Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans MUST START Malik Willis in Week 18, Titans Resolutions & Mike Vrabel to Patriots Rumors

Episode Date: January 1, 2024

The Tennessee Titans have one final game remaining in 2023 and they need to put Malik Willis out there to be quarterback for his sake and the team's. Next, going into 2024, the Titans need to make some big changes to the way they do things. Particularly, with their offensive approach and how they value special teams. Finally, there was another Mike Vrabel rumor regarding his contract status, but it was absolute nonsense again.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!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.PrizePicksGo to PrizePicks.com/lockedonnfl and use code lockedonnfl for a first deposit match up to $100!GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDON for $20 off your first purchase.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.FanDuelScore early this NFL season with FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook! Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning FIVE DOLLAR MONEYLINE BET! That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – if your team wins! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Tennessee Titans must start Malik Willis in week 18. I'll explain why on today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Let's get it. You are Locked on Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to the Locked On Titans Podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland, Titans fans. Today's edition of the Locked On Titans podcast is brought to you by FanDuel.

Make every moment more. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 Moneyline bet. That's $150. If your team wins, visit fanduel.com slash locked on to get started. We got a lot to discuss on today's show. The Titans need to start Malik Willis in week 18. Also, I'm going to do some New Year resolutions for the Tennessee Titans, things I want to see change with this team. And finally, we got another rumor about Mike Rabel to New England.

I'm going to explain what happened on Monday and why it's complete nonsense. Before we get into all of that, 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 you get subscribed. Stay subscribed. It's your team every day. As a reminder, the off season's right around the corner, and this is one of the most important offseasons in franchise history.

I'm going to be breaking down the draft, free agency, roster moves, trades, coaching staff, everything, Monday through Friday, all season long. Make sure that you get subscribed. Stay subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast. But the Titans need to start Malik Willis. All right? the Titans need to start Malik Willis. All right, the Titans need to start Malik Willis. And we're going to go through all three quarterback situations to explain why.

Number one, Will Levis. You cannot play Will Levis in this game. You can't. You simply cannot. Now, I've been saying this since he got hurt against the Texans two weeks ago. I said, sit Will Levis for the rest of the season. Number one, he's not going to be healthy. He's not going to be 100% healthy no matter what.

Number two, this offensive line isn't getting better and it's dangerous. Number three, they're out of the playoffs. What are you even playing them for? Valuable experience. The reps. Blah, blah, blah. Okay. Okay.

We'll get to how important reps can be here in just a moment. But it's obvious now with a recovering high ankle sprain and then a right foot injury that you should sit Will Levis and protect your investment and protect your future quarterback for one game. One game. I got two fingers up, so it looks like two, but one game. Will Levis cannot play in this game.

Do not even pretend. Do not even do the, oh, we're going to see if he can practice. No. Mike Vrabel already said that the injury doesn't appear to be too serious. They dodged a bullet there. Do not play Russian roulette again. Bang, bang. You keep pulling the trigger, you will die. All right? They have to grow up, get out of that macho football. If he's healthy, if he can practice,

he can. No. It's time to be the thinking man's team, not the macho man's team for once, okay? And we'll get to that when we get to New Year's resolutions. But do not play Will Levis. It is clear and obvious. The conversation becomes, do you play Ryan Tannehill or do you play Malik Willis? And again, you need to play Malik Willis because you look at Ryan Tannehill.

Tannehill almost got hurt last week too. Tannehill does not have the mobility to play behind this offensive line. We've known that all year, but definitely since week six when he got hurt against the Ravens. Tannehill is going to get hurt in a serious way if he plays another full game behind this offensive line. It's just what it is. He's not young enough. He's not young enough.

He's not mobile enough. And, you know, I don't think that the Titans need to really care too much about some of this stuff, but Ryan Tannehill has done a lot for this franchise, and he deserves to be healthy going into the free agency so he can try to find himself another opportunity after this, whether it be a backup, whether trying to compete to be a starter with a young quarterback, whatever it is.

So, and honestly, behind this offensive line, does Tannehill even want to play? After the game, Tannehill said, yeah, there are some plays where I literally can't do anything. I'm just dead in the water. There's nothing I can do because of this offensive line. So you may say Tannehill wants to go out there and prove that he could still make it. Tannehill wants to be healthy for free agency. So I don't even think Tannehill would want to play. And that brings me to Malik Willis. So I get what you're going to say.

