Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Sign Teair Tart, but is it Tart's Last Dance & Defensive Keys to Winning 11 Games

Episode Date: June 5, 2023

The Tennessee Titans finally resolved their last financial hurdle of the 2023 offseason on Monday when nose tackle Teair Tart signed his restricted free agent tender. The Titans will be glad to have Tart signed, but this may be his last year with the team. Next, Tyler discusses what the Titans defense needs to do to hit their win ceiling this year. It starts with the edge group bringing the heat and ends with the defensive backs being able to win in one-on-one situations where they struggled in 2022.Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPodSubscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/LockedOnTitans/videosSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tennessee Titans nose tackle Tierra Tart finally signed his contract, but I'll tell you why this is probably his last year in Tennessee on today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Let's get it. You are Locked on Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to the Locked On Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland, Titans fans.

We've got a lot to talk about on today's show. T.R. Tart signs his contract tender. The Titans, what needs to go right on defense for them to hit their ceiling this year? We'll talk about the edge rush. We'll talk about the defensive backs. Before we get into all of that, I do want to thank you guys for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. Remember, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content on YouTube, your favorite podcast app all year round, always for free. Make sure that you get subscribed.

Stay subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast where it's your team every day. Shout out to my everydayers out there as well. Listening to the show Monday through Friday, we got Tennessee Titans mini camp coming up the rest of this week. The practices are going to be open. I'm going to be recapping them. I'm breaking them all down here on the show. Every single night after practice,

you aren't going to want to miss it. Make sure that you get subscribed again, stay subscribed, hit the notification bell, throw a thumbs up on the video right now as well if you're watching. It helps support the channel and I really do appreciate it. But diving right in here, the Titans finally got Tiertar into the building to sign his contract tender. This has been the last really unresolved contract situation for the Titans this offseason. And basically, this was the situation.

T.R. Tartt, because he was an undrafted free agent, is a restricted free agent this offseason. So what the Titans have to do is they have to decide what tender to place on Tartt. And what they did was they placed a second-round tender on Tartt, which meant that if another team wanted to sign T.R. Tartt and they wanted they did was they placed a second round tender on Tartt, which meant that if another team wanted to sign T.R. Tartt and they wanted to offer him a contract, if the Titans decide to match it, they could bring him back. But if the Titans didn't decide to match the contract, that team would then have to give the Titans a second round pick. So the reality here is T.R.

Tartt isn't viewed as a similar value as a second round pick around the NFL because he plays nose tackle. And we're going to talk about that in just a moment. But a second round tender also comes with a one year contract worth $4.3 million. So that's what Tartt is going to sign. It's the same thing the Titans gave to Aaron Brewer. And quite honestly, I don't think that Aaron Brewer is the player that Tartt is. Regardless of that, Tartt is now back again. It's a one-year $4.3 million deal. And I think because of that, Tartt's not going to be with the Titans long-term. Like I was just mentioning before, the reality here is he is a nose tackle.

And if you look at what the Titans have been able to do on the interior defensive line throughout the last few years with undrafted free agents. Now I'm not saying any of these players are the level of Tart, but we had an Isaiah Mack. For example, you add Tart the year after that, you see Naquan Jones. The Titans have found a way to find defensive line production on the interior. I mean, even a Demarcus Walker, even a Mario Edwards, the Titans have found a way to find defensive linemen and get the best out of them. So you look at Tartt, undrafted free agent, came in. The Titans have developed him.

Why would the Titans give a big-time contractor, not big-time, because Tartt, even if he gets an extension, whatever contract he gets, whether it's a long-term deal with the Titans, which he can still do, or he does move on as I'm kind of projecting now, it's not going to be some groundbreaking contract like we saw Jeffrey Simmons get nearly $100 million. But at the same time, if you're the Titans, you're probably thinking, look, nose tackle plays, you know, first, second down, probably not going to be on the field on third down. We just found a couple of pretty good ones throughout undrafted free agency. The last few years.

Why would you use any of your cap space on that? Especially when you're paying what you're paying to Jeffrey Simmons and Harold Landry on the defense defensive line. Now, what I will say here is, even though I don't think that Tartt will be with the team after this season because of the situation Tartt, I remember he said on Twitter, he ended up deleting it though, but he said one time for sale, not on sale. Now he deleted that tweet, as I said, which probably the smart decision, no reason to bring that attention, but you can obviously see there

might be some frustration. He waited this long and Tartt was playing on a waiver that he signed to protect him against injury if he got hurt during OTAs because he hadn't signed his contract yet. So Tartt clearly was holding out for a long-term deal. He didn't get it and that in my opinion makes me think that maybe the Titans just aren't going to be willing to pay Tartt what he

wants and probably what he deserves because at the end of the day, the Titans are able to play such good run defense out of nickel formation with five defensive backs on the field. The Titans are able to play such good run defense out of nickel formation with five defensive backs on the field. The Titans are able to do that because of how well T.R. Tartt is able to take up two blockers at the same time, how he's able to win double teams and stop them at the line of scrimmage before they get to linebackers.

