Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Rookie Kyle Philips to IR, Defensive Game Changer & Offensive Motion!

Episode Date: October 26, 2022

The Tennessee Titans rookie receiver Kyle Philips was placed on injured reserve on Tuesday. Another blow to a Titans skill group that is already thin. Did Titans fans overhype Philips? Tyler gives his take. Next, time for the ALL-22 Review of Week 7. On Defense, the Titans changed their personnel in a perfect way to beat the Colts. On offense, the Titans used a nice tough to confuse the Colts defense. Tyler breaks down the film!!#TicTacTuesday Film Thread: https://twitter.com/TicTacTitans/status/1584922566774456321?s=20&t=ojO2jsja1Tirs-6PtOY5yAFollow 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!LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFLBuilt BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!PrizePicksFirst time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That’s PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDONSimpliSafeWith Fast Protect™️ Technology, exclusively from SimpliSafe, 24/7 monitoring agents capture evidence to accurately verify a threat for faster police response. There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. Visit SimpliSafe.com/LockedOnNFL to learn more.BirddogsTHE most comfortable shorts, pants, and sweatpants with built-in liners. Go to birddogs.com, use promo code “LOCKEDON” and boom, a free Birddogs Rope Hat with your pair of Birddogs.BlueNileMake your moment sparkle with Blue Nile. Go to BlueNile.com and use code lockedon to save fifty dollars on your purchase of five-hundred dollars or more.BetterHelpThis episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at Betterhelp.com/LockedOn and get on your way to being your best self. 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, Kyle Phillips was placed on injured reserve, another major blow for the Titans skill position players. I'll tell you why Titans fans probably overhyped Kyle Phillips going into his rookie season. Then it's time for my week 7 all 22 review as we step into the film room and look at

what the Titans did schematically on offense and defense against the Colts. I'll tell you a personnel change the Titans made on defense that made a major difference. And we'll talk about one little wrinkle on offense that the Titans used to really confuse the Colts defense. So all of that and more on today's edition of the Locked On Titans podcast. Let's get it. You are Locked On Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Titans fans, we have a lot to talk about on today's show.

Before we get into Kyle Phillips going to injured reserve, I do want to thank you guys for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. If this is your first ever listen or you just haven't subscribed yet, make sure that you do so you stay locked in to Monday through Friday, daily free Tennessee Titans content on all platforms all year round. It was Tic Tac Tuesday on my Twitter feed. Make sure you guys go check that out. The link to the film thread is in the description of the podcast.

So make sure you guys check that out as well. But let's dive right in here. And boy, I got Titans Twitter pretty upset on Tuesday. I did. And for better or for worse, I'm bringing the conversation here. Kyle Phillips was placed on injured reserve for the Titans after injuring his hamstring in practice last week. He missed some games early in the season as well with a shoulder injury. This is obviously a big blow to the Titans skill position group. They already are in a very tough spot with,

I mean, Sunday, the Titans had four wide receivers active. Mason Kinsey, Cody Hollister, and Nick Westbrook Aquino were three of them. And then you have Robert Woods. So I think everybody expected a lot out of Kyle Phillips and they knew that his diverse skill set that's different from what the Titans normally would have on the field would be beneficial to them. And I mean, he did have a good week one against the Giants, obviously had that nice punt return, even though he did have the fumble on the punt return, which kind of cancels that out.

In my opinion, he had six catches for 66 yards. Great. But since then, even when he played, he played against Buffalo. He had one catch for five yards. He played against Indianapolis the first time. He had one target for zero catches for zero yards. He fumbled a punt against Buffalo as well. He played against Washington,

had one catch for seven yards on two targets. Now, I give a lot of shout-outs to my guy, Will Lomas, on Twitter, because I do think he has a lot of great takes. But me and him went back and forth during the season about how the expectations on rookie wide receivers are far, far too high. Kyle Phillips is a late round wide receiver who is also tiny by NFL standards. So Titans fans expecting him to not only be consistent throughout the season

but be a high-level contributor, there was probably a little bit too much hype. And I take responsibility for this as well. I'm a guilty party. I stood up here when I did my superlatives episode and I thought that the biggest contributor as a rookie could be Kyle Phillips. I had numerous conversations with Titans fans online telling me, hey, this group of wide receivers is not bad.

