Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Punishment?? Secret Workouts, NFL Discipline & Crossover Thursday Convo w/ Locked on Bills

Episode Date: October 8, 2020

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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, this crossover Thursday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast is brought to you by Visa. Help support your local businesses, whether they're your corner stores, coffee spots, or your favorite shops. Local businesses have always been on your team

supporting you and your community. But right now, more than ever, local businesses need our support. So let's be there for them. The next time you go shopping, make the choice to shop at local businesses and look for the contactless symbol and tap to pay with a contactless visa to help support your community because where and how you shop matters. Visa, everywhere you want to be, official partner of the NFL. Titans fans, we had two straight days of good news, and Wednesday came and the Titans had another positive COVID-19 test that coincided with major reports about a Titans voluntary workout that broke NFL protocols maybe

potential punishment coming down from the NFL and speculation that it could be about the worst punishment we have seen in quite some time from the NFL. So overall a very difficult day on top of a very difficult two weeks for the Tennessee Titans team and the fan base. But we are going to go over all of the different reports today, go over the additional COVID-19 test for the Titans and talk about what it could mean for a game against the Buffalo Bills that's set to be played on Sunday per the NFL. And with that in mind, it is crossover Thursday, so I wanted to make sure to get you guys ready

for a Buffalo Bills matchup that, if it does take place this weekend, we need to be prepared for as best as possible. So we have Joe Marino from Locked On Bills and the Draft Network on the show today to break everything down for you. He gives us an update on this leap that we've seen from Josh Allen, also talks about the Bills defense, how they've been disappointing a little bit early on, but what we could see from them against the Tennessee Titans. So some really good information in there for this upcoming game that once again, hopefully gets played on Sunday.

But a lot to dive into today on a crossover Thursday on the Locked On Titans podcast. Let's get it. Wednesday was a very difficult day for the Tennessee Titans organization and the Titans fan base. After two straight days of no new positive COVID-19 test, the Titans' positive momentum was disrupted by another positive test that showed up on Wednesday morning. We learned later in the day that that positive COVID-19 test was the Titans' leading wide receiver, Corey Davis, which from a roster perspective puts the Titans in a very difficult position

as they will be without Corey Davis, Adam Humphreys, and Cam Batson for a game that may or may not happen against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. You add in the injured wide receiver, A.J. Brown, may not be available for the team, and it puts the Titans in a tough situation in regards to their skill position players on offense. But that was not the most difficult news and the most trying news of the day for the Tennessee Titans. Midway through the day, we got major reports from Nashville's own Paul Kaharski and Steve Lehman that the Tennessee Titans may have violated the NFL's COVID-19 protocols when they participated in an off-campus workout at a local high school

in Nashville. Of course, the Titans facility was closed last week after the first rash of positive tests. And as the players wanted to continue getting ready for what the NFL told them was going to be a game on Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The players took things into their own hands outside of the team facility and had a workout that was reported on by Kaharski and Lehman, but later confirmed by different sources, including ESPN's Teron Davenport. So from this perspective, the Tennessee Titans could have possibly violated the NFL's protocol,

the Tennessee Titans could have possibly violated the NFL's protocol, which led to later reports in the day that the NFL does plan to severely punish the Tennessee Titans for these slip-ups. Now, at this point, whether or not the Tennessee Titans did violate any protocols has come into question. The workout that has been discussed did take place on September the 30th on October the 1st the very next day the NFL released updated protocols and released a new memo to all NFL teams that indicated off-campus workouts and out of the facility gatherings were prohibited. So from a chronological standpoint, the Titans technically did have their off-site workout before the NFL updated their protocols and sent out that league-wide memo. So it is in question at this time whether the NFL has a leg to stand on in terms of

punishing the Tennessee Titans, considering that they made adjustments the day after the Titans supposedly violated these protocols. So the gist of it is the Titans cannot possibly have violated protocols that were not put into place until the day after. Of course, we get into the moral conversation of whether or not the Tennessee Titans should have been having these outside gatherings during a pandemic and especially after the organization itself had been hit with so many positive COVID-19 tests. But at this time, whether or not the Titans should have had that workout is irrelevant because the reality is they did have the workout.

