Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Santos Cut! Taylor Lewan Twitter Beef & Titans Talk

Episode Date: October 8, 2019

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Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, it has been a tumultuous Tuesday in the Titans community, to say the least. There is so much going on right now and so many questions that are being asked, so many answers that are being given, so much swirling around the team. Obviously the frustration level is at an all-time high based on some of the answers the players are giving, some of the answers the players are giving, some of the things we're seeing.

We are going to move, as I said on Twitter, at Tic Tac Titans. We are going to move our Tic Tac Tuesday segment to Thursday, do some Tic Tac Titans on Thursday. I'll break down a couple extra plays for you guys this week because we are going to have to go over the Titans' moves on special teams. As you have known yesterday, the Titans moves on special teams. As you have known yesterday, the Titans cut Cairo Santos. We're going to jump into who they brought in as a replacement in our first

segment. In our second segment, we are going to talk about Taylor LeJuan's Twitter beef with the entire Bills defense. I'm going to talk about my thoughts on that, but give you guys everything that went down so you have an understanding of what's going on on that side of things. In our third segment, I do want to give you guys a little bit from Mike Vrabel's press conference yesterday. He got some tough questions. I'm actually really impressed by the local Nashville media and the questions that they were able to ask him and the pressure they put on him in certain situations.

Obviously, we know PK is going to be in there rubbing elbows and giving the tough ones, but a lot of other members of the Titans media community asked some really good questions from Rabel, and I think it's some things that the fans deserve answers to, particularly the last question. So I'm going to give you guys a little bit of that. There's a lot going on around the team right now. I just want to make sure you guys are up to date on all the information.

Like I said, we will get to our Tic Tac Titans breakdown later in the week, but right now, with all the craziness going on, I think it's important for us to kind of know exactly where everything is, so I can't wait to get into it, cover all of it with you guys. Let's get it. Your Tennessee Titans lead story is the release of kicker Kyro Santos and the signing of new kicker Cody Parkey. After Kyro Santos' disastrous Sunday against the Buffalo Bills, missing all four of his field goals including having one blocked, the Titans organization and locker room had clearly lost faith in him. Now, Santos, up to that Bills game, had been 4 of 5 on his field goal attempts on the season and made all of his extra points. So, I can't completely blame Santos and say he did a

poor job for this team. Now, his performance against the Bills was obviously poor, but also, the Titans offense did not consistently move the ball. They weren't able to consistently produce points. They only got one touchdown out of their three attempts in the red zone. They forced a backup kicker to kick four different field goals, and Mike Vrabel did not put Santos in a good position to succeed either. On his last kick, the Titans were down by one score late in the fourth quarter on the Bills 35, and it was fourth and four. Most people, based on Vrabel's previous decisions, would expect the Titans to go for it. Most teams and most fan bases in that situation, especially against a Bills defense that was so stout and not letting the Titans have good drives, you would have expected the Titans to go for it

in that situation. Unfortunately, rather than go for it, Mike Vrabel put out Cairo Santos, who had missed all three of his previous kicks, and Santos' career-long make was 53 yards. So Santos, after missing his first three kicks, was sent out onto the field and expected to match his career-long kick. It's not necessarily a situation most replacement kickers are going to succeed in, or most starting kickers for that matter. Either way, the Buffalo Bills game has a way of claiming a Titans roster spot every single

year. We saw it last year with Nick Williams and the drop that he had against the Bills, and we see it this year with Kairos Santos. So, the Titans did choose to move on. They have replaced Kairos Santos with Cody Parkey. If you recall, in September, the Titans had a lot of kickers come in for a workout, and those kickers did include Santos and Parkey. The Titans ultimately decided on Santos, but Parkey has not had a bad career himself. He started his first two years in Philadelphia, earning a Pro Bowl spot his rookie season. He then went to Cleveland and then Miami and ended up last season in Chicago.

If you recall, he was the victim of the infamous double doink missed field goal in the playoffs last year against the Eagles. The Bears subsequently released him. Similar situation to what we see here with the Titans and Cairo Santos. Once an organization in a locker room loses faith or confidence in a kicker, it's hard to bring that person back.

