Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Offensive Line NEEDS CHANGE, Coaching Failure v Browns & Positive Takeaways from Week 3

Episode Date: September 25, 2023

The Tennessee Titans got embarrassed by the Cleveland Browns, especially on the offensive line and with that they need to consider some changes. Tyler goes over possible combinations the Titans must get a look at. Next, the offensive line wasn't alone in failure. Tyler goes over how the coaching staff sent Dillard out to his doom in the first half and more disappointing performances. Finally, look at some of the positives from Week 3 including the play of DeAndre Hopkins and Sean Murphy-Bunting.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!Harry'sGet your best shave ever this summer with Harry’s razors and skin care products. Get a $13 Starter Set for just $3 at harrys.com/NFL.   NutrafolTake the first step to visibly thicker, healthier hair. For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners ten dollars off your first month’s subscription and free shipping when you go to Nutrafol.com/men and enter the promo code LOCKEDONMLB. DoorDashGet fifty percent off your first DoorDash order up to a twenty-dollar value when you use code lockedonnfl at checkout. Limited time offer, terms apply.Jase MedicalSave more than $360 by getting these lifesaving antibiotics with Jase Medical plus an additional $20 off by using code LOCKEDON at checkout on jasemedical.com.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 LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Last minute tickets. Lowest Price. Guaranteed.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit. eBay Motors dot com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.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.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Right now, NEW customers can bet FIVE DOLLARS and get TWO HUNDRED in BONUS BETS – GUARANTEED. 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

after an utterly embarrassing loss to the Cleveland Browns, the Tennessee Titans must consider changing their offensive line. We're going to talk about some possible fixes 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 LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to faster. Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash locked on NFL. That's linkedin.com slash lockedNFL to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. The Tennessee Titans need to post some of their offensive line jobs on LinkedIn Jobs.

See what kind of candidates they might be able to talk to because some changes need to happen on the Titans offensive line after that embarrassing loss to the Cleveland Browns. I don't know about you guys. It's only three games into the season, but I think that we have seen enough to know now that the current group the Titans have is not going to be able to get it done. Before I get into that conversation, I do want to thank you guys for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen each and every day.

Remember, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content all year round on all apps, always for free. Make sure you get subscribed. Stay subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast where it's your team every day. Throw a thumbs up on the video

if you're watching right now. The show's always free. All I ask for in return is the press of a button. But look, I know that Peter Skowronski has been out, so maybe you could argue, hey, we haven't seen Skowronski for two weeks. If he was in there to help Aaron Brewer

and to help Andre Dillard, then maybe things would be better. My retort to you would be, Dylan Radins was the best offensive lineman the Titans had in week two. So he's not as good as Peter Skowronski, but it's not like they're having poor left guard play that's ruining their ability to play on the offensive line.

The reality here is that Andre Dillard is not good enough in pass protection. He's simply not good enough to get the job done. He's been going up against some of the best rushers in the NFL, but I got news for you. You go up against the best rushers in the NFL every single week. It's not like it's going to get better. Okay. So the reality is, is that Andre Dillard is not a starting left tackle. And that was always going to be a possibility. So with that in mind, what can the Titans do going forward? Well, number one, they need to get Peter Skowronski back because that opens up the options.

Now, let me know down below. Let me know down below in the comments. Would you rather have Skowronski at left tackle and Dylan Radins at left guard, or would you rather flip those guys, keep Skowronski at left guard, and let Dylan Radins at left guard, or would you rather flip those guys, keep Skowronski at left guard, and let Dylan Radins play left tackle? For me personally,

I would rather keep Skowronski at left guard and put Dylan Radins at left tackle. Here is why. The Titans left tackle of the future is not on the team. The Titans are either going to draft a left tackle in the draft, they're going to go pay for a left tackle in free agency with the gobs of free agent money that they're going to have next year. The Titans left tackle of the future is not on the team right now. Peter

