Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - TITANS SQUAD SHOW: Brian Callahan LOSES fan base, Cam Ward NOT TO BLAME for loss & Week two thoughts

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

The Tennessee Titans are coming off an ugly performance against the Denver Broncos to open the season. Many fans are calling for head coach Brian Callahan to get fired. Is it too late for Callahan to win them back? Plus, what we'd like to see from Cam Ward and the team as a whole in week two matchup against the LA Rams.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!5-Hour ENERGYTee up that trip! Enter for a chance to win a dream golf trip for two to any golf tournament* in the USA. Visit https://5HEWIN.com for full rules and entry. No purchase necessary. Excludes the Master’s tournament. Ends October 31, 2025.DoorDashWith DoorDash Streaks, you save every Saturday you order — stack it up all season and you could save up to $250. Order this Saturday. Keep the streak alive. Fuel your gameday — only with DoorDash.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnfl for 50% off your first year.UpsideDon’t let this offer drive on by, download the free Upside app now using my limited time promo code TOUCHDOWN for a limited time 25 cent per gallon bonus! Offers vary by user and location, Go to upside.com for terms and conditions.Click Here to download the app:https://getupside.onelink.me/zlLr?af_xp=custom&pid=barrington&c=barrington_lockedon25&deep_link_value=promo&deep_link_sub1=lockedon25&af_dp=upsideapp%3A%2F%2FYahoo FantasyPresented by YahooFantasy #YahooPartner. Draft now at https://yahoofantasy.com/lockedonnfl.PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use codeLOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFLfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelRight now, new customers can bet just FIVE dollars and if your bet wins—you’ll get THREE HUNDRED dollars in bonus bets to use across the app.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) 

I'm Julian Minnensohn. Brian Callahan seems to have already lost the fan base. Can he win them back? We'll talk about it. I'm Tyler Rowland, and Brad warns us that losing the locker room is how you lose your job. And Sunday was step one.

I'm Brad Hopkins, and maybe Callie's own admission might lend to some of his problems. We'll talk about it. Titan up. It's the Titans squad. Everything Tennessee Titans every week. covering all the big hits and game-changing plays from the heart of Music City

the way only the locked on podcast network can squad up the titan squad show starts now and welcome once again to the titan squad show i'm julia minnison and as you heard right off the top there joined by my friends tyler roland and brad hopkins fellas we're going on to week two turning the page in week one a little bit at least um obviously titans coming on off a week one loss of Denver Broncos, 2212 on the road. How are we feeling as we turning the page to week two because it is the start of the season and it's still very, very early? Well, after watching Tyler screaming into his microphone about the results of

last week's Sunday's game, I think we're going to defer to him first. Tyler, what do you think? Yeah, I wish I could be as animated on Sunday. As a matter of fact, no, I don't. I was a little too sweaty after that one. But, yeah, I mean, it's unfortunate because every game in the NFL matters so much. So to slip out of your hands, that sort of game where your defense and special teams delivers for you. It's just incredibly disappointing when you know that one of the biggest reasons why is coaching.

It can never be that. I think that what makes it more frustrating, guys, is that the Titans had a terrific chance to win this ball game. Even from the very beginning to the end, there were chances that we just didn't take advantage of as a team. And when you look at how Denver played, they deserve to lose that game just as much as the Titans did. When you're talking about the mistakes that caused turnovers and ultimately gave the ball back to the Titans, they shot themselves in the foot more often than not. And the Titans just weren't able to take advantage of that. So what makes the loss frustrating is that you saw the ability for them to win,

and it just didn't happen in a tough environment where basically nobody picked the Titans to win anyway. but when you saw it as close as it was, it just makes it that much more frustrating. Yeah, not many times. You win the turnover battle and lose the game. All right, so today's episode is brought to you by Fandul. Football season is around the corner. Visit the Fandul app today and start planning your future's bets now.

