Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Talking Titans with Jim Wyatt

Episode Date: November 28, 2018

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 with you? Not a whole lot. And tonight we are also joined by Jim Wyatt of Titans Online. We will bring him in in a minute. Before we do that, I want to remind you that Terry and I write for emergencymiracles.com. We cover the Titans for SB Nation, so you can find us there. You can also find us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry's at tlambertfb. And you can find the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Just search out Locked on Titans. Now we bring in our special guest for tonight, Jim Wyatt of Titans Online.

Jim, how are you tonight? I'm doing great. I hope you guys are doing well. We are. Thank you so much for joining us. You can follow Jim. You're at jwyatsports, right? That's correct. That's right, jay white sports on twitter and instagram and instagram and then also a part of

the the otp that airs at 10 on thursdays right it airs uh at uh from 9 to 10 thursday yep east thursday which is a great uh glad to be a part of that. I've got Amy Wells and Mike Keith production. They've been nice enough to ask me to be a part of it each week. So it's a cool deal. It seems like it's gathering some, picking up steam, and people are paying attention to it a little bit. Yeah, it's a really great show.

And like I said, I always get the time wrong on that. It's 9 to 10 on the Titans social media platforms, and they also do it as a podcast that you can get if you can't check it out when it's on. So check that out. A lot of good stuff there. All right, so first thing for me, Mike Vrabel had his day after game press conference today. Could you just kind of give us the bullet points of kind of the most important things you took away from it? Yeah, I think I guess the biggest thing, the topic and the question he's been asked the most since the game on Monday night

was just the fourth and one call and the handoff to Luke Stocker that didn't work. Obviously, you open yourself up to criticism when things don't work, especially when you've got a guy carrying the football who hasn't carried it since high school. But that's the play the Titans went with. And, again, it's easy to second-guess those calls when they don't work and when you have a back like Derrick Henry who you can use and when you have had similar situations like the game in London

where you had a short yardage situation where you didn't use them. So that's twice. So he continues to answer questions for that. I think the run defense, at least the lack of a run defense in Houston, has been up for debate. The offensive line continues to be a question mark this season and continues to be a topic of conversation in some of these press conferences, especially after games when the team loses.

And unfortunately, Marcus Mariota is 22 out of 23 for 303 yards and two touchdowns and through 19 straight completions. And I don't even think his name was mentioned during today's press conference, which kind of shows you the way things went on Monday night in Houston. So those are kind of the biggest topics of conversation as we head into the game against the Jets coming off a disappointing loss in Houston. Yeah, I think the biggest thing for me,

the most disappointing thing at least, just when you start to buy into this defense, you know, they shut down Tom Brady and the Patriots. They give up 38 points to Andrew Luck. They give up 34 to Deshaun Watson. It's just not really what we got used to seeing earlier in the season out of

that group. What changed over the last two weeks? It just seems to me maybe there was a lack of aggression there. Obviously, Dean Pease was missing in in India. I think that hadn't that played a role in there, but What to you was different in those two games? Well, I think yeah, I think you know one defense on Monday night was was Clearly the biggest issue allowing the more ability to go for 97 You know Kevin Barr tried to take the blame saying, hey, as long as I'm safe

with the Titans, we shouldn't be allowing things like that to happen. But it clearly wasn't all his fault. There was a big hole for him to run through. There were big holes throughout the game for him to run through. So I think across the board, run defense was a big issue. The previous week was Andrew Luck had way too much time to throw the football, and they just didn't pressure him. They just haven't been able to get a consistent pass.

They had their moments, obviously, on Monday, but have not been able to disrupt what the other team wants to do. It's hard to explain what has happened or why there's been a drop-off. I think in Indianapolis, being without Dean Peace and having to deal with something like that during the course of the game, there's no question that affected the team. But that was not an issue, and that's not something you could point a finger at on Monday.

This team just didn't play well, and it's got to find a way to get the Mojo back going into December. All right, coming up we will continue our conversation with Jim Wyatt of Titans Online. Before we do that, we're going to tell you about Action Heat. Action Heat has been sponsoring the podcast for the last couple weeks. We appreciate them doing that. It's getting cold, obviously, right now. If you're going to be going out to games at Nissan Stadium in the month of December, you're going to want to stay warm. You can do that with

gear from Action Heat. They have everything, including heated jackets, socks, gloves, hats, and even undergarments like heated base layer shirts and long johns. You can stay warm and cozy from head to toe with Action Heat. They also have jackets that you can plug your phone into and you can charge your phone while you're at the game. It has a 5-volt lithium-ion battery. It lasts up to 12 hours, and it's rechargeable. A great deal that they've got going on for our listeners right now.

