Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Cody Barton OWNS Cam Ward, Defensive Rookies Shining & Titans Sign Jihad Ward

Starting point is 00:00:00 After another interception and practice, it is clear that Cody Barton owns Cam Ward. I'll tell you everything you need to know from Day 2 of Titans Training Camp on today's edition of Locked On Titans. 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 rolling 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 lockedNFL for $20 off your first purchase on today's show. I'm going to break down everything

Starting point is 00:00:50 you need to know from day two of Tennessee Titans training camp practice. We're going to talk about some roster moves that the Tennessee Titans have made adding an edge rusher and getting rid of a defensive lineman. We're going to talk about how the two defensive rookies were shining on Thursday in Femiola Dejo and Kevin Winston. But we'll start with Cody Barton, continuing to own Cam Ward in these practices. Before we get into all of it, do wanna thank you for making Locked on Titans your first listen each and every day.

Starting point is 00:01:19 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 here on the Locked On Titans podcast. 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, now is the perfect time to be one. I say Monday through Friday, but the Tennessee Titans have an open practice at Nissan Stadium on Saturday night. You know that I'm gonna be here going live after practice to break it all down with you guys.

Starting point is 00:01:50 We'll be back on Sunday to get ready for week two of Titans Training Camp. Nobody is giving you as much content for free as I am all year round. So, again, get subscribed, stay subscribed. It's your team every day. But once again, Cody Barton gets an interception on Cam Ward and seven on seven during practice. Cam Ward trying to go over the middle. Cody Barton slides in, takes it away from him. And as a matter of fact, Cody Barton should have had another interception on Cam Ward later in practice that might've been a pick six as well. And Barton was talking about the interceptions after practice,

Starting point is 00:02:26 saying that he's going to be thinking about that missed interception more than the interception that he actually made. And, you know, Cody Barton just has a good handle on what Cam Ward is trying to do right now. He had multiple interceptions off of him during the off-season program, if you remember. That's three interceptions now that Cody Barton has had over Cam Ward throughout this summer process that we've been in.

Starting point is 00:02:48 Should have been a fourth. And I think the only reaction here is, Cody Barton might be a real one. Every now and then, the Tennessee Titans hit on a free agent where they come in and they become an integral part of what the Tennessee Titans are doing. And I think that Cody Barton is that I have said consistently that I think Cody Barton's versatility and him being a more versatile skill set linebacker

Starting point is 00:03:12 than a guy like Kenneth Murray. Kenneth Murray is faster. Kenneth Murray hits harder. Kenneth Murray Murray's more ferocious going downhill, but that's not what I want from my lead linebacker. I want my lead linebacker to be more versatile, to have more of an even skill set where they can drop back in the pass

Starting point is 00:03:29 or they can come up and play the run. They can blitz if they need to. I want a linebacker that can do it all, not just a guy who's a downhill hammerhead shark. That is not what I want in my linebacker one. I'm glad that the Tennessee Titans realized the mistake right away. They said, we're gonna get Kenneth Murray out of here.

Starting point is 00:03:45 Not only that, we're going to get a draft pick back. How did they do that to the Cowboys? Wow. Well, it's the Cowboys. So I guess I shouldn't be so shocked. But then they bring in Cody Barton for basically the same exact kind of money that they were paying Kenneth Murray. And I would pay Cody Barton way more than I would pay Kenneth Murray. So the fact that we're able to get Kenneth Murray's contract

Starting point is 00:04:05 out of here, get a draft pick, even though it's a seventh rounder, and then bringing Cody Barton to take over that spot, we are already seeing the dividends of that. I think Cody Barton needs to be discussed as one of the best players on this football team. And I think he's going to be, if he stays healthy. And the fact that, you know, he's all over Cam,

Starting point is 00:04:22 I actually like that. I want a good linebacker over the middle. Cam Ward's great at throwing the ball over the middle of the field. That's where he feels most confident. So he's gotta figure out, this is not going to be open at the NFL level. I gotta move faster.

Starting point is 00:04:35 I gotta do it here, and here's what I really liked. Not only that this is confirming to me that I think Cody Barton can be the linebacker that I am hoping that he can be for the Titans. I think he will be that. But Cody Barton talked after practice with local media about how Cam Ward comes up to him after practice to ask him what he saw in the interceptions. Hey, how did you pick me off? What did you read? What did you see?

Starting point is 00:05:02 How did you pick me off? What did you read? What did you see? So Cam Ward is not just trying to watch film in the quarterback room and talk with his coaches about why this went wrong. He's going to the defensive side of the ball and saying, what are you seeing? How were you able to do that?

