Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Injury Solutions, Division Rival Watch & Titan to Step Up in 2023

Episode Date: October 13, 2022

The Tennessee Titans are on their way to having record breaking injuries in back to back seasons. What should be done and what changes should be made? With two of the Titans division rivals facing off this weekend, who should Titans fans be pulling for? Also, which Titan player who may not be a big part of 2022 can play a major role in 2023? Tyler answers all of those questions and more in a Casual Friday Mailbag episode!!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!LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFLBuilt BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!PrizePicksFirst time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That’s PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDONSimpliSafeWith Fast Protect™️ Technology, exclusively from SimpliSafe, 24/7 monitoring agents capture evidence to accurately verify a threat for faster police response. There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. Visit SimpliSafe.com/LockedOnNFL to learn more.BetterHelpIt’s not a crisis line, it’s not self-help, it’s professional therapy done securely online, available to people worldwide. And they have a special offer for my listeners: get 10% off your first month at Betterhelp.com/LockedOn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, the Titans have a bye this week, which makes it the perfect time for a casual Friday mailbag. First, should the Titans consider changes in their strength and conditioning program with all of these injuries? I'll give you my thoughts. Then, who should you be rooting for this weekend?

The Jaguars or the Colts? And finally, should John Robinson say F those picks and trade his first rounders for veteran players? I'll give you my opinion on that. So we're going to dive into your questions on a casual Friday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Let's get it. You are 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. Titans fans, it is a bi-week casual Friday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Get comfortable. I'm in my cuddly favorite hoodie here, some sweatpants. It's the bi-week. We're just chilling out and having a mailbag episode.

You guys sent in some fantastic questions on Twitter. You can follow me there at TicTacTitans to send in your mailbag questions in the future. But before we dive into your questions, do want to let you know that today's show is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to faster. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash locked on NFL. Also, thank you for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day, Monday through Friday, free Tennessee Titans content all year round on all platforms.

Make sure that you stay locked into the Locked on Titans podcast where it's your team every day. But we are going to start with a question from my guy, John Porter. And he says, the injury rate in football is 100%. We all know that. But the injuries last year and this year are out of the norm. What can, should the team do to examine this issue and strive to correct it? New strength and conditioning coach, new training method, or is it just bad luck? Well, John, I think that's an excellent question.

And I am going to continue to say the same stance or have the same stance on this injury issue as it pertains to the strength and conditioning program and medical staff. I am not a doctor. I am not qualified in any way to point out something they're doing wrong in training or say that they're misdiagnosing injuries. I'm not going to get up here and tell you that I know things like that. I'm not a doctor, as I say all the time. But, like John pointed out, what I do know is

the Titans may have historic numbers of injuries in back-to-back seasons. And I don't care if you know anything about medicine or strength and conditioning or training. I don't care if you know anything about that. I know there's a problem. If you're testing a brand new vehicle, and the car won't stop on time and the test simulation keeps ramming into the end of the track and wrecking, well, I don't know much about building cars,

but I can tell you that I think the brakes don't work. So you don't have to be an expert in medicine and physiology and all of that to know that the Titans clearly aren't getting results. So I think it's without having any medical knowledge, it's only logical to think that some changes have to be made. And I would imagine that the changes that need to be made go past just the method of training.

It goes towards the staff itself. And if you have historic injuries two years in a row, I don't think you need to be a doctor to say that some changes need to be made. John also had another question in there that I want to get to quickly. He said, I'm asking you to speculate. What was the deal with Radins popping up

and looking back at Ryan Tannehill, the majority of the snaps? It wasn't that it was loud. I just found it weird. John, that's a very common thing that happens in the NFL. The guard, because the center is keeping his head down, the guard is actually telling the center. He looks back at Ryan Tannehill. Tannehill says, yes, I'm good to go. Radins then turns around, touches Ben Jones on his side, on his hip, on his thigh, and that lets Ben Jones know it's time to snap the ball. So it's just a way to deal with silent count in the NFL. The next question that I have here comes from James and James basically

says, who are we cheering for this weekend, the Jags or the Colts? Guys, I know that the Jags have looked like the better team this year when you watch them in the games, but the reality here is the Colts are only 2-2-1. If they win, they're 3-2-1. And the Jags go to 2-3. The Colts, despite looking awful throughout the year, are still 3-2-1 if they win this game. I want the Colts to die. I want them buried six foot under. I don't want to have any remnants or lingering worries

