Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Release Depth Chart -- Offense: Starters, Surprises & Position Battle Updates

Episode Date: August 8, 2022

The Tennessee Titans first preseason game of the year comes Thursday and with it comes the first unofficial depth chart of the season! Tyler dives into the offensive side of the ball on today's show to take a look at the starters, surprises & updates on position battles taking place! First, the offensive backfield is crowded, but everyone is watching the back up QB spot! Next, the two rookies at wide receiver continue to impress and the depth chart proves it. Finally, the Titans are figure out who will start, but also who gets the final spot on the offensive line!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.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.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! 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, we have a depth chart to go over. With the Titans' first preseason game of the year set for Thursday against the Ravens, the team released their first unofficial depth chart of the year. Who are the starters? Where are the rookies? And key updates on some position battles that we have been

watching. Going over the offensive side of the ball, of the depth chart, 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, it is game week. The Tennessee Titans will play a football game on Thursday night against the Ravens.

Could not be more excited for some real Tennessee Titans action. It's been so long, so excited to get back into the swing and have a Tennessee Titans game to look forward to basically every week from now until hopefully February. As for the schedule this week, today, I am breaking down the offensive side of the depth chart that the Titans released on Monday. All the interesting tidbits, who's the starters, key position battles, where the rookies are, all of that. Tomorrow, I'll be breaking down the defensive side of the ball.

Then we will have a full game preview of that matchup between the Tennessee Titans against the Baltimore Ravens that takes place on Thursday night. So you'll have a preview of that on Thursday or Wednesday night for YouTube. And then Friday or Thursday, directly after the game for the YouTube crowd, you will have my reaction pod, my recap pod to the preseason game. So, so excited to get back in the swing of things. Make sure that you stay locked in to the Locked on Titans podcast,

free and available on all platforms Monday through Friday, all year round, free Tennessee Titans content, including the Locked on Titans YouTube channel. Subscribe there, smash the notification bell, and throw a thumbs up on the video. If you're watching right now, thanks for making the Locked on Titans YouTube channel. Subscribe there, smash the notification bell, and throw a thumbs up on the video. If you're watching right now, thanks for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. But let's dive into this depth chart on the offensive side of the ball. And I got a little visual aid for you guys.

Going to throw it up on the screen so you can see the offensive depth chart in total. So I'm going to go over all the starters on the offensive side of the ball, and then we're going to go position by position throughout the show, going over all the interesting things at each spot. All right, so here we go. We got the unofficial depth chart pulled up that the Titans released today. Looking at quarterback, you have Ryan Tannehill. At running back, of course, you have Derrick Henry.

At wide receiver, you have Robert Woods. And the other wide receiver spot, you have Nick Westbrook-Akene NWI going from undrafted free agent to starting wide receiver in the NFL. That's a great story. The Titans are in a two tight end set with their starting offensive formation on the depth chart. So they have Austin Hooper and Jeff Swaim at tight end. Jeff Swaim. Yep. We'll talk about all that. Taylor LeJuan and Dylan Radins at right tackle, but it's worth pointing out that there is a slash in between Dylan Radins and Nicholas Petit-Ferrer indicating that they are still in a position battle.

There isn't a starter determined there on the interior. You have Ben Jones at center, Nate Davis at right guard, Aaron Brewer at left guard, but again, there is a slash in between Aaron Brewer and Jamarco Jones indicating that that battle is still going. So that is the full gambit of starters right now for the Titans. Let's dive deeper into each position and I want to start with the backfield. Let's just go in order here. Quarterback for the Titans, I mean no surprise whatsoever here. Logan Woodside is still listed

as the backup over Malik Willis. And as we've talked about throughout the all season, as I've said, the Titans will be loyal to Logan Woodside. He is much further ahead in the operational side of running an offense, knowing the defensive front, recognizing things pre-snap, audible, and getting the formation lined up, calling the play in the huddle. He does have all those advantages.

He's been with the Titans for multiple years. He would have those advantages over other veterans, let alone a rookie who came from a college system like Malik did. So, no surprise there. You can't really be surprised about that. But what I will say is we get into a dangerous spot here where I would like the Titans to be able to utilize Malik's skill set. As I've been saying for quite some time now, there are scouts nationally that said Malik Willis could have entered the draft as a running

back. You don't waste that talent by having a third quarterback inactive all year. We have to hope that at some point Malik Willis, hopefully by the end of the season, can overtake Logan Woodside as QB2. So at minimum, at minimum, the Titans don't have to leave Malik inactive and they can utilize him in certain packages. He scored on a red zone, read option, touchdown, and practiced the other day.

