Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Kevin Byard RETURNS to Mini-Camp, Defensive Wins Again & Offense in Motion

Episode Date: June 6, 2023

The Tennessee Titans kicked off mandatory mini-camp on Tuesday and Kevin Byard was BACK in action!! Byard had a major impact on the Titans in day one of his return! Next, the Titans defense won the day again. A trio of defensive players really showed up and made it tough on the offense. Finally, it wasn't all doom and gloom for the Titans offense as the use of motion seems to be a focus for them in 2023.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BirddogsGo to birddogs.com/lockedonnfl and when you enter promo code, LOCKEDONNFL, they’ll throw in a free custom birddogs Yeti-style tumbler with every order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kevin Byard is back and he's dominating Tennessee Titans practice. We're going to talk about that. Plus recap everything you need to know from day one of Tennessee Titans minicamp on today's edition of the locked on Titans podcast. Let's get it. You are locked on Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.

Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland, Titans fans. Day one of Tennessee Titans minicamp took place on Tuesday. I'm breaking down everything you need to know, including Kevin Byard's return, the defense dominating again, and why the offense is in motion. Before we get into all of that, I do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by Bird Dogs. Go to birddogs.com slash locked on NFL, and when you enter the promo code locked on NFL,

they'll throw in a free custom Bird Dogs Yeti style tumbler with every order. God, I love those Bird Dogs shorts, but we'll talk about that later on. Do want to thank you guys for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. Remember, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content on YouTube, your favorite podcast app all year round, always for free. Make sure that you get subscribed, stay subscribed to the Locked On Titans podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, where

it's your team every day. Shout out to my everydayers out there as well. We started off the week talking about how the Titans can hit their ceiling as a team, but we got three mini camp practices dive into, and we're diving into day one. And of course, the biggest story

was the return of Kevin Byard. Kevin Byard was back with the Titans in it, and we're diving into day one. And of course, the biggest story was the return of Kevin Byard. Kevin Byard was back with the Titans in it, and it makes sense. Let's all be honest here. Kevin Byard doesn't want to rock the boat in a way that creates a big, dramatic storyline around the team. And look, the OTAs in May, they were voluntary. So Mike Vrabel explained those away, said Kevin Byard's doing fine, not an issue, all that. And again, they were voluntary. So Mike Grable explained those away, said Kevin Byard's doing fine, not an issue, all that. And again, they're voluntary.

But if Kevin Byard missed mandatory minicamp, not only would it cause drama, but he would lose money as well. So that's obviously something that he didn't want to do. And the big drama surrounding the Titans with Kevin Byard kind of can relax now, now that Byard is back in the building. Now that Byard is back in the building. But he wasn't just back in the building.

Byard was back on the practice field as well. And doing exactly what Kevin Byard does. One of the biggest plays of the day was the Titans defense. Shutting down the offense. And Kevin Byard knocking a pass away from Chica Conquo over the middle of the field. The defense went wild. It was kind of one of those moments, you know what I mean, that happen as you build your team.

Of course, these OTAs, these mini camps, do they mean as much as training camp practices? Do they mean as much as the regular season? No, but there's a constant battle between does this matter? Does this not matter? If you've ever played on a football team or any kind of team sport grouping, you know that it's not always about the importance of the practice. It's about just building camaraderie with your teammates and building that sense of togetherness. Having Bayard back out there

clearly charged up the rest of his teammates because when Bayard was able to make that play, the sideline reacted, the defense cheered, it got everybody going. Kevin Bayard is a leader on this team, and this is kind of something that his coaches talked about when he was not at OTAs, and this is something that Jeffrey Simmons talked about as well,

and some of the new guys have talked about with Kevin Bayard and wanting him to be out on the field. He just has an aura about him. He just has a standing about him in the NFL that other players respect him. They look up to him. So when Byard goes out there and makes a big play in team setting, well, the rest of the defense is like, yeah, that's my leader taking you out and it fires people up. So Byard has that impact, not only on the box score, not only on the team's performance, but just the feeling of the guys on defense as well. And that wasn't the only play that Byard made. He made the big pass breakup on Chig, as I just mentioned, but also on a third and short play in team period, Byard made a stop on a pass play to Tajay Spears behind the line of scrimmage

