Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Make Bevy of Roster Moves, Training Camp Concerns and Questions

Episode Date: August 6, 2021

On today's Locked On Titans Podcast: The Titans churned the back end of the roster on Thursday. Tyler discusses each move and why it was made. Then, Tyler dives into listeners' concerns and questions so far through training camp Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPodSupport 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. 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 Friday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast is presented by the Peacock and Williamson podcast. NFL analyst Brian Peacock and former NFL scout Matt Williamson host Locked On's Peacock and Williamson podcast. NFL analyst Brian Peacock and former NFL scout Matt Williamson host Locked On's Peacock and Williamson every Monday through Friday.

Brian and Matt give you a national perspective on all of the latest NFL news, so make sure you check out the Peacock and Williamson podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, wherever you get your podcast. Week two of the Tennesseeed On Podcast Network, wherever you get your podcast. Week 2 of the Tennessee Titans 2021 training camp is now in the books. The Titans had an off day on Thursday, and they used that off day to churn the back end of the roster. We got a flurry of roster moves from the Tennessee Titans on Thursday including the release of

Someone who I personally have been a big fan of so a sad day for your boy when it comes to the roster Transactions, but I'm gonna tell you who exactly got cut who exactly got signed and why we saw those moves Then we are gonna move into a little bit of a Friday mailbag. So there's so much going on right now throughout Titans training camp. Been bringing you training camp practice recaps basically every single day. And it hasn't given us a proper opportunity for a mailbag. So since the Titans were off on Thursday, we had a little bit of an opening in the schedule on the final day of the week. I wanted to get your guys' current concerns, current questions surrounding Titans training camp. So for the last two segments of the day, we are going to dive into your questions.

Remember, you can always get those questions in by sending them to me on Twitter at TicTacTitans or putting them as a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. at Tic Tac Titans or putting them as a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. But a lot of roster moves to talk about and answering your guys' questions on a Friday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Let's get it! We are going to kick off this Friday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast by diving into all of the roster moves that the Titans made on Thursday. Before we get into that though, do want to remind you guys that I'm going to be putting out Monday through Friday daily Tennessee Titans content here on the Locked on Titans podcast all year long.

There's not another Titans content creator that can say that. So make sure that you never miss an episode by subscribing to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream. Follow me on social media, on Twitter at TicTacTitans, on Facebook at LockedOnTitansPod. But the first roster move that we're going to get into brings me some sadness. I do have to say. My boy, Deshaun Kaiser.

One of the Titans' backup quarterbacks who was on the practice squad for most of the year last year. Competing for the backup quarterback spot in camp this year. Was released on Thursday. Now, there's two different reasons why. Number one, Deshaun Kizer did injure his hand at the end of practice on Wednesday. So how serious that injury is, we don't know. And it definitely could have played a factor into Deshaun Kizer being cut. But do have to also mention, which really pains me,

that Deshaun Kizer has been very underwhelming in camp according to reports. He hasn't played very well, he's been disorganized, he hasn't been incredibly accurate either, so he has not impressed the coaching staff which, combined with the injury to his throwing hand, could have just led them to say, hey, let's go ahead and move on. Now, in his place, the Titans have signed veteran backup quarterback Matt Barkley, who is famous for his time as the starting quarterback at USC. He most recently spent three seasons with the Buffalo Bills. He only ended up playing in five games, played in all five of those during the 2020 season,

had 11 completions on 21 passes for 197 yards one touchdown and one interception before he was with the bills he spent some time with the eagles spent some time with the cardinals the bears the 49ers and the bangles so quite the journeyman for matt barkley but he's going to come in the titans need bodies right now they're getting ready to go into preseason the titans can not only have two quarterbacks who are available because that would force Ryan Tannehill to make many more throws than the Titans coaching staff is going to want to have him to make. And you only have Logan Woodside out there.

Think, for most of the preseason, we're only going to see Ryan Tannehill for one drive. You can't have only Logan Woodside out there in practice to run as a quarterback or only Logan Woodside to play during the preseason. One, Logan Woodside is not good enough to solidify his spot this early. And then also, just for the reality of a football team, you're going to need three functioning quarterbacks during training camp to make everything work. So it makes a lot of sense.

Bring in Matt Barkley. See if he can push Logan Woodside for the backup quarterback spot. But definitely disappointing to see my boy Deshaun Kizer flame out this early, whether it's injury or poor performance. Either way, he will not be back with the Titans, at least immediately. The Titans also made some other moves as well. They added a couple veteran offensive linemen. Number one is Brent Qualley.