If you go to ActionHeat.com slash LockedOn, you get a 20% discount on your first order. So you can check. You get whatever you choose from the entire site, 20% off your entire order at ActionHeat.com slash LockedOn. And we appreciate them sponsoring the podcast. Okay, so now naturally there's been a lot of talk about the coaching change, a team that was 97-2 years in a row, won a playoff game last year. Some people are starting to kind of, I guess, second-guess, or however you want to put that, the firing of Mike Malarkey.

What do you see as the biggest differences right now between the team last year, kind of through the midpoint, 10 games in the season, and what we're seeing from the team last year, you know, kind of through the midpoint, 10 games in the season, and what we're seeing from this team this year? Well, I think, unfortunately, you continue to see some inconsistency with the offense. I think the defense, you know, earlier in the year looked like it was much improved. Unfortunately, it hasn't been like that the last couple of weeks, I think.

Yeah, I've seen that myself. You know, I get stuff on Twitter. I get it in the mailbag from time to time. I hear it on talk shows. It's still, I kind of have to shake my head because the negativity surrounding the end of last season and really the negativity surrounding Mike Malarkey was off the charts at the end of last season. And people rejoiced when he was fired.

And I like Mike Malarkey. I think he did a great job changing the culture. I did have some questions about how much better the team would get with the way things were being run, and part of that's because of Terry Lubiski and the offense that the team was running at the time.

So I didn't necessarily question the decision. As much as I like Mike Malarkey, I think he's a great guy. I understood it completely. I think it's kind of, I'll have to shake my headkey, I think he's a great guy. I understood it completely. I think it's kind of, I'll have to shake my head again, that now all of a sudden people are coming back and saying, why did we let go of this guy?

Because probably 80%, 90% of the stuff on my Twitter feed was to get rid of the guy. Now somebody's saying people have a feeling, are now saying why did we get rid of him? So I just don't get how people are kind of surfing back around question decision. I think Mike Grable is still the right man for the job. I think Matt LaFleur is a bright young coach who admitted going in that it was going to take time for things to look like everybody wanted them to look. And I think this team's dealt with a very young receiving core and hasn't handled some of the adjustments that needed to be made well on a consistent basis,

and that's the offensive line adjusting to some new responsibilities. That's a receiving core that's had some ups and downs, and that's Marcus obviously having to deal with another coordinator change and being asked to do a lot of different things. I just think it's going to take time, and that's what I see when I look at the big picture here with the coaching change. The team needs to step it up if it's going to better last year's mark and make the playoffs.

And if it doesn't, I know some of those cries are going to get louder than they are right now. But I think, again, and I don't know that necessarily the question was about whether or not the right decision was made but I still feel like it was even if the payoff doesn't come in 2018. You mentioned that inconsistent offense there obviously Marcus dealing with a young inexperienced receiving core but

still when he's gotten protection, he's been pretty good, healthy, obviously. Part of the problem, I think, is Jack Conklin, who's been struggling at right tackle coming off of the ACL injury. How healthy is he, and is that playing into his level level of play or is it more so something to do with the scheme well i think um i don't and i don't think it's all jack i mean i do think he probably tell you himself he hasn't played like he'd uh want to and i think part of it is injury related you know coming in the season you know Jack talks so much about how he's lost weight but gotten stronger he feels like he's done everything you know he could do to put himself in a position to be successful in a new offense

and for one reason another it just hasn't worked and, I think part of it is the fact that he is coming off an ACL. But they've had some other issues, too. I mean, I think across the board, I just think that group has been inconsistent. And, in fact, that Mario has been sacked 35 times in 10 games. That's just way too much. You know, I don't know if we'll see changes as a result of what's happened. I know, again, it's been a topic of conversation in a lot of different press conferences,

but I don't want to necessarily pin it on one guy. Again, I don't think Zach has played like he expected to coming into the season, but there have been some other issues and some other breakdowns away from where he plays as well. All right, coming up, we will finish up our conversation with Jim Wyatt from Titans Online. All right, so, you know, it's not draft season just yet. The Titans, I mean, you look at their schedule, and if we can get

the team that's been good, that we've definitely seen at times, I think they can still make a run at this. Because it is a little bit, I think the schedule lightens up a little bit from here on out. But we're pretty much one loss away from going into full draft season mode. As we sit here right now, what do you think are the two or three biggest needs that this team is going to have when they head into this offseason? Well, I think this team, even despite drafting Harold Andrew last year, I think an edge rusher, somebody that's going to get after the quarterback,