They're actually good because Kyle Phillips and Traylon Burks, along with Robert Wood, were going to do all these things. And I said, that's a lot of stock and a lot of faith to put in rookies. Guys, this is no different than Marcus Johnson. This is no different than, say, like Jadavion Clowney or Julio Jones. We thought that they could do more

than they ended up doing. There was too much hype. Kyle Phillips was overhyped coming into the season. This does not mean, this does not mean that Kyle Phillips is not going to be good for the Titans. This does not mean that Kyle Phillips is overrated, was a bad draft pick, whatever. It means that Titans fans, the fans, Titans fans, once again, including myself, were duped by wide receiver reports from training camp. It's Marcus Johnson all over again. Marcus Johnson's going to do this. Marcus Johnson's going to do that. What did Marcus Johnson do? Nothing and then got hurt. And don't tell me that injuries mean that someone can't be overhyped.

He's not overhyped. He just got hurt. Availability is a big part of the job. Being on the field to produce is a big part of the job. And us as fans should have taken into account that this is a late round small guy who may not be able to hold up against the wear and tear of an NFL season.

Maybe we should have saw that coming. Just like last year, we should have saw it coming that Marcus Johnson, a guy who's never been able to stay healthy in his entire career, was going to get hurt and not be able to stay healthy with the Titans. We should have saw that coming.

So I'm including myself. Red hands here. You caught me. We overhyped Kyle Phillips. We expected far too much from a late-round rookie wide receiver. Now, the other part of the news is the Titans have signed Chris Conley. Chris Conley played for the Chiefs for a while. He's bounced around. He played for the Chiefs during this season, was eventually added to the Texans. The Titans pick him up and

bring him in. And guys, I'm going to be honest. Chris Conley is a size speed guy. So I know you start to look at Chris Conley and you know what? Let's do it. Let's have a conversation about that size and that speed. He is a speed guy. Six foot three, 205 pounds. He's played in a ton of games in his career. 102, 213 catches, nearly 3,000 total yards,

15 touchdowns. He's been in the league since 2015. Kansas City, Jacksonville, Houston. Guys, I'm going to be honest with you. He was brought in to try to get inside information on Houston and Kansas City. Do not bank on Chris Conley having an impact on the field. He was brought in to get inside information on Kansas City and Houston. The two teams that the Titans play next.

The two teams that he coincidentally has spent time with this year. So put two and two together. Sadly, I don't see it as much of an answer. I think the only real answer that the Titans could have at wide receiver is either with a trade, which I'm sorry, guys. The Titans aren't going to trade for Jerry Judy or DJ Moore. They're just not. John Robinson does not care about the wide receiver position. He doesn't care enough, I should say, to do something like that. He doesn't think it's important enough to do something like that and put that kind of resources towards it.

So for me, the only real answer that Titans fans can hope to have at wide receiver is let's hope that Traylon Burks comes back healthy. That's the only real answer that Titans fans can hope to have at wide receiver is let's hope that Traylon Burks comes back healthy. That's the only real answer. So Kyle Phillips to IR, the Titans sign Chris Connolly, and let's pray that Traylon Burks comes back soon because that's the only real answer I see at wide receiver for the Titans. But we are going to move into my All-22 film review. It is time to step into the film room and go over what

I saw on offense and defense from the Titans on defense, a great personnel change that the Titans made that I think is going to be something they can use going forward. And then on offense, a nice wrinkle that the Titans added in that was really effective against Indianapolis. Before we get into that, do want to tell you guys about our friends over at Bird Dogger. I apologize, at LinkedIn. LinkedIn and Locked On have partnered to make sure that you can find the best candidates possible for your small business. All you do is sign up at LinkedIn Jobs, post your job in the purple hiring frame is going to spread that word around to make sure you get the best candidates possible out of their pool of 810 million people. They have simple tools available for you at LinkedIn jobs like screening questions to make it easy to focus on the candidates with just the right skills and experience. So you can quickly prioritize who you'd like to interview and then ultimately hire. It's why small businesses rate LinkedIn Jobs as the number one job finder in the business. They're going to give you the best quality hires

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just so she can wash them because I love them that much. Titans fans, let's continue today's show. I'm going to dive into the film with you guys. It's time for my All-22 review from Week 7, going over what I saw schematically from the Titans on offense and defense. Got a lot of things that popped out to me on both sides of the ball, but we're going to start with the offense or with the defense. What did the Titans do to completely shut down Indianapolis just a week after they threw up 30 points on the Jags?

Before we get into it, I want to thank you guys again for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. Tomorrow is crossover Thursday with the hosts of Locked on Texans to get the behind-the-en enemy lines kind of spin on the game. Friday will be my game plan episode. And if you listen to last week's game plan episode, a lot of stuff that I talked about played out on the field. So let's talk about what was on the tape for the Titans on defense.

