Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Mini-Camp Day 1 Recap: Who Stood Out, Comments from Vrabel & Big Offseason Issue

Episode Date: June 16, 2021

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Welcome to the Locked On Titans Podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, this Wednesday 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 Monday through Friday. Brian and Matt give you a national perspective on all 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. Yesterday was day one of Tennessee Titans mandatory minicamp, and I am breaking down everything that you need to know to kick off today's show. We're going to talk about who really stood out in this day one of mandatory minicamp and how the Titans have already made a schedule change to this event on the calendar. Also, we are going to hear directly from Titans head coach Mike Vrabel as he talks about a lot of different important issues about how to incorporate the new guys who haven't been on the field yet. Also talked about the differences from last year's offseason and this year and how things have changed without all of the COVID restrictions.

And then at the end of the show, I'm going to talk about the deepest, darkest secret, the least talked about big deal of the offseason. secret, the least talked about big deal of the offseason, the mandatory minicamp and training camp coming up, not only for the Titans, but in the NFL, and I'm certain that I will make at least half of you very angry. So we are going to get into everything, day one of Tennessee Titans mandatory minicamp on this Wednesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Let's get it! Titans fans, we are going to get into everything that you need to know from day one of the Titans mandatory minicamp.

Before we do that, I have 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, not only during the season, but all year long. Make sure that you never miss an episode by subscribing or following the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream. Also, make sure you check me out on social media, on Twitter, at TicTacTitans, and follow the show's Facebook page at LockedOnTitansPod.

Make sure that you're tapped into everything. Locked on Titans got a lot of great stuff coming up for you guys throughout the rest of the offseason into the season. Of course, can't wait for some football to kick off, but one of the steps that has to be taken is this three-day mandatory minicamp, and the number one thing going into this minicamp that I was focused on is the attendance. Who is actually there? Do the Titans have any holdouts?

Is everybody participating? And it appears that that is the case. Now, here's one factor. It's not just about having everybody out on the field. There are guys who were injured, but all of those players were at the facility and working in some capacity, whether it be rehab, film work, drills, whatever it may be, everyone was there present and working for the team. But the guys who are still rehabbing from some injuries

who weren't out on the field on Tuesday were A.J. Brown, Caleb Farley, Christian Fulton, Bud Dupree, Ty Sambrillo, Taylor LeJuan, Nick Westbrook-Akina, Jayon Brown, Monty Rice, Aaron Brewer, and Blake Heibel, the undrafted free agent kickers. So those are the players who were not out on the field for the Titans, but again, they were in the building and getting some work in. Some other things that really stood out from day one of Titans' mandatory minicamp was Julio Jones. Every single piece of content that we got to see, all the reports indicate that Julio

Jones was incredibly impressive, acrobatic, energetic, flying all over the field, making some great catches. And I don't know about you guys, but the best picture I have seen from the entire Titans all season was Julio Jones jumping for a back shoulder fade. If you haven't seen that, go check it out on the Titans social media. Just a beautiful picture instantly became my cell phone lock screen. So Julio Jones making a great impression not only on the field but he's been teaching guys been very helpful to all the young guys at the

position at wide receiver. Also speaking of wide receiver Marcus Johnson continues to impress. His name continues to have buzz at wide receiver as one of those roster veterans who's been around the NFL but has really taken advantage of his opportunity. So that's something to continue to monitor. We talked about Julio Jones really standing out on the offensive side of the ball. On the defensive side of the ball, another veteran who's a new addition to the Titans, cornerback Jack Rabbit Jenkins. Every single report you see was he's incredibly feisty, incredibly competitive, incredibly aggressive out on the field.

And when the Titans brought in Jackrabbit, they knew that they were going to get that sort of player. But that stuff goes more in-depth than just how he affects the other team's offense, how he affects the games. It also affects your ball club, and it affects your player spirit out on the field. If you see a 10-year veteran like Jackrabbit out there going 110 miles per hour and being aggressive, being in everybody's face, being feisty and chippy, what's that going to make you want to do?