Oh, you don't want to get, you know, Tannehill and Levis hurt behind the offensive line, but you want Malik Willis to go out there. Well, number one, Malik Willis has the most athleticism out of all of them. We've seen if anybody can survive behind the offensive line, it's going to be Malik. But what is more important to Malik, in my opinion, than worrying about his own health is getting an opportunity next offseason. Look, I am going to be honest and upfront, and I've been saying this for a while.

Now that you have Will Levis, a young quarterback on his rookie contract, you need to pair him with a good backup quarterback. And that's not Malik Willis, folks. If you still think that Malik Willis is a good backup quarterback, and that that's what the Titans should do, I really don't know what to tell you at this point. I don't know what you need to see, what evidence you want, or I don't know if there's anything that you could see to wake you up to the reality here.

But when you have a young quarterback on a rookie contract who is your quarterback of the future, it's best to pair him with a very, very solid, expensive backup quarterback. And when I say expensive, we're talking five to six to seven million dollars for a backup. I'm not talking about paying a backup, you know, 20 solid, expensive backup quarterback. And when I say expensive, we're talking $5 to $6 to $7 million for a backup. I'm not talking about paying a backup, you know, $20 million, stuff like that. So be reasonable here. But for Malik, the odds are, with that being said, the odds are that Malik is not going to be here next year. The Titans don't need to develop another young quarterback

when they have Will Levis. They need a QB2 that's experienced that can come in and win a couple games if Levis is out a few weeks. That's what they need. And that's not going to be Malik Willis. Malik Willis needs to be the QB3 to get development reps and to play a ton in the preseason and all that, and he needs a new fresh opportunity to do so.

So if I'm Malik Willis, I don't care about the offensive line. I want to play. Let me go out there and get those reps. Everybody said Will Levis needs these reps so desperately for his experience. Well, apply that to Malik Willis. Give Malik Willis an opportunity in the last week of the season to show another team that he has the ability to come in and be a developmental quarterback.

Give him that opportunity. So you could say that I don't care about Malik Willis' health. It's not that. It's he needs this opportunity more than Ryan Tannehill does. Give Malik that opportunity. That's what I want for Malik. I want Malik. I know that Malik isn't going to stay with Tennessee after this year.

So give him an opportunity to audition for another team. Tannehill has gotten that opportunity. He's going to get a good backup quarterback contract in free agency. Will Levis got that opportunity. He's going to be your franchise quarterback going forward. Now all I'm saying is give Malik Willis an opportunity to be the starter in practice all week long, game plan as the starter all week long, and give him an opportunity to set himself up to get another job next offseason. And in the process, you don't put Will Levis out there to get hurt,

and you give yourself a good chance to lose as well, which is very important for the Titans. So, start Malik Willis, dear Lord. That's all I'm saying. Now, excuse me. I got some resolutions. It's a new year, Now, excuse me. I got some resolutions. It's a new year, ladies and gentlemen, and I got some resolutions for the Tennessee Titans.

I want to see some things change with the team we all love so much. And then at the end of the show, another Mike Grable, Tennessee Titans, New England Patriots rumor that's absolute nonsense. So I got a lot to get into in the rest of today's show. We're going to get into it momentarily. Before we do, though, do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook.

Look, guys, the NFL season, regular season at least, is wrapping up. But there's still time to get in on the action with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers can get $150 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place a $5 bet. That's it. All you have to do is place a $5 bet and you get $150 in bonus bets win or lose.

The app's super easy to use. It looks great too, I got to say, as well. I love the way the FanDuel app works. You got single-game parlays, live bets. You can always find bets in the Explore tab. Make a parlay in the Parlay Hub. There are so many different ways to have a great time on FanDuel. Make sure that you visit FanDuel.com slash LockedOn

and make your first bet a layup. That's FanDuel.com slash LockedOn L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N FanDuel Official Partner of the NFL. edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. We talked about why it's time to start Malik Willis for the Titans. Now I want to get into some Tennessee Titans New Year's resolution, some things I want to see change with this franchise.

