Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - #TicTacTuesday - Top 4 Plays of the Year, Derrick Henry's Contract & Titans Talk

Episode Date: November 19, 2019

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Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Rowland, Titans fans. We are going to have one last day to put a cap on the bye week and the previous 10 games of the season. We're going to start by having a conversation about what will be the most discussed offseason topic. I'll get into what that is, why that is, and what the last six games combined with the first 10 games can tell us about what the answer will be. So we'll get to that in our first segment. I'm really excited to talk about it with you guys. In our second segment, we are going to do our Tic Tac Tuesday segment. We're going to step into the film room and I'm going to look at as we cap off the first 10 weeks of the season, my top four plays so far throughout the season. I'm going to talk

about how they were able to succeed and why they were so important to this team and where they're at right now. And in our last segment, as I said, a little appetizer to get you guys ready for prep for the Jaguars. I'm going to give you a little Titans talk. We'll hear from head coach Mike Vrabel about what he thinks about the upcoming game and some other questions that he had to answer. I want to make sure you guys are ready to go as we get into crossover Wednesday tomorrow and really start hammering down on these Jacksonville Jaguars in our pursuit of revenge and restarting the streak.

Remember, we ended the streak 999 consecutive days without a loss to the Jaguars. They were able to get us with some unfortunate circumstances in Week 3, but we're going to turn that back around and get that streak back going. So ready to get you guys ready for that. Put a cap on the bye week. Let's get it. Your Tennessee Titans lead story with the contract situation of Marcus Mariota basically resolved, that would have been the hottest topic of the offseason when it comes to re-signings.

Clearly, Logan Ryan needs to be re-signed, so that's not really a conversation that needs to be had. We'll pay him whatever we need to. Marcus, clearly, he's not going to be getting the franchise tag. He's not going to be getting a big-time deal. I would be surprised to even see him back with this team at all which leads us to the contract conversation that will be the most divisive that will have the most unanswered questions something that I want to get you guys ready for now because it's going to have to be in the back of our minds as we watch these last six games of the Titans season. And that's Derrick Henry's contract. So just an update for

you so far. So you kind of have an idea of where Derrick is at this time. 832 rushing yards, eight touchdowns. 832 rushing yards is fifth best in the NFL at this time. 13 catches, 165 yards, two touchdowns. Clearly been this team's best and most important player because without him there would be no offense essentially. So we have to give Derek Henry his credit, but it does lead us to the conversation of what he should be paid. He is going to be an unrestricted free agent this summer. So how do we do that? Well, first you have to set the market. What is the market for running backs in his kind of range? I took the biggest running back contracts from the last few years just to use those as kind of a base point for us.

So let's take a look. 2017, Devontae Freeman of the Falcons got a five-year $41 million deal. That's about $8 million a year. Looking at 2018, David Johnson of the Cardinals got three years, Looking at 2018, David Johnson of the Cardinals got three years $39 million. That's about an average of $13 million per year. Todd Gurley got four years $57 million. That's $14 million per year average annually. Going to 2009, sorry 2019, you look at Ezekiel Elliott, six years, $90 million, $15 million average. Le'Veon Bell, four years, $52 million, $13 million average. And then I wanted to throw in this person just as a reference of what it would be on the other side. Mark Ingram signed with the Ravens. He's been fantastic this

year. Three years, $15 million, a $5 million average. That's basically the same as what Deion Lewis is being paid for the Titans right now. you look at those contracts other than Mark Ingram and Devonta Freeman they're all above 13 million dollars for David Johnson, Zeke, Le'Veon Bell, Todd Gurley so 13 million seems to kind of be the base of a all-around good running back one one of the top tier, top five running backs in the league. The problem that comes in with Derrick Henry is his inability to produce in the passing game. Let's look at the career numbers of the running backs that we mentioned contract-wise, and I just want to show you the difference between these backs and Derrick Henry. So, Zeke, 4,881 yards, 35 touchdowns on the ground. Le'Veon Bell, 5,844 yards on the ground, 38 touchdowns. Todd Gurley, 5,072 yards on the ground, 53 touchdowns.

