Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked On Titans- Sept. 6- Today we go Four Downs, talk Sam Bradford and the Titans defense.

Episode Date: September 6, 2016

Day two of Locked On Titans with Terry McCormick and Greg Arias of TitanInsider and Former Tennessee Titans Pro-Bowl left tackle Brad Hopkins. Today we look at the current events along with our first edition of "Four Downs" in which we look at among other things, injuries, the Titans weekly schedule, Sam Bradford and the Titans defense Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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You are locked on Titans. Your daily podcast on the Tennessee Titans. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. And welcome to your new daily source for all Titans news with your host Terry McCormick of Titan Insider, Greg Arias and former Tennessee Titans Pro Bowl left tackle Brad Hopkins. Terry, it's just you and I today. Unfortunately, Brad not with us for show number two and for people listening that might want to know the schedule for us is going to kind of be like this. Brad's going to be with us three days a week. You and I will be holding down the fort on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So it's just us, as we say.

That's right, but we've still got plenty of Titans stuff to talk about, Greg. Absolutely we do, and let's get going. We'll jump right into it and go with our current news of the day. And on Monday, the Titans players got a little bit of a treat, if you will. They got a visit from some champions as the Goodlettsville, Tennessee Little League baseball team. Of course, they won the state championship. They went all the way and played in the U.S. championship game, losing to a team out of New York

who went on to win the whole thing. But those youngsters, along with some brothers and sisters and parents, were all invited out to St. Thomas Sports Park today to visit with the Titans. And all the players, of course, signing autographs, Marcus Mariota, per his usual self, spent a lot of time after practice was over taking pictures with everybody that was there. Yeah, it was interesting to see. You know, these young kids obviously had been in the national spotlight themselves just a few weeks ago when they went to Williamsport, Pennsylvania

and excelled up there. And then today they get the chance to meet some of their heroes, some players with the Tennessee Titans. I noticed, you know, not only Marcus Mariota signing autographs, but it was Derrick Henry and DeMarco Murray and Brian Arakpo among the more well-known Titans who stopped by to sign for these kids. Now, one Titan in particular has a history with Williamsport and the Little League World Series.

Titans backup quarterback Matt Castle actually played in the Little League World Series at Williamsport in the Little League World Series. Titans backup quarterback Matt Castle actually played in the Little League World Series at Williamsport a few years ago when he was a youngster at that point in time. And you had an opportunity to talk with him today and get some thoughts on his experience with that and meeting these kids that went through today or went through recently what he went through as a child. I did. these kids that went through today, or went through recently, what he went through as a child? I did, and there's a story on TitanInsider.com about Matt Castle and his connection to the Little League World Series. He played for the Northridge, California team that actually won

the U.S. Championship back in 1994. Here's a quick synopsis of what Matt had to say about the Goodwoodsville team and his own experience at the Little League World Series. I don't know if I've seen these kids out here. I'll bring back some memories for you. It was awesome. You know what? It's an amazing time for those kids.

Especially the success that they had to go all the way to the World Series. I know it didn't exactly end how they wanted to, but they'll never forget it for the rest of their lives. One of the accomplishments was being a good lap part. I know it didn't impact me in time, but still nothing for good for the rest of their lives. And one of the common friends of me that did that part, and I remember like it was yesterday, got one of my fondest childhood memories from Little League. Those are the thoughts and comments of Titan backup quarterback Matt Castle.

Again, Terry, he was a participant in the Little League World Series and was a U.S. champion. So I'm sure, as he said, it brought back a lot of memories. Really did. And, you know, one of the things that Matt told me as part of that interview and actually did not include this in the story, but he still has the bat that he used from that season of Little League. It was a white Louisville Slugger TPX bat.

He still has that at his parents' house. And I think he had a nickname for it. I think it was Susan. I think was the name he had given the bat. Well, you know, whatever works. And obviously it did for Matt back then. Moving on to other news of the day, one of the big items is roster turnover.

From last season to this, and even as we look at it from the start of training camp, obviously, to this, there have been a lot of changes with this Titans roster. And, of course, we heard today about Mark, or excuse me, on Monday, rather, about Mark Mariani coming back to the team. Of course, they added Jason Marr. But what are the figures, Terry, on how much turnover we've seen with this roster? We've seen roughly 40% of this roster turnover just from last year,

which is really amazing when you think about it. I think the Titans have something like 22 new players that were not here a year ago. Now you consider some of those guys are free agents. Some of those guys are members of their 2016 draft class. Some of those guys are waiver pickups and things like that. But this team has really been remade in John Robbins' image. And I think the most telling thing that you can say about this Titans roster

when you look and see just how much change has been done, during the four-year run that Rustin Webster was the general manager from 2012 through 2015. They made 30 draft picks, and only 10 of those guys, with the release of Trey McBride yesterday to make room for Mark Mariani, there's only 10 of those 30, one-third of those guys, still with the Tennessee Titans. Now, you know, there are all four first-round picks from those years, Kendall Wright, Chance Wormack, Taylor LeJuan, Marcus Mariota.

