Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans DeAndre Hopkins INJURED, Treylon Burks MUST Step Up & Nicholas Petit-Frere is Back

Episode Date: August 2, 2024

The Tennessee Titans got some bad news on Thursday when it was reported that DeAndre Hopkins will be out for 4-6 weeks with a knee injury. While this isn't ideal, the Titans are set up to withstand this absence and the timeline means Hopkins should not miss much important time. Next, there was some good news for the Titans on Friday when the return of offensive tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere was announced. Petit-Frere should be slotted as the starter at right tackle immediately.Subscribe to the TicTacTitans Film Channel:https://www.youtube.com/@TicTacTitansTicTacTitans Merchandise: https://dixons-dream.square.site/shop/tictactitans-gear/C3AAPNWXSXA6SBYG3USV2I7R?page=1&limit=30&sort_by=category_order&sort_order=ascFollow 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!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.BetterHelpThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Make your brain your friend, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/LOCKEDON today to get 10% off your first month.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotors.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms Apply.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. As playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to. But this summer, FanDuel is hooking up ALL CUSTOMERS with a boost or a bonus, DAILY! That’s right, there’s something for everyone, every day, all summer long! Visit FANDUEL.COM/LOCKEDON and add a big win to your summer bucket list!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)

Tennessee Titans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins is injured. I'll tell you how long he's expected to be out and why Titans fans should not panic on this bonus edition of the Locked On Titans podcast. 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, got a bonus edition for you guys today.

We got DeAndre Hopkins injury news. Also, the return of what should be a starting offensive lineman for the Tennessee Titans. Before I get into all of this bonus content for you guys, I do want to thank you for making Locked on Titans 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 here on the Locked on Titans podcast. Once again, I am your host, Tyler Rowland.

Nearly 25 years as a Tennessee Titans fanatic, a certified film junkie breaking down the X's and O's with you guys all year long. I've covered the team for Sports Illustrated, USA Today, and I've been hosting the number one Tennessee Titans podcast in the world for five years running. With all that being said, let's dive into this DeAndre Hopkins injury news. The report came from Paul Kaharski that DeAndre Hopkins had a knee injury. It looks like it's a knee sprain, and he will be out four to six weeks.

First and foremost, it is not time to panic, Titans fans. I saw a lot of people freaking out online in my comment section, all that. Everyone just collectively relax. Let me just say this. We have been excited about this wide receiver group for quite some time during this offseason because of the depth of the receiver group. All right, last year, you had NWI, DeAndre Hopkins, and Traylon Burks as your top three. Well, this year you have DeAndre Hopkins,

Calvin Ridley, and Tyler Boyd. So now NWI and Traylon Burks are backups. Or now they slide into a third wide receiver role. Look, we were all excited about the depth and now the depth has to play out. The odds of all three of the Titans starting wide receivers staying healthy for 17 games was low anyways. The odds of that were very low. So you had to know in the back of your mind, eventually there would be some sort of injury at wide receiver. Now I understand that a lot of you are going to say, well, I was hoping it would at least be during the season, but this is even better. This is a positive outcome.

This is an optimistic outcome for the Titans to sustain an injury. Number one, like I said, the depth is there. So the Titans have talent at wide receiver to deal with this absence. And let's just get down to the timeline. Four to six weeks is the timeline. Well, if you do the math, four weeks from now is still one week before the season starts. DeAndre Hopkins could be out for four weeks and not miss a single regular season game. Even if it's the six weeks,

he's probably only going to miss one game, maybe two games at maximum. So this isn't some season-altering, devastating, sky-is-falling, chicken-little situation. Do you want DeAndre Hopkins to be hurt? Of course not. But again, it is not time to panic. There should be some level of optimism from the fan base right now because the Titans have the depth at wide receiver finally to withstand some of this and the injury should not keep DeAndre Hopkins out too far into the season. It's not like he's

going to miss four games, eight games, ten games. We're talking about two games, maybe three games at max. I mean that would be past the timeline. So the timeline isn't all that bad anyways like he's going to miss a bunch of time. The Titans have the depth. And let me go to this next point. DeAndre Hopkins, out of all the wide receivers, probably has the best chemistry with Will Levis already. So even though Hopkins is going to miss this preseason time and people are saying, oh, supposed to develop the chemistry.

I saw Dan Orlowski from ESPN complaining about them not getting chemistry. The chemistry was built last year. Did you see how good DeAndre Hopkins and Will Levis were together last year? Everybody seems to forget. Somebody called DeAndre Hopkins a bounce back candidate. Do people seem to forget that he went for 1,000 yards last year? Like, what are we doing? Like, so the timeline isn't that bad

anyways. The Titans have depth at wide receiver. Hopkins and Levis already have chemistry and understand what they need to do together. So, I just forgive me, but I don't understand the outright panic

that I'm seeing from some folks. Obviously, it's not a good thing, but it's not a season killer or something like that. It's far from that. So I'm just here to preach patience, preach optimism. And the next thing that I'm going to preach is it's time for Traylon Burks to step up. If you saw my short video I made while I was out on the golf course when the news broke on Thursday night, can't even enjoy a nice peaceful round of golf, okay? But the big news outside of the DeAndre Hopkins info here is that it's time for Traylon Burks to step up, okay?

