Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Titans Fire Four Coaches, Titans Sign 14 Players & Vrabel's End of Season Comments

Episode Date: January 26, 2022

The Tennessee Titans fired four coaches on Tuesday. Tyler goes over the four firings, why they may have happened and who wasn't fired that steals the show! Then, the Titans signed 14 players to free agent deals this week. Who are they and what do these contracts really mean? Finally, Mike Vrabel spoke at his end-of-season press conference earlier in the week and had some interesting things to say about Todd Downing, Ryan Tannehill and the potential changes. Tyler breaks down the comments that stuck out to him.Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPodSubscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP3332GMOh4y5PX3q9NFybwSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.OnlineGambling.comVisit onlinegambling.com/NFL to get the edge over the competition throughout this year’s Playoffs!GetUpsideJust download the FREE GetUpside App and use promo code TOUCHDOWN to get 25 cents per gallon or more cash back on your first tank. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, it is a Wednesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast and we have a ton of Tennessee Titans news to go over. The Titans fired some coaches on Tuesday. I'll tell you who those coaches were and more importantly, who those coaches weren't. And then we are going to get into some free agent signings that the Tennessee Titans have made.

The Titans have signed 13 players already. I know that may not make sense right now, but I'll tell you exactly what's going on and what these players mean for the Titans in the future. And then finally, we're going to take a look at some quotes from Mike Vrabel's end-of-the-season press conference, some interesting things to say about the direction of the offense specifically moving forward. So all of that on a Wednesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast.

Let's get it. You are Locked on Titans. Your daily Tennessee Titans podcast. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Titans fans, it is a Wednesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast. Do want to let you guys know that today's show is brought to you by OnlineGambling.com, the place to be for all the latest gambling news and tips throughout the NFL playoffs. Visit OnlineGambling.com slash NFL to get the edge over the competition throughout this

year's playoffs. Also want to thank you guys for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. If this is your first ever listen to the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. If this is your first ever listen to the Locked On Titans podcast, make sure you subscribe on whatever platform you do stream on all audio platforms. Also,

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My name is Tyler Rowland. I know I don't explain this a lot. I've been a Titans fan for over 20 years. Been covering the team for quite some time now. Like to focus on the X's and O's, break down the tape, break down the film. And speaking of that, typically we do a re-watch Wednesday on the Wednesday show where I go over everything I saw on tape from the coaches tape, the all 22 review, if you will. And I am going to do that for this Titans loss to the Bengals, but do got to tell you guys up front, I am running

a little bit of a fever right now, feeling a tad bit under the weather. I'm sure people who listen to the show for quite some time can tell. But I'm addicted, and I love talking about Titans with you guys. Had to get on here and make sure that we had a Wednesday episode. And like I said, there's a lot of Tennessee Titans news to talk about. So we are going to dive into the tape on tomorrow's show on Thursday. And today we will talk about some coach firings that have taken place. The Tennessee Titans have let go of four coaches, but I'm here to tell you guys, unfortunately, none of those

coaches were offensive coordinator Todd Downing. Surprisingly, the majority of these coaches come from the defensive side of the ball. So let's start. The biggest firing of them all is inside linebacker coach Jim Haslett. Sorry about that. Inside linebacker coach Jim Haslett. Now, Jayon Brown did take a little bit of a step back. Rashawn Evans didn't develop anymore. But I thoughtty Rice looked pretty

good when he was out there this year as a rookie and the crowning jewel of all, David Long took a major step in his last two seasons with Jim Haslett as his inside linebacker coach. So pretty confusing there. Now, I wasn't a big Hazlitt guy when he was fired. I didn't think he was anywhere near as good as the inside linebacker coach prior to him, Tyrone McKenzie. So that is something that I'm not 100% shocked at, but I thought with the progression of David Long, Hazlitt acquitted himself pretty well. But, you know, it's hard to judge assistant coaches.

We see the play calls of offensive coordinators, but you don't know exactly what a coach is doing one-on-one with his players in practice. All you can really do is check the development of those players in that position group out on the field. And while I was impressed with what David Long did this year, not very impressed with Rashawn Evans. He was a healthy scratch at the end of the year, only played three snaps in the last game he was in. Jayon Brown definitely took a step back. I remember him struggling to cover Mark Ingram in man coverage and just thinking, what's really going on here?

