Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Titans Offseason Program, Jonnu Smith & Ryan Tannehill Workouts and Friday Mailbag

Episode Date: May 15, 2020

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Welcome to the Locked On Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, happy Friday. Hope you guys have a fun and safe weekend ahead. I am going to send you off into the weekend with an excellent Friday episode. So for the past few weeks, we have been focused on our division crossover series. We talked to the host of the Locked On podcast for the NFC North, the Packers, the Bears, the Vikings, and the Lions, and then the AFC North this week with the Steelers, the Bengals, the Browns, and the Ravens. So make sure if you missed any of those episodes that you go back and check those out.

There were some excellent conversations throughout the last few weeks, but the past few days, there were some big news items surrounding the Tennessee Titans that I want to get to, some good stories that we need to check out. First, the NFL has moved the virtual deadline back, and the Titans are in the midst of a virtual and somewhat voluntary off-season program, which of course, due to all the current restrictions and everything that we know with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Titans are limited, as are all the other NFL teams. But we are going to talk about what the Titans are doing in their off-season program, even

if it is virtual. And we are going to get some tidbits about the process directly from head coach Mike Vrabel. We got some audio from TennesseeTitans.com to give us a window inside what these virtual offseason programs actually are. And how the rookies are doing and what we could see after the Titans actually get on the field. So we are going to tackle that first and get caught up on what the Titans are actually doing right now. And then in our second segment, Ryan Tannehill and Jonu Smith have been getting in some work down in South Florida. So we are going to talk about that, how that could benefit the Titans once the regular

season comes along. And we are also going to hear directly from Titans tight end Jonu Smith again with some audio from TennesseeTitans.com hear directly from Jonu Smith about what the impact of that extra work with Tannehill could be how he's handling a season where he's not recovering from injury in the all season and also some thoughts on Delaney Walker so some really good audio and some good stories to talk about ahead. And then, of course, it is our Friday episode. So we are going to finish out the week with a Friday mailbag.

Going to take your guys' questions and answer those to the best of my ability. A little spoiler alert ahead. Of course, this episode of Locked on Titans is brought to you by Built Bar. Check out builtbar.com. Use promo code LOCKEDON for $10 off your first box at builtbar.com. Some excellent and tasty protein bars there. As I always mention, please, if you are not already subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform that you stream your podcast, I'm going to be kicking off our deep dive series on our draft prospects on Monday.

So I'm going to be doing a deep dive on Isaiah Wilson. I got a film breakdown ready to go that I'm going to be posting on Twitter as well. So follow me there at TicTacTitans. I am really excited to get that to you guys on Monday and talk Isaiah Wilson to kick off our series on all of the Titans draftees. So some good content coming up. Make sure that you are locked in to the Locked on Titans podcast. But we have a big show ahead of us today.

Let's hear from Titans head coach Mike Vrabel about what the Titans are currently doing, podcast, but we have a big show ahead of us today. Let's hear from Titans head coach Mike Rabel about what the Titans are currently doing, Jonu Smith about the work that him and Tannehill are getting in, and jump into that Friday mailbag. Let's get it. Due to current restrictions, the Titans offseason program so far has been entirely virtual for the rookies and not only virtual but voluntary for their veterans. The Titans had hoped as well as other teams around the NFL that they would be able to get the players back in the building at least in some limited capacity here shortly and the NFL had set a deadline for this week but we learned on Wednesday that the NFL had moved that deadline to require virtual activities

only for players until May the 29th and now that we know the deadline has been extended a few more weeks, it leaves us with the question, what does the Titans offseason program look like right now, considering that it is virtual? And what is their plan? Well, we will hear from none other than the head coach of the Tennessee Titans, Mike Vrabel here to explain that. Audio is courtesy of TennesseeTitans.com. You know, we would be in phase one now heading into phase two, which is still some meetings and would have been some on-field instruction with coaches. But, you know, as far as the meetings, I think they've been great. I've been extremely pleased with how our coaches have found ways to teach and to test and to interact with the players.

I think the players have been engaged. They've been locked in. We haven't been going too long, trying to keep them as small group as we possibly can. We're in a process of integrating our rookies into those veteran meetings as well as having separate meetings for the rookies. So that'll go on next week. We'll integrate the rookies into some of those veteran meeting rooms.

Now that we feel like they're somewhat caught up to speed, it's important that they're around those veterans and they get to know them and see them and listen to them and kind of understand how quickly they know the information. And then we'll continue with the rookie player engagement, rookie development program with Chick Egiase and his staff, Dr. Sheila Peters and Mitch, our team chaplain, really impressed with what they do for our rookies and as far as the transition goes. So we're always going to try to change things that we don't like, but as of now, I think that things have gone well and continue through with the installation program that we would have been had we been able to go out on the field here in a couple weeks.