Now, the only topic of conversation going forward should be whether or not the Tennessee Titans will be punished by the NFL and how severe that punishment may end up being. We have gotten some reports that the punishment could be stiffer than any punishment we have seen before for any of the gates that took place, deflate gate, bounty gate, things of that nature, spy gate. So at this time, there are reports saying the Titans could be punished even more harshly

than teams did for those instances. But of course, at this time, it is all reports. What we do know is the Titans did have an off-campus workout on September the 30th. On October the 1st, the NFL sent out a league-wide memo and updated protocols. What happens from here remains to be seen. Hopefully what remains to be seen is a football game this weekend. We haven't got any additional reports on what action the league may take in regards to the Buffalo Bills game if the Titans do have no new positives on Thursday.

So whether or not that game will be played, still up in the air. The unfortunate part is the Buffalo Bills do have a Thursday night football game next week. So the odds that the NFL would postpone the game to Monday are basically zero. So if the Titans don't have a clean bill of health on Thursday, then I would imagine it would be very difficult for the Titans to play that game on Sunday. But let's keep our hopes up. Let's remain optimistic. And one of the ways that we are going to do that is by jumping into a crossover Thursday conversation with Joe Marino from the Locked on Bills podcast, also from the Draft Network.

He gives some really great tidbits and information about the Bills team this year and some stuff that should help Titans fans get a better grasp on what kind of team the Titans will be facing off against this weekend again if the game is played so excited to dive into that conversation with Joe before we do want to tell you guys about rockauto.com I've explained over and over and over again how you're going to get a much better price from rockauto.com than you will one of these chain stores. And you don't have to worry about what's in their inventory, whether they even have the

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matters. Visa, everywhere you want to be the official partner of the NFL. Joe Marino of Locked On Bills joined now by Tyler Rowland, the host of Locked On Titans, here for a discussion about what we hope is a week five matchup between the undefeated Titans and the undefeated Buffalo Bills. And Tyler, I think we have to start with, I guess, the biggest story in the NFL and not one that anyone wanted to see. But take us through the last two weeks covering this Tennessee Titans team, 3-0 start, and then the COVID outbreak hits this team from, it seems like, every angle.

Tell us your thoughts on this situation and just kind of the journey that you guys have been on here over the last couple weeks. Well, it's hard to call the Titans undefeated at this point. It seems like their first loss of the season has been to COVID, but I mean, it's obviously a disappointing situation, not only for the Titans, but for the NFL in general. You had hoped to kind of avoid an outbreak like this that would drastically change the NFL season. So the number one thought that I have is it's just disappointing from an overall perspective. The second thought that I have is obviously how this affects the Titans team. Like you said, they are undefeated in the games that they've played. So off to a really good start,

a promising season, trying to build on what the Titans were able to do last year and going to the AFC Championship game. So even though the Titans hadn't played their best, and I'm sure we're going to get into some actual football conversation, although the Titans hadn't played their best, still a very encouraging start to the season. But overall, in terms of COVID, it's just disappointing whether or not it comes out the Titans are at fall or whether there's no blame to be placed.

It doesn't matter either way. It's just a disappointing situation for Titans fans, for the NFL in general, but even more disappointing when you add to the fact that the Titans are kind of riding this momentum from last season and a Titans fan base that outside of last year and maybe the last few years just hasn't had a lot to be excited about. So this has been the most exciting start for the Titans in over a decade. And it's just disappointing that some outside force like COVID-19 is what has not only put the spotlight and the target on the Titans back, but disrupted what was

a pretty solid season to start that's a good point I mean this Titans team went to the AFC championship game last night last year but it wasn't because they started the season well uh so I definitely I feel what you're saying there all right let's talk football Ryan Tannehill quarterback of this football team how has he overhauled this Titans offense and really the reason I want to start with this Ryan Tannehill thing is because these teams played each of the last two years, and the Bills won both of those games. And last year, it was, if I recall correctly, Marcus Mariota's last start as a quarterback of the Titans, and obviously several missed field goals contributed to that game.

