Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Thursday OTA Report: Julio Arrives, Julio Speaks & Simmons Makes A Change

Episode Date: June 11, 2021

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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 Friday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast is presented by the Peacock and Williamson podcast. NFL analyst Brian Peacock and former NFL scout Matt Williamson host Locked On's Peacock and Williamson every Monday through Friday.

Brian and Matt give you a national perspective on all of the latest NFL news, so make sure you check out the Peacock and Williamson podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, wherever you get your podcast. But we are going to cap off this week of the Locked On Podcast Network, wherever you get your podcasts. But we are going to cap off this week of the Locked On Titans podcast by breaking down everything that took place in Thursday's Tennessee Titans practice. And Thursday's practice was open to the media, so we got some excellent nuggets about things that took place on field, some guys who showed out, some guys who made some plays.

And then we finally got to hear from the man himself, Julio Jones, who did his first press conference with Tennessee Titans media. So we're going to go over the highlights from that Zoom call and hear what Julio Jones had to say as he introduced himself to the Tennessee Titans fan base. And then I wanted to keep that going because we we got to hear from one of the Titans most impactful players as well. And hear about a critical change that he made this all season. That should benefit him and his game growing into the future. So we are going to hear from Titans defensive lineman Jeffrey Simmons.

At the end of the show. So excited to dive into everything that took place at Titans Thursday practice on this Friday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast. Let's get it! Titans fans, we are going to dive into everything that took place at Titans OTAs on Thursday. But before we do, got to remind you guys that I'm going to be putting out Monday through Friday daily Tennessee Titans content here on the Locked on Titans podcast, not only during the season, but all year long. There's not another Titans content creator that can say that.

So make sure you never miss an episode of the Locked on Titans podcast by following or subscribing on whatever platform you do stream. Also, make sure you follow me on social media, on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans, on Facebook at Locked on Titans pod. But we are going to dive into these observations, these notes from Thursday's practice in Nashville. And number one, the biggest observation of them all, of course, revolves around Julio Jones.

He made his first appearance in Nashville, got out there on the practice field. Julio wanted to do that. He wanted to get into Tennessee and prove that he was here to win a championship. It sets a great precedent for all the rest of the players on the team. It really says a lot to the young guys who are out there working as well. So really excited to see Julio get out there. And it also answers some questions about if anybody is worried about his health. But he had his own answer to questions about his health, and I'm excited to let you guys hear that later on in the show. But to continue going forward, so one thing that I noticed, especially from Jim Wyatt's report of what happened, he had a quote where he said, Julio Jones snatches the football

out of the air like he's pissed off. And I love hearing things like that. I love that Julio Jones plays the game with urgency and plays with aggression. That's something that I'm very excited to get along with just his natural talent and, you know, the fantastic nature of watching him play. But the fact that he plays with that kind of edge to him this late in his career is fantastic. Julio wanted to be in Tennessee, of course, so seeing him not only show up, but then show out, that's fantastic. He had some extra time with Ryan Tannehill during practice as well. When the team went to special teams portions of the practice,

Ryan Tannehill and Julio Jones would go get some extra work and try to get their timing down. Love that. He caught multiple passes. Julio Jones during team walkthroughs, team jogthroughs, was out there offering advice to all the young guys. So you love to see that. Another big observation that I made, and I didn't really see this reported anywhere but from some

of the videos I gleaned that Elijah Molden was out on the field and he missed time rehabbing from some sort of injury during the rookie mini camps and things like that that took place earlier in the offseason so nice to see Elijah Molden actually able to get out there on the field. We've talked about attendance a lot while covering these OTAs throughout the all season post draft. The Titans had about 70 to 75 of their 90 players out there on the field. So the attendance numbers are growing. More important players are showing up every single day. You love to see that. And one of those guys was Danico Autry. And Danico Autry was out there getting a lot of extra work with Mike Vrabel it's the first appearance that he's made with the team so Mike Vrabel's

probably just trying to get him well acquainted to what he's going to be asked to do and how the Titans defense works one of those things is requiring versatility and Mike Vrabel was working in a video that we saw with Danico Autry on dropping into zone coverage and while I certainly hope they don't do that too much like they did with Harold Landry last year, still good to see Mike Vrabel getting one-on-one work with Danico Autry, a new guy in the system. Jayon Brown had an interception at the goal line. He did come up a little hobbled and missed the end of practice.

