Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Malik Willis Mixed Bag, JahQuan Jackson Electrifies & Jaylen Harrell Clinches Spot

Episode Date: August 18, 2024

The Tennessee Titans beatthe Seattle Seahawks 16-15 in their second preseason game of the year and the main focus of the game was the play of Malik Willis. Willis had some highlights in the second half, but wasn't as stellar in the first, leaving us wanting more. Next, rookie receiver Jah'Quan 'Jett' Jackson impressed with his performance and has a good chance to make the team while Jaylen Harrell's two-sack performance should seal his spot on the roster.Subscribe to the TicTacTitans Film Channel:https://www.youtube.com/@TicTacTitansTicTacTitans Merchandise: https://dixons-dream.square.site/shop/tictactitans-gear/C3AAPNWXSXA6SBYG3USV2I7R?page=1&limit=30&sort_by=category_order&sort_order=ascFollow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPodSubscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/LockedOnTitans/videosFor your next listen, check out the Locked On Fantasy Football podcast. Get daily insight to the best Fantasy draft strategies so you can win your league this season. Click HERE to listen now. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your Team. Every Day.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotors.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.BetterHelpThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Make your brain your friend, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/LOCKEDON today to get 10% off your first month.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms Apply.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. As playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to. But this summer, FanDuel is hooking up ALL CUSTOMERS with a boost or a bonus, DAILY! That’s right, there’s something for everyone, every day, all summer long! Visit FANDUEL.COM/LOCKEDON and add a big win to your summer bucket list!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)

The Tennessee Titans won their second preseason game of the year, but all eyes were on Malik Willis, who delivered a up-and-down performance, to say the least. We'll discuss on today's edition of Locked on Titans. 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. The Tennessee Titans remain undefeated.

Okay, it's just preseason, but they're 2-0 in the preseason after a 16-15 win over the Seattle Seahawks. We saw some up-and-down moments from Malik Willis, but we got some great moments from two Tennessee Titans rookies, so we're going to discuss all of that. Before we get into it, I do want to thank you for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen each and every day.

Remember, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content all year round, always for free. You're not going to beat that anywhere else. Make sure that you... ...team every day here on the Locked on Titans podcast. But we've got to talk about Malik Willis. That is the number one storyline coming out of this Tennessee Titans preseason game. We could talk about the result. We could talk about other things.

But the reality is the big story is Malik Willis and his performance. And at the end of the day, he was just up and down. I mean, the final stat count doesn't look too bad. 12 for 16, 116 yards, had one interception, took two sacks, a 68.8 quarterback rating. But I mean, that first drive in the second half, we really saw something from Malik. He went about six for six on that drive for 40 yards. He had some good throws. The seam throw to Jaquan Jackson. He hammered home a curl route as well. So there was good stuff

there for sure. Had some moments in the run game. He had four carries for 30 yards as well. So it wasn't all bad. There were definitely some good plays from Malik Willis, but the reality is he looked a lot better against the third string. And the offense didn't looked a lot better against the third string.

And the offense didn't have a lot of success in the first half when he was going up against the second string. I mean, in that first half with the second stringers, he had the bad miss to NWI. The bad miss. It was a very, very bad miss. Okay? He also had the miss up the seam, had a guy wide open up the seam,

didn't hit it, didn't throw it. He had the high slant to NWI as well that almost got him killed over the middle. So, look, I'm not going to sit up here and act like it was all bad because it wasn't all bad and there were some really good moments. Again, Malik looked really good

against the third stringers in the second half. He had some really good moments. Now, Malik looked really good against the third stringers in the second half. He had some really good moments. Now, there was the interception on a high throw. It wasn't exactly clean. He didn't really drive the team down the field consistently the way that you would want to see. But the reality is people want him to be the backup quarterback. And if we're talking about the backup quarterback,

well, against the twos, it wasn't very good. Now, I know what the Malik Willis defenders are going to say. Oh, the offensive line was so bad. Who's getting open, but Malik Willis has never thrown a touchdown in the NFL. Mason Rudolph went in with the same exact team at the end of the first half and drove the team immediately down the field for a touchdown. So, again, I don't want to pile on Malik. He has improved. There were good moments in this game.

