Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - TanneTHRILL Wednesday w/ Brandon Reid

Episode Date: November 13, 2019

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Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, we do not have a crossover Wednesday podcast for you as the Titans are on a bye. So I wanted to take this opportunity to have a little Tana Thrill Wednesday. Ryan Tannehill has come in and changed the season for the Titans. Whether or not you love Tannehill, hate Tannehill, wanted him to succeed, didn't want him to play, it doesn't matter. This team is 3-1 with Tannehill right now, and they've played much better since he's taken over,

and hopefully they'll be able to continue that throughout the rest of the season. So with that in mind, our first segment, I'm just going to go over some numbers and some statistics to represent the change in the offense and talk about just Tannehill's general performance since he took over during the Chargers game or at the beginning of the Chargers game. And then in our second and third segment today, I'm actually going to have a guest on. Some of you guys, if you're active on some of the Facebook communities for the Titans, you may know this person, but he's the most staunch defender of Ryan Tannehill within the Titans community.

And I'm excited to bring him on and have a discussion about Tannehill, the past, present, and future with you guys. So this is a Tanne throw Wednesday, excited to get into all of it with you guys. Let's get it. Your Tennessee Titans lead story. Ryan Tannehill is 3-1 as the starter of the Tennessee Titans. The vast improvement in their offense is obvious, but I wanted to let you guys know about some statistics that really pop out about this team since Ryan Tannehill has become the starter.

So the last four weeks, Ryan Tannehill is become the starter. So the last four weeks, Ryan Tannehill is seventh in the NFL in passer rating at 107. He is fifth in the NFL in completion rating at 70%. The Titans are the fifth best offense in yards per play at 6.3, and they are the third best offense in rush yards per play at 5.3. They are 10 and 10 in the red zone and getting touchdowns, which makes them 18 for 25 and getting touchdowns in the red zone overall for the season. The Tennessee Titans are currently first in touchdown rate in the red zone by percentage

at 72%. All of these things we're seeing improve and kind of blossom under Tannehill. And the most important thing, like I mentioned earlier, is the 3-1 record. One thing to consider is he's getting the ball out of his hands quicker. So in the four games that Tannehill has been the starter, he's only taken 13 sacks. Compare that to the previous six games where there were 29 sacks. Now, obviously there is something to be said for the offensive line improvements in the past four weeks since Taylor LeJuan's suspension ended and Nate Davis finally got comfortable in the lineup, but there has been fair share of offensive line shakeups for Tannehill as

well, including Roger Saffold missing some time during games, Ben Jones missing a game with a concussion, so there are a lot of things that have gone either way. Tannehill has been successful, though, through most of those games. 312 yards in his first game, 193 in the second, 331 in the third, 181 against the Chiefs. That's 1,017 yards in those four games, 250 yards per game, eight touchdowns, and three interceptions. And obviously, we have seen some of those interceptions from Ryan Tannehill because he's willing to throw the ball into some of these tight windows.

These are some throws that need to be made for an NFL offense to be successful. Now, not everyone is going to be open in the NFL. Your wide receivers aren't always going to be wide open. There's not always going to be a clear, defined read for you. It's not always going to be the first option that you see. Tannehill is working through his progressions. He's getting the ball out of his hands, and he's taking risks out there that you have to take in the NFL to score points and to win games.

The NFL has evolved, as we've seen seen and offenses are much more explosive and productive now. We just went against maybe the perfect example of that on Sunday with the Kansas City Chiefs. So if you want to compete in that kind of world and that kind of NFL landscape, then the Titans offense has to evolve from what it's been for the last 20 years. And while we're not seeing a complete evolution, because unfortunately Arthur Smith is still calling some of the plays even though he is showing some improvements in his philosophy and the way he's setting things up in the certain plays that he's calling in certain areas of the field we've seen that like in the red zone he's obviously done very well anytime you're 10 for 10

