Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - REWATCH WEDNESDAY: Titans Defensive Future, Additional Schematic Notes
Episode Date: December 16, 2020Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitans Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices ...
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Welcome to the Locked On Titans podcast.
I am your host, Tyler Rowland.
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It is rewatch Wednesday here on the Locked on Titans podcast and that means each week
we dive into my notebook and step back into
the film room so I can bring you any additional or extra analysis I picked up from re-watching
the coach's tape multiple times.
So we are going to do that today.
But to start off our show, I'm going to put a little bit of a twist on things and I want
to tell you what the Titans best route to a Super Bowl opportunity is on the
defensive side of the ball of course the Titans offense is shredding teams left and right that's
what we come to expect from this Arthur Smith Ryan Tannehill Derrick Henry led attack but the
defensive side of the ball is the biggest place of concern. And I'm not breaking any news to you by saying that.
But let's talk about, based on what I've seen on tape, what the Titans can do on defense
to get back to that Super Bowl caliber team that we hoped they could be.
So I'm going to go through that with you guys to begin the show.
But then we will begin our Rewatch Wednesday segments.
We are going to start
on the defensive side of the ball as that is the primary theme of the day I'll tell you exactly
what I saw from the Titans defense and why some transactions that took place on Tuesday could see
more of what we saw on Sunday so excited to dive into that and we will cap off today's show looking
at what the Titans did offensively to put up so many points against the Jaguars in the first half on Sunday.
So a rewatch Wednesday here on the Locked On Titans podcast.
Let's get it!
If you had to choose the biggest disappointment for the Tennessee Titans so far, the answer is unquestionably the defensive side of the ball.
While in previous years, the Titans' defense was never a top unit in the NFL,
they certainly weren't one of the worst units in the NFL,
and that's what the Titans have got from their defense this year. One of the worst defenses in the NFL. They certainly weren't one of the worst units in the NFL, and that's what the Titans
have got from their defense this year. One of the worst defenses in the NFL. The Titans are a middle
of the road run defense, but where they really fall apart is in the passing game. The Titans are
a bottom four passing defense at this moment in time in the NFL, and if you wanted to assess blame or look for reasons why that is the number one
culprit is undoubtedly the Titans pass rush the Titans are historically bad when it comes to
stopping teams on third down and a lot of that has to do with being unable to get pressure on
the quarterback and the numbers bear that out as well the The Titans have 14 sacks on the year.
That is the fewest in the NFL.
And to add further context about their historical ineptitude in the pass rush,
a great tweet here from at FWordsPod on Twitter,
through the last 20 seasons, 2000 to 2020,
there have been 670 teams,
and the Titans are currently tied for the third fewest sacks in a single season.
So the Titans are not only terrible at getting to the quarterback this year in regards to the other teams in the league,
but historically over the last two decades, the Titans are one of the worst pass rush groups.
And the other stats available bear that out as well.
39 hurries on the season that is the
fifth least in the NFL 6.9 percent of dropbacks the Titans get a hurry that is second worst in
the NFL only 93 pressures on the quarterback this year that's fourth worst in the NFL 16.5 percent
of the time the Titans get pressure that is the the worst rate in the NFL. The Titans have the
third least amount of quarterback hits at 55. They're currently the 26th ranked defense DVOA
per football outsiders. They have the fourth worst pass rush grade per pro football focus at a 62.8.
To provide some context here, the Steelers are first at 85.8 and middle of the road in the
league is about 71 so whichever way you want to look at it analytics eye test or box scores the
Titans pass rush is terrible so that leads us to the next question how possibly with such a terrible
pass rush could the Tennessee Titans find a way to win
the Super Bowl?
Well, the answer to that question is the other part of the equation.
You have pass rush, and then you have coverage.
And over the last month, the Titans have shown that they have the ability to be a very good
coverage team in the secondary, and that's quite the 180 from what we saw
with the Titans earlier in the season with Jonathan Joseph and Chris Jackson, but add
in Breon Borders, even Ty Smith and his performance against the Jags.
