Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Malik Willis IMPROVES Biggest Weakness, O-Line Bullies & Tim Kelly's New Offense

Episode Date: August 13, 2023

The Tennessee Titans second-year quarterback Malik Willis has been criticized for taking too long to throw the ball, but the stats show he has improved in that area consistently. Next, the Titans starting offensive line were bullies yesterday leading to an opening score. Finally, Titans new OC Tim Kelly gave us just a taste of what's to come from his new offense.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!NutrafolTake the first step to visibly thicker, healthier hair. For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners ten dollars off your first month’s subscription and free shipping when you go to Nutrafol.com/men and enter the promo code LOCKEDONMLB. Underdog FantasyThis episode is sponsored by Underdog Fantasy! Sign up HERE with the promo code LOCKEDON to get your first deposit DOUBLED up to $100.Must be 18+ (19+ in Alabama and Nebraska, 21+ in Massachusetts and Arizona) and present in a state where Underdog Fantasy operates. Terms apply. Concerned with your play? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit www dot ncpgambling.org; In Arizona call 1-800-NEXT-STEP; in New York, Call 1-877-8-HOPENY; in Tennessee, call 1-800-889-9789eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit. eBay Motors dot com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Right now, when you bet on a Super Bowl Winner, you can GET BONUS BETS EVERY TIME THEY WIN IN THE REGULAR SEASON! 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

Tennessee Titans quarterback Malik Willis has made some major improvement at his biggest weakness and the stats prove it. I'm going to tell you why 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, we got a lot to talk about after the Tennessee Titans 23-17 loss to open the preseason against the Chicago Bears.

Malik Willis continues to improve his biggest weakness. The Titans starting offensive line were bullies against the Bears. And Tim Kelly's new offense was very interesting to watch. I'm going to dive into all of the data, all of the film from the Titans game against the Bears on today's show. Before we get into it, I do want to thank you guys for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen each and every day.

Remember, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content on all apps, all year round, and always for free. It's your team every day here on the Locked on Titans podcast, so make sure you get subscribed, stay subscribed, throw a thumbs up on the video if you're watching right now as well. The show is always free. All I ask for

in return is the press of a button. I want to give a special shout out to my everydayers out there tuning in Monday through Friday. Couldn't do it without you. Let me know down below who you are, my everydayers out there. Thank you guys all so much. But again, today I want to focus on not only the numbers, but the tape, dive into some other things other than just our role analysis after watching the game.

The big thing here is that Malik Willis continues to improve his biggest weakness. And if you guys have been paying attention to Malik Willis since he was drafted by the Titans, it's obvious that his biggest weakness is the time that it takes for him to throw the ball. Everybody wants Malik Willis to process quicker. Everybody wants Malik Willis to be able to throw the ball faster. I mean, if you guys remember, in the very first preseason game last year, Malik Willis got pulled early by Mike Vrabel because he wasn't happy with Malik Willis' ability to get rid of the football. So that is the number one thing that's been an issue for him so far.

And again, he continues to make improvements every time we see him at every step of the way. So Malik Willis' time to throw yesterday or Saturday against the Bears was 3.18 seconds. Okay. If you compare that to his first preseason game ever, it was 4.37. You compare that to last year's preseason overall, it was 3.72. You compare that to last year's regular season, it was 3.52. So 4.3, 3.7, 3.5, all the way down to 3.1 on Saturday. And as you can see from what we've seen from Malik Willis so far,

he's going to continue to improve there. So he's taking his biggest weakness and continually improving upon it. I saw that on the tape as well. The data confirms it with a faster time to throw than we've seen from him so far. But it looks like he's getting rid of the ball quicker on the tape. He's processing things.

