Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Vaccaro signs with the Titans; Corey Davis hurt

Episode Date: August 8, 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 well. What's going on, man? Not too much. We recorded a fantastic episode last night, but had some technical difficulties. So we'll go over some of the things that we covered last night. Kenny Vaccaro, Corey Davis injury, that type of stuff. And then Titans made some additional roster moves kind of this evening that we'll get into a little bit. Before we do that, I remind you we write for musiccitymiracles.com,

covering the Titans for SB Nation. So you can check us out there. You can also find us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry is at tlambertfb. You can subscribe to the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Just search out Locked on Titans and you'll find us there. So the Titans,

after Jonathan Ciprian went down at the end of last week, agreed to terms on Saturday with Kenny Vaccaro. And, you know, he just, he's a good fit for what the Titans want to do. Will do a good job next to Kevin Byard. They haven't, you know, announced him as the starter yet.

You know, the first depth chart that came out that means virtually nothing. He was listed as a free safety behind Bayard, but we know that's not going to be the case. He's going to be the starting safety. Worked with the ones a lot in practice on Monday, and I think was primarily with the ones in practice on Tuesday. So, you know, he's a good fit for what they want to do here.

A guy that, I mean, I think if he's a good fit for what they want to do here a guy that i mean i think i think if he's healthy and he plays well i think he can be an upgrade from cyprian yeah and he's still a guy that can be physical at the line of scrimmage uh where he he might be a little better than cyprian is in coverage uh in man coverage in a short area uh manning up on tight ends, some slot receivers, stuff like that. So, yeah, there is a potential upgrade there. And it's just kind of crazy that you can get that kind of talent signing them off the street in August. So really weird free agent market right now still.

A lot of big names, but the titans certainly benefited from that yeah and i mean it's just a good good scenario for the titans to have if you're going to have a season ending injury to one of your starters um for it to be in a position where like you said there actually was some some depth out there at this point in the season you usually don't usually don't find that uh and again they they were going to bring eric reed in he was on the list of it was him and mike mitchell the darius webb they were supposed to come in and try out but i get apparently reed had style transportation issues with planes or whatever he couldn't get here in time but i mean i i really think they would have signed vacara i

think he would have been the guy either way uh like we said you know greg cosel in midday 180 uh said that he thought vacara was the best fit for this defense so uh you know we'll just we'll see how he acclimates i'm assuming you will we'll see him on the field a little bit thursday night in green bay and then you know obviously the preseason rolls long the ones play more uh you'll you'll see him more and more with that so that was interesting to watch. That group is really tight. They spent the whole offseason working out together for the most part. He came in. He's a guy. If you didn't

hear him on the Midday 180, I think he was on on Monday. You can check that out. They podcast all their stuff. He's a guy that loves football. Like I said, he's going to fit in real great with that group, with Kerry Coombs, all that stuff. Good signing for the Titans. Fortunate that for whatever reason, he's going to fit in real great with that group, with Kerry Coombs, all that stuff. So good signing for the Titans. And just, you know, fortunate that for whatever reason he was still on the market. All right, so coming up, we're going to talk a little bit about Corey Davis.

But before we do that, we're going to tell you about Vivid Seats. Look, the preseason's here, right? Titans play Thursday night in Green Bay. And Vivid Seats is your place to get in on all the action. This season, don't sit around watching the Titans from home when you can be at Neaton Stadium and the crowd cheering them on in person thanks to Vivid Seeds. Vivid Seeds is offering locked-on Titans listeners 10% off your first ticket order

when you use our exclusive promo code LOCKEDON, one word. That's LOCKEDON. New customers only, and the offer is good to the end of August. Preseason regular season tickets are available now. The Titans kick off their home schedule next week against the Buccaneers. So you can be there for all the excitement. Go to VividSeats.com or download the app and enter the promo code LOCKEDON for 10% off your first order. The offseason is over. The NFL is back and Vivid Seats is there to help you get back in the game.

So Corey Davis, there were mixed reports, but he left practice early on Saturday at Nissan Stadium. Didn't practice on Monday. There was a lot of whatever about was it an off day, was it not, blah, blah, blah. On Tuesday, he comes out and stretches with the team, but then goes inside, doesn't participate in anything actually practice-related. So at this point, we can assume that he has some type of injury.