Tartt opens up the Titans' run defense so that they can play in five defensive back personnel and still stop the run as one of the best teams in the NFL. It's because he's able to do that. I mean, that's where it all kind of starts. Obviously, Jeffrey Simmons, big factor in that as well. Team defense overall, but Tartan Simmons up front occupying defenders and making it tough for them to get to the Titans linebackers. That's what allowed them to be the second best run defense in the entire NFL and play primarily in nickel. So Tartt definitely has a lot of value. I don't mean to say that he doesn't, but I guess just based on positional value of a nose tackle, how much money the Titans are spending on the defensive line already and the obvious gap between the two sides as to

the contract that he deserves and that the Titans are willing to give. It just looks like this may be the last dance for the Titans and Pop-Tart, as I affectionately call them. So hopefully they both make the best of it. Tart can get himself a pretty good contract after the year, and the Titans can get some pretty good production at nose tackle in the run game. But moving right along here, we have to continue the series that we started yesterday, looking at how the Titans can hit their ceiling.

We talked about the offense yesterday. Go back and check that out if you missed it. But now it's time to talk about the defense. And there are really two factors for the Titans defense that stand out to me as the biggest keys to the Titans maximizing their ability in 2023 and hitting their ceiling in terms of wins. And I'll remind you what I think that win total is as well. Before we get into it, though, do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Big win by the Miami Heat to even up the NBA Finals. Did not see that coming.

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We're going to continue the series that we're starting here of how the Titans can hit their ceiling as a team. We talked about the offense on yesterday's show. I talked about Tim Kelly, Traylon Burks, and Chica Conquo. Talked about the offensive line and how all of those factors are going to be so important to the Titans hitting their ceiling. We're going to talk defense right now,

but I want to reiterate here that I believe the Titans' ceiling on the year right now as things are constantly constituted, as the roster is right now, currently constituted. That was tough. Tongue twister there. But as the roster stands right now, I think the Titans' ceiling is 11 wins. I think if

everything goes the way the Titans want, they're going to be able to win 11 games. I think that would win them the division. They would be back in the ASC South Catbird seat. So I think it would be a great year for the Titans. Do I think they could make a run in the Super Bowl? I don't want to have that conversation right now, but once you get in the tournament, you're in the tournament. So who knows? But here's what I'll say. I think the Titans can win 11 games if the defense does two things. If two things happen on

defense, and look, I did three on offense, and we're not going to lie to ourselves here. The offense is way more of an unknown than the defense. We're talking about hitting the ceiling. Most of that has to do with the Titans offense and what they're going to do.

But on defense, there are some things that do need to happen because there are some major weaknesses that the Titans showed last year that you have to hope some of the new personnel can help with. Number one, I want to start with the edge rushers. So, Harold Landry

is coming back from an ACL tear, but everybody who has a respectable opinion in the industry says with ACL tears, sometimes it's not the first year you come back. It's the second year that you are back off the ACL that you actually start to feel like yourself. So the Titans may get Harold Landry back and Harold Landry may stay healthy the entire year. That doesn't necessarily mean that he's going to be playing

his absolute best football, and that would be understandable. Now, the one thing that Landry does have going for him, if you could say it's, you know, have something going for him in this realm, but he did tear his ACL before the season even started. So by the time that the season kicks off, he's going to have a full calendar year removed. It's different than like, think Dylan Radins tore his ACL in week 15.

And some people were asking me if he could be a starter this year. Some people were telling me, oh, Dylan Radins is going to be ready to go for the regular season, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So if you believe that, well, that was 16 weeks after when Harold Landry tore his. So you got to feel optimistic that despite Harold Landry being only, you know, one year removed from the ACL tear,

it was so early in the process of the regular season right before kickoff that maybe he is in a middle ground of where you normally would be if you came back from an ACL and where you want to be that second year removed. You know what I mean? So there is a chance that because of the timing of Harold Landry's ACL tear, that he's back up to snuff. And that's going to be incredibly important. I advocated for re-signing Harold Landry and I like the deal that they signed him to. I advocated for that so strongly because Mike Vrabel talks about multiplicity. Since he was hired with the Titans, he talked about multiplicity on defense. Now he's starting to talk about multiplicity on offense with Tim Kelly.

