Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Power Rankings & AFC Standings Review

Episode Date: December 7, 2021

The Tennessee Titans kickoff the "second half" of their season this week, but where do they stand now. Tyler goes over three Power Rankings to see where the Titans sit according to a few outlets. Then, Tyler breaks down the current AFC standings and discusses why the Titans current position isn't ideal, but is still valuable. Finally, take a look at the remaining schedule of the Titans current challengers for the number one seed in the conference. What will the final records in the AFC look like??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.StatHeroStatHero is the first of its kind Daily Fantasy Sports platform where it’s YOU vs. the HOUSE in head to head fantasy matchups - winner take all. Sign up for FREE - RIGHT NOW - at StatHero.com/LOCKEDON and use promo code LOCKEDON for a One Hundred Percent Deposit Match. 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 Wednesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. And on today's show, it is time to break down where the Titans sit within the AFC and where they could go. We are going to talk power rankings. We're going to talk AFC conference standings, where the Titans stack up and why. And then we are going to take a look at the remaining games for the Titans' biggest competitors for the number one seed in the AFC, all on a Wednesday edition of the Locked on Titans

podcast. Let's get it! You are 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. It is a Wednesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast, and it is presented by On Location. On Location is the official hospitality partner of the NFL. It's the only place to score a once-in-a-lifetime Super Bowl ticket and experience package.

Visit onlocationexp.com slash SB56 for more information or search Super Bowl on Location. Also, want to thank you guys 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 subscribe on whatever platform you do stream. Follow the Locked on Titans podcast, make sure that you subscribe on whatever platform you do stream. Follow the Locked on Titans podcast on every platform. And know it's always free. Also, check out the Locked on Titans YouTube channel. Smash that notification bell

so you know when all of my content goes live. And throw a thumbs up if you are watching the video right now. Also, check me out on social media, on Twitter, at TicTacTitans for all my film breakdowns and the show Facebook page at LockedOnTitansPod. But with all the housekeeping out of the way, as you guys know, it's time to dive into our first segment and we are going to look at some power rankings. I have three different power rankings for you and we're going to talk about where the

Tennessee Titans are and how some of these power rankings just have me confused on how in the world you could have the Titans behind some of these teams. So let's go ahead and dive right in. We are going to start with the NFL.com power rankings. They're done by Dan Hanzus. Shout out to Dan Hanzus. He's the man on the Around the NFL podcast, a show that I have been a fan of for a long, long time now. But looking at the Power Rankings, he has the Tennessee Titans at 13th. The Ravens are at 12th. The Ravens have been playing terrible football. at 12. The Ravens have been playing terrible football. The Bengals, who the Titans have a better record than, the Bengals are 7-5. They just got trounced at home by the Chargers. They have the Bengals ahead of the Titans at spot 11. They have the Colts. Okay, I get the Colts have been playing really good football, but the Titans swept the Colts, literally swept them, beat them in their own building, and have a massive lead on them in the division. How could you put the Colts ahead of the Titans?

I mean, I guess I understand that a little bit more than Cincinnati though, but the Colts sit at number nine and then Buffalo. Buffalo's at seven. The Titans beat Buffalo. Buffalo just got whooped by New England. Run down their throat nonstop. Buffalo's been playing terrible football as of late. Outside of that Thursday night victory over the Saints,

who have equally been playing as bad a football. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me how the Titans can be behind the Ravens, the Bengals, and the Colts, and the Bills. Really? I mean, I get the Titans haven't been playing their best football. I get that. Two-game losing streak, I understand. But this is just asinine, I guess, in my opinion, at least.

Moving forward, the ESPN power rankings, which is a composite of all the different beat writers for the NFL, for ESPN, they have the Titans at 10th. Now that I can at least live with. They have the Titans at 10th. Now that I can at least live with. They have the Bills at number eight. Again, I think that's crazy. The Bills coming off what we saw from them on Monday night football against the Patriots. I think that's a little crazy, especially the Titans beat them.

And then the Ravens are at number six. How are the Ravens that high after losing to the Steelers? What in the world is that? I don't know for certain, but you know, we'll talk about where my general thoughts are about the power rankings

after we kind of go over this third and final list, and it is from the Locked On Podcast Network. The Locked On NFL host including myself all put together a composite power rankings each week. I submit mine. All the other hosts

submit theirs and then they put out what the list is going to be. This also has the Titans at 13. You have all the 7 and 5, all the 8 and 4, all the 9 and5 all the 8-4 all the 9-4 teams and then the Titans separate those teams from the 6-6 and worse teams

you're telling me that the Titans are the worst team in the NFL with a record better than 6-6 I mean what is even going on the Bengals at 12? The Chargers at 11? The Bills at 10? The Ravens at 9? The Colts at