So, of course, you know, the chat's already popping off, you guys. And, of course, public enemy number one in Nashville right now is Brian Callan. He had his press conference yesterday. It seems that, at least from looking at, at it from an aerial view, he's, he's kind of lost the fan base a little bit. My question to you guys is, as we go to week two, is it too late for him to win this fan base over? Like can he still, can he still get back in their good graces?

I'll start with you, Tyler. Yeah, yeah, sure. I mean, let's just call it what it is. Fans care about winning. They want to get on Twitter on Sunday and tell all the other teams fan bases, you suck, my team won, Cam Ward's the goat, blah, blah, blah. So, yeah, sure he can win it back. I mean, I know this ain't going to happen,

but if the Titans went 16 and 1 the rest of the way, then people would be showering praises on Brian Callahan. They'd put a statue up for him on Titans' Twitter. So, like, yeah, he can always win it back, but really what we have to discuss is the likelihood that he could accomplish that. And that is what I am concerned about is the likelihood that Brian Callahan is good enough

to get wins to win the fan base back. But is it possible 100%? If they go out there and beat the Rams on Sunday in an upset and Cam Ward looks good. People are going to be right back on the Brian Callahan train saying, oh, it was just a bad week one for a young head coach. They turned it all around.

They're ready to go. Like, it's fickle week to week. So he can win people back, just win some games. So you're right, 100% Tyler. The fans have short-term memory. Yeah. If the Titans host the Rams and give them a

dirt-roled weapon, what are we going to say about week one? nothing who cares now oh and two the you know the fire is going to be brim and just that much brighter right but at the end of the day like you said tyler it is about winning and losing and you have to look at the reality what is the reality of this team's ability to compete are they talented enough are they veteran enough are they disciplined enough are they smart enough do they have enough in the in the locker room and above the locker room to make this a winning franchise now that is you have to be determined because we're just now starting the season. But I think that when you comparably look around the league and see, you know,

teams that have young quarterbacks just like ours, when you see teams that have, you know, defenses that make plays like ours. When you look at skill position, I think that there's, there are things that we can compare them to to say, yeah, this team could win, but it all has to come together at the same time. And I think for the fans, it's really about economics. If you were to say, hey, the season tickets this year, free. Anybody can come out and support

you guys. Would you be saying much about wins and losses? Probably not because you're not that much invested in it. But if I'm spending my hard-earned dollar, especially for what they're asking for tickets nowadays, and I leave that game frustrated, that's like getting kicked in the crash twice. Not only did I pay an exorbit amount

of money to go watch myself, watch a team entertain me, but then they didn't give me what I wanted when I left there. So I left even more frustrated. So it's It's really about how this team can rally around themselves, really, because the reason why I think the locker room considers itself almost a closed-door environment because that white noise outside of it gets so loud that you can't concentrate, right? You just can't buy into what's going on outside of the building, especially for those of us that see it from the surface level. We're not in the playroom.

We're not in the designing of everything. We're not just in that culture. We are spectators at best. But I can definitely see where, you know, those frustrations get to a point where you just want to see change. Now, we are in the very beginning of the season, the first game that we played so far. And it wasn't what the Titans fans nor the players or coaches wanted for this team. But can they actually change the things? Of course they can.

Because winning cures everything. Yeah, Bhop, that was one of the issues that we talked about on Sunday. It seemed like the same issues that the team had last year. was showing itself again this past Sunday. And, you know, last year it was very hard to evaluate Brian Callahan, to me at least, because there were so many deficiencies at the roster. I mean, you had issues at quarterback. The offensive line was a problem.

