Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Monday Moves, Biggest Development From Win & Rowland's Rant on Titans Hate

Episode Date: January 4, 2022

The Tennessee Titans made several moves on Monday including activated three players from COVID IR and we got an update from head coach Mike Vrabel on Derrick Henry's return to practice. Tyler breaks down all the news and what each move means for the team. Then, Tyler talks about his biggest positive takeaway from Sunday's win over the Miami Dolphins!! Finally, the Titans have taken a lot of hate in the national media since winning on Sunday, specifically from the analytics community. Tyler rants about what those folks are missing about this team and why it is rooted in a lack of self-awareness.Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPodSubscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP3332GMOh4y5PX3q9NFybwSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus. 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, it is a Tuesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. And that means it is time to go over Monday's roster news. That includes three big COVID activations. It also includes an update on Derrick Henry's return directly from head coach Mike Grable. But that's not it. We are also going to talk about what my biggest takeaway was from the Titans game on Sunday

that I think will have an impact on the Titans Super Bowl chances. And finally, we will cap off the show with a Rollins rant. A ton of national criticism for the Titans being the number one seed, especially from the analytics community. I'm going to explain why it's time to put the calculators down and actually watch football. All of that on a Tuesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Let's get it. 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 Titans podcast. Very excited to dive into today's show. I bring great news, ladies and gentlemen. Before we get into all that great news, I do want to thank you again for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. If this is your first ever listen to the Locked on Titans podcast, make sure that you never miss any of the daily Monday through Friday

year-round content I will be putting out by subscribing to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream, subscribing to the Locked on Titans YouTube channel. Make sure you not only subscribe, but you smash that notification bell so you know when all of my content goes live. If you're watching on YouTube right now, throw the boy a thumbs up for the Tennessee Titans

winning the AFC South. Also, you gotta check me out on Twitter at TicTacTitans especially today, Tuesday for my TicTacTuesday film thread, breaking down the entire game on offense and defense. Also, check out the show Facebook page at LockedOnTitansPod.

But let's dive into all of this Monday roster news. I am going to start with the COVID activations. The Titans officially activated Julio, Julio Jones, Jayon Brown, and Kendall Lamb off of COVID. Julio, obviously, we know the kind of impact that he can have. Although it's not been a statistically productive season, the attention that he garners helps out A.J. Brown and everybody else on the Titans offense. Jayon Brown with Rashawn Evans back in Struggleville all of a sudden. Jayon Brown with Rashawn Evans back in Struggleville all of a sudden having Jayon Brown to play on third down

so that you can play David Long with Cunningham on first and second down that's a big help and then Kendall Lamb is going to be a much bigger help than maybe some people are realizing with Michael Pruitt fracturing his ankle in Sunday's game in a gruesome injury that yesterday just with all the positivity didn't feel like rehashing there but of course all of my thoughts rehashing there. But of course,

all of my thoughts, all of everybody's thoughts, of course, are with Mike Cole as he tries to recover from, again, a gruesome injury. But with his loss, I think that the Titans aren't going to try to go out and get some other tight end. I think that the void could be filled by Kendall Lamb playing some tight end. Corey Levin playing some tight end. Aaron Brewer playing some tight end for the Titans in their heavy sets. You could also use Corey Blossom game as a pseudo tight end as well. So I think because of system familiarity and the time and how late we are into the season, the Titans route may be just filling that third tight end role with an offensive lineman who's mobile like Lamb or with a fullback like Kari.

Torrey Carter is eligible to come off IR this week as well. That wasn't announced on Monday, so we'll wait for that. But Kendall Lamb could be a big activation. Breon Boddy Calhoun, the defensive back that's been with the team for most of the season on the practice squad, was activated off COVID and back onto the practice squad. Michael Pruitt, of course, as I mentioned before, will go to IR. So those are the roster moves.

