Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans CB1 is Sean Murphy-Bunting, Amani Hooker is Underrated & Is Caleb Farley Done?

Episode Date: July 20, 2023

The Tennessee Titans defense has always been pass-rush focused, but the secondary will have to step up big for the Titans to reclaim the AFC South. Who is the Titans number 1 cornerback? Tyler thinks it is Sean Murphy-Bunting, not Kristian Fulton. Also, Amani Hooker has dealt with some injuries, but at this point he is underrated by the Titans fan base. Finally, is Caleb Farley done? He may be, but the Titans still shouldn't cut him this summer!Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPodSubscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/LockedOnTitans/videosSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit. eBay Motors dot com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.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) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Who will be the Tennessee Titans number one cornerback this season? My money's on Sean Murphy Bunting, and I'll explain why on today's edition of the Locked On Titans podcast. Let's get it. 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 Rowland. Titans fans, we are completing our positional preview series on today's show. We are going to look at the Tennessee Titans secondary. We're talking cornerback. We're talking safety. First, I'm going to tell you who I think is the Titans' number one cornerback. And as I said before, I think it's going to be Sean Murphy Bunting. the Titans' number one cornerback.

And as I said before, I think it's going to be Sean Murphy bunting. Also, I'm going to tell you why Imani Hooker is now underrated by the Tennessee Titans fan base. And then, of course, we have to ask the question, is Caleb Farley just done? I'm going to get into all of that, but before I do, I 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 on all apps all year long and always for free. Make sure you get subscribed. Stay subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, where it's your team every

day. Next week starts training camp, so I got some great content set up for my everydayers out there listening to the show Monday through Friday. You should be an everydayer too. Speaking of that, throw a thumbs up on the video right now if you're watching on YouTube. The show is always free. All I ask for in return is the press of a button. But with all that being said, let's dive into our positional preview finisher here with the secondary. And

as I said before, I think Sean Murphy Bunting will end up being the Titans' number one cornerback. And my reasoning for that is I like his physicality and I like his ball production more than you're going to get out of Christian Fulton. And here's my big thing when I think about the Titans' cornerback position. Last year, over and over, the Titans would win the downs schematically. Like they erased all the good options for the offense, all the primary routes that they're looking for, the Titans erased them. But the other team would still win the play.

The Titans won the downs schematically, but the other team would win the play because teams had so much success winning in isolated situations on the sideline in past plays. They would just throw the ball down the sideline, and their player would make a better play than the Titans player made. Now, a lot of that had to do with injuries,

but at the same time, Christian Fulton hasn't been the most ball-productive player in his NFL career. Not only that, but Roger McCreary, as we know from his draft or his scouting report coming out of the draft, Roger McCreary is a shorter player and he has very short arms for a cornerback. So to me, that was a deficiency that the Titans had to help and they had to fix that because, I mean, go through the list. Alec Pierce, Mac Hollins, Daimi Brown, Mike Williams in Week 15 to end that game. How many times throughout the even Christian Watson and Alan Lazard against the Packers,

how many times last year did the Titans win the down and then lost the play because they got beat one-on-one on the sideline by a wide receiver? It just has to stop. And people could say that's luck. No, you need ball-productive cornerbacks, and that is what Sean Murphy Bunting is. He's had 21 pass deflections in his career already in just four years, another five in the playoffs.

So that's 26. He's had six interceptions throughout his career so far, add in three interceptions in the playoffs during that Super Bowl run for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I mean, Sean Murphy Bunting gets his hands to the ball. He makes plays

on the ball. He makes interceptions. He knocks passes away. He's had a forced fumble every year of his career. So the guy creates turnovers, and when he's in one-on-one ball situations, he finds a way to win. So to me, when you're talking about the big, physical, number one wide receiver

on another team, or maybe not even the number one wide receiver, just the bigger, physical, the option that could go down the sideline and beat you in contested catch situations. When you think about who can match up with that player, Sean Murphy Bunting is the guy. Christian Fulton, I think, can be an excellent cornerback

for the Titans this year if he stays healthy. Well, I think he can be very good, but I don't see Christian Fulton being with the Titans past this year. I most certainly could see Sean Murphy Bunting being a guy who the Titans are like, all right, you had a good season. We're bringing you back. We're letting Fulton go. We'll put Roger McCreary in as that number two

cornerback. But even that situation, what happens with McCreary and Molden at the slot? Molden's getting cross-trained at safety. So obviously I think the Titans view him as more depth than a starter. But in that rookie season, Elijah Molden was the Titans starting slot cornerback. And he played on those early downs where he could be a physical and aggressive nickel cornerback, act as a pseudo linebacker and play against the run. He could blitz off the edge, off the slot, all that stuff. Elijah Molden's excellent at, and quite frankly, he's better at that stuff

than Roger McCreary, who is much more adept in pass coverage. Now, Molden really struggles in man coverage, so he's not an option for the Titans on passing downs in the slot cornerback role. But maybe they have Molden on early downs. They bring in Roger McCreary on passing downs, which is something that they did with Buster Screen and Elijah Molden during Molden's rookie year.

