Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tic Tac Titans Film Review - Vic Beasley Breakdown, Ty Sambrailo Signing & Titans Departures

Episode Date: March 26, 2020

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Welcome to the Locked On Titans Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, we have another free agent signing. No, it is not the signing that everyone is anticipating, but it is a signing that has the ability to have a major impact on the offense and an impact that Titans fans should know much better than others. So we are going to talk about that free agent signing and what it means to the team going forward. But after we do that.

I have for you the first. Tic Tac Titans film review. Of the off season. We are going to break down. New free agent signing. Vic Beasley. I'm going to talk to you guys about three key areas. Of his game.

The pass rush. him as a run defender and how he holds up in pass coverage so I'm going to go over what I saw on film I watched basically every rep Vic Beasley had throughout the 2019 season so I can let you guys know exactly what kind of player the Titans are getting and how they can use him to have as much success as possible. So really excited to bring that to you guys. And as always, I'm going to be posting my video breakdown to go along with that segment on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans. So make sure that if you listen to this show, you are following me there so you get that video breakdown.

I am really excited to share it with you guys and show you exactly what Vic Beasley can do and the areas in which he struggles. So make sure you're checking that out as well. And you are locked in with me on Twitter to check out that breakdown. And then we are going to cap off the show by talking about some Titans that have left us, some Titans that have moved on. There has been a lot of second wave free agent signings this week and some of the guys from the 2019 season are no longer with us just want to update you guys on where their new landing spots are so we will do that to cap off the show really excited to get into that breakdown also pretty excited to talk about that free agent signing i think it could

have a major impact on the offense, and I will update you guys on where some former Titans have landed. A lot to do in today's show. A Tic-Tac Titans film breakdown is in our near future. Let's get it. The Titans have agreed to terms with offensive lineman Ty Sambrillo. First, let's take a look at Sambrillo's background. He was selected in the second round of the 2015 draft by the Denver Broncos. He played two seasons in Denver, starting in seven games and appearing in 13 as a right tackle. In 2017,

he was traded to the Atlanta Falcons for a fifth round draft selection and ended up playing in 15 games in that season starting in two. In 2018, his second year in Atlanta, he rotated in between tackle and guard. This allowed Sambrillo to play in 16 games and starting four. In 2019 though, Sambrillo was relegated to being a backup tackle permanently, appearing only as a tight end in heavy situations or a third tackle in run situations. This will get us in to Sambrillo's role and the best way to explain what Sam Brillo's role will be with the Titans is to take a look at the role of the man that he is replacing. Sam Brillo will come in and play the swing tackle position for the Titans, be the third tackle on the depth chart and that was a role held by Dennis Kelly who was just re-signed by the Titans to move into the starting role that was vacated by Jack Conklin. So taking a look at what Dennis Kelly was able to do last year gives us a good

idea of how valuable somebody like Sambrillo could end up being. In the event of an injury or a suspension, obviously Sambrillo can come in and fill that void and give the Titans quality play at tackle until they're able to get their starting unit back together, but not just in the event that there is an injury and a replacement is needed. The Titans also have made a habit of throwing to their tackles in the red zone. We saw that with touchdowns from David Questenberry and Dennis Kelly with the Titans last year. Sam Brillo has that ability as he holds the current NFL record for longest touchdown catch by an offensive lineman. He had a 35-yard touchdown from Matt Ryan for the Atlanta Falcons in 2019 and displayed the type of athleticism that will allow him to fill that role for the

Titans. But also, the Titans don't just need a pass-catching tackle and a backup tackle. They need a tackle that can come in and play when they decide to go heavy formations. It is no secret that the Titans are a team that relies on the run game. And often, when you have a team like the Titans who is built upon a foundation that consists of running the ball down their opponent's throats they will want to do so out of heavy personnel that means having Dennis Kelly and Taylor LeJuan on the field and Ty Sambrillo as a pseudo tight end you could also have another tight end on the field like Jonu Smith or Michael Pruitt and create a very good numbers advantage and a power advantage in the run game against your opponent.