But again, it was a mixed bag because there were some really down moments for Malik in this game too. And the majority of them came when he was playing with the second string. So he got this opportunity to play with the second string to see if he deserved to continue playing with the second string. And he wasn't good in the first half, and then Mason Rudolph comes in with the same players around him, the same offensive line, the same wide receivers, and he drives the team straight down the field and scores a touchdown.

So, I don't know what else to say other than it was a mixed bag. And I continue to give this, I like to quantify things. I like to put it into numbers. And I continue to say, if like a scale of 1 out of 10, 5 is a backup quarterback in the NFL, and Malik came in as a 1, well, we could say Malik Willis has improved and him still only be a 3 or a four. Technically, he's improved,

but that still doesn't mean he's improved enough. And he's in his third season. Like, I just don't know what else to say. They could keep him as the third string quarterback. They could keep him on the roster, continue to develop him this season and see what happens. But I mean, it was just up and down. It wasn't the stellar performance that he needed to really put his name in that conversation for backup quarterback. That's just the reality. And also, let me just say this. The offensive line in the first half

did not play well. When Malik was in in the first half, the offensive line did not play well. But Malik also didn't play well. If you can't accept that both those things can be true at the same time, if you can't admit that the O-line was bad but Malik didn't handle his part of the bargain either, if you can't admit that, then I can't have a lot of conversations with you. Because you can't just have it to where it's only one person's fault. Look, the O-line played bad when Malik was in in the first half.

But Malik didn't play good either. Again, if you can't admit that both of those things can happen at the same time, I don't know what to tell you. Now, I want to talk about some other stuff on offense, okay? Jaquan Jackson, the famous Jet Jackson, was fantastic in this game. Four catches, 57 yards. He led the team in both categories, tied for catches with Jabari Small, who left with a concussion, but had a 24-yard catch, caught every pass that was thrown his way, four targets, four

catches. You look also at some of the returning stuff. Had a 19-yard kick return. Had a 14-yard punt return, which is a very good return. Jaquan Jackson is a player, folks. Jaquan Jackson is a player, folks. Jaquan Jackson, Jet Jackson, as I like to call him, the famous Jet Jackson, which people of my age probably get that reference very strongly. But I just couldn't be more impressed with Jaquan.

He had a great week of practice, made multiple big plays in practice, and he's continued that forward. Also, just some other notes on offense. The second string tackles were bad. Jalen Duncan and John Ajuku, they took turns. One gave up a sack

and then the other one gave up a sack. One got a false start and then the other one got a false start. Like, both of them were bad. The Titans do not have depth at offensive tackle. I mean, it was hard enough to get two starting offensive tackles.

They had to draft one in the first round with their seventh pick and immediately become a starter. So obviously the depth wasn't good anyways. But yeah, it looked rough out there throughout the first half. Also, you got to give Julius Chestnut his credit. Chestnut had some pretty decent runs out there. I think yeah, he had 13 carries

far and away basically double what anybody else had for 45 yards. Again, I'm just not very impressed by the running backs outside of the Titans top two. We could argue Chestnut or Haskins or what. I don't think either of them are very good.

So, whatever. You know, Hassan Haskins is way better on special teams. I still think Hassan Haskins is truly the third running back. Not in terms of running the ball, but like RB3 on the depth chart. It's going to be Hassan Haskins, in my opinion. Also want to give some credit to David Martin Robinson. Once again, the rookie tight end. Three catches, 38 yards.

Second on the team in both of those behind Jaquan Jackson. Had that good 18-yard catch on the final field goal drive to give the Titans the win. I like DMR, man. I really do. Finally, I'm just going to give credit to NWI. Nick Westbrook-Akene. He's inevitable. He's inevitable he's the

Thanos of the Titans like you just can't stop him he's always there I saw everybody throwing a fit like why is Traylon Burks not playing but NWI is well Burks is more important and then I had somebody say how can you say that Burks is more important that's your opinion well it's Brian Callahan's opinion

so if you want to disagree with Brian Callahan go ahead but that ain't going to get you very far. He's the one who makes the calls. So clearly he thinks that Traylon Burks is more important than NWI, but shout to NWI taking hospital balls from Malik Willis, scoring touchdowns, driving through tacklers. Like the dude is just inevitable at the end of the day, but we're going to talk about the defensive side of the ball. And I got to give some credit to Braden Narveson, right? Right? Do the Titans have a kicker competition on their hands?