But no second-rounders, no third-rounders among that bunch is really telling, Greg. Absolutely it is. And you mentioned Trey McBride. What are your thoughts on Trey returning to this team as a member of the practice squad? Now they filled on Monday afternoon the final spot on that practice squad by re-signing Mehdi Abdesmed, the defensive lineman that made the roster and then was cut with the addition of Jason Morrow. So there's no practice squad spot left, but if McBride clears, will he be

re-signed and will they shuffle one of these guys that's on that 10-man practice squad down? I think it's possible. I think it is possible, Greg. I think, you know, and it's one of those things, too, where it might not happen this week. You know, the Titans could make that move this week, but with the practice squad all full, they could wait, you know, a week or two because a lot of teams, what they do, the bottom of the roster

and the practice squad, those things are kind of slushy, if you will. They will have a guy come in, he'll be there for a couple of weeks, they'll release him, he'll show back up on the practice squad. Wouldn't surprise me at all if Trey McBride, even if he doesn't show up this week on the practice squad, if they don't bring him back maybe in a week or two. Let's move on now. Another feature that we're going to have on our Tuesday shows is something called four downs,

where we look at four different items that are going on with the Titans. And for this week's first down, we want to talk about injuries. And Mike Malarkey today addressed the injury situation for this Titans team. Well, Greg, as you would hope going into the first game of the regular season, the Titans are as healthy maybe as they have been in a while. You know, chances are this is maybe the healthiest they'll be all year. The obvious concern is with Kendall Wright, who has had that hamstring injury now lingering for about a month.

He injured it the first week of training camp, tried to come back for the preseason finale, went through part of one practice, tweaked it again. The Titans had him doing some running today after practice to try and stretch that hamstring out and try to see how close he is to coming back. But Mike Malarkey said he'd have more news on Wednesday after he had a chance to watch Wright run on the hamstring himself.

My guess is, and this is just my guess, is that the Titans might want to just be extra cautious because Harry Douglas has been doing an okay job in the slot, so why not go with him week one and give Kendall Wright the chance to get as close to 100% as he can with another week's rest? I agree with that. And my concern has been that Kendall Wright initially injured this thing back during training camp and missed five weeks of time.

He comes back on the very first day that they put him back on the field, and 15 or so minutes into the practice, he's down again having re-injured it. 15 or so minutes into the practice, he's down again having re-injured it. So as you said, I think giving him this week and maybe even next with Harry Douglas being an adequate replacement right now to try to get healthy because this could be something that could linger and we could see this repeat itself throughout the course of the season and certainly that's not going to be good. No, it's not.

And this is not the way Kendall Wright or the Titans wanted him to start the season. Wright's in a contract year, wants to make the most of it. You know, I don't know if he's 100% happy with being primarily the slot receiver, which is going to be his main duties this year, but he's been a good soldier about it. He seems to be buying in. And then the injury, of course, set him back. So you wonder, you know, how Kendall Wright is going to be buying in, and then the injury, of course, set him back. So you wonder how Kendall Wright is going to be once he gets back on the field. I think he wants to prove himself and show that he can be a productive receiver for this team, but it just seems to be one thing after another with him the last couple of years on the injury front.

Kendall wasn't the only person named today as being a little bit dinged up for the Titans. There was one more as well. Tylan Anthony Fasano, who is probably going to have a little bigger role since the retirement of Craig Stevens, had a hyperextended knee in Monday's work, and the Titans are hopeful that he'll be able to be back on the practice field on Wednesday. Doesn't sound real serious, but just in case it might be motivation for newcomer Jason Morrow to do a little extra study and do a little bit more of a crash course in the offense

just in case he's needed and active on Sunday in his first game with the Titans. Moving on to second down. A lot of people don't necessarily know the weekly schedule that the Titans go through because now it is week one. This is game week. They'll play on Sunday. Take us through the days of the week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and even Saturday in preparation for the upcoming week's contest.