They, you know, had a platoon and had a role based on the situation that the defense was in, passing down, running down, things like that. So will the Titans use that sort of rotation again and will it be Roger McCreary in the buster screen role? Or let me just say this, Roger McCreary did start every game for the Titans last year at cornerback and he had his ups and downs, but he also had some really nice ups. Maybe the Titans will use Christian Fulton as the passing down cornerback, and they'll have Roger McCreary and Sean Murphy bunting on the outsides

in base formation. When they're an early down nickel, they'll have Molden in the slot with those two guys outside, and then when they go passing, they'll bring McCreary into the slot and have Fulton and SMB on the outsides. Very curious to see how the Titans work out their cornerback rotation. But based on what they've done in the past, there's no easy answer there. Again, it'll be curious to watch how they shake that out and what roles each of the

cornerbacks gets. But that'll be something I'm watching in training camp very, very heavily. But with that being said, I want to transition and talk about some of the safeties. Talk about some safety play. And we all know that everybody knows Kevin Byard is absolutely amazing, but Amani Hooker, Amani Hooker, I think is going underrated by Titans fans. So we're going to get into that in just a moment.

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Exclusions apply. Titans fans, let's continue today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. We talked about the cornerback position, or at least the top guys at the cornerback position. Now I want to transition into a safety conversation. No, I don't mean safety like your safety as a person. I mean the Tennessee Titans starting safeties. Look, number one, we know Kevin Byard is amazing. Kevin Byard is absolutely fantastic. Just some recent news with Kevin Byard.

We saw Kevin Byard rank seventh in a recent top 10 list of safeties from ESPN. Despicable. Disgraceful. To have Jesse Bates, Javon Holland, and even maybe Buda Baker over Kevin Byard, who had four interceptions, 100 tackles last year. I mean, give me a break, man. God, I'm so sick of the Titans' tacks. I know a lot of you guys sometimes respond,

oh, the lists don't matter, and they don't matter. But nothing matters if you want to get that nihilistic. We're spending all our time and energy talking about a child's game played by millionaires, all right? Nothing matters. Nothing matters. So if you want to go that route. But I personally, as a fan of the Tennessee Titans,

and especially Kevin Byard, I want the Titans' best players to get the credit that they deserve. That makes me wrong. That makes me wrong. But at least, at least, and it's shocking to say this, at least Madden got it right. Madden has Kevin Byard tied for the third highest rating of any safety in the NFL.

He's up there with Derwin James, Minka Fitzpatrick, and Justin Simmons. And that is exactly where Kevin Byard deserves to be. Right in the group with all those guys. Telling me Javon Holland, Jesse Bates are better than Kevin Byard. Get out of here. The Bengals didn't even want to keep Jesse Bates. And I think Holland's going to be an awesome player.

I think Holland is an awesome player. He's not better than Kevin Byard and he certainly hasn't earned any seniority in that, right? You know what I mean? I mean, I know KB didn't make All-Pro last year, but he's one year removed from making first-team All-Pro again! Anyways, obviously this grinds my gears

because it's Kevin Byard, but moving right along, the entire point of the discussion is to talk about Amani Hooker here. Because Hooker only played in nine games last year, 12 games the year before that. But the season before that, he had four interceptions, played in all 16 games.

When Imani Hooker and Kevin Byard play together, they have the best safety duo in the NFL. If you look at coverage grade, Imani Hooker was top 10 in 2021. If you look at overall grade, Imani Hooker was the fifth best, fifth highest

graded safety in the NFL in 2021. Kevin Byard was first. By far, too. KB was four points ahead of second place. Kevin Byard was so far and away the best safety in the NFL in 2021. It wasn't even close. You're telling me, Javon Holland, Jesse.

Whatever. But the point is here is that the way the Titans' defense is set up, you have really, really great defensive line play. That's the entire, that's the start of it. You need great defensive line play. Constant pressure on quarterbacks. When you put constant pressure on quarterbacks, they make bad decisions.

They make bad throws. And that creates turnover opportunities. Well, when Kevin Byard and Imani Hooker are healthy, there's no better safety pairing in the NFL at creating turnovers. We know that Kevin Byard is a crazy interception maven. But Imani Hooker, again, when healthy, is a ball hawk. I always say he's a ball hawk. I can't help it with the little college puns. But the point is here, and let me mention one more thing,

one more piece of evidence. In the playoff game against the Bengals, who saved the Titans in that game? It was Imani Hooker's shoestring interception where he was diving to the ground and barely caught it. The ball might even have hit the ground a little bit, but it didn't impact control, so it was an interception. 100 times out of 100 times.