Going forward, we're also going to talk about another Mike Rabel, New England Patriots rumor at the end of the show. Before we get into it, thank you for making Locked on Titans your first listen each and every day. I am your host, Tyler Rowland, fifth season hosting the show. Before we get into it, thank you for making Locked on Titans your first listen each and every day. I am your host, Tyler Rowland, fifth season hosting the show, been a Titans fan for 25 years, certified film junkie, watching the tape, breaking down the X's and O's, writer for Sports Illustrated over at AllTitans.com.

Stay with me here all off-season long for all of the Monday through Friday free content I'm going to be bringing you. Get subscribed now. But I also want to let you guys know that Locked On has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube. It's called Locked On Sports Today. It's here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day every day. Go to Locked On Sports Today on YouTube.

Subscribe to the first ever National Sports 24-7 streaming channel. But no more conservative offense. I'm tired of it. I'm sick of it. Alright? I've been a fan of this team for 25 years and

other than like three or four seasons it's been boring 1980s, run the ball, play defense. Listen, if the Titans are going to go 5-12, if the Titans are going to go 7-10, I would rather them be a high-scoring offensive team that loses 36-35 than have them be a team that loses 13 to 10. I'm sick of it.

I'm sick of the conservative approach from Mike Vrabel. We've seen whether the offense is talented or whether the offense is not talented. Mike Vrabel wants to be conservative. He wants to run the football. He wants to win one to nothing every single week. I'm tired of it, man. I'm just sick of it. Okay. every single week. I'm tired of it, man. I'm just sick of it. Okay?

Now, there are some people who believe that with better personnel on offense, Mike Vrabel would not have such a conservative approach. There's no evidence of that. Zero evidence of that being the case. What Mike Vrabel has said, his actions, excuse me, words or actions. There's no evidence that Mike Vrabel would

want an aggressive offensive approach. But I'm hoping. You know? Despite the lack of evidence, I am hoping that he wakes up. You don't need to have the best personnel of all time on offense to be aggressive. You don't need to

have the best personnel or the best offensive line of all time to not run the ball on second and ten all the time. To not go run run pass. To not run straight into the line of scrimmage 15 out of 24 times two weeks ago against the Texans. Like, you don't need the best offense. Honestly, with bad offensive personnel, you should be even more aggressive, not more conservative. So it just shows a backwards logic from Mike Vrabel.

He does not understand offensive football. It's that simple. He doesn't get it. He doesn't know what is right. He doesn't have a good direction. And when he is instructing his offensive coordinators of what to do, he does not have a good grasp of how to help his young quarterback, of how to have a smart, scoring, efficient offense. And we've seen it over and over and over again. You can blame Tom Downing. You can blame Tim Kelly. You can say fire the OCs, fire the OCs, fire the OCs.

But how many offensive coordinators do we need to see where it looks exactly the same? Maybe instead of blaming the assistant manager, you blame the general manager. And in this case, the example is Mike Rabel, who's the leader of the coaching staff, who continues to have offenses that look this way. And at some point, it's like, hey,

maybe the offensive coordinator doesn't necessarily want to do it that way, but maybe his boss is telling him to. The common denominator continues to be Mike Vrabel. So hopefully Mike Vrabel will decide to make a philosophical change and go away from this conservative, run-the-ball, 1980s offense that the Titans have been running for 25 years. Moving along. Did you guys see DeAndre Hopkins have his barber in the locker room last week?

He was getting a haircut while he was doing his interview at his locker. Okay. Some people didn't like that. Some people had things to say. It's unprofessional. It's blah, blah, blah. It's uncouth. Whatever.

Okay. All right. Fair enough. Fair enough. And it wasn't just media. There were some fans who were also like, yeah, I don't like this, blah, blah, blah. Shut up.

The Titans need more dogs. That is one of my big New Year's resolutions for this team. For too long, the Titans have had lunch pail, hard nose, blue collar. But no, I'm tired of it. We need more divas. We need more controversy. We need more chaos. We need more dogs.

Alright? I'm tired of having nice players. I'm tired of having guys who don't create controversy. Who tow the company line. Man, I don't care if a guy is getting his hair cut at his locker during an interview. Good! Let's see more swagger.

Let's see more dog. Let's see more moxie. Let's see more alpha. The. Let's see more Alpha. The Titans, listen, not only are the Titans one of the worst franchises in NFL history, but they are one of the most boring franchises in NFL history because we do not encourage the dog mentality.

