Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Cam Ward A NEW HOPE, Offensive Line Improvement & Pass Rush Pessimism

Episode Date: July 3, 2025

The Tennessee Titans have a lot of reasons for optimism going into 2025, but tops on the list is Cam Ward. Ward can immediately change this franchise overnight if he hits. The offensive line improvement should also give fans hope as the additions in recent years could result in a great unit. However, there are reasons for concern as well. The pass rush group will have a limited ceiling and need a miracle to be great while the rookie weapons on offense could disappoint. Subscribe to the TicTacTitans Film Channel:https://www.youtube.com/@TicTacTitans TicTacTitans Merchandise: https://dixons-dream.square.site/shop/tictactitans-gear/C3AAPNWXSXA6SBYG3USV2I7R?page=1&limit=30&sort_by=category_order&sort_order=asc Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitans Follow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPod Subscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/LockedOnTitans/videos Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get $150 in BONUS BETS when your first $5 BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnfl for 50% off your first year.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

There are a lot of reasons that Tennessee Titans fans should be hopeful in 2025, but none of them are bigger than Cam Ward. I'll break it down on today's edition of Locked on Titan. You are Locked on Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to the Locked On Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rollins, Titans fans. Today's edition of the Locked On Titans podcast is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, use the code LOCKEDONNFL for $20

off your first purchase. On today's show, we are going to do my top three biggest reasons for optimism for the Tennessee Titans, my top three biggest reasons for pessimism for the Tennessee Titans in 2025. Also, do want to thank you guys for making the Locked On Titans podcast your first listen each and every day.

Remember, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content You guys, for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen each and every day. Remember, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content all year round, always for free. Make sure that you get subscribed, stay subscribed. It's your team every day. Speaking of every day, shout out to my every dayers out there tuning in Monday through Friday. Couldn't do it without you guys. If you aren't an every dayer, you need to be one. I have year round free Tennessee Titans content.

You're not going to beat that anywhere else. Plus training camp is less than 20 days from now. So football's right around the corner. Make sure they're most informed, most entertained Tennessee Titans fan you can be this season. But with all that being said, do want to say happy holidays folks, happy 4th of July independence Day to all those that celebrate obviously an

American holiday for my international listeners. But if you are celebrating today, be safe and have fun. I got my, you know, flag swag on here doing the show ready to go. But with that being said, again, we're going to do the top three reasons for optimism for the Tennessee Titans in 2025. But with that being said, again, we're gonna do the top three reasons for optimism for the Tennessee Titans in 2025. And I don't need to bury the lead here. Cam Ward is number one on the list.

Cam Ward has restored hope to this franchise in a massive way, but it goes, you know, further than just, oh, you know, for the future. Right now, this year, 2025, if Cam Ward is ready to go and Cam Ward is anything like what we saw from Cam Ward in college, then the Titans are gonna have a chance to be competitive right away.

The biggest reason for optimism in 2025 for the Titans by far is Cam Ward at quarterback. We've talked about it throughout the off season. The low quarterback play that the Titans got, the poor quarterback play that the Tennessee Titans got last year. Honestly, it tanked the beginning of the season. And by the time that it was even okay quarterback play, the season was off the rails. So the quarterback play sabotaged the season early on. And you have to think with Ken Ward being the number one overall pick that that's not going to be the case this year. The quarterback

play isn't going to be what sabotages this team and I've said it before the biggest what if the biggest what if of last season? What if Will Levis doesn't blow up those first two weeks? What if the Titans start out two and up, even if they get bombed by Malik Willis in week three, I was there, what, 40 to 17 or whatever it ended up being, even if they get bombed by a much better Green Bay Packers roster,

and coaching staff for that matter. Even if that happens, they go to Miami, they win, they're three and one, they go to the bye. Imagine if the Titans were three and one going into the bye instead of one and three. The season is infinitely different. So a better version of Will Levis would have had this team at three and one. And Cam Ward needs to be better than a better version of Will Levis, right? So just natural math right there. Major reason for optimism, but past that.

I just want to remind people this defense still does have talent. I think this is, again, I said it earlier this week, I don't think this defense was top two top five like everybody was acting, but I think they have the potential to be that if things break right. When I talked about the X factors, Ligeria, Steve, Femiola, Dezio have good years. This defense could be a top 10 top five defense. And the reason for that is they still do have town. Jeffrey Simmons is still an incredible player. Tevandre Sweat was really good last year. Cody Barton is a really good player.