So a surprise, but without being in the building, it's hard to really put any kind of indictment or any real criticism on any of the assistant coaches. But moving on from inside linebacker coach Jim Hasley, Kenichi Udise was the assistant defensive line coach for the Titans. He had just got on this year to actually be an assistant coach. So unfortunate for a young guy trying to make his way in the NFL to get the boot this early into his career.

And, you know, like I said, we can't really know what the assistant coach is, but the Titans defensive line looked pretty good this year to me. So kind of tough pill to swallow, I'm sure, for Udese. Matt Edwards, the assistant special teams coach. The Titans special teams unit has not been good any season under Mike Vrabel as a total unit. And it's just strange to me that Craig Aukerman, the actual special teams coach, survived these firings,

but his assistant got let go. That's interesting to me. And then Mondre Gee, the assistant strength and conditioning coach. Now, this makes a little bit of sense to me. With all the injuries that the Titans have experienced throughout this year, you had to think some changes were going to be made with the medical staff, with strength and conditioning, those sorts of areas. So not a huge surprise to see this.

But again, just the assistant strength and conditioning coach. So seems like the assistants are really taking the brunt of the aggression from the Titans here. But again, no firings on the offensive side of the ball, which has been the side of the ball that's let the Titans down in the playoffs two years in a row. So that's very interesting to see, but that leaves a lot of spots to be filled, and I'll make sure to break down who fills those spots

whenever the Titans do make those decisions. And this doesn't mean that Todd Downing won't be fired, but when we combine this with some quotes from Mike Vrabel that I'm going to read later in the episode, it doesn't give me a lot of optimism, as I kind of intimated in yesterday's podcast. But we're going to move forward and talk about some signings. The Titans have signed some free agents, 13 in total, 11 of those coming on Monday. I'll tell you who they are and what these free agent signings mean. Before we get into that

though, I do want to tell you guys a little bit more about our title sponsor, OnlineGambling.com. My Super Bowl prediction, out the window. After this weekend, I had Green Bay and Kansas City. While Kansas City is still in it, Green Bay obviously isn't. I'm going to go with Kansas City and Los Angeles. The Rams, I think that is going to be the Super Bowl. And that would be my pick if I had to make a bet. And I would go to OnlineGambling.com to see what they had to say about that because they have their OG tips. It's an article they have on their website. It basically gives you their picks before

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We're going to talk about some free agent signings that the Titans have made. And you're scratching your head, touching your chin. Free agent signings? This early? What's going on? How did I miss that? Well, I will explain. Before I get into it, I want to thank you guys again for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. As for your second listen, check out the Peacock and Williamson NFL show, part of the Locked on Podcast Network. The Peacock and Williamson NFL show will be on location in LA for Super Week. You're going to get the most comprehensive and in-depth Super Bowl coverage

by checking out the Peacock and Williamson NFL show all throughout Super Week. Make sure you guys go subscribe to that right now on any and all platforms. But as for these signings, all of these signings for the Titans are futures contracts. What does that mean?

Well, I'm going to keep it simple with you guys because that's what I really like to do. It's a training camp invite. That's all. It's saying, hey, we want you in training camp. We want you on our 90-man roster to start things out. A lot of the time, these are your practice squad guys who weren't on the 53-man roster at the end of the year.

You don't want them out there lingering, being in limbo. Obviously, the Titans did a good job with our depth this year. 91 players on the roster throughout the year, an NFL record for a single season. A lot of these guys on the Titans practice squad probably would get scooped up by a different practice squad, but if you're the guy on the Titans practice squad, you're thinking, I've been with this organization for most of the season. They know me. I know them. This gives me my best opportunity to make a roster where I know the system. I can come in playing fast,

don't have to relearn new terminology, all of that. They already know me. They have interest in me already as well. So I'm going back to Tennessee. That has to be the thought process for most of these guys. And we'll go through the list. Wide receiver Cody Hollister, who obviously has been with the Titans for a couple of years now, on and off the roster, on and through the list. Wide receiver Cody Hollister, who obviously has been with the Titans