That's, you know, he wants to be more multiple on offense. Well, Harold Landry is the key that allows the Titans to be multiple with their fronts. Okay? Because Landry can be an edge rusher and a two-point stance and a five-man front front Harold Landry could put his hand in the dirt and be a defensive end in a four-man front he can stand up and play outside linebacker off the ball in general so the Titans can go back and forth between a five-man front and a four-man front four three three four different alignments they can do so many different things because of the varied skill set that Harold Landry has that allows them to, again, express that multiplicity on defense. So if Landry is back, and let's say he's just a little bit better than you would normally be after an ACL because of how

early the tear happened for him last year, then that could be one of those things that is a huge factor for the Titans. But it's not just Landry on the edge either. Arden Key. So to me, it looks like the Titans are going to want Arden Key to play a little bit of a bigger role than he's played in the last two seasons. I've been saying since he was signed that I think the right thing to do here would be to use him as a rotational rusher, let Rashad Weaver and let Harold Landry start at outside linebacker,

and then have Arden Key come off as a situational pass rusher, rotate in every other drive, things like that. Mike Grable loves every other drive rotations or two drives and then one, two drives and then one to rotate different position groups out and keep them fresh throughout the game. So if the Titans started with Landry and Weaver and then let Key come in as the actual, you know,

starter for a whole drive on the every third drive, I think that would make a ton of sense. And then on third downs, you bring in him in packages, let him rush inside, outside, all that. That'd be perfect. But if the Titans are trying to elevate Arden Key and have him be the every down starter, that's going to be something interesting to see.

I think that would be a mistake. So if the Titans get, you know, more out of Landry, then maybe they would get otherwise coming out of an ACL because of the timing. They use Arden Key as the rotational guy that he has had success being in San Francisco and in Jacksonville. And then Weaver, dream Weaver, Rashad Weaver brings nightmares to quarterback. I went back and honestly, out of, I like to do this. I like to go back, look at the statistics, look at my notes from last season, and see if there's somebody who maybe I forgot how impressed I was with him.

And it's got to be Rashad Weaver. Because he had five and a half sacks last year. I looked at his box score and I was like, wait a minute, really? Really? You know, it's just not something that's at the front of my mind. And Weaver talked about improving his lower body strength earlier. I think it was last week or the week before when he talked at OTAs. He talked about getting stronger in his lower body,

especially last year was basically his rookie year after he broke his leg in year one. And you're coming off a leg break. So are you going as hard as you could possibly go with your legs? Aren't you a little worried? As someone who has broken their leg before, I can tell you I was at least a little worried. I still don't like to lift legs at all. So I would understand that maybe if he's more comfortable now off the leg break than he was last year to build that lower body strength in the weight room.

So if he adds lower body strength, which will allow him to be more consistent in run defense, plays a little more disciplined in pass rush without giving up lanes to quarterbacks, Weaver could make a big jump this year and it could be huge for the Titans. And I think that that's one of the big reasons they let Bud Dupree go. Because they knew that Weaver was ready to go. So hopefully that ends up being the case because the Titans pass rush with Jeffrey Simmons, with the Nico Autry, with T. Air Tart, if the edge rushers can do their part,

the Titans pass rush can be what they need it to be for this team to maximize their wins. But the pass rush is the most important. But the defensive backs are going to have to do their part as well. And there's a lot more uncertainty with the defensive backs, in my opinion, especially at corner than there even is an edge rusher. So we're going to talk about that in just a moment. Titans fans, let's cap off today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast.

We've talked about T.R. Tart signing his contract tender. We talked about the edge rushers being a big, big factor, maybe the biggest factor for the Titans on defense if they want to maximize their wins and hit their ceiling, which is 11 wins, in my opinion, which is something I talked about on yesterday's show when I talked about the offense and what needs to happen on offense for the Titans to hit their ceiling of wins. If you missed that, go check that out. Every dayers caught that, and I appreciate you guys. I'm sure you guys enjoyed it. Moving forward, my every dayers are going to see the Titans have mandatory minicamp this week, and I'm going to be here to react to it every day after practice,

breaking down what you guys need to know, all the biggest storylines, all the biggest highlights. Make sure that you get subscribed, stay subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content all year round on YouTube, your favorite podcast app, always for free. Definitely do appreciate you guys making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen once again.

