Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Weekend Report: More Positive Tests, Roster Plan & Song of the AFC South Recap

Episode Date: October 5, 2020

Tennessee Titans Weekend Report: More Positive Tests, Roster Plan & Song of the AFC South Recap 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, today's edition of the Locked On Titans podcast is brought to you by Visa. Help support local businesses, whether they're your corner stores, coffee spots, or favorite shops. Local businesses have always been on your team,

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and how you shop matters. Visa everywhere you want to be the official partner of the NFL and Titans fans over the weekend. We got additional updates in regards to the Titans COVID-19 outbreak. We have a general idea of when, optimistically, the positive test would stop, but it's something that we will have to continue monitoring. I'm going to get you all caught up on all of the information that came out over the weekend surrounding the Tennessee Titans, and then we are going to take a look forward at what this means for the roster, what position groups were hit harder than others, and then we are going to take a look forward at what this means

for the roster, what position groups were hit harder than others, and where the Titans go from here, including taking a look at who could possibly help this team on the 16-man practice squad. So we will take a look forward at what the Titans need to do roster-wise to deal with the COVID-19 issues they are facing, and then we will have our Song of the AFC South recap because the Titans did not play over the weekend, but all of their division rivals did. So we will update you on exactly what took place in the AFC South over the weekend. So a big day here on the Locked on Titans podcast.

The Titans hopefully are going to be resuming football activities very, very soon. So make sure that you subscribe to the Locked On Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream so you never miss a moment of the Monday through Friday content we will have throughout the season. But we have some information to go over. We have to look towards the future and take a look at what happened with the Titans division rivals in the AFC South over the weekend. Let's get it. It had been a very difficult week for the Tennessee Titans dealing with the first major COVID-19 outbreak in the NFL this year, and the weekend was also unrelenting.

As the NFL world prepared for a Sunday slate full of football, the Tennessee Titans continued to get positive COVID-19 tests rolling in. COVID-19 test rolling in. On Friday, we saw the Tennessee Titans rookie cornerback Christian Fulton come up with a positive test, which will be a major blow for the Titans on the field as they are dealing with a banged up secondary and a secondary that is not performing at a very high level at this time. Saturday found the Titans taking their biggest blow in a football sense so far during the outbreak when defensive lineman Jeffrey Simmons was added to the COVID-19 list. Simmons has arguably been the Tennessee Titans best player overall throughout the first three weeks of the season and the Titans run defense was already struggling and Jeffrey Simmons was one of the only bright spots in that run defense up front. So a major blow for the Tennessee Titans from a football perspective. On Sunday,

the Titans got another player with an additional positive COVID-19 test and it turned out to be fullback Kari Blossom game. At this time, the Tennessee Titans have 12 total players who have been added to the COVID-19 list, and it seemed to have started all back on September the 24th with practice squad defensive back Greg Maben. And then we saw, of course, Titans outside linebacker coach Shane Bowen not make it to the Titans game against the Vikings in week three as he was tested positive for COVID-19 on the Saturday before the game September 26. Those were the first two cases that started the avalanche of positive tests that we are dealing with now. Of course, throughout the next week, we saw defensive lineman Daquan Jones, long snapper

Bo Brinkley, wide receiver Adam Humphreys, practice squad tight end Tommy Hudson, outside linebacker Kamalei Correa, wide receiver Cam Batson, and of course, Titans rookie tackle Isaiah Wilson has been on the COVID-19 list since early in September. So you add that to the three members we mentioned earlier from over the weekend, Fulton, Simmons, and Blossom game, that gives you the 12 players for the Tennessee Titans. There are still eight personnel members, including coaches and staff that have tested positive as well, making 20 total cases for the Tennessee Titans at this time. From an NFL perspective, the Tennessee Titans

weren't the only team that saw a positive COVID-19 test over the weekend. Patriots starting quarterback Cam Newton tested positive for COVID-19 and also Chiefs backup quarterback Jordan Tamu tested positive. That makes two players in the same game when those teams were set to face off on Sunday. Luckily, throughout the weekend, there were no additional tests on either of those teams, and both of those teams are planning to play on Monday night, giving them a Monday night doubleheader. The team that the Titans faced off against, the Minnesota Vikings, had no positive tests throughout the week and were able to play their game against the Titans division rival Houston Texans over the weekend.

