Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Titans Practice at Nissan Stadium: Major Takeaways, Vrabel Addresses Defensive Play-calling & Talks Trevor Siemian

Episode Date: August 22, 2020

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Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, it is Friday and I am ready to send you guys off into the weekend with another excellent edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. We have been going strong Monday through Friday for quite some time now and I will continue pumping out Monday through Friday content for the Tennessee Titans throughout the entire season. So make sure that you are subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast

on Apple Podcasts, following on Spotify, or whatever platform you do stream. Also, follow me on Twitter at TicTacTitans as I post additional content, my TicTacTitan film reviews, and it's just a great way for us to connect a little bit more. And I will say that this Friday edition of the podcast is coming out a little bit later than you would typically see because I wanted to take in all of Friday's major Titans practice at Nissan Stadium and there were

some major takeaways that I definitely want to discuss with you guys so we are going to go over all of the biggest news coming out of Friday's game day simulation from the Titans at Nissan Stadium, including finding out who the Titans defensive play caller will be for 2020. So excited to go over all of that information with you guys. And then we will hear from Mike Vrabel. We will hear his press conference, the highlights from after that practice as he gave us a lot of answers about what the Titans were looking to calling for Trevor Simeon to be on this roster for months now. Well, Mike Vrabel talked at length about Trevor Simeon and also another recent signing who I think will make the roster in tight end Jeff Swaim. So I'm going to let you guys hear the Mike Vrabel highlights from what he had to say about those recent signings and those tryout players that the Titans decided to bring into the building. So we have a lot to hear and a lot to talk about the major takeaways from Titans Friday practice at Nissan Stadium. Let's get it.

The negative impacts on players due to a limited offseason and no preseason games has been widely discussed. We have talked about the fact that players will have less reps in training camp to show what they can do. reps in training camp to show what they can do. They will have less opportunities to put tape out during preseason games to give them a chance to sign with another team if they are cut by the Titans for whatever reason. All of those issues have been discussed at length, but go further, go deeper than the surface level issues, and you can see some other issues for not only players, but coaches and game day staff for the Tennessee Titans. One, outside of the lack of opportunities and reps, not having any preseason games doesn't allow Titans veterans and some of the younger players like the rookies or second year players

to establish a game day routine that makes them comfortable. And they wouldn't have that opportunity this year because of the lack of preseason games. So the Titans went out of their way on Friday to simulate a game day environment by having practice at Nissan Stadium. But that wasn't all they did. They didn't just hold a regular training camp practice at Nissan Stadium. The Titans pulled out all the bells and whistles to try to simulate an NFL game day as best as possible.

Some of the major things that the Titans did on Friday to simulate that game day experience was having the players come out and stretch on the field about an hour before practice. They also had players get dressed in the stadium locker room rather than the headquarters locker room, the team facility locker room. Also on the field, the Titans had music, they had artificial fan noise, they had down distance, time, score, all of that up on the scoreboard. And they had a PA announcer giving his normal announcements after each play. So the Titans did do everything they could to give a game day experience for the players and the coaches and the stadium staff. Now going actually on to the field, how the Titans simulated that game day environment,

the Titans focused primarily on Friday on squad scrimmages, having the first team offense against the first team defense, second team offense against the second team defense. They did regular team periods. They also did situational periods as well, including four-minute drill, red zone drill red zone two minute drill and during those team periods the play calling was completely unscripted which means that the titans offensive and defensive play caller were calling plays just like they would in a regular game as situations

arise based on what happened to play before and that brings us into the biggest takeaways from Friday's practice in Nissan Stadium and the number one takeaway was calling the defensive plays all 56 of the unscripted defensive plays was outside linebacker Shane Bowen now there has been a big question this offseason whether Rabel or someone else on the staff will call plays. There have been hints that it would be Shane Bowen, but Friday's scrimmages and simulation of a game day with Shane Bowen calling all of the defensive plays gives us a pretty logical answer to the defensive play caller question. So moving into some of the bigger takeaways from the player side and the player perspective from Friday's practice. Corey Davis