Special teams was a problem. But you addressed all those things in the offseason, the front office that you got the quarterback. You know, you paid and invested in the offensive line. The special teams, you brought in one of the best coaches around to coach that special teams unit. And they were, they were one of the bright spots on Sunday. So at some point, you got to say, it's a results-based business. And I know it's not all about wins and losses right now, especially for a young team growing, but at least like you mentioned, Bhop, to compete and

to be a competent football team out there. You'd look at the Ravens and what happened to them on Sunday night. I mean, that fan base is probably thinking the sky is falling after dropping, you know, the 15-point lead. But their standard and their goal is not the same as the Titans right now. They're a Super Bowl or bus team. The Titans right now are looking to just compete and grow and at least show something that you're going in the right direction. I think the big issue is the process of it. Again, this is why it's not just football in life. You have to judge process, not result. And a lot of people don't understand that because they've never worked hard for something in their life. They don't know what it's like to go through, work hard and then still

lose and have to look yourself in the mirror and say, should I be sad that it didn't work out? or shouldn't I be proud of the hard work that I put in to get there? And the process at which the Titans lost the game is what's disappointing, not the result. I didn't have the Titans win in this game. Vegas had them eight and a half point favorites. If you said the Titans lost 20 to 12, people would be like, okay, they probably competed and they lost by one score to a playoff team last year on the road in Denver. All right, but the way that it happened with forcing the turnovers,

the special teams being a plus for once. Cam Ward looking pretty good, which we'll get into in the second segment. Like, so many things that Titans fans thought would be better were better, and they still looked embarrassing, and it was still a tough game to watch. And that is what's most disappointing, not the result. So I hate when people are like, well, the Titans covered. You know, they shouldn't be that disappointed. The Titans covered.

No player in that locker room is saying, hey, guys, I know we lost, but we covered. You know, like it wasn't that bad of a loss. That's such an insane way to think about it. And again, we'll get into, you know, Brian Callahan directly. But when your head coach is maybe the biggest reason that you lost the football game, that is something that I don't care what the result of the game is. That process is disappointing. And after they went 3 and 14 last year, people want to be like, it's week one.

It's week 19 for Brian Callahan, in my opinion. It's not week one. You know, they went 3 and 14 last year. And for the head coach to be the primary reason that they, lose a ball game, that is, I don't care what the score is or what our expectations were going in for the game. That's disappointing no matter what. I think primarily that view probably goes in a number of different directions. Sure, is coaching a part of it, of course. It's what you're preparing your guys to do during the week that will show on Sunday. So I would imagine that those

plays that we disagreed with, they worked in practice. There's a reason why they were in a game plan. I didn't hear much pushback from players saying, hey, man, we got a bunch of dumb plays that we're going into this week with. I doubt any of it works. If that were said, I would hope that there would be some sort of change, right? But obviously they all agree going to Denver when they got on the plane that what they had as a game plan was probably the best situation that they could actually create in preparing themselves for the entire off season for this one week. Now, it is, I think what you said, Tyler, is very telling. The Titans did what most people thought they were going to do they lost i don't think anybody really a whole bunch i mean those talking heads

that you know from the national perspective even to the local perspective were looking at the titan situation the denver broncos were supposed to be a team that was going to push patrick mahomes and the cheats finally for the west did they look even close to a team that can win the west no hell no they didn't but yet we're talking about them lose the titans losing to a team that looked just almost as inept as they did with the number of mistakes that they made Now, was their quarterback, their young quarterback going into year two under as much duress as our quarterback at times? I'm saying at times, no, because I did do the statistics on that.

Cam Ward had 2.82 seconds in the pocket on average. That was right smack dab in the middle for all 32 teams that had quarterbacks. It wasn't like he, Aaron Rogers, as a matter of fact, had the least time in the pocket to throw when you look at statistically the time that they had to throw. So it wasn't like he was under so much duress that he couldn't do his job, but it did make him uncomfortable, which is what we did not see in the preseason. What we didn't see in the preseason was a calculated attempt to discombobulate Cam Ward. It was very pedestrian, very elementary, what we were seeing in the couple of series that we saw from Cam. But then when you start putting together a game plan, when Sean Payne even mentions exploiting some of the things that he's vulnerable at, his liabilities, that's what they did.