I'm just saying. I'm just saying. Before we continue, I do want to let you guys know that today's episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables? You never skip leg day. You always make sure you have your cheat meal on the weekend. You like to crack a few brews on a Friday night.

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That's linkedin.com slash locked on NFL. Post your job for free. Terms and conditions do apply. Titans fans, we are going to cap off this preseason recap edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. We talked about Malik Willis and some notes on the offensive side of the ball. Now I want to talk about the defensive side of the ball and special teams as well. Before I do, thank you again for making Locked on Titans

your first listen each and every day, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content, always for free. Make sure that you get subscribed, stay subscribed. It's your team every day, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content, always for free. Make sure that you get subscribed, stay subscribed. It's your team every day. Tomorrow, I will have another episode out. It'll be our first official episode of the week. Going to look at the backup quarterback competition.

Going to look at the wide receiver competition. Going to look at the kicking competition a little bit as well. I think I'm going to do an updated 53-man roster prediction now that we're through two weeks. And then the Titans have practice this week again. So a lot of content coming your way. a little bit as well. I think I'm going to do an updated 53-man roster prediction now that we're through two weeks. And then the Titans have practice this week again. So a lot of content coming your way. On defense, Jalen Harrell.

There's nothing else to talk about on defense or nothing else that could be the lead topic on defense than Jalen Harrell. Jalen Harrell had three tackles. He had two sacks. I mean, the rookie looks great. The Titans played more nickel in this game than they did last week against San Francisco.

Against San Francisco, it was a lot of base personnel, like 3-4. In this game, they played a lot of nickel, you know, with 4-2 and then 5. And in that scenario, it allowed Jalen Harrell to be more on the line of scrimmage, whereas last week, he was kind of as an off-ball linebacker at points, overhang over the slot. He was kind of off the ball. This week, it was Jalen Harrell on the ball all the time, and he had a good power-to-speed rush on his first sack,

really good effort on the second sack where really it was a coverage sack. But that's the kind of player I think Jalen Harrell can be on Twitter during the game. I compared him to Bud Dupree. So Bud Dupree doesn't have the best pass rush moves. He's more of an effort rusher. He's more of a cleanup rusher. And that's why he was so good in Pittsburgh

as the fourth best rusher. And that's why in 2021, when he was healthy with the Titans, he was really good as the fourth best rusher because he that's why in 2021, when he was healthy with the Titans, he was really good as the fourth best rusher because he's a guy who's going to give relentless effort. He's never going to stop working. And when the other guys who are more talented pass rushers get pressure, they're going to flush the quarterback out,

and the guy who's giving max effort is going to find a way to clean a lot of that stuff up. You don't see a lot of, oh, I beat my man with a pass rush move and got to the quarterback and took him down from Bud Dupree. Okay. He's more of, again, secondary effort type player has a little bit of power to push the pocket back. That's what we saw from Jalen Harrell tonight. He, again, speed to power, get hands in the chest of the offensive lineman, driving him into the lap of the quarterback, playing with excellent effort, going to the whistle. Like that's the kind of stuff that's going to get Jalen Harrell not only on the roster, but the edge three spot, in my opinion.

He's been impressive, and he's had an excellent training camp, and tonight him having some more pass rush production is exactly what Brian Callahan asked from him. So got to give a lot of credit to Jalen Harrell. You got to be so excited about what the seventh-round rookie is going to be able to give the Titans defense. And again, he's the seventh round rookie. So imagine next year or the third year, Jalen Harrell is going to be a player for the Titans. It's kind of like how I feel about Jet Jackson on the offensive side. You have Jet Jackson, you have Jalen Harrell, two late round players who both look pretty good. They look like they can contribute.