But we got an update that wasn't a roster move, but it kind of gave us a hint that a roster move could be coming down the pike. And that is about the return of Derrick Henry. So all the national media reports started coming in since Tuesday of last week into the weekend. Derrick Henry's return is right around the corner. The Titans are hoping to have him back for the playoffs. Well, we got a report from Ian Rappaport,

a report from Ian Rappaport of NFL Network, where he basically said that the Titans are expected to activate Derrick Henry's 21-day practice window off IR later this week. And then Mike Vrabel kind of hinted at that as well. Here's the exact quote from Mike Vrabel in his Monday press conference talking about the return of Derrick Henry. Quote, we've discussed it. We'll see where it goes. Probably make a decision mid-week. These announcements usually come on Wednesday because that's the

first day that the Titans will practice. So I do expect Derrick Henry to be activated, not immediately to the 53-man roster, but when you come off IR, there's a 21-day practice window where you don't count against the roster, but you can practice with the team. I think that's the route the Titans will go because they should not play him in this game against Houston. That is what I am ultimately coming down with. That is my official opinion on Derrick Henry. There is no reason whatsoever to put Derrick Henry out there against the Houston Texans in a game that the Titans

absolutely should win without him. If you're going to risk Derrick Henry's health, you don't do it in a game against the Texans in the last week of the season. I know the number one seed is on the line, but the Titans have a playoff berth clinched. They have their division clinched. They have a home playoff game clinched. You do not put Derrick Henry out there on his broken foot for the first time,

well, obviously repaired, in a game against the Texans that you should win anyways. Save that man for the playoffs. Get the bye. Plus, all of the data suggests that when you're talking about a Jones fracture, if you bring a guy back before 10 weeks, which would be 9 weeks for Derrick Henry since surgery, if you bring a guy back before 10 weeks,

their production goes down around 25%. If you bring a guy back from a Jones fracture after 10 weeks, their production goes down around 25%. If you bring a guy back from a Jones fracture after 10 weeks, his production typically increases by 10%. The 10-week time frame is what you have to get past, and Derrick Henry's not going to be past 10 weeks since surgery until after this game against the Texans. So he's after 10 weeks. The Titans get a bye, let's say, in the perfect scenario.

He can practice fully and hard and get that contact in practice, and then he'll be ready for the Titans' first playoff game. I do not believe that you bring him back to knock off rust in a game against the Houston Texans. If Henry were to get hurt in that game, if Henry gets hurt in the playoffs and re-injures or whatever, hey, it's the playoffs. You know, You brought him back. He wanted to come back. The timeline made sense. You take that risk. You do not take the risk of bringing him back in a week 18 game when the

playoffs are clinched against the Houston Texans. You just don't do it. So that is my thoughts on Derrick Henry. That is Monday's roster moves that you need to know. Now we are going to get into my biggest takeaway, my biggest positive takeaway at least from the Titans win over the Miami Dolphins and the takeaway that I think will have the biggest long-term impact in terms of the Tennessee Titans winning the Super Bowl. Before we get into that though, do want to tell you guys about GetUpside. It's a free app that any Titans fan who buys gas has to know about. My listeners right now are making up to 25 cents for every gallon of gas every time they fill up with the free GetUpside app. Like I said, it's a free app. You just download it in the App Store or on Google Play. Use the promo code TOUCHDOWN when you sign up,

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That's promo code TOUCHDOWN on the free GetUpside app. Titans fans, let's continue this Tuesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. I just told you guys about all the roster updates on Monday. Talked about Derrick Henry. My thoughts on when the Titans should bring Derrick Henry back. But now I want to get into one of the takeaways that I had from the game against Miami. And it's quite the positive development. And I think personally, it is the most important development coming out of that game.