at wide receiver impressed and that's fantastic news knowing that Corey Davis just recently was activated from the physically unable to perform list. So it looks like Davis is healthy, ready to contribute and he had major chemistry with Ryan Tannehill throughout the day. Speaking of Tannehill in the quarterback position, Trevor Simeon was running with the third string offense, which left Logan Woodside still running with the second team offense, but Woodside again had a bad day. He threw an interception to Cream Orr during team period and almost had another interception thrown as well. This continues the reports of Logan Woodside struggling in Titans practice camp. Moving on to the defensive side of the ball, some of the big standouts were outside linebacker Derek Roberson

and the recently signed outside linebacker Wyatt Ray. Both have flashed early in Titans practice and the opportunities they've gotten. Moving into some of the more housekeeping areas of practice, talking about some of the additions to practice and some of the absences from practice. In good news, Kenny Vaccaro, Kamalei Correa, and Kareem Orr all returned to practice. Also, defensive lineman Jack Crawford is back at practice after being activated from the COVID-19 list. Some of the bad news from practice, Darrington Evans, the rookie

running back, did get work with the first team offense and did impress with his explosiveness and speed, not only catching the ball, but running the ball. But Evans did leave practice at one point with the trainer. Also, outside linebacker Vic Beasley is still on the non-football injury list with linebacker Josh Smith also still on the COVID list. And then guard Roger Saffold and the newly signed outside linebacker Jamal Davis II were both out of practice for a second straight day. Oh, and then of course, I can't forget to update you guys on the kicker competition that is going on between the incumbent Greg Joseph and the undrafted free agent rookie

out of Missouri, Tucker McCann. So McCann, for the first time, bested Joseph on Friday. Joseph went 4-5. He's now 24-26 in training camp. And then Tucker McCann went 5-5 today, nailing all of his field goals. He is now 22-25 during training camp. So Tucker McCann coming on strong. Will he be able to take the job,

wrestle the job away from Greg Joseph? I doubt it, but a very impressive day for Tucker McCann nonetheless. So before we get into Mike Vrabel's highlights from his conference call on Friday, and then of course him waxing poetic about Trevor Simeon, not really, that's me, but definitely Mike Vrabel gives his thoughts and gives some insight into why they brought him in the building. Before we get into those conversations, I do want to remind you guys about Bilt Bar. I don't really have to sell this very hard, man. You guys love Bilt Bar. I haven't found anybody who doesn't like Bilt Bar, and Bilt Bar just got even more delicious-er,

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Go to BiltBar.com, use promo code LOCKEDON, and get $10 off your next order and a chance at a free cooler. BiltBar.com, promo code LOCKEDON. As I mentioned at the beginning of the show, the Titans held a very special practice on Friday in an attempt to simulate game day. I felt like it was a good opportunity to hear what head coach Mike Vrabel had to say directly after that game day-like training camp practice for the Titans.

So we are going to dive into some of the highlights from his post-practice Zoom conference. Of course, as always, the audio credit goes to TennesseeTitans.com. So first things first, let's just dive right in. What did Mike Vrabel have to say about the unscripted practice? How did it go? And he gave some insight on play calling that we talked about in our first segment as well. So I think that it went well. I mean, I thought we were trying to get in and out of the huddle.

I think there might have been one that we were close on, probably with what I noticed Trevor's group in there. And again, probably just some new operation, but we'll focus on that when we get back and watch the tape and kind of find out what happened. You know, Arthur, I would say, called the offensive plays and Shane was talking to Rashawn and Jay on the signal callers. So, funny enough, in Mike Vrabel's mind,

saying that Shane Bowen was talking to the defensive signal callers, Shane Bowen's talking to Rashawn, Shane Bowen's talking to Jayon, giving them the defensive plays. In Mike Vrabel's mind, that answers the question. Shane Bowen called the plays. But apparently the pool of Titans reporters were not satisfied with that answer. And as you know, I have had my own personal dust-ups with this Nashville reporter. Of course, I'm talking about Mr. Paul Kaharski.

But Mike Vrabel had a very funny response, in my opinion. I typically don't play the reporter noise here, but I feel like it's necessary. Mike Vrabel had me dying listening to the Zoom conference highlights here. So he was asked again to clarify about the defensive play calling. And I will just let you guys enjoy this answer from Mike Vrabel and his snarkiness. I thought I did give you a straight answer, Paul. I said Shane called the defense. And then when asked again, you guys didn't like what I answered the first time. So I went in a different direction.

