Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Training Camp - Weekend Recap: Bud Dupree Returns, Practice Recaps & Titans Ticket Sales

Episode Date: August 9, 2021

On today's Locked On Titans podcast: Tyler recaps everything you need to know from the weekend of practice for the Titans including the return of Bud Dupree, the progress of Caleb Farley & the veterans who rested Tyler talks about the excitement surrounding this Titans' season and discusses an article outlining how that excitement is show in the ticket sales data Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPodSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!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.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.ButcherBoxButcherBox is offering our listeners 2 five-ounce lobster tails and 2 ten-ounce ribeyes for free in your first box! You can only get this special deal when you sign up for a new membership at ButcherBox.com/LOCKEDON.StatHeroStatHero, the FIRST Ever Daily Fantasy Sportsbook that gives the PLAYER the ADVANTAGE. Go to StatHero.com/LockedOn for 300% back on your first play. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 Monday 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. I hope you all had a fantastic weekend. It was a great weekend to be a Tennessee Titans fan, but I have to tell you, every weekend going forward will be a better weekend because we will have Tennessee Titans football. That's right. Coming up this Friday, there is a Tennessee Titans football. That's right. Coming up this Friday, there is a Tennessee

Titans football game. So that just sets the stage for the week for us all. But of course, that's a few days down the road. We need to talk about everything that took place over the weekend with our Tennessee Titans. There were two practices since we last spoke. One on Friday. One on Saturday. So we're going to break both of those down Friday. We got a major return from a high-priced Titans free agent. So my question to you is, where is the Bud?

Where is the Bud? Well, it's at Tennessee Titans training camp practice. So we're going to talk about the return of Bud Dupree. Saturday's practice had a lot of ups and downs. Another guy that has been standing out throughout training camp that we're going to give some love to. But also, two very interesting quotes from two Titans defensive players that I want to sink my teeth into a little bit for you guys. And then at the end of the show, I do want to cover something that's a pretty cool development and it has to do with Tennessee Titans ticket sales. The excitement for this Titans team is through the roof.

And I'm just going to use some recently published statistics to show you how that excitement has affected the Titans ticket sales. So going over everything that took place over the weekend at Tennessee Titans training camp on this Monday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Let's get it. Titans fans, we are going to kick off this Monday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast recapping everything that you need to know from Titans practice on Friday, including the return of Bud Dupree.

But before we get into that, got to you guys, I am gonna be putting out Monday through Friday daily Tennessee Titans content here on the Locked On Titans podcast, not only during training camp, not only during the regular season, but all year long. There's not another Titans content creator that can say that. Make sure that you never miss an episode of the number one Tennessee Titans podcast in the world by subscribing to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream. Follow me on social media, on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans, and on Facebook at Locked on Titans

pod. And of course, be on the lookout for the Locked on Titans YouTube channel sprouting up very soon. But let's dive into Friday's practice. Number one, like I mentioned at the top of the show, the biggest news is the return of high-priced free agent Bud Dupree. And I say the return because he's returning from injury, but really this is his debut with the Tennessee Titans. The second major debut we got this week from a defensive player first it was rookie cornerback Caleb Farley now Bud Dupree is out there the Titans have their full complement of defensive weapons so it's good for them to have that for these next few weeks during

the preseason games and really get into the mode of playing some good defensive football because that's the only thing stopping the Titans from being a real, legit, true Super Bowl contender. So great to have Bud Dupree out there. He just did some individual work, but he increased things throughout the weekend, and we'll talk about that with Saturday's practice. So good to have Bud Dupree out there. We also saw the return of wide receiver Josh Reynolds,

who had missed about a week of practice. So love to see that. Harold Landry was back out on the field after what appeared to be a maintenance day. Also, Dane Cruikshank back out on the field after missing most of the season last year with injury. Important for Shank to be out on the field. Ty Sambrillo, Nate Davis, Danico Autry, all limited in practice on Friday. Those are veterans. Got to keep them fresh throughout the duration of camp.