Mike Vrabel wants people to sit down, shut up, stay quiet, say nothing. That New England Patriots militaristic style of treating your players. No individualism. We don't celebrate creativity. Don't do that. Don't get excited. Don't have your hair cut at your locker. For 25 years now, this franchise has smothered individuality.

I want divas. You know what? Divas are good at football. In this world where, oh, it's such a good story and Aaron Brewer is tougher than a $2 steak and buh-buh. Man, I'm sick of it.

I'm sick of being the Disney of NFL franchises. I'm tired of being rated PG. I want the team to be rated R. That's what I want. We've tried this blue collar, hard worker, lunch pail type stuff for 25 years. Nah, I want some divas. I want my wide receiver wearing Dolce and Gabbana shades

in his locker room. I want my top flight wide receivers getting their hair cut by their barber at their locker. The Titans need more of that, not less. Can we have more? More excitement. More personality. More creativity.

More flashy. More flamboyant. I want to be entertained. If the team isn't going to win a Super Bowl, at least let me be excited about the team. Is it so to win a Super Bowl? At least let me be excited about the team. Is it so much to ask? Quit acting like Main Street and act like Broadway. Or how does it work? Quit acting like Main Street and act like Wall Street.

I want the Titans to be Hollywood for a while. Let's try that. Yeah, there's more controversy. Yeah, there's more this and that. But the media in Nashville isn't that tough anyway. So, I'm just saying, man, I've seen the exact same version of this football team over and over and over whether it's Steve McNair and Eddie George or Chris Johnson and Kerry Collins or Ryan Tannehill and Derrick Henry are just over and over.

I want to see something else. Let's do it the other way. Say, oh, the grass is always greener. Okay, well, the grass is dead here. So the grass may be dead over there, but I'm at least willing to see. So no more conservative offense. More dogs. Also,

I'm tired of putting an emphasis on special teams. And this goes back to my blue collar, lunch pail. I'm tired of caring more about special teams than the actual positions on offense or defense. I'm tired of getting wide receivers because they can block or play special teams

when we don't have wide receivers who get open and catch the ball. So, I just want to see a philosophical change of what kind of football team the Tennessee Titans want to be because they've tried this for 25 years and it doesn't work. It doesn't work. It's time to modernize.

It's time to grow up. Quit being a Mickey Mouse franchise. With that being said, got another rumor about Mike Vrabel going to the Patriots, and once again, it is nonsense. Now, you may not want to hear that,

but it's nonsense. So we're going to get into that in just a moment. Before we do, I do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by PrizePix. PrizePix is daily fantasy sports made easy. Look, you don't have to compete against a thousand bots or a thousand lineups or sharks and pros. It's just you against PrizePix projections. So here's how it works.

Prize picks has a projection for every player. They have multiple statistical projections for every player. DeAndre Hopkins, 70 receiving yards. Derek Henry, 50 rushing yards. Trevor Lawrence, one passing touchdown. All you do is you pick two to six players and you say whether the players are going to do more or less than the prize picks projection. If you get it right, you can get up to 25 times your money. All right, look. Prize picks has made it even more fun than ever before, too, because now you can combine sports.

You can do Patrick Mahomes passing yards and LeBron James three-pointers. It's absolutely excellent. It's a great time, and you can create your entry in 60 seconds or less. So make sure that you go to prizepicks.com slash locked on NFL. Use the code locked on NFL for a first deposit match up to $100. It's prizepicks.com slash locked on NFL. Use the code locked on NFL for a first deposit match up to $100. Prize picks.

Daily Fantasy Sports. Made easy. Titans fans, let's cap off today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. We talked about why Malik Willis needs to start, did some New Year's resolutions for the Titans. Let me know yours down below. Now I got to talk about this latest bullcrap rumor about Mike Brayboy and his status with the Tennessee Titans. Before I get into it,

thank you for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen each and every day. Do want to let you guys know tomorrow we're updating on the

tank. What needs to happen for the Titans to get the best pick possible. Also going to talk about a draft scenario tomorrow for the Titans.

So a lot of good stuff coming your way then it's crossover Thursday with Tony Wiggins from Locked on Jags. Game plan Friday. I'll be live after the game on Sunday. And then, of course, the offseason begins.

