Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked On Titans-Sept. 29- Up to date injury news for Titans and more.

Episode Date: September 29, 2016

It's Thursday and we have injury news for the Titans including Tajae Sharpe and the return of Kendall Wright along with our Coaches & Players Corners along with Final Thoughts for Thursday. #BHop #TerryMc #GregA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. You are locked on Titans. Your daily podcast on the Tennessee Titans. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team, every day. And welcome to Locked On Titans for a Thursday morning with your host, Terry McCormick of Titan Insider, Greg Arias, and former Tennessee Titans Pro Bowl left tackle, Brad Hopkins. We are Locked on Titans for this Thursday morning, Terry McCormick, and as always, Brad

not with us on Tuesdays and Thursdays, just you and I, but we've still got plenty of things to talk about this morning, and it starts with our current news. We'll also have our players and coaches' corners today, where we take a quote from the conference calls of the opponent this week. And in this case, it'll be head coach Bill O'Brien and Brock Osweiler, the quarterback of the Houston Texans, plus our final thoughts. And Terry, as we jump right into the current news this morning, it starts with an update on Tajay Sharp that a lot of people might not have heard about.

He was limited in practice yesterday, and it's going to be important what he can do on Thursday and Friday to see if he's going to be available come Sunday when the Titans travel to Houston. Right. Tajay Sharp was limited a little bit by a hamstring injury in practice. Same thing for Cody Riggs, who suffered a pulled hamstring in yesterday's practice. So the hamstring injury seems to be the injury of choice for the Titans this year. It always seems to be something.

Last year it was MCL sprains. This year it has been hamstring injuries that has plagued this team thus far. And Tajay Sharp was limited on Wednesday. They'll take a look at him today and tomorrow to see how much he can do and hopefully get him back on the field and get him back in the lineup. And, you know, those hamstrings are nothing to mess with because certainly that's one of the largest, I think it is the largest muscle actually in the body.

And if you tear one of those it's it's some serious deal so obviously they have to take precautions with these guys and try to get them healthy and we've seen unfortunately how long that can take with these things with Kendall Wright who by the way returned to practice full go yesterday in practice looked okay to play on Sunday, but again, just how much he can do will be determined, I guess, over probably today and Friday's practice work, Terry, as they see how much he can endure before getting on the road and trying to get him into the game on Sunday. Right. I mean, you know, Coach Mike Malarkey and Kendall Wright both said, you know, really

good to have him back out there at full go yesterday. And I think their plan is that Kendall Wright's going to be playing this week, that he's going to be out there in the lineup. He's, you know, not doing scout teamwork like he did last week. He's actually out there doing drills and catching passes, working in the offensive game plan. So after six weeks or so out of the lineup with his hamstring injury that he initially suffered in early August that cost him the entire preseason, the first three regular season games,

it looks like Kendall Wright might finally get on the field this week for the Titans, and that's certainly good news if you're a Titans fan. Yet another hamstring injury. This to Delaney Walker. He tweaked his against Detroit, actually. Missed the Oakland game and has not practiced but said to be set to practice on Thursday. And obviously Thursday, Friday important for him

and what he can do and can he get back into the lineup and be available to play versus the Texans come Sunday. We'll find out more about that, obviously, later on today. Yeah, I think the plan is to try and ease him back in. I think they're hoping that Delaney's going to be a go this Sunday. I talked to him briefly yesterday, and he felt pretty confident that by Friday he should be ready to roll and be ready to play on Sunday against the Texans, which would give the Titans, between Delaney Walker and Kendall Wright, that's going to give the Titans a couple more weapons in the passing game

that they will without Sunday against Oakland. And it certainly showed in the struggles that the offense had, especially in the passing game. Now, it's interesting, and you brought this up, obviously, that the hamstring has been the injury of choice, so to speak, for the Titans so far this year with Wright and Walker and Derek Morgan and now Sharp. Is there anything, though, and I know you're not a doctor or a trainer, but maybe that we've seen that the Titans are doing or can do differently,

or is there some type of just something that they're doing in training that's causing all this? Because it certainly seems like a lot for so early in the season. Yeah, it's interesting. You know, it just seems like that one injury, you know, just seems to be linger around the team every year. Like I said last year, it was MCL sprains. You know, Marcus Mariota had two of them.