And number one, the biggest thing that popped out, and I mentioned this earlier in the week, but Amani Hooker played slot. Amani Hooker was the Titans slot cornerback in this game. Now, if you want to be more technical, what I would call that is a big nickel package. That's what they call that when you have five defensive backs, because that's nickel, but three of them are safeties rather than a traditional three cornerback group when you're a nickel. So it's a big nickel package. The Titans had Fulton and McCreary on the outsides, and then they had Hooker playing the slot, which he hasn't done since he played at Iowa in 2018. And then they had Andrew Adams

and Kevin Byard as the normal deep safeties. This was incredibly important because as we know, the Colts play a physical brand of football, similarly to the Tennessee Titans. They use big tight ends. They want to run the ball. They want to move you. That's what happened. So to counteract the physicality of the Colts offense, because what you don't want is a smaller guy like Roger McCree. That's why the Titans have Elijah Molden. That's why they traded for Ugo Amati so they could have a physical early down slot cornerback to take that beating and to be essentially a pseudo linebacker. Well, the problem is with Molden being out, Ugo Amati being relatively ineffective, the Titans didn't have anybody to do that. Remember, they tried guys

like Theo Jackson and Lonnie Johnson as slot corners in practice early in the year because they needed somebody to do that early down physical slot role. Well, who better if you don't have anybody else than Imani Hooker who played some slot at Iowa and was kind of a hybrid safety cornerback. And boy, did Hooker do well in this role. He followed motion. He even lined up over the guard sometimes to show pressure front.

I mean, Hooker was following motion across the formation. He was blitzing off the edge. He was sinking into zones. He was playing man coverage. Imani Hooker and his ability to not only cover, but also be physical at the same time at the slot cornerback position was incredibly important. So deciding to go with Imani Hooker as your slot cornerback, going with a big nickel package as your base formation on defense in this game,

I mean, I could not think of a more perfect personnel choice for going against the shotgun run physical attack of the Indianapolis Colts. So putting Amani Hooker at slot cornerback and running big nickel in this game. Chef's kiss to Shane Bowen. It wasn't only that though, but again, something I talked about in my game plan episode on Friday. And I see in the comment, do you think it'll work against the Chiefs? No. The Chiefs do

not play anywhere near as physical a football as the Colts do. That's not their game plan at all. So having Imani Hooker in the slot consistently against the Chiefs? No. I don't think that's a game plan that they can replicate against any old team. They're going to need a Monty Hooker back deep to deal with the deep speed and the deep throws that the Chiefs have available to them if they want them. Moving forward, though, coverage-wise. So that's a personnel thing. Coverage-wise, as I described on Friday, cover to invert was crucial in this game. The Titans ran multiple variations of Cover 2 Invert

where they would have, so what is Cover 2 Invert? Something I talk about quite a bit because the Titans run it quite a bit. You guys know that Cover 2 coverage, if you play Madden, you watch football, anything, Cover 2 is just when you have a safety on either side of the field and each of them have a deep half responsibility. A Cover 2 Invert coverage is where you have two deep halves, but it's different than just your two deep safeties.

So the Titans will have one safety and then one of their outside cornerbacks is the deep half. Or they'll have one safety and their slot cornerback on the other side as the deep half. In this game, the Titans even had their two outside cornerbacks as the deep halves so that their safeties could then drop down into the middle of the field. And I talked about this all week before the game.

The Titans had to run cover to invert and their specialized cover for coverage is what I would call it so that their safeties could drop down over the middle of the field and take away the tight ends and Michael Pittman and all of those over the middle of the field routes that the Colts like to hit on. They destroyed the

Jaguars last week using those crossing routes and drag routes over the middle of the field. You have to find a way. And the problem is what the Colts will do is the Colts will have their interior guys run vertically, at least to start out of their route, and then they'll have those drag routes and crossing routes come underneath them.

So how do you counteract that? You have your outside guys, you have your cornerbacks run with those vertical routes. And you allow your safeties and your physical people who can deal with these big tight ends. See, Christian Fulton and Roger McCreary tried to cover those tight ends in week four. And it didn't work. And those tight ends balled out in that game.