Add in Desmond King, of course, the big trade in the middle of the season that helped the
Titans turn things around at least a little bit on the defensive side of the ball.
I know the Titans struggled with the Browns and some of the big plays that they created,
but the reality is over the past month, the Titans have been very, very solid in pass coverage,
and a lot of that has to do with the new personnel,
which leads us to the next big piece of news for the Titans.
On Tuesday, rookie cornerback Christian Fulton was finally activated to the Titans
53-man roster.
Of course, he has not played since October the 25th, but he will be activated to the
roster.
Hopefully, he'll be able to play.
And of course, Titans starting cornerback Adoree Jackson, who has yet to play this season,
did have a full week of limited practice last week, and the expectation is
that he will be able to join the active roster and play eventually before the end of the
season.
So you look at the strides the Titans have made in coverage, right now they're currently
the 7th highest rated team in coverage grade per pro football focus at a 70.3.
So the Titans have been pretty solid in coverage as of late. And if they add in Christian
Fulton, they add in a Dory Jackson, it's possible that if the Titans lean on that coverage unit
and play great man coverage and great zone coverage in the back end, that they'll be able
to withstand the ineptitude of the pass rush. It'll allow them to send more blitzing. It'll
allow them to be more exotic with their pressures, and that may counteract the terrible standard pass rush group
that the Tennessee Titans do deploy at this moment in time.
And speaking of the pass rush group, it took another hit on Tuesday
when Titans outside linebacker Tazar Skipper was placed on the practice squad injured reserve list.
He injured his elbow during the game against the Jags.
So right now, the Titans have four healthy outside linebackers, Practice squad injured reserve list. He injured his elbow during the game against the Jags.
So right now, the Titans have four healthy outside linebackers, Harold Landry, Derek
Roberson, Brooks Reed, and Wyatt Ray, both on the practice squad.
One of those guys is going to get elevated to the active rosters.
I don't see how there's any way the Titans can avoid that at this moment in time.
So the pass rush, even though Skipper was more of a run defender than a pass rusher, the pass rush still is going to be affected
by the amount of snaps the other guys are going to have to play.
Now Roberson can't focus so much on pass rush.
He's got to play more snaps as a run defender.
So everything has a domino effect here.
Also, Kenny Vaccaro, per comments from head coach Mike Rabel,
Kenny Vaccaro should be back after he missed last week's game with an illness.
So that's a big news.
And then, of course, over the weekend, the Titans put Breon Borders on IR
with that hip injury, so he'll be out a minimum of three games.
But as I mentioned, Adore could be back soon.
Christian Fulton was activated on Tuesday.
So some help could be on the way for the Tennessee Titans,
who will be tested in the coming weeks.
Who knows if Matt Stafford will play in the game?
He had an injury in Sunday's game.
It's up in the air, his status right now.
But then the Titans play the Green Bay Packers with Aaron Rodgers,
the Houston Texans with Deshaun Watson.
That pass coverage unit will be tested in the coming weeks,
and it'll be a good test for the Titans as they ramp up for a matchup
against the Kansas City Chiefs.
I mean, if the Titans want to get to a Super Bowl, they'll have to go through the Chiefs,
so they might as well get used to playing against awesome quarterbacks and great passing
attacks and finding a way to lean on their coverage, what they've shown on tape that
they have the ability to do even when the pass rush isn't there to match.
And we are going to talk about that in the Rewatch Wednesday segments coming up.
We are going to start with the Tennessee Titans defense, so excited to jump into that.
Remember, we are going to begin our preparation for the Detroit Lions tomorrow with a crossover
Thursday conversation with the host of Locked on Lions.
Also, Friday is a Football Friday game preview.
My keys to the game, players to watch, fantasy, gambling, injuries, game and score prediction,
everything you need from a game preview, I'm going to have it for you on Friday.
