Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked On Titans- Sept 8- It's Warrior Weekend at Nissan Stadium. Find out exactly what that is in today's show.

Episode Date: September 8, 2016

Locked On Titans- Sept 8- It's Warrior Weekend at Nissan Stadium. Find out exactly what that is in today's show, plus our first ever Coaches Corner and Players Corner segments. #LockedOnTitans #TerryMc #GregA #BHop Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

That's for my crazy day. My packed commute. All those unread emails in my inbox. But I'm getting stronger, faster, and pushing myself further every day. I don't care if I'm not like everyone else. This punching bag is the best way to end my day. Fearless is knowing yoga isn't your style. That's the power of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Federal Employee Program.

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. And welcome to your daily source for all Titans news with your host, Terry McCormick of Titans Insider, Greg Arias, and former Tennessee Titan Pro Bowl left tackle Brad Hopkins. We are locked on Titans and we've got another great show for Thursday morning for you. As always, we're going to start with our current news segment.

We'll also introduce segments called Coach's Corner and Player's Corner where we take comments from the opposing star player and head coach and talk about those. We've got a special feature for you today. It's called Warrior Weekend, and we'll have our final thoughts. Let me bring in now Terry McCormick. And, Terry, good Thursday morning to you. How are you, Greg?

I am doing well and happy to be able to get back and do a Thursday edition number four for us in the series. It's been a very fast week, these four shows going by. Yes, it has. Lots of Titans views to talk about. I hope everybody's enjoying it. To that end, let's go to our current news segment. And today it features Kendall Wright,

who it was announced yesterday, Terry, by head coach Mike Malarkey that Kendall will not play on Sunday. He is still dealing with the hamstring injury that kept him out for a majority of training camp. He came back, practiced one day, re-injured it, and down again. Yeah, it's really been a struggle for Kendall Wright the last couple of years. You know, last year he dealt with a knee injury and also dealt with some ribs that were injured.

And this year the hamstring and this problem just won't seem to go away. It's lingered now for nearly five weeks. And Kendall has had two MRIs, going to have another MRI. And Coach Mike Malarkey said that there's really no timetable for him to return. I would think that maybe within a week or two, surely Kendall Wright will get back into the swing of things. But I think right now, I think everybody's perplexed by this. And I think as far as Kendall, you know, a lot of people are, you know, asking about, you know, what's Kendall's mindset and all.

And nobody really knows that except for Kendall. But I think he's trying not to let this get him down. And, you know, maybe some people think that comes off as a little bit nonchalant or maybe that he's, you know, not as into things as he could be or whatever, but I think there's a natural tendency as a player to get a little bit detached from the team, especially when injuries take you out of the mix and take you out for an extended period of time. I would certainly agree with that, and you're starting to see that. I got a question from a follower on social media last night asking about Kendall after the announcement was made that he would be out, and basically the question was, does he really want to be here

and still be part of this team? And I think you certainly touched on that, that he's a different kind of guy, and the nonchalant attitude, I think, could be attributed some to not wanting to be overly worried about his status as an injury because, you know, this is the thing, and what worries me about it is the fact that he came back, he practiced one day, and he re-injured it again. So this is something that could be a lingering thing throughout the season.

And maybe it's better that he misses two, three, four weeks at the beginning of the year to get this thing healthy and get it right before trying to come back, as opposed to trying to rush back, and then we see this, he plays a quarter of a game, and then goes out for two or three more weeks, and we hear this and go through this all season long. I agree with that, because you remember last year when Parrish Cox came up with a hamstring injury. And he was in the lineup, tried to come back out of the lineup, tried to come back again. And really it took about three tries for him to really be able to finish the season even halfway strong with that hamstring. I think the fact that he tried to come back and kept re-injuring it and kept retweaking it,

I think, you know, is proof positive that, you know, these hamstring injuries are nothing to mess around with. And I don't think Kendall Wright wants to run the risk of, you know, being in and out of the lineup like Parrish Cox was for a time last year. Absolutely. I think that's a major concern certainly for he, the medical staff, the coaches, everybody concerned with this and his media and fans. Obviously, that's something that we have to take into consideration.