We were just looking for kind of a more analytical answer on Shane. And I'm sorry that I can't. You wouldn't even understand an analytical defensive answer if I gave it to you, Paul. Shane called the defense today. We'll guide you where that is going down, down the road here as we work towards the season. But Shane did in fact call those 56 plays that we had today defensively. Thank you.

You are so welcome. I don't know. My response is only to laugh. How can you not laugh about the snarkiness of Mike Vrabel? You are so welcome. Oh, man, fantastic. Vrabel can be, obviously, I am more of a media member than I am a coach, so I have some sensitivities about how media members get treated. That's why I'm not a big fan whatsoever of Greg

Popovich, the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA, because he belittles reporters and he thinks it's some sort of funny thing about his personality, and it's like Belbelichick. It's celebrated now that they treat reporters poorly and disrespect them. I can't stand stuff like that. Reporters are an extension. Media people, people like me, we are an extension of the fans. I am just here for fans. The media is there for the fans, and ultimately the NFL is to serve their fans. That's why media is so important to the NFL. It's an extension of the fans. So typically, I don't like when people are rude to reporters or snarky, but here, completely justified by Mike Vrabel.

And that last comment, you are so welcome. Just absolutely hilarious. I probably laughed at that for a little bit longer than any sane person would, but can't help it. It was really funny. So back into some more football-related highlights from Mike Vrabel. Something we've talked about at length throughout the offseason is the wide receiver position, and how I've talked about the Titans like to typecast wide receivers. They like to have a couple small guys, they like to have a couple big guys, and they can pick from that litter which one they like the best.

And Vrabel basically confirms that thought process when going over the receiver depth. Well, they all have a different skill set. I mean, I mentioned this before. We've got some of the smaller guys that are quicker. They have their own skill set, some speed. And then there's a group of bigger right now. So it's Nick, it's Hogan.

And then obviously Cody would kind of fit into that larger role. And then Kalief, Batson, you know, as you start to work towards Mason and then, you know, K-Dub. So they all kind of have, you know, it's kind of either one or the other. And some of them do some things well. And then some of them, you know, most of them need to improve on stuff. But I think it's a competitive group. I like the group.

I like the direction in which it's headed. It was good to see, you know, Corey continue to add to his workload based on the plan that we have for him. Like I was saying, the Titans like to have a few speed guys. They like to have a few big guys. And it's obvious based on Mike Rabel's answer there that that's something that they're actively trying to do.

It's not just circumstance and I'm grouping these players together making it up or whatever. It's obvious that they are evaluating the receiver position like a basketball team. You want to have a little bit of everything. You want to have the yards after catch, number one stud star receiver like an A.J. Brown. You want to have the physical boundary receiver who can go up and get it like a Corey Davis.

The slot receiver who's a technician over the field in Adam Humphreys, a deep threat, a speed guy who can run gadget plays like a Khalif Raymond, and then you've got to have a backup boundary guy, a big physical guy like the Titans had in Tajay Sharp. So it's obvious that the Titans are trying to build a versatile receiver group like a basketball team where you've got a little bit of everything, something I noticed very early on that was confirmed by Mike Vrabel right there. So we are going to jump into some other takeaways

from the Titans' simulated game day experience. Mike Vrabel just talks a little bit more about the stadium atmosphere. That part was great, I think, getting guys over here. I think we transitioned from the facility well, and guys were able to get their pads on here. I thought we got a lot of reps in. We got a lot of work in. I thought that was good. We were able to string some pads on here. I thought we got a lot of reps in. We got a lot of work in. I thought that was good.

We were able to string some plays together, I think, to continue to start working on conditioning, football conditioning, how we need to play. The effort and finish that we have to play with requires a great deal of conditioning. So that was good to kind of string together six and seven plays. conditioning so that that was good to kind of string together you know six and seven plays um and then as far as you know just just moving around the stadium and the crowd noise i thought was was okay i don't know what what the levels are you know whatever it's going to be you know that that's what we'll play with another thing that i wanted to bring up about friday's practice

that's that's really cool and it's a a good thing that the Titans organization has done here. Obviously, with all the limitations on training camp, families haven't been able to be out to training camp like they normally would. The families of the players and the coaches. So what the Titans did for today's simulated game day experience at Nissan Stadium, they actually allowed the players' families to sit in a suite in the stadium so that they were all separated and everything like that, but it gave an opportunity for the players' families to sit in a suite in the stadium so that they were all separated and everything like that, but it gave an opportunity for the players' families to see what these guys are doing. And Mike Rabel talked about how the players responded to that and that opportunity that they gave the families.