So make sure that you subscribe to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you
do stream.
But let's open up the notebook and dive into Rewatch Wednesday.
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It is re-watch Wednesday here on the Locked on Titans podcast.
So I'm going to open up my notebook, step back into the film room with you guys and
just give you all of my additional analysis, my extra insights, any additional notes that
I had from my rewatches of the Titans coaching tape of the all 22.
The eye in the sky does not lie.
So I'm excited to get into all of those additional notes with you guys.
Before I do, I want to remind you, as I mentioned earlier in the show,
tomorrow is Crossover Thursday,
and we are going to talk with the host of Locked on Lions
to begin our preparation for that matchup.
And the Titans have the Colts nipping at their
heels in the AFC South so the Titans can't rest for a moment they have to take every single game
as if it were a playoff game including this matchup against the Lions whether they have
Matt Stafford or not so it'll be important for the Titans to do that and it'll be important for
you guys to you know hear that conversation and get information directly from someone who's been covering the Lions all year so
excited to give you guys that conversation make sure you subscribe to the Locked on Titans
podcast on whatever platform you do stream so you don't miss that or any of the Monday
through Friday content that I will be pumping out for you guys throughout the season the
all season heck all year around so make sure that you're locked in to the Locked on Titans podcast.
But let's move forward into Rewatch Wednesday,
and defense has been the theme of the day.
In the previous segment, I kind of outlined for you guys
the issues the Titans are having in pass rush
and why, based on some of the availability of certain players,
along with what we've seen from the Titans in recent weeks leads me to believe that this can be a coverage based
team and the coverage can improve to the point that it can actually help the pass rush out so
what was killing the Titans early on in the season is they weren't good in the back end and coverage
and they weren't good in the pass rush you You can't be terrible at both of those simultaneously, or you're going to get the type of defensive
effort that we've gotten from the Titans for most of the season.
But after that Desmond King trade, after the roster shakeup, the roster massacre in the
middle of the season, John Robinson took out the knife and performed surgery on the roster,
added in Tyera Tartt, added in Breon Borders, got rid of Vic Beasley, who
everybody talked about how great he was.
He was terrible last week for the Raiders.
Add in a guy like Desmond King, that's the big transaction there.
So with those additions, the Titans started playing better in coverage.
Now, the pass rush still pretty terrible, but when you play better in coverage, it gives
you the ability to trust
your guys in the back end to do a little bit more exotic stuff up front with your blitz packages.
So the Titans have a tough time generating pressure in the pass rush. So the way to help
that is to blitz more, send more people, but you can only do that if you trust your coverage.
So the Titans are getting to a place now where they feel a little bit more comfortable doing
that with Desmond King back there, Ty Smithon Borders either one of those guys are better
than Chris Jackson or Jonathan Joseph but but when you talk about adding in Adore you talk about
adding in Fulton maybe there's the opportunity that Titans can improve enough in coverage that
they can really start to blitz and go all out and get a little bit more exotic,
which will help the pass rush.
So let's talk about what the Titans did against the Jags that led me to believe that.
We've seen the Titans play cover two this year, and I've kind of railed against it.
In this game against the Jags, I wanted to see them play more cover three,
wanted to see them play more cover four,
because the Jags like to take deep shots down the field early in the game,
which takes advantage of the skill set of their wide receivers, DJ Chart, Keelan Colt.
They're good vertical receivers.
They have great speed.
The Titans countered that.
They did exactly what I wanted them to do.
They played a ton of cover four with a matchup over the middle.
They played a ton of cover three.
And that really helped them guard against those deep boundary passes
that the Jags like to
do to kind of open things up on offense so I was really impressed by that but more than just the
Titans schematically making a good game plan to go against what the Jags do on offense it was nice
to see the Titans execute cover four execute cover three it's not something that they like to do a
ton see the Titans in a lot more. Two safety,
not two safeties all the time, but just two deep guys. They prefer a cover two.