But Cody Parkey has not been a bad kicker throughout his career, and he actually enjoyed his most successful season kicking with the Bears last year. Last season with the Bears, he was 91.3% accurate on his field goals. And for his career, he's 83.9% accurate on field goals and 95.5% accurate on his extra points. He is particularly successful from deep. 50 plus yards in his career, he is 7 of 9 on those attempts. He struggles most from 40 yards to 49 yards going 27 of 39. From 30 yards to 39 yards, he's 36 of 41,

and he is 100% accurate on all 29 kicks from 20 yards to 29 yards in his career. So Santos was a solid kicker, but Parkey seems to be at the same level. Now, neither of these guys seem to be on the level of Titans starting when healthy kicker Ryan Suckup. Suckup was given an extension in February of 2018 for five years and $20 million. For a kicker, that's pretty incredible. So the Titans will rely on Suckup heavily once he returns. It will be no question that he will get his job back, and hopefully Cody Parkey can just stem the tide until Ryan Suckup is able to return. If you recall, Suckup is an 86% accurate kicker during his time with the Titans. He enjoyed one of the longest streaks in NFL history of accuracy, less than 50 yards, during the 2017 and 2018 seasons. So it will be a help for the Titans special teams unit

once suck up returns. But for the time being, the hope that Parkey can have a little bit more success than Santos was able to have on Sunday. Fellas, let's talk about the bedroom. Ever wish you could increase your performance or maybe just need a little confidence boost in bed? or maybe just need a little confidence boost in bed? Well, listen up. BlueChew.com. That's blue, just like the color. Blue Chew brings you the first chewable with the same FDA-approved active ingredient as Viagra and Cialis, so you know they work. You can take them anytime, day or night, even on a full stomach, and since they're chewable, they work twice as fast as a pill, so you're ready anytime you need to be. But hear me out. It's not just for guys who can't perform. It's for any guy looking for a little extra to enhance their performance. You hit a lead-off home run, guys. Blue Chew helps you go

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wanted to kind of put everything together in a package for you guys so you knew exactly what was going on yesterday after the game some of the bills defensive linemen had some quotes and some things to say about taylor including this quote from jordan phillips the defensive tackle that had a few sacks yesterday. The one thing we do have to mention here is the Bills defensive line routinely got the best of Taylor LeJuan and Roger Saffold. Nothing they really say here is wrong. With that kind of performance, it's hard to say that they're wrong. We will start with a quote from Bills defensive tackle Jordan Phillips. I was really happy LeJuan came back today.

I'm glad that he could be a part of that today. Phillips actually ended up with three sacks. Shaq Lawson, another defensive lineman for the Bills, also had this to say. We knew what his weakness was. He gives up inside moves, and this was an inside game. Lawson actually called LaJuan a fake tough guy, which is something that we have heard people say about Taylor before. Clearly those two, Phillips and Lawson, had a great day against the

Titans. Taylor clearly had heard about those comments, and on Monday he took to Twitter. He googled Shaq Lawson's stats and posted a screenshot showing his pretty meager stats for his career so far. He tagged him in a post and called him a first-round backup and said, You're a monster, obviously with some sarcasm. Told him that he was just trying to use Taylor's name to get some clout. And, you know, that's when everything kind of started to take hold from there so clearly Shaq Lawson is going to respond and I will keep most of these uh tweets pg and just feel that's that's the right thing to do so you guys can probably take your guess as which words I am uh

editing uh for family purposes uh Shaq Lawson came back to that and basically said that he was still whooping Taylor's butt all of the game. Things got actually pretty intense from there. Shaq Lawson actually came back again and said that he hopes Taylor's in Arizona during the offseason again. Tough guy. That's clearly some physical confrontation words. Taylor responded, yep, it will go just like last time. You will be tired as uh tired as

heck and i'll be crushing workouts shaq lawson just told him to keep the same energy when he sees him in arizona in the offseason now i look forward to actually seeing what happens in the future with those guys uh clearly they're going to be in the same place at the same time at some point. Jordan Phillips took things to a little bit of a more serious nature. He responded to Taylor and told him to go get drug tested again. Called him a bum. Called him a soft crybaby and said he was surprised he even finished the game. Said Taylor didn't say one word during the game, but as soon as the game is over, you know, he wants to go to social media.