It's going to want to make you match that effort, match that intensity. So I love hearing all these reports, getting a big difference between last year's free agent class and this one. That's all I can say about that. Another big thing, Deshaun Kaiser continues continues to look good. Had an excellent completion to Darrington Evans down the sideline on Tuesday. So two things there. Love to see my boy Deshaun Kizer playing well. I would hope that he would be able to overtake Logan Woodside this year and get that backup quarterback role. And then Darrington Evans is going to be so critically important for the Titans

in the passing game this year. Any success that we hear about him having, any good that we see come out of Darrington Evans in the passing game can't be scoffed at. It's very important for the Titans offense. And me personally, since it's something that I'm so personally invested in seeing, Darrington Evans being used as a gadget player, being involved in the passing game,

that makes me happy, brings a smile to my face, to say the least. Finally, do want to mention though that Derrick Henry was out on the field, but him and Julio Jones did not participate in 11-on-11 portions of practice. And in my opinion, I'm not worried about any of that stuff at all. You could talk about continuity. But at the end of the day, a guy like Derrick Henry, a guy like Julio Jones, they know their bodies. They know themselves.

They're going to be ready. They're going to know what to do. They're going to play fast and physical. They're going to finish. They're going to be aggressive. All of those Mike Vrabel taglines that he loves to say, they're going to do all of that. So making sure that they're healthy,

making sure that you don't burn them out too early in the season. I'm perfectly fine with that. But speaking of Mike Vrabel, we are going to get into some of the highlights from his post-mandatory minicamp press conference. Going to dive into those with you as well as getting to the NFL's least talked about biggest deal of the offseason. So we're going to discuss that at the end of the show as well. Before we move on, I want to remind you guys that Credit Karma has always been there to

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and terms apply. See rules. Banking services provided by MVB Bank Incorporated. Member FDIC. Maximum balance and transfer limits apply. Titans fans, we just went through all of the big takeaways from day one of the Titans mandatory mini camp we are going to get into some highlights from Mike Vrabel's day one press conference of course audio is courtesy of TennesseeTitans.com but the number one question here is how do you incorporate the new pieces of course they've had the young guys in for a while now different OTAs and

activities but you're seeing a bunch of new veterans show up who haven't been in the building Of course, they've had the young guys in for a while now, different OTAs and activities, but you're seeing a bunch of new veterans show up who haven't been in the building so far this offseason. Also, some guys who were banged up early on, like Elijah Molden, the rookie cornerback, for example, who are getting added into the mix. So how do you incorporate all the guys who are just arriving on the scene at the facility? Yeah, we're not going to wait for anybody to get up to speed. We're going to keep rolling. And we expect those guys that haven't been here to be ready to go.

And I think for the most part, they were. We stress the same things, whether it's phase one, phase two, phase three, or veteran minicamp. We want to be able to play with great effort and finish and be conditioned enough to do so. We want to be able to play with great effort and finish and be conditioned enough to do so. We want to continue to understand the concepts and the details that go along with each play offensively or defensively and practice fundamentals and technique,

things that we believe are critical. That is the thing. We talk a lot during the all season about the veterans doing their work on their own, not needing to be in the building for the voluntary workouts. Been a big topic of discussion throughout the all season. But that is the reality is if you are going to go work out on your own and do your own thing, don't be expected to get soft kitty gloves when you show up.

Mike Vrabel just said it. They're going to jump right in. They're not going to slow down for anybody to catch up. If you're going to work out on your own, you're going to be expected to be up to snuff when you show up for mandatory team activities. So quite frankly, I love that approach. I love that philosophy from Mike Grable there. Mike Grable also talked about what the keys are at practice for the team, what they're really working on this early in the process? Well, we start off every practice with ball disruption and ball security. And for the entire phase three, we had defenders practice in their different forms of ball disruption and the offensive guys

taking care of the football. I don't know how critical that is. That's something that's going to be a team key. But in hopes of us turning the football, you know, how critical that is. And that's something that's going to be a team key, but in hopes of us turning the football over, we want to be able to make sure that we're, we're taught properly to take care of it and, you know, try to go and score, but making sure that we're taking care of the football now, because, you know, that that's our responsibility as defenders.

If we do turn the ball over, I just want to make sure that we're good there and, you know, teach the offensive players that if we do turn the ball over. I just want to make sure that we're good there and teach the offensive players that if we do happen to turn a football over, maybe there's an opportunity for somebody that's not being as safe with the ball that we could maybe punch or hammer that football out. So you love to hear that from Mike Vrabel. They're putting a major focus on not having turnovers, securing the ball, ball security, also creating turnovers on the defensive side of the ball.