So it's nice to see them run with enough cover three in this game that it kind of proves to me
that they can do it on a consistent basis. I was worried about Malcolm Butler running vertically
in a cover three, but he did a very good job against DJ Chark in this game. Had a really,
really important, it was on second down, so I didn't include it in my tic-tac-four pack,
but late in the game when the Jags were driving, I believe there was about 12 to 13, maybe 14
minutes left in the fourth quarter. The Jags took a deep shot from about 30 yards out to the left
hand side to DJ Chark and Malcolm Butler had it completely locked down. So if Malcolm Butler can play great and cover three going backwards and he can improve there,
Adory Jackson is much better at that than anybody the Titans have had at cornerback
all season, especially on the boundary.
So you get a guy like that, Fulton has increased quick twitch muscles, agility, speed.
He's going to be better at going backwards.
Mike Rabel talked in the offseason about the slot position being a
vertical position now and how he talked about Adoree Jackson's ability to match vertically.
Christian Fulton had the ability to match vertically. Well, that is more often on the
boundary than anything. So that ability to go backwards is not going to change now because
we're talking about the boundary as opposed to the slot now that the Titans have Desmond King.
So nice to see the Titans do that.
When it was nut-cutting time, though, third and short, third and intermediate,
the Titans went to cover one man.
And Ty Smith was really good in man coverage.
We saw Malcolm Butler get targeted a lot
because Ty Smith was just completely wiping LaVishka Chennault
off the face of the planet.
So great job by Ty Smith there.
I mentioned it before, but targeted five times, two catches, eight yards.
A great day from Ty Smith.
Hopefully he's feeling better.
Got a little banged up late in the game.
So appreciated that.
What I really want to talk about, the cornerbacks won a ton in one-on-one situations.
They were great in man and third and short, third and intermediate.
They played a lot of cover three, cover four, and first and ten,
second and ten, early down situations. But what I really want to talk about, oh, and this final
note here, the Titans blitzed a lot more later in the game, but that's obvious. They were up by a
lot. The Jags had to pass to come back, so I'm not giving the Titans any credit for that. That's the
logical move to make schematically once you get up that big of a lead. But the real thing that I
wanted to talk about that impresses me the most is the Titans' versatility on defense. So, to move to make schematically once you get up that big of a lead but the real thing that I wanted
to talk about that impresses me the most is the Titans versatility on defense so Tazar Skipper
goes on IR but Jack Crawford and Tazar Skipper have both been doing a great job of playing like
a 4-3 defensive end that has a little bit of defensive tackle capabilities it's a tweener
between a 3-4 defensive end a 5-, and then a 4-3 defensive end who's
going to play a little bit wider in the 8.
So when you look at what the Titans can do on defense, it's because of the versatility.
You have Jack Crawford.
He can be a defensive tackle.
He can be a 4-3, a 4-front defensive end.
You have Harold Landry who can be a 4-man front defensive end, a 5-man front outside linebacker, a stand-up outside linebacker off the ball. He can blitz through
the middle as a middle linebacker. He can drop in coverage. You have guys like Rashawn Evans that
can rush the passer as an actual pass rusher, not just a blitzer, but also drop back in coverage,
had his best day in coverage per pro football focus in this game against the Jacks. David Long
played every single defensive snap for
the Titans because he can blitz. He's quick enough to play coverage, although I didn't think he had
a great game. He's also physical enough. He's more physical than Jayon Brown in the run game. You
have versatile safeties like Kenny Vaccaro, Kevin Byard, Imani Hooker, who can not only come up and
play in the box as a passing down linebacker, but also play deep safety in the back middle third.
down linebacker, but also play deep safety in the back middle third.
It's incredible.
Desmond King can play pseudo-outside linebacker on a 4-3.
He can blitz off the edge.
He can play man coverage at cornerback.