and we saw cam his his clock being sped up we saw him managing the managing the game the huddle in a fashion that did give them a chance to win but all those things together offensive line playing like they needed to play receivers catching balls like they needed to catch routes being run being on the same page some of that looked a little clunky and you kind would expect that in week one hopefully it'll get better as the season progresses because if it don't then obviously that's sold itself yeah with Brian kelly hand is one of 32 guys who has an NFL head coaching job. You know, you don't get to that point. I know some guys interview better than others, you know, in that process, but you don't get

to that point, at least if you haven't made waves and strides in this league. But they better figure out fast because as we look ahead at the schedule, and I know we'll talk about the Rams in a second, but then you got the Colts who looked, I know Miami is bad, but they looked pretty good on Sunday. And then you have the Texans coming in. You know, it is, it could be tough sledding here at the start of the season for this team. Now, I do want to get to one comment here that they have a question for Bhop. This is from Aesap Fowler. I love to get Bihop's thoughts on that. In his opinion, did Brian Callahan take enough accountability for this loss? Yeah, as a matter of fact, in Artis, I thought that him mentioning the fact that he wasn't

getting the plays in a timely fashion. That does have an effect. And I mean, you, and he admitted it himself. So that, like we heard Xavier Woods talk about at the podium after the game, accountability on all sides, coaches, players alike. You know, that has to be something that is addressed. And I thought for the most part admitting that he wasn't crisp in getting the plays in, which then did affect the clock of which Cam had to be able to send guys in motion or even dissect the defense and seeing what they were doing to make adjustments. With that being, you know, under duress, I thought that had an effect on how the

offense performed. You know what I mean? So, but I think that there's enough blame. to go around and as long as those guys can look in the mirror and say hey look this is what i need to do better and admit that to not only the guy in that mirror that you're looking at but to your teammates alike that holds everybody accountable to a standard that would ultimately allow them to at least you know get off to a better start than what we saw in week one so did he address everything probably not because you know you're trying to look at this

tape and figure out how you can get better and that's probably their focus even after the last minute told in that ballgame, but I think that there was enough of him saying to himself or even to us to public, I could have done better in some form or fashion that makes me say that there was some level of accountability that I thought that he addressed. You want to know why Brad Hopkins was such a damn good player? Personal accountability. Every time we talk to Brad, he's like, well, the players, I got to look at myself in the mirror and say what I could have done better. That's the type of mentality that makes you become a successful person

in any realm is just constantly being a thumb pointer, not a finger pointer. But guess what? I'm not a player. I was raised by a coach, and I'm looking at Brian Callahan, and I'm like, you didn't challenge the elbow. And then your explanation at the press conference on Monday,

he started out by saying, oh, you know, I misinterpreted the rule. I misinterpreted the rule. You know? And then by the end of the press conference, he said, I do know the rule. I just misspoke yesterday. He talked out of both sides of his mouth

and when Amani Hooker is on the sideline look at Amani Hooker after that play he's going up to the ref and tapping his elbow and saying one elbow, one elbow, that's a catch. That's a catch. Amani Hooker knew the rules better than his own head coach and the spotter upstairs. A player on the team. And not only that, but the sequence at the end of the first half

on the goal line, you're going to be uber conservative all game long in every possible scenario as conservative as you can be with a young rookie quarterback and then when you're in the shadow of your own goalpost you're going to run three straight pass plays not burn a single time out for the Broncos and then punt out of your own end zone

like it's just preposterous coaching decisions and people are catching a whiff of it nationally now too like what is Brian Callahan doing? So not only did his decisions in the game just affect the team in a super negative way but his answers afterwards I thought were super subpart

and did lack a little bit of accountability and he talked out of both sides of his mouth and then you add in what you're bringing up, Brad, where he admitted he wasn't getting the plays in quick enough to a rookie quarterback in a hostile environment. At some point, you can take accountability all you want, but if I run a business and you're my employee and you're late and you're saying, hey, I'm sorry, I'm late.