in the red zone over the course of a quarter of a season it's not just the players who get the credit for that obviously the coach is calling good red zone plays. It's something that Mike Rabel has mentioned they focused a ton on in the preseason back to April. Unfortunately, they're not doing as well between the 20s, so maybe that's something they can focus on a little bit more going forward. But it does beg the question, how long will Ryan Tannehill be the starter in Nashville, and how viable is it that he would be the starter in Nashville, and how viable is it that he would be the starter next year? We're going to talk a lot about that in today's episode, but one thing to consider is Tannehill is going to be cheaper than any franchise

tag for Marcus would be, or any already starting level quarterback would be in the NFL, most likely under 20 million. He's a solid NFL quarterback that is basically average, but it's a big improvement from what we've seen so far. So, it'll be important for the Titans to lock Ryan Tannehill down for next season, whether they plan on bringing in another veteran to compete or they plan on bringing in a rookie to groom. It's clear and obvious that Ryan Tannehill should be the bridge quarterback or be the starter for the team next year. Now, how long that contract is, how long that extension is going to be, will be completely reliant on how well Tannehill plays in the next six games and how well he's able to repeat

some of the performances that he's shown us so far. Will he be able to keep this offense looking the way that it has? It would be if you took just those four games right now, the Titans are 10th best in the league in scoring. So we will see if Tannehill can keep the offense on track. That's going to do it for our first segment, though. Just a little bit of an appetizer for you guys for the Ryan Tannehill conversation between me and Brandon.

When I come back, I am going to have him on, and we are going to just jump into a full-fledged conversation about Ryan Tannehill conversation between me and Brandon. When I come back, I'm going to have him on and we are going to just jump into a full-fledged conversation about Ryan Tannehill, how we have seen him perform so far, what we expect for him the rest of the season, and what we can expect from the Titans organization going forward and how they deal with Tannehill. The conversation went a lot deeper than that too, talking about the front office, the offensive philosophy, and everything like that. It's a bye week, so I figured you guys would really enjoy the conversation. I know a lot of you feel similarly to me and Brandon, so we are going to jump into that next. Fellas, let's talk about the bedroom.

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I want to explain a little bit. So like I said, if any of you guys are on the large Titans communities on Facebook, Tennessee Titans for live, Tennessee Titans uncensored, you know this guy. And he has been a staunch supporter of Ryan Tannehill since quite frankly the offseason saying that he is the quarterback that should lead this team and and would produce the better results for this football team and at this moment in time as we talked about in our first segment with the improvements in the offense and the three-in-one record since Ryan Tannehill has been starting. It is hard to argue.

So I wanted to bring on Brandon Reed, who is, you know, a lot of you guys probably know, seen his videos, maybe seen some of his work. He has, like I said, been a staunch supporter of Ryan Tannehill since I feel like the trade happened for Tannehill. And, you know, clearly you got to give somebody their due. He was right on. It seems to be correct.

So I just wanted to bring him on and have a conversation about Tannehill, past, present, and future. How are you doing tonight, Brandon? Good, Tyler. Appreciate you having me on. I'm a big supporter of your podcast. You do good work. I love your film study.

So it's good to catch up with hardcore Tennessee Titans fans and fans that actually are able to break down, analyze, but yet be realistic at the same time. Yeah, absolutely. And that's one thing that I do appreciate about your analysis here, Brandon, and a lot of people don't realize this, but you love the Tennessee Titans and care deeply about how the football team does. And that's where all of our passion comes from. I know that you do do some work in media and in journalism. You want to let people know where they can find your work? Yeah, I appreciate it.

So just a quick story about myself is I'm from Memphis originally. I've been a Titans fan since really the late Oiler days, but specifically since they moved and came through Memphis. And the fan base out of Memphis kind of went two ways when that happened. A lot of the Memphis fan base kind of split and started hating the Titans because they moved out of Memphis. I was on the other side, which was realistic, and said, well, this team is much better fitted for Nashville.