But that turned into a different Titans team, really, from that point on. And really the big difference is switching from Marcus Mariota to Ryan Tannehill. So talk to us about Tannehill, how he reinvigorated this Tennessee offense and really redefined his career. Okay, so I think it's really simple and I do want to say I'm sure Bills fans will remember, but 2018 the Titans had the Bills beat Marcus through a perfect pass into the hands of Nick Williams, one of the Titans wide receivers at the time, and he just dropped it. Just a flat out drop, no one around him, just dropped the ball, and the Titans lost that game. So that is a very

painful memory in Titans fan base history, but that game against the Bills last year was Marcus's last full start. It was the next game against the Broncos he started and then was taken out of the game later. So the last full start that he had for the Titans was against the Bills, and the result of that game is indicative of how he ended his Titans career. The Titans missed a bunch of field goals because they weren't putting the ball in the end zone. The issue was, to give you a basketball analogy,

Marcus wasn't able to hit his layups. He was blowing his fast break wide open layups, and it's hard to run an NFL offense and keep things on schedule when that's happening. So I don't think that Ryan Tannehill is all of a sudden some elite quarterback that deserves to be mentioned with Russell Wilson and Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson, but just his general competency was able to get the Titans to look good. The Titans generally play complementary football, have a pretty solid football team in every aspect. So Ryan Tannehill just giving them average level NFL quarterback play

was able to get this team to the playoffs. And this year he's been playing pretty well, better than average. So when he makes some of the star plays, not just your average quarterback level play, then he takes this Titans offense to the explosive level that you saw at the end of the year last year where they were just scoring at will with all of these 20 plus yard plays in the passing game off of play action, really. So Ryan Tannehill just being an average level quarterback allowed the Titans offense to be an NFL offense. But once he started to get into a rhythm and get comfortable with the system, it took the Titans offense to the next level, which is carried over to this year. So really, Marcus was just not playing at even an average level in the NFL. So that allowed the Titans offense to operate once Tannehill came in. But once he got comfortable in their play action boot system,

which takes advantage of his athleticism and Tannehill has never been a pinpoint accurate guy. Who's just going to toss it all over the field. You have to scheme up open receivers and scheme up open windows for him. So the Titans offense and offensive coordinator, Arthur Smith doing that and combined with Ryan Tannehill just giving the Titans what they need, that was able to kind of boost this offense to something that Titans fans really hadn't seen before. It's interesting when you

were talking about Mariota and missing layups and it made me immediately think about scouting him coming out of Oregon and coming from that spread off. Defined reads. Everything was a defined read for him in college. He didn't have to think a lot about progressions and things like that. The windows were wide open because of the competition that Oregon was going against. I think a lot of that people thought would develop and it just didn't. The praise that he got was, well, Marcus Mariota doesn't miss layups and then you know it just really shifted at the NFL level you mentioned Arthur Smith the offensive coordinator many think that he's a a head coaching candidate in the future here and you know we talk about this Titans offense we've mentioned Tannehill now everybody knows about Derrick Henry one of the

best running backs in the league a real pain in the ass to play against but tell us a little bit more about the rest of these Titans weapons. I know tight end Johnnie Smith is really breaking out. Corey Davis in a contract year is showing some of the reasons that made him a top five pick. A.J. Brown, a rookie coming off of a 1,000-yard season last year. So talk us through these weapons and what this Titans offense looks like. So basically, from a general standpoint, the Titans offense is based around the wide zone, zone running scheme, zone blocking scheme.

They use that wide zone action to confuse defenses, use play action fakes, and boot to the backside. And luckily, if you're lucky, I guess, that'll bring the inside linebackers, the pass coverage linebackers up, and then the Titans do a great job of getting their yak guys. They have great yard after catch weapons on offense, getting those guys the ball over the middle of the field with space because of the effect that play action has.

