Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Will Levis Creates PERFECT LOSS, Draft Position Update & 2025 Future Needs

Episode Date: December 2, 2024

The Tennessee Titans got smoked by the Washington Commanders on Sunday, but Will Levis played very well once again and because of that performance some may look at this loss as a perfect outcome. The Titans won, but Levis was great and they may set the Titans up better for the future considering draft position. Speaking of the draft, what are the Titans needs going forward? Sunday may it very clear where the Titans need to go from here.Subscribe to the TicTacTitans Film Channel:https://www.youtube.com/@TicTacTitansTicTacTitans Merchandise: https://dixons-dream.square.site/shop/tictactitans-gear/C3AAPNWXSXA6SBYG3USV2I7R?page=1&limit=30&sort_by=category_order&sort_order=ascFollow 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!Omaha SteaksFrom legendary steaks to mouthwatering desserts and more, save 50% off site-wide for a limited time at OmahaSteaks.com. Plus, our listeners get an extra $30 off with Promo Code NFL. IceShakerCreated by and used by the Gronkowski brothers, IceShakers has sold over 1 million bottles. They have changed the game with workout bottles, and this is the gift you’ve been looking for… go to IceShaker.com and use the code LOCKEDONNFL at checkout to save 25% on your order. Skylight FrameGet $20 off a Skylight Frame when you go to SkylightFrame.com/NFL.Mint MobileTo get this new customer offer and your new 3-month premium wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month, go to Mintmobile.com/lockedonnfl. Cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at MINT MOBILE dot com slash lockedonnfl.Disclaimer: $45 upfront payment required (equivalent to $15/mo.). New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speeds slower above 40GB on Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees, & restrictions apply. See MINT MOBILE for details.Hillsdale CollegeAll of Hillsdale’s courses are self-paced so that you can start whenever, and tune in wherever. Plus, you can go deeper with readings, quizzes, discussions - or just enjoy the lectures. Go right now to hillsdale.edu/lockedon to enroll. There’s no cost, and it’s easy to get started.PrizePicksDownload the app and use code lockedonnfl to win $50 instantly when you play $5. You don't even need to win to receive your $50 bonus, it's guaranteed! Prizepicks. Run Your Game.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFLGametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms Apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started.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)

Will Levis had a fantastic game against the Washington Commanders, and that might make Sunday a perfect loss for the Tennessee Titans' future. I'll explain on today's edition of Locked on Titans. 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 FanDuel. You can start the final third of the NFL season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a $5 bet and get started with $150 in bonus bets if you win that first $5 bet. Visit FanDuel.com to get started. On today's show, I'm going to talk about the excellent performance of Will Levis on Sunday, why the loss might be a perfect outcome for the Tennessee Titans future. And we'll take a look at what the Tennessee Titans need going forward on this roster. Before we get into it, I do want to thank you for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen each and every day.

Remember, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content all year round, always for free. Make sure that you get subscribed, stay subscribed. It's your team every day. Speaking of every day, shout out to my everydayers out there. Tune in Monday through Friday if you aren't an everydayer. You need to be one. With that being said, Will Levis was awesome in this game.

I went back, watched the tape, watched every single dropback of Will Levis, and overall, before we get into the individual throws and instances that really had me excited in this game overall, this was the most quarterback-y performance that we've seen from Will Levis obviously not a word, but I hope you get the drift of what I'm talking about here he was able to go through his progressions

about as well as I've seen him do all year long. Some of the layered throws, and a lot of the throws that Will Levis has made in recent weeks are guys that are just open, and he's just hammering the ball in. In this game, it wasn't just an open man that he was throwing the ball to. A lot of these guys were not that open,

or he had to read the defense and fit it in a tight window or the ball placement had to be perfect and he was able to put it there. There's a lot of intricacies and subtleties of playing the quarterback position other than just, hey, this guy is open, make an accurate pass. You know, we're talking about the play to Calvin Ridley on the 63 yarder last week or the 98 yard throw to Nick Westbrook at Keeney against the Minnesota Vikings, or the fade route to Calvin Ridley against the Los Angeles Chargers, the final touchdown of the game. A lot of those are, hey, the guy is open. Just throw him the ball.

He beat his man. Just throw him the ball and get it there to a decent spot. And it's a touchdown, or it's a completion, whatever you want to call it. In this game, there were certain circumstances where Will Levis had to put the ball in the perfect spot for it to be a completion. And not only that, but again, pinpoint accuracy with the ball placement. In the NFL, it's not just hitting an open man.