I think it was like 11 catches for 180 yards or something. Two touchdowns. So how do you get your cornerbacks off those tight ends and allow your safeties who are more physically adept to dealing with tight ends, take them on? Cover to invert. So beautiful stuff by the Titans defense. Again, if you want to actually see the clips,

the Tic Tac Tuesday film thread is in the comments right now. Just click on it. Go to my Twitter. You don't even have to have a Twitter account. You can just click on it and it'll pull up and you can go through and click play and watch all the plays that I did. The last thing that I want to mention here on the defense is cross dog blitzes. So what is a cross dog blitz? Basically a cross dog blitz is when you have your two inside linebackers and they basically make an X. That's why they call it a cross dog. Because the linebackers cross each other.

And the point is, when they do that, they're trying to confuse the blocking assignments of the interior offensive line. And where have the Colts had the most trouble this year in pass protection? You may look and say, hey, their tackles aren't very good. They're probably, no, it's the interior of the offensive line. The spot at right guard, Brian Kelly at center hasn't been very good. They're probably, no, it's the interior of the offensive line. The spot at right guard,

Brian Kelly at center hasn't been very good this year. People have been attacking with blitzes, twists and stunts, the interior of the Colts. And that's exactly what the Titans did too. The Titans don't run cross dog blitzes very often. I never see the Titans blitz both their inside linebackers at the same time. I never see that from the Titans,

but they did it in this game because Jacksonville had a ton of success with it, and they knew that if they ran those cross-dog blitzes, they would find a way to make a big impact. And if you go through the tape, numerous times the Titans were able to get pressure on Matt Ryan from the interior because the cross-dog blitz either got home or opened up something for an interior defensive lineman. So Monty Hooker is a big slot. Cover two invert coverage and cross dog blitzes were the big things that stood out

to me on tape for the Titans. Now we are going to get into the offensive side of the ball. Before we do though, I do want to tell you guys about our sponsor, PrizePix. PrizePix is daily fantasy made easy. All you have to do is look at the projections they have for each player. So you look at Derrick Henry, 100 rushing yards. Is it going to be more or is it going to be less? Ryan Tannehill, two touchdowns. Is it going to be more? Is it going to be less?

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All you have to do is go to prizepicks.com right now or use the PrizePicks app and use the promo code LOCKEDON when you sign up. That's promo code locked on. You're going to get a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 if you're a first-time user. So go to PrizePix app, sign up, use the promo code locked on, deposit $100. You get a free $100. Deposit $50. You get a free $50. Either way, make sure that you use the promo code LOCKEDON at signup for an instant deposit match up to $100 at prizepix.com. Titans fans, we are going to cap off this rewatch Wednesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast with the second half of my all 22 review

and some of the things that stood out to me on tape from the Titans win over the Colts. Before we get into those, do want to thank you guys for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. Make sure you subscribe on whatever platform you do stream for free Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content all year around. As for your second listen, check out the Locked On Sports Today podcast. It's hosted by Peter Bukowski.

You get all the biggest news in all of the big sports in North America in under 25 minutes every single day. It's going to get you caught up on all the biggest stories, like I said, in every single sport. So you don't want to miss it. It's a perfect companion to the Locked on Titans podcast. But moving forward here, on offense,

the big thing that stood out to me was at snap motion. Say it with me. At snap motion. Say it with me. At snap motion. At snap motion is different than pre-snap motion. If you run motion before the play and then that player comes set before, that's not getting the job done quite as much

as what a lot of teams in the NFL want to do. At snap motion is much more effective because the guy goes in motion and then he settles down. Now the defense has time to react, but if the guy is going in motion while the ball is snapped, it makes it much more difficult to make sure that your assignment sound on defense and everybody knows who they're on, where they're supposed to be. I saw multiple occasions where at snap motion, not only help the Titans with their box math, but

also help the Titans complete the play. So what do I mean by box math? So a perfect example, if you go to the Tic Tac Tuesday film thread, there's an example of this, where the Titans send Robert Woods in motion, one direction, and before the motion, there are five people to the right of Ben Jones where the play is supposed to go, the run play.

After the motion, there are only four people to the right of Ben Jones. Thanks, Mike. Yeah, say it together, kids. At snap motion. So the point is, when the Titans were running at snap motion and having someone in motion while snapping the ball, they were able to manipulate the Colts' numbers in the box. Hey, we're running to the right. You got five guys there.