So it kind of all works together perfectly, which is why the offense has done so well. But as for the weapons themselves, Corey Davis is having the best start to his career with the Titans. Of course, like you mentioned, he was the fifth overall pick just a few years ago, never really lived up to those expectations, but he had been off to a really hot start. Unfortunately, before we got to recording today, he was the last Titan to be placed on the COVID-19 list. So very disappointing to hear that, but the Titans should get A.J. Brown back this week if the game is

played. He played in week one, but was not himself. Missed the last few games with a bone bruise in his knee. If they can get A.J. Brown back, that'll definitely help diminish the loss of Corey Davis, but they won't have Adam Humphreys. They won't have Cam Batson at wide receiver. So the Titans are really experiencing some issues at wide receiver because of COVID-19. But that kind of leads me into the tight end, Jonu Smith. Jonu Smith has never had a healthy offseason in his career. He was a draft pick in 2017. This is the first healthy offseason he's had, and it's showing how explosive he can be, especially when you combine what he's asked to do with the Titans scheme. As I mentioned, they're looking to influence the inside linebackers,

pull them up towards the line of scrimmage, and hit over the middle. And Jonu Smith is an athletic tight end. He's not a big-bodied guy. He's more of a Delaney Walker type who is 6'2", really rocked up, looks like a running back almost, even gets carries out of the backfield for the Titans from time to time on pitch sweeps. So Jonu Smith has been an emerging star for them, but in my opinion, it is more of a combination of his skill set and scheme than just him being a breakout star player. But like I mentioned, the Titans are going to be in a tough spot from a weapons perspective

because of what COVID-19 has done to the wide receiver room. But, you know, A.J. Brown is a really good player in his second season. Jonu Smith, like I said, his skill set fits perfectly with what the Titans want to do on offense. So the Bills' defense isn't completely out of the woods yet, but they're going to get a much watered down version of the Titans' skill players on offense. Tyler, let's shift gears to the defense. And on paper, I love this personnel. I really do. and skill players on offense. Tyler, let's shift gears to the defense.

And on paper, I love this personnel. I really do. I mean, good edge rushers with the addition of Clowney to go with Landry and Daquan Jones and Jeffrey Simmons. I love these linebackers, Jayon Brown and Rashawn Evans. I think that's one of the better duos on the second level in the league, to be honest with you. And then when everyone's healthy, I mean, you're talking about insane depth in the secondary, both at corner and safety.

But the team's been a bit of a disappointment this year on defense. And I guess my question is, how much of that do you attribute to Dean Pease retiring, the defensive coordinator? And, you know, is it just players not meeting expectations? Talk to us about this defense. So I would say if I had to assess blame in terms of, or, you know is it just players not meeting expectations talk to us about this defense so I would say if I had to assess blame in terms of or you know give out the percentage of blame here Dean Pease's retirement definitely doesn't help but I say more of the blame is just on players not meeting expectations and scoring is up around the NFL so it's obvious that the limited

offseason has hurt defenses more than it's hurt offenses. Plus, with no fans, that benefits the offense. They can use hard counts and the communication between the offense, audibles, changing the play at the line, checks at the scrimmage, killing plays. All of that is easier to do without fans. So a lot of what the circumstances are right now benefit NFL offenses, and we're seeing that in the scoring each week. So I want to give the Titans defense a little bit of a break in that sense because scoring is up everywhere. But at the end of the day, the main problem is individual players not meeting expectation. Of course, the Titans are missing their number one cornerback, Adoree Jackson,

which really hurts what they try to do schematically this year. Mike Vrabel wanted to go to a much more man-based defense with different exotic blitzes off the slot and up the middle out of man coverage, not so much zone coverage. But when you have Malcolm Butler at one corner and Jonathan Joseph, who might be the oldest cornerback in the league, at the other corner because you're missing a Dory Jackson, well, that's going to make it difficult to play man. And we saw in the Titans' last game, Justin Jefferson, the rookie went for 175 receiving yards, primarily matched up against Jonathan Joseph. So in my opinion, the slowest cornerbacks starting quarterback tandem in the league right now is Malcolm Butler and Jonathan Joseph. And it makes it really difficult for the Titans to use their pressures and use the

different blitz concepts that they have on defense when you can't rely on your guys to, to, you know, man up on the back end. So it makes it tough. So I would blame the coaches putting themselves in a bad position. Against Minnesota, the Titans switched and started going with a lot more zone coverage in the second half against Minnesota because they just couldn't put their guys on an island anymore. They weren't able to hold up against the Viking skill position players.