that would have prevented a first down. I mean, it's plays like that that instill confidence. In the defense, Bayard has that effect. So to have the mayor back in the building, absolutely fantastic. Now, Kevin Bayard didn't talk to the media. And I'm sure that with all of the rumors surrounding him this offseason,

he may be a little bit frustrated. It would be understandable. The team asked you to take a pay cut despite having 100 tackles and four interceptions last year and playing in every game again. Well, no, I'm not going to take a pay cut. Then you hear rumors about a trade, a release, all of that stuff. It just had to frustrate a true professional like Kevin Byard,

who's literally given everything to this team from the moment that he was drafted by the Titans in 2016. So glad to have Kevin Byard back. It's okay that he's not talking to the media. I'm sure that he'll talk to the media later in the week and answer all the questions that everybody wants to hear about how he's feeling, about all the drama and all of that. But what matters most is that Bayard is back with the team. He's back on the practice field. And that's exactly what we saw. So the drama is over. Braybill was asked about

Kevin Bayard. He said he looks in shape. He knows what to do. And at the end of the day, one thing sticks out to me. And this is just me not breaking down minicamp, but just as a fan of the team, and I'll be honest with you, Kevin Byard may be my favorite Tennessee Titans player of all time. I mean, it's that simple. As my everydayers know, he's the only Tennessee Titans jersey that I own.

So I am a big Kevin Byard fan. I have been since the morning he was drafted. Something about Byard when he was drafted, I just knew. I get a lot of draft guesses wrong, guys. I do. But Byard was just somebody who I believed in from the start. And me and my brother both,

and shout out to my brother who got married this weekend. But if this season is truly a last dance of sorts with Tannehill, with Henry, with Bayard, maybe, you know, even Danico Autry. We could see Christian Fulton gone. We could see Thierry Tartt gone. I mean, there could be a big change next offseason with some of the players that

we've come to rely on every Sunday. If this is the last dance for Kevin Bayard with the Titans, I'm going to enjoy it. So, I absolutely loved, absolutely loved hearing the reports today

that Bayard was making plays, firing up his teammates, back like he never left. This may be the last chance to enjoy the best defensive back in team history. I mean, he's up there. He's in the conversation for certain. I would go with Kevin Bayard personally, but that's a topic for another day.

But either way, all I'm saying is, guys, enjoy this. Enjoy all of these moments. Don't take them from granted. It's just minicamp. It's just, I don't care. Don't take it for granted. Let's enjoy this. But Kevin Byard's back.

We got more minicamp to break down. The defense won the day again, but Sean Murphy bunting and some edge rushers were the highlights. So we're going to get into that in just a moment. Before we get into it, do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by Bird Dogs. Listen guys, I love these shorts. I love their joggers. I mean, I love bird dogs. I literally look forward. I look forward to wearing their clothes anytime that I go golfing,

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That's birddogs.com slash locked on NFL for a free Yeti-style Tumblr. You won't want to take your bird dogs off. We promise you. I can personally attest to that. With it being summertime and it's about to get hot, there is no better time to get yourself a pair of bird dogs. Titans fans, let's continue today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. We are recapping everything you need to know from day one of Tennessee Titans minicamp. We talked about Kevin Byard's return and the plays he was making out there

in team period during practice, his impact on the locker room and the team in general, and how we just need to soak up these moments while we can. But we're going to talk about the defense a little bit more because there were some other defenders making plays for the Titans. At the end of the show, we're going to talk about the Tennessee Titans offense because there's one wrinkle that the offense is starting to show that I think is very, very interesting. Before we get into all of it, I want to thank you guys again

for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen each and every day, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content all year round, always for free on YouTube, your favorite podcast app. Make sure that you get subscribed and stay subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast. For my everydayers, throughout the rest of the week, all of the Titans minicamp practices are open in the media.

So I'm going to be breaking it down with you, recapping it with you every single night on YouTube, every single morning for my podcast crowd. Make sure, again, that you get subscribed. Stay subscribed. And if you're watching, throw a thumbs up on the video right now. I don't ask for any money. The show's always free. If you could, just throw me a press of a button,

and it definitely helps out the show a lot. But diving back into my notes here from minicamp, a little hydration break. Take a drink of water, everybody. It's hot. It's summertime. Mmm. Now that is some high quality H2O. But the defense won the day again, guys.

