Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans NEW Starting Right Tackle, Titans Make Four Cuts & Monday Practice Notes

Episode Date: August 22, 2022

The Tennessee Titans haven't officially announced who their starting right tackle will be for the season, but reports from Monday indicate the battle is over. Rookie Nicholas Petit-Frere appears to have won the job. Tyler explains why he won and what it means for Dillon Radunz. Next, the Titans cut four players on Monday prior to Tuesday's deadline. Who were they and what does it say about the rest of the position groups at those spots? Tyler dives into the ramifications. Finally, more notes from Monday's practice including player's who sat out, injured players who returned and the status of Treylon Burks!Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPodSubscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/LockedOnTitansSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!DaveDownload the Dave app from the App store right now for an Extra Cash account and get up to 500 dollars instantly. For terms and conditions go to dave.com/legal. Instant transfer fees apply. Banking provided by Evolve. Member FDIC.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!Athletic GreensTo make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com/NFLNETWORK.BriteCoThe guys at BriteCo Jewelry Insurance made buying insurance for your engagement ring, your watch, or whatever so easy you can get covered in 2 minutes on your cell phone. You won't find a better deal on coverage that's so affordable. Go to https://brite.co/lockedon 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, the right tackle position may be decided. That's right. Call the fight. We have a winner at right tackle. I'll tell you who it is and why and what it means for the person who lost the battle. Then we do have to talk about the four cuts. That the Titans made on Monday. Four players cut at four positions. I'll tell you what it means for the rest of the players remaining.

At those spots. And then finally more notes on practice from Monday. Who didn't participate. Who did participate. Who returned to action. And a status update on Traylon Burks. All of that and much 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, we have a lot to discuss on today's show. It appears we do have a winner at the Titans starting right tackle position. Before we get into that conversation, though, I do want to thank you guys for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. If this is your first ever listen,

make sure you subscribe on whatever platform that you do stream. I am going to be putting out daily, Monday through Friday, free Tennessee Titans content all year round on all platforms, including the Locked on Titans YouTube channel. Subscribe there, smash the notification bell, throw a thumbs up on the video. If you're watching right now, follow me on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans for my instant analysis during games and my film stuff. Check out the show Facebook page at LockedOnTitansPod. But with that being said, let's dive into our first conversation of the day about that right tackle position.

Now, let me say this up front. Number one, the Titans have not officially announced who will be starting at right tackle. Mike Rabel was not willing to announce that yet. at-right tackle. Mike Rabel was not willing to announce that yet. But, but, guys, we got to read between the lines here, and there are a lot of indications coming out of today's practice that Nicholas Petit Frere, the rookie out of Ohio State with the 69th pick, nice, did win the starting right tackle battle after Saturday night's game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

What is the evidence that would lead us to believe that? Well, a couple of things. Number one, NPF again, again, went out as the first team right tackle. So in today's practice, when the first team offense went out there, it was Nicholas Petit-Ferrer who was out there as the right tackle. And a second piece of information here that is probably more telling than even that, I mean, if that's been the case throughout and the conversation has still been,

oh, it's competition, both guys got to get work with the first team for it to be a true competition. Well, Dylan Radins working as a guard at practice on Monday. Now, Mike Vrabel said, quote, just trying to shuffle guys around, had some guys out, just trying to figure out where guys are going to be best served. Okay, well, there's two parts of that. Number one, had some guys out. That's true. Nate Davis wasn't there.

Jamarco Jones wasn't there. So they are missing some key depth at guard. But the second part of that quote, just trying to figure out where guys are going to be best served. So Greg Cassell, who does excellent film work for NFL Films, he does a ton of different interviews and things like that, talking scheme, talking tape, talking film, the stuff that I truly respect, and he's one of my big influences. Greg Cassell swears up and down whenever he talks about the Titans that Dylan Radins is going to be a guard in the NFL

if he's a successful player. The Titans worked Dylan Radins at guard last year, and I think this year they wanted to give him a real opportunity to win the starting right tackle position, so they gave him all his reps at tackle, let him focus on being a tackle. But guys, it's just not working out. While I think his performance is overly criticized on Saturday night, he really only had about four or five bad plays. But when he gets beat, it's just so ugly. And he's getting beat so ugly against, you know, second and third stringers a lot of the time.