You don't want to miss all the content I'm going to have for you guys. Get subscribed. Stay subscribed. It's your team every day. But, Mike Lombardi. You've probably heard of Mike Lombardi

if you've been paying attention to football media for any length of time. But a former executive for the Patriots, long ago, hasn't been doing that for quite some time. But Mike Lombardi has his own podcast. It's called the GM Shuffle. I don't like promoting this stuff, but I've got to at least give credit where it's due. Or at least credit, not where it's due, but got to credit stuff. So whatever. But Mike Lombardi went on his podcast and said that

Mike Rabel's contract expires at the end of the year. The Titans can't be very happy with Will Levis. Mike Rabel isn't very happy with the setup there. Said all these things on his podcast, like they're absolute certainties. Like they're facts. Like they're inside information that he has because he has connections in the NFL.

And then everybody on Twitter said, wait, he just signed a contract extension before 2022. It doesn't expire for two years. And then Mike Lombardi came on Twitter and said, sorry, I misspoke. Look, guys, it is

obvious what happened here. The Patriots are desperate. They're not a good situation. Nobody wants to go coach there. And they want Mike Vrabel desperately. But they're not going to get him. Now, you listening, yes, you,

you may want Mike Vrabel fired. I think it's something the Titans need to consider as well. I've been talking about it for a while. But he's not getting fired. No matter what I want, you want, they want, he want, the Patriots want, Michael Lombardi wants, he's not getting fired. It's obvious that they fired John Robinson because

they thought the roster was the problem. And you have to know that Mike Vrabel told Amy Adams Strunk it's going to take more than one offseason with limited draft picks and limited cap space to fix this team. It's just obvious. Alright? So, it's also obvious what Lombardi was doing here. As a Patriot shill, as a guy who has worked for the team, probably still has connections with the Patriots, of course he would go on there and try to drum up controversy

to create division with the Titans so that he can manifest Mike Vrabel going to New England. It's obvious. Earlier in the year, there was a big rumor from the Boston Globe that the Patriots were going to try to trade for Mike Vrabel. Well, why would the Patriots have to trade for Mike Vrabel

if his contract expired at the end of the year? So it was obvious from the moment I heard that rumor and people started tagging me in it that this is bullcrap because Lombardi is connected to New England, so if the people in New England think that they need to trade for Vrabel, then the people in New England would also know that Vrabel's contract doesn't expire. So it's just clear nonsense.

And he said that they can't be happy with Will Levis, which is absolutely absurd, right? I mean, the Titans have the worst offensive line in the NFL right now, or at least bottom three. By far the worst left tackle spot in the NFL. And you think that they're unhappy with what Will Levis has done? I mean, how brain dead and how detached from reality in the Titans situation could you be? You know, it's just, it's hilarious. But again, Lombardi came out and said he misspoke

because he knew he just made all that up. It wasn't a report. It was his opinions. His opinions on his podcast. Not a report. Not intel. Not background. Nothing.

And you know what? Talk with some other people from Locked On who host other shows figuring out how I wanted to discuss this. It just, it's clear that if you weren't a fan of the Titans, if you weren't a Titans fan who knew Mike Rabel signed an extension before 2022, who knew that the Titans would not be mad about what Will Levis has done this year. If you were a Titans fan, it's clear that this is nonsense. But if you're a fan of any other team and you're listening to that, you could

probably believe it. You could probably get suckered into believing it because you don't watch the Titans and you don't know. So it's funny how certain people act like they have inside information when they talk about stuff. And it's believable to people who don't know anything about it. You know, if you were a San Francisco 49ers fan who probably hasn't given one lick of care about the Titans all year, you'd probably listen to that rant and be like, oh, yeah, that makes sense.

So I could see the hustle. I could see the shtick. I could see the game, the wool that's trying to be pulled over everyone's eyes. But as someone who covers the Titans intimately on a day-to-day basis and has for five years now, sometimes when you hear these outside things, it's just so obvious that they're trash, you know?

So I knew that people were going to ask me about this tonight, wanted to address it. Again, Mike Lombardi himself came out and said that he misspoke on all of that and Mike Vrabel's contract, of course. So you may want Mike Vrabel fired, but again, I'm telling you, don't get your hopes up. All right? They're going to give him this offseason with the plethora of resources

that they have and see what he can do. So with that being said, again, tomorrow, I'm going to be back. I'm going to be looking at the tank, baby, because the Titans got three ways to get someone they need. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.