So from my perspective, I think the majority of the blame has to come from just individuals not stepping up in run defense. Rashawn Evans has not been himself this year. Jayon Brown hasn't been as good and mostly Titans fans will hate to hear it, but all pro safety, Kevin Byard just has not been himself in any way. He's been bad in pass coverage and zone. He hasn't taken good angles and has been missing tackles in the run game. So in my opinion, it also mentioned Jadavion Clowney, Clowney's one of those boomer bus guys. If you watch the film on Clowney, he does a lot of gap shooting.

He does a lot of freelancing, a lot of improvisation. And a lot of the times he just guesses wrong. And if he guesses wrong when he's supposed to be the contained player and the force player on the edge, well, then that's going to leave a wide open lane outside. And a lot of teams are taking advantage of that uber aggressiveness from Clowney. So the Titans want to be very aggressive up front. They want to blitz. They want to play man on the back end.

But you can't really do that when you have Jonathan Joseph and Malcolm Butler as you're starting outside cornerbacks. So it's a combination of putting your players in a position where they can't succeed, but also individual players who you typically can count on not holding up their end of the bargain either. Real quick on Jackson, I know he's eligible to come off of injured reserve. Is it the expectation that the plan has been for him to play this week, or what do you know about that situation? So right now, all the, I guess, speculation has been that Adore would be back this week. Even when the Titans were scheduled to play the Steelers last week, head coach Mike Vrabel hinted at the fact that Adore might be back with the team.

So it's something that people were expecting. But at this time, he's still on IR. So from my perspective, you can't count on Adore Jackson to be available this week against the Bills if he hasn't been able to practice. And if the Titans aren't able to have a normal week of practice, which they aren't, it's not going to happen now, then I don't think that the Titans coaching staff will feel comfortable putting Adoree out there in his first action of the season without a good week of practice leading up. So if you're the Bills, I don't expect to see Adoree

Jackson out there in this game if it's played. This last one I have for you, Tyler, is pretty loaded. So I guess the first part is what concerns you most about matching up with the Buffalo Bills from a Titans perspective? And then on the opposite of that, what are some of the areas that you think Tennessee has an advantage going into this game? Well, I would say that one of the big areas of concern for me now are the Titans are most likely going to be without their starting defensive lineman interior wise with Jeffrey Simmons, who's been one of the more dominant players in the NFL this year, in my opinion. And then Daquan Jones, who's their starting nose tackle, who's a run stuffing specialist. They're going to be without both of those guys and their backups, a fifth round rookie out of NC State,

Laurel Murchison and undrafted free agent from 2019, Isaiah Mack. Those guys, quite frankly, have been terrible in run defense. They have a sub 35 grade per pro football focus and run defense and the film matches up. So my big concern is an underrated Buffalo Bills offensive line, who I think is one of the best lines in the league, going up against a JV Titans defensive line. They weren't able to hold up against the Vikings offensive line. That's one of the worst interior offensive lines in the league. So God forbid how the Titans could possibly match up

against a good offensive line in Buffalo. So that's very concerning from my perspective. As for what advantages the Titans may have, Josh Allen's been absolutely fantastic. But in the past, he's been prone to be inaccurate, been prone to make some turnovers. The only way that this beat up Titans team is able to win this game or stay in this game is if they take advantage of that inaccuracy from Josh Allen. I would kind of mush rush him like people are starting to do to Lamar Jackson, kind of contain him in the pocket, sit back, play zone coverage,

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Let's go. We are back for the second portion of our Crossover Thursday conversation with Joe Marino from Locked on Bills. Of course, Joe, as I have told you all plenty of times in the past, does a great job over at the draftnetwork.com. A lot of our content in the all season is influenced and built around some of the work that they're doing over there. So make sure that you check out the draft network.