You have to put it in a certain spot, whether it be front shoulder, back shoulder, throw it low, throw it high. Things like that that matter at the NFL level more than any level underneath the NFL. Other things, like I said, going through his progressions, getting from the front side of the play to the back side of the play, holding the safety with his eyes, all these little subtleties that Will Levis was able to do. He was in rhythm a lot of the time after that first quarter.

And if we want to talk about some of the ways that the team didn't help him, there were, in my opinion, five drops in this game. When I actually went back through the tape, there were five drops. Now, of course, early on, the rhythm necessarily wasn't there. There was a throw to the outside of Chigaconquo that should have been to the inside. He was behind NWI on a slant. There was a throw to Calvin Ridley that I thought was a little too far inside. So it wasn't absolutely perfect. But I mean, look at some of these throws. Some of these throws, he had an out route, a deep out route to Chigaconquo on third and

10 that got 14 yards, and again, the ball placement. Put it perfectly to the sideline on the outside. If he puts it anywhere else, the commander's defender is going to be able to knock it away. He held the safety with his eyes on that one, was looking left immediately, came back right to Chigaconkwo, hits Ridley for 30 yards on third and 21. I know you could probably think of the play where he spins out of pressure, keeps his eyes downfield,

delivers a perfect strike to Calvin Ridley on the sideline. And again, I'm going to break down all of these plays on tape. A lot of people get in my comments and say, let's actually see the plays. I can't show you these plays on the Locked on Titans podcast. That's not allowed for copyright reasons. But check out the Tic Tac Titans YouTube

channel, my film channel, where I do do all these film breakdowns and show you these plays for free. You're not going to want to miss the Will Levis film breakdown that I'll have out on Tuesday. But that throw to Calvin Ridley to escape the pocket and hit Calvin Ridley on a deep in route all the way across the field was just fantastic quarterback

play. The 27-yard touchdown to NWI is against man coverage, and he has to feather that ball to the outside corner of the end zone and drops it perfectly in a bucket to NWI. The ball placement was absolutely critical. And again, third down, third down, third down. He's making critical plays on money downs is what we're talking about. There was a deep out or a corner route to Tyler Boyd on a third and seven where they picked up 16 yards. And again, he is getting absolutely smoked in the pocket and throws a dime right on the sideline,

high enough to where only Tyler Boyd can get to it against man coverage. He hits Tony Pollard on a post route for 30 yards against cover two, where it has to be underneath the safety, but he has to feather it perfectly over the second level defenders. Absolutely an incredible throw. We know Will Levis can drive the ball in. We know that Will Levis can throw with velocity. But seeing him feather these balls in,

the one to Tyler Boyd that I talked about, the one to Tony Pollard right there, just absolutely awesome stuff. And he just looked more calm. He looked more poised, which are the biggest things, in my opinion, that are concerns with Will Levis. He just doesn't look like he's calm in the pocket and we saw that in this game and it's like things are finally starting to slow

down for Will Levis. This past month of football has just been incredible and then finally we have another pass to Tyler Boyd for 12 yards, a touch pass over a cornerback. Literally there's a cornerback sitting in the flat, and Tyler Boyd is running a deep out route, and he just feathers it perfectly over the defender's hand to get it to Tyler Boyd on the sideline. And it's like, what are we seeing here? This is magic. And then the post to NWI, the final touchdown pass,

it's cover two, and there's a deep safety. And Will Levis has to put this ball perfectly inside of the safety so that NWI can turn his back to the deep safety, use his size and his physicality and his frame to box out the safety and catch the ball right on a goal line for a touchdown. I mean, it was tremendous. And again, all this time, we're talking about five drops. And then you could add in the Calvin Ridley

where he kind of stops going to the right when Will Levis throws it to him perfectly. This could have been an even better day for Will Levis. So incredibly, incredibly, incredibly encouraging for Will Levis to continue to just get better and better and better and better. Four straight games for the last month. He has been fantastic.

