Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Mike Vrabel Calls Out Titans Prep, Malik's Competitiveness & Rookie Snap Counts

Episode Date: December 26, 2022

The Tennessee Titans lost their fifth straight game on Sunday and it is no surprise we are seeing some cracks in the culture. Titans coach Mike Vrabel mentioned there are Titans players who are only working from 0800-1600 and how that won't work well in the NFL, who is he talking about? Next, Malik Willis had some interesting answers after the loss. Is it fair to question his competitiveness? Finally, it took all season and a total collapse, but the Titans started playing their rookie playmakers enough!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!LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFLBuilt BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!PrizePicksFirst time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That’s PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDONSimpliSafeWith Fast Protect™️ Technology, exclusively from SimpliSafe, 24/7 monitoring agents capture evidence to accurately verify a threat for faster police response. There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. Visit SimpliSafe.com/LockedOnNFL to learn more.TuroForget boring rental cars and find your drive at Turo.comAudibleHead over to Locked On NFL for a sneak peak of Block Forever or catch the full series available anywhere you get your podcast. Available everywhere now!NHTSADrive high, get a DUI. Click HERE to learn more.Ultimate Football GM To download the game just visit Ultimate-GM.com or look it up on the app stores. Our listeners get a 100% free boost to their franchise when using the promo LOCKEDON (ALL CAPS) in the game store.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, Titans head coach Mike Rabel called out the locker room after the game on Sunday, doubting whether guys are preparing properly. Who is he talking about and what does this mean for the Titans as a team? Then I'll tell you why I'm starting to lose a little bit of faith in Malik Willis. And it doesn't have to do with what he's done on the field. Then we'll talk about how the Titans coaching staff finally is using their rookie playmakers correctly.

Unfortunately, it took a disaster of a season for us to get there. So all of that and more 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. Titans fans, Mike Rabel calls out the locker room. I thought this was one of the most interesting comments we've seen from Mike Vrabel since he's been the coach of the Tennessee Titans. We're going to get into that and the rest of today's show.

But before we do, I want to thank you guys for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. Remember, Monday through Friday, free Tennessee Titans content on all platforms all year round. It's going to be a crazy offseason. Make sure that you stay locked into the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream. Diving into these comments from Mike Vrabel after the game yesterday, I thought it was

interesting. After the game yesterday, I thought it was interesting. Teron Davenport of ESPN asked him some great questions about what it takes to prepare and get ready to win a game. And I thought it was interesting. Mike Rabel kind of went into a tangent. He said, you know, you hear players say they hate to lose. Well, I hate to lose too. players say they hate to lose. Well, I hate to lose too. Maybe we should love preparing and focusing on what we need to do each week to not make mistakes. He said that as a professional

athlete, you have to work outside the facility to be your best. As a professional athlete, Mike Rabel basically said, if you work just from eight to four or you work from eight to 430 and you go home, the quote is, I don't know if you're going to get as much out of it or don't know how much you're going to get out of it. Maybe he says, maybe God has blessed you with some amazing talents, but I don't know what you're going to get out of it. Maybe, he says, maybe God has blessed you with some amazing talents, but I don't know what you're going to get out of it. Mike Vrabel is basically saying there are players in the locker room who are clocking in, clocking out, going home, and not putting in the proper amount of preparation into the game plan.

Now, of course, the question becomes, who is he talking about? A lot of people want to say Malik, but I saw some other things to push back on that. If Malik Willis wasn't putting in the proper amount of preparation to be the quarterback for the Titans, I do not believe that Mike Vrabel would play him because that would be a terrible message to the locker room. I don't think that's the case.

So despite my own complaints about Malik, I don't think it's Malik. What, despite my own complaints about Malik, I don't think it's Malik. What I am hearing, however, though, is it's veteran defensive players. There are some players on the defensive side of the ball, veterans, who maybe aren't taking their preparation in the classroom as serious.

And I'll let you guys, you know, drum up who you think that could be. But what I think is more important here is, if you have players slacking and not putting in the work outside of the facility that you would expect from the Tennessee Titans, then that means there's an issue with the culture. There is a crack in the Tennessee Titans culture. And I think what happened was

when you consistently and constantly all season long have to bring in guys off practice squads. Oh, we're getting you off Arizona's practice squad. We're getting you off New England's practice squad. We're getting you off Miami's practice squad. We're blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. When you have to consistently take guys off of other teams' practice squads or take guys off the street who are free agents, when you consistently have to do

that two years in a row and you have 40, 50 new faces that weren't there at the beginning of the year, well at some point, some of the guys that you have to go get for help may not be a great culture fit. You simply need to go get the most talented players that you possibly can. So I think what's happened here is the Titans have had to fill so many holes because of the injuries that they've gotten so many guys off different practice squads or off the street that at this point, they don't have a lot of options to get guys who fit the culture and are the hard workers that you want. You just got to get whoever you can get.