Sambrillo will not just be asked to be a backup. He will be asked to have multiple roles on this offense, including being a part of special teams. Sambrillo could add incredible value to this offense and looks to be a very good bargain signing for the Titans as they try to fill out their 2020 roster. Another player that will be filling out the 2020 Titans roster is newly acquired outside linebacker Vic Beasley. So in our first Tic Tac Titans breakdown of the offseason, we are going to step into the

film room and take a look at Vic Beasley in three key areas. As a pass rusher, as a run defender, and in pass coverage. I'm going to do the Tic Tac Titans film breakdowns a little bit different going forward. Instead of actually going play by play with you guys, I'm going to give you my general takeaways from my film session and then allow you to check out the examples on tape on my Twitter account at Tic Tac Titans, where I'll be posting that breakdown video as well. So like I said at the beginning of the show, make sure you are following me on Twitter at TicTacTitans so you can check out the breakdown that goes with our next segment. Also, subscribe to the show if you aren't already.

There is tons of news still going on in the draft ahead. I'm going to have more TicTacTitans film breakdowns in the future carrying us through this offseason. So whatever platform that you subscribe to, whatever platform that you stream on, Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher, SoundCloud, wherever, make sure that you are subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast. Titans fans, it is time for a Tic Tac Titans film breakdown. So step into the lab with me and let's take a look at Titans new free agent acquisition outside linebacker Vic Beasley.

And like I mentioned earlier in the show, I want to break things down into three categories here. Vic Beasley as a pass rusher, in run defense, and then in pass coverage. And take that and kind of project his play on film and see how he could help this Titans defense going forward. So first things first, without further ado, let's jump into the most important category and the reason that Vic Beasley was drafted top 10, the reason that the Titans gave him near 10 million dollars, and that is his ability as a pass rusher. So the two key things that I saw when breaking down the tape from Vic Beasley that are gifts that he has as a pass rusher. First, his incredible burst off the line of scrimmage. He is very quick to jump the snap.

He gets on offensive tackles very, very quickly. And he combines that with incredible change of direction skill. He's got great agility. He's a little bit undersized as an outside linebacker in the NFL at only 6'3", 240 pounds. But he uses that to his advantage by being very quick and he does that with the first clip that I show where he's able to kind of fake to the outside a little bit just jump off the ball and then quickly juke to the inside of an offensive tackle and make a sack so using that burst off the line of scrimmage and his quick change of direction skills really help him attack offensive tackles we see that in the second clip that I use

as well where instead of going to the inside after beating the offensive tackle off the line of scrimmage with incredible bursts he actually does a little bit of a dip dips that inside shoulder something Harold Landry is really good at being a bigger guy at six foot five he dips that inside shoulder is able to blindside Kyle Allen and create a turnover when Kyle Allen fumbles the ball on impact. So those are ways that Beasley can win in the pass rush, but that's not the only way that he's able to win in the pass rush. And one thing that caught me off guard that I didn't know about Beasley going into my

film session was how well he does in twists and stunts and games up front on the defensive line. So something that kept showing up on tape when watching Beasley is he does a really good job of when he's running a game with a defensive tackle. So one of the clips that I used to show this is a good example. It shows the defensive tackle for the Falcons shooting straight out from his stance and basically heading right into the face of the offensive tackle who's responsible for Beasley what that does is it pulls the offensive guard responsible for the defensive tackle to the outside with the D tackle and then it jams up the offensive tackle allowing Beasley to loop underneath inside, and he gets pressure on

Carson Wentz, forces Wentz to throw the ball early, and it's an incompletion on the sideline. So I really like Beasley utilizing that change of direction and that agility in games and twists and stunts up front, something that kept showing up, and he does a good job with that in the clip that I put in the breakdown. Now, of course, those are some positives. We have to get to the negatives. And unfortunately, I feel like the negatives in this circumstance outweigh the positive. And the number one negative is Beasley just has no pass rushing moves. And this lines up with our conversation with Aaron Freeman from the Locked on Falcons podcast

on yesterday's show, where he said that Dan Quinn tried to really work on pass rush moves with Beasley this last season. And you could tell why that was necessary. I don't mean to exaggerate. He literally has no moves. I can't recall a single counter, a spin move, a bull rush, arm rush a double spin a fake spin counter a rip a swim anything he just rushes straight into the offensive tackle and if he doesn't beat the offensive tackle with those gifts that i talked about just a quick juke move to the inside or the outside or just beating