Malik Willis is a more talented runner than Ryan Tannehill, just naturally. Ryan Tannehill is still a very good runner in his own right. Fair enough. But Malik Willis is a more talented runner. So you don't want to completely waste all that value, and I'm hoping that he can overtake Logan Woodside once that gap of experience in the system is bridged. And then from there, you have a guy who's active on game days who can be utilized in these red zone,

goal line, third down, short yardage situations, and you can get a little bit of juice out of that lemon that you picked up in the draft. And I say lemon, I know the negative connotations there, but just, you know, keeping the juice analogy going. You want to get some value out of that pick in year one, even if you're not going to get the majority of the value of that pick in year one, even if you're not going to get the majority of the value of that pick until year two or year three. That's understandable,

but just would be nice to utilize his skills that he does have right away in some way. And I think there's a way to do that, but probably later in the season for now, Logan Woodside is ahead at running back. No real surprises. Derrick Henry is the starter there. Derek Henry will not play in preseason games. So that's something to keep in mind. And I'm not surprised by that whatsoever. I don't think any of you would be either. But once we go further into the running back depth chart, of course here, of course we have Torrey Carter, who's going to be the starting fullback. He's going to take a back spot, no doubt about that. But behind him, Dontrell Hilliard listed as the number two. That makes sense as well. He's clearly the third down back and that guy who's going to be in on passing downs. But then what surprised me is that Jordan Wilkins is ahead of Hassan Haskins. We've heard that Hassan Haskins has been running with the first team quite a bit.

I expect Hassan Haskins to be a better runner than Jordan Wilkins. So to see Haskins above Wilkins, that is a little bit, or to see Wilkins above Haskins, that is a little bit of a surprise for me. I think ultimately he'll leap Jordan Wilkins, and Hassan Haskins will be basically the third string running back. I hope that that's the case, and I do believe that that will be the case also.

Just want to say this. Some of you guys may be saying, well, when the Titans release their first depth chart of the year every year, the rookies are always listed last. Well, folks, that is not true this year. We're going to talk about the pass catching groups, and there are some rookies who are definitely not last at their position for the Titans.

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Once again, that's promo code LOCKED15 for 15% off at built.com. Titans fans, we're going to continue breaking down the offensive side of the depth chart, the first depth chart from the Titans all year. I can't wait to continue to dive into it with you guys. We did the offensive backfield. You got running back. You got quarterback. Now I want to get into the pass catchers. And there's some real excitement in here for me

because what I'm used to seeing is the first depth chart of the year for the Titans. All of the rookies are typically at the bottom of the depth chart. No matter where they were drafted, no matter what happened, that's where they end up. Not this year. And it continues the hype of this rookie class. I mean, there's no way around it. This rookie class has to get you excited. So anyways, diving in here, we talked about quarterback and running back. We're going to dive into receiver. I'm putting the depth chart

back up on the screen for you guys. At wide receiver, let's just go through there and break down the tidbits. Number one, I pointed it out already, Nick Westbrook-Akina going from undrafted free agent to starting wide receiver in the NFL, that's impressive. We expected Robert Woods to be a starter, so no real surprises there. But look, rookies who are not at the bottom of the depth chart. Behind Robert Woods, Kyle Phillips, and that train just keeps on rolling. Kyle Phillips getting those reps.

I would say that Kyle Phillips is ahead of Traylon Burks right now if they just did a one-to-the-end ranking, not the way that they have it where they have two wide receiver spots. Kyle Phillips, if the team had to have two wide receiver spots. Kyle Phillips, if the team had to throw a wide receiver out there right now, Kyle Phillips would be ahead of Burks, in my opinion. But that's no reason to be,

I guess, disappointed or down on Burks. He's making plays, showing why he was drafted so high with those skills. He's just got to round out some of the techniques, get lined up in the right spots, get adjusted to the offense, all that. Phillips is just picking those things up quick right now and ready to go. But once Burks gets his hands on all that information and he totally wraps his mind around it,

he's going to be ahead of Nick Westbrook-Akina, and that's okay that it's not happening right now. But the fact that Burks and Phillips are listed as number two at their respective spots, that's huge. That's huge compared to previous years and how things are handled. Then after that, what I want to point out, and the way this works is it goes from left to right,

and then you drop down and go from left to right. So next, you'd have Ray C. McMath as the number five and Dez Fitzpatrick as the No. 6. Okay? Dez is fighting for that spot, and right behind those guys would be Josh Malone, Reggie Roberson. So that's how the pecking order goes, and after that, you got Terry Godwin and Brandon Lewis,

guys who I don't think have a realistic chance to make the roster. So I think that Racey McMath has certified a roster spot as the fifth wide receiver. He's shown he can be a deep threat. Ryan Tannehill has trusted him. He's filling that role in the offense. And we already knew the special teams value was there. We already knew about that. So I like what we're seeing there from the depth chart.