It wasn't, you know, Ryan Tannehill's performance. It wasn't the defense. It wasn't the news over the weekend about Derrick Henry's return. Nope. It was the offensive line. Wait a minute. The offensive line? What do you mean? Let me tell you what I mean, guys. This Titans offensive line is no secret. They've been great and run blocking all year one of the best run blocking offensive lines in

the NFL for multiple years but they've really struggled in pass protection it's been a major issue their top five and sacks allowed and you don't want to be top five in that category not the

top that you want to be at so I think one of my biggest concerns about the Titans past the health because you know you knew all right guys are going to come back Derek Henry's not done for the year AJ is going to you knew, alright, guys are going to come back. Derrick Henry's not done for the year. AJ's going to come back

on fire. Julio's going to come back. Tannehill's not hurt. The defense is in a good spot. So the concerns really weren't there. But the biggest concern was, hey, even when everybody's healthy, this line can't block when it comes to pass protection. This

line can't protect Tannehill. So how can the passing offense operate at all if the offensive line is going to be one of the worst pass-protecting offensive lines in the NFL? Well, that could potentially have turned a corner. So let's talk about what the offensive line did on Sunday. So, number one, going to go over my weekly pressure report that I do on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans.

Taylor LeJuan, zero pressures allowed, zero sacks. Roger Saffold, zero pressures allowed, zero sacks. Ben Jones, zero pressures allowed, zero sacks. Nate Davis, zero pressures allowed, zero sacks. Questenberry, only one pressure allowed, zero sacks. Nate Davis, zero pressures allowed, zero sacks. Questenberry, only one pressure allowed, zero sacks. The only sack that was actually allowed was Jeremy McNichols blowing his assignment. Let me remind you, the Miami Dolphins had the most sacks in the NFL going into the game with

45. They had six more sacks than second place. This was the best pass rushing team in the league. And the Titans offensive line just shut it down. They just shut it down. Not only did they shut it down, but the Titans ran for 198 yards. The Titans offensive line dominated this game. And again, that is the most beneficial, long-term positive development

that came out of this weekend. The Titans offensive line had their best pass blocking rating per pro football focus of the year. Any game of the year with a 74.3. I know that sounds low, but being in the 70s with pro football focus grades is pretty good. It's not bad. So the chemistry is coming together. Saffold had the break with COVID

injuries. He's looking healthy and looking good. Taylor LeJuan is playing his best football that he's played since tearing his ACL. I mean, it all makes sense when you look at ACL recovery in the timeline. Yeah, he's been out there, but now he's looking like himself. Taylor LeJuan was great in this game. Really great in this game. Nate Davis is out there. Ben Jones is out there. Questenberry is out there.

I mean, the chemistry is coming together. The offensive line is healthy. They're communicating properly. They're pushing around good defensive fronts. I mean, this is exactly what we wanted to see from the Titans' offensive line all year long. And yes, it took us a while to get here. But we're here now.

And Derrick Henry is right around the corner. The Titans have ran for more yards in the eight weeks without Derrick Henry than they did with Derrick Henry is right around the corner. The Titans have ran for more yards in the eight weeks without Derrick Henry than they did with Derrick Henry. Now, I'm not saying that as an indictment on Henry. What I'm saying is the offensive line is still rolling, and now if they can get that chemistry going and pass protection because everybody's as healthy as they have been all year and that chemistry is gelling even though late better than never,

I mean, that is as big of a development for the Titans as anything that has happened all year long. If the offensive line can get right as the Titans go into the playoffs and the Titans should run for 300 yards on the Texans in this game. So if the Titans offensive line gets right here, their chemistry gets going as it looks like it is, then the Titans get Julio Jones back. Then the Titans get Derrick Henry

back. And they get a bye before the playoff game to play at home with Vrabel's extra preparation, the chemistry, the health. Boom! Ladies and gentlemen, that's why the offensive line getting in their rhythm, getting in their groove

as the weather gets cold. you see me in here? I got my beanie on, my locked-on beanie. I got my hoodie on. Winter is coming. And while winter means Derrick Henry, winter also means the Tennessee Titans. Offensive line. So to me, that was the biggest takeaway of the weekend

is the Titans offensive line absolutely dominating. The best pass rush team in the NFL in the trenches. Not only in the run game, but of course in the passing game. Incredible stuff. And hopefully that can continue. They're going to play a much less or a much worse defensive front this weekend. And I expect that momentum to not only continue, but to crescendo as we get to the NFL playoffs.