Like I said, Joe does excellent content, excellent scout as well, in my humble opinion. But Joe, obviously, we're going to dive into this game. And since the Buffalo Bills don't have any COVID-19 issues like the Titans do, we can kind of jump right onto the football field. And it may be a simple question, but I think it's the question that all Titans fans will want to hear from someone with their boots on the ground in Buffalo. Is this Josh Allen leap for real?

Well, Tyler, you know, the sample size keeps getting bigger. That's what I'll say about it. Josh has improved a lot since he stepped into the NFL in 2018. You know, the quarterback we watched at Wyoming to the quarterback we watched early in 2018 to late in 2018 to early in 2019 to late in 2019 2018, to early in 2019, to late in 2019. And now, I mean, it's been step after step after step. And so with that continuous upward momentum and this sample size of elite play, you know, let's be honest, the first four weeks of the season have been elite play from Josh Allen. You really gain some confidence in believing that this

is real in terms of this kind of being who he's going to be in the NFL. And, you know, you really gain some confidence in believing that this is real in terms of this kind of being who he's going to be in the NFL. And you look at so many different things that he got better at, whether that's efficiency and being accurate with the football and completing a much higher percent of his passes. He's been over 70% this year. Last year, he was 58%. You look at the deep ball accuracy. That was an issue for him

so far in his career. And this year, he's slinging the ball down the yard and hitting guys in stride down the field. And then you look at under pressure. I think this is something that is really big for Josh Allen. Compared to 2019, I mean, his statistics under pressure are outstanding. He's completing 60% of his passes, 8.8 yards per attempt, and a passer rating of 118.3 under pressure this year. And so he knows where his answers are, Tyler. He knows this scheme. They've played a lot of different defenses so far this year

where they've played zone-heavy defenses, cover two, cover three. They've had the man defenses. They've had the ones that want to run cover zero and send the farm at them. And Josh has answered the test every time. And it's just a lot of comfort, and he's playing at a high level. And one of the other things that's really happened is that he's not relying on running the football. The last two games, he's had the worst rushing totals of his career.

Last week against the Raiders, four rushes for negative one yard. And the week before that against the Rams, four rushes for eight yards. I mean, he is legitimately becoming comfortable throwing the football, and he's doing it at a high level. And I don't know that I'm ready to crown him the new face of the league. And I don't know that I'm ready to crown him the new face of the league. That seems a little bit early, but he's trending in that direction. And this sample size keeps getting bigger. And we might just have to accept that Josh Allen's a legitimately outstanding quarterback.

Well, I think that whether we crown him the face of the league, I think the big takeaway here is how many people got his evaluation wrong, even after he was playing last year. Uh, I think that's the, the, the big step. Some people act like Josh Allen wasn't even an NFL quarterback during this all season and that the playoff run and all of it's a big fluke. So whether or not he's a MVP candidate or anything like that remains to be seen, but I think we've seen enough to declare some of those opinions in the all season, just, uh, outrageous, but that kind of leads me into what has helped him take this leap. Obviously you talked about his comfortability with the offense, but one addition that I want to look at is adding