Mark Ingram, 6,674 yards on the ground, 58 touchdowns. Devontae Freeman, 3,687 yards on the ground, 30 touchdowns. David Johnson, 3,085 yards on the ground, 30 touchdowns. David Johnson, 3,085 yards on the ground, 33 touchdowns. Now, Derrick Henry right now, 3,125 yards and 30 touchdowns in his career. So he's basically right there with Devontae Freeman and David Johnson and would-be Mark Ingram. He has had nine seasons, which is considerably more than everyone else in this tier that we're talking about. So Derrick Henry's right there at the bottom. David Johnson got 13. Devontae Freeman got 8. But this is where things really get sticky. Look at the pass catching numbers for these running backs. Zeke, 163 catches, 1,400 yards,

7 touchdowns. Le'Veon, 358 catches, 2,900 yards, 8 touchdowns. Todd Gurley, 205 catches, yards, eight touchdowns. Todd Gurley, 205 catches, 2,000 yards, 11 touchdowns. Mark Ingram, 245 catches, 1,700 yards, seven touchdowns. Devontae Freeman, 236 catches, 1,800 yards, 10 touchdowns. David Johnson, 203 catches, 2,100 yards, 14 receiving touchdowns. Derrick Henry, 52 catches, 539 yards, three touchdowns. He's not nearly the versatile threat and the versatile back that those other guys are. So it's going to be kind of strange how the Titans choose to pay him. I wouldn't say he meets the $13 million threshold because he doesn't add as much value in the receiving area, but I would say that he should make more than the eight of Delonte Freeman. I'm going to say that Derrick Henry should be paid between 10 and 12 million dollars next season. We'll see what

the Titans do pay him. All I know is if Derrick Henry comes out in the last half of this season as he did last season and finds a way to get the Titans into the playoffs and the Titans will have no choice but to pay him that 1212 million max that I talked about, maybe even possibly $13 million if he really goes crazy again. But one thing to consider is when you're paying your running back that much money and he doesn't add value in the passing game, as I mentioned earlier, then you're going to have to give substantial money to a backup running back who gives you what Derrick Henry doesn't, which is what the Titans are doing right now with Deion Lewis.

Are any of you happy with paying Deion Lewis $5 million right now? The answer is probably no for most of you. So if you're unhappy with paying Deion Lewis $5 million right now, just know that when we give Derrick Henry $12 million, $13 million, $11 million, whatever it is, we're still going to have to give somebody like Deion Lewis five million six million dollars to get a running back to balance out what Derrick Henry doesn't give you so now you're allocating uh you know anywhere between 17 to 19 million dollars on your cap into the running back position and that's going to be tops in the NFL for most teams I think the top right now is the Cowboys with their 15.7 million with their backups and Zeke at 15 so just consider that when you're

thinking about all the different options the Titans have to weigh here so that's going to do it for our first segment we are going to jump into Tic Tac Tuesday in our second segment jump into the film room and I'm going to give you guys the X's and O's behind my four favorite plays of the year for the Titans I'm going to tell you why I think they're going they're important we're going to do things just a little bit differently because you guys have all seen these plays before I've broken down most of them in some way or shown you some way talked about them in some way so I'm just going to give you kind of my take on how important the play was why it matters so much to the Titans season so far. Is it something they can build on going forward? Of course, I'm going to post those visuals for you as I always do,

but we will get into that in our next segment. Before we do, I want to remind you that you can treat yourself to a meal you deserve and have your favorite restaurants come to you with DoorDash. Right now, our listeners can get $5 off their first order of $15 or more when you download the DoorDash app and enter promo code LOCKEDON. If you're listening on the go and you can't visit DoorDash right now, you can find this and all other offers from the LockedOn sponsors at LockedOnPodcast.com slash offers.

tick tack Tuesday all right guys let's step into the film room here like I said put a cap on the bye week and a cap on the previous 10 weeks of the season I just want to go over what I think are the four I don't know about most important, but my favorite plays so far of the season for the Titans and plays that I think made the biggest difference in the season so far and where the Titans are at this moment in time. So I'm going to take you guys for my first play all the way back to week one in Cleveland. The Titans are winning by two points, only two points. We remember that as a 43 to 13 blowout, but the Titans are only up by two points, 15 to 13, with two minutes left in the third quarter. This game was not a blowout with literally 17 minutes left in the game. This moment changed this game, but I also think it was a good sign of what the Titans were planning on doing

offensively. Clearly, the Titans were putting an emphasis on bootleg action, so the play action, and then booting back to the other side. So, what the Titans do on this particular play here is they are in single back formation. Derrick Henry in the backfield. They do have McCool Pruitt and Jonu Smith out on the field with Tajay Sharp and Corey Davis. They run a play action fake to the left hand side and Marcus starts to bootleg back to the right. Well, it all sets up a Derrick Henry screen on the backside. And one thing I do want to point out here is Roger Saffold. So Saffold gets out to the left side with Derrick Henry first. He's the first person out there by Henry. And there's a Browns linebacker who actually does kind of snuff out the play. He kind of reads the design and