But he talked about an interesting thing there at the end of that comment. You notice he talked about the offensive guys having a chance to punch it out if there is a turnover, the defensive guys having security if they're able to force a turnover. So what Mike Rabel was doing during individual drills is having defensive players work on ball security. You see videos of Janoris Jenkins holding the ball, running through bags, having coaches try to hit the ball out of

his hands. And he also practiced turnover drills and ripping the ball out with offensive guys. So I love the idea there of guys being situationally ready. The NFL, different from college or any lower level, the NFL is all about situational football and executing properly and two-minute red zone. Different things pop up. You're ready for them, like an offensive player forcing a turnover on a defensive player after a turnover. That's all mental awareness, and if you don't practice that and the coaches aren't actually teaching that and communicating that and verbalizing that, then it's not going to be something that pops into your head when the moment arises.

So love to hear that from Mike Vrabel. The next question or the next answer we get from Mike Vrabel is on a very interesting topic, and I got to give a shout out to Teron Davenport from ESPN for asking a pretty good question. But one thing that we've worried about is how the defensive brain trust will work per se. Mike Vrabel, is he going to have full control?

Is Shane Bowen really the defensive coordinator? What about a guy like Jim Haslett who's been around? Now you add in senior assistant Jim Schwartz. How much pull is he going to have? All those different cooks in the kitchen, how does that work out? Mike Vrabel talks about how to make sure that that is not an issue and why it won't be an issue going forward. I mean, there's a head coach that, you know,

obviously is going to have the final say in everything we do. But that's the same on offense and defense and special teams. That's my job to make sure that we're doing things that we feel like can help us. And from everything that I've seen that there's there's been support there and Jim's coaching the inside linebackers and and Jim Schwartz is is trying to help us throughout the the entire defense and have communication with myself and and Shane and the entire staff you know I think the one thing that everybody has to realize is that there's going to be disagreements right disagreements between John Robinson and myself.

And we have conversations about him and we communicate. And, you know, when you leave, when you leave a meeting, you have to all be on the same page when you go in and give a message to the players. And that's what's most important. And that's what's critical. And that's what's happened. And that's what will continue to happen. You know, that's a great answer from Mike Vrabel there.

You know, we're all going to collaborate at the end of the day. The head coach has the call, everything like that. I mean, that's the answer that you want to hear, quite frankly, but I'll believe it when I see it. Mike Vrabel, I have concerns about his direction for the defense. Jim Schwartz was available as a coaching free agent for a reason. I'm not doubting any of the wisdom that he can provide or any of the experience that he's had, but I guess that's just one thing that really has me worried. The one thing that can really ruin this season. It's the same thing that held the

Titans back last year overall, and it's just the execution of the defense and Mike Vrabel feeling like he should have a big say on schematically what the Titans do on defense. I just don't know. I just don't know if I agree with that. I've been saying that Mike Vrabel may need to take a step back and go into a John Harbaugh for the Ravens type role where he hires really,

really intelligent, really schematically advanced defensive and offensive coordinators. And he acts as a CEO. He's still going to be making decisions. He's still going to have the final call at the end of the day, even in that setup. But I think if the Titans are smart, they would transition to more of that if Mike Vrabel proves that he can't run a solid defense again this year. But we are going to move forward into the second portion of Mike Vrabel's highlights from his press conference.

And I'm also going to tell you guys about the least talked about biggest deal in the NFL offseason that will affect the Titans and other teams. And it's almost guaranteed to make 50% of you very upset. So we will get into that next. Before we do, got to tell you guys about rockauto.com. Rockauto.com is a family business that's been serving auto parts customers online for over 20 years. They have everything you need from engine control modules to brake parts to tail lamps. You can get anything that you order delivered directly to your door in just a few easy clicks on their remarkably easy to navigate website choose all the brands specifications and

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We are also going to talk about one of the least talked about big stories in the NFL this offseason as well. Before we do, I want to remind you guys about the Locked On Today podcast. All the biggest sports stories from every major sport in under 20 minutes every single day. Make sure you check out the Locked On Today podcast on whatever platform you do stream. But Mike Rabel is going to get into some player updates next. And first of all, talking about the injury guys. He's talking about all the injured guys,

but spent some extra time talking about rookie Caleb Farley. Yeah, I mean, it's no different than for Caleb or Bud or Taylor. Any of those guys that weren't out there, we asked them to work as hard at getting back as those guys that are out there on the field. And we have a specific plan for everybody and their individual and what they need and what they do with our relationship with Todd and Frank and how we work together between the training staff and the coaching staff

and the strength staff. We feel confident in each of their plan caleb is somebody that i enjoy coaching you know and being able to to watch him do the the rookie walkthroughs that we have you know the rookie walk through seven on sevens he's grasping the knowledge and what we're asking him to do and he's working hard he's working hard to get back, to be back with his teammates. But I'd say everything has been positive, you know, in what role that we've asked him to perform. Now, sticking with the cornerback position,