for a couple of years now on and off the roster, on and off the practice squad, had some actual game time for the Titans this year. He's basically a lesser version of Nick Westbrook-Akina. He's a less talented version of Nick Westbrook-Akina. That's what the situation is. And it makes sense to have a guy like that around if you're the Titans, that's a role within your offense, that big third wide receiver, uh, that they're going to need to fill. If anything were to ever happen and we saw stuff happen this year. So it makes sense. Mason Kinsey, a fan favorite, uh, machine gun Kinsey, as I like to

call him. Uh, he is also going to be back, had a couple of games on the active roster for the Titans really had a great performance in the preseason for the Titans specifically. He's a guy who I think could make the roster next year. I wouldn't be surprised to see Mason Kinsey actually on the 53-man roster to start for the Titans next year as he gets stronger, gets bigger, understands the offense more. Jamal Carter spent some time with the team during the regular season as well. Defense back mostly plays safety, but he's been with the Titans for some time.

Halfway through the year, tight end Austin Ford, another signing. He's been with the organization. Makes sense to keep him around. A name that has stuck out to me since the preseason last year, Christian DeLauro. I know that he's more of a veteran guy, not really a young project guy, but just somebody who the Titans like to have as a depth piece on the practice squad with a futures contract, stepped up a few times, especially during the preseason. I liked some of the things that I saw from him.

Derwin Gray, another offensive lineman who can't quite say the same things as I can about Christian DeLauro, about Derwin Gray. Daniel Murner, who a lot of you guys will know, has flirted with the Titans roster for quite a bit Last couple of years He's going to get a futures contract here I don't really understand how he continues to do it I guess just system knowledge and comfortability is pushing him through

Every year, I deem a roster pirate Somebody who I can't believe continues to stay with the organization Despite what we see from them on the field. It was David Flewellen my first year, Jeremy McNichols now, Jeremy McNichols in the second year, and the one I'm dedicating this time is Daniel Murner. I don't understand how he continues to do it. Jordan Roos, another offensive lineman. He's the Titan social media team. Really liked

pumping him up. He had the crossbar face mask. Really tough look. He's got that typical Tennessee Titans offensive lineman. Long, dark hair, big bodied guy, snarl at you, tough, mean, gritty, all those classic cliche words. But I like keeping Jordan Roos around and develop him a little bit more as an interior offensive lineman. On the defensive side, Joe Jones and Tazar Skipper, two outside linebackers, will be kept around. Jones did spend some time on the active roster throughout the year. Kevin Hogan, who was the Titans' third quarterback most of the season, he will stick around on a futures contract.

Those are the 11 guys that were signed on Monday. Now, if you recall, a couple of weeks ago, the Titans signed some futures contracts. It was defensive lineman Kobe Jones and defensive back Chris Williamson. So right now, that's 13 players that the Titans have signed future contracts. And again, just to reiterate, a futures contract simply means you're invited to training camp and invited to be on the 90-man roster. So with that being said, we are going to move forward into some quotes that we got from Mike Vrabel in the season-ending press conference. And I don't know, some of them just don't sit really well with me, I guess. There's no other way to

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Once again, that's promo code LOCKED15 for 15% off at Bilt.com. Titans fans, let's cap off this Wednesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast. We're going to go over some quotes from Mike Rabel. Before we get into that, I do want to remind you guys about the Locked On Bets podcast hosted by your boy Q and handicapping expert Lee Sterling. They're going to give you daily picks, upset specials, Lee Sterling's lock of the day, all that and more. So check out the Locked On Bets podcast presented by betonline.ag, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, wherever you get your podcasts.

But we're going to talk about some Mike Vrabel quotes from his end-of-the-season press conference. Before we do, as I'm recording this, the Titans signed some more futures contracts. So since we just talked about 13 players that have already been signed, I want to give you three more defensive back Shaheem Carter, defensive back Rodney Clemens, and linebacker Nate Hall, all added to the training camp roster essentially for the Tennessee Titans. But with that in mind, we're going to get into some Mike Vrabel quotes. And I got to tell you guys, I was severely disappointed

with some of these quotes that we got from Mike Vrabel and the direction that it may be heading the Titans in in terms of some changes that we wanted to see. Obviously, hoping that offensive coordinator Todd Downing would be let go and replaced. Todd Downing didn't run a very good offense when he was with the Oakland Raiders in 2017. The Titans offense really took a step back this year. And I know that there were injuries and there were personnel issues.