Okay, Greg. You know, all teams do it a little differently, but it's basically the same principle as what you do. You play your game on Sunday, unless, of course, you have a Thursday night or a Monday game, in which case the schedule is radically adjusted to accommodate that. But on a normal Sunday game, you play your game on Sunday. Then on Monday, coaches watch film, players come in and get treatment for injuries and things like that, and they have what's called a shakeout type of practice, usually in the afternoon on Monday to try

to work some of the soreness out and to try to get their bodies ready for the next week's game. Tuesday's usually an off day. Injured players still have to come in for treatment. Lots of guys come in voluntarily, even though it's an off day, to watch film. Quarterbacks especially do a lot of film watching. Coaches are already starting to begin game plan work and things like that. That started on Monday night.

In fact, it usually starts even before that. Sometimes the quality control people will already be putting the next game plan together several days in advance. Then Wednesday is the big day. That's when you do the installation and you start preparing for the next week's opponent. This case, it's week one, so they'll be concentrating on the Minnesota Vikings,

which they have already spent a good part of the offseason doing. So Wednesday is the first day of installation of the game plan on the practice field and in the meeting rooms. Then on Thursday, that installation and all continues, and a lot of times they go into specialized situations in the game, things like the nickel package, the red zone, goal line and short yardage, those sorts of things a lot of times are Thursday work. And then Friday kind of finishes the installation,

puts the cap on the game plan. You know, usually guys who are injured, if they have not practiced by Friday, there's a good chance they're not going to play on Sunday. Most times Friday is a telltale day with injury guys. Sometimes they can sit and watch on a Wednesday. They can watch or be limited on a Thursday. But if they can't get out there and perform as part of the team and part of the offense or defense on Friday, then chances are they don't go. Then Saturday, if it's a road game, you get on the plane,

you know, sometime in the middle of the day, you fly to the destination city, and then once you're there, you have a team meal and you have meetings that night just to kind of go through things. Maybe there's a walkthrough to get there, you know, early enough. And then, you know, all the final things in preparation for the game Sunday. If it's a home game, a lot of times it's either a walk-through on the practice field, sometimes at the stadium on a Saturday, and then the same things apply.

You go have your team meeting that night at the Titans. The players, a lot of people don't know this, they don't stay in their own beds. They stay in the hotel, even on the home game, on Saturday nights usually in preparation for that game on Sunday so that they can arrive as a team. That's the schedule that the Titans will work with this week. Let's move on to third down. We want to talk about Minnesota and the quarterback situation. Obviously, everybody by now knows of the injury to Teddy Bridgewater.

He's done for the season. The Eagles made big news trading for Sam Bradford. But does it really matter if you're the Titans? Who's the quarterback of Minnesota? Because Adrian Peterson is certainly going to be the focal point. Does it really matter? I think it does some, and I think it does for this reason. Because when you look at the Vikings, and yes, Sam Bradford is a veteran player,

and he knows exactly what's expected of him in this game. He's going to have to get a crash course in the offense, get up to speed as quickly as possible. But Mike Malarkey said Monday in his press conference when he was asked about Bradford, he said they'd go back and watch a film of him during his time with the Eagles to kind of get a sense of what's going on and pay attention to how Bradford plays, kind of give themselves a refresher on that. But it's still the Vikings offense that they're preparing for.

So whether or not it's Bradford or it's Sean Hill, it does make a little bit of a difference because they have different skill sets or different types of players. Plus, Bradford not as well-versed in the Vikings' offense, obviously, as Hill, even though he may be a little more talented player. So with Bradford there, the Titans would probably love to be able to slow Peterson down enough and put the game in Bradford's hands, make him make some decisions under duress, and see if he can figure it out because he doesn't have a whole lot of experience with

Minnesota's offense. If it's Hill, then you're going against a classic backup quarterback. Same principle applies, although Hill will be more well-versed in the Vikings' offense. You want to slow down Peterson, and you want to make Sean Hill beat you by making, not necessarily, you think he's going to make the right decision, but does he have the physical talent and the ability to do the things that a starting quarterback is expected to do? Can you make him beat you with his physical skills? Moving on to fourth down, we want to talk about the Titans' defense. And to your point that you just made about slowing down Adrian Peterson,

I think the old term slobber knocker is what we're going to see on Sunday. I definitely think you're right there. Both of these teams want to run the football. The Titans talked about being a smash mouth type of team all offseason. They want that to be their identity. So you're talking about a team that wants

to run the football and wants to run it effectively. And then if you're the Minnesota Vikings and you're without Teddy Bridgewater, but you still have Adrian Peterson, you darn sure are going to run the football, and wants to run it effectively. And then if you're the Minnesota Vikings and you're without Teddy Bridgewater but you still have Adrian Peterson, you darn sure are going to run the football and want to run it effectively. So I think when you look at the way the Vikings are constructed, they're not dissimilar to the way the Titans want to be. And I think when you look at this Titans defense,

the onus is going to be upon them to try and slow down Adrian Peterson. This defense, as you know, Greg, did not look real good during the preseason, especially early in games when the starters were out there and they were giving up points in three of the four preseason games. Now, it did turn around a little bit for them against Miami, but that's got an asterisk by it, not only because it's preseason, but it has an asterisk by it for this reason. One, the Dolphins didn't play Ryan Tannehill.