So basically what's happened is the Titans have lost so many of their players that they've lost the culture a little bit. Now, I do want to say Mike Vrabel clarified his comments about 8 to 4 p.m. on Monday. And he said that he didn't really mean anybody directly. He was just generally saying, say less and do more. He said he's got to do better about picking his words.

Well, I don't buy that. I don't buy that he just did a bad job of picking his words. And he actually meant say less, do more, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. No. He was specifically calling out players who did not put the preparation necessary into the week. So, Mike Rabel told us the truth about what's happening and I think it's obvious here that next man up is dead.

And when you build your culture on next man up, and then it's obvious to everybody in the locker room that next man up doesn't mean crap. If the guy behind you, isn't talented. Next man up is dead. There are cracks in the foundation of the culture because of the massive amounts of turnover. And Mike Vrabel was cracking himself. Mike Vrabel even said, I'm not the type of coach who wants to send messages in the locker room. I'm not that guy. Well, then you're cracking. Mike Vrabel himself is cracking on the foundation of what makes him a coach. But I guess when you see a five game losing streak and a total collapse like this from an organization, A five-game losing streak and a total collapse like this from an organization,

things like this start to happen, right? But I want to talk about some other comments coming out of that game because the reaction to the loss against Houston from the players really told me all I need to know. We talk about this one right here, but Malik Willis had a comment after the game that I get if it doesn't bother you, but I'm not going to try to sugarcoat this one. Not what I want to see from my starting quarterback.

So we're going to talk about what Malik said and why it quite frankly gets under my skin so much. Before we get into it though, do want to tell you guys that today's episode is brought to you by the ultimate pro Football GM Game. It is an excellently crafted app. Download it on your phone right now. Ultimate-GM.com

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It's absolutely fantastic. Ultimate Football GM, start your dynasty now. Titans fans, I gotta dive into some comments made by Malik Willis. And I gotta tell you, I know that some of you guys are totally out on the leak based on what you've seen on the field. I'm not there yet. But some of the comments that he made, specifically one after the loss to Houston,

it rubbed me the wrong way. And look, I'm an uber competitive person. I'm competitive to the point where maybe it is a personality flaw, okay? I am incredibly competitive. And most professional athletes are incredibly competitive people. So this comment by Malik, it caught me off guard. It really did.

It caught other people off guard. And what I thought was funny is a lot of people were mad at the person who originally put the quote out and said it lacked context and blah, blah, blah. But in my opinion, when you read the full quote, it doesn't make it any better.

So let's get into this here. And what I'm going to say up front is, some of you guys aren't going to agree with me. Some of you are going to fully disagree with me. I don't care. I'm going to tell you exactly how I feel about this. So here's what Malik Willis said. When asked about the game and how disappointed he might be about the loss.

He said, it's football. You woke up this morning. I woke up this morning. I'm just as happy as I would have been if we had won. I'm just as happy as I would have been had we won. Yeah, it is unfortunate and it sucks that we lost, but we have an opportunity to wake up tomorrow and learn from it and get better.

We still have everything we want in front of us. I could be a Debbie Downer about it. That's your perspective. I'm blessed, bro. We still have everything we could want. We have an opportunity to learn from something that might be even better than going out there and doing one or two today.

I don't know about you guys, but reading the rest of that does not make me feel any better about I'm just as happy as I would have been had we won. Number one, let me just say this. Ryan Tannehill

is not an elite QB up front. So I'm not saying that you want Ryan Tannehill exactly. I'm saying the mentality of the player. Ryan Tannehill admitted over the offseason that he had to go to therapy to deal with his emotions

after the loss to the Bengals. That's how bad he felt after losing that game to the Bengals. He had to go to therapy for it because he was so disappointed by the way it went. Now, I'm not telling you that I want my quarterback to need to go to therapy after a loss, but there is an in-between of needing therapy

because you care so much that it hurts you so much when you lose to I'm just as happy right now as if we would have won. Is Pat Mahomes saying that? Is Josh Allen saying that? Is Derrick Henry saying that? Is Kevin Byard saying that? Is Derrick Henry saying that? Is Kevin Byard saying that?