Memphis is more of a basketball town. We don't really need a professional football team. But anyway, born and raised in Memphis. I moved to Jonesboro, Arkansas, which is about 45 minutes away from Memphis. So still close to everything Memphis sports related and Tennessee Titans related, of course. I went to University of Memphis, graduated from Arkansas State with a degree in radio, TV, and with an emphasis in broadcast journalism. So I was lucky enough to get a job for a cable company in the Jonesboro area when they were launching their community channel. So that's professionally what I professionally do

officially to make money and also freelance and do other media things with other media outlets here in the area. And also sports wise, I cover sports for myfantasysportstalk.com and help launch my fantasy podcast. So that's kind of a background of my sports and media, a quick summary of anyway what I actually do in the sports world. But love it, love my job, love working and doing podcasts like this as much as I can and radio shows and whatnot. And you can, I guess, find my podcast, our podcast and work at myfantasysportstalk.com. And some of the fans that have seen me in the Titans groups, and I'm a part of Tennessee Titans Uncensored and Tennessee Titans for Life.

If I share any articles from myfantasysportstalk.com, that's why I'm one of the editors and producers for that site. Yeah, well, most people who do love the Titans and love football in general, obviously, are immersed in fantasy. So, yeah, I encourage everybody to check out the podcast, your work, everything like that. But we will use that as a segue into our conversation about Ryan Tannehill. I mean, 3-1, the offense looks healthy. The Titans are scoring points.

They're winning ball games. I guess my first question for you is just to go back to the beginning. What was it about Ryan Tannehill as compared to Marcus that you felt like early on you knew that Tannehill would be the stronger option? Well, and I'll be honest with you, Tyler, it wasn't so much of a love of Ryan Tannehill. I never was really a big Tannehill fan when he was in Miami. I thought he was an average quarterback, a legit starter. He belonged in the league for sure.

You don't start for a team for seven years and not be a legit player in the NFL. So it was more of a distrust of Marcus Mariota. I was pretty much done with Mariota at some point during that third season where we actually made the playoffs, but I was seeing things that weren't quite right about Marcus Mariota. And even that year that we made the playoffs, his numbers were not great by any means. 13 TDs and 15 interceptions. So it was more about what I'm seeing from a production standpoint. Our offense had been dead last in the league, like 27th, 28th, or worse in passing pretty much since Mariota landed in Nashville. So it was more

about that. And I thought Ryan Tannehill was just a more legit pocket passer of a quarterback. He would be better at moving the chains. I didn't know to what degree, and it really kind of took a change for, I think, a lot of even Titans fans to realize just how bad Marcus Mariota had been from a production standpoint. I think our defense has been great, definitely picking it up. We've had a stellar running back pretty much the whole time Marcus Mariota has been here. So why aren't we better offensively? Well, I just think it was the quarterback position holding us back. So I was ready for a change. I was ready for a change actually going into the season. And we actually see a lot of articles and stories coming out now that maybe a lot of the Titans organization was ready for that change before the season even

started. And someone was holding it back. Now who that is, I don't know if it was Amy Adams Strunk or what, but so that was my whole thing. Now, who that is, I don't know if it was Amy Adams Strunk or what. So that was my whole thing. It wasn't a dislike of Marcus Mariota personally. Everyone wants to exceed, but I just saw something around year three like this cat doesn't quite have it. I don't know what it is. It's some mechanical. It's some between the ears.

It's not quite working out for Marcus Mario in the NFL. And one of my famous or infamous comparisons in the Tennessee Titans groups on Facebook is to Mark Sanchez. And I know people don't want to hear that, but that's what I saw. I saw a guy who was managing the quarterback position okay with a great defense and running game, just like Mark Sanchez was having experiences first few years in the league, but you saw what eventually happened. And that's kind of the comparison I had. Also, Tim Tebow. Tim Tebow is a Heisman winning quarterback, too. Great college quarterback, but it just didn't quite translate in the NFL.

And I saw that from Marcus all along. So it was more just about I wanted to see what the team would look like. And for no one else's sake, our wide receivers, because they had been taking such a bad rap, every receiver that walked through the door the last four years. And that's just not fair. We needed an actual pocket passing quarterback, a quarterback that could get some other things done on the field.