Hey, I'm sorry, I'm late. Yeah, that's on me. That's my bad. Okay, you're taking accountability, but at some point it ain't about accountability. It's about preventing the mistakes. I don't want you to take accountability anymore. I want you to fix the problem. just feel like Brian Callahan can get up there and explain why he made these mistakes and had

these bad situations. But if you're a player and you're looking up to your head coach, this is my leader. This is the guy who's supposed to put me in a position to succeed, not only for us to win games, but for my career and for me to be a good player and have success. And Brad, you've said coaches don't get fired until they lose the locker room. Well, in my opinion, and Ben Jones, Titan's former center, was talking about this in the media earlier this week. In my opinion, these type of things that Brian Callahan messed up in this game, they are 100% the type of things that help you lose a locker room, not knowing the rules, not challenging when you need to,

calling strange plays and weird situations, admitting that you're not getting the plays into your quarterback. Like, this is the type of stuff where the players do got to start looking like, man, is this guy really putting us in a position to win these games? And on defense, Arden Keyes, after the game, saying, we've got to score more points. Offense has to be better on third down. It may not be right for Arden Key to do, say stuff like that or whatever,

but these guys are human beings. And at some point, the defense, after going through last year and then going through, they're going to be like, man, how can we win with this guy running our football team? Like, we just can't do it. So I don't think that that splintering is quite bad enough yet. But I think these are the exact type of mistakes that a coach makes that does, it's step one of starting to lose the locker room. You know, I think it's, I think the situation to me is precarious because Brian Callahan is easy to pick on.

He's not Mike Brable. At some point in time, Mark Grable lost the support of the fan base as well. And if you don't think Mike Brable knows football, you're a dummy. The guy knows football, okay? He's done it at so many different levels. Play both sides of the flipping football. He can rush the passer and catch touchdowns and have. I don't know how many Super Bowl rings the guy has.

So his success, his track record, even as a coach, it speaks for itself. But at some point in time, somebody was tired of Mike Brable, weren't they? And he got fired. Just like so many coaches get fired in National Football League. So I think it's easy to pick on Brian Callahan because I remember one of the comments, Julian, that was in our chat on Sunday when we did it was, we need ourselves a mean M&Effering coach. Yeah.

Callahan is a nice dude. He is a really kind. And that's the thing is, Callie's a nice guy. He's always smiling, trying to be eloquent, you know, just, you know, I mean, what do we want him to do? Like, grab some dude by the neck collar and just, what the fuck, you know, just go off on somebody and all so we respect him. Like, ooh, there's that Cali. That's the kind of guy. Like, you know, so you can't appease to everybody, I don't think, but it's just easy to pick on Brian Callie.

And especially when, you know, even in some instances, he admits that he could have done things better. We'll use that against him. But at the end of the day, fellas, to me, it'll always come down to execution because like I said before, the plays that they, that you saw on Sunday were things that they worked on during the week, continually worked on during the week. And I probably would imagine if it wasn't working during the week, it wouldn't make it to Sunday. So, you know, whether it's game management, you know, some situations like that were head coaches exclusively involved in those decision making. I think that the game plan that they had going in, we had a thing called the Dirty Dozen. In other words,

we had the first 12 plays scripted that we were going to run for the game. And unless something crazy happened, like field position or just, you know, maybe a penalty or a sack or something that created this negative down in distances that through that game plan out of the window, we knew what we were going to be running.

We worked on it during the week, so therefore we were better prepared to have it happen on Sunday. There were just way too many times where if it went like that during the week, it shouldn't have made it to the weekend. But for whatever reason, something happened, whether the defense made an extraordinary play

or, you know, their defense I'm talking about, or something happened to give the ball back and there was a sudden change and things just didn't click like they were during the week. It really comes down to execution because every single play that gets called on offense is designed to score. Not just get a first down, but it's designed to score.

You know, when a quarterback drops back and he's looking at all the possibilities that he has to work with, one of those options are supposed to be a defense beating situation and get you into the end zone. Now, does it happen like that? Of course, it doesn't happen like that. But that's by play design the way it's supposed to go. Yeah, you mentioned how Callie is a nice dude. That's why a lot of people made a big story, maybe out about nothing when Callie was cursing his team out after one of the training camp practices. I mean, that's maybe what a coach does, but maybe from Cali.