Again, Mike Braybill has not said he's not going to talk about injuries until week one when he has to give an injury report. So we're going to get zero updates from now until then. But after, you know, Davis missed two days of practice, it's clear at this point that he has some type of injury. You know, whatever. We don't know how severe it is or how non-severe it is. Hopefully he can be back next week and play in the second preseason game.

But at this point, we don't really know anything. But I do think it points to a bigger issue, and that's the fact that the Titans don't have any experience depth on their roster at the receiver position. And we've kind of talked about this going all the way back into free agency. We didn't expect them to go out and get a Sammy Watkins or an Allen Robinson. We didn't expect them to be in on that group of wide receivers. But I thought they would bring in a guy that had at least, you know,

some experience at the NFL level. And they didn't do that. And now you're looking at heading to Green Bay with taewon taylor and tajay sharp or i mean it sounded like darius jennings was running ahead of uh sharp today at practice but regardless you're going to into this game with a receiving core that you know outside of like campanaro and and nick williams who have been in the league for a while but haven't necessarily played in that many games you've got guys that basically have zero experience. So, I don't know.

It seems like it's a little bit of an issue at this point. Yeah, and I don't want to call it a victory lap or anything because we're certainly not rooting for injuries out here. But this is what we warned about all summer long. And now we're heading into the first preseason game. You've got Taewon Taylor, Tajay Sharp, and your guess is as good as mine. Who else is going to start on this team? So that's an issue.

That's an issue chemistry-wise. You're running a new system, a new offense. Marcus Mariota is trying to get the timing down, and he doesn't have his top two receivers out there. So it's a problem with Davis. It doesn't seem like too big of an issue, but, you know, we thought the same thing with Rashard Matthews, and, you know, here we are in week two,

and we still haven't seen Rashard on the field yet. So who knows? I don't understand the point of holding out so much injury information. At this point, it seems like it would just be harder to keep it under wraps with constant fire from the media, but that's up to them. They don't have to give us anything. So it's just hard to speculate on anything, but, I mean, anybody can see there's a problem there on the depth chart right now.

Yeah, and talking about the injuries, like you said, I mean, I get it. And I think Vrabel, you know, he obviously was a player for a long time. So, I mean, I think he approaches a lot of things from a player's mindset. And so I don't know if it's something where, you know, he doesn't want guys being asked about stuff all the time. But, I mean, it seems to me like it would be easier if you were, hey, Richard Matthews has got an ankle injury and he's probably going to be back in three weeks,

then that conversation is basically over. I mean, I don't know how much more they have to have. And with the Richard thing, you know, we were talking about them needing a receiver. And, again, not a top-line guy, but somebody to come in and bring in some depth. We were talking about that when we didn't even know Richard Matthews was hurt. And so that's kind of been the whole thing.

Because, you know, when you heard us, when Dez Bryant was initially cut, talk about how it didn't make sense for the Titans. And I'm not saying that he makes sense now, but what I am saying is that he makes more sense through the lens of Richard Matthews is going to miss at least a significant portion of training camp. Corey Davis with his injury history and then just what else you have or lack thereof of depth of just experience on the roster. It would have made sense to bring in a guy like that.

I don't know what they're going to do at this point. I guess the fact that this has gone on now and they made some roster moves today, which we're going to talk about in a minute, but I guess at this point they're content to wait until roster cutdowns, and then surely they're going to try to find a guy then, right? But I don't know. We've been saying that since the free agency, the draft, and they haven't brought in anybody now, but they've got to get somebody at that point, right?

Yeah, it kind of seems like their bid is made for now, at least until roster cutdowns start. I think if they were going to sign a Jeremy Macklin, I think that would have been done. It may have been wrong on that, but we've heard time and time again that they're comfortable with this receiving core and where it's at right now. But I don't know.

You take Corey Davis out of the equation. You take Rashard Matthews out of the equation. I'm not comfortable with that receiving core. I don't know how anybody could be. So maybe that throws a new wrench into their plans. I don't know. We'll just have to wait and see, unfortunately, we just the lack of information right now. It's hard to speculate on anything.

