Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Joint Practice Recap: Defensive Lockdown, Secondary Shining & Slow Offensive Start

Episode Date: August 19, 2021

The Tennessee Titans completed day one of joint practices with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Titans DEFENSE was the highlight of the day!! Yes, you read that correctly. Jackrabbit Jenkins, Kristian Fulton & Amani Hooker all contributed to a great day for the Titans' secondary. On offense, the Titans started slow, but led by quarterback Ryan Tannehill and good days by Marcus Johnson, Chester Rogers & more, they were able to respond. Tyler recaps EVERYTHING you need to know!!Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPodSubscribe to the Locked On Titans Youtube page:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP3332GMOh4y5PX3q9NFybwSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.StatHeroStatHero, the FIRST Ever Daily Fantasy Sportsbook that gives the PLAYER the ADVANTAGE. Go to StatHero.com/LockedOn for 300% back on your first play. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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, this Thursday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast is presented by rockauto.com. Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need. Visit rockauto.com today and tell them Locked on sent you. ever need, visit rockauto.com today and tell them Locked On sent you.

A big Thursday episode of the Locked On Titans podcast as we break down the Wednesday joint practices between the Tennessee Titans and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Before we get into that, do want to remind you guys, I am going to be putting out daily Monday through Friday Tennessee Titans content here on the Locked on Titans podcast, not only during training camp, not only during preseason, not only during the regular season, but all year long. Make sure that you never miss an episode of the number one Tennessee Titans podcast in the world by subscribing on whatever platform you stream your podcast or subscribing to the Locked on Titans YouTube page.

And when you do, make sure that you smash that notification bell so you always know when I put up a new show. Also, check me out on social media, on Twitter, at Tic Tac Titans, on Facebook, at Locked on Titans Pod. But we have a lot to go over. Team perspective, the offense, the defense, everything you need to know from Wednesday's joint practice on today's Locked on Titans podcast. Titans fans, let's get it.

Diving into the big themes of the day first. Number one, it was a defensive day overall for the Titans. I would say the number one takeaway from the day on either side, the Tampa Bay side or the Tennessee side, was the Titans defense. The Titans defense got three interceptions on Tom Brady on the day. And while I do have to give you guys the general caveat in these joint practices, you're going to have both teams have wins overall in certain reps, certain situations. No team is typically going to absolutely dominate, and that wasn't the case today.

I'm not saying that the Titans defense dominated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in any way, but it would be naive to say that the Titans defense didn't hold their own and weren't the highlight in the headline of the day. Anytime you get three interceptions on the best quarterback of all time, well, you're doing a pretty good job. And it wouldn't be as big of a deal if it were fluky, if it were something new, a flash in the pan. But the Titans defense has 17 interceptions over the last 14 days of training camp.

So worth noting here that the Titans defense could be on to something when it comes to forcing turnovers And they're gonna need to be the best teams and the best defenses often force turnovers and one formula that we know Can result in a Super Bowl in the NFL is an explosive offense and then a bend don't break Defense that may not be one of the best defenses but gets hot and forces turnovers So you love to see that from the Titans defense. And overall, obviously with the three interceptions, that kind of tells the story right there, but the Titans defensive backs were really, really good today

against the talented Tampa Bay wide receiver and tight end group. Like I said, the obvious caveat, Tampa Bay's receiving group definitely had their wins on this day. It wasn't locked down by any stretch of the imagination. But the Titans are going up against the defending Super Bowl champions with a ton of talent, maybe the best wide receiver group outside of Tennessee. So for all of the success that they had, I think it's something that we should be impressed by. And I'm going to talk about each individual player who made the biggest plays of the day when we break down the Titans defense in our second segment, but continuing to talk about overall team points here. And I just want to make sure that you guys

understand it's not just me. It's not just my analysis and the Tennessee view of things coming from Tampa Bay beat reporter from ESPN, Jenna Lane. She even said on Twitter, quote, the Titans defense is giving them the work today. I mean, that's coming from someone on site with the Bucs. So not just, you know, two tone blue glasses breaking everything down for you. So wanted to make sure that we came out of the bat strong there. The Titans defense was excellent. Again, I'm going to break down the defense and all the individual performances in our next segment. We're going to do that with the offense at the end of our show. But speaking of the offense, the big takeaways overall for the Titans offense on the day, a pretty solid performance,