He understands, hey, I'm taking this right now. It's open. I remember they get the big play to Chris Moore to start, but then Malik Willis takes a delay a game, which is something that we've heard about in practice, but comes back the very next play. The offense is spread out. He gets a quick pass over to Kyle Phillips,

gain about five yards back, and now you're getting back in the right direction even though it was first and 15. So the tape is matching up with what we're seeing from the data. Malik continues to improve. Time to throw, getting rid of the football. His biggest weakness is turning and turning and turning, and I expect him to continue improving at that as we go through this preseason

and I think into the season. I think the Titans keep all three quarterbacks with Willis and Levis and continue to let them battle it out. But it's nice to see Malik improve in his biggest area of weakness and show that steady improvement at every step of the way. I do want to point out as well, Malik Willis had a top five offensive grade per pro football focus on Saturday with a 79.4, the fourth best grade on the entire offense.

And I know everybody wants to know, you compare that to Will Levis, 46.4. He was the 31st ranked offensive player out of 35 on Saturday by Pro Football Focus. Now, I have to say that looking through some of the other grades and things like that. I wasn't quite as impressed with, or I wasn't as down on Will Levis' performance as pro football focus was, but that was across the board. Their thoughts on Jalen Duncan and some other guys, I thought the grades were a little bit off, but hey, for what it's worth, that's what they saw over at PFF, so you got to give it with a grain of salt. But Mike Vrabel talked about these quarterbacks and what he saw from them. And I thought

what he said about Malik Willis was pretty interesting. And of course, it continues to be praise for Mike Vrabel, for Malik Willis. He said, quote, I thought there was some composure. I thought there were some opportunities for him to run. And he ran.

Vrabel also said he was able to do that, thought he did a nice job when he got out of the pocket, keeping his eyes downfield. He was able to be a thrower when he felt there was something there, never going to restrict his ability to make plays with his feet. Just be smart with the football. You saw him convert down there in the red zone with a huge first down that allowed us to then eventually score with Malik there at the end of that first drive. So obviously Malik Willis needs to keep improving. He needs to keep processing quicker. He needs to keep getting the ball out of his hands even faster, but you against pressure, even with some missed chances, he just kept coming back and trying to do his best.

And again, the time to throw has improved every single step of his career so far. So Malik Willis continuing to build on his biggest weakness and improve it every single step of the way. But we're going to continue looking at the tape, looking at the data. We got to talk about the Titans offensive line and look at Tim Kelly's brand new offense at the end of the show. So excited to dive into all the stuff that I saw on tape with you guys. But before we get into that, I do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by Underdog Fantasy.

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Sign up with the promo code locked on, and you're going to get your first deposit doubled up to $100. That's underdog fantasy promo code locked on. Titans fans, let's continue today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. We're breaking down the tape, breaking down the numbers, the data behind the Titans preseason game against the Chicago Bears. We just talked about Malik Willis improving in his biggest weakness, his time to throw, getting the ball out of his hands. See continued growth from Malik Willis in that area.

So you love to see that. But now I want to talk about the first team offensive line and how they bullied the Chicago Bears on that first drive that led to a touchdown. Before we get into it, do 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. Make sure you get subscribed, stay subscribed. It's your team every day. Throw a thumbs up on the video if you're watching right now as well. I appreciate the support. Want to let you guys know the Titans have practice on Monday. I'm going to be here on Monday night breaking that down.

Then the Titans will go to Minnesota for joint practices this week. I'm going to be breaking down everything you need to know from those joint practices against the Vikings. We got another preseason game right around the corner. I'm going to have a preview for you on Friday. I'm going to be breaking it down live after the game on Saturday, back with you on Sunday night, just like I am right now, talking more about your team, the Tennessee Titans.

