Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Talking camp with Mike Herndon

Episode Date: August 23, 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 tonight? Doing pretty good. What's going on, man? Not too much. Very special episode tonight. We have our friend Mike Herndon, a.k.a. Mike Miracles, a.k.a. the biggest Anthony Ferkser fan that you'll find anywhere in the world. So excited to get his perspective on all things Titans. world. So excited to get his perspective on all things Titans. But before we do that, just we'll remind you, as always, we're right for musiccitymiracles.com

where we cover the Titans for SB Nation. So you can check us out there. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry's at tlambertfb. Podcast account at LockedOnTitans. You can search LockedOnTitans wherever you get your podcasts. And you can subscribe to the show there.

Rate and review us. We would appreciate that. That helps us out. All right, so without further ado, we'll bring in our friend Mike Herndon, a.k.a. Aren't you at MikeMiracles on Twitter? That's right. That's it. Yeah, Mike.

So we're supposed to have Mike on Monday. He big-timed us Monday. We're lucky enough to get him in our presence tonight, so we appreciate you taking the time. We want to bring you on because you probably, I mean, I know you've been at camp more than either one of us. I ended up getting to two or three practices, but I know you were there for the majority of the first couple weeks of the practices that were out there. And just kind of get your perspective of, you know,

how things developed and that kind of stuff. And so, I mean, we'll kind of start there. You know, the biggest question has been Marcus Mariota in this offense, of how things develop and that kind of stuff. And so, I mean, we'll kind of start there. The biggest question has been Marcus Mariota in this offense, and that's what everybody's talking about. I was just wondering if you've noticed, like, from the first practice to the last practice you went to, which I think was before the Packers game, right, you weren't at either one of the Buccaneers practices. Right, yeah, I didn't make it to either of those.

Did you notice a positive progression in Marcus Mariota in his grasping of the offense and the rhythm and all that kind of stuff? Yeah, so I guess for me, Mariota started off

a little shaky at first, but as he got further along into the practices, I felt like he started to get a little bit more comfortable. But I will say probably his worst two practices that I saw were towards the end of what I saw before that Packers preseason game. So it's kind of been uneven, like a little up and down. He'll have days where he's razor sharp, and then he'll have days where it's been a little off. He had one day where it was just everything was off accuracy-wise, but he bounced back from that day with a pretty good practice the day after.

So I will say the one thing that kind of stood out was his deep ball accuracy. I felt like he was far more accurate going down the field than he had been in 2017, at least kind of from my perception or memory. I felt like his deep ball was a little bit more on point, which obviously we haven't really seen that in the preseason games just yet, but hopefully that turns out to be the case. We've talked about Marietta. We've talked about these receivers a ton.

I want to know about this run game because that's something we hadn't really seen too much out of the first team at least. How is the new scheme shaping up, at least in practice? How does the run game look how is it different from what we saw last year um so the run game to me is the toughest part to judge in those practices because you know they're not going to the ground they're just kind of thudding up and sometimes they're not even doing that they're just kind of doing a touch thing so you never really know when someone would actually be down.

But as far as the structure of the run game, I feel like it's going to be quite a bit different. Everything, you know, as we kind of had suspected, talking about this offense, studying Shanahan and McVay and all these other guys that LaFleur studied under, it's very much based off of the outside zone run, and then everything else is kind of built off that. They've got some little windback counters and stuff like that, which are nice counters off of that outside zone look.

And then, of course, you've got all the play-action boot stuff that comes off of that. But one thing that kind of stood out to me about how they practice and how they are coaching is guys to kind of work that play, and that play is really going to be the foundation of that running game. So did you notice, I mean, like you said, I think the run game is probably the hardest thing to judge and all that, like you said, just because they're not tackling and they're not doing all that kind of stuff.

But how do you think Derrick Henry looks in this offense? I think that it's probably a little bit more suited to his skill set. Did you notice that when you were out there? Did he look any different than he did last year? Yeah, I would agree with that. And I would say the biggest thing that I've noticed, and this has carried out into the preseason so far, is he's not bouncing nearly as

much in this, in this offense. Now part of that may be that some of these are under designed to go outside. Whereas I felt like the Titans last year and the year before really didn't have nearly as much outside design runs. But yeah, I don't think he's bouncing as much. I think he feels comfortable from what you can tell. It just doesn't look like he's quite as hesitant. He's putting his foot in the ground and getting upfield,

and that's what we've all been wanting out of him all along. Yeah, Deion Lewis is going to figure into that running back role pretty heavily. I think Jimmy and I both are probably a little more excited about Deion than Derrick Henry. You think we're right in that? You think he's going to have as big or possibly a bigger role than Derek Henry, just based on practice? Yeah, I think it's going to be – so from what I can tell so far,

it looked a lot like Henry would get most of the reps with two or more tight ends on the field and then Lewis would mostly come in for 11 personnel plays now if you look at and I just kind of charted this the other day the preseason um personnel groupings they've been in 11 personnel about 50 i think well actually i think it's like 66 percent of the time total and then with just the starters it's lower it's it's closer to like 57 percent um so i think you're going to see a lot of lewis um especially if they're in 11 personnel that often um i think he's going to play a lot and i think he's going to be a great thing for mariotta because I think he's going to play a lot.