Hopefully that is just precautionary, but good to see Jayon flying around. A guy who really stood out was wide receiver Marcus Johnson, and obviously the wide receiver spots on this roster are up for grabs outside of the top three. So Marcus Johnson, a guy who had some time on practice squads last year, the Titans signed on late in the season. He had those two touchdown catches, really played well during the practice, and he could absolutely get a roster spot if he keeps that up. Some other pass catchers who played very well, Tommy Hudson had a nice one-hand catch during practice and then undrafted

free agent tight end out of Alabama, Miller Forrestal had a touchdown catch from Deshaun Kaiser. Kaiser continues to look better than Logan Woodside and obviously again like with wide receiver there are roster spots available at the tight end position at the back end of the roster after the top two guys. So an undrafted free agent like Forrestal could absolutely make some hay if he continues to impress during practice. Two inside linebackers, Monty Rice and Rashawn Evans, had some good plays at the goal line. And then finally, Jeffrey Simmons looking fantastic out there. And that's why I'm so excited to bring you guys the audio highlights

from Jeff Simmons' short press conference as well. He gives us an insight to one big change he made to his process this all season that he feels will result in him playing his best football ever. So excited to get into these audio highlights of Julio Jones and Jeffrey Simmons. We're going to do that now as we have just concluded all of the observations and notes that I wanted to talk with you guys about during OTAs. One last piece of news. The Titans did officially get a contract agreed to with fourth round pick Rashad Weaver, the

outside linebacker. Now that leaves only two remaining players from the Titans draft class that have not signed and that's the third round picks, Monty Rice and Elijah Moulton. So we'll continue to monitor that. But we are going to move into these audio highlights from Julio Jones and Jeffrey Simmons. Before we do, I want to remind you guys about rockauto.com. Rockauto.com is a family business that's been serving auto parts customers online for over 20 years. Go to rockauto.com right now to shop for all of your auto and body parts needs. You can get anything from engine control modules to brake parts to tail lamps, all the different brand

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Sign up for free today. Use the promo code LOCKEDON. That's one word, LOCKEDON, and you'll receive a 50% welcome bonus. That's betonline.ag, your online sportsbook experts. Titans fans, we are going to continue this Friday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast by diving into the audio highlights of Julio Jones' first press conference as a Tennessee Titan. Of course, the audio courtesy of TennesseeTitans.com. But number one, the biggest question that most people seem to have about Julio Jones

joining the Titans is not the talent, not the fit in the offense, but can Julio Jones stay healthy? Is Julio Jones healthy after missing seven games last season? Well, I will let the man tell you himself. This is what Julio Jones had to say about his haters and his health. For me, at the end of the day, I believe in me. I know what I have in the tank. And we're talking about age is 32.

Like, I'm young. Like, in football, you can say it's old, but you either do it or you don't. You know, this game don't change for me. I'm still fast and still strong. And to, you know, the games last year, I just, you know, had an issue where I didn't take enough time to heal up properly. But, you know, that was just my decision on going out there and just playing.

There's no excuses, things like that. But I'll be ready to go. So for those who are questioning my health and things like that, just stay tuned. Stay tuned, baby. Stay tuned. I don't know how you can hear that as a Titans fan and not just be absolutely fired up.

I'm very excited to stay tuned to what Julio Jones has to offer. Now, outside of the health, as I mentioned, some people do question, is Julio Jones going to get enough targets? Do you need a top-flight wide receiver, two top-flight wide receivers in this style of offense? Well, I can tell you one person who's not worried about it is Julio Jones. He talks about the target share here. It's just, you know, at the end of the day, you want to create

a winning culture. You know, however you need to do it to get the job done. My whole career, I've never been a stat guy. You know, previous years,

everybody always asked me, what, you know, what you think you're going to do? What's your prediction? You know, things like that. I've never been a stat guy. I'm a team guy.

I'm just excited to be a part of the organization and whatever they need from me to do, I'm willing to do it and play my role and play at a high level. Love to hear that. That's a guy who just wants to win at this stage in his career, but can we all just be honest with each other? If Julio Jones only gets two to three targets in any game this year, it's a colossal failure. So the Titans can't let that happen. That's part of the reason that he's here.

They cannot allow that to happen. I'm not saying he needs more targets than AJ or anything like that, but certainly have to target Julio Jones more than two to three times a game. So I don't think he'll have to worry about that. Speaking of the targets, obviously he has to split those with number one A.J. Brown but that's not something that seems to be a negative for Julio Jones he seems very excited to have A.J. Brown across from him on the other side and he talks about that here I'm very excited um just for us to be a one two points or one one point to have you want to look at it he's definitely a number one receiver um definitely a dog very, has that competitive nature in him.