So some positive news from the NFL front as the Tennessee Titans continue to take the brunt of the blow over the weekend. Also, the NFL Players Association and the NFL themselves did launch an investigation into the Tennessee Titans use of protocols and how they followed those throughout this process so it will be interesting to see if the Tennessee Titans did slip up make any mistakes during the process at this time it's not fair to place any blame on the Tennessee Titans organization but it is fair to have questions about their ability to follow those procedures as no other

teams around the NFL are having the type of issues that the Tennessee Titans are. This will be something to monitor and if the Titans do want to have any chance to play their week 5 matchup against the Buffalo Bills, they will need to have a few days in a row of negative tests so that they can get into the building later in the week and possibly have any chance of preparing for a matchup on Sunday or Monday. But one of the big questions that the Titans are going to have to answer is as they prepare for this matchup, what do they do from a roster perspective?

What kind of answers will they have as even if the Titans are able to play this game against the Bills in the upcoming week, what kind of team are they going to be fielding when they do it? So we are going to talk about some of the answers that the Titans are going to have to give when they play their next game based on some of the players that are out and some of the positions that the Titans are going to be put in going forward. So we are going to talk about that next. And from the Titans perspective perspective it probably would be a great idea for most of their players to maybe stay inside for most of the week hunkered down at home if they aren't at the facility and when they are doing that they may need to get themselves a delicious meal and to do so

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That's GetRoman.com slash LockedOnNFL. GetRoman.com slash LockedOnNFL. GetRoman.com slash LockedOnNFL. We have discussed exactly where the Titans are at right now, but what we need to do is talk about what they're going to do going forward from a football perspective. The Titans have taken a major hit to their roster with 12 of their players being affected here, and even if the Titans were able to play in a game against the Buffalo Bills, they're not going to have these 10 players back as they recover from COVID-19, and who knows how this could affect each individual

player going forward. There's still a lot of unknown when it comes to this disease and how it can affect different people. So the number one thing that I want to say before we dive into what the Titans can do to rebound from the damage that has been done is I want to say that the number one priority is the health of the players, them getting back to 100%, not just for football reasons, but for life reasons, having empathy as a human being, wanting them to be safe, be healthy long-term, to live their lives outside of just the reality that they are football players on the team that we like, the team that we cover. So number one, hope for a 100% recovery from all

the players involved and hopefully in a timely manner, hopefully, you know, so they can rejoin the ball club and help out on the field, but just the general idea of wanting the players to be healthy for their lives. So want to get that out of the way and set that as a disclaimer before we talk about anything related to the football field, but with that out of the way, we do have to discuss what the Titans can do here, and some of the positions where the Titans got hit the hardest are, number one, the wide receiver position. Cam Batson and Adam Humphreys out now. They played over 200 snaps combined for this offense, and Batson gives the Titans an element

that no one else on the team gives them he's got shiftiness he can do those wide receiver jet runs around the side those jet sweeps outside he can give you not only speed deep like a Kalief Raymond but he also has the ability to run some in-breaking routes do some some bubble screens. He can do some normal wide receiver activities, some every down wide receiver activities. And with the speed that he has, along with that gadget ability, gives the Titans a really nice option in their basketball team, per se, of wide receivers. And one of the other guys that really can't be replicated is Adam Humphreys. He's that intermediate short guy, chain mover.

Everything that the Titans wanted him to be last year when he was signed, he was doing for Ryan Tannehill this year. So that makes it really, really difficult for the Titans. They'll have, obviously, Corey Davis, but A.J. Brown is still out. Hopefully he's healthy by the time the Titans play again. That's the expectation. But who really knows at this moment in time with a week of of no practice not being able to get into the facility to continue rehab after the outbreak got out of control so you know the Titans wide receiver position outside of Corey

Davis who are they going to have left Kalief Raymond of course but honestly we saw Kalief Raymond when put in that Cam Batson role as a typical wide receiver in the first few weeks really struggle. When they got back to doing what Kalief Raymond's good at, running those vertical routes, double moves down the field, he had success. But if you ask him to do a little bit more on offense, he hasn't really shown the ability to deliver. So Kalief Raymond can help, but not necessarily what the Titans need. Outside of that, Nick Westbrook got some snaps, but didn't

look that impressive. You have Cody Hollister on the practice squad. He's played in six games for the Titans, but only had four snaps on offense. Wide receiver Chester Rogers could be a answer for the Titans. A ton of NFL in-game experience. Rogers, of course, is on the Titans practice squad right now. He's played 53 games in his career, has 1,221 yards and five touchdowns in four seasons. With the Colts, he seems like an obvious option for the Titans to bring up to the roster to help them out at the wide receiver position. Going forward at cornerback, that's going to be a really tough spot for the Titans. They only lost Christian Fulton in all of this, but with

a Dory Jackson hurt similar to A.J. Brown, yeah, you know, there's optimism that a Dory Jackson will be back by the time the Titans play their next game, but we don't know that for certain. So right now, you have the slowest pair of starting cornerbacks in the NFL in Malcolm Butler and Jonathan Joseph, who have been routinely targeted and eaten alive the first three weeks of the season. Fulton has been the Titans' most consistent cornerback so far this year, even if it's in limited duty. He was a very important piece to the Titans' defense that was really struggling. He played in 46% of the snaps so far this year, and that had been climbing throughout the weeks as a crescendo in his snap count.