And I have a feeling that this is going to be something that we hear quite a bit. Defense won the day. Well, number one, there's just a lot more talent on the Titans' defense than there is on the offense. That's number one. Number two, this is a brand new offense. And I mean that in two different ways.

It's a brand new offense in the sense of totally new scheme, total new terminology, adding different wrinkles in the passing game. So there are going to be some bumps in the road as guys figure out, hey, when we run this play and the defense does this, I need you to be here.

Hey, when the defense aligns this way and we run this certain play, we're going to have to fire out and block it this certain way. The Titans are going to have to go through all those wrinkles as they're learning and developing in a brand new offense. So that's number two. But number three, it's a brand new offense in terms of the players. I mean, three new pieces on the offensive line and a position change on the offensive line. New tight ends, two out of the three with Wesco and Wiley. Other than Burks and Phillips and NWI,

you're going to have a new cast of wide receivers. Maybe Rayce McMath sneaks in there and there's some carryover there, but with Chris Moore in there, Kyle Phillips missed most of the season last year, so you could basically call him a new wide receiver. A lot of new pieces on offense, learning a brand new offense, less talent in general.

The defense is going to win a lot, guys, and they should, and they should. It would probably be concerning if the Titans defense didn't win, but how did they win on Tuesday? Well, number one, tons of pass breakups. Titans were doing a great job. And it was all the quarterbacks this time. We talked last week where there was a day where Levis really struggled. Malik had his struggles, but Tannehill looked pretty sharp. Tannehill completed some passes to Burks. He completed some other underneath stuff,

but Tannehill had some passes off as well. He missed wide at one point to Burks. Missed some other passes that got knocked away by the defense. So I wouldn't say any of the quarterbacks had a very good day at minicamp on Tuesday. So shout out to the defense there again. Multiple pass breakups and Sean Murphy bunting. There were a lot of defensive backs missing over the last few weeks

at different points and times. But Sean Murphy Bunting has been around. And there was no Christian Fulton, no Caleb Farley, no Elijah Molden. Three cornerbacks not available. But Sean Murphy Bunting is out there grinding. And he had two really good pass breakups on Traylon Burks.

Quote from Jim Wyatt, he said, Traylon Burks was suffocated for a lot of the day. Now, that's something that I'll probably talk about a little more later on. But a bit worried that Traylon Burks is the only NFL caliber wide receiver that the Titans have and therefore defenses already are like well, we'll take away Burks and then what are you going to do? Titans defense is doing that in minicamp. You don't think that NFL teams are going to

figure that? Anyways, again, that's a conversation for a later day, but these reports are already making me a little bit nervous. But Sean Murphy bunting, locked down, trailing Burks a little bit, made a couple pass breakups. That's great. A lot of pressure on Tannehill and the quarterbacks. Danico Autry and Arden Key.

Danico Autry was back. That's a big thing here that I wanted to make sure to let you guys know in the defensive section. Autry was back and made his presence felt. According to Teron Davenport from ESPN, he basically said Arden Key and Danico Autry are going to be a nasty combination off the edge this year. And that's great news because that'll allow Harold Landry to maybe be rotated in and out a little bit more, you know, rather than playing the high 80s amount of,

high 80s percentage amount of snaps that he plays most years into the 90s, quite frankly. But we talked about Autry's or Harold Landry's importance earlier this week. My everydayers will remember that when we talked about

what needed to go right for the Titans to hit their ceiling on defense, but the Nico Autry back, that's great news. Arden Key continues to show out and be a standout in practice. That's huge as well. Worth noting here, Aziz, Al Shire, and Amani

Hooker both came out and literally said to the media, oh, the defense won today. Aziz said, I couldn't disagree with that when Amani Hooker said it. So it's obviously something that the defense is wanting to do. And early on here with all of the things that I talked about with the offense, it only makes sense that the Titans defense would be working. But there is something exciting about the offense that I do want to get into.

And we'll also talk about some guys on the offensive side of the ball who are not at mandatory minicamp, or at least not participating in practice on Tuesday as well. So we'll get into all of that in just a moment. Titans fans, let's cap off today's recap of day one of Tennessee Titans mandatory minicamp. We already talked about Kevin Byard and his return, how he looked. We talked about the defense overall and how they

won the day against the offense. But there were some encouraging things from the Titans offense that we saw in some of the videos, that we saw in some of the reports coming out of practice, and I want to get into those. Before I do, I want to thank you guys again for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. Remember, I'm going to be

recapping minicamp for you guys every single day going forward throughout the rest of the week. They got a couple more practices, one on Wednesday, one on Thursday. So make sure that you get subscribed. Stay subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast so you never miss any of the daily free content that I'll be putting out for you guys here on the show.

