Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans/Dolphins crossover

Episode Date: September 5, 2018

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Welcome in to Locked on Titans. I am one of your hosts, Terry Lambert. I'm going to be joined by Locked on Dolphins host, Travis Wingfield. We're going to talk about this upcoming Titans and Dolphins game. It's going to happen on Sunday. Titans are slight favorites. I actually think that line is coming down. I think we said it was minus two last night. I think it's up to, or down to minus one in favor of the Titans right now. So,

but before we do that, I want to remind you that we write for musiccitymiracles.com for SB Nation. Whenever you need your Titans information, head on over there. We've got great content daily there. And then we're going to start posting this podcast daily now that we're in the season uh so we'll have we'll have two after each game we'll have two before each game so uh whatever you need titans related we've got so be sure

you're subscribed on itunes or wherever you get your podcasts. So coming up right after this break, we will be joined by Travis Winfield of Locked on Dolphins. All right, we are joined by Travis Winfield of Locked on Dolphins. Travis, thanks for joining us today. Yeah, no problem, man. All right, so the Titans play the Dolphins this Sunday. Big storyline coming into this one, Ryan Tannehill's first game coming back from a knee injury.

How has Tannehill looked? How has he looked in this offense? Is he going to return to form like he looked two years ago? The number one thing with Tannehill so far this preseason has been that he just looks healthy. He's taken on some hits, like below the knees even. He's moved out of the pocket, ran some play action, some naked boots. So he just looks healthy, which is so nice to see because after last year man i wouldn't wish

anybody starting quarterback going out except for maybe the jets and patriots but you know it just sucks to lose an entire year with jay cutler or whoever it was a quarterback for us last year and tanny hill has looked sharp in this scheme you know adam gaze has built up this team this offense around what ryan tanny does well, built around his strengths. So we're excited about it. I think that we have a lot more optimism than most of the national media does, but we'll see what happens on Sunday. Another big storyline is that backfield.

You signed Frank Gore, who just can't seem to leave the NFL. Kenyon Drake came on at the end of last year. How is that backfield going to look? Everyone seems to point to Frank Gore getting like half of the carries, which to me would just be pure lunacy because Kenyon Drake has, and we talked about it on my podcast when you came over to Lockdown Dolphins, he just has this superstar potential and game-breaking ability. His last eight games he has runs of over 30 yards or more in every one of those games

or pass perceptions as well. So he's a big play threat waiting to happen. He's fantastic in both aspects of the game. And I think they'll work Frank Gore in short yardage and red zone, but I think this is Kenyon Drake's backfield. You obviously lost Landry out of the slot. Who is going to replace all of those targets? So they signed Albert Wilson from Kansas City,

and one of the reasons they pointed to him as being one of the guys they really targeted was because he has a penchant for really developing within the offense and learning a scheme quickly, and they feel like he can really improve the things that they want to do from that aspect in terms of the screen game, working in the running game, blocking on the edges, and playing kind of that short intermediate role you talked about. Obviously Danny Amendola's here, but we'll see what happens with him. I think he and Tannehill have a bit of a comfort level that has been established with those guys that hasn't been established across the other parts of the receiving crew there so I would say Albert Wilson and Danny Amendola kind of share the load there Devontae Parker seems like he gets hyped up every preseason with the fantasy guys uh not so much this season is he hurt you know what's going on with Devontae Parker

I'm so sick of Devontae Parker I'm so sick of Devontae Parker just every year because he can make such good plays in the ball he can high point it he can get up the field but he's never healthy we've heard so many stories about his poor work habits and how he comes to the facility not having eaten breakfast like I don't know if you watch Hard Knocks but Tavon Austin thing a couple years ago where he had two bananas. It's just stuff like that that just drives you crazy. So I have him fifth on my depth chart for the wide receivers. He has a broken middle finger.

I don't think he's going to play. But even if he did, I don't expect much out of him. So real quick, Laramie Tunzel. That was a guy that pre-draft, the Titans were all over in that draft class. Obviously, that video comes out on Twitter, and he falls out of the top ten and lands with the Dolphins. How has he been, and what position is he playing now? Is he the guy that people thought he was going to be pre-draft?

He hasn't been so far, no. He is a left tackle, and he was last year. His rookie year, he kicked inside the tackle and he was last year his rookie year he kicked inside the guard and played really well actually but last year he struggled with pre-snap penalties and just getting beat around that edge every once in a while like his bad reps are really bad that's what has been the problem for him but like you mentioned he was talked about as being the first overall pick in the draft that year and he was that because of his great feet and the ability to kind of slide over there and cut off that speed rush off the edge. So it's a big year for him.

I don't really have an answer for you in terms of what he will be, but we definitely need him to be a big-time contributor this year. All right, we're going to take a short break. When we come back, we will get into the defensive side of the Miami Dolphins. All right, we are back. You lost Indomitian Sioux this year. What's the plan to replace him? How big of a deal is losing Ndamukong Suh? guys at those positions and find replacements. But with N'Donnell and Kinsu, I don't know that they have one, man, because they traded for Akeem Spence from Detroit, and he has been awful in the preseason.