And whereas the first month of the season, the Titans were playing pretty good football, but Will Levis was the issue. Now we're to a place where Will Levis is playing really good football and it's the rest of the team that seems to be the bigger issue. Which, in reality,

based on our preseason expectations and the conversation about what really matters in 2024, it might make it a perfect loss for the Tennessee Titans. So we're going to add some context to this Tennessee Titans loss right now. Before we do, I do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by PrizePix. PrizePix is the most fun and the easiest way to play daily fantasy sports. It's why they have over 10 million members and billions of dollars in awarded winnings. All you have to do is pick more or less on at least two players for a shot to win up to 100 times your cash. You can run your game all season long on price picks.

I love price picks. Again, super easy, super fun. You just pick two to six players and say whether they're going to do more or less. And it's like, you know, for some mock examples, Calvin Ridley, 65 and a half receiving yards, Will Levis, one and a half passing touchdowns, NWI, a half of a touchdown. All you do is pick two to six players and say more or less. It's literally that simple. And it's so much fun. You can win up to 100 times your cash by getting two to six players right. Make sure that you download the PrizePix app today.

Use the code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. Again, download the PrizePix app today. Use the code LOCKEDONNFL to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. It's PrizePix. Run your game. Titans fans, let's continue today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast.

We talked about Will Levis' performance, and I mean, I don't know how you could say anything other than Will Levis played fantastic in this game. Obviously, the score doesn't look good, and the flow of the game wasn't excellent for the Titans as a whole, but looking at the performance of Will Levis, especially going through the tape on Monday, I was just so, so impressed.

And as a reminder, my Will Levis film breakdown will be out on the Tic Tac Titans YouTube channel on Tuesday. But thinking about this loss in the context of the Tennessee Titans' future. Now, I say it's a perfect loss, and I can already hear people say, didn't you just call it disgraceful yesterday? And it was. It can be both at the same time. It can be a disgraceful loss in and of itself watching the game on Sunday as a fan. It can be disgraceful. But when you look at the future of the Tennessee Titans, it actually might not be the worst thing ever. And I know a lot of you guys feel this way about the rest of the Tennessee Titans, it actually might not be the worst thing ever. And I know a lot of

you guys feel this way about the rest of the season that having Will Levis play well and having the Tennessee Titans lose actually might be what's best for the Titans going forward. Now, I think you have to have some wins sprinkled in there. That win against the Houston Texans, I think was necessary. I think if the Titans go out and lose to the Jaguars with Mac Jones, that would not be good. That would not be a good loss for the Titans. But you go on the road, a second straight week on the road, against a playoff team in the Washington Commanders,

and you get beat bad. And team in the Washington Commanders. And you get beat bad. And here's the thing, though. You get beat bad, and it wasn't just like the Commanders just crushed them in all aspects of the game. There were some massive mistakes that happened in the game. You start off with the penalties. Back-to-back fumbles. 14-0, the penalties. Back-to-back fumbles. It's 14-0, and you have back-to-back fumbles.

I mean, in the blink of an eye, it's 28-0. So it's not like, it's not like it was just a thorough beatdown from all aspects. Again, the Titans won the second half 14-12. aspects. Again, the Titans won the second half 14-12. So, to me, when you think about, well, it's 14-12 the other way, but the Titans played it close in the second half.

It wasn't like it was a regular, normal game where the Titans just couldn't get anything going on offense. Never made any plays on the defensive side of the ball. It was just all these little mental mistakes that crushed the Titans at the very, very beginning of the game. And it put the game out of reach so that no matter what they did in the second half, they weren't going to be able to come back and win that game. It would have been a historic, all-time NFL comeback for them to come back from win that game. It would have been a historic all-time NFL comeback for

them to come back from down 28-0. So with that being said, the reality here is the Titans need to hit at the quarterback position. The Titans need a quarterback. That is the number one most important thing in the NFL is having a quarterback to build around. Will Levis has continued to show that he might be that quarterback. Before this last month, we were all pretty convinced he's not it. Not only is he not it, they might have to draft a quarterback, which, as I've said for a month now, not that excited to draft Shader Sanders or Cam Ward. Just not that excited to draft Shadur Sanders or Cam Ward. Just not that excited for it.

So for Will Levis, even though it's in three out of four losses, for Will Levis to play the way that he has played, that is what's most important to the Titans. I said it before the season. The most important thing for the Titans this year is to figure out if Will Levis is the guy or not. And it was ugly at the beginning of the year, but the way that he's played the last month and with the defenses that are ahead of him, figuring out that Will Levis is your quarterback in 2025 and allowing you to go into the draft and not reach for a quarterback in this class, but to build the roster around Will Levis

or whoever may be the quarterback in 2026 to 2027, that is a great development for the Titans. And as I said last week, when we talked about predicting the record the rest of the way, when we talked about predicting their record the rest of the way, I said that it's not like winning against the Houston Texans was all of a sudden going to vault this team out of the top 10 draft picks. That's not going to happen.