And I think he's going to be a great thing for Mariota because that ability to catch those little angle routes and flare routes like you saw against Tampa Bay, that's easy money for Mariota. I mean, yardage, picking up first downs, converting, kind of builds some confidence too. I think he's going to be huge for Mariota. All right, coming up, we will continue our conversation with Michael Herndon.

All right, so moving to the defensive side of the ball, I know Sheree Finch is a guy that you have written a lot about since the preseason started. Did you notice him much before those first preseason games? Like, was he the guy that you were kind of seeing pop out there, or is he one of those guys that seemed to really come alive when the lights came on? Yeah, I'll tell you, Finch and President both, which of course now President's been released after he got that knee injury,

but both those guys really kind of flashed in some of the early practices. Finch is a really imposing figure physically. He's big, tall, long. He's a pretty thickly built dude. And he really looked the part in the practices. So I wasn't that surprised to see him succeed in the preseason. But maybe the level to which he succeeded was a little surprising because he's been fantastic in the first two games.

All of us loved Harold Landry, and I think we can all agree that we think that's a slam-dunk draft pick there, especially in the second round. How has he looked? We've seen the flashes in the preseason games. Has that been a common theme on the practice field? I would say in practices it's been dependent on where he's been lined up so he's spent a lot of time probably 75 percent of his snaps uh since

harakpo went down which was like the second practice so almost all the camp um he spent lined up across from taylor lawan and lawan has pretty much gobbled him up um in one-on-one reps and you know in team drills stuff like that you haven't seen a ton of Landry getting pressure and you really haven't seen it against Luan but when he flips to that other side and he's against Dennis Kelly he's given Dennis Kelly fits and it makes sense from a standpoint of you know Dennis Kelly's like 6'8 he's not nearly as quick as Luan and Landry with that 6'2 height and the bend and the speed and everything, he's going to be the exact kind of guy that gives a guy like Dennis Kelly terror. It's really dependent on who he's been lined up on,

but you can see the flashes of what we've seen in the preseason games when you see him against somebody that's not a Pro Bowl left tackle. So much of the talk has been about the defensive backs. You know, you've got the whole, whatever it is, MM and CB, all that kind of stuff has been going on. And so much, especially early in camp, the talk with Malcolm Butler, the energy and all that stuff. Did you notice that?

I mean, every day being out there, was that something that – because, I mean, I took a little heat because I wrote a thing and I said that Malcolm Butler had earned his contract, and that's not really what I was meaning to say. What I was meaning to say was he's not a guy that got paid and came in and shut it down. It looked like that he was one of those guys that was bringing the energy and, you know, not – you know, you get all the money

and not, like, resting on that. Like, he was still out there, you know not you know you get all the money and not like resting on that like he was still out there you know competing like he would have been when he was trying to make the team as an undrafted you know rookie is that something that you notice being out there yeah i would say the defensive back group as a whole definitely brings the energy to practice i mean that's the the liveliest group out there um they talk a lot of trash they're loud they're fast they you know celebrate when they make big plays and they celebrate as a group um butler is one of the ring leaders of that obviously he kind of set the tone early with that pick where he jumped in front of cory davis

picked it off and then punted it um which was kind of a cool moment and it got caught on tape and everything so that kind of took off but I'll say Butler and Dory Jackson and Logan Ryan and Kevin Byard all of those guys have really been kind of the guys that bring the most juice at the practices. Kenny Vaccaro was a late add after Ciprian went down.

How is he different from Ciprian? Is he better in some areas? Is he better in some areas is he worse in some areas what's he going to bring to this team this this season I'd say he's probably well he's he's a very physical player I don't know that he's quite as strong at the point of attack as Cyprian was um Cyprian's a little bit thicker guy, and he really kind of played the game like a linebacker. I would say that Vaccaro is a better player in space as far as making tackles. We saw some issues with Cyprian last year, kind of struggling to take good angles and make plays in the open field. I don't think that's going to be as big an issue with Vaccaro.

And the other thing that Vaccaro really brings he was asked to play basically slot corner for the Saints last year and that's really kind of where his struggles came from last season along with a couple injuries that he was trying to play through but if you put him against a linebacker or running or I'm sorry a tight end or a running back, he's more than capable of playing great man coverage and really kind of locking those guys down. So I think he's going to fit that role a little bit better than Ciprian as far as a pass defender and a player in space.

But he may not be quite as good against the run kind of as a downhill point like point of attack, uh, defender. All right. Coming up, we finish up our conversation with Mike about the Titans. All right. So just last couple things real quick.

