratings, OL Ranks

Episode Date: July 13, 2018

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Welcome in to another edition of Locked on Titans. I'm Jimmy Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you today? Doing pretty good. What's up, man? Actually, a few things today. So it's good. We're getting closer and closer to the start of training camp. And so we've got a few things actually to discuss today, which is nice. We're going to put our defensive roster battles discussion on hold probably until next week. Just a few things we can hit today, and then we'll get into that. And then at the end of next week, training camp starts. So that's always exciting.

Actually, it's two weeks away. It's two weeks from today, right? I think so. Yeah, so two weeks from – so 26 is when camp opens. So two weeks. So we'll get that next week, and then we'll have camp. Coming up, before we get into today's show, I want to remind you that we write for MuseumMiracles.com,

so you can follow us there. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry's at tlambertfb. You can subscribe to Locked on Titans wherever you get your podcasts. Then you get to know those episodes as soon as they are available. So today we're going to talk about Igniting the Fire episode that came out on Tuesday.

We've got Madden ratings to discuss, offensive line rankings from PFF, and an old friend of the Titans possibly joining the broadcast booth this year. Before we do that, we will give you a word from our newest sponsor. Guys, remember the days when you were always ready to go in bed? Now you can increase your performance and get that extra confidence. Listen upchew.com that's blue like the color blue bluechew.com brings you the first chewable with the same fda approved active ingredients as viagra and cialis so you know they work you can take them anytime day or night even on a full stomach since they're chewable they work twice as fast as a pill so you can be ready whenever that opportunity arises.

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All right, so Igniting the Fire came out, I guess, episode four, right on Tuesday night. It was focused around the defensive backs. You know, and again, we've talked about this. The show itself has been a little bit of a letdown for me. I think maybe I just was expecting something else. I was expecting it to have more of a Hard Knocks feel, and it's really just been basically get to know the coaches. And so while that's cool and it is neat to see some of that stuff,

I was expecting a little bit more on the players and their personalities and that kind of stuff. So, you know, we saw Kerry Coombs in this episode. He runs around a lot. He yells a lot. He's very energetic. We knew all of that stuff, so I'm not really sure if there's anything we actually learned there. I mean, I think he's going to be a fun guy to watch, and it sounds like he's a good coach and the guys all like him.

But, you know, again, like I said, this episode is on the secondary. We didn't get much of an insight into anything other than, you know, how they're being coached in practice. Yeah, it's probably time to adjust those expectations, at least until training camp. We'll see what happens there. But like you said, I didn't learn much. They were talking about Kerry Coombs and showing a little, you know,

they're not going to show you scheme. They're not going to show you really what they're working on. They're just kind of giving you vague quotes. You know, you saw Logan Ryan out there working with Adoree Jackson and then telling him inside versus outside leverage and little stuff like that. But outside of that, I didn't learn too much. You saw a little peek inside the Titans nutrition room and how their meals are prepared and how their shakes and stuff like that are prepared.

But really just kind of a disappointing episode to me. And like you were saying, maybe we just need to kind of shelve our expectations for now and see what we get in training camp. Yeah, so next week we're still talking about the linebackers. So we'll get more on that. That's an interesting group, you know, when you look at all the things at work there with the veterans, like Arakpo, Morgan, Wesley Woodyard. And then you've got, you know, your two high draft picks there

with Landry and Rashawn Evans. I mean, so that's an interesting group. You got a lot going on there, but I'm not sure what we'll really get to know about them other than, I mean, I would assume it'll be the same as the other episodes we've seen. And so again, those come out on Tuesday nights, and you can check them out on the Titans Facebook page. That's where

they're releasing them. And if you meet us at miracles.com, Mike has been recapping the episodes after they hit. So you can look out for that. Alright, we got Madden ratings. The whole, you know, we talked I guess maybe two weeks ago it couldn't be longer than that about kind of the overall ratings we had a top five

with each team or whatever um but now we've got what the whole team looks like and you know the most ridiculous thing i think on the entire game and um that's about looking at you know everything but the fact that blake bortles is an 80 and marcus Mariota is a 79, it's just the – I mean, I can't fathom a world in which there are people that actually think, outside of Jacksonville, people that actually think that Blake Bortles is better than Marcus Mariota. If you've watched the Jaguars play at all, you know that this last year the only reason they were any good at all was because they have an unbelievable defense and they did everything they possibly could to hide Blake Bortles.