But talking about the defensive backs, who are going to be the starters here? So at the beginning of the year, we had Fulton. We had McCreary. The Titans bring in Sean Murphy Bunting. I thought it was interesting that Sean Murphy Bunting

was rated in the top 10 cornerbacks in the AFC. I'm really excited about SMB, but he's got to stay healthy. And that's the big thing for this entire group. I mean, it's the big thing for the entire Titans team. If they have injuries like they had the last two years, who cares? It's not going to matter. This team isn't going to be able to hold up.

But if the defensive backfield could have just a little bit of health. See, my thing is you look back at last year's Titans team, and I think the pass rush did a pretty good job throughout a lot of circumstances. I think the pass rush did really well in a lot of circumstances. But the Titans got beat a ton in one-on-one man coverage situations down the sideline.

By the end of the season, it was something that I was mentioning every single week. I mean, you go back and look. What, Mack Hollins in week three. Alec Pierce had a big game at one point. Daimi Brown cooked Caleb Farley for a whole game. I mean, later into the season, Christian Watson had a good game against the Titans.

Mike Williams at the end of the year, really, I think that Mike Williams catching that ball at the end of that game really decimated the Titans spirit. And I think that ultimately was what caused the whole down spiral. But the Titans consistently struggled with big receivers winning matchups down the sideline and man coverage. One of the reasons for that is all the injuries, of course, but we've got to mention here, I thought Roger McCreary had a pretty solid year for a rookie,

but he's got short arms. He's a shorter player. Those were concerns about Roger coming out, and he lost a lot of battles on the sideline because of it. I mean, it's just, it is what it is. That's why a lot of scouts thought that McCreary was a slot player in the NFL at his best. He was going to be a guy who covered the slot.

And we saw some of those issues manifest last year. And those one-on-one matchups on the sideline where the Titans do everything right, they get pressure on the quarterback, and the quarterback just throws something up and one-on-one, and the wide receiver just goes up and wins the one-on-one matchup. Those are heartbreaking moments, man. Those are more than just a third down conversion. That is, we won the down schematically

and your guys just continue to beat our guys in those situations. And it happened all season. That was one of the biggest things that hurt the Titans. I mean, they just lost one-on-ones down the sideline in man a ton. So if you can get top 10 AFC cornerback play out of Sean Murphy Bunting and Christian Fulton gives you his best because it's a contract year and he better for his own sake at minimum. And then you get a mixture of Elijah Molden

as an early down slot, Roger McCreary as a passing down slot, or you just let Roger McCreary take over as that slot guy every down. Either way, that would be super helpful to kind of clean up one of the Titans' big weaknesses last year. And I think that you look at a guy like Sean Murphy Bunting who has shown extraordinary

ball skills throughout his career. He gets interceptions. He makes plays on the ball. He's a long cornerback. He can do all that. I think that's probably why the Titans targeted him. Said, we gotta get somebody who just wins in ball situations. I mean, it's that

simple. And I think that if we're honest with ourselves Christian Fulton is a cornerback too he's not he is a I think Fulton is a speed guy who you'd rather have match up with a speed option you put SMB on the physical wide receiver

which is really the role that the Titans were hoping to craft out for Caleb Farley if we're honest notice I haven't even mentioned him because I mean he's still not healthy enough to be out for Caleb Farley, if we're honest. Notice I haven't even mentioned him because, I mean, he's still not healthy enough to be out on the practice field. I just, oh, man, as the days pass, it gets more morbid. It really does. But if you've got Sean Murphy bunting, who can be your physical cornerback

and play the physical matchups, and then you have Christian Fulton, who can match up with the more speedier guys, and then you have Roger McCreary, who started every game last year for the Titans as your slot cornerback. I mean, you might have something there, especially if the pass rush does its job, because that obviously is the key. This isn't a lockdown group of corners, but if the pass rush does their job like they should,

like they have the talent to, that makes it easier for these guys to execute on the back end. Of course, you have Kevin Byard and Imani Hooker, and then if you add in some Elijah Molden as the talent to, that makes it easier for these guys to execute on the back end. Of course, you have Kevin Byard and Imani Hooker, and then if you add in some Elijah Molden as the third safety, if these guys are able to stay healthy and the pass rush does what it needs to do, the Titans could once again have a really, really, really good year on defense.

And look, even if the Titans offense does everything that we talked about on yesterday's show, the defense is still going to have to be a top five, top ten defense for the Titans to hit their ceiling in 2023. So they'll only be able to do that if the DBs and the edge rushers do their jobs. So remember, Titans minicamp starts tomorrow. I'm going to be here to break it all down with you guys.

I literally cannot wait for this mini camp to happen. Then training camp is right around the corner. I mean, it's a great time. But that's going to do it for me today, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland.

And in that, oh yeah, see you tomorrow. And this was Locked on Titans.