the tackle off the line of scrimmage so bad that he can get right to the cornerback if he doesn't do that he has nothing he just gets swallowed up by offensive tackles and the two clips that I show show that exactly he gets right on the offensive tackle very quickly but he doesn't use any arm extension he doesn't use any moves to do anything and he's just swallowed up so either he's stumped immediately once he gets to the offensive tackle or the offensive tackle just washes him back behind the quarterback because he has no counters so Mike Vrabel is going to have to spend and Shane Bowen is going to have to spend a ton of time with Beasley and try to develop some moves here he has the tools to do it but when you're undersized like Beasley is a lot of these undersized guys like

like people who Aaron mentioned the Robert Mathis Dwight Freeney people like that the undersized edge rushers they had great spin moves to utilize their quickness and their change of direction they had tons of counters off that spin move Beasley has no moves whatsoever in the pass rush it was the most disappointing thing about watching all that film I was just waiting and waiting and waiting for some sort of pass rush move and it just never really happened so that is the number one flaw in Beasley's game and it's the thing that has held him back from being a good pass rusher and a consistent pass rusher in the NFL and where Freeman said that a lot of his sacks seem to be circumstantial and he's just

continuing to rush and right place, right time. That's what I saw a lot with the majority of his sacks other than the ones that I highlighted at the beginning of the segment in the beginning of the video breakdown. So that is the number one concern that I have about Beasley. He's a guy who is expected to be an edge rusher without any edge rushing moves, but some of that disappointment was couched by how well he played in the other two facets that we're going to talk about. Beasley is an undersized outside linebacker. I've mentioned that already, so it was an incredible surprise how well he held up in run defense. In the first clip that I use, he takes on Jack Doyle for the Colts as the Colts are trying to run an outside zone run, and he pushes him back one to two yards. He separates,

and then it basically forces Marlon Mack to abandon getting the edge and getting to the perimeter, cutting back inside, and the Falcons are waiting. His teammates are waiting right there to make the stop, and in the NFL and in football, it's the ultimate team game because the guy who makes the play isn't always the guy who makes the play, if that makes sense. So Beasley didn't get any statistic on this play that I'm referencing, the first play in his run defense section of the video. He doesn't get a tackle. He doesn't get a tackle for loss.

There's nothing in the stat sheet to show what he did, but he was the guy who made the play for the defense and allowed his teammates to get the statistical play, if you would. We see something very similar in the next play, and it's actually against the Titans from the week four matchup against the Falcons. The Titans are running an outside zone to Derrick Henry in an I formation with Jonu Smith one-on-one against Vic Beasley. This is an area where Jonu is going to have to improve majorly for the Titans. One-on-one blocks on the edge. Basically, Beasley doesn't let Jonu Smith beat him to the perimeter. He forces Derrick Henry back inside. It's a loss on the play. Derrick Henry's only able to get back to the line of scrimmage, lose a yard. So Johnnie Smith gets beat one-on-one by Vic Beasley, who's able to hold a firm edge against

Smith in the run game and force Derrick Henry back inside. Once again, he doesn't get the statistical credit, but he's the one who made the play because if you let Derrick Henry or you let running backs get the edge in the NFL, you're toast. That's actually been a point of emphasis in football all the way back to Pee Wee for most of us who have played the game. You don't let people get to the outside. You have to force them back inside where you have help.

Beasley does a pretty good job doing that, a surprisingly good job of doing that throughout the 2019 season. Another thing that I really enjoyed about Beasley in run defense is his willingness to come up and take on a pulling offensive lineman or a tight end. Numerous occasions throughout the season, I saw Beasley from his edge rusher position fire out and take on a pulling lineman. The specific clip that I used in the video breakdown is him taking on Anthony Costanzo pulling from his left tackle position out on a sweep for the Colts and Beasley fires out,

takes out Costanzo at the knees, chops him down, forces Marlon Mack to the inside where Deion Jones wraps up Mack and a tackle for loss and losing yards for the Colts. A big play for the Falcons defense and that's littered throughout the tape. It seems like Beasley doesn't mind coming up and hitting a pulling offensive lineman or tight end. He does it throughout the film, throughout the season and I really enjoyed that aspect because Beasley's not a very physical guy and there were times watching his tape where I questioned his effort I guess. It didn't really seem like he wanted to tackle somebody it seemed like he would put himself in positions intentionally to where he wouldn't be

expected to make a tackle I have a few clips that I may share throughout the rest of the offseason obviously you don't know the circumstances how banged up he may have been how bought into the system the Falcons had a pretty bad year last year throughout times during the season, so maybe it was something of that nature, but just not the type of effort and physicality that I would hope for from a football player, especially someone playing on the front line. But for some reason, when it comes to taking on pulling lead blockers, Beasley seemed to enjoy it.