And so I can't, again, it doesn't make any sense to me how they could, the people that create Madden could rank Bortles higher than Mario. I don't care what the numbers and, you know, how many intercepts Mario threw and all that stuff. If you actually watch football, you knowota's better than Blake Bortles. But was there anything else as far as the ratings go, Terry, that stood out to you? Yeah, it's the same feeling on Mariota. I mean, he's rated the same as Lamar Jackson, who went, what, 32nd or 30th,

something like that in the draft. So Ricky Quarterback is the same rating as Marcus Mariota. It's just a little ridiculous. Maybe we're being homers here. I understand that Mariota had a bad year, but, you know, use your brain. You know, he showed those signs in the first and second year, so that's a little ridiculous. I just wonder, will EA ever ship these ratings out to Pro Football Focus?

You know, I just, it seems like they missed the mark so many times. You know, you've got Tyron Matthew who got cut from the Cardinals. He's still a 93 overall. And this is really kind of dumb to argue about, but it's just frustrating because it's the, it's the only product we have now for football on a console. And it's just a huge link to these fans, and it just seems like there's no competition,

and it just seems like the EA could do better here. Yeah, absolutely. I don't know. I mean, I don't know. It seems like with as popular as this game is, it seems like they would put more into rating these guys. But again, the other thing I wonder is how much publicity or whatever do they get from the discussion of guys not being rated how they should. Now granted, like you said, if they did it to PFF or whoever, you would still have fan bases that are going to argue with where their guys ranked.

And again, I guess you could say that we're doing that with Mariota. Write him whatever you want. Just don't write him behind Blake Bortles. That's the only thing that I have a problem with. Bortles is so bad. He's so, so bad. But anyway, so yeah, I think that, like I said, you would want them to put a little bit more time into that kind of stuff

because, I mean, obviously it's a ridiculously popular game. And, you know, with college football going away going away because that's the only thing we have left to play but uh you know i don't know i don't know what they get out of you know having people talk about it like we're doing right now and like twitter blows up when all the stuff comes out um so i guess i mean i guess on one hand that's good for them um it'll be interesting i think they update them during the season you can do that and so um it'll be interesting. I think they update them during the season. You can do that. And so it'll be interesting to see. We should circle back to this at the middle end of the year and see where these guys are because I think you're going to see a big difference.

Just like I said with anything, any kind of list that you see with the Titans offense, skill players, quarterbacks, whatever it may be, I'm really interested to see how the national perception of these groups changes as the season goes along. As you have a competent offense, I think you're going to see a lot of different stuff. So anyway, obviously a lot of people are playing Madden, so I thought we'd take a couple minutes on that. Coming up, we'll talk about, like I said, the pro football focus list of offensive lines. So pro football focus, obviously you're probably familiar with them but if you're not they grade every play every player on every play um and you know i think that their their

their grades are better for some things than others um i i tend to put a little bit more weight into their offensive line grades one because they're watching it and they're breaking it down. And it's really one of the only places we have where we can go and, you know, kind of at least evaluate these guys on a similar playing field. They have the Titans' offensive line rated fifth overall in the league, which is the exact same that it was last year. You know, and obviously that's anchored by really good grades for Taylor LeJuan and Jack Conklin from last year um you know and obviously that's anchored by really good grades for taylor lewan

and jack conklin from last year um you know and then ben jones pretty much average josh klein a little bit above that went in spain a little bit below that so i don't know top five offensive line not not really surprised there was there anything on this list terry i guess this stood out to you probably a little high for me. I mean, you go back to the run game and how much it struggled, how big of a step back we thought they took. You go back to the early season, this team couldn't generate a push going back to preseason.

So a little surprising there that they weren't lower to me, honestly. But I think it also speaks to the quality of play in the NFL. It just seems like outside of a couple of teams, every fan base complains about their offensive line. And it's a problem league-wide. I think tackle play is really bad around the league, so the Titans are really fortunate to have two really good ones. So I think continuity is the key here, returning all five starters once again.

So I think they'll be one of the best in the league once again, but hopefully you see some more push generated in the run game. And obviously things are going to change with that little bit of a scheme change. So we'll see how that affects things. Yeah, and I think, too, more than anything, it speaks to when you – I'm just kind of scrolling through the teams behind them. They have an obvious weak link. The other teams do.