no turnover. So we'll talk more about that later in the show, but no turnovers. And while the Titans offense didn't make a lot of mistakes, there's one procedural thing that was a concern throughout the day. And it was noted not only by the Tampa Bay beat reporters, but also the Titans reporters as well. The Tennessee Titans offense's pace was much, much slower than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Titans were getting up to the line of scrimmage very slowly. And it's something that Ryan Tannehill talked about after practice.

He said that's something that they have to improve on tomorrow, the tempo. Getting up to the line of scrimmage. Not only does that allow everyone to get settled, to understand their responsibilities on the play, but also it allows Ryan Tannehill to check calls, to change the mic, which is the primary run target, I guess. Every single run play, the quarterback says who the mic defender is on the defense, and that allows the offensive line to set up their blocking schemes,

to set up their protections if it's a pass play. Everything kind of trickles down from there, and it's a domino effect. So the Titans offense has to find a way to move quicker out of the huddle to the line of scrimmage so they can get set, get ready to go, and then make those adjustments if needed based on what the defense is showing them. So something Ryan Tannehill mentioned, the offense is not a bad day, a slow start overall in more than one ways, getting up to the line of scrimmage. The Titans offense started slow as well,

but they really caught fire late in the day, had some really good red zone periods, had some really good team periods, moving the ball against a talented Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense, and especially a talented Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive line. And then the Titans didn't have all of their starting offensive linemen out there, which we really haven't seen a lot of the Titans starting offensive line. And speaking of that, here were the guys who did not participate

in this first joint practice with Tampa Bay on Wednesday. A.J. Brown, Julio Jones, haven't really seen them in almost a week. Julio's even longer. Time to be concerned? I don't know. Seems like the Titans are managing them, but either way, going to hurt the offensive chemistry to never have them out there, at least recently.

Nate Davis and Ben Jones on the offensive line. Been a long time since the Titans have been able to have a full go opportunity with their complete offensive line. Dane Cruikshank, Jeff Swaim also did not play in practice on Wednesday. Darrington Evans, who's still hurt from Friday night's game. Tucker McCann, similar situation there. Danico Autry, haven't seen a lot of Danico Autry in recent weeks. Hoping it's not injury related, but at some point you got to realize he's nursing something

and that's why they just refused to let him practice. Matthias Farley on defense also, so safety issues continue for the Titans. And then Derrick Henry, I can't say that he didn't practice, but like we've seen throughout training camp, just very, very limited. Didn't take place in any of the team workouts or 11 on 11, anything like that. So definitely limiting his workload. And then I also do want to mention here at the end of our first segment that Monty Rice, the rookie inside linebacker, did get hurt during practice. He limped off, was carted off to the locker room.

And I don't want you guys to freak out. Being carted off in training camp is normal. There's no reason for these injured players to walk all the way back to the facility, whether it's a lower body injury or not. It just doesn't make any sense to make them walk after they're hurt. So being carted off doesn't necessarily have the negative connotation that it normally would if it was during a regular game. But that's all of the big takeaways on offense and defense from the Titans'

first joint practice with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Wednesday. We are going to continue zooming in on this joint practice. We're going to talk about the individual performances on defense next and then transition into a conversation about the individual performances on offense. Before we get into that, I do want to tell you guys a little bit more about the title sponsor of our show, rockauto.com. Rockauto.com is a family business that's been serving auto parts customers online for over 20 years.