He would do a pretty good job, and he seemed to take pleasure when his teammates made a play, and he completely destroyed the lead blockers, Beasley seemed to enjoy it. He would do a pretty good job and he seemed to take pleasure when his teammates made a play and he completely destroyed the lead blocker. So I saw that quite a bit and that was my favorite clip that I put into my video breakdown was him doing that. So that was a pretty good aspect of the run defense. But of course, you can't have good without the bad. And I want to make a point to make sure that I'm being honest about Vic Beasley and one of the issues he has this is the third time we've mentioned it he is an undersized outside linebacker six foot three 240 pounds and he'll get washed away by bigger stronger and quite frankly more talented offensive linemen I watched his game against the Eagles they have two good offensive tackles, Jason Peters and Lane Johnson, and Vic Beasley really struggled. He was able to get a sack. It was one of those

circumstantial sacks where Carson Wentz basically ran into him when he was doing nothing. And other than that, Vic Beasley didn't make an impact on that game because he was going up against talented offensive tackles. And that's one of the issues that I have. The clip that I used to show that is a clip against the 49ers. It goes back to the clip I showed in the first segment with the Saints and the Bucs, offensive tackles just stonewalling him. The same thing happened in the clip against the 49ers. The 49ers have a talented group of offensive tackles, and he was just washed behind the play immediately. He bursted off the line of scrimmage, which is what he does well, but was was just washed behind the play immediately he bursted off the line of scrimmage which is what he does well but was immediately washed back behind the play and made no impact by the offensive tackle for the 49ers so that is something that the Titans will have to

worry about and we'll have to continue to work with Beasley on the last thing that we need to talk about here is Vic Beasley and pass coverage and this is where I was most surprised by his play he looks very fluid and I think going forward he profiles for the Titans as more of a versatile linebacker than just an every down pass rusher think about the Kamalei Correa role where late in the season Correa was being asked to be an off-ball linebacker as much as he was being asked to be an edge rusher and it also makes the pursuit of Jadavion Clowney make even more sense. The Titans don't want to rely on Vic Beasley as an edge rusher consistently because he adds value in other areas of the game so they can continue to develop those pass rush moves with Vic Beasley while simultaneously

getting value from him in other areas of the linebacker position like pass coverage. So three examples that I used in my video kind of demonstrate the varied way that he has the ability to play pass coverage. And the very first thing is him as an off-ball linebacker. So that's another thing that I was surprised by watching and something that Aaron kind of hinted at in our conversation on Wednesday. But the Falcons had Vic Beasley drop back as an off-ball linebacker off the line of scrimmage quite a bit. And I was impressed with his ability to do so.

And in the first example that I show in the video breakdown, he drops back into a zone coverage. Initially, DK Metcalf is coming through his zone, so he gets his hand on him and kind of rides with Metcalf until he can escort him out of his zone, and immediately a tight end comes streaking through his zone, running a seam route. He carries the tight end through the seam route, and as he passes him on to his deep safety, he flips his hips around, sees that Russell Wilson has dumped the ball off into the flat to Tyler Lockett and is able to run about 10 to 15 yards and push Lockett out of bounds so the

Seahawks got a pretty good gain on the play but it wasn't because of Vic Beasley's era I thought he played zone defense very well there and to see a guy who's you know primarily thought of as an edge rusher drop back into coverage and have that kind of fluidity with multiple defenders coming through his zone. I was just thoroughly impressed by that. And that's an area that the Titans will need. Now losing Kamalei Correa, that's something that Correa did really well at the end of the season last year is dropping back as an off the ball linebacker. So now Vic Beasley will have that role and an edge rusher role for this team in the second clip back to the Colts game I thought that Beasley did a good job in this situation I wanted

to give you a different example not as an off ball linebacker but dropping off the line of scrimmage he's able to fluidly drop back into a hook zone from the defensive end position and drop back into the middle the pass is completed to the other side the other linebacker who is responsible for the middle zone but Beasley flies over and is able to help with the tackle on Jack Doyle so although these aren't you know interceptions or crazy tip-aways or anything like that they do just give us good examples of what Beasley will be able to do in this Titans defense that a lot of people get upset when Harold Landry drops back into coverage and things like that. Well, now Beasley is the guy who can do that.