Amani Hooker is a really good player. Arden Key isn't a great edge rusher, but he's a solid NFL rotational player who would play even on... Arden Key would be a solid rotational piece even on the best teams in the NFL. If he was on the Eagles right now, or the 49ers went 6-11 last year, but just top of mind, the Chiefs, you know what I mean, the Bills, the Ravens,

Arden Key would play a lot for those teams. Xavier Woods is a solid starter. JBJ, Roger McCreary are solid for their roles. Like this team has good defensive talent. It doesn't have great defensive talent everywhere that you need it. And there are certain spaces that could be really, really bad, which we'll get to that. But don't ever forget this defense has talent.

It does like the Titans defense is not as bad off talent wise as the offense is. So I just want to remind people here, you know, like the Titans do have some good defensive talent out there. And again, if Femi were to hit and Ligerious Sneed were to come back and actually be himself, this could be a really good defense. And even if even if the offense is, because the offensive line is new together, and maybe there are some pieces like center and left tackle that just don't hit right, even if, you know, the offensive weapons, which we're going to talk about all of that, even if everything isn't perfect on offense, and things don't go absolute peak potential, like we think,

or hope, I I guess should say. The defense is still good enough for this team to be a competitive football team and win six or seven games. Like the defense can be the best part about this team and if the offense is just a little bit better that could be a very competitive football team. And I think six or seven wins for the Titans this year would be a home run season for the Titans to bounce back that way. So if you want to have optimism for 2025, the defense is going to be a big part of that optimism. Cam Ward and then the talent that they already have on defense would be the two biggest points. But I also got to bring in the third part here. The offensive line. In theory, in theory, I have my doubts.

Okay, we got to be able to separate what I am predicting is going to be the case and what could potentially be the case. This offensive line could be a lot better, a lot better, a lot better, a lot better. This could be a top 10 offensive line. There's potential to do it. Kush, I even think if Lloyd Cushenberry

isn't ready right away, Corey Levin is just another guy role playing center. If Dan Moore is as good as the Titans paid him to be, which is really where my doubts come in, but if Dan Moore is as good as the Titans paid him to be, which is really where my doubts come in, but if Dan Morris is good, as he's being paid to be, J.C. Latham takes the step, Skorolski takes the step, Kevin Zeitler can just continue to be Kevin Zeitler. We don't need anything amazing. Just be yourself. Be yourself. that collection of people could be really solid and then if Cushionberry does come back and is to the level that you know we were expecting that's a top 10 O line and if the Titans have a top 10 O line on offense with Cam Ward back there and giving him time like the Miami offense. I mean, he's not going to have that much time. But again, it came more feels comfortable to utilize that playmaking skill and feel like he has time and just a little bit of confidence and

comfortability with the offensive line. He's going to feel comfortable to make those dynamic plays that could totally change this team and change our Sunday viewing experience as well. So if you want reasons for optimism it's Cam Ward, it's the defense, and it's what this offensive line can be. Those are clearly the biggest ones. Now we gotta be fair.

If you're looking for pessimism, you can find that as well. Today's episode is brought to you by Game Time. Look we've all been there. You're logging on early. You're waiting forever for concert tickets to go on sale.

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Titans fans, let's cap off today's holiday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. We talked about reasons for optimism for the Tennessee Titans, Cam Ward, the defense, the offensive line. Now we need to talk about reasons for pessimism for the Tennessee Titans in 2025. Reasons that things could go very, very poorly. Before we dive in, do want to thank you again for making Locked on Titan your first listen each and every day. For your second listen, check out Locked on NFL Scouting. As training camp gets closer, moves are being made. Host Kyle Krabs and Joe Marino will make you the most informed NFL fan this offseason.

Find Locked on NFL Scouting on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. So I am going to do a little bit of a shortened show. Today it's a holiday episode. Also, obviously, as you guys know, I've been dealing with this sickness all week long and feeling a lot better, but it certainly is still there and letting me know it. But with that being said,

let's talk about these reasons for pessimism. So number one on my list is Brian Callahan. Like right now, we just have no idea that Brian Callahan is the answer. I just, I don't, I don't know how anybody could have firm optimism about Brian Callahan.