Skowronski is the long-term left guard of the future. I think he can be a pro bowler at guard. Remember, he played one game. He was a top 10 offensive lineman in the NFL in week one playing at left guard. He is a guard. Let him play guard. I think he could kick out and play tackle. But long term, I think he is best suited to be a left guard,

and the Titans are smart to go out and get a big-time left tackle one way or another. First-round pick, free agent money. So to me, keep Skowronski at guard. Let him play what he's been practicing as a rookie for the entire season. Let Dylan Radins, who you drafted in the second round as a left tackle, let him play left tackle. And then you can keep everything the same. Aaron Brewer, while I don't think that Aaron Brewer is good enough to be a starter, Mike Vrabel treats him like his own child,

so I don't think he's going anywhere, and then Brunskill and Hubbard have been doing okay on the right side. They've been doing okay there. So that's what you look at when Skowronski is back. Right now, the Titans kind of don't have a choice. And going further, when Nicholas Petit- is back. Right now, the Titans kind of don't have a choice. And going further, when Nicholas Petit-Ferrer is available after week six, I would like to see the Titans go with

Radins at left tackle, Skowronski at left guard, Brunskill at center, NPF at right guard, Chris Hubbard at right tackle. Why not? My thing is the changes that we're talking about here. These formations of the offensive line,

these versions of the offensive line that we're potentially discussing, these versions of the offensive line cannot be dramatically worse than what we are seeing on a week-to-week basis. The Titans offensive line was not, and here's the thing, it's been mostly Aaron Brewer and Andre Dillard.

That's been the reality in pass protection. It's been Andre Dillard and Aaron Brewer getting cooked. But in the run game, it was not good enough today either. And a big part of that is the tight ends. I'm not getting out of here. We can blame the offensive line all we want, and they deserve their fair share of the blame, especially center and left tackle.

But the reality is the Titans' tight ends have been awful in run blocking. Chigga Conquo, Josh Wiley, Trevon Wesko is supposed to be one of the best blocking tight ends in the NFL. Has not been the case. He's been awful. So in pass protection, we know who to blame. Aaron Brewer and Andre Dillard. We know that.

So fix those two components and let's at least give that a try. But in run blocking, the Titans' tight ends are not getting the job done. And that's not helping the offensive line either. So I'm all in favor of if Skowronski is back, put Radins out at left tackle. Don't do what you did all last season and let Dennis Daly destroy the offense at left tackle. Try something. All I'm asking is for the Titans coaching staff to try something. And we've talked about some possible

combinations that they could try out as the year goes on. But with that being said, it's time to get into tighten up, tighten down. And I'm going to start with the tighten downs because there are a lot to go over. But before we get into those, I do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. Every day, a new potential hire feels like a high-stakes wager

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for free. Terms and conditions do apply. Titans fans, let's continue this Reaction Monday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. We just talked about the biggest discussion that needs to be had, period, with the Titans overall coming out of the week three embarrassing loss to the Cleveland Browns 27-3. And that's the offensive line. What changes need to be made? What can the Titans do? Again, for the record, I'm going to see Radins at left tackle. Let Skowronski continue to play left

guard and be pro bowl, all pro level right there. I think that's where he's at. Maybe we could see Daniel Brunskill at center. I still think it'll be Aaron Brewer with Brunskill and Hubbard on the right side. When NPF comes back though, maybe you let Brunskill play some center NPF at right guard, Hubbard at right tackle. The Titans owe it to the rest of the team to look at some different combinations because it's not like the combination that they have right now is a winning one. But I want to get into more than just that. Talk about more of the individual good and bad and tighten up, tighten down. Let me know your biggest tighten downs,

your biggest tighten ups down below in the comments. Hit me up on Twitter at TicTacTitans. With tighten down, again, I want to kind of move the conversation forward from the offensive line. Look at some other things. Starting tighten down with Andre Dillard. I'm back.

I'm not going anywhere. This offensive line man, Andre Dillard, we talked in the preview show that the only thing that the Titans cannot allow to happen is for Miles Garrett and Amari Cooper to whoop him. That's it. They just could not allow. I literally said this exactly on Friday.

You cannot allow those two guys to ruin the game. You can't. And what did the Titans do? Let those two guys ruin the game. Myles Garrett absolutely ate Andre Dillard's lunch, and they gave him help late. They started to help Dillard late, but what were you doing the whole first half

when Myles Garrett was going one-on-one against Andre Dillard? What were you doing? Why was there no adjustment? Why was there no chip help? Why? So a major tighten down for Andre Dillard, who simply just cannot handle being a starting left tackle in the NFL. He's not good enough.