It's just incredible.
Kenny Vaccaro and Kevin Byard can do that outside linebacker thing as well. I just really love the versatility of the pieces that the Titans have here, even with
the limited personnel that they have.
It allows them to do so many different things.
Joshua Kalou's getting work out on the field, and while I expect him to not see as many
snaps with Kenny Vaccaro coming back, I love having three safeties that can play slot,
play deep, play intermediate, play passing down linebacker, linebackers that can pass
rush, play coverage, or just play standard off-the-ball run-down linebacker.
Defensive linemen that can play 5-tech, they can play 6-tech, they can play 8-tech.
They have defensive linemen who can play edge rusher, stand-up outside linebacker, blitz through the middle.
It's unfortunate that they're missing Jadavion Clowney, who again is another one of those versatile pieces.
But the Titans' versatile pieces on defense are so impressive.
The way they're deployed schematically is very impressive.
And I just love the way they're used.
I wish the Titans had a little bit more production.
But I do like the idea that Mike Vrabel is trying to get across
with this Tennessee Titans defense.
So going to move forward and talk about the offensive side of the ball
in this game against the Jags.
Continue this R rewatch Wednesday.
We are going to cap off this rewatch Wednesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast by talking about the offensive
side of the ball.
And the Titans put up 31 points in this game.
They were dominant throughout.
It basically took them three quarters to push this game.
Well, I can't say they were dominant throughout because, as I mentioned, they played with
their food a little bit in the first quarter.
But once the Titans kind of got things going in the right direction, they were an avalanche,
essentially. So let's talk about how the Titans were able to be so dominant on the Titans kind of got things going in the right direction, they were an avalanche, essentially.
So let's talk about how the Titans were able to be so dominant on the offensive side of
the ball.
Before we do, another reminder, tomorrow is Crossover Thursday.
Here on the Locked on Titans podcast, begin your preparation for a matchup against the
Lions by hearing directly from the Locked on Lions host.
So subscribe to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream
so you don't miss that conversation.
But on the offensive side of the ball,
so it's obvious what the Jaguars defense was trying to do.
They wanted to stack the line of scrimmage.
This is something we saw that the New England Patriots did
against the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl.
They basically took, it was like a 5-3, or sorry, a 5, what am I talking about?
It was like a 3-4, but they would only have one middle linebacker, and then they would
have everyone else across the line of scrimmage.
The idea is you can go up against wide zone by not letting the running back get to the perimeter,
and you can basically put a man in every single gap initially.
The reason that wide zone has success is because the guards, Roger Saffold, Nate Davis,
are able to combo block.
Usually it is the defensive tackles.
So they double-team the defensive tackles originally,
and then the guards slide up to the
second level leaving the right tackle in the center with those defensive linemen and then
the guards can move up and get the linebackers so that everybody gets blocked that's the idea here
well if the linebackers aren't off the line of scrimmage and they're on the line of scrimmage
the guard isn't going to be able to double team and then get up to the linebacker. The linebacker's already in the dang hole.
So that ruins the timing of the wide zone,
and it doesn't give the guards the ability to get to the second level
because the second level has gotten to them.
So that's why Bill Belichick did that to the Rams' wide zone,
Sean McVay's wide zone scheme in the Super Bowl.
And it worked great.
And some teams have tried to copy that with different results
because not every team has the personnel the Patriots had that year on defense, and not every
team has the best football coach in the history of the planet. So, the Jags tried to do this,
basically, to the Titans on Sunday. They tried to just put a bunch of defenders on the line of
scrimmage, have their three DBs in the back, of course, one of them's going to be up towards the
line of scrimmage, and then have that one linebacker in the second level.
So basically, everyone's on the line of scrimmage,
and there's not a lot of people in the second to third level,
often four, five at max,
when typically you would see seven,
or at the minimum, six.