So, without Christian Fulton, the Titans are going to have to plug in Chris Jackson, the seventh-round rookie, if he's healthy, and he was one of the lowest-graded cornerbacks in the NFL in the games that he was able to play. So the Titans could be in a terrible, terrible position at cornerback. I would like to see Ty Smith get more snaps on the outside, and then, of course, Kareem Orr will probably have an opportunity to come up onto the roster. Two games with the Titans in 2019, 46 defensive snaps.

Not a fantastic option, but somebody who's been with the organization. So that's something to consider. A defensive back on the practice squad, Maury Smith might have an opportunity to come up and play. So that's what you should be looking for at cornerback for the Titans to try to rebound here. But Christian Fulton, a much more important player than you would have hoped you needed him to be as a rookie.

But with the Titans cornerback situation looking as it is right now, that's a very devastating blow and save the worst for last, quite frankly. And that is the defensive line with the Titans two starting defensive linemen Daquan Jones and Jeffrey Simmons going out. Of course, Jeffrey Simmons has been probably the best player on the team so far this year, clearly the most dominant player on the team able to disrupt an offense. One of the only bright spots on the Titans offense. I charted him as disrupting 15 of the Vikings 65 offensive plays last week. So that's been the biggest blow by far to the Titans. But you combine that with the Daquan Jones being out as well. And the Titans are in nickel a lot of the time where they have

five defensive backs, two defensive linemen in the middle, two edge rushers, two linebackers. So when you consider that, the Titans' two starters are Daquan and Jeff Simmons, and the Titans haven't been very good against the run. This is something I tweeted. The Titans are the fourth worst team in the NFL against the run right now, giving up about 160 yards per game. So the Titans haven't been good against the run, and Jeffrey Simmons has been a great player so far this year. Daquan Jones has been up and down, but he's been alright, but when you look at who's going to be playing behind them, the backups at those positions are Isaiah Mack and Larell Murchison.

Murchison routinely got pushed 5-10 yards down the field against a Minnesota Vikings interior offensive line that's not even one of the top half in the league. offensive line that's not even one of the top half in the league. So, Larell Murchison and Isaiah Mack are both sub-35 grades in run defense per pro football focus. They are not only bad against the run, they are some of the worst defensive linemen in the NFL against the run. And you look at a team like the Buffalo Bills that can run the ball very successfully, that is where the Titans have to be just absolutely devastated, and that's against the run. I would expect teams to really target the Titans for as long as those two defensive linemen are out, because quite frankly, Murchison and Mack are just not ready in their first and second year, respectively, to take on

a starting duty against the run and rushing the passers. So if you're looking for anywhere to really panic, it would definitely be on the Titans defensive line. I would imagine that undrafted free agent, Tyre Tartt, would get an opportunity to come up to the active roster and see if he can make an impact. You'll have Jack Crawford. You'll have Matt Dickerson there as well ready to try to make an impact so the Titans will have to use a little bit of smoke and mirrors Jadavion Clowney will have to play more on the interior it'll mean a lot for Rashawn Evans Will Compton Jayon Brown

David Long they'll really have to step up and run support Harold Landry as well Vic Beasley is going to have to really ratchet up his snap so that they can move Clowney a little bit more inside. So Jack Crawford, that's the name right there. He's going to take on a big role here going forward for as long as those two guys are out of the Titans lineup. So that's what I see going forward. That's the biggest impact to the roster.

As I mentioned, 12 players that will be on the COVID-19 list for the Titans at this moment in time. Hopefully Monday brings less positive tests, hopefully none, and the Titans can get back on a positive path with some positive momentum to get back into playing some football games and resuming the season. Next, we are going to talk about some football that did get played over the weekend, though, and take a look at the Titans Titans division rivals in the AFC South and how they performed over the weekend on Sunday. And majority of the news is positive news. So that's a good change in the tenor of the show.

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lose over the weekend was able to get another victory. But we will talk about all of that right now in the Song of the AFC South recap. So let's start with the Jacksonville Jaguars. And of course, they are continuing their comeback down to earth after what we can probably consider now a fluke victory over the Colts in week one. Three straight losses for the Jacksonville Jaguars. They lost 33-25 against the Cincinnati Bengals, helping the Bengals get off the schneid and get their first victory of the year.