Stefan Diggs. Obviously Josh Allen, like you mentioned, struggled with the deep ball last year and early in his career, you bring in probably the best deep ball receiver in the NFL. So what has Stephon Diggs done to Josh Allen's, I guess, improvement here? But not only that, it slots every single wide receiver down into a place where they're more comfortable. John Brown is a number two. Cole Beasley has a three or four. Watching that Bills game last week, I was actually surprised by how heavy their rotation was at wide receiver

and the kind of weapons that they had available. So what does an addition like Stephon Diggs do for Allen? But not only Allen, just this Bill's offense in general. Well, it's huge. You know, they gave up that first round pick for Stephon Diggs and looks like a heck of a decision. You know, what Stephon Diggs, I think you really did a nice job there, Tyler, of saying it kind of puts all the receivers down one spot in a more natural position for them. Uh, but Stefan digs is a legit number one receiver and he's commanded the attention of a number one receiver. He's helped other guys get open. He's given Josh a guy to when it's, Hey, he needs to get a completion. He knows that he can target Diggs, and he can go make a play on the football,

and he's really talented, knows how to get open. He's good down the field. He's good in contested situations. And so that has been huge for Josh. It's been huge for the offense. Adding Stephon Diggs has allowed this team to go to a lot of 10 personnel using four wide receivers and getting guys like Gabriel Davis and Isaiah McKenzie involved in this offense,

having four receivers on the field. And when you have a number one in Diggs and separation guys and Brown and Beasley, the spacing is just a nightmare for defenses. And obviously Josh Allen's arm talent allows him to challenge the entire field. And so there's just so much to account for. And Diggs has been huge and he's been everything the the team's hope for when they trade it for him he's leading the league in receiving right now he's got the most uh the most catches in terms of deep uh passes 20 yards down the field i mean he's he's been everything they could have hoped for and he's been a big boost for josh allen and the offense yeah i think it was a perfect addition uh you know it's not just you know taking a look at the results after things have happened when they made that trade I said that uh personally I thought it was a fantastic move and it's playing

out so let's kind of move into the defensive side of the ball here which obviously head coach Sean McDermott is a defensive guy and everyone is focusing on Josh Allen in this Bill's offense but it's my opinion that the scariest part about this team at the end of the season will be that defense. A ton of studs on the defense, some of the young players like Ed Oliver really coming into his own. So what is it on the Bill's defensive side? What kind of coverages are they running? What kind of concepts are they running that make them so effective as a defense? Well, I wish the defense was playing better you know I think that was the thing most people thought would be true about this team was you know the defense would would be

outstanding and that's not been the case in a lot of ways you just like there's some frustrations with Tennessee and how that defense is playing so far you can really apply a lot of that to the bills and so right we know what they're capable of and and that really um is exciting because this team hasn't played their best football yet as a team collectively. It's certainly playing their best offense. There's no doubt about that. But in terms of special teams and defense, those areas haven't been solid yet. I think what it comes down to is you've got a lot of new defensive linemen.

It's the most expensive defensive line in the NFL, $51 million, 21% of the Bills' salary cap on this defensive line. There's good players there, but I think early in the season, finding the right combinations, the bills like to rotate defensive linemen. So finding the right combinations on the second level, Tremaine Edmonds and Matt Milano are excellent players, but you know, they both have had injuries so far this year. Matt Milano may not be available for Sunday. And then in the secondary, I think because

you're not getting that normal pass rush, you're not getting that normal coverage spacing from the linebackers, the secondary hasn't played well. And the Bills have been almost exclusively in nickel defense this year, and Taron Johnson, the slot corner, has been a little bit of a liability. So they're not playing, they haven't played great complementary defense in terms of the coverage uh complementing the pass rush and being fundamentally sound and stopping the run there's a lot of questions they started to find their edge a bit in the second half last week against the raiders but you know i think this defense will get better it was it's been the strength of the team sean mcdermott always has a good defense there's good personnel

here but they got to find themselves and uh you know, obviously the schedule here stiffens up and they need to turn it around because they won't be undefeated for long if they can't play better defense in these coming games. Maybe my question was a self-fulfilling prophecy for what the Bills defense could do to the Titans coming up. And that leads me into my next question. It seems like it could be a get right game for the Bills defense. What do you expect them to do on defense to attack this

watered down Tennessee Titans offense, at least from a skill position perspective? Derrick Henry's still in the game, right? That entire offensive line. That's the truth. Yeah. I mean, the big boy is still there in the backfield. Yes, that's real. So you don't know what it's like to play against derrick henry tyler uh that guy's a problem so i think that's where you have to focus right all the best defensive coordinators can can try to take away the the thing you do best and force you to win in other ways well left-handed obviously obviously tennessee has a lot of different ways offensively if everyone's healthy that they can really create problems.