But also a major tighten down for Tim Kelly and Mike Vrabel. That was the plan? The plan was to let Dillard take Garrett one-on-one all day? I mean, Andre Dillard deserves a ton of the blame, but at some point, we got to fault the coaching staff for putting this guy in a situation that he cannot win. He cannot win that matchup all day. How is that the plan going in?

To let Andre Dillard go against Miles Garrett one-on-one. So blame Dillard all you want, but that is a dumb plan. And you are not putting Dillard in a position to succeed doing that. He can't, Andre Dillard on his best day can't stop Miles Garrett for a whole game. So a tighten down for Tim Kelly too, who I have been favorable towards throughout the start of the season. But not this time. That was despicable. What a terrible, terrible plan. Anyways,

Christian Fulton. I was trying to trade Christian Fulton during the summer, folks. I said if the Titans had a number one trade candidate, it should be Christian Fulton. Get some value for him now because they are not bringing him back. The guy just cannot put it together. He gets beat at the catch point far too often, doesn't play the ball well. He makes critical mental mistakes week after week

getting beat by Shahid down the sideline. The long touchdown. I'm giving equal credit to Imani Hooker and Christian Fulton. They're playing cover four. And they're supposed to communicate who goes with the deep guy. That's a tough coverage to run against a deep vertical route like that.

But Fulton's always involved when those coverage busts happen. Fulton is always involved. So, major tighten down for Christian Fulton, who just got absolutely whooped by Amari Cooper all day long. It was embarrassing. And Cooper should have had that touchdown. The Titans got gifted. Okay?

Cooper cooked Fulton on the sideline and ran for a touchdown, and the referees called it out of bounds, and it was not even close to out of bounds. Fulton should have got cooked even more. Another 60 yards and a touchdown. Added on top of what he gave up already. You could not let Miles Garrett and Amari Cooper beat you. And the Titans had a terrible plan on both sides of the ball

for stopping those two players. Garrett had, what, three sacks? Cooper went for 116 and a touchdown. Should have been more. Just a major Titan down. I said my reaction, all levels. The O-line, Tannehill started missing passes. Burks and Chig dropped passes.

The running game can't get going because the tight ends are awful. The pass rush missed a bunch of sacks. The coverage couldn't stay anywhere close to their man, especially Fulton. Well, honestly, Sean Murphy bunting was good, but we'll get to that later. But like there's such a failures and then the coaching. The coaching was an absolute failure. You don't lose 27 to 3 unless you get beat every single step of the way. So a tighten down for pretty much everybody involved, but specifically for Andre Dillard,

Christian Fulton, and the coaching staff. Specifically. Vrabel, Bowen, Kelly, Fulton, Dillard, top five tighten downs. Let me know if you guys think I got anything wrong. Again, I talked about it a second ago. The tight ends, all three of them. Chig, Wesco, Wiley, horrible. Haven't helped a soul all year. And again, the one unit that we're supposed to be

able to count on each week is the defensive line. Arden Key, Jeffrey Simmons, Danico Autry, Harold Landry has been a ghost, ladies and gentlemen. A ghost. And he deserves time with the ACL, but time's running out. I mean, after next week, it's going to be a month into the season. The Titans look like they could be one in three.

Real questions have to start to be asked and answered. Okay? Real change has to be made to see if they can salvage any of this. And if they can't, then it's time to play one of the young quarterbacks. But this is a tighten down for the entire organization. Last week was an organizational win. This week was an organizational loss from top to bottom. The people that you count on the most letting you down, and some of the lottery tickets the Titans took in the offseason look like it's time to scratch them and throw them.

So let me know if I got any tighten downs wrong. When it's that bad, it's hard to go over every single person, but we know who deserves the most blame after that. We're going to get into some positives though. It's time to talk some tighten ups. Okay. I want, hey, I want to talk about some positive stuff too. There were some people who did some good things that I'm excited about. So I want to talk about that in just a second. Before I do though, do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by DoorDash. Are you missing syrup for your pancakes? Just run out of your favorite coffee creamer? With DoorDash Grocery Delivery

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27-3 loss to the Cleveland Browns. We talked about some changes on the offensive line that the Titans could make. We talked about the Titan downs, the performances that really stood out as terrible. I do want to talk about the Titan ups, though, because there were some Titan ups. Before we get into that, thank you guys again

for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen each and every day. Remember, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content all year round on all apps, always for free. Make sure you get subscribed, stay subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast. Tomorrow, we're going to go over the tape. I'm going to talk about what I saw on film, on the coach's tape, really dive into what happened schematically. And that loss Wednesday is what's next Wednesday. And I'll tell you, this loss sucks so bad. I'm already looking at what's next, talking about the offensive line to start the show.