Still no Julio Jones. Ben Jones as well had a rest day at center, so there's that. No Jeff Swain still. No Adam Kuhn. No Paul Adams as well. So that is kind of the injury report from Friday for you. As for on the field, Caleb Farley increased his workload. He got involved in some 7-on-7, and of course 7-on-7 is a passing style drill

without the defensive line or the offensive line, so it's important for him to increase his workload. He had a few pass breakups, but Caleb Farley can be a bit handsy, so he's got to work on jersey holding and things like that and kind of learn the line some of that stuff holding on to jerseys knowing when to tug knowing when the ref isn't looking that stuff is critical to playing defensive back in the NFL but you have to make sure that you do it in a way that you're not getting penalized you're not getting caught and for a rookie it takes some time to adjust to those sort of things one thing I do want to

mention after some early struggles in week one Christian Fulton has really been shining throughout the past week of training camp practices. He had multiple pass breakups on Friday, one of those turning into an interception, so Christian Fulton really finding his footing now as the starting outside cornerback for the Tennessee Titans. I've talked about Christian Fulton being a major X-factor for this team this year, so great to hear that he's performing so well. Both the kickers went 5-for-6 on the day, Tucker McCann and Sam Ficken. McCann missed a 53-yarder, while Ficken missed a 44-yarder. We have to also talk about the punt return battle,

which looks like it could be wrapped up soon by Chester Rogers. And whoever wins this punt return battle is going to cement themselves a roster spot on this team. So the battle is one to watch. Cam Batson, who had a very good day on Friday as a receiver, also returning punts. Mason Kinsey, the undrafted free agent, is going to be tough for him to crack this roster, but could get himself a practice squad spot. I mentioned Chester Rogers, and Imani Hooker was out there actually catching some punts on Friday. I don't suspect that Imani Hooker will get that job, but the Titans do have to establish a backup punt returner in the event that whoever they choose out of the top three

becomes injured, can't make it out there, what have you. The Titans will need a backup plan. Also, do want to mention that Matt Barkley, the backup quarterback who was signed on Thursday, did make his debut on Friday as well. So that kind of wraps up Friday's practice overall. It was a light practice, a day where they weren't pushing everybody

too hard. The Titans know that they have a game this week, and Mike Vrabel talked about Monday and Tuesday being very important practices as they prepare for their game on Friday night. So I have a feeling that the intensity will ratchet up and things will be more game-like for this week of practice coming up. The last few days of practice, the Titans were off on Thursday, so there was no practice then. They Friday, Saturday, and they were off on Sunday. Friday and Saturday, they both kept those practices pretty light because, like I said, they're preparing for this week.

But we are going to talk about that Saturday practice. There's a lot to go over. A certain Titans player that continues to struggle, and he has to be hanging on the roster by a thread at this point. But two comments made by defensive players that I think are worth examining a little bit more. Before we get into that, do want to tell you guys about Stat Hero. Did you know 85% of people who play daily fantasy sports lose. Is that really surprising though? The game is rigged against you.

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That's StatHero.com slash locked on. We are going to continue this Monday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast, breaking down everything that took place at Titans training camp over the weekend. We just recapped everything you need to know from Friday's practice, including the return of Bud Dupree. But now I want to get from Friday's practice, including the return of Bud Dupree. But now I want to get into Saturday's practice and talk about everything that you need to know, including two comments from defensive players on the Titans that I think are very interesting. But first, let's get into the practice notes. And as I like to do when we do these weekend recaps, I like to start off letting you know who was in practice.

And as I talked about in the last segment, this weekend was a pared-down weekend for the Titans, in my opinion. There was a lot of veteran rest going around on Friday and Saturday. And on Saturday, we got no Julio Jones, which has become the expectation. Now we're really diving in headfirst to the Julio Jones experience with him never practicing. People in Atlanta would tell you this is par for the course. So no Julio Jones. A.J. Brown got the day off. Nick Westbrook-Akina got the day off, which to me, with all three of those guys sitting out

and Josh Reynolds still coming back slowly from that injury earlier in training camp, another big day for the back end of the wide receiver group to prove their worth. Also, Harold Landry, not out there. Now, Harold Landry did return to practice on Friday, as I mentioned, so probably just a little bit of limited time. Like I said, rest for guys as they ramp up for an intense week this week. So no Harold Landry, same thing. No Nate Davis, no Jeffrey Simmons,

no Jeff Swaim, no Danico Autry. The Titans were really resting a lot of guys. Let's get into practice though. Daniel Murner at center just continues to struggle. He's had about five or six bad snaps throughout camp so far. And on Saturday he had had four three of them out of shotgun one of them out of traditional alignment either way as a coach you can't even run your plays you're wasting reps you're wasting time your team is learning nothing by having a snap go over the quarterback's head it literally is such a disruption to practice that I'm sure Mike Vrabel has to be tearing his hair out. The Titans are so thin on the offensive line that he really doesn't have any choice but to keep Murner around. But I'm telling you, there's pretty much zero chance that