Absolutely. All right. So coming up, we'll talk about the roster moves that they made today and kind of how it affects initial or the eventual 53 man roster that will be coming at the end of the preseason. eventual 53-man roster that will be coming at the end of the preseason. So tonight it was announced that the Titans had released Philip Supernall. They moved Nate Palmer to IR after he was injured in practice yesterday. They signed tight end Jerome Cunningham, who has been with the Titans kind of on and off the last couple of years.

And they also signed the running back. I mean, not a running back. I'm sorry. A linebacker, the guy that had been with Brandon Chubb. I kept wanting to say Nick Chubb, who's obviously not him. But so they signed Brandon Chubb, a linebacker who's been with a couple of different teams throughout the last few years, the Lions, the Giants, and the Rams. You know, so, I mean, we'll start with the loss.

Nate Palmer is a guy that has been a contributor on special teams. He hasn't done a whole lot on the defensive side of the ball, but he is a guy that has played a significant role on special teams. But we talked a little bit about when we went through a 53-man roster projection back before camp started. You know, inside linebacker was one of the places that was a little bit tough to figure out as far as the numbers go. And so now I think, I mean, I would say that Chubb is a long shot

to make this team. So I think your numbers are pretty set there with Palmer going down. Yeah, I totally agree. And now it becomes a question at tight end, do you keep three, do you keep four? The only guy I see sticking as a fourth is Anthony Ferkster, who has really made some noise in camp. Our buddy Mike that writes for MCM loves him. But you've got three clear with Walker, Jonu, and Luke Stocker.

Those seem like your top three there. So will they keep three? Will they keep four? I'm kind of leaning towards three right now. What about you? Yeah, I agree. You know, we saw them keep a lot more than that over the last – or not a lot more than that,

but saw them keep four pretty consistently over the last couple of years. But I just think this offense is different, and I think they like some of the versatility that Stocker brings as far as being able to block and do some stuff like that. But I don't think you need two of those guys anymore. And so I think they feel good about Delaney and Johnnew. And then you've got Stocker who kind of filled that role behind. I mean, they've got a couple of guys.

I think they've got Sarkser Simich or whatever his name is, the guy that's been here for a couple of years. But I don't know. I just don't see with the offense that they're going to be running. I don't see them keeping a fourth guy, especially if he's not a guy that can bring something to the table in the receiving game because you're going to need a guy. If you're going to keep a fourth guy,

you need a guy that can step in and do something if John or Delaney were to get hurt. But I don't think any of the guys that they they have at this point are those guys i mean i think that's the reason the supernoil's gone and i remember man people got all fired up on twitter when i put out my first uh roster projection didn't have supernoil on it but he's not a fit for what they're doing now so um you know i don't know i mean all this all this stuff kind of makes sense i'm a little bit surprised that it happened now but i mean i think it was it was it was inevitable yeah i agree i was uh i was gonna ask you about your you and your supernova fans out there yeah

yeah i think it's like i said yeah yeah wood wood your compton uh brown baits and rashaun evans whenever he hits the field there there's another frustrating injury that we know nothing about. So I think those five are set, and I think Delaney Walker, Johnnie Smith, and Luke Stocker are set for sure, potentially with a fourth there. So those moves today kind of solidified that in my 53-man projection. Yeah, because it was kind of a conversation between Bates and Palmer. It might be tough to keep both of those guys, just depending on some other spots.

Like you said, now that decision was made. I don't know. It'll be interesting to see. We'll see if there's a guy or two that surprises us as we go through the preseason here. That's, I guess, the exciting part. We're just a as we go through the preseason here. That's, I guess, the exciting part, right, is that we're just a couple days away from the preseason game. And so it'll be fun. It'll be fun to see them out there, fun to see them in their uniforms on the field for the first time.

So got all that going for it. All right, that'll do it for tonight. We will be back tomorrow with an episode of kind of what we're expecting to see when the Titans play in Green Bay on Thursday night and kind of what we need to see and hope to see. So we'll do that tomorrow night, and then we'll Thursday night have a recap of the game after it's over. So between now and then, check out musicseemiracles.com.

You can find all of our content there, a lot of good stuff there. So check that out. And like I said, subscribe to the podcast. Whenever you get your podcast, it starts out locked on Titan. For Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks for listening and we will talk to you again tomorrow.