8? I think the Titans are better than all of those teams. You could look at Kansas City at 4. I know some people have a problem with that, but come on, guys. We gotta get realistic here. Even when Kansas City was struggling at the beginning of the year, you knew they have Patrick Mahomes. They're gonna be fine. Some of you guys just don't get it. Apparently,

Patrick Mahomes is the most talented quarterback that we've ever seen ever. To think that some early season struggles after two years of going to the Super Bowl and that the Chiefs were just going to crater and not be good anymore. Well, you were lying to yourself. I knew that the Chiefs were going to be a problem all along and they are. So I'm not mad about that even though the Titans beat them. I'm okay with that that the Chiefs were going to be a problem all along, and they are. So I'm not mad about that, even though the Titans beat them. I'm okay with that. The Chiefs have been playing great football lately. But the Ravens haven't. The Bills

haven't. The Chargers beat the Bengals, but they haven't been playing great football. The Bengals just got beat almost by 20 at home. You're telling me those teams are better than the Titans, even with their injuries? No chance. No way that I would believe that on any day. I had the Titans ranked number

eight in my poll, so I gotta say this. Power rankings count for nothing at the end of the day, guys. Everybody knows that. They're not gonna change the win-loss outcome for the team. So I know a lot of people, their instant reaction to power rankings is power rankings don't matter.

But let's not pretend like it's not fun to go over. But that's going to do it for our first segment. Also, breaking news, Kevin Byard is activated from the COVID reserve list. Good news for KB. He is going to be back for practice this week and shouldn't have any further complications. If he's back this quickly, it should mean that his overall health should be good to go. And that's the first and foremost concern for Kevin Byron is his long-term health. But KB back on the active roster from the COVID list.

Before we get into looking at the AFC as a conference, where everybody's stacked right now, and what those teams ahead of the Titans or right with the Titans have remaining on their schedules, I do want to tell you guys about On Location. Super Bowl 56 is at SoFi and it's less than 100 days away. On Location, the official hospitality partner of the NFL, is the only place to score a once in a lifetime Super Bowl ticket and experience package. Select your exact seats and choose from elite experiences featuring an exclusive pregame celebration with NFL legends, five-star LA hotels, and food by the great Wolfgang Puck. Visit on location exp.com

slash SB56 for more information or search Super Bowl on location. That's on location, exp.com slash SB56 or search Super Bowl on location. Titans fans, let's continue this Wednesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. I want to thank you guys again for making the Locked On Titans podcast your first listen every day. Friendly reminder, tomorrow's show will be a crossover Thursday, and I will have my OG, one of my favorite people in the entire network,

Tony Wiggins, host of Locked On Jags, on the show for a crossover. And I just want to say this. I hear all you YouTube people chirping in the comments. It's not Wednesday. It's Tuesday. It's not Tuesday. It's Monday. I have never seen a platform be so mad to get content earlier than other people.

Like, I don't release the podcast until later on in the evening. I put up a YouTube video early, and people complain? Grow up, YouTube. You're killing me. Also, while we're here just covering weird, you know, random things, my dog was having a little bit of an allergy attack. I'm looking at you, Kobe, during the intro, so my bad if you heard any sneezing and sniffling from the old doggy dog.

But moving forward, we need to look at the AFC as a conference. The Titans, with the Buffalo Bills getting the ball run down their throat by the Patriots in embarrassing fashion on Monday night and losing, that leaves the Titans at the number two spot in the AFC. And if we're all honest with ourselves, that's where they deserve to be after losing to New England. Really, the problem is losing to Houston. Losing to New England happens.

That happens. New England's a good football team. They were on the road in New England without all the guys. Losing to Houston is the real one that makes your stomach curl a little bit there. But looking at the AFC, the Patriots are currently number one.

They're 9-4, and they have a 7-1 conference record. That's going to make New England tough to beat because outside of head-to-head, so you look at overall record, head-to-head, and then conference record. That's going to be the tiebreakers in the AFC. So the Titans are going to have a tough time having a better record than the Patriots. The Patriots beat them head-to-head, and with a 7-1 conference record, it would be tough for New England to have a worse conference record than the Titans, who have a 5-3 conference record right now.