We can allow Harold Landry to continue to rush in those complex, disguised blitzes that the Titans like to run with their front seven and the secondary. The third example that I had was Vic Beasley in man coverage, and he takes the Eagles running back out in the flat in man coverage the running back does a little bit of a shake move you can tell they're trying to get Beasley off balance to maybe create some separation and get open but Beasley does a great job of mirroring the running back staying right with them and Wentz knows there's nothing there has to go to the other side of the field and it's an incompletion so whether it be as an off-ball

linebacker dropping into a zone coverage off the line of scrimmage dropping into a zone coverage or off the line of scrimmage or off-ball playing man coverage Beasley is incredibly impressive and underrated in his pass coverage ability so I'm mostly excited for what he can add to this Titans team as a run defender as a pass coverage linebacker and of course if he can add to this Titans team as a run defender, as a pass coverage linebacker. And of course, if he can improve his pass rush moves, he could probably help the Titans a lot more in that area as well. But that is going to wrap up this Tic Tac Titans breakdown. Please, I implore you, follow me on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans

and check out the video breakdown going along with our segment today. Let's cap off today's show by talking about some Titans from 2019 who have moved on to new locations. And we'll do this pretty quickly just to make sure you guys are updated on where everyone is going now that the second wave of free agency is basically crashing on top of the NFL world first obviously most of you guys are aware of the two big names that left right away and that is quarterback Marcus Mariota who went to the Oakland Raiders and Jack Conklin who went to the Cleveland Browns we also saw over the weekend running back Deion Lewis take a one-year deal with the New York Giants so good luck to the people in New York and one thing I can tell you is Deion Lewis blocked a lot of people on Twitter who were Titans fans or gave him any criticism

whatsoever of his time with the Titans. I actually didn't even follow Deion Lewis. He's not an interesting follow on Twitter whatsoever. So he didn't have me blocked. So he doesn't have me blocked now. But if he was having a hard time dealing with the fan base and the market in Nashville, well, best of luck to him in New York City. Is all I have to say.

But also two other Titans who. It seemed like it was pretty realistic. That they would come back to the team. Going into the offseason. And even where we sat yesterday. But two Titans did go ahead and sign with new teams. First Tajay Sharp signed with the Minnesota Vikings on a one-year deal. That is one that was surprising to me.

I thought there was a pretty good chance that Tajay would come back to the team. Now, he did have a cryptic tweet, and I try not to wade too much into, you know, all these weird cryptic tweets, especially from athletes. Who knows what they could be talking about but he did have a tweet that said no matter how much you do for them they don't give a bleep about you and a lot of people saw that and that was on March the 16th and a lot of people took that as well he's probably leaving Nashville then it probably has something to do with the contract situation but once again athletes on Twitter who knows what they could be talking about but good

luck to Tajay Sharp he'll have an increased opportunity there in Minnesota after they traded Stephon Diggs wishing nothing but the best for Tajay Sharp obviously he never really panned out with the Titans completely was never able to get above about a fourth, third wide receiver. He did have his opportunity two seasons ago and never really broke out the way some were hoping. And now that Corey Davis and A.J. Brown and Adam Humphreys are on the scene, it makes sense that the Titans wouldn't prioritize giving him a contract with everything else going on.

And then finally, we saw fourth cornerback, so fourth wide receiver, and the Titans' fourth cornerback, LaShawn Sims, go to the Cincinnati Bengals, who are currently reworking their entire secondary, and, you know, for good reason. It makes sense. So I just wanted to go over those departures with you guys, make sure that you are aware of the Titans that will no longer be

with the team and where they're ending up as, you know, you never know when we will see these guys again in games coming up in future seasons. But that is going to do it for today's show. I really appreciate you guys hanging with me here on the Locked On Titans podcast. Now that we are done with today's episode, you guys should go check out the Locked On NFL Draft podcast. Just like I told you guys on Monday, it's a great show. One of the best draft related podcasts you can find out there. We're getting closer and closer to the draft by the day.

So it's a perfect time to check out that show and get all caught up on all the draft information that you can as for today we talked about the signing of ty sambrillo we went over our film breakdown of vick beasley in our first tic tac titan segment of the offseason and talked about some titans who have moved on to new. So that is going to do it for me. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.