Qualley spent his most recent time in the NFL in 2020 with the Houston Texans. He played in 14 games, so definitely experience. He played in 63 games with the New York Jets from 2014 to 2019. He's worked at both tackle and guard, so he's got some versatility as well. And we're going to talk at the end of the segment about why the Titans are doing this. They also added another offensive lineman in Ross Reynolds. You look at Reynolds, he's a big guy, six foot four, 300 pounds, played football at Iowa last year. He was on the Patriots practice squad. He's going to compete most likely on the interior of the offensive line. And that is specifically

where the Titans need the most help. The Titans also signed a tight end, Donnie Ernstberger, and if you look at Ernstberger, he's 6'3", 241 pounds. He was an undrafted free agent out of the 2018 draft. He spent training camp with the Jaguars in 2019, but his most recent football experience was for the D.C. Defenders in the XFL. So those are the signings that the Titans made on the day.

Again, to recap that, Mack Barkley, Donnie Ensberger, Brent Qualley, and Ross Reynolds. So those are the signings. The Titans waved to Sean Kizer, as I mentioned, but opening up more roster spots due to injury. The Titans also placed cornerback Greg Maben on the injured reserve. And then an offensive lineman who was just recently signed, Spencer Pooley. I thought Spencer Pooley had a great chance to compete to make this roster as an interior offensive lineman. He was placed on IR, only played a couple of practices with the Titans before going on IR, and that's why we see the offensive lineman. He was placed on IR, only played a couple of practices with the Titans before going

on IR, and that's why we see the offensive linemen in Qualley and Reynolds added to the line. Mike Rabel talked yesterday about how the Titans are experiencing so many problems with the offensive line depth that it's becoming an issue with running training camp. Like I talked about with the quarterback position, you need, when we talk about training camp bodies, he's a camp body, this is what I mean. You need enough players out there to operate training camp in the capacity that you need to. And if the Titans don't have enough offensive linemen

out there to have three or four full offensive lines to run teams during training camp, it's gonna be an issue. You're either gonna have to give more reps to veteran guys who don't need more reps, jeopardizing their health, or you're going to have young guys out there completely dead tired and not being able to give the defense a good look because they've taken too many reps and they can't hold up throughout the entirety of training camp.

So those are all issues, which is why we're seeing the Titans do this. But the reality here is the Titans and general manager John Robinson have been churning the roster over and over and over on the back end to try to get the best possible players in here and get a look at multiple different guys. So this is just going with that general trend as well. Now, we are going to move into your guys' training camp questions on a fan-made Friday. Before we do, got to tell you guys about the best tasting protein bars ever from our friends over at Built Bar. Right now, they have nine delicious flavors on the website, including two of my favorites, the cookies and cream and the salted caramel.

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of the United States track and field team. So make sure you go to built.com today. Use that promo code LOCKED15. That's one word, LOCKED15. And you'll get 15% off your first order. Once again, use promo code LOCKED15 for 15% off at built.com. Titans fans we are going to continue this Friday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast by diving into some of your questions we're going to make this a little fan made Friday I'm going to answer any of your questions or concerns from Titans training camp.

The first question that I have here is from Diego on Twitter. And he says, any concern about this very young cornerback group? Practicing against AJ and Julio can bring more toughness for the young fellas. Yeah, I think going up against AJ every day is definitely good for the cornerback group. That iron sharpens iron. That's a real thing. Unfortunately, they haven't seen a lot of Julio Jones or Josh Reynolds even because of the injuries and because of being limited during camp.

So that hasn't really helped a lot. I do have to say I do have some concern about the young cornerback group. Imagine if, and I will tease a little bit of a question I'm going to answer later, but imagine if Norris Jenkins got hurt and the Titans were trotting out Caleb Farley, a rookie who just got into practice, Elijah Molden, a middle round rookie from the third round, and then Christian Fulton, who's basically still a rookie because he barely played last year. That would be concerning for sure. So anytime you're one injury away from really being in a bad spot where you got to play three rookies,

yeah, I think it's okay to have concern. But the Titans decided to put the money towards the pass rush in the defensive line and go with youth in the secondary. That's worked around the NFL quite a bit, especially if you look at Tampa Bay last year. So I have my concerns, but I don't think it was a bad decision to go that route either. Next, Jorge Espinoza said, so are we still signing Gostkowski or are they really choosing from these two kickers? I am concerned.