And you just got to think that his balance issues, the strength of his punch, those are issues that are not going to work when he plays starting edge rushers consistently every single week. Now, again, as I've been preaching, this doesn't mean that Radins is a bust or a bum or all these things that people like to say in my comments. But what it does mean is he's not ready to be a starter right now in the NFL.

Now, could he be next year? Could he be the year after that? I've theorized. I tweeted out a tweet that I had back in March where I said that there was a chance that the future Titans offensive line in 2024-2023 is Taylor LeJuan at left tackle, Dylan Radins at left guard. I do believe Dylan Radins is a left side player more than a right side player, so maybe that would help. Aaron Brewer at center after Ben Jones retires at some point. Nate Davis at right guard, Nicholas Petit

Ferrer at right tackle. I think that that is a logical future starting offensive line. But it's not about, I say all that just to say, Radins' development isn't where we want it to be right now, but that doesn't mean he can't be a contributing player for the Titans in the next few years.

Okay? So, what we should focus on and what we should be happy about is that like on defense with Roger McCreary, we have two rookies who are so good that they can't keep them off the field. And you know Mike Vrabel would love to make the rookies wait even longer. But you just can't keep McCreary off the field. You can't keep NPF off the field. So while it is disappointing that Caleb Farley and Dylan Radins aren't taking the bull behind the horns

and they're not ready to be starters. And they've been passed by rookies. The flip side of that is John Robinson may have hit this draft class out of the park, folks. I mean, literally. It may be more of a case of how good this draft class is rather than how bad Farley and Radins are. But I think it's also fair to say that the COVID years, 20 and 21,

John Robinson, not his best work, which would lead me to believe that the Titans have an intel issue. They don't get as good of intel on draft prospects and their personality and who they are as people, as other teams, so that when COVID impacted how much you could meet with guys, how much you could talk with guys, how much you could get to know them, how much time you had with them. That hurt the Titans more than it hurt other teams

because there may be an intel issue here that the Titans are working with. But that's a deep theory that's not important right now. What is important is Nicholas Petit-Ferrer appears to have won the starting right tackle position. And I do want to mention that Buck Rising also said two things that I feel strongly about three weeks before the Giants game. NPF is your right tackle, and McCreary is the starter outside at cornerback if Molden is healthy.

So, all of the evidence that we have here tells us NPF, who is a thicker, stronger, more balanced, stronger punch, smarter right tackle. So, yes, it's disappointing that Radins couldn't get the spot, but just be happy that there is a rookie that's so good the Titans can't keep him off the field. Nicholas Petit Ferrer looks like you're starting right tackle for your Tennessee Titans coming up this season. But we got a lot to talk about.

The Titans cut four people on Monday. I'm going to tell you who got cut, what it means going forward. Before we get into it, though, I do want to tell you guys about Athletic Greens. So Athletic Greens is one of our partners that has a product that I use literally every day. I started taking AG1, which is just a powder, green powder. It looks kind of cool.

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All you have to do is visit athleticgreens.com slash NFL Network. Again, that's athleticgreens.com slash NFL Network to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. Titans fans, we are going to continue today's show, breaking down all the news coming out of Titans practice on Monday. We're going to continue doing that. We're going to talk about the four cuts that the Titans made on Monday.

They had until tomorrow, Tuesday, at 4 p.m. Eastern time to make the cuts, but they said before practice, hey, we're just going to get this out of the way and get it now. But the curious thing is, they only cut four people when they needed to cut five. So we're going to talk about all of that in just a second. Before we do, I want to thank you guys again for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day.

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I want to touch on a few things that some of the people in the chat have talked about. Boognes said Jack Conklin had an amazing rookie year at right tackle. Maybe we will get the same. My boy Slappy said, makes me wonder how he did so well against Nick Bosa talking about Dylan Radins. Guys, the answer is the same and it's called help. Okay. So what the Titans were doing with Jack Conklin is rookie year. What the Titans did with Dylan Radins in that Thursday night football game against San Francisco, they slid the protection to his side. There's five guys on the offensive line, normally blocking four. So what you would do is you would always have three people to Conklin

or to Bosa side. And then you'd have two guys going one-on-one against the other two rushers on the other side, or the other option, or in combination with, and or you would have a tight end into chip. Schematically, you would do more max protection stuff. You would do more play action deep shots with heavy tight end personnel where you'd have multiple tight ends on the field so that they could be a part of the blocking scheme to help out a young right tackle. Jack Conklin was the recipient of a ton of chips by Delaney Walker and Anthony Fasano. Anthony Fasano that year serviced as basically a sixth offensive lineman and a best buddy to Jack Conklin.