And just showing him, you know, little things that I know from, you know, experience being in the league, but he has it all, you know, and we've been hanging out even before this, even when I was in Atlanta, he used to call me and things like that. So we always talked on the phone off season, we talked. So now just being able to play with him, it's going to be a great, it's going to be great. It's going to be a very exciting season.

Now we've talked about Julio Jones. We've talked about A.J. Brown, but there are a few other pieces to this dynamic offense that get you very excited. Number one, the beast himself, the engine, Derek Henry. And then, of course, I know that Derek Henry, A.J. Brown, and Julio Jones are a very exciting trio. And as a matter of fact, next week on the Locked On Titans podcast, we are actually going to do a ranking of the top trios in the NFL, do some rankings

of the top wide receiver duos as well, and give you guys my top 10 quarterback ranking, which is a project the entire Locked On NFL network got into. So excited to talk about all that stuff with you guys. But the whole point here is the Titans have a core of offensive firepower. It's going to make it very difficult on other defenses. And Julio Jones talked about that here, and he said it best. I'll let him tell you. I mean, you know, defense is like, you know, you really don't have to pick your poison. So, I mean, if you want to, you know, stay in the box,

put, you know, nine in the box, right? Got like Derrick Henry in the backfield, you know, you got to respect him. So then that's when me and AJ go to work outside. And then if you only got eight in the box, they're going to go to work in the backfield. You know, great offensive line, things like that, scheme, stuff like that.

But, I mean, you just got to pick your poison at the end of the day. But we're just going to go out there and play for one another. That's the culture of the team here, just going out there and enjoying it, just having fun, and also just do your job. Absolutely do have to pick your poison, and that's something that I broke down on yesterday's episode at the beginning of the show when we talked about the statistical nightmare that the Titans create, how against eight-man boxes, Julio Jones destroyed people against seven-man boxes.

A.J. Brown destroyed people against six- or five-man boxes. Derrick Henry destroyed people, so it's going to be very tough. Of course, the other guy outside of all that is Ryan Tannehill, and the relationship between Julio Jones and Ryan Tannehill is very, very important. And Julio Jones talked about how that has already begun, and you love what you hear from Julio here. Me and Ryan, we done hung out already. We done went out to dinner. And just talking, you know, communication. Excuse me.

But I don't think it's going to take no time at all. I mean, he's a veteran player. I'm a veteran player. You know, he's just got to go out there and just repetition at the end of the day, really just going out there and just, you know, this is where I want it at. Can you put it here? And where he wants me at, can I get there? So it's just us working together because at the end of the day, you know,

as long as we're on the same page, we're going to be successful. Ryan Tannehill taking Julio to dinner, getting them acquainted, getting them on the same page. Absolutely love to see that. Ryan Tannehill is such a leader, and I know this is going to trigger some people, but such an improvement the Titans got in quarterback leadership once Ryan Tannehill took over the helm. He really has a command of the entire offense,

a command of the entire locker room, and guys really rally behind them. And he's very vocal about what he wants from his wide receivers, what he wants from his offense. And I think stuff like that is very, very important, not only in the game of football, but the game of life. And the last thing that Julio Jones had to say was about that number choice. So admittedly, I was hoping that he would take number eight. Number eight is my personal favorite number.

Also, number eight was the number he rocked in college. I think it's a lot cooler of a number than number two, just me personally. But ultimately, AJ took number two, and they asked about why that number was the choice. And I think Julio's answer here is pretty funny, no lie. No, I just really picked it. You know, TJ and T. Hill was pretty much with it then, just talking.

He tried to give me the 11, and I was like, I don't want it. It's your number. I was like, I'm just going to go with the two. I was just like, me, you, Derek, excluding Tannehill, he's 17. He's got a 17. go with the two. I don't know. I was just like, you know, me, you, Derek, you're not,

you know, it's excluded in Tannehill. He's 17. He's got, you know, 17, right? But the two, one plus one is two,

then two and a time of 11 is 22. So it's kind of like, you know what I mean? You don't have to deal with us. It's all four of us, actually,

but you don't have to deal with the whole offense. You know, it takes all 11 guys, but it's just some things just to, you know, keep the guys going and, you know, just have fun with it because, you know, at the end of the day, it's our job, but we want to have fun with it. I'm not even going to lie to you guys.