And so that's why I was just kind of lobbying for Tannehill to start ASAP. It could have happened over the summer and you know and we probably would have been better off at this point yeah I think that's definitely a conversation worth having as well but what I what I really wanted to ask you next is obviously like you said it's not like you were a big Tannehill supporter just looking for a change here what have you seen from Tannehill so far that maybe makes you feel validated and having that belief and what do you think about him specifically has been so different just looking for a change here. What have you seen from Tannehill so far that maybe makes you feel validated in having that belief? And what do you think about him specifically has been so different

that's caused this uptick in production? It's almost everything, Tyler. It really is, even from the way his snap count goes. I noticed the first game he started that his snap count was a little bit harder and a little bit more direct. And I think he may have drawn one offside penalty that first game he started. If not, it was really close. But I just felt like he has a better chance of drawing offside.

He just seemed to take command of the huddle and take command of the line better than Marcus Mariota did, assert himself a little bit more. But it's the footwork. It's the managing of the pocket. It's just the ability to see the field a little bit better. Not to mention, everyone surely can see the difference in the accuracy of the throws, how he hangs in the pocket and fires a much better catchable ball than Marcus Mariota. And as we saw Sunday against the Chiefs, he has a run game as well.

He definitely can escape. He has the speed. His Mariota speed is actually about the same. Their 40 speeds are pretty much the same. Nothing worth arguing there. We saw that he could lower his shoulder and run some guys over. He has to, but it's just the heart. It's just the spark that this team needed. I'm not going to say he's the savior. That's a big misconception in our world. No one is saying he is our savior, but just look at how much better

our offense is. I threw out something the other day about our average. We're averaging over 26 points per game during Tannehill's four starts. That would be good right now for about 10th in the league in scoring. So could you imagine what we would have been the last couple of years with a top 10 offense? Well, that's a pretty good segue into kind of my next question for you. Something, and obviously we can both kind of talk about what we think here, but one question that I posed on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans is, realistically, where would this team be right now, record-wise, if Ryan Tannehill had started the season as the starter, as you alluded to in your comments?

That's a rumor and some noise we're starting to hear right now is that maybe the coaching staff wanted to go with Tannehill all along because they saw the differences that we're talking about tonight. But what do you think? So if we look at, you know, obviously week one, the Titans got a win. You got to think they would have been able to win that game no matter what. The Colts, 19 to 17. Could the Titans have scored more points? The Jags, 20 to 7. Could the Titans have scored more points? Atlanta's a terrible team. The Bills, 14 to 7. I mean, the list goes on. Denver, you know, 16 to nothing.

You got to think that Tannehill would have led this team to possibly a couple more victories. What do you think the difference could have been in the season up to this point if he had started the whole year as kind of you wanted to see? Honestly, I think we're 8-2 right now. We beat the Colts because we had opportunities in that Colts game, and that was just a huge letdown. Marcus Mariota in the offense

had two drives under four minutes in that Colts game to try to even get in field goal range. Now, whether we hit the field goal or not, that's regardless, but we have not scored less than 20 points since Ryan Tannehill has been inserted in as the starter, so I'm fully confident we would have got something done. We would have got three more points somehow in that Colts game if Tannehill would have started. I'm going to give us a loss to the Jaguars because that was just a wet, nasty night. Okay, we lose that one. We're not ready. On the road on a Thursday night, that's a difficult game. Right. It's not good conditions for any team. And then I'm going to say that we beat most likely the Bills and the Broncos.

The Broncos had a worse offense than we did, believe it or not. They shut us out 16-0. I don't care where that game was played. Their offense was not that good. And I think we had opportunities versus the Bills, too. I know their defense is good, but 14-7, that's just not acceptable. And I think we probably would have lost the panthers so i really do think we beat the colts we beat the bills we beat the broncos and we're eight and two

right now had tanny hill started you know the whole way out right and and i could probably agree with that one one thing i think that is important here is i guess the bills my real point is i i know that their record i believe they're still 6-3 at this moment in time, but I think they're starting to show some cracks that the Bills maybe aren't as good of a team as their record indicated early on in the season. So although some could argue that because they are 6-3 and look like a decent football team, I actually do agree with your assessment there about that game.