flows out where the screen is supposed to be. Roger Saffold, without going downfield too far to negate the throw, mirrors the linebacker, mirrors the linebacker, stays right in front of him without engaging until the very last moment that the ball gets to Derrick Henry and he catches it, in which Saffold puts him to the ground and kicks him out. That gives Derrick Henry the first lane. Then, and this is the reason why I think this play is such a good one to show although it's week one it like I said kind of opened up this game for the Titans which this is a huge critical win against an AFC opponent now looking back with everything that transpired the next couple of weeks and the team going down to two and four what a huge win when most people

wouldn't expected the Titans to get this victory so I want to point out McColl Pruitt. One, the Browns defender that he blocks, and I'll highlight it here so you guys can find it, at TicTacTitans on Twitter, but just a terrible effort by the Browns defensive back here. Takes a terrible angle to Henry, and McColl Pruitt is able to legally get in his way to prevent him from getting even close to Henry as he continues to rumble down the sidelines. And then finally, it was a block that was mentioned in real time by Mike Vrabel, but Corey Davis running downfield. He was on the opposite side of the field when the play started. He runs all the way downfield and runs basically 40 yards with Derrick Henry to the house, shielding his defender from

making the play. So it's a team effort there. That's really what I want to point out here is the Titans focus so much on doing everything together as a team, and they play complementary football. It's very important for them to be in sync as a group. So that was just a really nice play that showed everyone's effort, even though they're not touching the ball, and it schematically at least shows something the Titans were going to be focused on throughout the rest of the season, getting those boot actions, getting the play play action and setting up the screen game. Wasn't always successful, but was a good indication of what was to come.

Our second play is going to be on the defensive side of the football. Now, we are going to jump all the way to the Chargers game. Think about it. The Titans took a couple L's to some division opponents early. We're able to squeak out that game against Atlanta where they just just played good in the first half, basically, and then rested in the second half. But Atlanta was a miserable football team at the time, and it's clear now that the Titans weren't playing their best football, but were able to just beat a worse team.

The Bills, the Titans' offense wasn't able to get going. The Broncos, the Titans' offense wasn't able to get going. The defense was put in some really tough positions in those games as well. So there's really not much to write home about in that stretch where the Titans found themselves at two and four. But then they started to make the climb back. And that climb back happened in the Chargers game in Nashville with a goal line stand that changed the course of the season. Now, as I mentioned, I've broken down this play before in a previous episode of Tic Tac Tuesday, so you guys know how it went, but I want to highlight some of the bigger things about this play. Emotionally

speaking, this was Jeffrey Simmons' first game back with the team, and he makes an incredible play on this goal line stand to push his man back. Why is that so important? Because it just shows the next man up mentality that this Titans team has. Jeffrey Simmons, they had belief in him. His teammates had belief in him, and he came in and made a huge play when it mattered the most and essentially saved the Titans season. You look at another person who was massively involved in that play is Wesley

Woodyard. He came in and got the strip from the outside. Wesley hasn't gotten a lot of playing time this year. He's behind Jayon Brown and Rashawn Evans now, but Jayon had been a little banged up. Woodyard was in there. It was a running play. It was a run down on the goal line. So the veteran came in from an outside linebacker position crashed in got his arm in and was able to knock that ball loose and save the season and save the game for the titans someone who isn't a starter someone who was a veteran who had been counted on previously came in and made a play a rookie who had not been counted on before but just had the belief of his teammates and his coaches came in and made a play. So we see the Titans youth and we see the Titans

veterans together on one play, saving the season from two different aspects. I know that the coaches get hammered, not drinking, but they get hammered by us fans and by the media for, you know, the decisions they make and when things don't go well, but you have to have a great coaching staff to be able to have belief in one of your older players and one of your younger players when your season is on the line on the one inch mark. So just an incredible play for the Titans and one of my favorite plays. I don't remember being more hyped for any play throughout the season other than that goal line stand because it was just so improbable. So excellent play by the defensive line, excellent

play by the linebackers, excellent play by the defense in general during that goal line stand because it was just so improbable. So excellent play by the defensive line, excellent play by the linebackers, excellent play by the defense in general during that goal line stand. For our last two plays, play three and play four, we are going to jump to the Kansas City Chiefs game. I know that it just was the last game, but I think it had a major impact on the season and we're going to see it coming out of the bye. I think that scoring the amount of points that the Titans offense did 35, the defense making certain plays against that incredibly dynamic offense and going against the challenge of having to deal with Travis Kelsey and Tyreek Hill and Pat Mahomes and Sammy Watkins. I think dealing with that, it's like getting your most difficult tasks done early as a Titans defense. They're not going to face an offense as potent