But I think first and foremost, especially without Adam Humphreys, without Corey Davis, with A.J. Brown kind of coming back from injury, you've got to be concerned about Derrick Henry and this really physical offensive line. And so you've got to key in on Derrick Henry, and that's first and foremost. He's going to make his plays. You have to live with that. But if you can limit him, get guys to the football the football I mean we're talking about Derrick Henry over the

last two years each the last two years over four yards additional after contact you know I mean he he's a he's a load so you got to focus in on that and and here's the thing once you focus in on that you've already said it the play action comes in Ryan Tannehill his splits with play action versus without play action are remarkable I mean yeah 5.4 this season through three games without play action 5.4 yards per attempt with play action 11.9 yards per attempt I mean he is the the play action is introduced and Ryan Tannehill becomes significantly more productive and then I think ultimately after you somehow figure out how to bottle up Derrick Henry, if you can hopefully hold your own against play action, then you got to figure out how are you going to get pressure on Ryan Tannehill? Because this is a pretty good

Titans offensive line, but when Ryan Tannehill is pressured, you know, he's a different player for sure. I mean, this year without pressure, he's completing 78% of his passes with pressure, Without pressure, he's completing 78% of his passes. With pressure, 37%. Without pressure, 9.2 yards per attempt. With pressure, 3.7 yards per attempt. You've got to find ways to get Ryan Tannehill uncomfortable because when he's uncomfortable, he's not as effective as a player. So easier said than done, but those are the things that you have to try to do

to limit this offense. Yeah, I do agree with all those points. One thing I will say, because I'm sure my listenership is coming out of their seats right now, most quarterbacks in the NFL are better in play action and are better without pressure on them. There's a very select few that would not fall into that category. So that's all I want to say.

That's all I want to say. Just give Tannehill a little bit of a break there, a little bit of a break. But I do agree. Those were just stats. So I wasn't even opinion on Tannehill. And I mean, I gave you the stats on Josh Allen with pressure this year, 60% completion percentage,

118.3 passer rating. So, I mean, Derek Carr, the quarterback the Bills played last week, was a guy that is not significantly better with play action or without play action or with pressure or without pressure. But those are significant dips for Ryan Tannehill, whether you want to receive it or not. That's real data. And those are ways that he's less effective. If you get pressure on him and you try to take away the play action game because he's a better player when those things aren't true. And yeah, that's mostly true about quarterbacks, but we're talking about Ryan Tannehill,

and those are stark differences in splits, Tyler. Yeah, and you know what, Joe? Honestly, this may have inspired me to take a look at some things. I would like to figure out how big of a difference it is for Ryan Tannehill compared to, I guess, like the league average. You know what I mean? I feel like that would be an interesting research project to see just how much better Ryan Tannehill is in those situations compared to the league average quarterback.

I think that would be an interesting thing to take a look at. But that's why I like talking to you, Joe, a very intelligent football mind, really get the gears turning. And I really do hope that both audiences enjoyed this conversation and feel a little bit more informed about a game that we both absolutely do hope gets played this weekend. So thank you so much, Joe. Like I said, check out all of Joe's work on the draft network. As I mentioned just a second ago, fantastic football mind.

You can be entertained and learn while you're doing it. So thank you so much. And hopefully we're able to talk again later in the season as both these teams are currently undefeated and could see each other later in the year. Well, guys, obviously at this moment in time, I have no idea whether the Titans are going to be able to play that game against the Bills, but I surely, as I'm sure you are as well, am hoping that they find a way to play that game. And if so, I will be here on Friday to give you guys a Football Friday game preview. So make sure that you're subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream and follow me on Twitter at TicTacTitans as well.

But that's going to do it for this crossover Thursday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. I certainly hope you guys enjoyed. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.