And so, again, I think probably it's a certainly I think it's a good move to keep him out this week. I'm not so sure that it's not a good move to keep him out maybe next week and the week after, especially with Harry Douglas, the way he has played early on. He can fill that role. You've got Mark Mariani that you brought in that could play some in the slot right now. So you're not in a desperate need for Kendall to be in there. Certainly you'd like to have him, obviously, but not a desperate situation. So get him healthy. And then perhaps if Harry, who is a veteran, he's getting up in years, gets a little worn

down towards the end of the season, Kendall Wright could be a little bit fresher for the end of the season. So I don't know that it's totally a negative that he's not in there at all right now. Well, that's true. But here's one point that I will raise to that end. I think the place that Kendall is missed the most among this wide receiving core is that while he's not necessarily a burner, so to speak, he probably is the fastest guy you have since Justin Hunter and Daryl Green Beckham are no longer on the roster. Kendall is the one guy who sort of has that extra gear

that maybe a Harry Douglas and Andre Johnson or even Matthews at Sharp, for that matter, don't seem to have. They're all, at this point in their careers, whether they're veterans or the young guys, they're all possession-type receivers, if you will. Kendall is a guy who can stretch the field a little bit. Boy, I think that's one of the places that you may miss him the most in this offense. Certainly you're going to miss him, but again, I think the error on the side of caution,

as they're doing, is probably the best course of action here to try to get him healthy, even though that five weeks he missed didn't do it the first time. Let's move on to our next segment. It's the first time we've done this. We'll do this on Thursdays throughout the season. It's called Coach's Corner. On Wednesday, the opposing coaches, in this case Minnesota and head coach Mike Zimmer, they speak via conference call with the local media

and answer questions about the upcoming game. And obviously the biggest question mark for Minnesota coming in is who's going to be the quarterback. To that end, the first question was asked of Zimmer if he was closer to deciding who was going to be the starting quarterback, and his comment was this. You know we have three more days of practice and we'll decide sometime before the game.

I'm sure, no, not yet, in regard to who will be the starting quarterback, and certainly Terry, that is not unexpected from Mike Zimmer at this point. He has the luxury of not having to decide that, or certainly not disclose that to the Titans prior to early probably Sunday morning when they have to announce the starting lineups. Right. You know, I think the way that this works is, and we all know how coaches work in the NFL, they're not going to give out any information.

It's like the CIA trying to pry information out of them sometimes. And I think Mike Zimmer probably has a very strong idea about whether or not it's going to be Sam Bradford under center or it's going to be Sean Hill. He and his staff already have a game plan in place, and they're not going into this game plan not knowing who their quarterback's going to be. That said, they're just not revealing it yet. The biggest question is, how much can Sam Bradford soak in in one week of work with the team? You know, can he get enough to get you by? Obviously he's not going to have to be, you know, Warren Moon in the running shoot, you know,

in terms of throwing the ball around because he's got Adrian Peterson to hand the ball off to. But I think, you know, the Vikings know who their guy is going to be. And I think, you know, it's probably behind closed doors already been decided. I would be surprised if it's not Bradford simply for this fact. They gave up a first-rounder next year and also I think it was a fourth-round pick to get this guy as basically a rent-a-player, even though he's got one more year left on his contract.

I think Teddy Bridgewater is still their guy going forward until something changes that or if the injury does. But they have basically rented Sam Bradford for this year and paid a high price, given up a lot to get him. And I think that's their guy that they're going to go with, barring him just not absolutely being unable to comprehend it up at the playbook and get it done. Let me ask you this and pose it to you this way.

My biggest concern, if I were Mike Zimmer and the head coach, is not necessarily Sam Bradford throwing the football. We know he's got the arm to throw the football. He's got some basic knowledge of NFL offense, and I think you can probably, if you have to, have somebody whisper in his ear, hey, we're doing this, you know, on a certain play call to be able to ease him through and get him by. My concern would be handoffs. That's something that takes a lot of timing and takes some practice and not having a lot

of time with Adrian Peterson. Not that they're not professionals, but I would be concerned that there could be some issues there, and certainly if you're creating turnovers by your quarterback and running back, not being able to execute the handoff, that certainly takes Adrian Peterson somewhat out of the equation. Yeah, I understand that point. The biggest concern I would have with Sam Bradford right now is the timing, the timing of, you know, getting the ball out to his receivers, knowing, you know, because he's not worked with these guys.

He's not worked with Sheldon Diggs or any of these other receivers. You know, he has to know, okay, how fast does this guy run a 10-yard out? How fast does that guy run the slant route? And know exactly how these guys operate. And also the offensive line. How good are they at protecting? Are they going to give me enough time to get this pass off deep down the sideline? Am I going to have to move in the pocket?

And where are they expecting me to be? Those are the sorts of things that kind of go unnoticed when you make a quarterback change because these guys haven't worked together. And as minute as that may sound or that may seem, it can disrupt the play on occasion. If a quarterback and a receiver can't get on the same page timing-wise, or if a quarterback and an offensive line can't get on the same page in protection. Do you think Dick LeBeau is licking his chops, so to speak, a little bit with all of those blitzes and things he does to try to get a shot at a quarterback?