We want to move you over to the left so that we have a better advantage numbers-wise on the right side where the ball is going. If you guys, I keep bringing this up because it's a simple way to communicate to people. If you guys have ever played Madden, in recent Maddens, they actually have a green box on one side of the defense or a red box on one side of the defense

or a green box or red box totally showing you whether your numbers are better or worse than what the defense has on that side of the ball or in the box in general. The Titans were playing that numbers game. They were sending guys in motion so that the Colts linebackers would shift over or the defensive line would shift over a little bit

and then give them a bigger advantage in the run game on one side. So love the at-snap motion. Again, that's not something that the Titans consistently do every single week. Isabella Burks is on IR. He's going to be out until after the Chiefs game. And after the Chiefs game, he'll be eligible to return from IR

with a foot injury, had turf toe, which is basically like a major jam of your big toe. Makes it hard to plant, cut, accelerate, all that. But, so not only do the Titans not run at snap motion a ton, but Jacksonville did it with a lot of success in the run game against Indy in week 6. So the Titans just copied that over. Same thing with the cross dog blitzes. The Titans took a ton from that Jacksonville tape because it worked so well against Indy even though Indy won. The Jacks still had a lot of success in that game.

Especially running the football. So at-snap motion was big to change the box map. Also, some issues. The Titans continue, because of the issues on the offensive line, they continue to run three-man routes where they're chipping their running back, they're chipping their tight end, and then they're leaking out into the flats,

but the pressure's already there. So basically, the Titans don't really have a lot of people open downfield because two of the five eligible receivers have to block for the first couple of seconds of the play. It just makes it impossible to get people. I mean, multiple plays I watched today, there's just no one open because there's only three guys out in the route, and then two guys are just sneaking out of the backfield

because they just had to chip. I mean, it makes it tough. And what makes it even worse is the only three guys out there are not guys who are getting open. Cody Hollister, Mason Kinsey, Nick Westbrook-Akina, Robert Woods gets open here and there, but it's not super consistent.

When you're only putting three guys out into the route, and those three guys aren't really guys who are going to create separation, what are you supposed to do on offense? What are you supposed to do on offense? What are you supposed to do? So, you want to know why the Titans can't score? It's because everybody knows they're running and they can only run three guys out in the pass routes when they do pass because they got to keep seven in the block

just so Tannehill doesn't die. I mean, that's the reality of what's on tape. It's that simple. The last thing I want to mention here in my All-22 review of Week 7 is a positive thing, and it's a player note. Dylan Radins. Dylan Radins played pretty well. Look, he made a few big mistakes.

He missed a couple stunts. He had that false start, which was obviously bad, but he was really good in the run game. And Dylan Radins went one-on-one in pass protection with DeForest Buckner multiple times. And one-on-one, he won against DeForest Buckner. he won against DeForest Buckner. Look, Radins is far from perfect. He's far from a permanent starter. He's far from it.

Shannon, I agree. He does fall down constantly. Dylan Radins' worst asset is his balance. That has been discussed ad nauseum. And I will continue to bring that up, that his punch and his balance are the worst parts of his game. But even that, even his balance issues looked better against the Colts. He looked more under control, better center of gravity.

I saw him less on the ground, less falling forward. Yes, it's still an issue. I'm not saying it's corrected. But we saw improvement. Guys, not everybody comes out of college and is immediately awesome. Not everybody comes out of college and in their rookie or second year or third year is the player who they're going to be. Look at guys who are making plays. Andrew Adams. If you guys would have been harping on Andrew Adams

on his first or second season in the NFL as much as you're doing to Dylan Radins, then you would have never believed that he did what he did on Sunday. Guys progress at different rates. So I'm not saying that Radins is awesome. I'm not saying he should start. I'm not saying he Radins is awesome. I'm not saying he should start. I'm not saying he's a fixed player.

But I'm just saying there were positive games there. He had a pretty solid game. He was the highest rated Titan pass protection per pro football focus. I'm not saying the guy's awesome. I'm not even saying he's good. I'm saying he was a lot better against the Colts than we've seen him be previously. And you're seeing some improvement. And I think ultimately that there is potential for Dylan

Radins to eventually be a starting offensive lineman for the Titans. Dog versus face. Set a reminder for seven years then. That's pretty funny, man. I can't lie. That's pretty funny. I'm just saying, man. He looked all right, and I saw improvements, and it really stood out on tape. So that's something that I wanted to at least let you guys know about. But that's going to do it for this Rewatch Wednesday edition

of the Locked on Titans podcast. We went over Kyle Phillips going all night, or how I think the Titans fan base, myself included, probably overhyped him. Then we talked about the Titans on defense with Imani Hooker in the slot, cover two inverts, cross dog blitzes on offense at snap motion, three-man route combinations with chipping, and then Dylan Radin's solid day. 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.