So, I'm just really hype about Jalen Harrell. And to tell you the truth, those are my three film breakdowns this week on Tic Tac Titans. I'm going to do Malik, and then Jackson, and then Harrell. So, there you go. Anyways, Isaiah Eiten, the Titans' undrafted free agent, rookie interior defensive lineman out of Penn State. I thought he had a pretty good game.

He had a sack as well. He was being disruptive. And the Titans definitely do need some more help on the interior defensive line. So if Iton were to step up, that would be great. Trey Avery just isn't good. Like, I'm sorry. I feel bad. He just, Trey Avery just, ugh. Man, they, you know, I know that they want him to pan out.

They're giving him so many reps. He just keeps getting, he was getting beat by some dude named Aesop Winston. Like, Aesop's fables? What are we talking about here? You know, Aesop Winston is dust Dustin Trey Avery all game long? Give that spot to Gabe Judy Lawley. Heck, give it to Caleb Farley in the blind. I don't care. Just, man, Trey Avery just can't.

He just can't do it. I'm sorry. He just can't. Anyways, anyways. The last thing that I want to mention here is we had a lot of hype about the linebackers. Linebackers weren't that good today. Chance Campbell, Otis Reese, James Williams had some pop plays at the end. Okay, I admit he had some pop plays at the end, but I didn't think that the linebackers really impressed all that much.

And I'm really sad that we haven't got to see Cedric Gray, man. It's two preseason games now. But here's the reality. This is the worst preseason game that we're going to watch. Last week was fun. Next week is going to be really fun because we're going to get more starters. This was clearly, clearly, like the three-headed dragon meme where you have the two dragons that look mean and vicious and normal,

and then you have the one dragon that looks like an idiot kind of reminds me of, like, Ed, Edd, and Eddie. You know what I mean? Like, you got two dudes who look kind of normal and then just one moron. Or it's like the hyenas from Lion King. You know what I mean? You have Ed.

You know? Like, that's how I feel. You know, like, that's how I feel. When I'm basically, when I'm looking at the preseason games. This one was just not good. But, but, the last thing I want to say is, Braden Narveson.

Okay? Braden Narveson bangs a 59-yarder, bangs the 46-yarder to win the game, three for three on his field goals during the game. Look, I mentioned this. It was funny. I mentioned this last week on Twitter. I said, could the Titans look at Narveson as like a Ryan Stonehouse? Like, Brett Kern is a legend, was a great player,

but we just can't give up this young player and risk him getting taken by another team? And look, Rekt in the chat just said, Callahan said, Folk's job is safe. Okay, that's great. But what if Narveson is just better?

Like, yeah, his job is safe, great. But if Narveson is just better? Like, yeah, his job is safe, great. But if Narveson is this much better, you would be a fool to stand on that statement. You know, like everything can change. Everything can change. I live in the Midwest. It could say sunny. It's still going to rain.

Alright? There's going to be an afternoon shower. So you can bet on it staying clear all day if you want. But I've been in the Midwest a long time, folks. And I know there's going to be a pop-up afternoon shower in the summertime. So things change. Yeah, Fulton cannot hit 50-plus consistently.

Like, when was the last time the Titans had a kicker who could kick at 59 yards? Maybe Randy Bullock. Maybe. So, I'm just saying, other than last week when I mentioned that Narverson could battle for the spot and then he missed four kicks in practice, went 0-4, he's hit every other kick that he's taken. Every other kick.

So, I just think that Callahan maybe needs to not be so certain about that and give the young guy a legitimate chance. Okay? That's all I got to say. But that's going to do it for me. The most boring Titans football game of the year is now out of the way, folks. Next week, we should have a good amount of starters. Whole quarter, maybe a whole half.

I'm hoping for a whole half. That's what I'm going to be hoping for all week long. But again, tomorrow we're going to look at some roster battles. Then we're going to look at my updated 53-man roster. Then we're going to have Titans practice recaps. And then we got one more preseason game only a couple of weeks away from regular season football. Make sure that you stay with me here.

That's going to do it for me today, folks. Throw a thumbs up on the video. Throw a Titan up down in the chat. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.