Chance Wormack had an MCL sprain. Kendall Wright had an MCL sprain. It was just on and on and on with guys who had two of them. Chance Wormack had an MCL sprain. Kendall Wright had an MCL sprain. It was just on and on and on of guys who had that same injury. And I don't know if there's anything they can do to prevent these hamstrings. And I don't know if there's anything they can do stretching-wise or training-wise. But it just seems like every year there's one sort of injury that will plague a team. And it also seems like there's one position group usually that gets hit harder than the others with a certain injury and of course that year or this

year rather it seems to be the wide receivers or skill position guys now let me ask you this because the mcl springs we know how marcus hurt his last year both of those were contact injuries these hamstrings though are non-contact injuries for the most part other than Delaney Walker, who said he was held when his happened. Kendall Wrights, Tajay Sharp, Derek Morgan, although Morgan may well have been contact too

in the game against Minnesota. But for the most part these seem to be less contact related than the MCL sprain certainly would have been. Yeah, it does. I mean, it seems like that when you talk about these sorts of injuries, you know, a lot of times just by running and cutting the wrong way

and planting and doing those sorts of things, you know, sometimes those hamstrings get tight and they pull and they stretch out and you just have to, you know, try and work your way through it. Sometimes it just takes rest. It's really funny how sometimes non-contact injuries can be as debilitating sometimes as contact injuries. You're listening to Locked On Titans on the Locked On Podcast Network, and let's move along now, Terry, to our Coach's Corner,

where we take a quote from the conference call that took place on Wednesday. In this case, it's Texans head coach Bill O'Brien, and he spoke about Marcus Mariota and the fact that even though Marcus is entering his second season now in the NFL, he has yet to actually face the Texans because of those two MCL sprains that you mentioned. He missed both the games against the Texans, and this is what Bill O'Brien had to say in our coach's corner. Yeah, that's true. It's the first time we've played him.

We did not play against him last year because he was out. It's a big challenge. I mean, this guy is very athletic. He's a good passer of the football and smart. There's a number of different things they do with him, and so it's a big, big challenge because when we get out on the perimeter and he's able to use his running skills, it's tough. And even then, like I said earlier, he's doing a great job throwing the ball from the pocket. He's

definitely a dual threat quarterback. Some interesting comments there from Bill O'Brien, and he mentions that Marcus is throwing the ball well, but yet at times we've seen Marcus struggle. What do you make of those comments? Well, I think any time an opposing coach talks about a player from the team he's about to face that week, you know, they generally shower them with compliments. They don't want to say anything inflammatory. They certainly don't want to give away how they might try to attack that player and exploit

any weaknesses. But it is interesting that the fact that, you fact that Marcus has not faced the Texans, has not faced J.J. Watt either, and Watt is out for this game. So now that three times that they've had an opportunity for Marcus Mariota and J.J. Watt to face off against each other, and it still has yet to happen. In fact, it might not happen until next year now with the Watt injury potentially a season-ender for him unless they bring him back off injured reserve. So I think when you talk about what Bill O'Brien said about Marcus,

I think he's seeing and talking about the Marcus Mariota that has had some success for the Titans, that's played well, especially in the two-minute offense, and has been able to get out on the edge and do some running occasionally and scramble when the play breaks down. And the truth is, Marcus does have pretty good touch as a quarterback. You know, he's a guy that has, you know, he fit that ball into Andre Johnson there that won the game against the Lions, couldn't have asked for a better throw.

I think it's more the deep ball and being able to step into his throws sometimes that's been causing him problems with some of the throws that he's had that have resulted in interceptions or have been, you know, plays where the receiver could not get in position to make the play because the throw was errant. And then some of that, in my mind, lies with the receivers as well. As we've talked before, this is not a group that's going to get a lot of separation. They're not going to burn you with speed down the field,

and they're not going to cut in and out of breaks and leave the defensive back in the dust most of the time. They're basically possession-type receivers who catch the ball, get 10 to 12 yards, move the chains, and there's not much run after catch. So when you're dealing with those types of receivers and you're dealing with a young quarterback, that cuts down on your number of explosive plays, Greg. And certainly I can't get inside the mind of Bill O'Brien,

but to me it seems like he feels, just from that comment and some others that he made, that the Titans want to put this game in and are going to have to put this game on Marcus' shoulders to win it throwing the football because I don't think that the Texans are going to come out and allow DeMarco Murray and Derrick Henry, either or, to have a big game. Now, certainly the Titans can go out and earn that and get a big ground game, but I think that the focal point of this defensive effort from the Texans minus J.J. Watt will be to stuff the run

and force this onto the shoulders of those receivers because, as you said, Terry, they don't separate well. They don't have blazing speed to get over the top. They don't have a DeAndre Hopkins or a Will Fuller who the Titans are going to have to contend with on the Texans side offensively. And so they want to put this on Marcus Mariota to make him throw the football and beat them, take the Titans out of the run game. I think that's the approach, and I think just again, without being inside Bill O'Brien's head, that's kind of where he's leaning to with some of those comments.