Like if you look at the Saints, they're right behind the Titans. But their left guard was rated 46.9. The center was 50. The Titans don't have anybody. Quentin Spain was our lowest graded player at 73. And then you scroll down to the Raiders. They got a guy at 69.1. When you look at the Lions, they got a couple of guys.

Their left tackle is 60 overall. So, I mean, when you look at that kind of they got a couple of guys. Their left tackle is a 60 overall. So, I mean, when you look at that kind of stuff, the Packers are centers of 51. So, I mean, I think maybe it's just kind of the consistency across the line is what grades them out so well as far as this metric is concerned, not having that guy that's falling off the cliff. But like you said, when it comes to putting it all together, the continuity playing on the field, it didn't play out as well as we hoped that it would last year. They didn't look as good.

But I guess on a play-by-play metric, you know, it seemed like everything else with the Titans last year, guys, you know, play-by-play, they all graded out pretty well. But then it just seemed like there was always somebody not doing what they were supposed to do on every play. They kind of sabotaged the team as a whole, especially the offense last year. The receivers not being in the same place that Mario had expected them to be. You never really knew whose fault it was or whatever.

But it seemed like that was kind of the issue. It was like they would have one breakdown every play, and it kind of messed everything up. So, I don't know. Yeah, interesting to look at that. And hopefully they can play better overall than they did last year. Okay, a couple just quick hitters here. Jeff Fisher is apparently going to call a game for Fox PFT on Thursday afternoon. Came out with a post that said that Fisher's scheduled to call a game on September 30th

between the Jets and the Jaguars in Jacksonville. And if you remember back to the days when the Titans were really good, 99 when they came here, they beat the Jaguars three times that year on the way to the Super Bowl. And Fisher made the joke that in the last couple years they'd had four home stadiums, I guess, one in Memphis, one in Nashville at Vanderbilt, one in Nashville at what was then Adelphia Coliseum,

and Jacksonville being their other home. So the fans down there have always really loved Jeff Fisher. So that's a good place for him to get his first TV assignment. So that's interesting. I don't know. I'm not really sold on Jeff Fisher as a guy in the TV booth, but I guess we'll just kind of have to see how it plays out. Yeah, I'm with you.

He's just kind of got a low, deep, monotone voice. Doesn't really get overly excited. And you look at a guy like Tony Romo, I just think networks would try to replicate that, have some personality, have some excitement. I'm not sure Fisher's going to give you that. What I think he would be good at, though, is some sort of in-studio role. I mean, the dude's done everything.

He's won playoff games, he's been to a Super Bowl, he's moved teams, he's been on some really bad teams. So I think he'll have some interesting NFL life stories and can give some interesting analysis there. But as a color guy, I'm just – I'm not sold there. Yeah, so we'll see how it plays out. I guess that's kind of be his trial run, and if it goes well, he'll get some more stuff. If not, then they just stick him in the studio.

But, you know, it was kind of rumored that he would do TV, and then he didn't really do much last year, really much of anything. And so I guess this is kind of what he's venturing into this year. And then the last note for today, just today, again, the NFL media has released the games, the preseason games that are going to be carried on NFL Network. And the Titans' week three preseason game against the Steelers in Pittsburgh will kick off at 3 p.m. Central and will be carried on NFL Network. So those of us that live in market, we get to see all the Titans' preseason games anyway. But if you're out of market, you'll at least get to see that game. I think they'll replay a bunch of games of the preseason games

on the NFL Network. But if you have NFL Network, you'll get to see that one live. so again you can if you go to add nfl media they release the full schedule of the preseason games that they'll be carrying so you can check that out there um and that's a good i mean week three is a good one to give the the national audience you know they'll get to see the most of the starters and and you know a little bit of glimpse into the offense and that kind of stuff um so that'll be a good one for everybody to see there. And then I guess that was it. It was a Thursday night game last year against Steelers, right?

That was on national TV where the Titans just got blown away. So hopefully things will go a little bit better this time around. At least it won't matter as much if they don't. All right, so I think that pretty much covers it for today. Like I said, just kind of a few noteworthy things there for today like I said just kind of a few noteworthy things there and like I said we'll get more of that as we get closer to training camp we'll ramp up a little bit

with the coverage over the next couple weeks we'll be back to doing you know three or four episodes a week once training camp's up and running because we'll have a whole lot more stuff to talk about so thanks for listening today again subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Locked on Titans search is out there.

You'll find us. Follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorganmcm. Terry's at tlembertfb. So for Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks for listening, and we will talk to you again next week.