I don't understand why there hasn't been contact with Gostkowski do the Titans really not believe in him after what we saw last year from him after we changed long snappers he was excellent multiple game winning kicks last year especially down the stretch so

I mean it's looking like they aren't it's looking like they're going to choose between Tucker McCann and Sam Ficken quite frankly I don choose between Tucker McCann and Sam Ficken. Quite frankly, I don't think Tucker McCann deserves to be in the running anymore at this point. I think it's obvious he's not going to be a consistent enough field goal kicker. Now, he can punt, too. So, I get having him on the practice squad as a guy who can fill in for the kicker or the punter. But I just don't see him as a realistic option to be the Titans kicker on day one. I think it'll be Sam Ficken and I'm still holding out hope that it'll be Gostkowski, but starting to look less likely

as we get closer to the season. Next question from Jay Cruz and Jay said, Josh Reynolds watch begins. Yeah. Yeah. At this point in time, I think we do have to be worried about Josh Reynolds. He's been out of training camp the longest out of anybody. And a big part that I talked about schematically of how the Titans will be helping themselves will be using those big physical wide receivers. If you lose Josh Reynolds, the next big physical wide receiver you would want to have that actually stick their nose in and block and you can rely on would maybe be Nick Westbrook. But him as a receiver and the talent there is such a drop off from Josh Reynolds that I think that would be a big blow to the Titans.

So definitely concerning that Josh Reynolds has not been able to participate in practice, especially when he's a new signing, learning a new offense. Next, from Jay Cruz as well, had a few questions in here. Can Elijah Molden realistically take a spot from Christian Fulton? Or is Fulton locked to be the starter? I think Fulton will be a starter on the outside, but I think Elijah Molden absolutely would be the starter in the slot over Christian Fulton. I just don't think that Fulton is a slot guy long term.

And I think Elijah Molden could be one of the better slot guys in the league. Maybe not early on. He'll have to grow into that. But that sort of potential and just as good of a player as he is right now, I think Elijah Molden would definitely be the starter at slot over Christian Fulton. Then finally, the last question here from Jay Cruz, do you see Rashawn Evans or Harold Landry being traded before the end of the season? Rashawn Evans maybe, but definitely not Harold Landry. Manuel Berrios question said, I think they should let Evans take more snaps away from Henry.

Way too many carries over the past three years. A fresh Henry at the end of the season and for the playoffs is just trouble for the rest of the AFC. And I agree. And I think they will do that. And it's good to see Derek Henry really hasn't participated in a team part of practice like 11 on 11 at all the entire training camp because the coaching staff knows. There's no need to do that. Now, I think that that philosophy should extend into the regular season. One, the Titans took Darrington Evans in the third round. He needs to be a good player.

There are third-round running backs, fourth-round running backs who are the number one player on their team, the number one back on their team. Look at James Robinson as an undrafted free agent last year of the third-most rushing yards in the NFL. There's no reason that a third round running back isn't talented enough or shouldn't be talented enough to be somebody who can get heavy snaps and heavy carries. And with Darrington Evans opening up what the Titans can do schematically on offense,

when Derrick Henry's in the backfield, you're not going to see an angle route. You're not going to see a wheel route from the running back spot. You can go ahead and chalk that up to not happening. But Darrington Evans opens up things and the possibilities for what the Titans can do. Now, I'm not saying that I want Darrington Evans on the field more than Derek Henry or anything crazy like that, but I definitely do think they have to rely on Evans more and make this more of a running back by committee, not only to keep Derek Henry fresh for the end of the season, but to diversify the

offense add more screen game add more five-man spread game and keep the defense on their toes a little bit more than they were able to last year next question from Slappy and this will be the last question from this segment Slappy says where are you on a scale of this is Julio he doesn't practice in training camp and they're just being careful to if this was the regular season Julio. He doesn't practice in training camp, and they're just being careful, too. If this was the regular season, Julio would be on IR for three weeks, the mini IR. I think I'm much closer to this is Julio. He doesn't practice in training camp, and they're just being careful. For right now, for my own sanity, I'm going to choose to be optimistic about that, and I think that we would hear more hubbub.

We would hear more drama behind the scenes if Julio Jones' injury was much more serious. So with that in mind, I am going to choose to be optimistic and say that Julio Jones, they're just being cautious and the guy never really plays in training camp anyway. So I'm going to continue answering your guys' questions to round out today's Locked on Titans podcast next. We are going to cap off this Friday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast, answering more of your guys' submitted questions on this fan-made Friday segment. So diving right in here, a question from Dale Big Sam.