So there are schematic ways to help your young offensive tackles in spot situations. Now, obviously, Conklin was better than Radins as a player. That's no doubt about it, but I'm just saying some of the ways that you can help a guy in a big spot are that, but there are also some reps one-on-one where Dylan Radins was just beating Nick Bosa, and they moved him over, so I don't know, man. It's a consistency thing. It's a consistency thing, but let's get into a conversation about these cuts. So, number one, wide receiver Terry Godwin was cut, and that makes sense. The Titans are starting to cut down.

They have their five wide receivers in Woods, NWI, Burks, Phillips, and Racey McMath. Now it's all about who's going to win that sixth and final spot or whether there needs to be a sixth and final wide receiver. And you're looking at Des Fitzpatrick, Reggie Roberson, Mason Kinsey, Cody Hollister. That's what I think the battle really comes down to there. And you're looking at Des Fitzpatrick, Reggie Roberson, Mason Kinsey, Cody Hollister. That's what I think the battle really comes down to there. I personally would like to see Roberson be the guy who gets kept. I was leaning Kinsey last week, but after what I've seen from Kinsey in the last few preseason games,

I'm going to lean. I would rather have Roberson over Des Fitzpatrick. I saw Roberson out there playing some special teams as well. He's just as good as Des at special teams and has more upside as a receiver, in my opinion. So the problem with Mason Kinsey is he's not going to help you on any coverage teams or return teams. And he isn't even getting opportunities to return kicks in these preseason games,

which is the only special teams value that he's going to be able to provide. He dropped a pass out there. He's overkill with Kyle Phillips on a team that normally likes big wide receivers. I just think Kinsey's in an uphill battle now. I, you know, the, the idea of Macy Kinsey sounds great, but I'm sorry. I just think, and yeah, you know, it could be that Mason Kinsey's Phillips insurance. I agree. But I think still you could get Mason Kinsey on your practice squad to be that Kyle Phillips insurance and to be an insurance piece for returning as well as like the fourth string returner. But the fact he's not getting any return reps, he's not going to be a guy who helps on coverage teams, and he's not a pure better receiver than Roberson or Dez or these guys. It just makes it tough on him. Next, Justin Lawler,

the outside linebacker, and deservedly so. Lawler was awful against Baltimore, quite honestly, setting the edge in the run game. He got passed on the depth chart by Anini after one game, and for good reason. So the Titans have five outside linebackers now. Bud Dupree, Harold Landry, Rashad Weaver, Ola Danny, David Anini. You could even count Danico Autry in that group if you wanted to. He's kind of a tweener in between. For me, I'm good with that five-man group.

I'm good with that. If you want to count Autry as an edge, that's six guys on the edge. I'm good with that five-man group. I'm good with that. If you want to count Autry as an edge, that's six guys on the edge. I'm good with that group. You have a Nene as the pass rush project, pure rusher, who actually showed some chops in run defense. I was pretty impressed when I watched the tape a couple of times.

I've watched the game back about three times now. And Nene continues to impress. So I like the group at outside linebacker now. I'm good and content. Maybe they add another guy as they're churning just to look at somebody else before they cut down to 53 next week. But yeah, Weaver looks good. Anini looks good. Bud is healthy and Taylor LeJuan was singing his praises. I think Bud Dupree has an effective year. I know you guys think I hate Bud Dupree. I don't. I just don't think he's worth the money,

and I think he'll be cut after the season, but I think that he could have a good year with the Titans, and I'm expecting him to. Landry, obviously, we know what he's going to bring. Ola is impressed. Got the strip sack last week or on Saturday night, so I'm happy with the group right now. The last two guys that got cut are both in defensive backfield.