Vrabel also mentioned that it was his expectation that he would not get the players back until training camp. Recently, in NFL circles, there has been a lot of buzz about training camp and anticipation for more joint practices. And Mike Vrabel spoke about the possibility of having more than one team involved in joint practices to help compensate for the limited offseason? Yeah, there have been some discussions. Again, I think that I would anticipate, you know,

once we get a little more clarity on what that training camp looks like, that I'm hopeful that we'll be able to practice with one, if not two teams. Now that we have heard what the plan for the virtual offseason program is and heard a little bit about the plan for training camp going forward, how are the rookies currently performing in this unusual offseason virtual program? Well, I think this is a sharp group. I talk to these guys about building a routine as far as how they're going to, when they're going to get up, when they're going to have breakfast, when they're going to mix in, when they're going to find time to work out.

They have their meeting schedule. They've operated around the different meeting rooms from a position meeting to a special teams meeting to to a player engagement meeting and I think probably for the younger player this may be easy maybe some of these these players have had online classes or had classes similar to what we're doing now. But I think that from everything that I've seen, that these players are locked in, they're engaged, they're asking questions, and we're finding ways to teach these guys and test them on the information.

Although the interactions are only virtual, it is clear that the Tennessee Titans organization is staying as ready as possible. And speaking of staying as ready as possible, if you want to stay as ready as possible, then you need to try Built Bars. Built Bars are the best tasting protein bar ever. I personally really enjoy the peanut butter chocolate, the peanut butter brownie, the chocolate orange flavor, the salted caramel. I rave about those flavors. I think they're absolutely delicious. It's a protein bar, of course, but it tastes like a candy bar. They have 16 different amazing flavors. They have eight chocolate and nut flavors, but they also have eight

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If you're looking for maybe a guilt-free snack after dinner or a little bit of a dessert, the mint brownie is 15 grams of protein, only 110 calories, 4 grams of sugar, 5 grams of net carbs. So go check out BuiltBar.com. Use promo code LOCKEDON and you'll get $10 off your first order. Once again, use promo code LOCKEDON to get $10 off at BuiltBar.com. As we talked about in the previous segment, there are the obvious restrictions that NFL teams are facing along with tons of other businesses all around the world, of course, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which makes the story about Jonu Smith and Ryan Tannehill being able to get in work together as they both are living down in South Florida,

that much more important. Obviously, we've talked a lot on this podcast about how the Titans are looking for continuity going into next season and how that should help them deal with the limited offseason that everyone is facing right now, not having a lot of new pieces to integrate and everyone being relatively on the same page or just looking to improve to the next level. And we even got another story earlier this week from Mike Keith, the voice of the Titans, went on a radio station and talked about the fact that later in the season, a lot of the

big plays that the Titans had, a lot of the big runs, a lot of the big throws that Ryan Tannehill had were actually audibles because Arthur Smith had given Ryan Tannehill the ability to call his own plays at the line of scrimmage. That's important information for two reasons. One, it shows that the Titans offensive coordinator and the quarterback have a really good relationship where they have a lot of trust and Tannehill has a good understanding of what this offense needs to do and what he needs to do. It also raises questions about that wasn't something that was able to do previously, but won't get into that, of course. That's a topic for another day, but it just puts a spotlight on Tannehill and Johnnie Smith getting

together to work things out. Jonu Smith is taking an increased role on this team in the upcoming season, sliding into the no question about it, number one tight end role. So it's good that they're getting ahead of things. And that makes you wonder, how much do you think this Tannehill extra work that Jonu Smith is getting in would help him in that season well we are going to hear directly from Jonu Smith to answer that question again audio courtesy of TennesseeTitans.com it's been very helpful um you know just building the

chemistry you know taking advantage of uh being in the same location um you know just um you know trying to get ahead man and um you know, trying to get ahead, man, and, you know, just continue to work on our craft and improve every way we can. So it's been great that we've been able to get that work in and, you know, I'm sure it'll put us in a good position during the season. The Titans obviously want to repeat or go to the next level from the performance that they had next year. And Johnnie Smith will be a big part of that.

And then, of course, there is the personal aspect that it is a contract year for Jonu Smith. So I hope that the extra work does put the Titans in a good position. Now, something that I mentioned earlier in the show is that Jonu Smith in his previous offseasons had been recovering from injuries to start off. previous off seasons had been recovering from injuries to start off and it felt like he was coming from behind a lot of the time in terms of his off-season preparation so what is it like for him this off season not having an injury that he has to recover from and being able to kind of hit the ground running in the off season yeah um it's definitely a great feeling that you can just, you know, go into the offseason and, you know, get ready to work.