That's already a what's next Wednesday segment. Thursday's crossover Thursday, Bengals. I know you guys love the locked on Bengals, guys. So can't wait for that. And then Friday will be game plan Friday. I will try to devise a plan for the Titans to beat the Cincinnati Bengals for the first time since I've been covering this team, quite frankly, since I saw the Titans beat the Bengals in 2018 in Nashville.

Ever since, they've lost every time. So we'll see if we can put something together. But with that being said, I am going to talk about the Titan Ups here. I do want to talk about the players who played well because there were some players who played well who I want to highlight. DeAndre Hopkins, three catches, 48 yards. Thought it should have been four catches with that catch on the sideline. Made the 26-yarder on the sideline right after that.

Before halftime, that was huge. I thought Hopkins made some big catches. He looks solid, honestly. It's the offense's fault more than anything. I think Hopkins has been solid. Chris Moore continues to make big plays. Had the 33-yard catch where he mossed the defender on fourth down. That was awesome.

That was awesome. Sean Murphy bunting. I think he's been the Titans' best defender the last two weeks. He had six tackles in this game. Made the forced fumble. Recovered it against Elijah Moore. Thought he was solid in coverage. They called him for a couple of penalties that I thought were really ticky tacky, but I think Sean Murphy Bunting overall has been good. He's been physical. He's coming up and making tackles.

He's helping out on stuff that's not necessarily his. He helped again on another wheel route from a slot fade. He helped on another one, so good job there. Tierra Tart, I thought was good in this game. Had a tackle for loss, had three tackles. I thought he was getting penetration in the backfield, doing his best. The Browns didn't run the ball super well. Well, they have 78 yards. Yeah.

2.5 yards per carry. Titans run defense was generally pretty good. I mean, late in the game, it was obvious that they were just kind of breaking down, but overall pretty solid. I mean, outside of that, Jack Gibbons and Aziz Alshayer I thought played pretty decent. And then, really, special teams.

Mason Kinsey came in, had a punt return for 13 yards. I thought he did pretty good and Ryan Stonehouse was awesome. Averaged 53 yards a punt, for 13 yards. I thought he did pretty good and Ryan Stonehouse was awesome. Average 53 yards a punt put four punts out of his seven inside the 20 yard line.

That's pretty good. Had a 74 yard punt as well. I thought Ryan Stonehouse was pretty good in this game. So Titans special teams didn't let him down. It was everybody else. Everybody else. With that being said though, that is going to do it for me in this recap edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. It was everybody else. Everybody else. With that being said, though, that is going to do it for me in this recap edition

of the Locked on Titans podcast. It was embarrassing. It sucked, but hey, we turned the page, and I'll tell you guys, if some of you guys are expecting more fire and brimstone and more panic and stuff, let the Titans lose to the Bengals without Joe Burrow.

If the Titans lose to the Bengals without Joe Burrow, If the Titans lose to the Bengals without Joe Burrow, we are pooky. We're going to burn it down. That's how I'll be feeling moving forward. But it's one loss. It looked bad. But let's see how the Titans rebound. Again, week six is really where I'm looking.

The Titans have a bye in week seven. They get to week six, two and four, one and five. It's really time to totally burn it all down and get one of those young quarterbacks in there. I'm not quite there yet. I'm not quite there yet. But, man, it's not time to hit the panic button, but it's all right if you want to reach for it.

If you want to go purchase it and get it ready and keep it on standby. Totally understand. If the Titans lose to the Bengals without Joe Burrow, I'm hitting the panic button. If the Titans are 2-4 or 1-5 at the bye, I'm hitting the panic button. But for now, I'll just look at it and we'll make intense emotional eye contact.

Alright, but either way that is going to do it. Tough games, folks. Those are tough games. They're never fun. Zero games, folks. Those are tough games. They're never fun. Zero fun, sir. Football is not fun. Anyways, that is going to do it for me today, folks.

As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.