People like that, Julian. They loved it. You know, it made news. As a matter of fact, somebody was even saying, is that too much? I mean, like, should he be yelling at his guys like that? He's just trying to get their attention. You're trying to get them to focus. They look, in instances.

And he wanted to recognize that, like saying, hey, look, guys, you're not playing up to our standard. Now, what is our standard? Have we even established that yet? You know, I think when you look at, there was a comment on the chat that said, you know, you can't be a head coach and an offensive coordinator. That's false. I mean, Sean McBae is a head coach, offense coordinator. Kevin O'Connell last night led his team back from,

you know, a situation with the Bears. You're right, Brad. He's got a playbook in his hand. So it can be done, most definitely. I hate, I hate the reaction of he needs to give up play calling duties. Why do we think Nick Holes is a good play caller? He's never even come close to doing what that. Why do people just assume people want change for the sake of change because it gets their endorphins going? It makes their brain neurons fire and Yeah, finally. Take some of that, Callahan. We're taking it away. If Brian Callahan isn't calling plays, just fire him now. Like, Nick Holtz is not going to be a good play caller or a better play caller or anything.

That's just change for the sake of change. I hate that idea entirely. I'm with you. All right. We're going to take a quick break. We're going to talk about one side of the offense, particularly the quarterback, Cam Ward, what we thought of him and what we hoped to see out of him going into week two of the regular season when the Titan Squad show returns.

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All right, fellas, wanted to talk a little bit of Cam Ward. What did you make of his performance on Sunday trying to keep his team in the game. And what do you hope to see out of him going into week two as he faces the Rams? Let's go to that first play that he was almost sacked. And, of course, probably created the most explosive play that we saw in the afternoon. Him basically realizing that the pass rush was in the backfield, not giving him enough time to set up for whatever play design they had. He tried to escape, was almost getting tackled, sees Tony Pollard on the sideline dips it to him for a huge game, right? We saw a lot of that from Cam.

Then we also saw him overthrow a couple of balls, you know. There was so much heat on a couple of those that even as a fingertip catch, it would have been almost impossible, not taking any, making excuses for Calvin Ridley. You know what they say, if it hits your hands. No, we saw DeAndre Hopkins catch the tip of the ball this weekend for a touchdown, didn't we? Yeah. That dude, you know, obviously showing the 33 years old, he still got something left. So I liked what I saw.

When you look at the numbers, he was 12 of 28 for 112 yards, didn't have a touchdown. Didn't throw a pick, and he did lose that one fumble in the four quarter when he got sacked. But comparatively speaking, Bo Mix was 25 of 40 for 176 yards in a touchdown. Really, wasn't that huge of a difference between the two quarterbacks. And this is a guy that people were saying, oh, my God, Bo Nix is awesome. He's going to be the greatest thing. You know what I mean? And so when you look at both quarterbacks working under duress, they had a lot of similarities,

not only in how they manage their offenses, but also the potential that they gave their offense to be able to win some ballgame. So I like what I saw. Is he going to get better learning from some of the things that he can do better from week one? Yeah, that's the first realistic piece of tape that we're going to see on him being able to manage an entire game with a game plan. that was centered around beating a team. And conversely, that team was also putting together a game plan

that was trying to separate you and create confusion. And I thought he did a pretty good job of handling that himself. So if I were to give Cam Ward a grade, I would probably give him a solid B. I'd give him a solid B. Because there's room for improvement for sure, you know, but was it so bad that I think that his performance lost them a game? No, I don't think so.