Certainly, either if it's Sean Hill that's not as experienced, or if's Sam Bradford a guy that's not been in the system to try to speed up the progressions and things that they're going to see and disrupt some of that timing? Oh there's no doubt about it but you know job number one though in order to be able to do that they've got to slow down Adrian Peterson you know they can't let Peterson get four yards on first down and five yards on second down, and the Vikings be facing a third one and being able to dictate the tempo. They're going to have to keep Peterson bottled up as best they can.

I know that's a tall order for any defense to do. It's not done very often, even by the best of defenses. But that, to me, is the big issue for the Titans' defense. They've got to slow down Adrian Peterson enough and put the Vikings in enough second-and-long, third-and-long situations to invite them to pass so that then they can come and create the havoc and the chaos that they want to to disrupt an offense that is going to be inexperienced a little bit

in terms of timing with the passing game. I totally agree, and I think it comes back again to what I mentioned yesterday with the defensive line. Certainly we know Jarrell Casey will be there and be strong. I think Al Woods and Daquan Jones as starters, and then the backup guys when they come in have to be huge in this game against the run to be able to contain Adrian Peterson. Hold him down. If you can hold him to right at 100 yards, I think you've got a realistic chance to win this game against the run to be able to contain Adrian Peterson. Hold him down.

If you can hold him to right at 100 yards, I think you've got a realistic chance to win this game, or obviously under that especially. But if he gets up in the 120, 130, 140-yard range, which he's certainly more than capable of doing, it gets to be a long day for the Titans in this defense. Yeah, there's going to be a lot expected, not only out of that defensive line,

but inside linebackers have got to clean things up. Wesley Woodyard and Avery Williamson are going to have to be sure tacklers on Sunday. Sean Spence, when he's in there in the nickel situation, they're going to have to be very sure-handed, not miss any tackles on Peterson and let him have yards after contact. So if the defensive line does its job, those linebackers have got to come in and make sure they finish off the play. We segued there into Adrian Peterson just a little bit,

and he is our subject of the Players' Corner segment this morning. A lot of people may not remember it, but he and DeMarco Murray were teammates at the University of Oklahoma, and that was a question that was posed to Adrian Peterson when he spoke with the Nashville media on Wednesday, and this was his response. I keep up with him as much as I can, taking that I'll be in the season, but he's a guy that I'm looking out for just seeing how he's performing week by week. And certainly these are two guys, Terry, from the University of Oklahoma

that have each had very good NFL careers and might even be considered great. Certainly, we know two years ago what DeMarco Murray did. Now, last year was a down year, but Adrian Peterson two seasons ago had a down year. In fact, an out year out of the league for suspension. So he, while he is 31 years old this year, he's actually 30 as far as a player's body, I guess, because he had that one year off. That's true. You know, you're talking about both guys having

been past rushing champions in the NFL, Peterson having done it multiple times. And you're talking about Adrian Peterson, a guy who is probably a first ballot Hall of Famer once he finishes his career. I think it's interesting when guys form a bond,

their college teammates or their teammates in the NFL, things like that, that bond usually just stays strong no matter where their stops around the league and in life take them. And Peterson and Murray having played together at Oklahoma as well as Sam Bradford was at Oklahoma too, although Peterson said that he didn't actually play with Bradford because he redshirted the final year that Bradford was with the Sooners. So there's, you know, that college bond.

It's one of those things, too, that you see it. I don't know, you probably have noticed it with several of the Alabama guys on the Titans roster. You know, there are some schools that have players dotted throughout the NFL, you know, the powerhouse schools, the Oklahomas, the Alabamas, the Ohio State, Tennessee, Southern Cal, Notre Dame, what have you. You know, and it's always interesting to see those guys after the game, they meet up, shake hands, they give each other a hug,

kind of catch up for a few minutes. There is that bond there between all NFL players who played together in college or have been past teammates in the league. Absolutely, and I think that's a good question for DeMarco Murray today, if you get a chance to speak with him. Is there any kind of friendly wager, or have he and Adrian Peterson talked this week about it? And, you know, obviously you want to go out with a former college teammate

when you're playing against them and have the better game. So certainly I think both guys will be driven to perform in that sense. Yeah, I don't think there's any doubt about it. I think, you know, both those guys, ultra competitive, want to help their team to win the ball game. And they know that chances are, you know, unless turnovers or something like that get in the way, if they run for more yards, chances are they're going to be the winning team on Saturday. Let's move along to our next feature here today, and it's a special

one. It's called Warrior Weekend, and I mentioned that earlier at the beginning of the broadcast, and people might be going, what in the world does Warrior Weekend have to do with the NFL and the Tennessee Titans and the Minnesota Vikings? Well, it's a group of Navy SEALs that will be parachuting into Nissan Stadium on Sunday. Prior to the game, they'll bring the American flag, of course, and the game ball into the stadium. And there's also some other things that are associated with this group and what they're doing.