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We just went over the larger team takeaways. Now let's kind of zoom in and talk about some of the individual performances from Wednesday's practice. And like we did at the beginning of the show, we are going to start with the Tennessee Titans defense and more specifically the Tennessee Titans secondary. And number one, one of the big stars on the day was second year cornerback Christian Fulton. And I continue to say that Fulton and how he plays this season will be a major X factor for the Titans going forward. Can they get starting level cornerback play out of Fulton and can Fulton stay healthy? That's going to be a big key going forward. He had a nice pass breakup on Mike Evans in one-on-ones, had another good pass breakup in

red zone period against Scotty Miller on a throw from Tom Brady. He was making plays all over the field, always around the ball, taking care of his business. So you love to hear that from Christian Fulton. He had a good game on Friday as well. So hopefully he continues to progress. Jack Rabbit Jenkins just continues to be exactly what the Titans paid for a lockdown veteran. He had an awesome pass breakup in one-on-ones against Antonio Brown. They exchanged some words afterward, but it seemed to be friendly words,

jovial words, just good competition, nothing too crazy. Somebody on the defense was barking, but it wasn't Jackrabbit Jenkins, but a great play by him in one-on-ones. And then one of those interceptions. Jackrabbit Jenkins was able to intercept a Tom Brady pass while defending Rob Gronkowski in his zone in zone coverage. Gronk kind of bobbled the ball a little bit, and then Jackrabbit jumped in there and took it away from him.

So making plays, showing leadership, doing everything, again, that the Titans paid for. Next, another big X factor for the Titans, safety Amani Hooker, who, as I mentioned, got 42% of the defensive snaps last year. That's going to skyrocket into the high 80s and low 90s as a starter. He had four interceptions last year and only 42% of the snaps. And he was around the ball all day on Wednesday as well. Imani Hooker was one of those three interceptions to go along with Jack Rabbit Jenkins.

His interception came on Tom Brady as well. He had his hands all over the ball all day long, making pass breakups. And of course, that interception over the middle of the field. Imani Hooker just continues to make plays throughout camp. He's been another training camp star so far. A lot of people seem very, very high on what he can do, and quite frankly, I've been talking about Imani Hooker since last season and how I loved him being used in that diamond role as the third safety.

And just a quick breakdown. Someone asked me on Twitter the other day to explain the difference between nickel and dime. Nickel is five defensive backs. Typically, you'd have three cornerbacks and then your two safeties. Dime is six defensive backs out on the field. You typically have four cornerbacks and then your two safeties. But what the Titans like to do, especially in previous years,

they would use Imani Hooker, Kenny Vaccaro, and Kevin Byard as three safeties with three cornerbacks. And that's how they would run their diamond set. I call that diamond when they do that, but it's a version of dime sub package. So there you go. That's a quick breakdown within the breakdown for you guys. But Imani Hooker, a great day. Next, a guy who I've really been high on,

I'm certainly hoping can get some really good reps in the regular season out there in nickel packages, and that is cornerback Elijah Molden, the rookie. He had the third interception of Tom Brady. Now, his interception was a little different. It wasn't during the team periods that the other two interceptions from Hooker and Jackrabbit came, but Elijah Molden's was in one-on-one drills. And if we're being honest, it's much more difficult to get an interception in one-on-one drills to make an interception in 1v1. That's a great play from Elijah Moulton who cut underneath the wide receiver on an out-breaking route.

So imagine the wide receiver's running. He darts to the outside towards the sideline. Elijah Moulton staying on his outside hip and then darts underneath and is able to intercept it on the sideline. Just a beautiful play. I retweeted the video on Twitter at TicTacTitans if you want to check me out there. Moving forward, though, Caleb Farley.

Just want to give you guys a report here. He had ups and downs on the day. He spent a lot of time guarding Rob Gronkowski. We didn't get an exact report on whether that meant that Caleb Farley spent a lot of time in the slot for the Titans, but I might have an inkling that that is the case. So be on the lookout for that. But spent a lot of time on Rob Gronkowski.

Did have a really awesome pass breakup in 1v1 against Mike Evans down the sideline where he was able to—basically Mike Evans got his hands on the ball and Caleb Farley was able to punch through the middle of it. Just excellent technique on the sideline against one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. So Caleb Farley had ups and downs, got beat, made some plays, but his best play of the day, obviously, that pass breakup. Moving out of the secondary, some other players on the defense had good days. And again, Jayon Brown has just been excellent throughout training camp.