I see that Murner ends up making the Titans roster. You can't go into the season with your backup center unable to complete snaps on a consistent basis. So, Murner's still struggling. Have to feel for the guy. It's kind of like baseball. He's clearly in a slump here. So, I do feel bad for the guy. It's a tough thing to go through. Something that he probably hasn't had a lot of trouble with throughout his life. But, I mean, for whatever reason, he's just really struggling with that. And like I said earlier, he's probably hanging on by a thread to his roster spot right now. The Titans made some roster moves on Saturday, and I'm going to talk about those a little bit later. But Daniel Murner, you know, we saw Spencer

Pooley. We saw Patrick Morris. We saw another offensive lineman signed. I mean, they're looking for ways to get Murner out of here that's really what what's happening continuing forward Caleb Farley got to monitor his progress he continued to jump up I said on Friday he was involved in seven on sevens on Saturday he took place in his first team 11 on 11 period so continuously ramping up love to hear that for the rookie he had some pass breakups as well now as I mentioned Friday there's some give and take there's ups and downs but love to see Caleb Farley out there and progressing the Titans did a two-minute drill and have to mention that Ryan Tannehill threw a strike to Anthony Ferkser down the middle of the field that set the Titans

up for a game-winning field goal like I said said, in a two-minute drill simulation, Ryan Tannehill was very amped about the result of the play. And Ferkser also caught a really nice catch in the red zone on Saturday with Kevin Byard all over him. A little bit of a juggling catch in the back corner of the end zone. So Anthony Ferkser is going to score touchdowns this year, folks. I'm just letting you guys know that early little fantasy action for you you guys Anthony Ferkser is a late round tight end that's a great option for you for some value late in your drafts continuing though two guys one on offense one

on defense lower end of the depth chart that continue to really show out cornerback Breon Borders who had an excellent day on Saturday, and I mentioned at the top of the Saturday segment, all the wide receivers that were sitting out. Marcus Johnson. Marcus Johnson, number 88, continues to impress every single report you read about camp. Just

gushes over what he's been able to do. Now, there are a lot of guys throughout the history of the NFL, throughout the history of the Titans, that looked great in practice and in training camp and couldn't translate that to the field. Marcus Johnson being in his fifth season, you have to wonder if he was this good, why has he moved around a little bit? Well, some guys take a little while to truly understand how to be a professional, to truly fully hone in on the craft of playing their position in the NFL. And maybe Marcus Johnson is a late bloomer, and quite frankly, the NFL is littered with guys like Marcus Johnson,

who may be a little bit of a late bloomer, who really added some value at the back end of the depth chart. Either way, Marcus Johnson is going to be the fourth, fifth wide receiver for the Titans. And like I talked about last year, the Titans had a lot of guys who they were only on the roster because of the value they added on special teams, especially last year after you got past Adam Humphreys. Look at Nick Westbrook-Akina, Cam Batson, Cody Hollister, for example. Those guys were there because they could also play special teams. I think the Titans need to make sure that they have some better wide

receivers on the back end of the depth chart for wide receiver instead of just having guys who you primarily want to play special teams you don't want Nick Westbrook Cody Hollister Cam Batson out there as a as a starting wide receiver or as a top three wide receiver any point in time during the season that's not what you want a guy like Marcus Johnson may not help as much on special teams but you need to have at least one guy who's a freaking receiver and not just a special teams player past your top three. Also, speaking of Cam Batson, had a very good day as a wide receiver on Saturday. Still, the punt return situation is up in the air,

but Cam Batson, a very good weekend as a wide receiver. Also want to mention Lord Radins, Dylan Radins, the rookie tackle. His struggles have been well documented on this show and by the coaching staff, but do want to say that Radins had a really good day on Saturday, so nice to see him improve and clean things up. Finally, do want to mention Ty Sambrillo, who started the training camp on PUP, got injured last year, but gave the Titans some really good depth on the offensive line. He increased his workload and got into some team activity, some 11-on-11 period on Saturday. So love to see that. But as for the two comments that were made by defensive players