Those losses to the Texans and the Jets looming large. So it's going to be uphill battle for the Titans. The only chance they really have is to have a better overall record than the Patriots, and we'll talk about how that could shake out in the final segment of the day. But the number three seed is the Baltimore Ravens at 8-4. They have a 5-4 conference record. The Chiefs at 8-4. They have a 5-4 conference record. The Chiefs at 8-4, they have a 3-4 conference record. So if the Titans had to be tied with any of these teams in that group right there, the division leaders,

you would want them to be tied with the Chiefs because they're going to have that advantage in head-to-head and for sure in conference records. So that's a good sign for the Titans there. Even if they don't get the No. 1 seed and they hold the division, they should get a better seed than No. 4. But I don't know if that's necessarily what you want

based on the way the standings are looking right now. Moving to the wildcard spots, the Los Angeles Chargers have the first wildcard spot, 7-5 with a 5-3 conference record. The Cincinnati Bengals, 7- five with a five and three conference record. But remember, they just lost head to head to the Chargers at home by almost 20 points. Then the Bills. The Bills are seven and five now, been playing terrible football as of late. They're five and five in the conference. So that's the playoff seeds right now. And if the

playoffs started right now, the Titans would have a first round matchup at home against the Bills, a rematch. And I got to tell you, if the Titans had to play one of those wildcard teams, Chargers, Bengals, Bills, the last team I'd want to play is the Bills. So hopefully that doesn't stay that way. Maybe the Bills even lose their playoff spot. So let's look at some teams that are on the playoff bubble. You have the Steelers coming off a big win against the Ravens, are on the playoff bubble. You have the Steelers coming off a big win against the Ravens, 6-5-1. Then you have the Colts, 7-6. Don't want to play the Colts again. It's so hard to beat a team three times in a row. Just don't want the odds of that. The Raiders at 6-6, the Browns at 6-6, the Broncos at 6-6, and then the Dolphins who are making a charge. The Dolphins are a lot better of a football team than we thought for most of the season, setting up that Week 17 matchup

against the Titans in Nashville. But the Dolphins are 6-7, so I don't think the Titans right now have any fear of dropping out of the playoffs. But seeding is going to be crucially important here. So looking at those top teams, I think it's going to be tough for the Titans to surpass the Patriots for that number one seed because like we talked about, the conference record, Patriots at 7-1, the head-to-head matchup, the Titans would really struggle to be able to surpass them. We'll talk about the schedules later, but you look at the

Ravens and the Chiefs, the Titans should be able to finish with a better conference record than them as they have a better conference record than them right now. The Titans have the head-to-head over the Chiefs, so that should allow the Titans to have a high seed. And remember, although the Titans may not get the number one seed, if they get the two seed, that's still really, really good for the Titans because if the Patriots were to lose, which in my opinion, I'm not a huge believer of the Patriots in the playoffs, I just don't think the Patriots are going to make a Super Bowl run. I think they lose their first playoff game of the playoffs. If that were to happen, the Titans instantly become the number one seed in the AFC

and would have home field in the conference championship if they were to make it there. So it still matters to have a high seed. It's not, oh, if you don't get the one seed, nothing matters. No, no, and I want the Titans to play those games at home anyway. I don't want to have to go to Arrowhead again. I don't want to have to go to Baltimore. I want to play at home in front of the home crowd. The Titans deserve that. Has to be an advantage in some ways. So I think when you're looking at that right there, the Titans most likely will finish in the second seed. And depending on how things shake out with the wild card,

they're going to be playing the worst wild card team. And I got to say, I'll repeat this. I certainly don't want it to be the Bills. That would be a terrible reward for the Titans. Because even though the Bills are playing bad football, do you guys think that Cincinnati or the Chargers are better than the Bills? I don't. I want to play Cincinnati.

I want that revenge game after what happened in 2020. I think the Titans would smoke the Bengals right now if both teams were even close to healthy. So if the Titans can get Julio, get AJ, get Bud Dupree back, get Derrick Henry back for the playoffs, they're going to smoke the Bengals. So that's what I'm hoping for. Or if the Steelers sneak in there, I would play the Steelers.

I know the Titans have a game against the Steelers, but as it gets later in the season, talking about playoff football in the cold, I trust the Titans quarterback in that scenario more than I trust Big Ben Roethlisberger's arm in that scenario. So for me, those are things to watch, but that's how the AFC is shaking out right now with five weeks to play in the NFL season. And speaking of those five weeks, we're going to go through the teams that are competing with the Titans for the AFC's top seed, the Patriots, the Ravens, the Chiefs. The Bills still do have a chance with a game against the Patriots still on their schedule. So we'll go over what the remaining schedules look like for those teams as compared to the Titans.

Kind of see if we can get a gauge of where these teams might finish their year. But before we do that, do want to tell you guys about BetOnline.ag. BetOnline remains the number one spot to bet all your sports action this holiday season. They have more props, odds, and lines than ever before. Make sure you head to their website, betonline.ag right now. Use the promo code LOCKEDON. You're going to get a 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit. Once again, that's promo code LOCKEDON

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But diving into some of these final schedules. So the Titans, as we know, let's just look at this. The Titans sit at 8-4. They're at home for Jacksonville. They're on the road for Pittsburgh. They're at home on Thursday night football for San Francisco. They're at home in Week 17 against Miami. And then they're on the road in the final week of the season at the Houston Texans.