He spent a ton of the day guarding Rob Gronkowski over the middle of the field, and he had great plays knocking the ball away from Gronkowski in 7-on-7. Moved that on into the team period in 11-on-11 and just continuously made plays over the middle of the field in pass coverage. On the defensive line, we saw some awesome matchups. Larell Murchison and Pro Bowl guard Allie Marpet were going at it. They were trading wins. Larell Murchison got Allie Marpet on a spin move and a bull rush. Allie Marpet got Larell Murchison a couple of times stonewalling him. So love to see that iron sharpens iron, baby, as everybody says.

And then similarly, Jeffrey Simmons against center Ryan Jensen. Excellent center, Ryan Jensen from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They were going at it, but Simmons had a few really good wins, a bull rush on Jensen, was able to bust through a double team that Jensen was involved in. So Jeffrey Simmons starting to get that recognition, and it's obvious why. So that's the defense, and I do also want to mention

while we talk about Jeffrey Simmons, when I teased earlier that there was a Titan barking, that was that big was a Titan barking, that was that big boy Jeff out there, 80 yards away from some of the action, and reports are that he was barking at the Buccaneers, letting them know. And I love that tenacity. I love that confidence and that swagger.

A good defense needs to have that physical, aggressive, we are going to hit you in the mouth, and we're going to like it attitude. And Jeffrey Simmons is the epitome of that for the Titans defense. But we are going to continue breaking down everything you need to know from Wednesday's joint practice against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Now we're going to dive into some of the individual performances on the offensive side of the ball. Before we get into that though, do want to remind you guys about betonline.ag, the fastest and easiest way to bet on all your sports action. Football season right around the

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So head over there, use that promo code LOCKEDON, BetOnline, your online sportsbook experts. We are going to cap off this Thursday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast, breaking down all of the individual offensive performances of note from Titans joint practice against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Wednesday. Remember, we already talked about the big team takeaways to start the show. Talked about the individual defensive performances just a second ago. guys, that betting on the Titans doesn't have to be a guessing game when you listen to the Locked on Bets podcast hosted by your boy Q and handicapping expert Lee Sterling. You can get daily picks, blowout specials, wrong team favorite picks, and Lee Sterling's lock of the day.

Follow the Locked on Bets podcast brought to you by betonline.ag, wherever you get your podcast. But let's get into these offensive performances. Number one, do got to remind you guys what we talked about at the beginning. The offense started slow, and a lot of that had to do with the one-on-one period, wide receivers versus defensive backs. And while the Titans may have started slow, have to be a big note here that A.J. Brown and Julio didn't play. So, I mean, outside of Josh Reynolds, who we're going to talk about next,

Titans didn't really have a lot of top-end talent. I know that we're all high on Chester Rogers and Marcus Johnson and all the other guys, but, you know, they're going up against number one cornerbacks from a great defense who just won the Super Bowl. It's not, you know, going to be easy for these backup and depth guys to go up against the starters for Tampa Bay and win a bunch. So a slow start, but as Ryan Tannehill intimated,

the Titans did eventually get rolling. Again, like I said, they had no interceptions on the day, so mistake-free football. And when you look at the Buccaneers, who threw three interceptions, I mean, that's a good day for Ryan Tannehill to take care of the ball. Ryan Tannehill did a lot of good stuff. We'll talk about him in just a second. But yeah, the 1v1s, Titans started slow,

but the wide receivers picked it up at the end. Talking about Josh Reynolds. He had a deep catch down the field in 1v1s later in the period. He had some really good catches down the field and over the middle in team period. And while the Titans were working on red zone period against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense, Josh Reynolds had a really nice catch to score a two-point conversion. So a pretty good day for Josh Reynolds who looked, dare I say, explosive. Anyways, moving forward.