that I wanted to dive into, number one, want to touch Rashad Weaver. Obviously still has an ongoing legal situation. Have to give some credit to Paul Kaharski. I know a lot of people do not like Paul and think that he's a little too over the top, a little too on people. But I have to appreciate that when a tough question has to be asked, the person who I know will do it is Paul Kaharski. And he may rub people the wrong way. And shoot, I do that a little bit too

but have to give him the credit where the credit is due he asked Rashad Weaver directly did you say that you would hit a woman if she needed it during his legal incident earlier in the year and he wouldn't comment and to me that's a yes or no answer. Did you say that? It's not incriminating yourself. It's not. That's a simple thing. And a lot of you guys would say, I wouldn't answer that either. It's not my job to answer that question, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But the fact that he wouldn't answer it, all of us know that means he said it. He was drunk, probably. He was hyped. There was an altercation of some kind, an argument. And he probably said something he wished he didn't say.

But either way, answering every question with, oh, I'm just here to talk about football. Well, the follow-up question from Kaharski was, are you going to be eligible to play football for the Titans this year? And he probably doesn't know the answer to that question. But he said, I'm just going to focus on football. Well, focusing on football, are you going to be able to play football this year? Seems pretty focused on football to me, but didn't love the answers to those questions. Don't know if there were answers that I would have liked from Rashad Weaver to those questions, to be fair. This could just be a me issue.

But either way, just wanted to comment on that. Didn't like those answers. Didn't like his body language when answering those. But a lot of you guys have countered tough questions to answer for a guy who doesn't want to incriminate himself or say anything worse. So I kind of get the tough spot, but just unfortunate. The last thing I want to mention here, and I'll try not to go too much into it because we talked about it a lot.

Jayon Brown in his press conference said that Shane Bowen having the official title of defensive coordinator, quote unquote, for sure makes a difference. So to me, Mike Vrabel's inability to name Shane Bowen as the defensive coordinator for whatever reason last year obviously hurt the team. There's no way around it. Jayon Brown is telling you that Shane Bowen having the official title of defensive coordinator makes a difference.

So that tells us that last year not having an official defensive coordinator hurt the team, hurt the Titans chances and the defense was terrible. There's no one that we can blame for this but Mike Vrabel and what I've been slamming on the table for about a year now is Mike Vrabel is not a defensive coach. He sucks at calling defense. The proof is in the pudding. Okay? People say, oh, I don't think you can say that yet.

You know, we got to see this year. No, Mike Vrabel was a defensive coordinator in Houston. Mike Vrabel ran the defense last year. We know he's not a good defensive coordinator. Now, I don't think that means that he doesn't understand defense. Some guys just aren't good at calling plays and developing the plan. I've used this example over and over and I'll continue to do so. John Harbaugh, head coach of the Baltimore Ravens, not a defensive guy, not an offensive guy, Head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. Not a defensive guy.

Not an offensive guy. Came from special teams. He always hires schematically driven coordinators on offense and defense. And then he has the CEO leader of the team making all the decisions. That is Mike Vrabel's destiny. How quickly he chooses to embrace that is how quickly he will become the best version of himself. Now, I do want to say this. I think Mike Vrabel is an excellent

coach, guys. He's an excellent coach, but he could be better. And one way to get better would be to recognize that he's not meant to run a defense. And I like that Shane Bowen's the DC and clearly Jayon Brown, who calls the plays. We've heard all about communication being an issue for the defense last year. Guys weren't in their right spots. And I do want to mention that we got some information, if you were listening closely, from Coach Mack inside the Titans organization that Rashawn Evans struggled with having the green dot on his helmet last year. And the green dot is the quarterback for the defense.

The guy with the green dot on the back of his helmet is the one communicating with the coaches who gets the play call for the defense. The guy with the green dot on the back of his helmet is the one communicating with the coaches who gets the play call for the defense. And Matt even said, Rashawn struggled with that role. So, the guys all talked about communication issues. Jayon got hurt and Rashawn struggled

with calling the plays. And there was confusion with the message because there wasn't a true defensive coordinator. That's all Mike Vrabel's fault. So I'm glad that he's made Shane Bowen the defensive coordinator at least to have some structure here and what guys are used to. But it's hard not to fault Mike Vrabel for the defensive performance last year

considering what we're hearing from the players now about the changes that were made. But we're going to go into a cool conversation about Titans ticket sales and why it gives us tangible reasons to know that the excitement is through the roof for this Titans season. Before we get into that, I want to tell you about the best tasting protein bar ever, and that comes from our friends over at Built Bar. They have a ton of delicious flavors on their website, built.com. Right now, there's something for everybody.