And not only that, not only not lost them the game, I think Cam was one of the reasons they had a chance in the game. Some of the plays that he made, some of the throws on the sideline, that was really encouraging to me because you look at Cam Ward's profile, he's really good at throwing in between the hashes. He's really good attack in the middle of the field. That's something that was on his college tape,

it's something that we heard all through training camp and stuff like that. So some of his best throws, pretty much all of his best throws, were actually to the sideline, which tells me that Denver really wanted to pack the middle because they knew that. And Sean Payton said, we went back and looked at his college tape to try to get ready for this game.

And Cam Ward was great on those mid-crossing routes over the middle of the field, finding holes in the zone. So Sean Peyton said, hey, we're not going to let you attack over the middle of the field. We're going to make you throw to the outside. And Cam Ward threw dots to the sideline throughout the game. Now, you're right, Brad. Not every throw was great.

I counted about five throws that I would say are off target in the game. And some of those, like Chig Ongo had one at the end of the game that Cam threw way too hard, and it barely touched Chick's fingertips. people who want to defend Cam relentlessly are going to be like, it hit your hand, you catch it. Come on, man. Like, you know, if it grazes your fingertip,

you know, it's like getting shot. Just because a bullet grazes your ear doesn't mean you got, you know, you're going to die. Like, that's not how that works. It's not an all-encompassing metric. So I thought that Cam did need to be a little more accurate on some throws. There was a sideline throw down the left sideline to Ellicayo Manor that was out of bounds.

Didn't really give them a chance to make a play. Overall, the great plays that he made, dealing with six sacks, Cam Ward had the most pressure of any quarterback in the NFL this week in under two seconds. Like, he was under duress in your first game against a great defense on the road, all the qualifiers that we can mention. I think overall it's a very good performance, Brad. I think I'd go B plus because of the environment, but B is certainly a completely fair grade.

And I want to see Cam Ward continue to be better, but I think realistically, if the people around him were a little bit better in that game, he would probably be at like an A-minus or something like that. As some of those plays hit, Calvin Ridley catches that last post route, you know, and runs for about 20 yards on it with a big gap between the Broncos safety and cornerback there. So I think Cam Ward will need to get better, but considering he's a rookie, it's his first start. I thought he did just about everything that he could do, and it was the failures of other things around him on offense that really hurt the Titans.

but hey the Rams they got a great defensive line too they got a great head football coach we're talking about football coaches being a macho man and being a rally guy or being a scheme Sean McVeigh is the perfect combination of scheme and kind of nerdy football

analysis with some of that raw macho motivational side Sean McVe is a perfect example of having the best of both worlds they're having your cake and eat it too and it's going to be a tough tough test for Cam Ward again this week, too. You know, Cam Ward, I would agree with you,

if you're going to give a grade on a performance, was a B. He was poised, especially against the team that led the NFL and sacks last year, tough environment to play, elevation and all. I think he looked pretty calm out there. Now, he just, like you mentioned, Tyler, was pressured throughout this entire game. I mean, was it PFF, had Dan Moore giving up four pressures? Everybody else gave up at least two in a sack outside of Skoronski,

who had a pretty good game. So my thing wasn't Cam Ward. You know, you look at the numbers from an aerial view and maybe if you didn't watch a game, you'd be like, hey, those are rather unimpressive. But I think Cam Ward did everything he possibly could to keep his team in the ball game. I think what needs to improve going into next week

and this could lead in a conversation here with B. Hop is the offensive line's got to be better. The offensive line needs to be better. We talked about it a little bit on Sunday. But when you're as touted as you were and you invested as much money as you did into this O line going in the off season, And you have who's considered one of the better offensive line coaches in Bill Callahan. It needs to play better than they did on Sunday. And it all starts up there because it'll give cam time to throw.

It'll give receivers time to develop the plays. It'll give Tony Pollard and the rest of the running back room to run. It all starts with those guys up front. Yeah, listen, very first play from scrimmage, we saw Tony Pollard get the hand off and he's running to his right. Nick Benito came down the sideline, down the flat and down the line scrimmage and made a tackle from behind. That was such an easily preventable play just by guys having bodies on bodies that that shouldn't have started that way. And I saw in one-on-one situations a lot of times. Now, this is Nick Benito, one of the best pass rushers in the game, okay?