Very excited about the game. Very excited about everything that's happening. You know who's not excited though? NFL analytics Twitter seem to have nothing nice to say about the Titans. So I am going to talk in the final segment of our show about why all those analytics folks are dead wrong on the Titans and why it's a pride issue.

Why they can't admit how good the Tennessee Titans really are. Titans fans, let's continue this Tuesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast with a little bit of a Rollins rant. So the Titans had a big win on Sunday over the Miami Dolphins. They did what all of the national media wants them to do and absolutely dominate a team that they're better than. They've moved up to the number one seed in the AFC, but seen a lot of skepticism about the Titans,

which is nothing new, but there's a lot of skepticism coming from one community in particular, and it's the analytics community, people at ESPN, people at Football Outsiders, people at Pro Football Focus, who just seem to be using the models that they create themselves to justify their own opinions about the Tennessee Titans. So I kind of just want to dive in here to how I see this.

And number one, what I want to say up front is these guys do great work. I mean, incredibly intelligent people putting together incredible models, predictive analysis that has its place in the football conversation. This is not an anti-analytics rant by any means. But what this is, this is an anti-confirmation bias rant because basically what's happening here is these guys who have analytical models that tell you how good the team is, DVOA and FPI and all these different things. So they're saying that because their model has the Titans as not one of the better teams, one of the worst teams in the playoffs or however they want to categorize it. Because their model doesn't have the Titans as one of the best teams. That means that the Titans have to be fraudulent because the Titans don't fit in the little box that they've created in their own mind that tells them,

oh, this is right. This team is better than this team. This is what I created. At the end of the day, they are creating the models so their opinion of how the model should be set up or how the equations should be set up, their opinion of that still has a big factor in how these rankings work.

But regardless, I still think that DVOA and FPI and Pro Football Focus have their place. The ratings aren't entirely flawed. But here's the problem, is when a team like the Titans outperforms what the numbers say, defies what the numbers say, defies what the numbers say. These guys, instead of saying, hey, you know, it's pretty crazy that the Titans have been as good as they have been when our numbers don't line up with that. Maybe there's an area we can improve on our numbers.

Or even just, man, it's miraculous that they're defying the numbers. Instead, what these analytics guys do is is they jump on Twitter and they say, oh, the Titans don't match up in our created formulas and numbers. So that means they must not be very good. They're fraudulent. What? Maybe, maybe it's possible. And let me go down this tangent, my explanation here for why this is.

I think it's possible that, and now, again, another little preface here. I am somebody who didn't play at the highest level. I didn't play in the NFL, so it's not like I can speak from experience. But I think there's something to be said that all of these people in the analytics community online don't think running backs matter. They don't care about the running game. And that's part of the reason that there's this inherent bias against the Titans because the Titans play a brand of old school football,

a brand of physical football that doesn't necessarily appeal to some of these people who look at football as science rather than a human played sport. And I think that it's possible that people who have more experience with numbers than they do football can put too much of an emphasis on the things that they can quantify and not enough of an emphasis on the things you can't. There is a reason that we don't just go by what the projections are every single week. Humans play this game. The best parts about sports are the parts that are ignored by analytics. People's heart.

People's determination. Injuries. Fighting through those. Experience. There are guys, if you've played any sport ever, you know that there are certain people who mentally just aren't as clutch. Or they just tend to, people who have bad attitudes, who tend to give up on the game quickly, or you've had bad teammates in your life that when the going gets tough, they throw a fit or they act out like Antonio Brown over the weekend. We've all

dealt with people like that. Those little mental and psychological aspects of sports and especially of football cannot be quantified or calculated by analytics. So when the Tennessee Titans run down your throat for 50 minutes and there's a couple of guys on the defensive line who just mentally them as human beings don't want to deal with the pounding anymore and then Derrick Henry breaks off a 70-yard run, that is not 100% measured by the calculation that you've created.