Yeah, I think you're exactly right. I think when you talk about what the Texans want to do to the Titans, they want to put the game in the hands of that passing game and see if they're able to measure up. And then if they know that they have to pass, even though they're missing J.J. Watt, they can still send guys like Whitney Merciless and Jadeveon Clowney after the quarterback

and be able to create some pressure against the Titans' offensive line. One of the things they talked about yesterday, Mike Malarkey and also Taylor LeJuan talked about it a little bit. The Texans' defensive line, sometimes they line five defenses, line them down, and make you block them head up, and they move guys around. In other words, when Watt was in there, we saw how he, a couple years ago,

the now famous video clip of when he said he was going to stay there over uh poor old will c tech over at the left tackle position and uh was going to try to stay there well in most cases they would move him around they still do that some with clowning do that some with merciless the other guys and they try to find where they can exploit the weakness and find the mismatch. If they think somebody is weaker at pass protection, they may put their strongest pass rusher over him. If that guy's a center or a guard,

they may still put a defensive end there to go against that guard, even though normally that guard would block a defensive tackle. Well, they certainly know Ben Jones well, obviously the Titan center who came over as a free agent from Houston. And to me, Terry, in that scenario, I think I would attack the middle with Josh Klein, who's a new insert into this line, and then, of course, Quentin Spain. Now, Quentin Spain has had some moments where he's played very well,

but if I'm the Texans, I think I want to attack between the tackles and stay away from trying to get wide because certainly we know Taylor LeJuan, when he's right, can handle his spot. Jack Conklin has been adequate there for a rookie learning and getting better on the right side at tackle. So I'm thinking they're going to try, and obviously they may bring some blitz pressure off the edges to try to free up some things in the middle as well.

But I think they're going to work on the middle of this Titans offensive line come Sunday. Could be. And also, remember, Quentin Spain's a little bit banged up with a knee injury. We didn't cover that in the injury report, but he sat out yesterday as well. Although, I expect, I think, that he's going to play on Sunday. Moving along, it's time for our players' corner, and we go to Texans quarterback Brock Osweiler,

who had some comments yesterday in his conference call with the Nashville media, and he spoke about J.J. Watt and his injury and what it meant to the Houston Texans team. Well, I think this team is taking it as a next-man-up mentality. Obviously, J.J. is a tremendous football player. He's an even better teammate. He will certainly be missed, but by the end of the day, we need to move forward. There really seems to be a beat in the locker room. I know there's a lot of great players on the defensive side of the ball

who are ready to step up and play very hard on Sunday. Obviously, that's going to be the case. These guys are professionals. They're being paid to play football, and they have pride and are going to step up and play tough on Sunday, Terry. But who is the one guy now without J.J. Watt, who obviously every team in the NFL fears as a defender, that the Titans really must pay the most attention to?

Is it Clowney? Is it Merciless? Is it somebody else? Well, I think it's both of those two, but I especially think it's Merciless. Taylor LeJuan, yesterday, he has a lot of respect for Merciless, who just abused him, he said, at one of the matchups last year. I think he had like two and a half sacks or something like that. So LeJuan knows what Merciless can do, and he is one of those guys who is charged with trying to prevent Merciless from just going crazy like he did in one of the meetings last year.

Certainly that should be made easier by the fact that Watt's presence won't be there and that the Titans won't have to worry about trying to contain Watt and they can turn more of their attention to Merciless and Clown. That's just a great name for a pass rusher in the NFL, Merciless. It really is. It's one of the best names. It may be one of the top names ever for a football player in the NFL playing the position he does.

Along with Pat Angerer, which was a great name for a linebacker. Yes, it was. Now, if I'm the Titans, do you think that this Titans offense with Terry Robiskey as the coordinator and Mike Malarkey as head coach are going to try to run at these guys and maybe say, okay, you want to rush us with these guys, we're going to try to line up with our smash mouth and run right at you and force you to make plays as a run defender as opposed to being able to just line up and tee off and come at the quarterback?

Yeah, I think there probably will be a certain amount of that because the Titans bread and butter is the run game right now with DeMarco come at the quarterback. Yeah, I think there probably will be a certain amount of that because, you know, the Titans bread and butter is the run game right now with DeMarco Murray leading the way. So I think what you have to do if you're the Titans, you have to do what your strength is until the defense stops it and shows you that you're going to have to do something else. And the Texans, like you said earlier, probably want to make the Titans throw the football as much as they can and put the game on the shoulder of a young quarterback

in Marcus Mariota. But if you're the Titans, you want to ease that pressure on Mariota as much as possible so that when you do have to throw the football, you're in second and short, you're in third and short. Mike Malarkey talked yesterday about keeping the chains moving, getting first downs is being one of the keys to this offense. Sustaining drives, which is something

they've not done enough of through the first three games of the year. I think they have to run the ball, establish that, dominate at the point of attack of the line of scrimmage enough to get into some second and short, third and short. Then if you want to take shots, maybe you can even take shots down the field

even though you don't have a lot of separation and a lot of speed in that wide receiving court. Now I'm going to put on my offensive coordinator's hat because everybody knows how good I am as an offensive coordinator, sarcasm attached to that. And say that we've seen the Titans, Terry, use the screen game a lot. They worked on it a lot during the OTAs, during minicamp, during training camp. We've seen it a time or two in the regular season.