Starting point is 00:05:16 How do you have a bead on me? Learning it not just from the offensive perspective of this good, this bad, but going to the defensive side of the ball and be like, hey, what is your thought process as a defender when you're doing this to me? Now Cam Ward is not just trying to understand offense, but he's trying to start to understand the defense. And I think that is a great way for a young guy to start his development.

Starting point is 00:05:43 Don't just worry about what your offensive coaches would tell you to do. Think about what the defense is trying to do as well. So I think, look, you could obviously be ridiculous, jump the gun and say, oh, Cam Ward threw a couple of bad balls that should have been interceptions. He got picked off a couple of times by Barton in the offseason program. Oh, should we worry? If you're going to do that, then you can do that.

Starting point is 00:06:07 I ain't doing that. Week one of training camp where there are no pads on and we have a rookie getting his first real NFL practice time. I'm not doing it anywhere. That would be insane, in my opinion, to overreact that way. But I do love hearing, I do love hearing that Caymus is trying to understand how this is happening from the other perspective.

Starting point is 00:06:27 What are you seeing? And I think that's a great way to approach it because now you're getting built up from both sides. So, yes, it's a mistake. Yes, you'd rather have Kam Warden not throw interceptions, but at the same time, and I always say this stuff, and I don't want to get too existential, but failure is learning. In life, you must fail. Don't be afraid to fail. Be afraid of not learning from failure. That the, you're going to fail in life. Life's not going to go the way that you want. You're going to get bad news, blah, blah, blah, but you can't let that stop you.

Starting point is 00:07:02 You have to keep going. You have to learn from it to make you better So yeah, Kim's gonna throw interceptions. He's gonna throw interceptions in games. He's gonna have a game where he throws three interceptions You have to learn from that so obviously you don't want to make too many mistakes There becomes a point in the line where now you're in Levis territory But I like that Cam Ward is trying to figure things out and trying to learn not just from his coaches about what he's doing But from the other veterans on the team on the other side of the ball could still give him a ton of knowledge now listen Cam Ward had the the interception to Cody Barton the almost intersha- almost interception to Cam Barton But it wasn't all terrible hit a couple passes to Van Jefferson in practice had a nice out route to Tyler locket

Starting point is 00:07:45 He was five for eight and seven on seven four for six and team drills nine for 14 on the day according to Jim Wyatt so You know, it's good and bad but make no mistake about it The defense won this day the defense was all over it and it wasn't just cam ward that was struggling The the defense was very open about the fact that they were winning the day and yeah, a lot of that has to do with Cam Ward and him not being able to get it on track. But at the end of the training camp is for learning and you're not going to get me to freak out and overreact about Cam Ward's interceptions until we get closer

Starting point is 00:08:20 to the season and we're actually with pads on. Now he knows the offense. He's seen these plays he's seen the looks but once you start repeating the mistakes over and over that's when you start to worry but for right now mistakes are a good thing you got to crack a couple eggs to make an omelet folks but with that being said again the defense won the day that means there should be a lot of good stuff to talk about on defense and and quite honestly, couldn't be anything better to talk about on defense than two rookies having a great, great day.

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Starting point is 00:09:58 Last minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. price guaranteed. Titans fans. Let's continue today's edition of the locked on Titans podcast. We are recapping day two of Tennessee Titans Training Camp. We talked about Cody Barton and him having a lot of success on Cam Ward, but how it's only a good sign for going forward because Cam Ward is taking the right approach

Starting point is 00:10:34 to fixing the mistakes. But now it's time to get hype, folks. If you want a little bit of hype, if you want a little bit of excitement, if you want to be over the top optimistic, right now is the time for you because two rookie defenders were shining on Thursday, fantastic on Thursday. And they are the exact two rookie defenders that can flip this

Starting point is 00:11:00 defense from good to great. They are the two rookies that I thought were the biggest projects and it's Femi Oladejo and Kevin Winston. Let's start with Kevin Winston. Kevin Winston in my opinion, I made the film video earlier this offseason. I think Kevin Winston has star potential. He can be a star player in the NFL, a star safety. He can be a turnover machine. He could play one-on-one against tight ends and man coverage. He can be a dime linebacker in passing situations over the middle with his ability to hit and tackle.

Starting point is 00:11:34 He's a phenomenal tackler. I think Winston could be a star, but he tore his ACL at the beginning of the last college season. He was not full go, didn't participate really during the off season program. I wasn't quite certain what we're going to get from Kevin Winston. And then you hear he's full go, but they're going to be smart about it. They're not going to overwork him, but he's can fully participate. And you're like, okay, that's a great sign. That's a great start.