So by my count, a win against Jacksonville. I'm going to say a loss to Pittsburgh on the road, a win against San Francisco, a win against Miami at home, and then a win at the end of the season against Houston. I think the Titans do finish at 12-5. I think it's possible they could lose one of those games to San Francisco or Miami, though, and finish 11-6.

12-5 is probably not going to get it done for the Titans to get the No. 1 seed. I do think that if they finish at 13-4, basically if they run the table at the end of the year and win all five of their games, I think 13-4 does get the Titans the No. 1 seed. And this is why. Because the No. 1 contender for the No. 1 seed in the AFC

is the people who have it now, and that's the New England Patriots. They have a bye in Week 14. But then they're on the road at Indianapolis. And I think that Indianapolis could beat the Patriots at home right now. I do think Indy will win that game. So, Indy beats the Patriots. That knocks the Patriots down to 9-5. The Titans win against New England,

or win against Jacksonville this week. And then the Titans would go to 9-4. So 9-4 for the Titans. The Patriots would go to 9-5 when they hit that. Well, I guess the Titans would play Pittsburgh because of the bye week. So, if the Titans win against Jacksonville and beat Pittsburgh, well, that means that the Titans are now 10-4 while the Patriots are 9-5, and now the Titans have that advantage.

So, if the Titans can run the table again, I think New England does lose that game. Now, they have another game against Buffalo where New England is at home. I think they probably beat Buffalo at home. They seem to be in their head and just Bill Belichick owns Sean McDermott and makes him do weird stuff for some reason. But Buffalo could win that game. That certainly could happen. Miami's

playing good football. So basically the Patriots have a bye. They're at Indy. They're home for Buffalo. They're home for Jacksonville. Give me a break. And then they're at Miami. So I think it's definitely possible that with on the road against Indy, on the road against Miami, at home against Buffalo, New England could lose two of those games. I absolutely think that that could happen.

And all they have to do is lose one of those games if the Titans run the table. The Titans have to have a better record than the Patriots. So if the Titans can finish at 13-4 and win all five of their remaining games and the Patriots lose at least one game, the Titans will hop them. But for my money, I think the Patriots only lose one of those games and they finish at 12-5 tied with the Titans. And then the Titans would lose the tiebreaker on head-to-head

and conference records. So that's kind of how I see it going, but there is an avenue for the Titans there. Also, the Ravens. The Ravens are at Cleveland. They should win that game. They're home against Green Bay. I expect that to be a loss. They're at Cincinnati,

and I know Cincinnati beat them earlier in the year by a large margin, but I got a feeling Baltimore is going to get their revenge. So a win against Cincinnati. But then the final two games of the year, the Ravens are home against the Rams. The Rams are playing not great football right now, but I have faith that they can beat Baltimore in that game. And then they finished with Pittsburgh,

which the Ravens seem like a better team than Pittsburgh. But that rivalry, you never know what's going to happen. And Pittsburgh just beat them. So who knows? I think it's logical that the Ravens will take two losses in that final stretch of games and leave them at 11 and six with that conference record that the Ravens have a five and four. They're right there with the Titans, but I think the Titans should have the advantage and be

able to finish ahead of the Ravens, the Chiefs. Again, like I told you, the Chiefs are a problem. I'm a little worried about the Chiefs. Not going to lie. They're home against Las Vegas. Win. At the Chargers. Win. Home for Pittsburgh. Win. At Cincinnati.

Win. At Denver. Win. Which one of those games do you guys think the Chiefs are going to lose? Because I don't think they're losing any of them. Their defense is playing awesome right now. The offense is getting back into a rhythm as we knew that they were going to. I have the Chiefs finishing 13-4.

And based on everything I've outlined here, that would give them the number one seed. So that will be interesting to watch if the Chiefs lose one of those games. All of those games are against AFC people, and the Chiefs have a 3-4 AFC conference record. So if the Chiefs lose one of those games. All of those games are against AFC people, and the Chiefs have a 3-4 AFC conference record. So if the Chiefs lose one of those games, the Titans are in a good spot from that.

So that's the Patriots' remaining schedule. That's the Ravens' remaining schedule. That's the Chiefs' remaining schedule. We talked about the Titans' remaining schedule as well. Going to be very interesting, but by my count, I have the Titans finishing at 12-5. I have the Patriots finishing at 12-5. I have the Patriots finishing at 12-5. I have the Ravens finishing at 11-6.

And I have the Chiefs getting that number one seed in the AFC after it's all said and done at 13-4. But this last five-week stretch is going to be exhilarating. I'm going to be here to break it all down with you guys, get you ready for all the games. And that starts tomorrow with our crossover Thursday edition with Tony Wiggins from Locked On Jags. But that's going to do it for me today, folks.

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