I think that Brian Callahan is going to be a great play designer and a great play caller in the NFL, but I don't know if that means he's going to be a great head coach. And if the leadership aspects, if the game management aspects, if the staff management aspects don't get better, if they don't improve, then there is no play design, play calling success that can save Brian Callahan from that problem. So to me, if you're going to be pessimistic at what could go wrong for this team, I think the number one thing on that list is Brian Callahan is not good enough to be a head coach

in the NFL. That like, that's the number one thing that could go wrong. Will it? I hope not. I want Brian, as I said, Brian Callahan seems like a very nice guy. It seems like an intelligent guy. It's not like the Titans are gonna, you know,

have some dumb coach who doesn't see what's going on in the league and can't like, I don't believe any of that. But just because you can design good plays, get guys open, call good place does not mean that you could be a, a great head coach in the NFL. It takes more than that. And does Brian Callahan have the other stuff? It's funny. All the stuff that I thought Mike Grable was missing, Brian Callahan has, but all the stuff that Brian Callahan has that he may be missing is the stuff that Mike Vrabel has. So it's like, if we could combine those two people, they

would be an elite head coach. Like they would be absolutely incredible would be Sean McVeigh, right? But you can't. And it's like, what would you rather have? And right now we're kind of seeing it. We're kind of seeing it. So if you want to be pessimistic about the Titans, the number one thing on that list is maybe Brian Callahan just isn't a good NFL coach. Maybe he's a bad NFL head coach. And he needs to go be an offensive coordinator before he's ready for that opportunity that he'll get five, six years from now. You know what I mean?

When he's in his late forties and he's learned more and he's not so young and green and you know, that is a major thing. And it's not just pessimistic to think that. It's logical that that could be an outcome. Now, the second thing that you could be pessimistic about is the pass rush. We talked about the defense having talent.

Arden Key, like I said, would be a solid rotational player even on a good, like I said, would be a solid rotational player even on a good football team, but he would be a solid rotational player, not an every down starter that is your number one edge rusher. That is a miscast for Arden Key. So if Femi, Femi Oladejo doesn't even have to be like a bust. Femi could be an awesome player and live up to his draft pick and even exceed the expectations of his draft pick and it not happened this year. He's a project player. He's a project pick. So like counting on Femi, again, he's the X factor of the pass rush. If Femi is really good right away, then they'll be

okay. If Femi is really good right away, then they'll be okay. If Femi is not ready right away and you have Lorenzo Carter, Jalen Harrell rushing, or Draymond Jones rushing from the outside, which I don't think is his best use, this pass rush could be a disaster. And if it is a disaster, it's going to be hard for the defense to live up to its potential. And then now the team doesn't have what they need on either side of the ball. So that's where things could go wrong there but I don't think I'm breaking news to you

guys on that. And the final thing is, I had to sneak in an extra one here, it's just the supporting cast on offense. The O line we hope is improved and the O line like I said is a big reason for optimism. The offensive line could be awesome. But if Latham doesn't take the step, if Skoronsky is just the same as he was last year, if Corey Levin isn't good enough to replace Lloyd Cushinberry

for a little time, and then Lloyd Cushinberry comes back and isn't himself because an Achilles tear is tough, if Dan Moore isn't anywhere near worth that contract, and he looks like the backup that the Pittsburgh Steelers thought he was. Even if Kevin Zeitler is just Kevin Zeitler, and he does exactly what he did for Detroit last year, it could be hard to overcome that for the Titans. So it could go either way, but really, it's the weapons. We can be as optimistic as we want to be about these rookie pass catchers, but they're rookies.

And they're not highly drafted rookies either. It's not like the Titans drafted Marvin Harrison Jr. and Malik Nabors in the first round. Like we can't have, you know, we hope that Elec Ayo Manor turns into something and Xavier Restrepo makes the team and Chim Dike can expand his route tree to be a more versatile and effective player.

But like, we can't know that for sure. And if we can't know that for sure, And if we can't know that for sure, and then we look at Calvin Ridley, Tyler Lockett, and Van Jefferson, again, there's a reason that the Titans are not expected to be a good team this year because the roster just simply has some holes. And some of these young players and some of these points of optimism that we look at and hope that

they break right for the Titans because that would be great. Not all of them are going to. So if you're looking for the biggest reasons for pessimism and things that could go wrong, it's Brian Callahan, it's the pass rush, and then it's the rookie weapons because we just don't know because they're rookies. So that's really what you would look at and say, oh, I don't know how that're rookies. So that's really what you would you would look at and say oh no hell that's gonna go but again this is a shortened holiday edition of locked on titans i'm gonna go hit the cough drops again folks but with that being said that is gonna do it for me today This was Locked on Titans.