as the Chiefs. The Saints and the Texans have decent offenses, but they're not the Chiefs. So it's a really good test to get them ready for the rest of the season and the offenses that they're going to face going forward. Now, the play that I want to focus on, obviously, first, give the defense some credit, is Rashawn Evans' touchdown return. And I want to focus on, obviously, first, give the defense some credit, is Rashawn Evans' touchdown return. And I want to focus on an aspect of this. Like I said, they're more than just on the field. What it means to the team, something that signifies how well this organization is being run from top to bottom right now.

And then also, one thing on the field as well that's incredibly exciting. So we'll get to the on the field part first, and that's Jeffrey Simmons. Everybody wants to talk about David Long getting the strip. Everybody wants to talk about Rashawn Evans' incredibly athletic play to scoop and score. But Jeffrey Simmons bull rushed the guard back into the backfield, and it caused running back Damian Williams to pause and then have to cut backwards towards David Long. So when he did that, when Damian Williams cut backwards towards David Long. So when he did that, when Damian Williams cut backwards towards David Long because Jeffrey Simmons had plugged up the hole and driven his man back into the

backfield, he cut back right into David Long. David Long strips the ball. Rashawn Evans picks up the ball, runs it to the house. Remember, at this time, the Titans are down 10-7 in this ballgame. At this moment in time, the Titans are down 10-7. So the Chiefs have the ball. If they go down and drive in the middle of the second quarter and go up 17-7, this game might feel a little out of hand. And the Titans don't have the momentum going like they did in the second half to be able to counter and actually make some plays.

They had some momentum offensively there. So the Titans are kind of dead in the water right here. The Chiefs have a good opportunity to go down and kind of put a 10-point lead on it and put the game not away, but start kind of chipping away at the Titans' hope to be able to stay in it. What a monster play. David Long, a rookie who's been coached up so well that he can go out there and make plays when needed. Jeffrey Simmons, just been in the lineup a few times, but coached up so well and so talented and such a good pick that he can make a play. And then another great pick, Rashawn Evans, incredible drafts by J-Rob on defense here recently in the last few years. And Rashawn Evans just makes an incredibly athletic play for a guy who used to be a linebacker

or a running back back in the day. So it makes sense that he would have that speed and agility. And I'm not quite sure what Patrick Mahomes is doing on that play. If you guys go back and take a look at it again, I'm going to highlight some of the bigger things there. But not sure what Pat Mahomes is doing on that one. I guess maybe he just doesn't want to get hurt. So for our last play, we are going to go to the game winning touchdown for Ryan Tannehill to Adam Humphreys, of course.

And what I want to focus on here is it's something that Mike Vrabel pointed out in his press conference. First, the Titans looked a little scrambled here. I'm glad that they were able to get on the ball. Taylor LeJuan didn't realize that they were going to go ahead and run a play. So once Tannehill got everybody lined up, really impressive move. So the Titans just run four verts down the field. Previously, remember, they had just hit Anthony Ferkser on this exact same play and were able to get the ball lined up and go.

So what they do is they just flip it. They threw to Ferkser on one play. The very next play, they just flip it and go to Humphreys on the other side. So all the receivers press up the field as far as they can. Adam Humphreys is kind of going towards the sideline. He's in the left side slot. So he's kind of going towards the sideline. He breaks inside just a little bit, just a little bit to give Tannehill an open throw.

So what the Chiefs are doing right here, they're running a cover to man scheme. So they have their two safeties deep covering each half of the field. And then they have their four cornerbacks underneath just man coverage on their guy. Well, what happens is that opens up the middle of the field because those two safeties get wide. And they want to cover the outside and think that that's going to be a hole for them so it can open up the middle. That's why they hit Ferkser over the middle because the middle was open and they were just running this coverage over and over. And then on the game-winning touchdown, they ran the same coverage just as they did the play before against Ferkser. Humphreys, they just flip it to the other side. Humphreys makes a great outside stem on his route and then

cuts it inside and it kind of throws his man off of him, gives him just a little bit of a window. And because the safeties are focused on the outside and the other defenders are in man against the outside receivers, there's nobody in the middle of the field to stop Adam Humphreys from running the 10 yards after the catch and getting in the end zone for the biggest win of the Titans season so far, getting them to 5-5. And after the results of their division opponents this weekend, sit only one game back in the AFC South going into the second half of the season. So really exciting there. I'm going to post all the visuals on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans. My favorite four plays of the season so far. Please

check out those visuals and let me know if you have any questions. But just great plays right there. Really exciting and I'm ready for some Titans football this weekend. To get us even more ready for the game against Jacksonville in our third segment, we are going to do Titans Talk. I'm going to play you some snippets from Mike Vrabel's press conference about the Jaguars just so you guys are ready to go, and we will do that next. All right, let's do a little bit of Titans talk and hear from head coach Mike Grable about the bye week and getting ready for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Hope you guys enjoy. It was a good week for us to get, I guess, recovered mentally, physically.