And Dale said, you mentioned Rashawn Evans' agent being at practice yesterday. How realistic could a trade be for him? And what do you expect in return, a pick or another player? Well, I think that the Titans would be smart to get a pick back from Rashawn Evans. I would give it about 25%, or let's say 20% likelihood, a one in five chance. I think there could be a team who deals with some injuries along the inside linebacker spot. The Titans have Monte Rice and David Long,

so I think it could be a smart move for the Titans to get a pick out of Rashawn Evans. If they could, I don't think it would be very high. We'd be talking about a fifth-round pick at most. Maybe a sixth-round pick, I think, would be more realistic. And I don't think that would be crazy because what the Titans are hoping for right now, realistically, is that Rashawn Evans leaves as a free agent after the year which I think is 100% certainty and the Titans are able to get a comp pick back for him signing a free agent deal similar to the situation with Jack Conklin and

then Corey Davis so I'm hoping that Rashawn Evans in some way whether it's a trade during the season or him leaving as a free agent next year he results in a fifth or sixth round pick whether it be from trade or a comp pick as well next kind of a combo comment question from Jordan Cohen he said his biggest concern easily is still pass rush until proven otherwise and I agree with you there Jordan I've been talking about that for a few weeks now. He said, areas of excitement. Julio and AJ's impending rise to wide receiver one in the NFL. I'm with you there. I'm very excited for AJ Brown and what he can be.

And when the Titans get Julio back, I think it's going to be pretty crazy for the offense. He said this, though. One thing I'd like to see is a ranking of the least replaceable players so that we could quickly analyze injury importance depending who it is well hopefully you don't have to do that at all none of these players get hurt but I think the least replaceable player on the Titans is Derrick Henry I think he changes their offensive fundamental he changes their offensive philosophy there's nobody in the NFL like Derrick Henry and even if you have Brian Hill and Darrington Evans splitting the carries,

I think that wouldn't be enough to keep the Titans afloat. Number two, I have A.J. Brown. I know the Titans have Julio, but as we've seen, he can get injured at any time, and I really do believe that A.J. Brown is going to ascend to one of the top five to eight wide receivers in the NFL if he's not already there, And I think that it's going to be very difficult to replace his explosiveness and his playmaking ability. Number three, I'm going to go with Ryan Tannehill. I know that some people may have Tannehill higher, but I think the Titans could make a trade.

The Titans could make a free agent signing and maybe keep things afloat for a couple of weeks without Ryan Tannehill. Number four, I am going to go with Jeffrey Simmons. I think like A.J. Brown, Simmons ascends to that top five group this year. I think he's going to be a dominant force on the defensive line. All the attention that he gets on the defensive line, it would really hurt the Titans on defense if they were to lose Jeffrey Simmons. Number five, I'm going to go with Janoris Jenkins Jack Jackrabbit Jenkins if he heard this he'd be mad at

me but I'm gonna go with Jackrabbit because like I mentioned earlier in the show the Titans have right now basically three rookies starting at cornerback if they didn't have Janoris Jenkins Caleb Farley Elijah Molden and then Christian Fulton who I said is basically a rookie because of all the time that he missed last year during the season. So with that in mind, I think it would be a major blow to the Titans if Jackrabbit was out. He's their number one lockdown cornerback, and it would be really tough if they lost him. A couple questions here from Cody Weath.

Cody said, with Reynolds missing time this training camp, is there a real possibility that Des Fitzpatrick can do enough to help this team this year work his way onto the field? Or do you believe he will redshirt this year for the most part and make a bigger impact next year he's going to make a bigger impact next year but I absolutely do not believe this will be a redshirt season I think there's a chance he could get about you know 20 catches 300 yards a touchdown just a nice role player I do think he has that ability early on in the season, even as a rookie. Cody Weiss, next question here is,