It was Zach Dysart who they waved in final cuts out there at quarterback when they got that turnover. And two, not all of the Titans starters on defense were out there either. So what do you think we can expect from this Titans defense, given the task that they've got to stop Adrian Peterson, and given that they did not look real good in the preseason? Well, I think if I'm Dick LeBeau, and obviously I'm not and don't have his experience, but I think one thing, obviously, that'll be different is this game will be game plan for as the preseason was not. But if I'm Dick LeBeau, I'm going to bring eight guys up in the box.

I'm going to leave three guys back, my corners. Hopefully, obviously, you're going to have to change that a little bit. And perhaps we see Minnesota come out to try to take the Titans away from that by doing some four and five wide receiver sets to force the Titans to clear the box and try to give some room for Adrian Peterson. But if you have the ability, I think you want to load that box. I think you want to put as much pressure as you can on whomever the quarterback is. Sam Bradford, even though he's experienced, he doesn't know the Vikings' offense that well.

And if it's Sean Hill or someone else, obviously they're less experienced. So I think that's where you want to go. But I've got a feeling Minnesota's probably going to show us some four- and five-wide receiver looks to help the running game have some room for Adrian Peterson to go. So it comes down to stopping Adrian Peterson. Can the Titans do that with that front seven? And that's going to be a big challenge, and certainly it is a huge question mark

because, as you said, they struggled at times, although I think more of it was passing from the likes of Phillip Rivers and Cam Newton. There were some running plays that were good against them, but the real damage, I think, was done in the passing game. So, you know, it's going to be a tough challenge, certainly, and I think that if the Titans can hold Adrian Peterson to right at 100 yards or less, obviously, they have a great chance to win. If he gets to the 120, 130, 140-yard mark, it's going to be difficult

because he's going to be chewing up some clock running the football, I think, to get into that yardage total. So that's kind of where I am on things with this Titans defense against this Minnesota offense right now. Well, one of the things, too, and we talked about first series plaguing this Titans defense, one of the things that concerns me and I think has to concern any Titans fan is the way the Titans are built offensively and the way that they want to operate. This is not a team that is probably going to do well if they're down 10-0 or 14-0 in the first quarter.

So this Titans defense needs to come out and make a statement by holding Peterson in check at least early on, because if they start to get way behind early, then you're going to see shades of last year and a repeat performance of what we've seen the last couple of years when they had to abandon the run and go to the pass too quickly, and then that's when Marcus Mariota began to take shots behind an offensive line that was suspect.

Now, the offensive line, yes, it has improved. Yes, the weapons around Marcus Mariota are better, and the Titans' run game should be much improved over the last couple of years. But still, you don't want to give yourself any chance of repeating the lack of success that they've had the last couple of years, but still, you don't want to give yourself any chance of repeating the lack of success that they've had the last couple of years by falling into an early hole in this ballgame. Absolutely not.

We're down to our final two minutes. It's time for the final thoughts. All right, Greg, I tell you, the thing that we've not talked a whole lot about in this ballgame, and I think it's going to make a little bit of an impact in the game. We've not mentioned in yesterday's podcast, but I'm going to bring

it up today. Tajay Sharp. I think, look for him to extend what he's been doing all through the offseason and the preseason. That's a guy, think you want to stash him on your fantasy team. I think that's a guy that is hungry to play in this league, and I think he's going to make at least one or two plays in the game on Sunday

that are going to make an impact for the Titans. I absolutely agree with that. In fact, I think that if I'm at Minnesota, I'm coming in with the intent to stop DeMarco Murray and Derrick Henry. I think there's going to be some opportunities for plays to be made in the passing game, and I certainly think that Tajay Sharp will be one of the guys that will have that opportunity, because if I'm Minnesota, obviously you're going to look at Delaney Walker and say, okay, we've got to take this guy away. I think Sharp being a rookie, not that he will be overlooked,

but that I think that just because of the talent around him that he will have an opportunity to make some plays. We're out of time. It's been another good one. We hope you've enjoyed it. Brad will be back with us on Wednesday. We look forward to that, and we look forward to everyone out there joining us for Locked on

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