But as an offensive play caller, those are the type of things that you have to be able to work around and get the best out of your guys. And that clearly didn't happen. Ryan Tannehill was a much less of a player this year, much less efficient, much less comfortable. The pass protection was nowhere near as good, almost double the sacks the Titans allowed from 2020 to 2021, and you can put that on the offensive line,

but there was only one new starter, and that was that right tackle. And Questenberry didn't play a great season, but he was an outright disaster all the time. So, you know, a lot of those protection things come down to what the coaching staff is installing throughout the week to deal with the pressure that the opposite team is going to take. We saw the Tennessee Titans in the playoffs with a full complement of weapons.

Ryan Tannehill still throwing three interceptions, not getting easy looks that need to be there for Ryan Tannehill still throwing three interceptions, not getting easy looks that need to be there for Ryan Tannehill to be successful. Also, on that RPO interception that Ryan Tannehill tried to throw to Chester Rogers, I mean, that's just a disasterly play call, not to mention the third and fourth down play calls that we saw earlier or later in the game on the turnover on downs. So I don't think anybody's happy with Todd Downing except Mike Vrabel. So here's some quotes from Mike Vrabel talking about offensive coordinator Todd Downing that really stuck out to me. Vrabel said, Todd Downing does a great job.

He's a great coach, and I think he's a hard worker. There's always going to be calls you'd like to have back. There's plays that you'd like to have back, but I love the relationship Todd has with the assistant coaches and the players, and we'll all continue to improve. He's a great coach. Now, I'm not going to say he's not a hard worker. That's definitely possible, but just one counter I would have. The Titans only scored points on three of their opening possessions in the 18 games that they played. Three times. One of those was a field goal.

Only two were touchdowns. I'm sorry that just doesn't happen if you have a good plan going into the game. It just doesn't. So, all of the success that we saw from the Titans' offense most of the year It doesn't happen if you have a good plan going into the game. It just doesn't. So, all of the success that we saw from the Titans offense most of the year was after the team was able to adjust to what the defense was going first. The Titans never go out there and punch first on offense. They get punched in the mouth, and then they adjust. And while it's good that the Titans offense was able to make good adjustments

throughout the season, throughout games, how much credit do we give Todd Downing for making in-game adjustments? Mike Vrabel talked about the fact that he's involved in the offense. I mean, it's possible that Mike Vrabel is the one giving these adjustments or Ryan Tannehill is saying, hey, I'm seeing this, we're doing this, we need to do this. So I have a hard time giving all the credit for the in-game adjustments to Todd Downing when he always comes out with a terrible plan to start.

See what I mean? I mean, it's just kind of hard to tie in. You know, I'm not going to say that the dude doesn't work hard, but is he working efficiently? Is he working smart? Those are questions that I have because if you're that hard of a worker, it's just hard for me to contemplate that you would come out

and only have success and score points on 3 out of 18 drives to start the game. It seems like you're working real hard throughout the week, but you never have a good plan to start a game of how to attack a defense and put plays together. The mark of a good play caller and a really good offensive mind is to have a great opening game script because they see what the defense likes to do and they know how to attack it right off the bat.

And they make the defense adjust off that. Well, the Titans don't do that at all. So it's just hard for me to accept that comment. And when you see the firings that happened today or happened on Tuesday. I'm just not very optimistic that Todd Downing is going to be let go. Now, I'm going to give a shout out to my guy on Twitter, Nick Lombardi. And he said, what if the Titans fire Luke Steckle, the tight end coach, hire Tim Kelly as a tight end coach. He was a former tight end coach before he was an offensive coordinator. And then they kind of have a fallback plan mid-season if they have

to get rid of Todd Downing. And I understand that plan. It's a good thought from Nick, but just rip the bandaid off, man. Why are you going to do half measures and half steps? I just don't like operating in that way in general, but it does seem like something that Mike Vrabel would do. So that really stood out to me. Also, Mike Vrabel would do. So that really stood out to me. Also, Mike Vrabel did talk about potential changes to the coaching staff. He said we'll have meetings on that throughout the week, and there's some other things I'll have to put into consideration. Well, we saw the four firings that we got, but none of those were Todd Downing,

so all that kind of falls on deaf words for me. He talked about Ryan Tannehill as well, and I've been saying this all week. I think I'm going to rant about it later, talked about Ryan Tannehill as well and I've been saying this all week I think I'm gonna rant about it later but like Ryan Tannehill while he definitely melted down in that game he choked whatever words you want to use he's not a terrible quarterback I still think like I said yesterday he's in the second tier of quarterbacks in the NFL and if you put him in the right circumstances he can be good. I don't think what happened in 2019 and 2020 is a fluke per se. I just think he was put in better positions by a better offensive coach in Arthur Smith. Now, can you win a Super Bowl with Ryan Tannehill?