about the Colts as we get later into the season. If I had to choose between battling it out for the division between the Colts and the Jags, I'm going to take the Jags 10 times out of 10. So as much as it pains me to say it, go Jaguars. Franco says, thoughts on firing the offensive line coach and offensive line scouts and should J-Rob trade away the first pick for established players

or for more second rounders? We tend to have better luck with those. Guys, the reality is you can't trade all of your picks for veteran players because veteran players cost so much more. Look at what's happening with the Rams roster right now because they went all in with all their picks. And yeah, if I could guarantee that the Titans would get a Super Bowl and then it all fall apart, sure, because it all falls apart eventually anyways. But I just don't think that that's the way that it's going to work for the Titans. They aren't a free agent destination

like the Los Angeles Rams were last year to get all these awesome veterans like Vaughn Miller and Odell Beckham and on and on. So for me, sustainable winning in the NFL is built within the draft. And while Robinson has had some misses, this team is what it is because he did so well in the draft. So I know that it seems like you can just trade all your picks, but it just simply can't work like that. But great question, Franco. Next, we have a question from Calvin. And Calvin basically asks, should we be,

this question is so crazy, it's hard for me to say it. Basically saying, should we be worried at all that the Titans winning games will keep Todd Downing around? Well, I got to tell you, one, if the Titans are winning games,

then great. I mean, that's what we want. So hopefully that's a problem that we have to have. But at the end of the day, John Robinson fired a coach who had won the first playoff game in this franchise's last 10 years because he knew it needed to be better. I have faith that if we go through another season here with the offense looking like it is, regardless of how many games they win, the Titans will still make that change. Parker says,

How do you think Derrick Henry is doing this year? The stats look good and all, but how good is he at finding holes and trusting his foot again? Because he looked good against the Commanders. Parker, I'm going to keep it short, sweet, and simple for you. Derrick Henry knocked off the rust. He looks just as good as ever. He's going right.

He's cutting left. He's doing all. I don't think the foot is an issue at all. And the rust from just not playing a ton of football recently for Derrick Henry has been knocked off. Now, not every run is perfect where he sees the perfect hole. He times it up great. Not every run is that. But trust me perfect hole. He times it up great. Not every run is that.

But trust me when I say Derek Henry looks just fine. And honestly, he looks like the king once again. But we're going to continue getting into your mailbag questions on this casual bi-week Friday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Before we get into it, though, do want to tell you guys about our friends over at LinkedIn. So these days, every new potential hire could feel like a high stakes wager for your small business. You want to be 100% certain that you have access to the best qualified candidates

available. That's why you have to check out LinkedIn jobs. LinkedIn jobs helped you find the right people for your team faster and for free. All you have to do is create a free job post at LinkedIn jobs. They add your job to the purple hiring frame, and it's going to spread the word out to a network of over 810 million people. They have simple tools that you can use like screening questions. It helps you focus on the candidates with just the right skills and you can prioritize the people you quickly want to hire. And small businesses rate LinkedIn jobs number one in delivering quality hires versus leading competitors for that exact reason.

So LinkedIn helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to faster. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash locked on NFL. That's linkedin.com slash locked on NFL to post your job for free. Terms and conditions do apply. Titans fans, we are going to continue today's casual Friday mailbag episode by going into more of your guys' questions. Before we get into them, do want to thank you guys again for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day.

Make sure you subscribe on whatever platform you do stream. I am putting out daily, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content on all platforms all year long. You can't beat that. So make sure you stay locked in to the Locked on Titans podcast. But I got a question here from Kevin Chase. And shout out to Kevin who said that he signed up for Twitter

just so that he could message me. Him and his son live in Scotland. Funny story, Kevin. I'm Scottish. I mean, not directly, but the Rowland family crest, Rowlands are Irish and Scottish. My lineage came more from Scotland. So my Scottish brother, Kevin, nice to have you

mail into the show. Thank you so much. And listening to me in Scotland, man, you guys do not know how much that stuff still blows me away and how honored I am that people listen to me in other countries across the pond. It's outrageous, really. It's outrageous. But he said, I believe we got about $10 million available in cap space for next year. So if we sign Big Jeff at the end of the season, is this going to impact that $10 million, or can we kick the can down the road? Thanks, Titan Up.