has to be a top priority. You can't ignore the fact that this team has some aging veterans that Brian O'Rourke pulled with Derek Morgan. So I think edge rush is one. I think you're going to have to make some changes, at least add to the offensive line. And I think probably interior line is where I can see that being a priority. I think you need to find some more playmakers for Marcus Mariota. His team's not far removed from picking Corey Davis fifth overall,

but I think the quarterback needs more help and more game-changing players. So those are the top three to me, edge rusher, playmakers for the quarterback, and help along the offensive line. And I guess it remains to be seen what happens at other spots and which direction they go at. I can't help but wonder myself if running back is going to be, I don't think it's going to be an early pick in the draft, but I could certainly see something going on there

where you potentially looked at a playmaker in the backfield as well. Yeah, I totally agree with that. Jimmy mentioned the schedule's lightening up. Matt LeFleur has proven that he's going to stick to this run game. Is there any chance that we see more of a role for Derrick Henry, especially with last night, Deion Lewis putting the Titans in a bunch of negative situations? I don't think Derrick Henry was anything spectacular,

but at least he gained two or three yards a pop. He's gotten better. It's already part of the season. I just don't think he underperformed. He was the first to admit it. I think since the bye week he's looked a lot better. And Matt LaFleur said that he thinks he's earned more opportunities. I can see

Henry getting more work moving forward. I think a lot of it hinges on how games go and if the Titans can find a way to get a lead in some of these games, I think they could maybe

try to pound away a little bit more and try to utilize him to wear down defenses. But I've talked about that before, and it just hasn't come to fruition, either because his team's fallen behind and been in catch-up mode or just because they felt like Lewis gives them a better opportunity in certain situations. So until it happens, I guess I'm kind of now in the got to see it to believe it mode,

because every time I look at the play chart and the distribution of carries and distribution of snaps, Henry's always behind Lewis. It seems like he's edging up close towards a more equal split in recent weeks, but still he's not getting as much work as I think some hope he does.

Alright, last thing before we let you get out of here. Rashawn Evans is a guy that obviously was our first round pick. Missed pretty much all training camp with the injury. It seems like he's kind of coming along slow, but he looks to me, I mean,

he made a couple of plays last night. It looks to me like he is kind of starting to, to find a role in this defense. What have you seen from him? Cause I mean, it just seems like we haven't talked much about him over the last month of the season. I guess there's just been so many other things that have been going on with

this team, but I think he's quietly played pretty well, maybe not to what you would necessarily want from your first-round pick, but I think he's coming along, and it seems to me like, you know, by the time we get in the stretch run here, he's going to be a major contributor on this defense. Yeah, I think he's gotten better. I really like him as far as his approach and his work ethic

and just the kind of guy he is. I think he's a really good player. I think he's fast. I think he's physical. I think it took him a while to kind of get his footing because he dealt with the injury right out of the gate, and that kind of lingered. I think he's going to continue to get better during the course of this year,

and I think he's still going to be a great pro. When I look at him, I can't help but see a little bit of Keith Bullock in him, just about how his career has gone. Because Bullock, as you guys know, he came in the league as a first-round pick and played pretty much on special teams. He played in some packages on the defense, but really didn't make an impact and turn into a star until a couple of years into his career

because he had players in front of him. And I think that's one of the reasons why Rashawn Evans hasn't had more of an impact or made more of an impact because he's had guys, whether it's Wesley Woodard or Jayon Brown and those guys are tough to take off the field and so they've had to kind of find a way to get Rashawn more involved and I think he's earned more opportunities the better he's gotten but eventually it's going to be his job and guys are going to be playing behind him and I think he's going to flourish when he

finally gets an opportunity. I think he's a really good player and there's no question he's going to work at it. Alright, well Jim, again we appreciate you so much taking the time to do this tonight and hopefully we can catch up with you again down the road. Okay, sounds

good. Appreciate you guys having me. Yeah, absolutely. So that's Jim Wyatt of Titans Online, and you can follow him on Twitter and Instagram at jwyatsports. That'll do it for our show tonight. Thank you so much for listening. Again, you can find us on Twitter. I'm at jmorphsmcm.

Terry's at tlambertfb. You can follow the podcast account at LockedOnTitans and you can get the show wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back tomorrow, probably get a crossover episode with the Jets people, and then do our Jets preview later on this week. So for Jim Wyatt and for Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks so much

for listening, and we will talk to you again tomorrow.