Starting point is 00:12:02 Great first steps for the rookie safety getting back on track. But look, we have Imani Hooker, who's one of the best players on the team. Xavier Woods, a very consistent veteran that was brought over in free agency. Is that the best safety group in the NFL? No, but it's a very solid group compared to the rest of the roster that isn't very good. So it's like, okay, Kevin Winston can take his time. He can develop. I thought one of the things he had to get better at in college watching his tape was route identification

Starting point is 00:12:30 and kind of just spatial awareness of where he is. He needs to have a better understanding of how things flow out there. But Trent is athletic and physical talent. But the point is, I didn't think that Kevin Winston would come out right away and be an impact player. I thought it would take until, you know, the back half of the season. And look, it very well may. Just because he has one good practice doesn't mean that it won't.

Starting point is 00:12:53 But, I saw a lot of local reports about Kevin Winston. A lot of people pointing out how well that he played in this practice. I saw multiple people talking about how he literally ripped a ball away from Josh Wiley in coverage to turn it into an interception. Like the ball went up, Wiley was there and he ripped it out of his hands. Very impressive play, very impressive play.

Starting point is 00:13:18 And Winston said in an interview after practice, like that was an interception, that was an interception. But either way, he was getting the the ball the Titans defense got the ball Kevin Winston very very impressive to multiple people early on in the first couple of days thinking he's ahead of schedule he's a playmaker very noticeable out there you see him making plays running around around and look, I am you know not overly optimistic about what the Tennessee Titans can be this year. Like I don't think the Titans are making the playoffs. I think they'll be

Starting point is 00:13:55 improved but I don't think they're making the playoffs. But if Kevin Winston can be the player he was in college right away for the Titans, like literally right away, just number three safety right away, maybe starting safety by the end of the year. That would be massive for the Titans defense. Absolutely massive. And not only that, but you know what else would be absolutely huge? If Femiola Degeo was awesome right away. We've talked about the Titans pass rush and how bad it is.

Starting point is 00:14:27 We've talked about how the ceiling for the Titans pass rush is fully determined by Femiolidasia. Their floor is going to be the floor no matter what. And that's worst pass rush group in the NFL. They were 30th in pressure rate last year and like 25th in SAC. So we're not that far away. But if Femi Olidasia can come in right away and make a massive impact and be even a number two edge rusher, even a number two.

Starting point is 00:14:59 The Titans defense has a chance to not just be good, but to be great, to be great. And they're not gonna have a great pass rush group and they're probably gonna have to blitz but the Titans defense can be incredible if Winston and Femi are gonna be awesome. Right away in Femi multiple pressures. I saw Teron Davenport from ESPN say that he noticed Femi the whole practice like he was everywhere. I saw Teron Davenport from ESPN say that he noticed Femi the whole practice. Like he was everywhere. I saw another report saying he would have got multiple sacks on Cam Ward,

Starting point is 00:15:32 had multiple pressures. Him and Draymond Jones were in the backfield nonstop. But like, this is two days in a row now. And we got to get the pads on. And I know that instantly what you could do is, well, that's not good for the offensive line. If you're saying our pass rush is terrible, but they got pressure on Cam Ward all day long, that's not good.

Starting point is 00:15:51 And look, the offensive line is at a significant, I talked about this, the offensive line is at a significant disadvantage during these non-padded practices. You're taking on an athletic guy, 6'3", 260, coming straight at your chest like Femi Oladejo, and you have no pads to back you up. And you can't go smash a guy like you would with your pads, because you don't have pads on, of course. This is your teammates. So I am not going to overreact too much to anything I hear pass rush wise or anything I hear offensive line wise quite honestly because they need to get pads on before I believe it and I thought

Starting point is 00:16:33 it was funny that Brian Callahan talked nice about James Williams who we talked about yesterday the second year linebacker who I think will end up being the starter said he's totally transformed his body looks like a totally different player all that But we need to see it with pads on that's how I feel about this. I'm excited about femmine. This is two days in a row Now where remember yesterday He got in the backfield multiple times and on one of them he batted down a pass a cam ward Because he was into the backfield and then today we're hearing he would have sat Cam Ward on a bootleg,

Starting point is 00:17:06 that multiple pressures in the backfield to force throwaways. Very noticeable player like. I'm not going to get too far ahead of myself, but the fact that Femi is having great practices early on when he didn't even play this position until last six games of his college career, literally was a different position for most of his football career. The fact that he's already making an impact and he's out there getting first team reps, that is a great sign, a great sign for the Titans because the best

Starting point is 00:17:40 version of the Tennessee Titans this year includes a great Femiola DeGio rookie season. So love to hear what I'm hearing about Femi, multiple pressures, maybe even a second there, Winston with an interception. The rookie defenders we thought were projects are already showing out. That's great news for the Titans, but the Titans made a roster move to address the edge rusher position, but the player that they got rid of to do it, I think, was a little bit of a surprise. Today's episode is brought to you by Yahoo Fantasy. Look, fantasy football is back.