That was just one where I could see some people being hit or miss on that. But I generally agree. I think seven and three or eight and two is a realistic possibility if Tannehill is the start of the entire season. So we're going to talk about... The big difference is... I'm sorry. The big difference, I think, is just that we're so one-dimensional with Marcus Mariota. And that's just the bottom line, that teams are daring us to pass. They're not worried about our down, deep threat. We consider every receiver to come through here a bust, as until recently. So teams were just not expecting our pass game. And we were really one-dimensional with Marcus Mariota,

and that's changing, as you see, every single week with a different style of quarterback. Yeah, that's a great point, Brandon. I think we saw that play out, just a microcosm of that entire thought. We saw that play out on Sunday against Kansas City because they were loading the box with eight or nine in the first half. And then when the second half came around because Tannehill was hitting some plays, they had to back up a little bit.

And just that, you know, one person out of the box, seven, just going against seven was enough to spring Derrick Henry quite a few times. So that's definitely something that we see play out on the box seven just going against seven was enough to spring Derek Henry quite a few times so that's definitely something that that we see play out on the field and I'm very excited to see the Titans offense be this healthy and be this productive so what we're going to talk about in our next segment is kind of what we expect to see going forward I want to ask Brandon a few questions about the future with Ryan Tannehill for the rest of the season, possibly going forward. And then I also do want to have a little bit of a conversation of who might have been the person that was championing Marcus Mariota being the starter from the beginning of the season, if that report is true. I'd like to kind of dive into that.

So we'll get into that in our next segment. Before we do, I do want to remind you guys that Away creates thoughtful products designed to change how you see the world. For $20 off a suitcase, visit awaytravel.com and use the promo code LOCKEDON during checkout. Okay, we are back with Brandon Reed here to continue our conversation about Ryan Tannehill on this Tana Thrill Wednesday. Brandon, I just want to jump into this real quick like we teased before the break. The biggest question to me right now with the rumors coming out is who do you think was the person most responsible

for keeping Marcus Mariota as the starter this season when we hear reports that the coaching staff wanted Tannehill from the beginning? So who within the front office, whether it be John Robinson or Amy Adams-Strunk, I guess if you're doing a pie chart of responsibility, who do you think just might have been the person that wanted to keep him there for one more shot? And why do you think that person might've been inclined to believe that?

Well, if I believe that, and which I really do, because I knew, you know, I may be wrong. I do as well. I want to be on the record. I think that's true. I really do believe it. If it's proven wrong, then so be it. But I do believe it to be true as well.

It makes the most sense. And, you know, while I may have been lobbying for Ryan Tannehill back in, you know, May, June, July, you know, over the summer, I knew that wasn't going to happen. I knew Marcus was going to win the job as the incumbent. But you heard and saw my comments throughout the summer that I'm like, even during the preseason games, watch how much better Tannehill actually is in the game. I don't care if it's preseason. I don't care if it's second or third stringers. Watch what he's doing with his feet and with his arm. He's just the better option. And it was kind of brushed to the side. It was kind of ignored. And I don't think we were ever truly evaluating the quarterback position. It was just assumed that Marcus was going to win the job as the incumbent. If I had to give the pie chart a responsibility, I have to believe Amy Adams-Strunk was leading that charge for the most part. Because, you know, I have nothing against good guys, but you got to play football too. Marcus is a good guy.

He's a nice, likable guy. But if it's just not there, if it's just not clicking, you have to move on. And that's what frustrates me about this organization. I think they were slow to move on from Russian Webster, former GM. He was horrible. He was not doing anything for the organization talent-wise. And Ken Wisenhunt took a bad rap, in my opinion. Wisenhunt should have never been gone,

or at least should have had the opportunity to play through with some talent. It should have been Russian Webster fired first. You bring in John Robinson, and I think Ken Wisenhut can do a pretty good job. But that's in hindsight. So I have to believe that Amy Adam Strunk is leading that charge. And you've also probably heard or seen comments from me that I don't think we have anyone in the organization that knows anything about offense. I love John Robinson, but offense is not his forte by any stretch of the imagination, and neither is Mike Vrabel's. So whose hands are

we in really on the offensive side of the ball? Yeah, that makes sense. If you look at John Robinson's track record in the draft he's definitely been way more successful with his defensive draft picks clearly mike rabel is a defensive coach and anybody in the organization in a front office standpoint has only been here around teams that are built in the way that this offense is built run the ball hard physical you know the 1990s style the early 2000 style Titans that offensive philosophy has never changed so it would make sense that anybody still in the front office wouldn't view football any differently than that so that that does make a lot of sense I agree with you that