Again, make sure you stay locked in to the Locked on Titans podcast. But let's talk about this offensive line. I want to talk about the first string offensive line. Alright, I get it. The backup offensive line, there was a lot of bad in there. But that first team offensive line's performance was fantastic. They let Malik Willis have

time to throw the ball when he needed it. Zero sacks from the entire group. Only one pressure allowed by the entire group, and it was Chris Hubbard got one, okay? And somebody beat him around the edge and kind of made it up the field a little bit. But overall, a fantastic performance pass blocking

by the Titans offensive line. Now the scheme helps them as well. Bootlegs, play action, keeping a tight end in, all of that different stuff definitely helps the offensive line. But hey, that is the Tennessee Titans scheme. So the offense performed very well in pass protection. Every single one of the Titans offensive linemen had a grade of 60 or higher in pass protection from pro football focus. Also, what I want to point out here is they ran zone run plays. They ran gap run plays. They ran a sweep.

They ran a read option. We're going to talk more about Tim Kelly and the new offense at the end of the show, but just the offensive line's ability to execute all of those different kinds of schemed up runs. Absolutely fantastic. Andre Dillard, Peter Skowronski, Aaron Brewer, and Daniel Brunskill, the Titans projected starting offensive linemen coming into the summer. Those guys were absolutely awesome in pass protection yesterday. And not only that, I thought they were great on the ground as well. Like I just said, they had zone runs, they had gap runs. And let me explain the difference real quick. It's all about how you leverage the defensive line. In a zone run, what you're trying to do is block the zone in front of you. And I saw it compared to water earlier today. You're just trying to flow as an offensive line and flow with the defense. And then you let the running back pick where the hole is.

And it kind of gives more of a freestyle approach to it. That's what I would compare it to. It's jazz. You know, you can kind of flow based on how the defense reacts to the blocking. With gap schemes, that's more about down blocking, pulling a guy around, having a direct target where you're trying to run the football and where you're trying to open a hole. The Titans were doing both of those techniques, and that's more about Tim Kelly's multiple offense, which again, we're going to talk about at the end of the show. But really what I'm focused on is the fact that the Titans offensive line

had the ability to execute those. They had the athleticism to execute a double team and get up to the second level on a linebacker. Also, Daniel Brunskill had the athleticism to pull around. The Titans were using backside tight ends to pull around as well. So a lot of pulling, gap blocking. I mean, it was great to see the Titans' offensive line be able to execute both. Little shout-out to Thomas Odekoye as well.

Had some good moments on that first drive as a blocking tight end, but really impressed. I mean, Andre Dillard, there was one time he got pushed back a little close to Malik Willis where it was a little bit of an anchor issue. He is a lighter, more athletic offensive tackle, so that may be something that pops up. But overall, really good day. Peter Skowronski is strong, ladies and gentlemen.

Like, there was one time he was one-on-one on a block and he was able to lift the guy up, get under his pads, lift him and move the defensive lineman back after a little bit of a battle at the start. Another time where him and Andre Dillard executed a double team where they had to push a guy back, and my lord, they just exploded him backwards because Karansky is just so strong. Really impressed with Peter Skowronski.

Aaron Brewer battled. Number 93 on the Chicago Bears. Don't know names of the Bears' entire roster, their second and third stringers, all of that. Not going to pretend like I have every roster in the NFL memorized or anything, but No. 93, the nose tackle for the Bears, Aaron Brewer battled with him. And there were a couple of times where 93 pushed him back, but Aaron Brewer was able to anchor down, hold his position.

Because Aaron Brewer is at center, it's going to allow him to get off the line of scrimmage even quicker because he's the one who controls the snap. And it's going to allow him to get under the pads and stay underneath those nose tackles, which is going to allow him to help his leverage. So Aaron Brewer for a slight guy who has trouble anchoring and sitting down in pass protection, it's going to help him to be at center for that reason as well. Brunskill, again, incredibly strong, had the athleticism to execute a pull.

Also, which let me say that was a Tajay Spears run up the middle and Spears missed the hole. He like braced for impact when he should have just ran straight through the hole that opened up perfectly. So Spears wasn't entirely perfect, even if he was good, but a good job by Brunskill to get up through the hole on the pull. Also, like I said, with, with gap blocks, there's a lot of down blocking where let's say there's a guy on your inside shoulder and you just have to wash him inside. It's an easier block to execute.