And, you know, we'll see where we're at today. Excited to get out there and practice. We'll definitely know more on Wednesday. We'll probably get half of those guys back. I think that there's always when you look back on 10 games, there's always things that maybe weren't as bad that you thought were bad. There were things that maybe weren't as bad that you thought were bad. There were things that maybe you thought were pretty good that weren't quite as good as you thought.

I think that's pretty indicative of how the games go. But, you know, we're – whatever you want to say, I think there's still some positive things. You know, you look at our screen game and you think, man, it's not very good. And then you realize that you've got the second most yardage in the league in screens. And so try to enhance some of that stuff that you're doing well, seeing how close you are on some of the run game, try to focus each position on how they can help us and improve

and what's the difference between a 60-yard touchdown and a 2-yard gain. It's not that much. It's a great opportunity. It's no different than the Kentucky Derby. 20 horses that cost a million dollars. You say go, and they all start running, and they usually get lumped together pretty tightly. And through the course of the race or the season,

there'll be breaks or there'll be a good opportunity, a hole open up, and someone or a horse will take advantage, or in this case, a team will take advantage of the opportunity. So all we can focus on right now is Jacksonville. Didn't play the game how we wanted to play it last time down there. So we'll have to do a much better job this week of preparing to continue to give ourselves opportunities. You don't have much of a sample size,

and I don't think they really, you know, the way that the game went in the second half, you know, forced them to get away from some of the things that I think that they really want to hang their hat on. And, you know, so we'll have to kind of see where that goes this week. But, you know, I would imagine that for net would be a much larger part of the plan. They still have guys that can move the ball downfield, very fast, linear receivers that have really done a nice job

of catching the ball down the field. No, I think that just is how I try to answer Paul's question. I was in a cab in Boston, and if you pay attention to some cab drivers, you learn stuff. He says if you got one foot on yesterday and one foot on tomorrow, you end up just peeing on today. So I'm going to try to apply that here to what we're doing each and every day. Well, again, I think the energy is transferred on the field because you know that energy can't be created. I learned that, too, when I did a study on energy, right?

Do you know that, Eric? No, I went on Google. And, you know, it can't be created. It can only be transferred. And so we're trying to transfer it from each player to that phase, that unit, that defense. Speaking of Rashawn, you know, when he does make impactful plays, that does transfer energy to our team. And so he can continue to improve. I think that the production, you know, is where we want it. You know, he's a productive player, instinctive player, just like everybody else trying to improve on the techniques, the fundamentals to try to maximize his game and his performance.

That was it. I know everybody made a big emphasis on the energy so I wanted to get to know and be knowledgeable on energy. And there's a law of conservation of energy that I studied, potential energy, kinetic energy, all those types of things, so that I could be knowledgeable when you ask me about energy. Yeah, I mean, I think that's why a lot of us coach is because, you know, maybe you did it at one point in time or you're knowledgeable and you care about the players and you'd love to see them have success on things that you practice.

And they believe it. No different than blocks that maybe Nate Davis would make or a route that A.J. Brown would improve on. And I'm just using younger players or Johnnie watching things that happen on the practice field translate to the game Jeffrey Simmons you know first I'm just trying to use some of these younger players that are probably some of these things are newer to them being in this league. Okay guys that was head coach Mike Vrabel courtesy of titansonline.com so we went over Derrick Henry's contract situation and how it'll be impacted through the next six

weeks of the season and determine how much the Titans will be able to offer him this offseason we did do our top four plays of the season in this week's Tick-Tack Tuesday film session and then in our last segment we did just hear from head coach Mike Vrabel to get us ready for our preparation for Jacksonville. Tomorrow, we will have the host of Locked On Jags on to do our crossover Wednesday event and get you guys ready for the game. Really excited to bring it to you. If you aren't already, please subscribe to the show.

Follow me on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans, and we will holler at you guys tomorrow. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.