it's Amy Adams Strunk who I believe is is most responsible and I think it does hit on your point of she likes Marcus because he's such a good guy you know but one thing that I noticed and maybe this was the beginning of a philosophical change or maybe it was the beginning of John Robinson working on Amy Adams a little bit to get some of these changes going he mentioned a few times before the last draft that this team needed a few more dogs. And that's where we see A.J. Brown, Jeffrey Simmons, some of the players that he's been going after, and at least lately in the past year, year and a half or so, has kind of signaled that he, while we need good guys, I don't think that early John Robinson has taken Jeffrey Simmons by any stretch of the imagination. And I don't think that Amy Adams Strunk taken Jeffrey Simmons by any stretch of the imagination. And I

don't think that Amy Adams Strunk early in her tenure as the controlling owner would have gone for that either. I think now that we've had so many good guys and we have a good locker room, it's kind of an acknowledgement that while good guys are great, we need good players first to, you know, financially benefit the team. We see the crowds when we have good road teams. We see the stadium sometimes and the Titans fans' activity there. So I think it probably came to a point where they're like, hey, we got a team full of good guys, but we need some better players to financially and just brand-wise

grow this team to where Amy wants to see it go. So I do agree that it was probably Amy, and I agree with the reasoning there as well. I'm just happy that football and football reasons ruled out quick enough to really keep the season competitive. But I do want to get back to the season at hand. My question for you here is, and kind of just looking forward, what do you think Ryan Tannehill is going to be able to do the rest of the

season? And do you think that he'll be able to lead this team to the playoffs? I also want to kind of back up when you mentioned the financials just now. That was also my biggest point going forward is why I wanted Marcus Mariota benched. I wanted this resolved because we cannot have this lingering going into a sixth year about how much money we're going to pay this dude. I don't think people realized if we were still in limbo about Marcus Mariota going into this year and franchise tagged him, he's getting paid $27 million to be a below average quarterback. That's irresponsible with your money and we cannot do that. So that's

mostly why I'm driving this Mariota out of town train right now is for the financial reasons that you mentioned before. We have to free up that space. Now, Tannehill will probably demand a little bit more money now since he's a proven starter and a commodity for us. So you still have that, but it's not going to be near anywhere. I think the $20-plus million range. I agree. I think he's grateful for a second chance. But I do, for the future of

this, I'm not sure about playoffs. Man, the division's just kind of, I think everyone in the division has replaced their quarterback except Houston at this point. And Indianapolis twice. So I think you're going to see them slipping. I think the Tennessee Titans are coming up because the bottom line is we just have a more efficient offense with Ryan Tannehill. Going into the future, I would like Tannehill to be the starter next year while we draft a guy. I'm not even opposed to drafting two quarterbacks. I don't care. We know we have to address it.

I don't care whether it's first and fourth round or second and sixth round. We need to try to get some quarterbacks to develop in the organization while Tannehill is our starter for a good salary, a good manageable salary, not in the franchise tag range or 20-plus range. So I think that should be the plan going forward to Tannehill. Playoffs, man, I don't know. I still have that concern in the back of my head that I'll be honest and upfront that I don't think Mike Vrabel was the right hire for this job in the back of my head that I'll be honest and upfront that I don't think Mike Rabel was the right hire for this job in the first place. And needless to say, Arthur Smith was not going to

get the job done. He's in way over his head. There's a reason. I agree with that. Even though we performed well against the Chiefs, I'm not willing to say that he was a good hire just because of that. If you compare that to the last game, the Carolina Panthers game plan stunk. Absolutely was horrible. So he kind of made up for that. But I don't trust him. Tampa Bay was terrible, too. We came out against the best rushing defense in the league

and the worst passing defense in the league and tried to run the ball down their throat and not throw the ball and then did the opposite against Carolina when their defense was the opposite. So you're 100% right. We just are backwards with the game plan. And Mike Vrabel mentioned in one of his press conferences, he even said the plan every week is to come out, establish the run and get to play action. Well, if you have the same exact plan every week, and that's all you're doing, then the plan is not good enough. So that right there,

that comment he made along with the game plans I saw in those back-to-back games, Tampa Bay and Carolina, I am fully on board no matter what happens the rest of the season with saying Arthur Smith is not the guy for the job. Well, and then Vrabel, too. You probably pay as much attention to this as me. He picked him. Every time we're on offense and something happens, like a Taylor LeJuan holding penalty or something like that,