Is Jeffrey Simmons saying, I'm just as happy today as if we would have won. I woke up today, bro. Absolutely not. When have you ever heard a competitor say something like that? That's, to me, that's not what you say. That's not how you feel.

I, my idol in sports is Kobe Bryant. Do you think Kobe Bryant would have got up there after a game like that and said, I'm just as happy right now as if we would have won because I woke up today, baby. Okay, look, we can all acknowledge, yes, I'm grateful

to wake up today. Yes, I'm happy that I'm breathing. Everybody's grateful for everything, but to react to a loss by saying you're just as happy now, who would do that? What competitor says that? I don't need you to get up there and tell me that life is over

but you're just as happy I mean it's enough to see what we're seeing on the field and I have defended Malik Willis on the field what rookie quarterback is going to play well behind this offensive line with these playmakers and with Todd Downing calling the offense?

So, I'm not ready to write off Malik Willis on the field. But if this is how he really feels, guys, at the end of the day, negativity is a motivator. Every professional athlete would tell you that. That's what bulletin board material is. We all acknowledge bulletin board material is right.

Bulletin board material is negative motivation. They said we weren't this good. They said he can't guard me. He said that we're overrated. He said, blah, blah, blah. Micah Parsons says something about Jalen Hurts not being that good. They said he can't guard me. He said that we're overrated. He said, blah, blah, blah. Micah Parsons says something about Jalen Hurts not being that good. We see this stuff every single day. NFL athletes, athletes in general, all the way down are motivated by negative factors. So the fact that Malik isn't extra motivated or anything by losing, Tim Tebow wouldn't say

anything like that. Thank you, Brandon. Some of you guys are caping in the comments, man, and I'm just not hearing it. I'm just not hearing it from you. So, it's just not what you want to hear from a guy who has the potential to be your franchise leader.

Steve McNair ain't saying that. Derrick Henry isn't saying that. Derrick Henry isn't saying that. Kevin Byard isn't saying that. Jeffrey Simmons, Ryan Tannehill isn't going up there after a loss to the Texans, your fifth straight loss in a row, and saying, I'm just as happy

if we would have won, because I'm breathing. What? What? I mean, come on, man. I get gratitude. I get being grateful. Sure. Sure. But that's just not what a competitor says. And it makes sense. Malik Willis is laughing out there. He can't even execute trying to draw the defense off sides. He even said, I can't do it. I can't seriously do it. And he starts laughing and walking away. You think Aaron

Rodgers is going to laugh and walk away because he just can't draw the defense off sides. He can't keep a straight face and do it. What? So, listen, I'm willing to give Malik time

from a football standpoint but that answer right there man I'm not going to lie that was the first time I was like alright my belief is going down this is a major effect I know a lot of you guys your belief started falling just based on the on-field stuff. And I get it, but I'm not ready to go that far.

But hearing that answer, man, to me, it's very similar to if you break up after a long relationship and you immediately get a new girlfriend or boyfriend. That's what this reminds me of. That's what it reminds me of. That's what it reminds me of. So, how much did you really care about the past relationship if you immediately jump into a new one? Not very much, in my opinion.

And it's the same thing here. It's the same thing here. It's like, if you're just as happy after you lost as if you would have won, how much do you really care? So at this point, I think it's only right to wonder about his competitiveness. Does he care enough about football?

Does he care enough about winning? In an environment with bloodthirsty, ruthless competitors who would do anything, anything to win, can a guy like Malik Willis with a lack of competitiveness actually be an NFL starting quarterback? For the first time, I got to tell you guys, I am skeptical after hearing that. I am very skeptical.

That positivity and that mindset can be beneficial in life, no doubt. But when you're in an uber competitive environment like professional sports, I don't know if that's going to get it done, man. I don't know if that's going to get it done. So anyway, disappointed to hear that. But either way, we're moving forward. The Titans finally start to use their rookie playmakers correctly. All it took was a five-game losing streak and a complete collapse of a season to do it. Before we talk

about that, I do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by PrizePix. PrizePix is daily fantasy made simple. So what PrizePix does is they have a projection for every player. Derrick Henry, 100 rushing yards. Pat Mahomes, 300 passing yards. Justin Jefferson, two receiving touchdowns. All you do is you go through, you pick two to five players. You look at their projection, and you just simply pick whether they're going to do more or less than that projection. If you get your calls right,

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All kinds of weird stuff happening with the Titans now. But a five-game losing streak will do that. Something else that's weird, unfortunately, is the snap counts for the Titans. Finally, finally, the rookies get to play as much as they should. I'm going to go over the snap counts here. Before I do, I want to thank you guys again

for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. Monday through do, I want to thank you guys again for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. Monday through Friday, free Tennessee Titans content all year round here on the Locked on Titans podcast where it's your team every day. Again, thanks for making us your first listen every day.