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Starting point is 00:19:41 Titans fans, let's cap off today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Breaking down day two of Tennessee Titans training camp practices. We talked about Cam Ward's interception to Cody Barton. Why I'm so excited about Cody Barton. We talked about how the defense won the day and that included some great stuff from Titans rookies, Femi Oladeja and Kevin Winston. But now I want to talk about the roster move the Titans made. We talked earlier this week about the retirement of Lorenzo Carter and how the Titans needed to add an edge rusher to the group and a veteran at that. I talked about names like Zedaria Smith, Matthew, Jude on Geneva, young clowny, but the Tennessee Titans went a little bit lower in name value.

Starting point is 00:20:15 They bring in Jahad Ward. Now Jahad Ward is another big physical edge rusher, six foot five, 285 pounds. He could play a little bit on the inside if needed. And he played all 17 games for the Minnesota Vikings last year. The Vikings had an incredible pass rush group and he led the Minnesota Vikings in pressures. He had 31 pressures.

Starting point is 00:20:37 Now he only had one sack, but the year before that he had five, the year before that he had three, and he's replacing Lorenzo Carter. How many sacks did Lorenzo Carter have last year? Zero. So hey, that's one better, right? But again, 31 pressures. He got 14 quarterback hits last year.

Starting point is 00:20:54 He was a guy who didn't play a ton. He played like 500 snaps for the Vikings, I do believe, and let me double check, 467. So under 500 snaps, that's only 41% of the defensive snaps in 17 games and yet he led the Minnesota Vikings in pressures so look I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that Jahad Ward is some incredible player but the versatility that he gives you the durability that he gives you he checks the boxes for a big physical edge I think it's a pretty solid replacement for Lorenzo Carter,

Starting point is 00:21:27 and it gives them some versatility as well. Again, he can kick inside and rush from there if needed. Now, Jahad Ward's 31 years old, folks. This is not a young player. This is not a guy with a ton of potential. This is a guy who needs to come in and fill a role that is helping Femi Olidasia. Now, what I found most interesting about the addition

Starting point is 00:21:48 of Jahad Ward, it's not actually the addition of Jahad Ward, it's who the Tennessee Titans got rid of and they got rid of Keandre Coburn. I could not believe it. I could not believe it when I saw it Titans wave Keandre Coburn and if you remember Keandre Coburn is Tavondre Sweatt's backup. And he was a mentor to Tavondre Sweatt at Texas, where they went to college together. And when Tavondre Sweatt was drafted, Jeffrey Simmons and Keandre Coburn were named as the two guys who are going to mentor him.

Starting point is 00:22:20 They're going to put Tavondre Sweatt in the locker room right in between Simmons and Coburn. And I have said throughout the Coburn is basically a babysitter. I've said he's not good enough to get the roster stability that he's gotten here. I think the only reason he was on the team for as long as he was last year

Starting point is 00:22:36 is because he does babysit Tavondre Sweat. And I have said last year and this year that I do not like the Tennessee Titans interior defensive line depth. I'm not a fan. But here's my thing. I'm still shocked by the Keandre Coburn way because who is the Titans backup nose tackle now? It's not Keandre Coburn. James Lynch is not a nose tackle.

Starting point is 00:23:02 He's an interior defensive lineman, but he's more of a backup, in my opinion, for like Jeff, not Sweat, as the one technique, big physical run stuffing nose tackle. That's not what James Lynch is. And Carlos Watkins, another veteran who the Titans brought in, he's not that either. So now you have to look at the undrafted free agents. You look at a guy like Cam Horsley, who is a big physical athletic guy out of Boston College.

Starting point is 00:23:28 You look at Philip Bleedy, who's another big physical nose tackle type. If the Titans are willing to get rid of Keandre Coburn, who has not only been their veteran backup nose tackle, but also is a mentor to Vandre Sweat, that means to me that either one or both of those young interior defensive linemen undrafted free agents who I just mentioned, one or both of those guys are impressing right now. The Titans feel comfortable enough to not have a veteran nose tackle on the roster behind

Starting point is 00:24:03 to Vandre Sweat when Sweat is only in his second year, that means one of those undrafted free agents has really popped so far to the team and they're willing to take the risk of not having a veteran there to get a better look at those young guys. So that's a good sign for the interior defensive line depth if one of those guys could pop. But that is going to do it for me today. Titans have practice on Friday. It's not open to the media. Saturday is open to the fans. It's at Nissan stadium. Can't wait to hear and see everything going on with that.

Starting point is 00:24:33 And then most likely, God willing, as they say, I'll be here on Saturday night after that practice to go live and break everything down with you guys. But that's going to do it for me today, folks, as always, I am your host, Tyler Rollin, and this was Locked on Titans.

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Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Cody Barton OWNS Cam Ward, Defensive Rookies Shining & Titans Sign Jihad Ward

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