Uh, you know, we joked at the top about Ferkser, um, but he was a guy that you, you had noted had stood out in a couple of practices. Um, I,

it hadn't really translated necessarily to the games thus far. And, I mean, I think he's a long shot to make it anyway. But is there a guy or two that you basically, when you went out there, weren't really expecting to notice them as much as you ended up noticing them? Yeah, so obviously I do have some love in my heart for furzer uh he uh he i kid you not he he was making a play every day that caught my attention early in camp so um i'm kind of disappointed that hasn't translated and i you know i don't think he's going to make the roster by any means but um he was kind of a fun storyline early but But the other guys that have really caught my eye that I wasn't expecting much from was Julius Wormsley is a big one.

And he's obviously gotten a lot of praise from Bray Bull. And he's played really well in the first two preseason games. And he's kind of just like this journeyman defensive lineman who's been in and out of camps and on and off rosters for, I think, going on four years, I think, in the NFL now. And he's played really well. He's basically taken David King's spot away from him, in my opinion. I think Wormsley is just about a lock to make the roster at this point. And another guy on the offensive side of the ball is Devin Ross, and I don't think Ross is going to make the roster.

I think he may be a practice squad guy, but he's a guy that was one of the lesser-known entities among the slew of undrafted free agent receivers they brought in, but he made a lot of plays. He turned some heads. He even got a stray rep with the first uh first team offense every now and then uh in practice so they like him quite a bit i just don't think there's gonna be room for him on the 53 but he's uh he's an interesting player

to watch for the practice squad one guy i feel like we haven't talked enough about and it's probably because he got hurt uh but dan crookshank uh i'm interested to get your thoughts on him where was he playing before he went down uh what did you see out of him what did he bring to the table i realize you might not have seen too much of that but give us your general thoughts on him yeah so he's actually a guy he was really starting to flash i thought right before he got hurt going into the Packers uh preseason game I think he had his by far two best practices um the two days leading up to that uh and I it felt like he was starting to click a little bit he was getting some reps with the

first team now that was what after Cyprian had been hurt and before Vaccaro got there and I think Kendrick Lewis was also out. So part of that was just attrition and him moving up naturally. But he looked the part out there. He was really good on some run fits, made a few plays in the backfield. You know, I think the safety position, the way that they're using these guys is so interchangeable. There's almost really not a strong and a free

uh designation that you can tell at least watching practice um vacara will drop back deep center one play and buyer will be up playing press coverage on the tight end and then they'll flip-flop the next play it really they really are multiple um with their usage on on the safety so i think crookshank was kind of splitting time, doing a little bit in the box, doing a little bit as a deep free. One thing I did not see, though, that I kind of expected to see with Crookshank was some reps at corner or slot corner. I didn't see hardly any of that, and that may just be them

trying to bring a young guy along, learning one position at a time. But it will be interesting to see kind of with some of the depth injuries at corner if that ends up being a an option for them all right mike last thing uh just talk a little bit about the expectations that you had before this training camp started and if they've changed at all based on what you've seen um you know it was hard for me to really form a whole lot of expectations. You know, I kind of, from research, expected to see the offense structurally look like what it looked like

and the defense look like what it's looked like. But as far as expectations, I think the secondary has a real chance to be special. I know the preseason has not been exactly that impressive so far for the first group, but from practice, from seeing those guys work, I really think that Dory Jackson in particular is going to be a star this year. And I think the secondary could be a group that really carries the team. And, yeah, I kind of think it's a team that's definitely worthy of contending

for a division um title you know i think the afc south is going to be tough so i don't i don't know if i'd say you know it's slam dunk we're going to win the division or anything like that but um i think it's going to be a contending team i think it's going to be a competitive team um yeah i think it's uh i think it's going to be a competitive team. Yeah, I think it's going to be an exciting season. Absolutely. All right, well, Mike, we really appreciate you taking the time tonight. And, again, you can follow Mike on Twitter at MikeMiracles, and you can check out his work at musicmiracles.com.

He has a ton of good stuff going up there, so you can find him there just like Terry and I. Anything else on the way out? Not that I can think of i appreciate you guys having me on and uh looking forward to a great season yeah absolutely sounds good all right so uh we'll be back in the next couple of days uh if anything comes up we'll uh we'll bring it to you the one the one thing i guess we should have noted from the beginning as far as news from today, Rashawn Evans appeared at part of practice today. We've talked, if you've been listening, you've obviously heard all of the nonsense that is injury reporting and all that kind of stuff.

But he was at least out there during the stretch, during the beginning of practice. So that's progress. The fact that he didn't finish practice, I think, is probably a pretty good indication that he's not going to play this weekend. But it was at least good to see him back out there. And he talked before practice. He was feeling good and all that kind of stuff. So just one note there.

All right, that'll do it for tonight. Again, you can find us wherever you get your podcasts. Just search out LockedOnTitans. Follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry's at tlambertfb. And Mike is at Mike Miracles. So for Terry and Mike, this is Jimmy saying thanks for listening,

and we will talk to you again later.