Minshew didn't have a bad game, though. 351 yards throwing the ball, twos did have one interception got that connection going with uh baby shark do to do to do uh dj chart had eight catches 95 yards and two touchdowns so an overall good day for the jags offense but once again their defense cannot stop anyone. Rookie Joe Burrow threw for 300 passing yards. Running back Joe Mixon went for 151 on the ground. And the Jags, like I said, continuing to come back down to earth it seems. And their potential tank for Trevor vibes are completely back 100%. They are now 1-3, so probably not going to be competing for the AFC

South division title anytime soon. Moving forward to a team that is even more bleak than the Jacksonville Jaguars, and that's the Houston Texans going to 0-4 on the season with a 31-23 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. And quite frankly, the score is closer than the game actually was. The Texans were completely anemic on offense in the first half, only scoring six points, getting down big at halftime against the Vikings. They allowed Kirk Cousins to throw for 260 passing yards, one touchdown. Dalvin Cook went for 130 yards on the ground and two touchdowns. Adam Thielen had eight catches for 114 yards. Justin Jefferson, you guys remember him, went for 100 yards as well for

the Vikings. So just complete domination for the most part until the Vikings kind of got lax in the second half and Watson put up some garbage time points with his buddy Will Fuller so the Texans defense is terrible the offense was absolutely terrible at the beginning of the game and you combine those things and now the Texans are at 0-4 and there have to start to be some questions about Bill O'Brien I mean anybody with a couple brain cells working in their head knew that he was garbage at being a general manager. His abilities as a coach are now looking worse than ever. But his general managership has put him in this position as a coach. He's decimated the roster.

He's made terrible moves. The Houston Texans are 0-4. They are spending the most cash on their roster of any team in the NFL, and they don't have a first or a second round pick. That is absolutely disgraceful. Bill O'Brien should not make it through the season, quite frankly. His seat is about as hot as it could possibly be at this moment in time, and the Texans at 0-4, I don't have the numbers right in front of me, going to be very difficult historically to find anybody who made the playoffs from 0-4 and made any kind of noise whatsoever. So moving to the last game to discuss from the Titans division rivals in the AFC South.

It's the Indianapolis Colts going up against the Chicago Bears. And the Colts were able to win this game 19-11. I am watching the very end of the game right now. The Bears got a touchdown very late in the fourth quarter to make it look maybe a little bit more competitive than it actually was. The Colts dominated the game. Now their offense was not incredibly impressive throughout. They only got one touchdown up on the board and had 12 total points from kicker Rodrigo Blankenship.

So the Colts' offense wasn't anything to write home about on the day. Rivers only had 190 yards and a touchdown. Jonathan Taylor didn't have an incredible day on the ground with only 67 yards. They don't have a ton of options at the receiving position, but they have been led by this defense. The defense was absolutely fantastic. Like I said, held the Bears to only three points through about 58 minutes worth of game action.

They limited the Bears to about 28 yards rushing total. Absolutely fantastic. Got an interception on Nick Foles as well. So this Colts defense absolutely is something to worry about. They've been the best defense in the NFL throughout. Now, we do have to mention that they have played the Jags to start the season, then the Jets, or then the Vikings, then the Jets, and then the Bears. And the Bears are 3-1, but come on, folks.

We know that the Bears aren't a legit team, so would anybody be surprised to see the Bears at 3-3 in two weeks? I wouldn't be. And then the other teams, the Jets are 0-4, the Jags are 1-3, the Vikings are 1-3, and their only win came over the 0-4 Texans, who are absolutely terrible. So from my perspective, the Colts' defense does look good,

and they deserve their credit. We'll give them their flowers. However, they have not played any kind of offense that I would say is intimidating whatsoever. So we will keep our eye on that. The Colts look pretty good early on, but like I said, the competition has been very, very questionable, but that is going to do it for today's show. And the Titans are still 3-0 leading the AFC South. So one way or another, the Titans come out of the weekend still leading the division. But that is going to do it for me today.

Hopefully on Tuesday's show, we have the ability to talk about some positive results. The Titans not having any more COVID-19 tests pop up on them and start getting the ball rolling. Some positive momentum towards getting back out on the field. But I will be bringing you all of the updates on tomorrow's show. Also, I think I'm going to dive into a little bit of a division recap after the first quarter of the season. With some of the free days we're going to have. Obviously, there won't be a Tic Tac 4 pack this week to break down without a game. And there's no Rewatch Wednesday without a game to rewatch.

So I think I'm going to spend this time bringing you guys the most recent information, the most recent scouting report on the Titans division rivals, as it could be the next game that the Titans play be against the Houston Texans. So it might be the route that we go. Maybe do some power rankings on a Tuesday after a quarter of the season. Take a quarter poll here. And the power rankings, those are some things that are coming up. So make sure that you subscribe to the Locked on Titans podcast

and follow me on Twitter at TicTacTitans as well. But that's going to do it for me today. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.