Mike Vrabel has this clueless look on his face, but it's deeper than that. It's the look to me like, well, I don't know what to do. I don't have any idea what's going on. That's what his press conferences make you feel like as well. When he tries to answer questions about penalties or about the offense, not being able to move, he does seem a tad bit like he doesn't have the answers. And it's almost like he wants the media attending to like, be like, yeah, I guess there's nothing he can do about it. Like that's kind of his attitude. And I think that is because he's a former player. Coaches are the people who look at every single detail and find something that can be better. Players are just like, hey man, you play

the game. Sometimes the other guy wins. So I think that mentality is still in his head of, hey, there are some things you can't control. Why a coach's coach thinks you can control everything or at least tries. I think that's part of the problem with Vrabel. I think the only chance he has is if we get lucky or make a miraculous hire such as a Josh McDaniels type, and we have almost like a co-head coach. You know, almost like you need to give over total control of the offense and not have any single input at all.

I'm talking about not fourth down calls. I'm talking about not even when to go for it and kick the field goals. I know that's kind of unprecedented for your head coach, but he needs to have no touch or no fingerprint on the offense at all. We need a strong offensive mind to help guide us. And I think we'd be okay. I think we'd be a lot better this year. Just so many what-ifs, but that's the thing.

I'm tired of a franchise that is slow to react to everything. Honestly, Marcus Mariota shouldn't have got a fifth year. Mike Vrabel shouldn't have got the hire in the first place. And Arthur Smith was just kind of a, well, who wants to be OC for us this year? They didn't really even look. I don't know if it just everyone turned them down, but I have really not liked the hires that John Robbins has made under him since he's been here.

He's a great talent acquisition guy. But as far as coaching and hires, I'm really starting to question it. And we've got work to do. So if we do make the playoffs this year, I just don't see us as a threat unless we come a long way offensively. And I just don't see that happening in the last six games or games or so yeah you worry about arthur smith being the ultimate limitation there and that all makes sense john robinson was a scout uh in in his blood he is a player evaluator which means that one of the lapses that he could have as a general manager

who's tasked with more than just player evaluation and scouting is the hiring of coaches and offensive staff and things like that. It makes sense. It's kind of like buddy-buddy club, right? Yeah, it does feel like that a tad bit, the Patriot buddy club. It does feel like that. Well, one thing I can say is John Robinson, while maybe he does have his lapses with hiring and things like that, we do have to appreciate anything after Rustin Webster at this point.

No, I wouldn't trade him for the world. He is the key, and that's what frustrated me so much over the summer and up until this day really is when people tag Marcus Mariota as our success. Well, we had three straight 9-7 seasons and made the playoffs. Well, no, that really had little to do with Marcus Mariota, honestly. It was 80% John Robinson. Strength of the roster. The roster is John Robinson. He put talent in first. Strength of the roster. The roster is so good.

He flipped the roster instantly. I mean, we went from a three-win team to a playoff team in literally about a one-season span under John Robinson. So I wouldn't trade him for the world. We have to work. We have to find that next offensive mind in the organization that takes over. And I'm not even joking about this. Ryan Tannehill may be the best offensive mind on the whole team,

and that's not a knock and that's not being exaggeratory or anything like that. He may be the best offensive mind we have on the team. And I don't know that that's a really good thing. We're in better hands now, I will say, but that's not really a uh, that's not really the, a real contending team, you know, makeup,

you know, we still have to be better. Yeah, that definitely, I mean, I agree a hundred percent. Hopefully Arthur Smith is a little bit better than he appears and he's just taken some early,

early lumps, but I actually, you know, I'm pretty much in lockstep with you on that. Well, Brandon, I really appreciate you coming on. This was an excellent conversation.