I think so. I hope so. I hope we had a lot of players. I was thankful that the organization was willing to do that, to allow family members into the suite, to give them a suite, to allow them to come see, you know, what a lot of these guys do, since we haven't had anybody in families at training camp. So again, I think that they enjoyed it. There was a great turnout from what I could tell, and I hope that they enjoyed it.

I have to say, the Titans organization letting the families come to the stadium to see their dad, their husband, their boyfriend, their son, their uncle, whatever, their brother, not sister obviously, but whatever it happens to be the relation. The fact that the Titans organization actually set that up is pretty sweet. Okay, time to move on from my terrible joke making. But the last thing we are going to hear about from Mike Vrabel is just the practice schedule going forward.

One of the big reasons I wanted to wait until Friday evening to put this out and catch that practice is the Titans have an off day on Saturday. So I'll let Mike Vrabel explain the practice schedule going forward. And on the other side of things, we will get into a Trevor Simeon love session with Mike Vrabel's highlights from Thursday's Zoom conference. I think, okay. I mean, I've tried to ask these guys.

I tried to ask the veterans. And I think I kind of like it where they're, you know, we're going three days. I think we're working. I mean, we've had some heat. And, you know, we're going three days. I think we're working. I mean, we've had some heat and, you know, I think we try to condition them during practice and then, you know, give them a day off and then kind of go two days. And, you know, hopefully when we watch the tape there, there's a little bit of speed that showed up today and then give them some

time to recover and then, and they get back at it on Sunday. So I hope that it's, it's working out Jimmy, but again, we'll continue to evaluate it. So there were times during this offseason that I considered renaming the podcast Locked On Trevor Simeon. Just kidding,

but realistically, I have been personally calling for Trevor Simeon for quite some time, and I've expressed this on a show earlier this week, but I appreciate everybody going on Twitter at TicTacTitans and just kind of letting me know, hey, you've been asking for this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yes, yes, I know. I've been asking specifically for this player. It makes all the sense in the world. So I'll just let Mike Vrabel. You've heard enough from me about the signing of Trevor Simeon. Let's hear from Mike Vrabel and his thoughts on not only the Trevor Simeon signing,

but also cutting Cole McDonald. Like we do all the time with the roster and pretty much everything else that we do, just trying to make decisions that feel like make us better at this time and are in the best interest of the team. And that's why we brought the players in that we did. And as for Cole McDonald? Maybe. I mean, but everybody's working under the same rules.

Again, we just, John and I talked about it and just wanted to take a look at another player there and whether the off season had anything to do with it. Everybody's working under the same rules. What I take from that is don't make any excuses for Cole McDonald. Everybody's working in the same situation and he simply just didn't play well enough to keep his roster spot. So I to see that mcdonald had a lot of potential i know a lot of people were excited for him but it makes sense that the titans want to bring in somebody like simeon and have to let go

of a project quarterback like cole mcdonald moving into more trevor simeon love mike vrabel just talks about trevor simeon's experience and how maybe that helped him be the guy that the Titans went with yeah I mean I think that you know that always has something to do with it you know you want to bring in here you want to make competition at every position um and so guys that have had experience in this league you know certainly probably helps them to come in um you know in the middle of this thing or at the beginning of it and once we've already started. He'll get every chance like all the other players.