You know, the past two years for me, the offseasons, you know, I've kind of been in like recovery mode from my rookie year into my second year. This was the first season I actually got to, you know, really go and just, you know, hit it at 100 miles an hour as soon as the season ended. The season, we lost to Kansas City. And, you know, I was back working within a week and a half. You know, I was just so excited to get back to it. Some guys, you know, take time off to get their bodies right.

But I just, you know, feel like I had to play catch up, having had the last two off seasons been in recovery mode. But me being able to get back into it and, you know, just, you know, feel like I had to play catch up, having had the last two off seasons been in recovery mode. But me being able to get back into it and, you know, just, you know, get back in the swing of things, it was definitely a good feeling. Jonu also talked about how he has spent time helping out during the COVID-19 situation, serving food to different medical personnel and workers,

including his aunt who's actually been a nurse for he expressed quite some time so it was good to see or good to hear about Titans players getting out in the community and doing different things to help with the different blessings and and different financial opportunities that they have to do so so Johnnie Smith obviously taking care of his family and those who are trying to help us out the most right now. So love hearing that about the Titans. It's one of the things that separates them from most teams is just how every single guy all the way down

from the top of the roster to the bottom seems to be really focused on doing all that they can off the field. He also talked about where I referenced his contract earlier. He mentioned that he was just focused on football, wasn't worried about his contract. off the field he also talked about where I referenced this contract earlier he mentioned that he was just focused on football wasn't worried about his contract that's why he has an agent that's why he pays an agent to do so talked about learning from guys like Kevin Byard and Taylor LeJuan veterans who have gone through the free agent process and he said what he learned from them is just to handle the business on the football field and you know everything will take care of itself there and so it is nice to see that Jonu Smith

has been able to get in that extra work this offseason working with Ryan Tannehill together and also being able to do that work because he's been healthy since the end of the season and the next question that you ask yourself is what exactly are him and Ryan Tannehill doing in these workouts and what kind of advantage is it creating? Both down in the South Florida area, you know, we meeting up, you know, at a, you know, a local park and you know, that we're able to get into, you know, not illegally. We're not breaking any rules. But, you know, it's probably on.

But, you know, we've just been, you know, getting all the work in that we can. You know, just, you know, pretty much everything that I do that, you know, on Sundays and, you know, I'm just trying to perfect that. You know what I mean? And me and Ryan's making me better. I'm making him better. And, you know, we're just building that chemistry. You know, anything you can imagine as far as what it takes to be a quarterback

and a receiver, tight end, you know what I mean? Just doing all certain things to get each other better. So it's been great work, man. We've been able to, you know, maximize the most of our opportunity. And, you know, I love doing it. I love working with him, man. Yeah, I'm sure it'll give us a great advantage, just learning my speed, learning his speed,

learning just feeling the football come out of his hands and just catching the football, just knowing to spin on that thing. I'm only learning more, and he's only learning me more. So I'm sure it'll be a great advantage. And, of course, this will be the first year of Jonu Smith's career that he will not have Delaney Walker playing next to him. He gives his thoughts on that. Yeah, man, it's bittersweet.

It's bittersweet, man. I'm talking about a guy, man. I call, he's calling, man. That's the OG right there, man. And you're talking about a guy that took me on his wing from day one and has been nothing, man, but just a great person to be around, a great role model, a great player, but even a better person off the field. You know, I think, you know, when it's all said and done,

Delaney will be, you you know one of the best to ever do it at his position simply because I got to witness this guy man I got to watch him for years and he was Delaney was kind of the tight ends that started to to transform like he was kind of a part of the new era style tight ends man and you know that's what I mean by him you know being one of the greatest like when that role kind of changed as you know style tight ends, man. And, you know, that's what I mean by him, you know, being one of the greatest. Like, when that role kind of changed as, you know, those tight ends being predominantly pass catchers, man, and great route runners and being able to do electrifying things with the ball in their hands, man.

You know, Delaney's definitely one of the best, you know, to ever do it, you know what I mean, you know, at that level, at that position. And, you know, it's going to be, you know, tough not to look over next to me, man, and see my guy next to me in those meetings, man, and, you know, on the field with me. But, you know, I'm sure that, you know,

his future is as bright as it can be, whether he continues, you know, playing football or not. You know, I don't know what decision he's made. But, you know, it's for me. You know, I'm tight in one now. And, you know, I'm just going to take advantage of the opportunity that I have in front of me. And, like I said, continue to work and, you know, just be a workhorse.