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or wherever you get your podcast. So I want to dive into the snap counts from the Titans loss to the Texans on the offensive side of the ball. So, just want to point out that for the first time, Traylon Burks had more snaps than any other wide receiver.

Other than Robert Woods, who is at 58. Burks is at 50. NWI is at 46. So finally, Traylon Burks gets to play more than Nick Westbrook-Akina. Finally. Not only that, but Chigakonkwo played more than Jeff Swain for the third week in a row. To me, finally, the Titans coaching staff started to play their best players the most.

But why did it take a total collapse of the team for that to happen? It's like, to me, the Titans coaching staff thinks they can hold stuff back. It's like, have you guys ever played Euchre? Any Euchre players in the chat? Let me know if you're a Euchre player. But in Euchre, the odds are basically what you're trying to do is hold your cards and there's two trump

cards, which are two jacks, and then there's a trump freaking why can't I think of what the term is here, but basically one suit is trump. So you may have one of the bars in your basically, one suit is Trump. So you may have one of the bars in your hand,

one of the jacks. You may have a king and a queen of Trump and all that. So what you're doing is you're trying to play it to where you can use all of your Trump cards to win points, but also at the same time, not overdo your teammate or not go over your teammate's head when they have a trump card. So you're trying to space it out and you kind of got to play the hand a little bit. Oh, I could put my ace down here and win this hand, but I'm going to hold my ace for

later because I think my teammate's going to win this one. And you kind of got to play it out in your head and have a strategy. Well, sometimes in euchre, what you can do is you can hold your cards and then find out that you held your cards too long. And then you ultimately don't win the hands that you thought because you didn't play your cards as soon as you needed to thinking that you could hold them back and use them later. I think the Titans coaching staff thinks like that.

They want to do the bare minimum to win football games. Show the least amount of plays, show the least amount of changes in the philosophy. To me, the Titans have tried to hold back their best cards all year long to not show them, and they were forced to use them once they started to go downhill. They were forced to use them once they started to go downhill. So, to me, this is another example of the Titans coaching staff outsmarting itself. Why isn't Chigakonkwa played more than Jeff Swaim all year?

Why didn't Traylon Burks play over NWI all year from the jump? These are your best offensive weapons. But the Titans, the Titans didn't want to show all their cards. Well, guess what? You tried to hold a couple cards back to get some wins later and you stacked a bunch of losses in a row and it was too late to use those winning cards. This is just another example of the coaching staff trying to do the bare minimum all year long until they absolutely can't anymore. Now, now once you lose a bunch of games in a row, now you're forced to play your best players more.

It's frustrating. It's just frustrating. Some questions. Jerry Adams says, where's Kyle Phillips? Mike Rabel said Kyle Phillips and David Long are not playing this week. Do not expect them to have a chance to come back. I would tell you too, looks like Derrick Henry's not even going to playing this week. Do not expect them to have a chance to come back. I would tell you too, looks like Derrick Henry's not even going to play this week. So Mike

Vrabel has acknowledged that this game means absolutely nothing for them and it looks like they are certainly going to rest players. Kevin Byard said he's playing, which no shock there. KB's the man. He's always going to play. But yeah man,

I wouldn't expect a win in Dallas. And all of this stuff that we're hearing from the players, it's definitely concerning. So yeah. Mike Vrabel calling out players in the locker room. Malik Willis just as happy with a loss as he would be a win. It's all weird stuff, man. But weird stuff starts to happen again

when you have a five-game losing streak and you collapse in the season. So with that being said, tomorrow, we got a lot to talk about. It's going to be Rewatch Wednesday. Thursday is the game. We're going to have Crossover Thursday. I'll be in attendance at the game.

As a lot of you guys saw on Twitter, taking my mom to the games. First time she's been to an NFL game in her life. She's 62. So I'm very excited for that, even if I Twitter, taking my mom to the games. First time she's been to an NFL game in her life. She's 62. So I'm very excited for that, even if I know the Titans are going to get smoked. So either way, I'll be back with you guys tomorrow. That's going to do it for me today, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland.

And this was Locked on Titans. Thank you.