He'll get an opportunity to compete and move on from there. Vrabel expands on how that experience will help Trevor Simeon get caught up as fast as possible. Again, having never been in that position, I know that that's a lot. There's a lot of terminology that takes place from team to team and from the snap count to what we call the plays and what we call the positions. There's a lot of things that have to happen,

and you're getting in there with players that have already been in the system and they're used to it a certain way or so again he you know Trevor's working hard he's been in contact he was in contact with our coaches after he signed and and we got him in the building today and got him ready for practice and ultimately what did they like about Trevor Simeon that led to his signing other than of course they talked about the experience he's had in the NFL but not all experience is good experience so what about Trevor Simeon's game did the Titans see that they wanted to bring in again this is the first day that we've had him out to practice we're going to continue to to work with him John and you know see how he progresses in our offense and you, you know, I think his intelligence, his decisiveness,

and, you know, overall accuracy, you know, when we worked him out. So, again, after one day, it's going to be hard to give you the state of the union on him. But he's played in games and, you know, functioned pretty well for just having a couple Zoom meetings yesterday and a quick meeting this morning. What's most annoying to me is Vrabel is playing dumb on purpose. Vrabel acts like he's never seen Trevor Simeon play football before.

I've only seen him one day. He's only been here for one practice. He had a good workout. The first time Mike Vrabel saw Trevor Simeon play football is not in his tryout. They watched film on him. They scouted him to know that he would be a fit. So I just hate when Vrabel plays dumb. Like he's never seen Trevor Simeon before.

First time he ever saw him play quarterback was when he stepped out onto the practice field for the first day with the Titans. It's just blasphemous. when he stepped out onto the practice field for the first day with the Titans. It's just blasphemous. See, and Vrabel got into some of the qualities, you know, that are the reasons why they brought him in, because he gave at least a legitimate answer. But I hate how he pretends like he's never seen these guys play before.

You brought them in for a tryout because you've seen them play before. And they didn't just bring in a player for a tryout that Vrabel has no interest in has never seen play before just because the scouts say so so um kind of cop-out answer there from Mike he gave a half good answer but the playing dumb about Trevor Simeon my follow-up would be so you never saw Trevor Simeon play until his tryout that would have been my follow-up now maybe that would have been a little bit too spicy, you know, get myself into trouble. But either way, I just, come on, Mike.

You've seen Trevor Simeon play before his tryout. So don't be intellectually dishonest, I guess, is my only request there. And then the last thing from Mike Vrabel, it's not about Trevor Simeon. It's about another recent signing, and it's a guy who I think is going to make the roster. I really do think he's going to make the roster, and when I update my roster predictions next week, I'm going to talk about that. Jeff Swaim, the tight end who played for the Cowboys for three years, Jags last year, is more of an in-line blocking tight end, not really a receiving threat, but the Titans don't really have a pure blocking tight end

on the roster right now. So Vrabel talks about Sw about swam and you can tell in his voice he's a little bit excited for him he had a really good workout um you know that's why we we chose to bring all those guys in he had a really good workout he looked like he was in shape it was uh you know i think bigger than what i thought when we had played played the Cowboys in the past when he was on the roster. And again, we wanted to kind of take a look at him. Parker had been here for a while. We've worked with Parker and it was just an opportunity to work with another player. And again, with the roster having to be at 80, you know, you have to make some decisions. So he had a great workout.

He has played. And then, you know, as the question that you asked about four, um, you know, a lot of that depends on, um, the special teams element of it. Um, you know, how many backs you keep, how many receivers, you know, just trying to keep the, the, the right 53 guys, uh, when everything's said and done. So I don't think, I certainly haven't thought that far in advance as far as maybe four or however many would be on the roster. But I know that John and I are looking for the right combination of the 53. I feel like that is a great place to end things. As I mentioned, I think Swain makes the roster,

and I think that the Titans do keep four tight ends with his addition. So, again, next week, I'm going to kind of revamp my roster prediction for the final 53 and then the 16 on the practice squad. Now that we're about halfway

through camp, we've seen some back-end roster churn and things like that. We've seen the addition of Simeon. So I'll kind of update that for you guys next week at some point in time. Don't know which day based on the news and how everything plays out, but we'll be updating my 53-man roster predictions next

week for you guys. But that's going to do it for not only the Friday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast, but this week of Locked on Titans podcast. So I week of Locked on Titans podcast. So I've had a blast this week. The football is here every day. We got Titans practice.

We got Titans news getting closer and closer to when it would make sense for maybe a big name free agent to pick his team. So we got a lot of big Titans news coming in the future. Like I said at the beginning of the show, make sure you are locked on to the Locked On Titans podcast by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, following on Spotify, or whatever platform you do stream. I will be back with you guys on Monday for another week of the podcast.

As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.