So, I just think that it's annoying to me that whenever the Titans do good things that don't match up with what the analytics community determines is good, the response to that is never, hey, maybe we need to look at our model in a different way. Or, hey, congratulations to the Titans. They're even against the numbers. Have been a great team. It's actually, no, the Titans aren't a great team.

And it's proven because our numbers say they aren't great. And what you're seeing out there, that's just a fluke for a whole season. Like there's a lack of self-awareness here. Maybe it's not that the Titans are flawed. Maybe it's that your analytics and your systems and your models and your calculations are inherently flawed because they were trying to boil down a non-scientific element in football and sports into a complete science.

There are areas that cannot be tracked that way about sports, about life. Human beings play the game. Emotion, psychology, all of that matters. And that's why all these football coaches, even though all the analytics people scream that running the ball doesn't matter, all of these coaches, including an analytically forward coach like Brandon Staley of the Chargers, even said running the ball matters because of the physical toll

that it takes on the team. It allows your offensive linemen to not be going backwards. It allows them to press forwards. Even on the defensive side, having a physical defensive line that hits you, like the difference between having a John Lynch as a safety and then having like Michael Griffin for the Titans, who was a great rangy safety, but he was never known as like this heavy hitter. The difference between Earl Thomas and Cam Chancellor, you know what I mean.

This isn't crazy. The point is here is that there is a physical, mental, and psychological element to football that cannot be properly measured by calculations and equations and the analytics. And the response from that part of the football community, instead of maybe trying to do some self-evaluation, instead of some self-scouting, or even, you don't even have to say that you need to look at your model, just say, hey, Titans broke the model this year. They're a good team. The response is always, oh no, the Titans aren't as good as you think they

are because they don't fit in the little box that we've created that determines who's good and who's bad. And normally, it seems like it's the type of people who are going to underestimate the physical and psychological and mental aspects of the game because those are elements of the game that they never excelled at. I can say that's something for me. I never just was the most talented guy out there who's just going to bully the guy against me,

and I'm going to bully him so much that eventually it's going to break their will a little bit, and that's going to be a determining factor in the game. I had to work around the margins, and I'm not using my playing experience as any sort of credibility. I'm just saying, I'm trying to say it because anybody who's played sports understands these sort of things. There is a bully mentality to sports at

certain times that does affect the game and I don't think that can be properly quantified or calculated by the formulas that these guys are using and maybe they haven't experienced enough of that themselves to give that part of the game enough credence and enough credit. And therefore, they undervalue it.

Therefore, they think the scientific part of it, which they can measure, is the much more important part. And the other things about the game which I'm talking about, they're kind of fluky. They're unimaginable. Well, guess what? These coaches in the NFL, these people who have been in the NFL and played the game at the highest level,

they understand how much of a toll those things take on a game, good or bad. So I guess my frustration here ultimately comes down with the people who are critical of the Titans because they don't fit their numbers only look at it from the sense of, oh, well, if they don't fit my numbers, then this team isn't worthy. And I'm sorry. That's just not the way that football is ever going to be played. It's not the way it's ever going to work.

And we're never going to solely rely on the science and the numbers because football is played by human beings, not robots. So, you know, nerds put the calculators down, watch the Tennessee Titans punch some teams in the mouth all the way to the top of the AFC. So that's going to do it for my Rollins rant. Again, these guys do great work.

I'm not trying to be hateful or anything like that. It just seems like every time the Titans break their models or don't line up in the box that they want, they don't give the Titans credit. They just say they're a fluke because they don't match the models that we created to confirm our own opinions about what's important in football. So anyways, that's all I got to say about that. The Titans will continue breaking the mold. I hope you guys enjoyed this Tuesday episode. Make sure you subscribe on whatever platform you do stream. I'm going to

be back with you guys tomorrow for Rewatch Wednesday, diving into the tape of the Titans victory over the Miami Dolphins. That's going to do it for me today, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.