The Titans are still going to get a top 10 draft pick. So it's not like that win against the Texans was going to ruin that by any stretch of the imagination. So it's not like that win against the Texans was going to ruin that by any stretch of the imagination. So now, the Titans got a good divisional win on the road against the Houston Texans, and they can have that in their back pocket as they move towards the offseason. Will Levis has played well,

and the division games are far more important anyways going forward because if the Titans can beat their division opponents, they give themselves a great chance to make the playoffs in the future. You have to win your division. That's what really matters. Right now, the Titans currently have the seventh pick in the draft. So again, it's not like that Texans win killed the Titans draft stop. So now we move forward. You play the Jacksonville Jaguars. They're probably going to have Mac Jones at quarterback this week

because Trevor Lawrence got knocked out by Aziz Alshire and Aziz came out and apologized. And now it's being reported that he is going to be suspended and he should, that was gross, man. And Aziz had a late hit against Tony Pollard last week. And honestly, if you remember back last year, Aziz had some very questionable decisions for the Titans. He's just not the cleanest player in the book, okay? I think he's kind of weird. Not like crazy, but like he's a weird guy, in my opinion.

Anyways, moving forward. So I'm not trying to say that the loss was great and we should be, you know, ecstatic because the worries about the coaching and the guys being ready and the run defense, that's all there. But the reality is what matters most this year is that Will Levis is the guy.

And we have an answer about the quarterback and the way that Will Levis has played and the performance that he had, which I described in the first segment, that while also preserving the Titans top 10 pick may be the best outcome for this team. Now, again, I think they're going to win this week against Jacksonville. And if they don't, we'll have a different discussion about that. But the Commanders are a good football team. They're going to be a playoff team. It's an opponent you don't see very often on the road, back-to-back weeks.

Like, there are reasons for this. So, when you think about it in terms of the Titans quarterback played great and the Titans lost, keeping them in the top 10 draft-wise. There are worse losses that you can have. But with that being said, what do the Titans actually need in the draft? What do the Titans need to do going forward? I want to talk about that a little bit right now. Before we get into it,

do want to thank you for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen and also let you know that today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. You can start the final third of the NFL regular season

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Never waste a hunch. Make every moment more with Fanduel, an official today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. We talked about Will Levis' performance against the Washington Commanders, put some context to this loss for the Tennessee Titans and why it might not be the worst thing of all time for the Titans to lose that game against the Washington Commanders. But now I do want to just look forward a little bit, just for the sake of having an idea of where the Titans need to go from here. So if Will Levis is the guy in 2025, which I believe he is at this time, I would rather check out Will Levis in 2025

than go with Sanders or go with Ward. And if Will Levis plays terrible next year, then you move into 2026 and you look at some of the quarterbacks in that draft class, which is a lot better talent than what we're getting in this year's class. But outside of quarterback, what do the Titans need?

Number one, they have to have a better offensive tackle. They have to have a better right tackle. Or, I mean, I don't know that this would be logical. It would depend on who is available. But moving J.C. Latham back to right tackle and then going with a left tackle, that I guess could be an option. I don't think that would be the smartest route to go at this time.

I think it would be wise to just leave J.C. Latham where he is after a good rookie season that he's having and let him develop, but I guess it would depend on who is available at left tackle or what you want to do. Here's what I can tell you, though. Will Campbell and Kelvin Banks, they might be guards at the NFL level. This is not a good offensive tackle draft class. Not a good offensive tackle draft class whatsoever.

So for me, what I'm looking at is you need an offensive tackle, but it might be better to go to free agency and just get a veteran player that you know what you're going to get out of. You've seen them play in the NFL before because you could draft a rookie, and who knows if they're going to be as good as Latham was this year. No guarantees there, and with a bad draft class for offensive tackles, you're kind of playing with fire if you're relying on that to fix your offensive line.