Mike Rabel talked about a guy who is not injured right now, someone we talked about at the beginning of the show, and that is Janoris Jackrabbit Jenkins. Just talked about how he stood out at day one of mandatory minicamp. Well, I think what we want our DBs to do is not let their man catch the ball on man coverage and play with great vision and break in zone coverage. That's what we want them to do. Janoris has shown that throughout his career.

Love his energy as a player. It's fun to coach. Smile on his career. Love his energy as a player. It's fun to coach. Smile on his face. Love football. You know, I mean, I think that guys that have done it at a high level in this league, you know, are great resources for younger players, for coaches to have conversations with and try to help. And I think Janoris will be certainly one of those guys.

Janoris Jenkins is one of those guys who, like I said earlier, is going to set the tone in a majorly different way than last year's free agent class and the additional players the Titans got last year. But that won't be the only difference from last year. Obviously there's a huge difference in how the coaches are able to work with the players with, you know, the pandemic. I don't want to say ending, but obviously we are getting to a certain point where things can get closer back to normal.

And that's obviously going to help the Titans. And I think that it helps the Titans more than it helps most teams because of the hands-on nature and the strength that hands-on coaching is for Mike Vrabel and his staff. Mike Vrabel is a better hands-on coach than a lot of guys actually working with the players out on the field, going through drills. And when you're doing everything virtually and you're trying to work that way, a lot of what Mike Vrabel's strength is as a head coach is lost in that scenario. And that could have contributed to some of the things we saw from the new players last

year. But either way, Mike Vrabel talks about the big differences from last year to this year. I mean, Jim's coached a lot of years, so we had a lot of training camp practices. It's just good to be around players. It's good to have team meetings and be able to talk to these guys and ask them direct questions and continue to coach them. So it's why we do what we do. We want to win championships.

We want to win, but, but it's also, you know, making connections with our players so that we can, we can coach them and try to improve what they do on the field and how they live their life off of it. You have to appreciate the sentiment from Mike Vrabel there talking about not only getting better on the field, but getting better off of it. That's one thing that I do appreciate about having Mike Vrabel as the head coach of the Titans is you know that players

are going to be looked after and they're going to have the best interest of the players in mind because Mike Vrabel himself has been a player at basically every level of a career. So I think that's very important to draw from. And other players can trust Mike Vrabel because he truly has been in their shoes. The last thing that Mike Vrabel said or gave us was an update on the Titans' mandatory minicamp schedule. So as I outlined yesterday, mandatory minicamp was set to be three days, Tuesday through Thursday.

And apparently, the Titans will be in on Thursday, but they won't be having their normal planned activities. We're just not going to practice. We're not going to be out there practicing. We'll be in here working, but we won't be in here practicing. Okay, so what does that mean? We're going to be in here working, but we're not going to be practicing. Obviously, the instant answer is they're going to be doing film work. They're going to be doing walkthroughs inside. They're, you know, just going to be maybe doing

some team building stuff. I think that that, you know, like you would do at any job, just get to know each other, have some fun around each other. But I want to have this discussion. It's going to bleed into what I've teased throughout the show. The biggest topic that has been least discussed throughout the offseason, and it's for obvious reasons. It has been discussed. I'm not going to act like it's something that nobody's brought up, but it's just not talked about quite as much as I think it needs to be, and for obvious reasons.

So I want to say this first before we get into this conversation. I'm going to talk about vaccines and vaccinations. I'm not going to give you guys my opinion on the vaccines. I'm not going to tell you guys my political thoughts. And I'm sure every single one of you guys listening right now has a strong opinion on the pandemic, on politics, on the vaccine, all of that, all of that. So like I said, jokingly at the beginning, I have the potential to make 50% of you mad, no matter what I say here. But this is what I'm going to say to you. If you

do not have the maturity available to put your politics aside and have a conversation about business, then have a good night. Have a good day. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Just go ahead and hang up. End the podcast. You've made it. 25, 26 minutes. Thank you so much for listening. Goodbye. Because I'm about to say things that if you have your political mind too engaged, it's going to make you mad. But we have to think about this from a logical business perspective and from a football perspective. So what I'm about to say has absolutely nothing to do with politics, how I feel about the vaccine, how I feel about the pandemic, anything like that.