We've not really seen it a lot, though. I think that's something against this pass rush of the Texans that should be a big part of the game. Now, you can't obviously run it on every down, but that's something that if you invite those pass rushers and Merciless and Clowney upfield, dump it down to either Derrick Henry, who we've seen can make some things happen in space, and certainly we know DeMarco Murray can as well,

that's going to help slow up that pass rush a little bit too. So I think that's going to be something that the Titans should definitely have in this offensive game plan package for this week, and perhaps they will. Yeah, I would think so. I think that that's one of the areas that you would want to try and exploit, especially against a team with an aggressive pass rush like the Texans have. And not only can you do that with your running backs by inviting the pass rush upfield and dumping it over the top,

occasionally, and I'm not a huge fan of the bubble screen to the wide receiver, but occasionally you can use that play, which is almost an extension of your running game. Get the ball out there to a Kendall Wright or even to a Delaney Walker or a Tajay Sharp or a Richard Matthews and let them gain five or six yards out of a short pass on that bubble screen that maybe can help loosen up the box and get you on the outside to be able to do a little bit more than maybe you can do just by running off tackle every play.

I totally agree, as I said there. I like the bubble screen on occasion, but far too often I think coordinators maybe fall in love with it or maybe use it at inappropriate times. And when is the appropriate time and when not? Obviously, you judge that by if it works, it was a great time. If it didn't work, it wasn't so great. But it is an extension of the run game. But at the same time, if a defense plays it well, you really maybe only have one blocker out there.

And a lot of times it gets thrown for no gain and kind of messes things up, especially in the NFL with the way these guys can fly around. So I'm more of a traditional middle screen type of guy. If it's dropped or batted down, obviously it's an incomplete pass. You just lose it down. But I like the idea of getting guys like Murray and Henry involved in that middle screen game. Now here's a thought for you, and I know we haven't seen the Titans do that,

even though we've seen them line him up wide. Maybe throw that bubble screen out there to Derrick Henry, who might be a little more difficult for a cornerback to try to tackle. Yeah, I would think so. I mean, that would be a situation where you try to exploit that mismatch with a big guy in Henry. And certainly there are not many running backs who are 6'3 and 247 pounds and if he can get up ahead of steam by

catching the ball on the screen then certainly not only can he make somebody miss who's smaller than him, maybe he can just line up and run somebody over. It's time for our final thoughts on the day, Terry. Take it away. Well, I think in terms

of my final thought with the Titans, I touched on it a little bit yesterday in terms of how they've got to slow down the Texans. I think you're looking at the Texans' offense that got shut out by the New England Patriots. If I'm the Tennessee Titans, and I know that their defense is probably not as good as the New England Patriots' defense, but I borrow a page from Bill Belichick's game plan, and I try to do what I can to put the game on the shoulders of Brock Osweiler, and then I try to take DeAndre Hopkins away as much as I can as part of that and make the Texans go the long field,

make them run the football more than they probably want to. They like to get the ball to DeAndre Hopkins out on the edge and down the field. Put the game in the hand of Brock Osweiler, but try and take away his favorite target. I'm with you on that, and I think this game comes down to the quarterbacks. I was not sold on Brock Osweiler coming in to the season as the starter for the Texans. No offense to him. He is an unproven commodity, even though he has a Super Bowl championship ring. But the thing was, to me, he could not beat out an aged and done, basically,

Peyton Manning to keep that job when Peyton returned from the injury last year. And so I questioned him coming into the season, and he has struggled a bit now. It is a new team. He's learning a new system. There's some new things going on. He could be the real deal in the future, but right now he's still a struggling quarterback. So this is a matchup of two quarterbacks that have some issues, and whichever quarterback, to me, can overcome the best and play the best on Sunday is going to give their team an opportunity to win this football game. That's going to do it for us today. Brad will be back with us on Friday. Be sure to join us then where we give you our predictions on who's going to win Sunday

when the Titans travel to Houston to face the Texans at NRG Stadium. You are Locked On Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.