Imani Hooker is a game breaker and a playmaker for the Titans defense, especially being able to roam in the back end. When the Titans defense is at its best, they're running twist stunts up front with man coverage, with Kevin Byard as the robber over the middle, and Imani Hooker

as the deep zone guy over the top. And Byard can read the quarterback's eyes underneath. Hooker can maintain the deep end and not let anybody get past him so that he's back there and when quarterbacks throw it up, he can go make a play. I know that he's been banged up. 12 games, 9 games, I get it. But if Imani Hooker is healthy,

he's one of the better safeties in the NFL. We can't forget about that. I think that he has gone underrated now because of some of the injuries. And all I would say is, everyone was injured last year. It's crazy to me how many people defended Bud Dupree for so long. It's crazy how many people still

speak very highly about David Long. But Imani Hooker, no, the Titans need to get rid of Imani Hooker. They should have cut him this year and saved the money. All I hear is negativity around Imani Hooker. Out of sight, out of mind. I get it. But I am just here,

my goal here is to remind you that with the pass rush up front and Imani Hooker and Kevin Bayard in the back end, that is how the Titans defense is great. They need Imani Hooker to be healthy for the Titans defense to be great. So don't underrate his value to this team. Don't underrate his skill as a player. Imani Hooker is underrated.

Now, outside of Imani Hooker and Kevin Byard, you have Elijah Molden, who we just talked about as a potential early down slot. But when it comes to safety responsibilities, to me, if Molden is the third safety, that just means that he is going to be the dime defensive back. So, nickel, five defensive backs.

For, let's say it's third down, Murphy Bunting and Christian Fulton on the outside, Roger McCreary in the slot, Kevin Byard and Imani Hooker on the back end, two linebackers, four defensive linemen. That's nickel. Well, dime, you would take one linebacker off the field, and then you would put on another defensive back.

So now you have six defensive backs out on the field. So four down linemen, a linebacker, a defensive back, in a linebacker position, and then five defensive backs as normal. Now you could take, if the team spreads it out real wide, with five wide, you could take the DB, the fourth DB, and put him out as the other slot cornerback. So you got two slots on both sides,

two outside guys, two deep safeties, one linebacker, four defensive linemen. You could do that. But think about the Dane Crookshank role. One-on-one man coverage against tight ends on passing downs. In the box, on passing downs,

with a little bit of physicality to him in case there is a run play. Basically, you're a pseudo linebacker at that point in time. And Molden would already be being a pseudo linebacker at that point in time. And Molden would already be being a pseudo linebacker as the early down slot. So as the passing down dime, it'd be a similar situation. Just when he is asked to play man coverage,

it'd probably be against a running back coming out of the backfield or it would be against a tight end. And quite honestly, I think Amani Hooker is way better in coverage and in man coverage than Molden is. So they're probably trying to get Molden to be able to play a deep zone so that they can have Hooker be that guy that matches up against tight ends.

Because again, Elijah Molden's not very good in man coverage. He may be better with slower tight ends than the wide receivers, but there's a lot of really athletic tight ends out there nowadays too. So those are the top three safeties. Those are the top four cornerbacks. Very interested to talk about the depth here.

And one of those depth pieces is Caleb Farley. Is Caleb Farley done? Should we literally just give up entirely? I know some of you probably already have, but I'll explain why, despite what you think about Caleb Farley, the Titans most certainly shouldn't cut him this year. Titans fans, let's cap off today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast.

We're doing a little preview of the secondary for the Tennessee Titans. We talked about Sean Murphy Bunting being the team's number one cornerback, in my opinion. We talked about Amani Hooker and how he's been underrated, honestly, by the fan base. But now I want to get into some of the depth. We talked about the starting levels at cornerback and safety. Now I want to get into some of the depth. And I think there's more depth at cornerback than there is at safety, but I mean, it's not a great position either way, regardless. But moving into some of this depth, I just want to talk about Caleb Farley for a moment.

While I think it's my opinion at this point that Farley is a bust, I don't see how after two ACOs, two back surgeries with college and pros, that he's going to come back and get anywhere close to what the Titans hoped he would be as a first-round pick. I just don't see that happening. Hopefully for the guy, he's just able to stay healthy once he gets healthy and just play football.