You know, do what's expected of me. He is, in fact, tight in one now. Very, very excited about the potential in the future of Jonu Smith and what he could possibly mean for the Tennessee Titans offense going forward. But we are going to jump into our Friday mailbag next. okay Titans fans let's head into the weekend on the right note as we always do with a Friday mailbag so I will jump into your guys's questions now of course as I always say you can follow me on Twitter at Tic Tac Titan send your questions there at any point in time throughout the week and I will make sure that I get to them on the Friday episode looking to keep this going throughout the offseason if you don't have access

to Twitter just don't feel like making one you can always put them in the iTunes reviews as well, and I will get to those, of course. But we will start off this week's mailbag with Cody James on Twitter, at CJAllDay. He said, comparing Darrington Evans and Deion Lewis, what makes you think Evans will be much more productive than Lewis? Titans didn't seem to give Lewis opportunity last year. Why didn't they scheme Lewis the hypothetical way we talk about using Evans? Here's what I would tell you. They tried. I know that you said it didn't seem like he got a lot of opportunity last year, but it's more of a

causation thing, and I see it the other way. De Lewis wasn't productive and the Titans knew that he wouldn't be able to be productive so it wasn't worth scheming things for him or using him more than they did I think the reality is that Deion Lewis is an older running back now for that position and he doesn't have the explosion doesn't have the elusiveness and doesn't have the explosion, doesn't have the elusiveness, and doesn't have the receiving skills any longer that the Titans needed. And Deion Lewis was brought in here as a pass catcher, of course, but he had a very good end of his last season there with New England on the ground running the ball. And he was thought to be more of a compliment, or not necessarily a compliment, but more sharing the load with Derrick Henry in the backfield not

just as a receiver as a runner once the Titans I guess realized that he didn't have the type of talent anymore that they needed they had to phase him out because it wouldn't have been productive to have him on the field I feel like Evans is a young springy athlete coming out of college he is hitting his physical prime right now. And I think that the wave of youth at the running back position in the NFL would show that it makes sense to lean towards a younger running back for the role that Evans and Lewis was asked to play and Evans will be asked to play. So I think Evans is just a more talented player right now.

He's faster, he's quicker, he's more agile, he's a better football player right now than Deion Lewis. So that's why I think that the Titans didn't use Lewis as much as I hope that they use Darrington Evans going forward. The next question comes from Neil Davis. So obviously I've talked about my love for Drake. My retweets and my likes would also indicate my love for Drake. No shame in that game for me.

Neil Davis asks, can you give us a link to your ultimate all-time Drake playlist? And I don't have an all-time ultimate Drake playlist set up because I have Apple Music and I can just go to Drake as an artist and hit shuffle and just play all of his music. I will tell you that he just released the Dark Lanes demo tape, which is absolutely fantastic. I love Deep Pockets, When to Say When, the Chicago Freestyle, Landed, Time Flies, Desires desires another good one it's all it's all basically good uh I really enjoy it some a's on there of course but uh obviously it's hip-hop music so if you uh don't like explicit language or in a situation where you can't hear any explicit language obviously don't check out the songs at this moment in time but uh that's the best I can do for the moment is just give you the songs that I've been time but uh that's the best i can do for the moment is just

give you the songs that i've been playing the most here for the past week or so the next question i tell you guys to ask me anything um not just titans but nfl nba any sport really movies, music, TV, food, pop culture, anything that you'd like. I have met my match here. Jay Rizzle Sizzle on Twitter, JMJ said, who are you voting for in November? Guys, no, no, I don't talk politics on Twitter. I don't talk politics on this podcast. That's not what you guys come to me for. So checkmate, you have found my limits. I will stay away from podcasts or I will keep that away from the podcast. Stay away from politics. You guys have made me met my match on that. There are some things I guess that I won't answer. But the next question comes from Roy Brantley, and he said, do you pick your own bumper music?