Kevin, I'm going to make this simple for you. So every year, the Titans are in a weird spot if you look at their cap space for next year. And what they do at the end of the year is they make roster decisions. They cut guys. And Taylor LeJuan, Zach Cunningham, Ryan Tannehill, Bud Dupree, Robert

Woods are all all possible guys that could be cut to save cap space for the Titans. So I wouldn't worry too much about that cap space figure right now because we're going to have a more clear picture of what the Titans need to do with the roster to clear out much more cap space going forward. So I wouldn't worry too much about that.

Next, we have a question from my guy Slappy. He says, I've asked this before, but would love to hear your thoughts more. Do you think we should pluck someone from Baltimore's offensive staff to run their offense when Malik takes the offense over? All of the option plays with Malik and Henry and Burke seems like a no-brainer. Well, Slappy, I don't know that you have to pluck somebody directly off of Baltimore's offensive staff.

I get the parallel that you're creating there with Lamar Jackson, but I think an offense like what Philly does or an offense like what the Cardinals, I really don't want the Cardinals offense, but different elements of that, even what Buffalo does with Josh Allen. I think there are plenty of offenses out there that the Titans could potentially pick from and potentially get a guy, but I think that a guy like Tim Kelly does have the ability to mold the offense around Malik. So I don't know that they have to pluck somebody from a different staff,

but if they got somebody from college or they got somebody from an offensive system that does more of what they're going to do with Malik, I don't think that would be a terrible idea at all. Matthew Hall has a few things to say here. Matthew Hall says, more on Robinson. What role does Robinson play in all the injuries? I think the only role that Robinson legitimately plays in all the injuries is if he's willing to make changes to the strength and conditioning program to fix it.

He's not a doctor either. He's a personnel guy. He's a general manager. So I think the only thing that you can hold him responsible for when it comes to the injuries is maybe not making changes to the staff to prevent it. But again, I can't say that with any kind of confidence. He says, I think the Titans success has more to do with Vrabel than Robinson. In other words, without Vrabel, I think Robinson would be toast. I don't know that I agree there 100%.

I think that the Titans have a lot of great players on the team and have had a lot of great players on their team that John Robinson got. And I think the relationship is symbiotic quite frankly. I can't give any credit to one person

over the other in that situation. Trevor. Trevor says, do you believe that Vrabel as the head coach will ever be able to have the kind of killer instinct needed to elevate to the next phase of winning? Seems like Vrabel will always

trust the defense and play conservative with the lead. Others play their starters deep in games. You know, I think, I got to tell you, yeah, I do believe that Mike Vrabel can win a Super Bowl as a head coach. I think he has enough.

I think he's smart enough. I think he has a good sense of things. I know Vrabel makes some weird decisions here and there, but I just remember back to that New England playoff game and him, you know, finding a loophole in the rules to waste a bunch of time and salt that game away. I think Vrabel works hard enough and will do what needs to be done

to make sure that the Titans are in the best position they can be. So I actually do think, I do think Mike Vrabel can win a Super Bowl. I do. I think the roster isn't where it needs to be right now during a transition period, but I have faith that John Robinson and Mike Grable are the people who can lead this team to a Super Bowl. Maybe people disagree with that, but I really do think so. Two

questions here from Cody Weath. Cody says, who do you think will play a role this year? Who do you think will play the role this year of a player who did not play well at all last season but by the end of the 2023 season you will be surprised by how they improved I am taking this question as who maybe won't play their best in 2022 but by the end of 2023 we'll be like oh okay this guy's a real player and I think it's Chigaconquo I think Chigaconquo has some development to get through before he can be an every-down tight end.

But I think by the end of Chig's second season, we're going to be like, oh, okay, Chigaconquo is a No. 1 tight end that the Titans can add some role players around at the position to keep things up. So Chigaconquo is my pick for that one. Cody's second question is, if the Packers never traded up to number 34 in the draft, do you think there was a real chance the Titans would have picked Christian Watson

at pick number 35? My answer is no. We know what the Titans think about the wide receiver position. I do not think that John Robinson would have made the AJ trade, got Burks at 18, and then followed that up with Christian Watson at 35. No, I don't think that would have happened. But either way, we are moving forward here. More of your questions to answer in just a moment.

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Bet online where the game starts. Titans fans, let's cap off today's casual Friday, bi-week, mailbag edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Before we get into more of your guys' questions, I want to thank you guys again for making the Locked on Titans podcast. Before we get into more of your guys' questions, I want to thank you guys again for making the Locked on Titans podcast

your first to listen every day. Make sure you subscribe on whatever platform you do stream for Monday through Friday. Free Tennessee Titans content. Moving forward here, another question for you guys. It comes from Chris. And Chris had a question basically about Ryan Tannehill. He says, why do you think Tannehill doesn't threaten the defense more with his legs?