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The show must be under 30 minutes. I know a lot of you guys reach out and say you want a little bit longer shows, but hey, corporate mandates and I'm a lot of you guys reach out and say you want a little bit longer shows, but hey, corporate mandates and I'm a company man. So we will continue today's show talking about a little bit of Titans ticket sales and how it kind of demonstrates the level of excitement for this Titans team. Before we get into that though, do got to remind you guys that you can utilize betonline.ag at maximum capacity. If you listen to the Locked on Bets podcast hosted by your boy Q and handicapping expert Lee Sterling, they're going to give you daily picks, blowout specials,

wrong team favorite picks, and you'll get Lee Sterling's lock of the day. Make sure that you follow the Locked on Bets podcast brought to you by betonline.ag wherever you get your podcasts. So as we've been saying, or as I've been saying, and most Titans content creators around the interwebs have been saying, the Titans excitement is really

through the roof right now. And a lot of that has to do with the trade for Julio Jones, building upon, obviously, the last two years of very good Tennessee Titans football. And we can talk about the excitement being through the roof, but there's no real way to measure that energy. But I found a way. There is some tangible ways to measure the excitement.

And got to give credit to the Tennessean. This is an article from their publication. I don't even know if you can call it a newspaper. Any more newspapers are dying so quickly. But their publication ran an article about Titans ticket sales and how they are through the roof right now. They've jumped up more than just about any other team in the NFL. So it's not just compared to Titans ticket sales from before. We're comparing this to other NFL teams.

So I'm going to get into some of these numbers just to kind of show you guys how excited the community is for this. So the Tennessean got the numbers from a ticket marketplace called Tick Picks, kind of like, or TickPick, kind of like StubHub or Vivid Seats, something like that. Anyways, since June 6th, which is the day the Titans traded for Julio Jones, ticket sales for the Titans are up 130%. 130%. That's insane. 130%! 130%! That's insane.

Once Julio got traded to the Titans, basically the entire community went nuts, started buying up all those tickets. And it's not just the tickets being bought, the price of the tickets are going up as well. It is a hot ticket. You could say the prices have jumped up 61% compared to 2019.

So I've got to throw that in. The ticket sales being up 130%, the price being up 61% since June 6th as compared to that time period from June 6th to now since 2019. And you can't couch that with, oh, the pandemic. No, that's 2019, not 2020, which would obviously be affected. But StubHub had some numbers as well. Right now, ticket prices on StubHub for Titans games are 65% higher than they were in 2019. So that's pretty crazy as well.

Like I said, it's not just the tickets are flying. The tickets are getting more expensive as well. It's a great time, it's a great opportunity to go see a Titans game with how the team has been playing in recent years and that's reflected. More information from TickPick. Since May 12th, which is when the Titans schedule went live and went public. So it's not just Julio Jones that is causing this as well, because since May 12th, the Titans ticket prices are up 77% from what they were in 2019. In 2019, tickets were about $142 on average. Now they're about $252 on average. So that's pretty insane. Also since May 12th, the Titans have had a 63% increase in ticket sales compared to 2019. And that's in the top five in the NFL. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers who just won a Super Bowl, 530% increase. That's pretty insane. The Los Angeles Rams, 112% increase. New York Giants, 77%.

Dallas Cowboys, 63%. So the Titans are right there tied with the Cowboys for fifth biggest increase from 2019. And that makes sense. Think about where we've come since 2019. Two playoff appearances, a division title, an AFC championship game, a top five offense consistently, an exciting brand of football, now the Julio Jones trade. I mean, I personally have to say how lucky I am that I took over the show

right before one of the most successful stretches in franchise history, at least for our two seasons back-to-back. So very blessed from my perspective, have to say that, but just a wonderful time to be a Titans fan. A great weekend to practice. There's a Titans game this week. Ticket sales are up. Everyone's ready to go.

I love football, and I love the Titans, and I am glad that the season is here. But I will be back with you guys tomorrow. Make sure you don't miss an episode by subscribing to the Locked on Titans podcast. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans. you