And it is a charitable organization, Terry, and you've got all the details on what these guys are doing. Right. You might want to get there a little bit early on Sunday, get in, get in your seat and watch these guys as they parachute in, skydiving into Nissan Stadium. And, you know, it's more than just entertainment for the fans. What these guys are doing, they are putting on a full weekend for people who want to sign up and buy this package.

They're putting on a full weekend of Navy SEAL-type training for civilian folks like you and I, Greg. If we so choose, you know, you can go there. They'll teach you how to do tactical shooting, you know, just like, you know, to shoot and move just like they do in the military. You know, let's shoot at targets. They don't let you shoot at anybody, thank goodness, but they let you shoot at targets and kind of get a feel for what that type of training is like.

And then another day they let you do the tactical driving. You know, you get to get in, you know, see how they spin around and do car chases and things like that and all the things that might come up on a Navy SEAL type of mission. And then it's culminated Sunday with a pregame tailgate with these guys, the Navy SEALs, and then you get to watch from a club seat while they parachute into the stadium. And it's not just a money-making venture or whatever. This is a charitable organization, and they do something that is really, really necessary and really a great cause.

They are raising money, and the proceeds that they get go toward helping people coming out of the military, our soldiers, to transition back into civilian life and, you know, some of them, you know, to get the help that they need, maybe to learn to cope with civilian life and to kind of readjust back into society. That is certainly a very worthy, noble, and great cause, and hopefully people in the area can get out and take advantage of this, go do that. I would love to go do the tactical shooting and the driving. I've seen some of the videos of what the Navy SEALs go through. I don't want to go through all of that, but the

shooting and the driving might not be so bad. Here's my other question for you, though, Terry. We've already got seats for the game on Sunday. They're not club seats, but there are seats where we sit every home game. If we did this, would we have to sit in the club seats, and that mean we wouldn't have to work the game on Sunday? Maybe so. Maybe we should try that. Hey. Just sit and enjoy the game. Absolutely. That's not the worst thing in the world to be able to go do that.

And certainly, as Terry said, get there early because you want to definitely see these guys parachute into the stadium prior to the game with the American flag and the game ball. And then is there a number or some contact that you've got on this, Terry, for people that might want to take advantage and go out and participate in these events this weekend? The details are on my website at titansider.com. You may have to scroll through and look for it a little bit,

but there should be a story on there that was posted yesterday morning. That sounds great. We are down now to our final two minutes, so I guess we should do our final thoughts on the day. All right. Well, one of the things that happens on Wednesdays after practice is we get to talk with Marcus Mariota. They make the quarterback available on Wednesdays, and he meets with the media for his once-a-week session.

And Marcus is not a guy who's going to reveal a whole lot, but I think one of the things that was very telling about Marcus is he believes that he is much more prepared this year than he was last year as a rookie quarterback. Now you remember his debut last year was smashing at four touchdown passes. Right. Looked great in the season opener against Tampa Bay Bucks, when it 42 to 14.

And Marcus said that even though he had his ups and downs, that game last year, at least solidified in his mind, the belief that he knew he belonged in the NFL and that he could play in the NFL. And now he says he feels much more confident, much more comfortable with the offense

and ready to take a big step forward. And if the Titans are going to take a big step forward, Greg, Marcus has to take a big step forward this year. Absolutely, he does indeed. And my final thought, well, I'm ready for tomorrow. It'll be Friday.

Brad will be back with us. We'll have some new topics. We'll also make our predictions. The three of us, Brad, Terry, and myself, will predict our score and our winner on Sunday when the Vikings come to town

to face the Tennessee Titans at Nissan Stadium. We'll also have updates on anything that goes on at practice on Thursday for you in the morning. And, Terry, another episode now in the books. That's number four for the week. Number five will come up tomorrow. We'll have completed our first week.

It's been fun, and I certainly hope the people listening have enjoyed it as much as we have. Absolutely great. Thanks for doing this, and we'll see you tomorrow. Have a great day, everybody. We'll see you on the Friday edition. Friday, Locked on Titans on the Locked On Podcast Network.