Is it more because of his lack of pocket awareness or the coaches think our offense could use any advantage possible? Well, I think Ryan Tannehill is a situational runner. That's why he's not a guy who feels super comfortable scrambling and running out of the pocket. If there's an open opportunity, then Tannehill will take it. But the problem is he doesn't see those opportunities quite often enough because his pocket awareness, like you mentioned, is one of his worst traits at all. And we got to be honest here for a second. Tannehill isn't a statue, but he still looks like the Tin Man out there running around

compared to other mobile quarterbacks. Not saying that Malik should play over Tannehill in any way, but look at the way Malik moves when he gets out of the pocket and moves around in the pocket. Tannehill is clunky the way that he moves around. It's strange. And when Tannehill did his best running, it was on bootlegs off of play action.

Titans simply don't do that as much anymore. Once Arthur Smith left, they wanted to do more straight drop back play action rather than bootleg play action. They got scared away from it early in the year last year when people were crashing hard on the backside and hitting Tannehill and causing fumbles. So they just simply don't do that anymore,

which takes away easy bootleg runs for Tannehill. And the only other runs that he can have are either scrambling out of the pocket when it crashes. And I just mentioned how he's terrible at that or on read options. And those are only going to be short yardage situations where he's not going to run a ton down the field. So that would be my answer to that. He's not nearly as good at running the ball as people think he is and the way that they're calling the offense. He's just not given as many

opportunities to do so. So it's a combination of the way the offense is now his personal skill set in the pocket. Um, and because of that, he just isn't running as much. That would be the answer. Uh, tighten up says, how come we rarely run shotgun run plays with Henry? I think read options would open more things up for everything and keep the defense more honest. Well, as I just said, Tannehill isn't as good of a runner as some people think he is. He can get some short yardage. If you get him out on a bootleg and no one's in front of him, he can go downhill, but he's not a scrambler.

He's not an agile guy who's going to make people miss all the time. So I think that's why the coaches don't want to do that. They just want to give it to Derrick Henry and run it up the middle. There's a better chance with that, and then you use the read option in short yardage situations on the goal line and things like that and take advantage. Also, worth noting that when you run out of shotgun, you limit how many runs you can do.

You limit your off-the-tackle runs. You limit where you can go with your runs. So I don't think the Titans want to limit their run game because they don't have an offensive line that can just line up and bully you off the snap. Jordan Pierce said, got you here, Jordan, from YouTube. He said,

our secondary has gone awful as we have seen. How much better do you think it will get once Moulton comes back? And also, what are your opinions on converting Farley to safety? Well, I'll do the first thing. Listen, people say, what about Caleb Farley at wide receiver?

You guys are nuts. If Caleb Farley could even come close to being a wide receiver in the NFL, he would have been kept at wide receiver in college. He got converted to quarterback in college because he wasn't good enough to play wide receiver in college. And safety, I don't want Caleb Farley in a ton of physical situations. I don't want Caleb Farley trying to cover the deep middle of the field

and being a free safety back deep. I don't want him coming forward and run defense. He's a cornerback. He's a cornerback. Maybe not a very good cornerback, but that's his only chance to make it in the NFL is that outside cornerback on the sideline, a boundary corner. So they just got to try to get whatever juice they can out of that squeeze.

And if they can't, then they throw the lemon away. But as for Molden, yeah, I'm excited for Molden to come back. I think it's going to help the Titans even more on early downs. for Molden, yeah, I'm excited for Molden to come back. I think it's going to help the Titans even more on early downs. But Molden isn't a coverage guy. Molden is a physical early down slot guy. He's a nickel. So I don't know that he's going to help their coverage very much.

Who I think is really going to help is getting Amani Hooker back. That's going to help the Titans much more in coverage than getting Elijah Molden back, although I'm still excited to get Elijah Molden back on the team. Next question here is from Jordan Lowry. He says, two questions. One, let's go with this one. With the rumors of DJ Moore, what would you say about J-Rob and the staff

if they didn't look at the future and got Malik another weapon and make up for the AJ trade. Basically asking how I'm going to feel if they don't make the DJ Moore trade. I'm not going to be that mad about it. I think it would be a smart move if they could pay the right price,

but I'm not giving up like a first round pick for DJ Moore, $20 million and then $16 million a year. I'm not doing that. So I guess I'm cool if they do it, but I don't really care if they don't. Let me see here.