I'll set it in the short video, and I'm going to say it again here. We have a wide receiver who is a former first-round pick in his athletic prime, who is healthy, headed into season three, who everyone has been hyping up all offseason long, all training camp long through the first 10 days. All it's been is Traylon Burke's hype. Best shape of his life,

fully committed, Making plays. But that's all we're hearing. So let's see it. Let's see it. If this is actually different for Traylon Burks, then let's see it. Burks is a big physical wide receiver who should be able to play the X position

and fill in for DeAndre Hopkins. So, like, again, timeline isn't that bad. Hopkins and Levis have chemistry, and the Titans have depth, and when I say depth, I mean literally a first-round wide receiver on the team as a backup that could slide into the lineup. It'll be fine. Everything is going to be fine. Now Now that doesn't mean the Titans are going

to make playoffs, win the Super Bowl, blah, blah, blah. But I don't think that this DeAndre Hopkins injury is going to drastically affect how many games that they were going to win this year, no matter what. So let me just say that. Besides the Hopkins news, we did get good news. We did get good news for the Titans on Friday on the offensive line. I'll tell you what that is and give you my thoughts there. Before I do though, I do want to let you guys know that this bonus episode is brought to you

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That's why 2.5 million small businesses use LinkedIn for hiring. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash locked on NFL. That's linkedin.com slash locked on NFL. Post your job for free. Terms and conditions do apply. Titans fans, let's continue this bonus edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. We talked about the DeAndre Hopkins injury, my reaction to that. Mostly positive, mostly optimistic.

But now I actually want to get into some good news with you guys here on this bonus episode. Before I do, thanks again for making Locked on Titans your first listen each and every day. The Titans have a practice on Saturday. Back out on the practice field once again. And I'll be here to break it all down with you guys on Sunday night. With that being said,

I want to balance out the bad DeAndre Hopkins news from Thursday with the good Titans news that we got on Friday. According to Teron Davenport from ESPN, shout out TD, my guy, Nicholas Petit-Ferrer is back. Activated off the PUP. So Brian Callahan said earlier in the week, or I think it was Bill Callahan that said earlier in the week, that the Titans expected to get MPF back on Friday.

And that's exactly what happened. So that did go according to plan. Remember, Nicholas Petit Ferrer had the gambling suspension at the beginning of his second year after starting every game as a rookie, or 16 out of 17 games as a rookie, I do believe it is, off the top of my head. Comes back, plays a couple of games, injures his shoulder. Upper body injury could have been like, you know,

pec, shoulder, bicep area. Specifics lose me sometimes on all the injuries that the Titans have had over the last three years. Crazy. But anyway, but we found out at the beginning of training camp that the reason Nicholas Petit Ferrer missed most of the all-season workouts wasn't due to the upper body injury. It was actually a knee scope that he had.

A little bit of a knee cleanup. So good to hear the NPF is back, and in my opinion, he needs to immediately be the starting right tackle. So I know that there are people out there who believe in John Ajuku. I think it's absurd. Look, he may be an okay practice squad, backup level player, but John Ajuku, I think it's absurd. Look, he may be an okay practice squad backup level player,

but John Ajuku is not a starter in the NFL. Like, this goes back to the conversation that I had earlier this week. My everydayers out there will remember. Talking about Robert Javier, how he's the worst cornerback on the team. He's not making the roster. And the reaction to that from some people was, man, you're so negative. Why do you blah, blah, blah, blah?

And I make the point of, do you want nice lies or honest truth? Mean truth is what I called it, I believe. What do you want? And the mean truth about John Ajuku is, he is not an NFL starter. Like, we as a collective fan base just go way overboard

with our optimism for these players. Like, I get that people are hopeful and that people are optimistic and that people, like, but expecting undrafted free agents to blossom into quality starters is just asinine. Like, it's insane to have your expectations there,

in my opinion. Look, an undrafted free agent, this is my thought process. An undrafted free agent, let's hope they can contribute at all. If they contribute at all in any way, that's a win. Some of you guys buy into some of this stuff

that you see online about John Ajuku or, you know, like people believed in Chris Jackson and people believed that Des Fitzpatrick would work it out. And people thought Jalen Duncan was the left tackle of the future after one game last year.

And like, we just get way too, guys, the odds are in the NFL that the best players are high draft picks. And now it doesn't always work like that, but those are exceptions, not the standard rule. So I say all that to say this. Get that John Ajuku stuff out of my face. He's not starting for this team,

and if he does, it's an outright disaster. NPF may very well be a disaster in his own right, but we need to put NPF right back into that starting lineup. Immediately back as the starter. Okay? So, at least we have a guy who was a mid-round pick, who started for a full season as a rookie in the NFL, who can now go back to right tackle where he played that whole season

rather than left tackle where he spent a few games last year. Like, this is what the best version of the Titans offensive line will look like. Latham, Skoronski, Cushenberry, Radins, and BF. That's the best version. Now, they can play around with Sadiq Charles. They can get some giggles out of putting John Ajuku or Leroy Watson out there, but those are the five offensive linemen that need to play. So I'm very happy to get NPF back out there in training camp. Hopefully, he literally can play with the first team offensive line on Saturday.

I'm sure we'll get a little bit of news about that. And I'll be back on Sunday night to break it all down with you guys. So don't panic about DeAndre Hopkins. Put NPF back in the starting lineup right away. A little bit of bad news balanced with a little bit of good news. Titans practice on Saturday morning. I'll be back on Sunday like

normal to break it all down with you guys. But next weekend, Titans preseason game. So, gonna have a lot of fun this week getting ready for that. Make sure that you tune in every single day. But with that being said, that is going to do it for this bonus edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.