Chester Rogers had a very good day again. And got to shout out Ben Arthur, one of the reporters who follows the Titans. He even said Chester Rodgers was making catches left and right out of the slot. At one point in time during team period, Chester Rodgers had three straight catches in a row from Ryan Tannehill moving the ball down the field. So we've talked about how the Titans will use these big physical wide receivers and who will end up in the slot. Well, it kind of seems like Chester Rogers would be out there on the field

as the slot guy over someone like Josh Reynolds. Or maybe they would rather have Julio and AJ on the outsides and Chester Rogers at slot and kind of use Josh Reynolds more as a rotation with the outside guys. I don't know. It's going to be very interesting to watch going into the season. But either way, it looks like Chester Rogers definitely has sealed up a roster spot. Another guy who looks like he's got a roster spot sealed up is Marcus Johnson, who had a very good day making catches, being reliable,

is one of the number one wide receivers out there for the Titans with the starters, had a touchdown catch during red zone period, just making good plays. And all three of those guys, Reynolds, Rogers, and Marcus Johnson, got shouted out by Ryan Tannehill in his press conference after practice. And speaking of Ryan Tannehill, like I said, no interceptions, but he ran in a two-point conversion. He was striking the ball all over the field, hitting it to his guys. Yes, there are ups and downs.

Yes, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense won some plays, won some reps. But overall, a very efficient shocker, Ryan Tannehill, with the efficiency. A very efficient, very good day for Ryan Tannehill. Another wide receiver who got some love from Ryan Tannehill, Nick Westbrook-Akina, very good in 1v1s, getting increased opportunities. And he's a big body. He's one of those big physical wide receivers. Had a big catch downfield using his frame.

Love to see that as well, again, against a talented Buccaneers defense. The last thing I want to mention here is Des Fitzpatrick, the rookie wide receiver who's been struggling as of late. He did have a catch in 7-on-7 period, but he also had another bad drop on the day. At some point, you got to start feeling for the kid. He's in his own head. You don't want these guys to fail. You never want anybody to fail. And as a guy, he's a better player than he's been showing recently, even if I was down on the pick. Either way, hope he can kind of get his head right, get things back together, and be the player that he's supposed to be, even if

that isn't some star starting wide receiver. You know, obviously right now, things are not going well, and he's got to be, like I said, in his own head. So, feel for him there. It's tough to come out of those mental slumps in sports sometimes. So, shout out to Dez. We need you to do well.

Hope that you do your best going forward. And then finally, can't forget special teams. Never, never will I forget special teams. Sam Ficken with Tucker McCann out, strangling the opportunity. Nine for ten on his kicks on the day. Nine for ten. That's, woo. That's insane. That's good whoo. That's insane.

That's good stuff. Only missed a 48 yarder. So, great job by Sam Thicken. He's been kicking. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, guys. I had to do it. I had to do it. The last thing that I want to say to you guys before we get out of here for the day, make sure that you check out the Locked On NFL

show today. I'm going to be hosting, and based on what I know right now, it's going to be me by myself. So only two weeks in, and I've already had a hostile takeover of the Locked On NFL Thursday show. No, really, it's just some travel issues for my co-host. But either way, I would appreciate your support over there. And I did leave this out of my notes, so I want to come back to it because it's worth noting. Tom Brady had a very interesting quote in his press conference after practice. Basically he applauded the Tennessee Titans defense. He said, you know, they blitz, they play coverage, they disguise, they do all the things that good defenses do.

And Tom Brady even said they were able to confuse the Buccaneers offense a little bit today. And the Bucs have to do better tomorrow was his takeaway. So anytime you got the best quarterback of all time, give him praise to your defense after he threw three interceptions in practice. I mean, I know we could take it with a grain of salt as we're going to do, but starting to get optimistic about the defense. Oh, it reminds me of the, what is it, the office meme. Yep, I'm ready to be hurt again. So let's all pray for ourselves that the optimism doesn't get too crazy and then the Titans defense is more like last year than we're hoping. But either way, a good start.

I'm going to be on the Locked on Titans podcast tomorrow on a Friday to break down everything you need to know from Thursday's practice and also get you ready for Saturday night's preseason game against the Bucs. So it's here. A lot of football ahead. Very excited. Make sure that you subscribe to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream.

Subscribe to the Locked on Titans YouTube page. Smash that do stream. Subscribe to the Locked on Titans YouTube page. Smash that notification bell so you know when I put up a new episode. That's going to do it for me today, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans. Thank you.