Even with that being true, I lean to no at this moment in time because even with Arthur Smith, Ryan Tannehill threw a game-losing interception in 2020 against the Ravens. So I don't really think you can trust Ryan Tannehill to win you a Super Bowl, but you could definitely get better play out of him, and that at least gives you a chance. But everybody opining for Ryan Tannehill to be gone, you're just not going to get your wish.

It doesn't make any sense for a team to trade for him with all the money they'd have to take on. It doesn't make sense for the Titans to cut him. That's absolutely never going to happen because of all the dead cap. I wouldn't want that to happen anyway because who's going to replace Ryan Tannehill? I firmly believe that 2022 is the last year of the window for this kind of group of the Titans before they evolve to a new group. There's no quarterback that's going to come in and be better than Ryan Tannehill right away. Definitely not any of those rookies. And if the Titans think it's one of those rookies,

then trade up in the first round and go get him. And have him play with Ryan Tannehill. So either way, just doesn't make sense. But here's what Vrabel had to say about Ryan Tannehill. He said he has elite toughness. We have to be great around him. I'm going to stop the quote right there. We have to be great around him.

The margin of error when you have a quarterback like Ryan Tannehill is so thin. The coaching has to be great. The offensive line has to be great. The weapons have to be great. The defense has to be great. The special teams have to be great. The margin of error when you don't have an elite quarterback is everything else has to be elite.

That's the problem. If you have an elite quarterback, you can get away with some places not being elite. If you don't have an elite quarterback, then you can't. So we have to be great around him. You're right, Mike. You have to be great around him. It makes it hard to build a championship team that way. But to continue the quote, but he has shown signs of accuracy, of decision-making, the ability to extend plays, and to scramble, and leadership. Those are all things that you look for in a quarterback, and Ryan has shown us that. Unfortunately, we turned over the ball on Saturday. Well, he's right.

He's right. They did turn over the ball on Saturday, but he's also right. Ryan Tannehill has shown all of those traits, and that goes back to what I was saying before. Ryan Tannehill is not awful, guys. Ryan Tannehill is not terrible. He's just a little bit better than average. And when you have a little bit better than average and not an elite quarterback, excuse me,

everything else has to be elite around him. Everything. And, you know, I would say everything was elite around Ryan Tannehill on Saturday except the play calling. So if you can't change Ryan Tannehill, then you have to change the play calling in hopes that you can get some elite play calling because you're not going to get it from Todd. And I'm kind of sad by those quotes.

And one thing I also want to point out, I don't have the exact quote with me, but after the game, Mike Vrabel talked about sacks being overrated and they have to force more turnovers. I get he was mad, but that's just so unrealistic. I just can't believe that Mike Vrabel would say that out loud in public. Like, well, I guess sacks aren't that great and we got to get turnovers. To really put it on the defense, yeah, the problem in that game and the problem with the Titans this year was we didn't force enough turnovers.

How about turning it over less? I mean, is that not an option? I can't believe Mike Rabel's putting more emphasis on the Titans defense like they had to be better. Just makes me mad for the defensive guys. I would be so pissed hearing that from my head coach. Oh, the sacks aren't that great. We need to force turnovers.

Man, get out of here. Tell that quarterback and the offensive play quality to quit blowing it while we get a playoff record nine sacks. And we got a turnover. Oh, man. Grinds my gears, I guess to say at least. But thank you guys all so much for making it through with me. I know the loyal listeners

who've been listening for a while will understand where I'm at right now. But again, I can never leave you guys without a podcast to step to each day. I promise Monday through Friday content and that is what I'm going to deliver. So thank you guys all so much. Subscribe on whatever platform you do stream.

That's going to do it for me today though, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.