But Brunskill absolutely mauled somebody across the line of scrimmage. Moved him 10 yards diagonally. Diagonally. A little Easter egg for my Harry Potter fans out there. But yeah, I was just really impressed by the offensive line. Chris Hubbard was the only guy who gave up a pressure. I thought he had some good moments in run blocking, but he just has some balance issues. Some guys were able to cross his face. I thought he looked a little unbalanced getting up to the second level. So I would definitely say

that Chris Hubbard is the weak link here for the Titans offensive line, but overall very, very impressed with each individual guy and their performance in the game. The tape was very friendly, and I plan on doing a film article where you guys can see all these clips that I'm referencing with the offensive line at alltitans.com. I do write for Sports Illustrated, so I'm going to be doing a lot of film articles this week. Make sure that you guys go check that out. Follow at alltitans.com on Twitter as well, so you can always see the articles. But with that being said, that's my breakdown on the Titans offensive line, the starting offensive line.

We're going to move into Tim Kelly's offense, because I saw a lot of cool stuff from Tim Kelly. And everybody says that preseason is vanilla offense. Well, Tim Kelly's vanilla was pretty, pretty tasty. So we're going to talk about that in just a moment. Before we get into it though, do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Football season is about to kick off, ladies and gentlemen, and FanDuel is giving you a chance to win all season long because right now when you bet on a Super Bowl winner

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We are going to continue. Titans fans, you guys aren't the actual players, right? Well, maybe someone's tuning in who can really know. But Titans fans, we are going to cap off today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Breaking down Tim Kelly's brand new offense. And again, everybody told me online that it was preseason vanilla. But I got to tell you, Tim Kelly's vanilla is going to be different than Kyle Shanahan's vanilla's vanilla is going to be different than Kyle Shanahan's vanilla,

which is going to be different than Doug Peterson's vanilla, which is going to be different than Andy Reid's vanilla. Do you guys get what I'm saying? I made an analogy the other day on Twitter when everybody was telling me, oh, it's vanilla stuff in the preseason. No reason to even care. Look, guys, I would describe it like this. It's like getting a side dish for lunch. Are we getting

the pureed potato spread out beautifully across the bottom of the plate with the spoon? No. Are we getting the parmesan and garlic crusted green beans? No. We're getting a bag of chips as our side dish for our offense, okay? But just because it's a bag of chips as our side dish for our offense, okay?

But just because it's a bag of chips and it's not the fancy sides doesn't mean that Lay's and Doritos are the same, right? Lay's and Ruffles are different, right? So it may be vanilla. It may not be the most exotic stuff that we're going to see from Tim Kelly, but it's still Tim Kelly's stuff. And it was very, very interesting to see. Before I dive into what I saw on tape,

I do want to thank you guys 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. It's your team every day. Coming up this week, we're going to break down practice. Tomorrow, we got joint practices with the Minnesota Vikings ahead. I'm going to be breaking those team every day. Coming up this week, we're going to break down practice. Tomorrow, we got joint practices with the Minnesota Vikings ahead. I'm going to be breaking those down every day.

And then, of course, a preview on Friday night of the preseason game. And then I'll be here live directly after the Titans preseason game against the Vikings on Saturday to break down everything that took place. But with that being said, I want to dive into this offense. So I talked a little bit about it in last segment when we talked about the offensive line. But the Titans were a zone run team in 2018 with Matt LaFleur and then Arthur Smith continued that in 2019 and 2020.