And I interpret it as the intro music, of course. Said that he checked out the Locked On Fantasy Football podcast. You guys should do that as well. Listening to about 50 episodes of podcasts per week. So a podcast junkie there, Roy Brantleyley on twitter uh said this one is pretty great though and i do appreciate that but the music it's something that i've mentioned before i will keep giving credit where credit is due i have a really good friend of mine named devon who makes fantastic hip-hop beats and that beat that you hear for the intro and for the commercial breaks in the outro is one

of his beats uh it's it's a great one uh he's got a ton of really good ones and uh i've used some other beats at certain times with certain video productions that i've done on twitter at tic-tac titans with my tic-tac titans film breakdowns and things like that. So shout out to the legend, Dev, for some excellent beats. The next question, and of course with my guy Rex Green, it's not necessarily a question, but just something that he had to get off his chest here. He said he still thinks that the Titans are disrespected, that they were given the 9-10 Monday night football slot,

the second one, and that lesser deserving teams got four primetime games. Rex, I understand how you feel. I would agree that the Titans still don't necessarily get the national respect that I would hope that they would get, but that's just a reality of the situation at this moment in time, and the only thing that they can do is to continue to win and force the NFL to give them what they deserve

and they have to deserve it to get it and they got three primetime games a Monday night a Thursday night and a Sunday night even though the Monday night football slot is at 9 10 I think that there are extra extra eyeballs on the opening weekend of Monday night football. So I think that it's not just a slap or a backhanded compliment of, you know, you get the second slot on Monday night. It is opening week. So the fact that the Titans got that, I think is a sign that the NFL is willing to give them, you know, many more primetime opportunities.

And you know that the flex schedule kicks in at the end of the season. And it's possible that the Titans may even get flexed into another primetime game and end up with that fourth game. So I understand where you're coming from, but I think that the Titans fan base should be pretty satisfied with the amount of primetime games and what the Titans' national respect, at least from the NFL and their schedule makers is at this moment in time and then Rex followed it up because he is a a true day one fan thank you Rex uh with another question

and did you notice that AJ Brown and Jayon are the same exact size well height and weight is it a coincidence that the Titans have 89 of their 90 current roster spots taken? Wonder who the spot might be for. Well, I love the conspiracy theory thought process at the end of the 89th or the 90th spot being open. Yes, of course. We all hope that that's Jadavian Clowney. But at this moment in time, all we can do uh is speculate on where he might land but here's what i would say uh most of and i've made this point before and i'm going to continue to make

it just so everyone understands the reality here we can talk about all of these undrafted free agents and all the players on the 90 man roster but this roster is going to get cut down to 55 at some point so that means dropping from 90 to 35 90 to 55 you're going to lose 35 players are not going to make this roster and I don't think that if the Titans were to sign an undrafted free agent to fill that 90th spot that they wouldn't immediately cut somebody if they got the word from Jadavian Clowney that he was going to come to the Tennessee Titans so I wouldn't worry too much about that. And unfortunately, as much as I want it to point to something, I don't think that it does.

And as for A.J. Brown and Jayon Brown's measurements, I went just to confirm their combine measurements here. And A.J. Brown was 72 and a half inches and 226 pounds. was 72 and a half inches and 226 pounds and Jayon Brown was 71 and three-fourths inches and 231 pounds measured at the combine so I would say that they are similar in size enough to make the comparison there but their body types are very different and it mirrors what they're asked to do with their positions Jayon Brown is more of a squatty, muscular, thick, all the way through from top to bottom type guy. And AJ Brown is lean in the bottom, which gives him that speed and those strides and

very muscular up at the top. Not top heavy, of course. He has fantastic balance. But AJ Brown's just a little more built up top and a little more lean down at the bottom. And Jayon Brown's more thick all the way through. So their body types, I know this is getting a tad explicit, my apologies. But their body types are different, even though their stature and their weight may be similar. And I would say that although Jayon weighed in at 231 I don't think he quite plays at 231 I would

be interested to get the actual measurement from the team you can never trust the program or anything like that of course the the most realistic measurement you can get is their combine weight but even somebody like Jayon Brown at the combine as an undersized linebacker. He's trying to get his weight up as much as possible to not have his size and his weight be a knock on him. And I mean, his size is part of the reason he dropped to the fifth round. So obviously he was trying to do everything he could to make that impact him as little as possible. So I would say that he was probably a little heavier there

than he actually plays at now because he was trying to limit the damage that his size would do during that pre-draft process that all these guys go through. And that pre-draft process is much different than any other training that these NFL players have to do once they get into the league. So just keep that in mind when we're talking about the combine measurements. But that is going to conclude today's episode of the Locked on Titans podcast. Make sure you guys check out the Locked on NFL National Show after you are done with

this episode. Tell your smart device to play Locked on NFL and it'll pop right up for you. It's a fantastic show and it's never a bad time to get caught up on all of the national news around the NFL as well as your Titans daily intake. you. It's a fantastic show and it's never a bad time to get caught up on all of the national news around the NFL as well as your Titans daily intake. But I have some great content coming up next week. So like I said, make sure you are subscribed on whatever platform you're listening. Follow me on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans as I will be posting the video breakdown along with the companion podcast on Monday. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.