So they limited the amount of people that were in the second and third level
because they wanted to stop Derrick Henry at the line of scrimmage,
and that's all good and well, but problem is if you don't well now Derrick
Henry has limited interference once he gets into the second level he's already the best running
back in the NFL at the second level and at the third level because of his size and speed and
the size and speed of the people who he's now facing. But what the Titans did was they said, all right, all right,
that's fine. If that's what you want to do, screw outside zone. We're running inside zone.
And all of the big runs you saw from Derrick Henry, the 39 yard touchdown, his first touchdown
of the day, the 40 yard run that set up the Jeff Swaim five yard touchdown, the next big run that
got Derrick Henry down there
and got his one-yard touchdown in place.
All of the big explosive runs you saw from Derrick Henry,
he had another one to the left side.
Basically, they all came in inside zone,
and this is something that I talked about yesterday,
but the timing of the inside zone is so perfect,
and the Titans do something weird here.
They set up the inside zone to go the opposite
direction that you would typically see it run so the the Titans are waiting for teams to kind of
load one side and they're running inside zone to the opposite side it's just fantastic and the
Titans also took advantage so like I said the the Jags wanted to condense their defensive formation
they want to get a bunch of guys up on the line of scrimmage.
The Titans said, okay, this is perfect.
We're going to condense our formation, have two tight ends, three tight ends,
two tight ends, and a wide receiver motion,
and have everybody packed into the middle.
That way, once Derrick Henry breaks through that initial line of defenders,
you've got eight defenders all lined up on the line of scrimmage.
And they're all stacked, condensed in a formation because the Titans have their tight ends on the
line of scrimmage next to the tackles. They're motioning it in Corey Davis. They're motioning
in Cameron Batson and getting them right on the outside shoulder of the tight ends.
So you're bringing everybody into the middle on the line of scrimmage so that Derek
Henry, once he gets through that line of scrimmage, that first level, not only are there not a lot of
people in the second and third level to stop him, but the whole field is wide open because everybody
is condensed within the hashes basically. So the Titans condensed their formation, made it seem
like they were going to go with outside zone, but then ran inside zone. Derrick Henry does such a good job with his footwork on that back rocker delay step.
And if you don't know what I'm talking about here,
the footwork that I'm referencing of Derrick Henry on this inside zone,
I highlighted in yesterday's Tic Tac 4-pack on my Twitter account,
at Tic Tac Titans.
I specifically highlighted the footwork.
And you think about Derrick Henry and little stuff like that that people don't understand. If Derrick Henry didn't have his footwork correctly,
it would ruin the timing of the entire play. And on that long touchdown run, Michael Pruitt and
Dennis Kelly do a great job of washing their defenders down to the left side, back towards
the center. And that opens up a perimeter hole for Derrick Henry to go right off the butt of Michael Pruitt and Cam Batson and just release and explode into the second level.
So, the Titans used those condensed formations, they used inside zone, they used tight ends
washing guys down, and they used what the Jags were trying to do on defense against
them.
It was just, it was fantastic.
It was absolutely fantastic.
And the Titans were great in inside zone.
The footwork of Derrick Henry, if he doesn't follow that timing and that footwork, then
Michael Pruitt and Dennis Kelly washing down their defenders, he would be too early to
that and he wouldn't see the hole and wouldn't allow them to wash it down.
So great job footwork.
Nobody really pays attention to a lot of that little stuff, but that's the little stuff that sets Derrick Henry apart.
Everybody talks about, you know, his size, his strength,
his natural athleticism.
Well, Derrick Henry does all the fundamentals as well.
There's a reason the guy doesn't fumble very often.
There's a reason that the guy is always getting through the muck.
He's got great fundamentals to go along with this talent,
and little stuff like footwork and the timing on a delayed inside zone
is exactly what proves that point.
To continue forward, talking about the Jags' defense,
they decided to go with zone rather than man.
I think that's a critical mistake.
The Titans have proven that they are worse against man coverage,
maybe not in early downs because of the crossers over the middle of the field.