He called him a joke, said he's always been a joke. One thing that I really found distasteful, though, is Jordan Phillips did post an image of Taylor LeJuan knocked out on the field against Miami last year. I don't think, even though these players are obviously pretty intense guys and they're going after each other on Twitter and whether you think social media matters or anything like this, at this point, it's a forum that these players use.

And them going at each other like that is something that we don't see things that intense normally between players. The only thing even close to that recently was Eric Weddle and Antonio Brown kind of going after each other, but for Jordan Phillips to post that sort of picture and kind of mock concussions and this kind of climate of player safety, I personally think that is a bit of a step too far. Now, the ultimate answer to all of this conversation is if the Titans don't win, they don't have the ability to talk. Now, the ultimate answer to all of this conversation is if the Titans don't win, they don't have the ability to talk. Taylor, once again, being a distraction, talking, going after somebody who just honestly whooped his tail, like he said, all game long. Taylor

and Roger Saffold were consistently abused during the game. Taylor's first game back, I understand that definitely has a factor on things. But you can't be the guy that's going on Twitter running your mouth after that. At this point, with the way the Titans got whooped by the Bills on Sunday and the way that the entire environment was in Tennessee, I don't see how Taylor LeJuan feels justified going on and talking on the internet. I think it's probably best right now for the Titans to stay as quiet as possible, work as hard as they can, and find a way to get a W and turn this season around from the way that it is right now. In our third segment, we are going to do some Titans talk.

Obviously, Mike Vrabel's press conference from Monday was pretty intense. I just want to give you guys a few snippets. I typically don't include the questions, So I'll keep that just for time purposes. But you can tell from some of Mike Vrabel's answers that he was pressed pretty hard. And some of his answers are things that as a Titans fan and someone who covers the team, we need to hear. We need to hear some of his responses to some of the questions that were asked. So I want to make sure you guys get that. And I'll play that after this. If you found $100 on the street, would you pick it up or keep walking? Of course you'd take the money. So why do you keep picking winners but not betting on them?

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I was, like I said, pretty impressed with some of the questions that were asked and I hope you guys enjoy some of the answers or at least enjoy the fact that the coach was put on the spot and forced to answer. So I hope you guys enjoy that audio. No, I think, you know, the biggest thing that you have to do is you have to understand that we all have a job to do and you have to coach and you have to play the game. I think with that idea in mind and that you're playing the situations.

And again, I thought that he kicked a good one earlier that we did not protect very well. And I felt like he put a good swing on it, which would have been good. We were soft inside. And so in thinking that, I was looking at him and felt confident that he'd go out there and make it. I mean, we don't have the luxury of having hindsight and dealing with those types of things. We all make decisions through the course of the game, players and coaches. And again, we just have to try to do the best job that we can to make the right decision. Yeah, we know those numbers. We're very aware of what those numbers are. And that,

I think in the NFL, we all expect field goal kickers to make 53-yard field goals. I watch all the games just like you guys do. Coach puts a guy out there, he makes a 50-yarder. And I think that that's part of the pro football. And where you're at as far as fourth and sixth, you can kind of see where we are on third and sixth and figure out where our percentage would be on fourth and sixth. So, does that help you with the analytics?

I think we were three of 14 on third down yesterday or whatever we were. I think that's whatever percentage. And we didn't do very well on field goals, so that was the percentage there. I think we've got to do better. You know, we've got to do better special teams. We've got to do better. We've got to do better special teams. We've got to do better defensively in some of those critical situations. And certainly we have to do a better job of stringing consecutive positive plays together on offense.