They have a couple of second-year players in Devon Godshaw and Vincent Taylor who both play the run very well but don't offer a lot in the pass rush game. So it's going to be very, very important for the Dolphins to have some semblance of holding up a point of attack on Sunday because, as you well know, Derrick Henry in that inside running game can really cause some problems for us. So freeing up those linebackers to make plays is going to be key, and that's my biggest concern about this game. Cameron Wake still getting it done.

I mentioned on your podcast that Dennis Kelly is probably getting the start at right tackle there. Has that dude showed any signs of slowing down, or is he the same guy that we saw a couple years ago knocking Marcus Mariota out? I'm going to name my firstborn child Cameron because I absolutely love that guy. His work ethic, the way he approaches the game. He had a press conference earlier this year talking about what he does and his time off and how if he doesn't eat that one piece of pizza that the other guy does,

he can get the extra edge. Just the way he approaches the game is so professional and so workmanlike and that's how you turn into a 100 sack guy not having played a game until your 28th birthday so i don't think he's slowing down he is still one of the most effective pass rushers from an efficiency standpoint and now he gets more help with robert quinn off the other edge too so real quickly something i don't know a whole lot about about this team is the secondary uh kind of give me a snapshot a corner snapshot a safety snapshot of where the secondary is right now sure yeah so this is supposed to be our most improved side or most improved unit on the football team minka fitzpatrick

they drafted him 11th overall and he has been everything we thought he would be and more he's playing slot corner he's playing free safety and center field doing literally everything and i think he was actually the number one graded rookie on proFootballFocus.com for the preseason. So that's good to hear. Bobby McCain got a new contract. He was supposed to be the slot guy, but because of Minka playing in the slot, he's kicking outside. And Zavian Howard, who had four picks in two weeks last year, was one of the best cornerbacks in the league down the stretch last season.

He looks really, really good, and I expect him to travel with Corey Davis come Sunday. And then at safety, Rashad Jones. You guys know about him. He's had a couple of big picks against you guys, that one pick six a few years ago. He is that same player, plays that Robert role, kind of like your Kevin Byard in a way where he can kind of sneak into passing lanes

and make some disruptions there. And then the last guy is TJ McDonald. He had a rough year last year, his first year in Miami, but we expect more out of him this year, I guess. I'll kind of put you on the spot to finish up here. Give us a guy on either side of the ball that maybe we don't know but should know. On either side of the ball, wide receiver Jakeem Grant. We talked about Devontae Parker not playing,

and Grant really came on late in the year last year with some extra packages for him that were developed for him to get the ball in space, and he made some big plays by doing that so the receiver jakeem grant on defense let's go with uh i'm gonna say i'm gonna say jerome baker the linebacker i think the rookie linebacker out of ohio state he has been playing some nickel defense in the linebacker position and i think that he could possibly come onto the field and sub packages and get some looks and maybe help rush the passer or maybe help hem in Marcus Mariota on those third and long plays. All right, Titans are favored by one or two, depending on where you look.

Before you get out of here, give us your prediction for Sunday's game. I think it's going to be a lot closer than people think. I think the fact that they're playing in Miami in that heat and that humidity at 1 o'clock at Hard Rock Stadium makes it a lot tougher on the visiting team there in September. I'm going to go with the Dolphins in a very narrow victory. You know, I don't disagree. I could totally see it happening.

Like I said on your podcast, we just don't know a lot about this Titans team. It wouldn't shock me at all. So anyways, thanks for joining us. Good luck Sunday. It was fun. Yeah, man, take care. I appreciate it. All right, thanks for joining us. Good luck Sunday. It was fun. Yeah, man. Take care. I appreciate it. Alright, see you, man. Alright, so that was an interesting

perspective there from the Locked on Dolphins crew. Obviously, an optimistic prediction there from Travis. But, you know, it wouldn't shock me. At the end of the day, we've said it before.

We just don't know a whole lot about this Titans group. We haven't seen the finished product. And I think it's unrealistic to expect the finished product to come in week one, especially on the road. You know, like Travis said, in a hot environment. You know, we've seen that before in the infamous Matt Castle game. But it's going to be a matter of whether or not Corey Davis, Taewon Taylor, Rashard Matthews, Marcus Mariota, Delaney Walker,

those guys haven't played together much. I'll be the first one to tell you that. So I don't know if they're going to have the chemistry right off the bat. I don't know if this run game is going to be ready to go. This offensive line hasn't looked great, but they haven't had Jack Conklin either. So I don't expect Jack Conklin to play, but still just not a lot of chemistry there.

It's just not really what you want to see going into game one. So with all that being said, the Titans are still the more talented team in my opinion. I don't think Ryan Tannehill and Danny Amendola and Kenny Stills and Kenyon Drake really scare too many people, but still at the same time it's an NFL road game. So we've seen that way too many times. So I'm interested to see how this group handles Game 1 without a lot of

experience together. Matt LaFleur said he held some things back. I don't know how much I believe in that. It's going to be interesting. There's a reason Vegas has put the line at 1 or 2, depending on where you look. I'm of the thinking the Titans are just going to

be, you know, just kind of find a way. I don't think it's going to be pretty by any means. Maybe it'll be pretty down the road, but I don't think that's realistic to expect in week one. So with that, I'll remind you, check out Music City Miracles daily until game day for all your information. Come hang out there.

We've got a game thread. Come hang out with Titans fans and comment and connect with us. So, for Jimmy, who is out tonight, this is Terry Lambert signing off. We'll see you tomorrow night.