If you get teams in man coverage early, then it gives them a better opportunity to win
in crossers over the middle.
But on third downs, third and long situations, going in zone against the Titans, third and
short situations, going in zone against the Titans doesn't make any sense.
The Titans don't have a ton of great man beaters, and maybe the Jags just didn't have any confidence in their secondary to play man coverage in their
cornerbacks. Maybe that's what it is. I mean, that could be a possibility, but to me, the Titans have
struggled all year going against tight man coverage, and the Jags, like I said, their plan
against the run was weird to stack the line of scrimmage and stack first level defenders.
Their plan against the Titans passing game to go heavy zone over man was weird.
In my opinion, I didn't like the game plan at all.
The Titans, as I mentioned, some other things, the Titans went heavy tight end.
And the last thing that I want to talk about is about those tight ends and the way the Titans are using formation variation.
So the Titans do a great job of using Jonu Smith as a wide receiver.
They'll have three tight ends on the field, but have Jonu Smith lined up as a wide receiver.
And because of his skill set, the defense has to acknowledge him as a possible wide
receiver.
They do the same thing with Anthony Ferkser.
That's more often on third downs using him as a slot wide receiver.
But I saw Ferkser used as just a split out wide wide receiver.
The Titans on the swam touchdown, the five yard touchdown pass in the red zone,
the Titans had three tight ends on the field during that play,
but they were all spread out in a wide formation.
So the Titans do a great job of getting heavy personnel on the field,
but because of the versatility of John U. Smith,
it's funny how all the skill sets overlap.
Think about Venn diagrams for a moment.
This just, it gets me giddy.
I don't know, little stuff like this just makes me happy.
It's all about finding role players and their skill sets, while unique, still overlap enough
to keep the defense off balance.
Jonu Smith has an explosive skill set as a run after the catch wide receiver, but he also has enough
blocking chops to be a blocking tight end. Then you have Michael Pruitt, who also has mostly
blocking tight end skill set, but just enough receiving skill set to be utilized in two tight
end situations and still pass. Remember earlier in the season, Michael Pruitt caught an awesome seam route down the field for about 20 yards. So he has just enough receiving
talent to not totally tip the Titans hand. Same thing with Jeff Swaim. That's even more exaggerated.
I think that Jeff Swaim is even more of a blocker than Michael Pruitt, but he has just enough that
20% receiving ability, that overlap, that Venn diagram with the other guys. So you
have Michael Pruitt, who's mostly a blocker, but gives you a little bit in the passing game. You
have Jeff Swaim, who's similar, mostly a blocker, but can give you a little bit in the passing game.
Then you have Jonu Smith, who is a really good blocker and also can give you a good amount in
the passing game. And then you have Anthony Ferkserer who really isn't a blocker but can give you a lot in the passing game it's like Anthony Ferkser is the passing game tight end
the Titans have two blocking style but still viable receiving threat tight ends they have
John O'Smith who is the perfect amount of both just the overlapping Venn diagram skill sets at
tight end and the way they're deployed in the way they're utilized with personnel groups and formation variation.
What can I say?
I'm nerding out right now.
It's a nerdgasm for football.
If you can combine being a jock and combine being a nerd into one thing, hello, folks.
You got your host, Tyler Rowland, here with you.
So the tight ends really get me going.
And what should I expect from a career tight ends coach in Arthur Smith love you buddy
love you so great stuff there
from the Titans hopefully you felt like
this was some great schematic stuff
on the Locked On Titans podcast
in this rewatch Wednesday as I've
mentioned crossover Thursday tomorrow
game preview on Friday don't
miss any of that stay locked in to the Locked
On Titans podcast subscribe
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Check out yesterday's TicTac4Pack.
It's a good one, I promise.
But that's going to do it for me today, folks.
As always, I am your
host, Tyler Rowland, and
this was Locked on Titans. you