There aren't a lot of good offensive tackles in this class. So I think you look at free agency and I talked about some potential options a couple of weeks ago, but Jedrick Wills, who played great under Bill Callahan in Cleveland, has since fallen off in production, has had some injuries as well. I know it's not ideal, but again, you're not going to find, you know, Penny Sewell in free agency. That doesn't happen. So you got to try to make the best of it, and I think there are some decent options in free agency.

And right now, Jedrick Wills would be like my number one choice for the Titans. And Jedrick Wills, if I recall, was a right tackle who Bill Callahan moved to left tackle. So you could just move Jedrick Wills back to right tackle, leave J.C. Latham at left, and now you have a pretty good option. Wide receiver is clearly a need as well. Look, NWI has been good this year, no doubt. But Traylon Burks is a ghost.

Tyler Boyd is 30. Jaquan Jackson, who knows if he's even going to be on the team next year if he can't return punts. Bryce Oliver is a good story, but he's a depth wide receiver. He's not a guy who should be one of your top three starters. The Titans desperately need another playmaker at wide receiver. And it's more evident than ever to me against teams that play tight man coverage.

Because NWI is a good player and he's getting his credit for how good of a player he is he's had a fantastic season but he does struggle against man coverage at times because he's not an elite separator he's not the most agile guy he doesn't have great speed you know what i mean so if you get a guy like a Luther Burton who came out of, uh, who officially entered the draft on Monday, maybe a guy like Isaiah Bond out of Texas. I really like Isaiah Bond. I would, I would love to have Isaiah Bond on the Titans or my favorite wide receiver in the draft. T-Mac Teteroa McMillan from Arizona. Maybe not the speed guy,

but outside of press coverage, he struggles with press coverage a little bit. But outside of press coverage, he's able to separate. He's able to get open. And then he can make plays in contested catch situations, which is huge too. So I think there are some good wide receivers early on in this draft

that could really be a fit for the Titans and help them out. They need more playmakers. They need better offensive line play. And then ultimately, they need better interior offensive line depth. On the interior with Lloyd Cushenberry, who knows if he's going to be healthy and ready for the season, coming off an Achilles tailer. Dylan Radins is going to be a free agent.

Are the Titans going to bring him back? Are they going to look for somebody else? Those are all big questions here. So the Titans are going to need depth on the interior offensive line no matter what happens in this draft. So those are the three big needs on offense for me. And then you look at defense. The Titans clearly need edge pressure. They have not gotten enough sacks. They have not gotten enough pressure on quarterbacks. They need a top-tier edge. Looking at you, Abdul Carter. Looking at you, the guy out of Penn State.

Awesome player. Would love for him to be on the Titans. They need better linebacker play. No doubt about it. So you would look in the draft for that, in my opinion. The Titans will probably have Kenneth Murray around next year. Oh, whatever. And I'll tell you this.

All of you people hating on Jack Gibbons, the Titans sorely, sorely miss Jack Gibbons. Watching Jerome Baker play out there this weekend. Miss Jack Gibbons. So they just need better linebacker play. They need to find a way to find that in the draft. No way around it. And maybe Cedric Gray or James Williams can progress,

and they can be that. I would like to see those guys play more down the backstrap. If Jerome Baker is going to play the way that he played on Sunday, why are we not playing James Williams instead? How much worse can it be? Why aren't we playing Cedric Gray instead? Again, let's get a look at these young guys. You're not making the playoffs.

And they're going to need safety help. Amani Hooker is a good player, but he is getting a little bit older. The speed is slowing down just a little bit. He makes plays on the ball, but in man coverage, he struggles. He hasn't been good in run defense this year, in my opinion. His run fits have not been good. And then Quandre Diggs had a serious injury.

They could bring him back, but he's already in his 30s. You need safety help. You need safety help for sure. So that's really where I'm looking at for the Titans. And then Nick Folk is going to be 41 next year. Is he going to come back? Is he going to retire? Titans probably need a kicker.

And finally, they got to find a returner. It's just insane to me that it's so, so difficult for the Titans to find a good returner when they're all over the NFL. It just cannot be this difficult, man. It's very frustrating. So those are talked about

eight things right there. Those are the big things that I'm looking for for the Titans' future. Wide receiver, offensive tackle, interior offensive line depth, edge rush help, linebacker safety, and then kicker and punt returner overall. That's what the Titans really need to focus on going forward. And again, Will Levis playing well, but the Titans losing gives them the best chance

to actually find real talent at those positions. So with that being said, that is going to do it for me today, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.