But diving into the offense, yes, the defense won the day. But if you'll see on my little show run, it's over here, show rundown over here, offense in motion. So one of the big things for the Titans that we talked about earlier when we heard from Chika Conqua and we've heard some other people about the offenses. The Titans are really looking to move quickly on offense. They're really looking to catch people off guard with their positioning. They're really looking to outflank defenses with how quickly they move the positions they put defenses in. Well, it should be no surprise then that the big takeaway from the Titans'

offensive minicamp is the amount of motion that they're using back and forth across the formation. And one of the main guys who's involved in that is rookie running back Tajay Spears. And I've been talking for a few weeks now about how Tajay Spears is being used as a weapon, not just a running back. He's being moved around the formation. And now we're not just talking about alignment.

We're talking literally he is being moved around the formation pre-stamp with the motion. And one thing that I thought really stood out to me about how much the Titans are incorporating motion in the offense, even in the individual quarterback drills where it's just the quarterbacks doing drills. All of the videos that we saw from practice

faking a man in motion. Faking a jet handoff off motion going into a pass. The Titans are practicing in their individual drills to account for the amount of motion that the offense will have. And when you add in some of the philosophical notes that we've heard earlier about outflanking

guys, about moving quickly, that all lines up and makes sense. Titans are going to get guys in motion and even Aziz Alshire talked earlier, I said it one way for like two months and then tried to correct it. Now I'm going back and forth between them. My god, I'm getting dominated out here like the Titans offense.

But Alshire said that the amount of motion has been, I don't think the word that he used was difficult, but it's something you've got to pay attention to. It's been moving the defense back and forth. And for somebody who is a linebacker who gets matched up on the running back a lot, that's something that he's had to account for. I guess Aziz and Tajay Spears have been going against each other a ton in practice in these situations, in team situations. And Aziz even said that him and Tajay talk crap to each other back and forth, good-natured stuff. He's ribbing him in the locker room, all that kind of stuff.

So love to hear about that camaraderie, that back and forth. Even as he said it, iron sharpens iron, all of that stuff, all those cliches that you want to hear. But it just got me really excited to see the quarterbacks working so heavily on incorporating motion in their individual drills, hearing all of the conversation after practice about the motion being used. I think that's really, really important. So moving away from that, just one or a couple last notes here. Trey Wolf, the undrafted free agent kicker out of Texas Tech, seven for nine

on the day. So we went eight for eight, eight for eight in the first two open practices to media and OTAs, seven for nine in mandatory minicamp here on day one, but puzzling, Caleb Shudick still hasn't kicked at a practice that was open to media. You can only assume that he's not kicking, period, then, right?

Why would the Titans just not let Caleb Shudick kick for the media but let Trey Wolfe? It doesn't make sense. So clearly, there's an injury there to monitor. Should have missed his opportunity last year because of an injury. I mean, some guys' bodies just aren't built for professional football. So that's something that we have to monitor going forward. I told you guys that Farley and Molden and Fulton

weren't out on the practice field. Josh Thompson and Sam Okweanonu and Harold Landry also weren't out on the field for the defense, and Dylan Radins and Trevon Wesko still not present for the offense. Wesko was expected to come in and play the Jeff Swaim role, which should mean a great amount of snaps and an important role in the offense. If Wesko hasn't been out there at all for OTAs, at all for the first day of mandatory minicamp, definitely an injury.

But to me, that just gives more and more opportunities to Josh Wiley and Chika Conquo to play together, to get used to playing together, to develop who's going to do what and what roles they can serve on the field at the same time, which for better or for worse, I think that pushes and forces the Titans offense to use their better pass catchers,

which I think will be incredibly important when the season rolls around. But that is going to do it for me today, folks. Day one of Titans mandatory minicamp is in the books. Again, I'm going to be back with you guys all week to break down the rest of mandatory minicamp. That is going to do it for me today, though, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland,

and this is Locked on Titan.