Des Fitzpatrick, though, against Mason Kinsey, Cody Hollister, Reggie Roberson, Josh Malone. That's the battle. Will the Titans keep six wide receivers? I don't know. I don't know if they will. If they do, though,

it's going to come down to Des, who's probably the frontrunner in the clubhouse right now, or one of those other guys I just mentioned, Kinsey, Hollister, Roberson, Malone. Those are the guys who I think realistically are battling for that spot. But again, two rookies not being at the bottom

of the depth chart, being above other veterans who have been with the team for some time, that's how we know it's real, folks. That is how we know that it's real. So, anyways, moving forward here to the tight end spots. Austin Hooper, Jeff Swaim. Look, I know that we were all hoping to see Chigaconquo over Swaim, but the reality is,

if you read Chigaconquo's scouting report out of college, and you watch his tape, he needs to improve his run blocking he needs to add some mass he needs to add some size and although he's been making highlights in the passing game that's what you expected he has to improve as a blocker so Swaim is going to have that title

until Chigaconquo proves against real competition that he can block up to the level that Swaim can. So no surprise there. After that, though, that's where things do get, let's say, a touch interesting. Is that fourth tight end spot. I think there is a chance that the Titans keep four tight ends. I think there's a real chance. Right now, if you look at

how things are lined up though, Tommy Hudson definitely ahead of Briley Moore. Now, I have said that I think, and I'll throw it back up on the screen here, I think that Tommy Hudson has a chance to be the new Jeff Swain. You want Chigaconquo to be your tight end too. He gives you that explosiveness, okay? You want that to balance out the consistent reliability of Austin Hooper. You want an explosive playmaker to balance that out.

So it would be ideal to have Chig and Hooper as the top two tight ends. Once that transition happens, Jeff Swaim's value comes down immediately. And for the price that he costs next season, you don't want to pay Jeff Swaim anywhere close to what you had to pay him this year because you know you have Chig. And hopefully you bring Hooper back. So then you need a cheaper option of Jeff Swain because make no mistake, you need that tight end.

You need that run first blocking tight end who can go out there in heavy tight end sets, two, three tight end sets and move people around as a pseudo offensive lineman. Chick is never going to be that. You want the ability to have that utility player in your tight end group. never going to be that. You want the ability to have that utility player in your tight end group. Tommy Hudson can be that. So it wouldn't surprise me to see Tommy Hudson get a leg up. And because of the idea that the Titans are playing more multiple tight end

sets, you need four tight ends. Tommy Hudson being that fourth tight end, eventually taking over for Jeff Swain and being tight end three next season. That's kind of what I hope happens. But for the time being, seeing Tommy Hudson as tight end four, that makes sense to me. And I'm happy to see that. I am. So outside of that,

you got Briley Moore fighting for his life in the NFL right now, hoping he can stay healthy so he has a realistic opportunity to do that. Thomas Odekoye, again, I don't think that he has a real chance of making the roster because indications are out of camp that he just simply isn't quite ready. Had some turnovers in the early offseason thing. He's one of the international program guys.

I think the Titans are probably trying to do their part to give a guy a chance. And maybe this will help him down the road, but I just don't see him as a realistic option to make the roster. So no surprise to see him where he is on the depth chart. But we're going to move in to the offensive line next. There are two starting spots that, as we talked about up front, are still open competitions,

but I think one of them is a little more open than the other. I'll dive into that. Before I get into it, though, I do want to tell you guys about our friends over at Dave. Let's be honest. We've all had a point in our lives where we're a little tight on cash. Maybe you can only get a few gallons of gas in your tank. You got some bills that need paid right away.

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instant transfer fees. Apply. Banking provided by Evolve. Member FDIC. Remember, future you will thank you. Titans fans, thanks for making the Locked On Titans podcast your first listen every day. Remember, subscribe on all platforms. Whatever platform you like to use, you can find the Locked on Titans podcast there. Free and available everywhere, including the Locked on Titans YouTube channel.