I know there's been a lot of buzz about Racey McMath, this training camp, but how much of that do you think it's just because it's only training camp? I remember they were super high on Sharp a few years ago, and that never really translated to on-field production. Now, I will say this. I think Tajay Sharp was a decent role player for the Titans. I mean, he never became a No number one wide receiver or starting wide receiver, but in his role as the number four or the number five,

depending on what year you're looking at, I think he did a pretty good job. With Racey, I think Racey has some excellent physical traits. He's big, he's strong, he's fast, he's got good leaping ability. And all that is really going to show out in one-on-one drills and in training camp. But he's a guy with not a lot of receiving experience and reps as a wide receiver so I think it may be difficult him for to totally learn the playbook early on and his primary role this year is going to be special teams and with that in mind I think that maybe the training camp love that he's getting is not

going to be realized this season but it's definitely possible that maybe in year two, he could be a good asset. I would kind of, the first question that you asked about Des Fitzpatrick, I think that's how I view Racey McMath, and I view Des Fitzpatrick as a guy who can be like a Tajay Sharp. So I would kind of flip the view on those two questions. The next question that I have here comes from Walker Kinsler and he says, what caused Deshaun Watson to be cut so early into training camp? What does the 30-year-old Matt Barkley have in advantages over him? Okay, so I mentioned it earlier, Kaiser banged up his hand and he just hasn't been impressive, not very accurate, not very organized, looked a little

confused at times out on the field. What you're going to get with Matt Barkley is a guy who really understands the playbook, knows where he's supposed to go with the ball, knows who's going to be open based on coverage, but he doesn't have the physical abilities that Deshaun Kizer had. He doesn't have the mobility. He doesn't have the strong arm. He doesn't have the size, the speed, any of that. So you're basically trading in someone with athletic upside for someone with upside in the other areas of the game. And maybe the Titans have decided that neither of these players, Deshaun Kizer or Matt Barkley, are really going to have a big impact on the season.

So for training camp purposes, you would rather just have a guy who keeps you on schedule, who knows what he's doing, understands the playbook, and kind of keep things moving efficiently. So that's how I view that. The last question that I have here comes from Colin Light and he says is our offense taking a step back feels that way I don't have a lot of faith in our tight end position group I am also worried about Tannehill regressing well I think that Tannehill mostly does well in our system they're not going to ask him to be Patrick Mahomes or be Aaron Rodgers out there. So I'm not quite as worried about regression

or anything like that. But what I will say is the tight end group being what it is in the talent there is going to change the way the Titans have to play offense. I've mentioned throughout the offseason that I really do think that the Titans are going to have to use more three wide receiver looks and turn those into sort of two tight end looks. I've talked about that using the physicality

of the receivers. Also, the reality here is the Titans are going to have to diversify the offense and just pass more anyways. And I talked earlier in the show about incorporating Darrington Evans more into the offense and all of this goes hand in hand now I do want to say there is one more question that I do have to answer so I I think that the Titans offense will be fine we need to worry about defense but the last question that I have here actually comes from Sean Salvatore and he says we know Henry is great at breaking tackles and against a stacked box once he'd broken the line he often had to clear run let me try that again we know Henry is great at breaking tackles and against a stacked box once he'd broken the line he often had to clear run let me try that again we know Henry is great at breaking tackles and against a stacked

box once he'd broken the line he'd often have a clear run ahead for loads of yardage with less stacked boxes this season due to 11 and 2 Julio and AJ we could potentially see less gains of large yardage as there is more deeper coverage potentially mop up any line breaks and if so does this matter are we happy a drop in total yardage for Derek will equal more yardage through the air to the wide receiver so I butchered that question Sean sorry you wrote it correctly basically what he's saying is now teams won't be able to stack the box as much against Derrick Henry because of Julio and AJ. And in return, that could limit how many home run runs Derrick Henry has because there are more guys back past the line of scrimmage to make a tackle.

I think that makes a lot of sense. And I do agree. The Titans faced a ton of single high safety. Just one safety back deep because teams brought the second safety up into the box with the linebackers. They're not going to be able to do that this much this year. They're going to have to have two deep safeties to worry about Julio and AJ. And yes, I do think that that may result in Derrick Henry breaking less home run touchdowns, but ultimately it's going to be better for the offense

because Derrick Henry may not break as many long runs, but he's going to have more success on the shorter runs. You may not see as many 70, 60 yard touchdowns, but you're going to see more 10 yard runs, more 12 yard runs, more 14 yard, 15 yard runs. And I think ultimately that could be more beneficial to the health of the Titans offense long term. But that is going to do it for me today, folks. Do want to remind you guys to check out the new Locked on Bets podcast

hosted by your boy Q and Lee Sterling. You get all of their picks every single day. Lee Sterling's lock of the days as well. Make sure you check out the Locked on Bets podcast presented by betonline.ag wherever you get your podcasts. But that's going to do it for me today, folks. I will be back with you guys on Monday to break down the weekend of practice for the Titans.

As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans. Titans