Sporty Mike says, or let's go with Tucson Titan says play Xbox or PlayStation and top five favorite video games. I'm a PlayStation guy through and through. Always have been. Always will be.

Top five games, NBA 2K, Madden, Apex Legends, The Ghost of Tsushima, and anything from the Batman Arkham series. Last question here that I have is from Sporty Mike. And Sporty Mike says, you seem to be someone who cares about human rights and mental health without getting too political. Where did you learn those values? And do you find it difficult to maintain

while being a podcaster in a league where those things can be cast aside by a lot of its fans? Well, that is quite the deep question, Mike. I would say this. I was raised in a very conservative, small country, Midwestern town. And while my dad was conservative, I would say financially, my dad's sort of liberal socially in terms of different things. So I think that allowed me to strike a pretty good balance because my dad was never too far in any one direction. He kind of just like cared about what he thought was right.

He didn't care whether it was, you know, this side or that side, just so that lended him to side with both sides a lot. And I kind of fall in that as well. I, you know, I kind of find myself in the middle on a lot of things. So I feel like when I'm there, I can focus on, I don't have an ax to grind. I don't have a team that I want to win. So when I talk about certain things,

I guess I'm not slanted in either way because I'm not fighting a battle for my team, which I think is a very dangerous, dangerous way to be in a bipartisan system is to think that your team is right. I don't see either side as my team. So when I discuss certain things, I don't put my political

slant on it because I simply don't really have one. I'm as opinionated as the next guy when it comes to political stuff, but I guess I tend to fall in the middle of a lot of political views these days. So I don't really feel the need to interject that into certain conversations. Also coming out from a small town, I graduated with like 150, 175 kids. There's like 5,000 people in my area and it's spread out over like cornfields

and stuff. And like five different, I always call it, it's like, uh, uh, the Midwestern New York city. Cause there were like these five boroughs. I always say, it reminds me of the Papoose song. I got New York city in the palm of my hand and he goes through all the different boroughs on his fingers. It's nasty. Uh, Papoose is gross. But, uh gross. But anyways, going to college at Ohio University, and we know that colleges can be anything but conservative, kind of opened my eyes to different cultures. I met people from different walks of life, different countries, different continents. I played indoor soccer with people I couldn't even speak the same language as from Qatar or Japan, Brazil. And when you communicate with those people and you establish relationships with those people, all while you

can't even speak, you don't have the same religions, you don't have the same culture, blah, blah, blah. I don't know. It just kind of had a lot of deep conversations with people of different backgrounds, different ethnicities, different races, different religions. And it kind of just opened my eyes to maybe some of the misconceptions that I had from the culture that I was brought up in growing up. So I would say my life experiences and then my dad not being too close-minded about some things, it kind of just allowed me to keep my mind open, accept other views,

and kind of just land in the middle on a lot of stuff. I thought that was a great question. So I know a lot of you guys probably don't give a damn about my answer to that. But I thought that was a great question. I appreciate that you noticed that I don't get political on my show. It's not my goal ever. And as for fans in the NFL, some of the things that NFL players do, the reality is I don't think that NFL players are

any worse than your average citizen. There are going to be rapes. There are going to be murders. There are going to be circumstances of burglary. There are going to be assaults. There's going to be domestic violence in the world, sadly. Like, those are just realities of our life. There is a certain percentage of the population that will commit those crimes

and do those things. And to think that just because people are in the NFL, they won't do that. I'm not that naive. There's a percentage of people in our world that are going to commit domestic violence. It's only logical that there's a percent of NFL players who are going to do that too.

It's just math. You know what I mean? It's just logic. So while it's disappointing to hear that, I'm no more disappointed by things that happen in the NFL than I am by things that happen just in a daily basis. So it kind of just allows me, I'm just as disgusted by what I see on the news

as if I see it from an NFL player. So I don't, I don't know, you know, I'm not going to shut myself off from society because I don't like those things. So I can't do that with the NFL either. It wouldn't make any sense. Good question there, Sporty Mike. I appreciate it.

Great questions from all you guys. Shout out to all of you watching on YouTube right now. I'll have another YouTube live segment where I answer your guys' questions in the near future. But enjoy the bye week. Relax. Stress-free football

all weekend long. Try to enjoy it as best you can. Stay safe out there, everybody. That's going to do it for me today, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this

was Locked on Titans.