Throw a thumbs up on the video. Smash that like button. Sub right now. I appreciate all of the support from you guys. But let's continue diving in to the offensive depth chart. We've talked about the backfield. We've talked about the pass catchers. It's time to

get into the offensive line. I'll throw the depth chart up there again one more time for you guys to check out the O-line, and I think the most interesting thing here is who is the backup at some of those spots. Because we know that the Titans are going to go with their five starting offensive linemen on the roster.

So let's just say it's the five starting guys that we see right here. Taylor LeJuan, Aaron Brewer, Ben Jones, Nate Davis, Dylan Radins. Okay? Let's just say it's that. Then you've got the competition between NPF and Jamarco Jones. So that's seven guys. They're only between NPF and Jamarco Jones. So that's seven guys. They're only going to keep eight, nine guys maximum. So what I'm seeing here is that I find interesting on the offensive line is Christian DeLauro ahead of Jalen McKenzie,

ahead of Carson Green, and then Jordan Roos ahead of Carson Green. And then Jordan Ruse, ahead of Xavier Newman, Hayden Howerton, the rookies. I thought that was pretty interesting. Corey Levin, the backup center. Guys, I think Corey Levin is a lock to make the roster. To me, what it comes down to is,

is Christian DeLauro going to make this team? I talked about Christian DeLauro. I put him on the bubble when we did our lock bubble long shot preview series earlier in the year for training camp. I thought DeLauro played pretty well in the preseason. Last year, he stayed with the organization at times throughout the year as well. I just think DeLauro is a nice guy to have around. He's an older prospect.

They believe he's 27. So he's just a guy who you know what you're going to get from him. And I like having that at the back end of the roster, especially when you've got a guy like NPF who's a rookie as your primary backup tackle. I like having a guy who's got some experience to him as that other backup tackle. And same thing with Levin. You're going to have Jamarco Jones.

You're going to have Aaron Brewer. I want to have Corey Levin, a sage vet, with those two younger guys. A guy like Corey Levin, who's been with the Titans prior to this stint from last year and this year. I just trust Corey Levin, like I I was just explaining with DeLauro. And as a matter of fact, I trust Levin even more than DeLauro. And that's why I think Levin is the eighth offensive lineman on this team.

It's all about who is going to be the ninth if there will be a ninth. Also, I want to say Jordan Ruse. There's been a lot of talk about Xavier Newman in camp this year. So for Jordan Ruse to be ahead of him in the pecking order, I think that's pretty important. Jordan Ruse, a fan favorite, of course. But outside of that, you got some of the undrafted free agent rookies, Howerton, Newman, McKenzie, Ropsich hanging back there. Willieies, Howerton, Newman, McKenzie, Ropsich, hanging back there,

Willie Wright, Carson Green, camp bodies, essentially. So, I don't think there are a lot of surprises there. What I do want to say, I do just want to take a moment here. Dylan Radins, man, he better get it together. Nicholas Petit-Ferrer really getting first team reps,

really getting a real opportunity to compete for that offensive tackle position at right tackle. So, Radins better get his stuff together. I'm not going to lie to you. My faith in Dylan Radins is going to drop significantly if he loses that battle. And I'm sure that you guys feel the same. Do want to give you guys some updates on practice on Monday.

Elijah Mullen misses six straight practice. I hate to hear that. He's been working on the bike, though. No Roger McCreary on Monday. May just be a rest day. He did practice on Sunday. Cody Hollister has missed multiple practices. Hopefully, he can get back soon with him being on the roster bubble.

Joshua Kalou, brought in by the Titans, wasn't able to practice on Monday. I think he has a real chance being on the roster bubble. Joshua Kalou, brought in by the Titans, wasn't able to practice on Monday. I think he has a real chance to make the roster. Dylan Cole, after leaving practice early, didn't practice. Danico Autry has missed quite a few practices, maybe just veteran rest days, but leaves me a little worried. Imani Hooker, two straight practices, but I heard he was working on the bike,

so maybe just something small. And then Michael Griffin, the safety, also didn't practice. Titans very thin at safety right now. Maybe they churned the roster and bring in a guy before the preseason game so they have enough bodies to be out there. But that's going to do it for today's show. I'm going to be back with you guys tomorrow to go over the defensive side of the depth chart. That's going to do it for me today, though, folks.

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