Shakur Brown, who has been playing in the slot for the Titans and has gotten pretty good reports. I thought he's played okay. I was kind of surprised he got cut here over a guy like Trey Swilling or even though Trey Avery's played pretty well. And then Shaheem Carter, who's played some safety for the Titans. But here's the reality about that. There were a couple of guys, three guys in particular,

who came back to practice after missing a lot of practice time lately. And if you have three guys coming back in the defensive backfield, there's got to be room made. So Shakur Brown and Shaheem Carter, it's just a math issue at that point. But I'm going to tell you who those three guys are in the defensive backfield who returned to practice after missing some time last week. We are going to talk about Nate Davis and what happened there, Traylon Burks, who didn't participate in practice, who returned.

Before we get into it, one thing I do want to tell you is there is one spot that hasn't been filled with the cuts. Four guys have been cut. It needs to be five. I'm looking at Willie Wright, Hayden Howerton, Andrew Rupsich on the offensive line. They got to cut down the offensive line numbers eventually. I think it's coming. Thomas Odukoye at tight end.

David Wells. Guys, I got to be honest with you. If you guys watch, you know I cover this team passionately. I literally could sit down and tell you basically every single player on the roster, what they do as a player, what their number is, what their role is within the team. Who is David Wells? Number 83, the white tight end. That is a creative player.

That is not a real guy. All right? I know this team as well as anybody. That dude, who is that guy? Okay? Whatever. I'm moving on. He could be cut too, obviously.

That's a camp body right there. Trenton Cannon, he hasn't been practicing. I can see him getting cut with Julius Chestnut and Hassan Haskins doing so well Sam Okwe and Onu on the defensive line at some point defensive line numbers have to get cut

PV Okwe and Onu could be on the chopping block and then Trey Swilling Willie Wright I mean those are my options right there. That's about eight names that I think could be options for the next guy cut. They could be cut anyways and just churned as other teams make cuts as well. I wouldn't be surprised if multiple of those teams or multiple of those names that I just mentioned actually end up as cuts.

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That's linkedin.com slash locked on NFL to post your job for free. Terms and conditions do apply. Titans fans, we are going to cap off today's show going over some additional practice notes from Monday. Got guys who sat out of practice, guys who returned to practice, who have been injured, an update on Nate Davis, an update on Traylon Burks.

Before we get into all that, though, I do want to thank you guys for making the Locked On Titans podcast your first listen every day. Now, make Locked On Fantasy Football your second listen. You're going to find the intellectual fantasy expert, Vinny Iyer, bringing over 20 years of NFL expertise and a unique angle to give you the moves that no one else can. Get ready for your fantasy football draft with Locked On Fantasy Football. Guys,

tomorrow, on tomorrow's show, the last segment of the show, I'm going to be outlining the stipulations for entering the second annual Locked On Titans Fantasy Football League. I am going to have 11 of my listeners

in a fantasy football league with me. Whoever wins the fantasy football league gets to come on the Locked on Titans podcast for a full episode next offseason. Shout out to Kevin Schestventer, who won the first iteration in the 2021 or the 2020 season. I'm going to have a brand new slate of 11 people. If you would like to enter,

make sure that you pay attention to the last segment of the show tomorrow where I outline how to get in. Excited to do that. Also, I'm doing a giveaway of some Titans merch on Saturday night before the game. I'm going to tweet, so make sure that you're locked into my Twitter account at TicTacTitans if you want to get your hands on a Titans book bag,

a Titans water bottle, some koozies, some stuff like that. With the promotional stuff out of the way, we do got to talk about the practice notes, and I want to start with Nate Davis. So, Nate Davis didn't really practice last week. And that's probably the biggest concern on Titans fans' minds injury-wise, other than Danico Autry, of course.

But we got good news on Monday. The reports were Nate Davis is out at practice. on Monday. The reports were Nate Davis is out at practice. But then, very quickly, that excitement was ruined when it was reported that Nate Davis went back into the building

with a trainer after team stretch. Jeez, man. To rip away my happiness like that after giving us a little taste. Anyways, so not great news on Nate Davis. He goes back in, but it could just be precautionary. He went to stretch it out. Didn't feel good. Said, I'm not feeling great. Time to put it back in. That's fine. I mean, we got three weeks until the Titans play the Giants. So get your rest, Nate Davis. You don't need to be out there right now, but for him to be out there and then go back in during team stretch,

that just means things didn't go according to plan. And you never really want to hear that. Other than that, Traylon Burks. Now, I had somebody try to tell me that I was crazy when I said this, but you guys were on Twitter on Saturday night. Don't you remember somebody saying that Traylon Burks, after the game was over, was limping to midfield? I'm not crazy, right?