When I first heard that quote from Julio Jones with the 1 plus 1 and the 2 times 11 and the blah, blah, blah, I had like the Zach Galifianakis in Hangover in the casino meme with all the numbers swirling around my head. But I get what Julio is saying here. One plus one was his old number. Eleven. It's number two.

AJ is 11. Number two. Two 11s together. 11 times two is 22, which is Derek. And you know, it all kind of works together. Either way, I love it. I'm very excited to have Julio on the team, and that's the biggest takeaway. It seems like he's very excited to be in Nashville

as well, but we are going to continue hearing some audio highlights from some of the Titans' best players. Next, we are going to hear from Jeffrey Simmons to cap off the show, and he gives us an update on a major change that he made during this all-season that he thinks will benefit him into the season. Before we get into that though, do want to tell you guys about the best tasting protein bars ever. And they come from our friends over at BuiltBar.com. Right now on their website, Built Bar has nine delicious flavors and they're always rotating in some occasional limited time flavors as well. Some of my favorites are the peanut butter brownie, the salted caramel. I like the raspberry as well, but the bars aren't just absolutely delicious.

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in my opinion, breaking down the Julio Jones trade from pretty much every single possible angle you could ask for. One more time, just going to remind you guys, make sure that you subscribe or follow to the Locked on Titans podcast

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But yes, tell your friends. Let's dive into the audio highlights from Jeffrey Simmons, though. Of course, this audio, again, courtesy of TennesseeTitans.com. Big shout out to them over there, their YouTube team, their social team, putting all these clips up and available for all of us. But Jeffrey Simmons dove into having Danico Autry at practice for the first time, getting a chance to work with him, and very excited about the mentorship that Danico Autry can provide to not only Jeffrey Simmons,

but the entire young defensive line group. So Jeffrey talks about having Danico Autry around here to start us off. You know, I've seen him twice a year for the last two years that I've been with the Titans, and, you know, I just know he can be disruptive. You can tell from the way he get off the ball, the way he's doing drills. You know, he out there even coaching me up, you know,

telling me, you know, just play with the lint. You know, don't let the guy get his hands on you, stuff like that. You know, him being a vet in the room and, you know, just taking the coaching from him, not just, you know, don't let the guys get their hands on you, stuff like that. You know, him being a vet in the room and, you know, just taking the coaching from him, not just, you know, Coach T, whoever it may be, but, you know, being a vet that he is, you know, he out there coaching up young guys. And, you know, I think that's the most exciting part about it.

You know, just OTAs, him coming in. You know, you don't really know nobody, but he willing to, you know, pour what he know about the game, especially up front to us young guys. So, I mean, it's been good just to watch him and be out there on the field and communicate with him. I think it's going to be a great year up front with us. Quite frankly, Jeff, it has to be a good year up front.

The Titans cannot possibly expect to reach their goals this year with the up front play that they got last year, the sacks, the run defense. Sporadically, the run defense was pretty good at times, but it was tough to keep up with the way the defense played overall on third down in the pass rush. So the Titans have to be better up front. There's really no other option or it's just going to be the same results we got before. But one way that Jeffrey Simmons is going to make sure that he doesn't have the same results as last year, although I thought he played very, very well for much of the season.

He made a big change to his off-season routine, to his life, and I appreciate what he has to say on the subject, but I'm going to let you guys hear exactly what he was able to change, how he was feeling, and why that change helped him feel as good as he's felt in his entire career. First off, man, I'm happy to be back. I'm feeling good. Probably the best I done felt. I probably said this last time, but coming off the two seasons I just had, rookie year and the second year, going into this third year,

probably the best I done felt body-wise, mentally, just getting prepared for this season. I know that they expect a lot out of us up front, not just me, but up front, you know. But, you know, I know they expect a lot out of me, you know, personally. Now I'm accepting that role, coming in, looking to have a great year, you know, whatever I can do to help the team win. And, you know, every down, every snap, giving my all,

trying to be disruptive. But as I was saying, I've just been working on, you know, trying to keep my weight And, you know, every down, every snap, giving my all, trying to be disruptive. But this offseason, I've just been working on, you know, trying to keep my weight down, you know, changing. Eating habits a little bit different. We're just trying to maintain and, you know, get leaner. And, you know, I think I did a great job of that, especially coming in this offseason. You know, first month of working out,

kind of did a lot of functional movement and what it might be. And then, you know, everything just fell in line. Like I said, I've been feeling the best I've felt in a while. One thing about Jeff, he's going to play better just because he's getting better. So I expect to see the best football that we've ever seen from him. Not only