I don't even mean on defense, just special teams and practice and just play football. He was a guy with a huge need for reps and experience as a guy who switched positions when he came into college, and he never got that opportunity with COVID, with the injuries. He's just never got the opportunity to get the reps that he would need to even turn into a decent player. So you ask me, do I think Caleb Farley will ever be a significant contributor for this team or a contributor in any way? No, I just simply don't think so. And it's unfortunate. The guy's been through a lot, all the injuries, losing his mom. I mean, I feel bad for Caleb Farley in ways that I don't normally feel as bad for other

players. Like I feel awful for Caleb Farley and the way things have worked out for him the last five years. But regardless of how I feel, the odds are that he's just never going to contribute to this team. But, but the Titans shouldn't cut him. Okay. If the Titans were to cut Caleb Farley they would lose an extra two and a half million dollars like it would not save them any money whatsoever it would cost them money on the salary cap

they would go negative on the salary cap if they cut Caleb Farley based on what he's getting right now now next year they don't save a bunch of money, but the dead cap is like, I believe like $4 or $5 million next year

as he's going into the last year or last two years. So, yeah, it'd be the last year, year four in 2024. So, regardless of how you feel about Caleb Farley, it does not make any financial sense for the Titans to get rid of him this year. While it may be an incredible long shot,

an incredible long shot, you bring in Chris Harris as the defensive backs coach, you add a great, great reputation in Washington. Farley gets healthy. Last year, we were talking about Caleb Farley maybe in a starter, and he got beat out by Roger McCreary. This year, none of that pressure is on Farley.

Nobody's expecting him to start. Nobody's expecting anything from Caleb Farley, quite honestly. He's a forgotten man, and he should be. I'm not saying he shouldn't, but I'm just saying this may be, if there's ever a situation where Farley can kind of get some positive momentum going, it would be with Chris Harris. It would be without the spotlight and the pressure on him this year. So I'm just saying, no matter what you think of Caleb Farley,

financially speaking, it doesn't make any sense for the Titans to cut him this year. Also, you got Trey Avery. You got an undrafted free agent like LJ Davis out of Northern Arizona who's been making waves late in OTAs. There are other cornerbacks like LJ Davis is 6'1", 200 pounds. He was making plays on the ball consistently that last week of OTAs, interceptions, pass breakups, all that stuff.

And yes, he's probably going against the third team offense and guys who aren't going to make the roster either. But hey, all you can do is play well, right? All you can do is play well and see how it all shakes out. So, Caleb Farley, can't cut him yet. Got to give it one more year. LJ Davis, Trey Avery, I think they have a good shot to compete for a roster spot.

The last name that I want to mention here is Chris Jax. Can you get this guy off the team? I mean, he literally was the worst cornerback in the NFL his rookie season. He hasn't done anything since to prove he deserves a roster spot. We know that he is an awful cornerback. He is absolutely terrible at cornerback. So he can help on special teams, but why not go with a guy like LJ Davis? Why not go with a guy like Trey Avery, who can help on special teams,

but also maybe has some potential as a cornerback? You know, like, you don't feel like it's a complete disaster and the world is over if you've got to put him in on defense. It may ultimately be the case, but at least there's some uncertainty there. At least there's the chance, some hope. We know Chris Jackson should never touch a football field ever again. But because Mike Vrabel loves him and the special team stuff for, what is it, the fourth year in a row,

this guy's going to get an opportunity in camp. It's crazy. It's just absolutely crazy. Chris Jackson, if he makes it, is the new roster pirate. We had a few roster pirates for a few years. The Titans took a one-year break, but Chris Jackson's fighting to bring the title back. Okay?

So I'll keep an eye on that. At safety, other than the starters and Bayard and Hooker, and then Elijah Molden cross-training as safety number three, it is ugly. Josh Thompson, Mike Brown, Shaheem Carter. I mean,

what, Matthew Jackson. There are some undrafted free, I mean, it's bad. So, Dane Crochet, still available.

We know that he's a good gunner on special teams. He can play that dime fourth, defensive back, or fourth, or sixth defensive back role in dime. LaMarcus Joyner is an older player, but a guy with a ton of experience. Heck, A.J. Moore. A.J. Moore got hurt last year and was barely able to play for the Titans,

but I like him better than what the Titans have right now at safety behind the top three. Ronnie Harrison, I know he's had some issues, but 26 years old, still some potential there. I'm just saying that the Titans are adding George Fant a tackle. They're adding DeAndre Hopkins, maybe a Kyle Van Nooy at linebacker, maybe one of these guys at safety.

Let's add some more veterans in here instead. Why not? So, there you go. There is the defensive backfield for the Titans. We have now completed our positional preview series, and we got it in just before training camp is set to start. The Titans rookies report on Saturday.

The Titans jerseys, the Oilers jerseys get revealed on Sunday. Training camp starts on Tuesday. And I'm going to be here with you guys next week to talk all about it. Very excited to do that. But with all that being said, that is

going to do it for me today, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titan.