But here's the case. When Mike Rabel says, we're going to be in here working, but we're not going to be on the practice field. I think it's possible that they're going to have a day set up for the players to get vaccinated. That's what they'll be doing on Thursday. They'll have medical personnel in.

The players have said, including Roger Saffold, the team's done a great job of arming them with information to make their own decision. The Titans aren't forcing anybody to do it or anything like that. But I think that's what could be taking place on Thursday. Maybe not, maybe so. But here's something that I want to share. So Bengals head coach Zach Taylor canceled the last two days of their mandatory minicamp if the players reached a certain vaccination limit,

like a certain percentage of the team was vaccinated. And you may be thinking, you know, it's like the state I live in offered a million dollars to five different people who were vaccinated. However you feel about incentives to get vaccinated, that's your opinion. But here's what I'll tell you. If you have 85% of your roster fully vaccinated, you can have in-person meetings in training camp

and throughout the season, no virtual is required. That is a massive advantage for a coaching staff. I just talked to you about how the hands-on nature of Mike Rabel is a monster strength of his that was lost in the COVID environment so if you're a coaching staff like the Bengals coaching staff they would easily sacrifice two days of mini camp if it meant they could have hands-on in-person meetings throughout the entirety of training camp in the season. That's much more important. So to me, like I said, leave the politics aside.

It's not about, oh, you're incentivizing people to get the vaccine. From a business perspective, it makes sense for football coaches in the NFL to want to get as much hands-on in-person time with their players as possible. And if you meet the 85% vaccination threshold, you are allowed to do that with no protocols and no restrictions. So from a coaching standpoint and an organizational standpoint,

forget your politics. Business-wise, winning championships, winning football games, this is what everyone listening cares about, right? The Titans are going to have a better chance at winning a Super Bowl if they are 85% vaccinated based on what that allows them and the rules that they are able to get around by having that. So again, like I said, business, not politics.

Business. Now go further. I've mentioned this stuff before, but if you're a roster bubble guy, if you're Nick Westbrook-Akina and Cody Hollister, and you're battling it out for the sixth roster spot, and one of you is vaccinated and one of you aren't, who's the team going to keep?

And it's not because, it's not solely because, oh, this guy's vaccinated, there's less of a chance that he's out. It also helps your vaccination rate, that 85%. If I have two guys and they're kind of similar, I'm going to take the player that's vaccinated because not only do I not have to worry as much about them missing time, but I also can use them to help increase my vaccination percentage, which as a coaching staff will allow me to have in-person contact with my players all season,

including training camp. Also, I've seen people suggest that it's possible that some teams will have rosters less than 90 during training camp so they can meet the 85% threshold. The less players that you have on your roster, the lower the number is to get to 85%. So if you got four or five roster bubble guys or guys who you don't think are going to make the team anyway who are camp bodies,

and you're like, you know what? Why don't we just cut those guys so we can get to 85% with the vaccinated dudes that we have it's business guys leave your politics at the door these teams care about winning more than they care about the political aspect of this conversation and i hope that explaining what have i what i just explained makes you see it at least for a moment outside of your political spectrum and allows you to see this for just the cut and dry nature of the business here. These teams want guys to be vaccinated. It's going to make it easier for them to win games.

And that's all that matters at the end of the day to these coaches, to this organization, and to me personally. So, guys can make whatever choice they want. It's nobody, you know, can't force it on anybody, but if I'm a roster bubble guy in the NFL, it is a great risk to my employment to not be vaccinated. That's just the reality of the situation. Not only because of the guys I'm going against, but because of the reality of the roster and the 85% thing. So, have to take that into account. But that's going to do it for today's show. I'm going to be back with you guys tomorrow.

They will be out on the practice field on Wednesday. So we're going to break everything down that I possibly can with you guys. Got a lot of conversation coming up in the week as well about holes that the Titans still have. And we are going to get as much juice out of this lemon as we can throughout the rest of the week before the NFL really goes dark before training camp in late July. But that's going to do it for me today. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.