I mean, we had them, but there were too few and far between to get anything going. I mean, we have three plays in a row that get us down there, and we talk about fighting through the fringe, and then we stall for whatever reason, an execution or a penalty. And there were positives, too many negatives. But when we talk about the keys each week and we told the guys that, hey, when the Bills get down there, they're five touchdowns and only seven trips.

The offense hadn't gotten down there that much. But when they got down there, they have some pretty good scheme plays. And as you can see, that was really the case again yesterday. They didn't get down there that much. But when they did, they got us on a couple play passes. You stuck with him and it bit you. You stuck with the dory for a long time and it bit you. You stuck with Adorey for a long time and it bit you. Where's the line where you give up on a guy and seek an alternative or take a different approach?

Well, we only have one kicker, you know, so we're trying to execute the game and score points there. You know, Adorey was our punt returner. I mean, that's what he was drafted here to do. He was drafted to play corner and return punts. And so, again, we have to be, you know, accountable for our actions, both mine, the coaches, the players. We have to improve. We have to do things that help them improve

and then make decisions on who gives us the best chance. As far as the offensive line is concerned, for the last two years since you've been the coach, it's been inconsistent. And you change guys out, bring in a big free agent, draft somebody relatively high. You've got an all-pro or a pro-bowl left tackle, a guy who was an all-pro at right tackle, and the line still seems to struggle. Where are you with Keith Carter and the job that he has done and is doing with the offensive line?

Very confident. Very confident. I would say that, you know, I have a luxury of watching a 19-year-old son play offensive line. And the head coach there is an offensive line coach. He's got a line coach. At the end of the day, they've got to line up, they've got to know who to block, and they've got to block their guy.

So we know who to block, and if we don't know and if we're not teaching them and they say, Coach, I didn't know what to do on this play, then we'd have a problem. But, you know, we have to sit there and block our guy. It becomes a lot of one-on-one matchups in this league, and that's why it's great because you kind of find out the receivers and the DB. It's one-on-one matchups. It's an offensive lineman and a defensive lineman.

It's a linebacker and a running back, and those are great things to have. And you go out there and you've got to win more of those one-on-one matchups than you lose. So the protection issues are primarily individuals not doing their jobs more than anything else, the protection issues? Well, I think if you look at there was two times we threw hot, which the quarterback knows when he's hot. You know, if we go empty and they blitz a guy, we're going to throw hot. And so I think we have to make sure like that to me is not a protection issue. That's the quarterback knows he's hot and he's throwing it hot and he's going to try to throw it there.

And we got to you know, we got to make sure that we catch it and be at distance for the first down when we, you know, have games or twists. You know, obviously, it's two guys working in tandem. So it's not always just one on one. guys working in tandem. So it's not always just one-on-one. It's two guys having to work together to pick up, you know, the picks and the games that they're doing. Then there's other times where it's one-on-one. Then there's other times where, you know, it's protected and we have to, you know, get rid of the football and throw it to the guy that's open. And then there's other times we have to get open quicker. So again, there's a lot of things that just go into, it's just the offensive line or it's just this guy.

Mike, what would you say to the fans who, when you were hired, it was about raising the bar and raising the level and see the inconsistencies and want to throw their hands up and say this is the same old times? What would you say to those fans? That we're working tirelessly to improve this football team each and every day. That when I come to work to the detriment of my family, I think about this team when I'm here, when I'm not here, that we're going to improve.

That our goal is to improve every day, to put guys into positions, to coach these guys, to let them be in position to help the team and play with great effort and play with great fundamentals, but most importantly, win. Thanks. Whew, that was a burner of a last question. So I hope you guys enjoyed that. That's going to do it for today's show.

We went over Cairo Santos being kicked to the curb and the signing of Cody Parkey in our first segment. In our second segment, we covered Taylor LeJuan's unnecessary Twitter beef. And then in our third and final segment, we did some Titans talk for you guys. Can't wait to get to tomorrow's episode.

Get further in the week and closer to a new game. Hopefully the Titans will be able to respond. Once again, I'm your host Tylerland, and this was Locked on Titans.