And then the Ravens really shut down the Titans zone run in 2020 and it made Mike Vrabel reconsider how he wants to build his offense. With Todd Downing as the offensive coordinator, we started seeing more gap runs, more power runs because the Titans wanted to kind of diversify their running portfolio. Well, Mike Vrabel has taken that to the next level here with Tim Kelly. We saw the Titans first team offensive line execute multiple different types of runs in that first drive. Again, like I talked about it, we saw outside zone. We saw mid zone. We saw a gap pool power play as well, where the Titans were down blocking and then a tight end and Daniel Brunskill were pulling from the backside. That's something that the Titans

didn't do from 2018 to 2020. It just didn't happen. They were zone only. So the Titans are building on that diversification of the run game and Tim Kelly is going to take that to the next level. And I really like what he was able to do. There was one play that he ran to Tajay Spears, which was kind of a mid-zone run play, but he ran it to the weak side. And because of the Bears' four-man front alignment,

all it took was a good block by the offensive tackle and it gave Tajay Spears a two-way go was a good block by the offensive tackle, and it gave Tajay Spears a two-way go where he could cut inside the offensive tackle or outside the offensive tackle. He was able to cut outside, get some pretty good yards. Not only did we see the gap runs, not only did we see the zone runs, but like I mentioned in the last segment, we saw read option Malik Willis for a touchdown. We also saw the pitch sweep to Tajay Spears where he gave the stiff arm to Eddie Jackson. So Tim Kelly really diversifying the run game. And we know from practice reports

that the Titans are giving toss sweeps to Traylon Burks when he motions into the backfield. They're giving jet sweeps to Kyle Phillips off motion. So this may be vanilla, but the diversification of the Titans run game and its vanilla version is already an encouraging sign. Not only that, but as we get into the pass game here,

I want to point out this stat to you as well. The Tennessee Titans on first down, all the Titans do is run on first down. Tim Kelly got hired or promoted to offensive coordinator. They're still going to run the ball all the time on first down. 32 first downs. 20 passes, 12 runs. 20 passes, 12 runs on first down.

Are you not entertained? I mean, for real. If this is the vanilla version of Tim Kelly and he's throwing 20 out of 32 times on first down, well then can we thank the heavens? Because I would imagine that would either continue or even increase in the regular season. So that stat was absolutely excellent. Again, guys, trying to give you a mold of combination if you're aware of the recent Drake meme, but a combination of the data and the stats

and the film. I mean, that's what we're trying to do here. Both of those things said Tim Kelly's new offense was a breath of fresh air. Talk about some of the passing stuff that you saw. I really like the way that Tim Kelly was attacking cover two. Matt Eberflus is the head coach for the

Chicago Bears, former defensive coordinator of the Indianapolis Colts. He loves to run a ton of too high safety stuff, and that obviously is going to lend itself to cover two. I thought Tim Kelly ran a lot of really good cover two beaters. The throw, the corner route to Racey McMath, where he was falling down but caught it. That was a corner route against cover two that helped. They were doing a lot of two-way goes where, hey, either you're hitting the corner route, Malik Willis,

or you're going to dump it off to Tajay Spears in the flat. It's a one-two read. This guy, that guy go high to low. I thought there were some levels concepts that Tim Kelly was throwing in the middle of those zones where you'd have one guy kind of breaking into the middle, another guy sitting down on the curl a little shorter, causing some conflict with those intermediate zone defenders

for the Chicago Bears. So I like to see that from Tim Kelly's offense as well. On that weak side zone run that I talked about earlier with Spears, there was a lot of tempo there. They got to the line of scrimmage. They snapped it quick. A lot of good stuff. A lot of really good stuff.

From Tim Kelly, not a lot of terrible stuff, but the offense can only execute as good as it can with second and third stringers out there. But overall, if this is the vanilla version of Tim Kelly's offense, well, I like what we saw. I like what we saw. But with that being said, the Titans practice tomorrow. I'm going to be back with you guys to break it all down.

Joint practices later this week. I'm going to be having more film conversations throughout this week. A lot of Titans content coming your way. I mean, I'm working seven days a week, sun up to sundown, getting it going for you guys. So make sure that you subscribe to the show, hit that thumbs up button, follow me on Twitter at TicTacTitans,

follow AllTitans.com where I write all that different stuff. But either way, excellent episode here. Glad to have the Titans back. That is going to do it for me today, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.