just because what he said, he's feeling better, he changed his diet, but also just the natural progression, learning about the game. He's in his third year. There's going to be a natural bump there anyways. But I think now he has much more talent around him in terms of pass rush to be able to evolve that part of his game. Now having Bud Dupree and Danico Autry added into the mix

should give him better opportunities in the pass rush. I thought Jeffrey Simmons played fantastic football last year when Jadavion Clowney was out on the field because of the opportunities that it gave him. And then, you know, Clowney was gone and really lost those opportunities, and people could focus much more on Jeff. So, and then Harold's being dropped into coverage 125 plus times in the season. So, who is even rushing the passer with Jeffrey Simmons that could even strike fear into a defense? Now, he has reliable battery mates, at least on paper. That's what we're hoping. And that should help him improve.

But Jeff dove in a little bit more to exactly what kind of changes he has made to his diet. And I think these are the type of things outside of your techniques on the field. Being a professional, just learning, hey, if I really want to take this to the next level, I got to stop doing certain things. I got to change my life, not just work harder. So Jeff talks about the specific changes that he made to his dietary plan right here. Nah, I haven't went vegan. I don't think that's for me.

That's not for me. I couldn't do it. I need to have some of that protein, you know, chicken or something. But, you know, it just cleaned it up, you know. Even when I want, you know, like a snack or something, it's not going to get Doritos or something like that. It's more like a healthier snack, you know, more shakes. And, you know, just cutting out a lot of carbs, you know,

because I think, you know, when I eat a lot of carbs, it kind of sticks on me a little bit. And I've just been cutting out a lot of stuff like that, you know. My time in it, you know, try to eat every day around the same time, try to keep on, you know, staying on schedule, whatever it may be. And that's pretty much what it was. It's not just, you know, a lot of guys might probably go on a diet. You know, I don't go on a diet.

I just call it, you know, changing my habits, the way I eat. And like I said, I don't really eat fast food no way so i mean just a small little detail like i said with you know not eating bad snacks i think and cutting off the carbs hey man let's be honest who couldn't use to cut out some junk food and some carbs it's probably a solid move jeff i can't really blame you there but man doritos sure are good So I do feel bad that he has to cut back on the Doritos. I completely understand how he's feeling there. But the other thing I agree with him on is I'm never going vegan either. No way, no how. Barbecue, brisket, pulled pork, barbacoa, al pastor. I mean, there's just no way. I mean, a good ribeye. Give me a break. I had a Kobe beef steak about a month ago

boy I'm with you Jeff never a chance for me to go vegan but shout out to all the vegans no disrespect on my end do what you do baby do what you do but this is what I'm talking about this is maturity this is professionalism from Jeffrey Simmons he knows that he can't just be a physical specimen and just work out in the weight room and do all the film work, but he's got to change his lifestyle. He talked about, he's not really going on a diet. He's changing lifestyle habits. And that's why, you know, like I said, I'm not a monster fitness person. I like to, you know, stay healthy is really the key. But for me, I don't believe in diets unless you're like a professional wrestler or a wrestler in general, or someone who needs to cut

weight for some sort of thing for in a really fast way I guess I could understand that but when people say they go on diets all I hear from them is I'm making a temporary change well what happens when your diet's over you're going to go back to eating the way you did before and that's just going to ruin all the results that you got if you got them so I love hearing that from Jeff he understands this isn't just a short-term thing that he needs to do. He needs to change his lifestyle, especially dietary speaking, to make sure that he can maximize his career. And that's the thing you hear from a lot of professional athletes, not just in football, but in all realms saying, hey, you know, once I made changes to my diet, once I started

taking care of my body better, I saw increased results. I mean, your body is your temple. And especially when you're a professional athlete, that's like being a NASCAR driver and not changing your oil enough, you know what I mean, or putting bad gas into your tank. It just doesn't make any sense. Your body is your temple. Your body is your business in professional sports.

So love to see Jeffrey Simmons kind of making those incremental changes, not only to him on the field, but off the field as well. It should benefit him and the Titans team. That's going to do it for me today, though, guys. I hope you guys had a great week. I hope you had a safe or will have a safe and enjoyable weekend. We'll be back here on Monday morning for some more Locked on Titans. Might have a mailbag on Monday.

We'll definitely at least have a mailbag on Tuesday at the minimum. So get those mailbag questions in in the form of a five-star review on Apple Podcasts. Or, of course, you can always send them to me on Twitter at TicTacTitans. But as always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans. you