Really excited that we were able to see a change that you were looking for, and it has benefited the team. Hopefully it does propel them into playoff possibilities. And who knows? After the Titans get hot, who's to say they couldn't win? I certainly, certainly didn't expect them to beat Kansas City in the playoffs a few years ago. So I definitely understand your skepticism, but who knows?

The Titans may get hot and may be able to pull something off for us. Yeah, it's just always kind of looking to the future for me. At some point, I guess, during this year, it didn't look good, and I kind of moved on already. I think we have a shot to make the playoffs, but I'm not sure how far we'll go. I'm just looking ahead to next year already. We'll we have a shot to make the playoffs, but I'm not sure how far we'll go. I'm just looking, you know, looking ahead to next year already. We'll probably have to change some offensive strategy within the

organization. It may be a change at OC, you know, and we'll still have to work through this, but I'm just, man, I appreciate the opportunity to come on the locked on Titans podcast with you,

Tyler, and discuss it. And we'll have to do it again because it seems like things change almost on a weekly basis, and the Titans fans, you know, go back and forth. So it's been a lot of fun, and I'm sure more to come because every bad game Tannehill has, you're going to have some cry from the other side as well. But I just feel like we're in a lot better hands now.

The difference in quarterback is obvious on the field with Ryan Tannehill. Let's just move forward with that. That's what I've been saying. I think our QB issues are solved for now. Let's just move ahead and solve some other holes like what I think the offensive coordinator and we can trade Taylor LeJuan at any point now too. I know that's probably a different topic for a different podcast. Well, I actually did that yesterday in yesterday's podcast,

and the Titans do have an out after his contract after next season. So maybe you're able to get rid of him to some sort of playoff contender looking for offensive line help, similar to like a Laramie Tunsil deal. I know you'll probably not get the same return because of Tunsil's age and contract, but for people who are hoping for that. It's definitely a possibility after next season or in the middle of next season, but yeah, hopefully. Slow about things, you know, that we typically tend to be,

let's trade guys while they actually have value. Like I hated it. I mean, I liked Delaney Walker. He's probably been one of our best guys as an organization over the past five, six years, but he had value. We probably needed to trade him right now because he's not really going to make a huge difference for us on the field for the next two years.

Let's trade him and get something for him and give him the opportunity to go play for a contender like possibly New England or somebody else. Yeah, that makes sense. And I guess it all depends on what is being offered. So it's hard for us to know, but I do agree with the general thought that if something of value, a fourth, fifth round pick, would have been available for Delaney,

I do think that that would have been a smart move. The reality is I don't think that he was healthy enough for any team to take a risk on him. We've kind of seen that with the missed games here. So I do agree with your general take that the team needs to be quicker to make decisions for the betterment of the football team, and hopefully that is something we see forward. But like you said, hopefully I can have you back on

when the Titans are in the playoffs, and we can talk about what kind of changes and what kind of improvements we've seen that allowed that to happen, since it's something you're not 100% sure will happen, which I understand as well. But like I said, thanks for coming on, Brandon. It's been a good conversation. Yeah, I appreciate it. Hey, we're 5-5 right now.

So six games left, no telling what can happen. It's an exciting season. It's just more exciting right now. Tennessee Titans football is more exciting right now with, you know, I hate to harp on it, but we have a much better QB right now. After the defensive touchdown, after the long Derrick Henry run last week, we were still down by nine points in the fourth quarter and had to have some plays made by the QB, and Ryan Tannehill made them.

And it was exciting to watch. It's more fun to watch now. We played a game in the 30s and beat a really good offensive team in the Kansas City Chiefs. So it's going to be an exciting ride for these last six games and a lot of division games coming up. So let's just take care of business and tighten up. Yeah, 100%. That's a great way to end it.

Before we end our show today, I do want to remind you guys that at badnashapparel.com, you can get your own Tana Thrill t-shirt. Use promo code TICTAC20 to get 20% off your Tana Thrill t-shirt. So I hope you guys enjoy those shirts and check those out. Again, we want to thank Brandon for coming on. I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.