Like, other people saw that. We talked about it after the game. So, with the reported injury on Thursday against the Bucs in joint practices, with the leg sleeve, or it was on Wednesday, and then he came out with the leg sleeve and was limited on Thursday. And then he wore the leg sleeve in the game and had ice on his knee after the game and then got reports that he was limping.

I was a little worried about Traylon Burke's injury, just a touch, even if I'm not worried about him in the games like I talked about yesterday. But we got good news. No leg sleeve. Traylon Burke's practicing. Caught a really awesome catch in red zone one-on-one work against Greg Maben at the back of the end zone. So, no worries about Traylon Burks. Not only how he'll be used on the field, but also with that injury. So, no worries there.

So, outside of Nate Davis, outside of Traylon Burks, do want to talk about the guys who didn't participate in practice and then the guys who returned to practice. Let's start with the guys who returned. We need some good news here. Elijah Molden, Theo Jackson, and Chris Jackson all returned to practice on Monday. So it seems like the Titans were just being cautious with them last week.

That's why you see Shakur Brown, Shaheem Carter cut in the defensive backfield because you had three guys in the defensive backfield who were above them on the depth chart who are coming back. So there you go. That's good news, having the defensive backfield restocked and having plenty of options with Adrian Colbert, with Tyreek Gillespie, and, of course, with my guy Lonnie Johnson. The Titans are back to being in a good spot

in the defensive backfield health-wise. The guys who didn't participate, Danico Autry, still out. And some people, some of the beat reporters are finally starting to be like, he's been out for a long time. Yeah, I've been talking about this. Why isn't anybody else?

Where's Danico Autry? He hasn't practiced in weeks. Okay. Kevin Strong, which sucks for Kevin Strong. I think he is a pretty solid option for the Titans, but with the competition on the defensive line, it's hard to miss time. Kevin Strong, Jamarco Jones. I don't know what's going on with Jamarco Jones, but the Titans need the depth out there. Jordan Roos played the whole game at guard. No wonder Dylan Radins got moved to guard to try there. They need some guards ASAP. Tommy Hudson, man, that guy just cannot get right.

I mean, something that I pointed out, there was— I got to toot my own horn for a second here. A couple of weeks ago, there was a training camp video where Torrey Carter was lined up next to one of the tight ends in a tight end position practicing tight end duties. And I said, hey, if the Titans are able to use Torrey Carter as a tight end, which is something he did in college, then that basically is like keeping four tight ends,

which is what I want them to do because of the tight end heavy looks I think they'll get. If Torrey Carter can play some pseudo tight end and then get in the backfield as a fullback, that gives the Titans a ton of formational versatility. All right? You want to come out in a four-man front? Okay.

We're going to motion Torrey Carter down to a tight end, and now we stack the line of scrimmage against your four guys. Oh, you want to play a five-man front, six-man front? Okay, now we're going to pull Torrey Carter back as a fullback, and then we're going to have a lead blocker go on your weak side. Love the formational versatility with Torrey Carter having some tight end duties. So love that. And if they're doing that,

it makes having four tight ends not as valuable, and it hurts Tommy Hudson's chances of continuing to get roles. Christian DeLauro gutted out his performance in the second half, at-right tackle for the Titans after being injured last week. So tough guy there with Christian DeLauro. Didn't practice on Monday. Joshua Kalou, who banged up his groin in the game, didn't practice on Monday.

And Trenton Cannon, again, I'm telling you, with Racey McMath, Dontrell Hilliard looking good on kick return, with the Titans looking like they have some good options at Gunner, with the Titans looking at Julius Chestnut and Hassan Haskins doing pretty well at running back, Trenton Cannon, man,

really hurting his chances of making this roster the more he misses time and loses opportunity to win some of those battles. So that's all your notes from practice on Monday. That's the cuts the Titans made and what they meet. That is Nicholas Petit Ferrer winning the right tackle battle, and he will be your starter, even if the Titans haven't officially announced it,

the writing's on the wall. But that's also going to do it for this show. That's going to do it for me today, folks. I'm going to be back with you tomorrow. I'm going to preview joint practices with the Arizona Cardinals and give you the details on getting in the Locked on Titans Fantasy Football League. That's going to do it for me today, though. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.