I give you, that's a difficult way to start week one, right? But when I saw our tackles getting knocked back and, you know, that one sack that J.C. gave up was not because of him technique and just getting flat out beat. It was because he was looking inside. The ball was snapping. He was late. When you laid off the line of scrimmage, that's a bad deal. But when I see you get set up and a dude just hits you square in your chest and takes you all the way back to the quarterback's lap and then he's got all of a sudden scrambled to get away. and that was a problem too where Cam kept trying to escape backwards versus going to the sides or even stepping up in the pocket because I thought that the pocket itself was relatively secure

with Cushenberry, Zeitler, and Skronsky, you know, doing most of the, of a good enough job to keep the pocket's integrity. But on the outsides, we saw way too much pressure that then became an issue for Cam, especially when in the later, part of the fourth quarter when we needed to get completions, it was definitely affected. So do those guys up front need to play better? Yes. I mean, did they play absolutely completely

terrible? No, I'm not going to say that. But if I were to give the Titans offensive line of grade, I would probably say C at best, maybe a C minus, just because I saw Cam pressured way more often than I would have felt comfortable. Because when I looked at, you know, some of the teams like the Buffalo Bills that gave Josh Allen all kinds of time. I saw Lamar Jackson with tons of time. I saw Caleb Williams with tons of time. I saw some, you know, seemingly lesser offenses have a little bit more time in the pocket. And then all of a sudden guarantee, you know, completions of first downs and stuff like that. No. But at least allowed the plays to develop. It allowed the quarterback to see the field without, you know,

being pressured so much where that was that was so problematic for them. So they definitely need to improve. And they're going to have an even tougher test this week because you can replace Bo Nix with Jared Burs. You know, and they've got some dudes that can play out and get after all the way along the line of scrimmage. So, you know, hopefully they can get things fixed and put together the type of game plan that allows them to stick in manageable down in distances so in that way the expense of your playbook is available to you versus you being in predictable situations where the defensive line or defensive front seven can just pin their ears back and start screaming up field. Yeah, it's the same old, same old. They were in a ton of third and long

situations, and that's going to make it difficult on the offensive line. Now, if you're chipping, it's third and ten, so when the back gets off the chip and goes into the flat, even if you check down to him, he's got to go 10 or 11 yards to pick up a first down. It's going to be hard to kind of get some easy ones and some cheap ones like that. I do just, I also, you know, we got to give credit to the other side. Vance Joseph was, prepared. I think you talk about that Nick Benito play on the first run. I talked about Brian Callahan and the slow developing gap

runs that they used last year that rarely worked. The Broncos are the heaviest run blitzing team on early downs in the NFL and what did they do? They blitzed on early downs heavy so they tried to hit some play action and there was immediate pressure in the backfield. Guys are screaming into the backfield on these slow developing gap runs

and what did Nick Benito do? The tight end it was a GT power play where the guard and the tight end are pulling to the other side and Nick Benito just followed the tight end. He said, all right, my man's pulling. I'm going to follow him. And I know the NFL football is more complex today, but throughout my life, it was, hey, if your man pulls, follow him. He's going to the action. You know what I mean? And Nick Benito did that and was able to get there. And then also, you look at the offensive line,

the Broncos brought a ton of pressure to the left side because they wanted to create one-on-one matchups on the left-hand side to attack Dan Moore. And Dan Moore did not play well. We, you know, we give out grade to the offensive line. Sure, I could go with a C, but if we're talking just about Dan Moore. Dan stands for D for me. He played awful in this game. It was a big concern and the Broncos were attacking him schematically throughout until J.C. Latham left the game and then they're like, okay, let's go over and get Ali Udo. And why we're here, I just have to mention on the one drive where Cam Ward got sacked twice and the Titans lost like 27 yards and knocked themselves out of field goal range after the muff punt, I believe it was. A lot of people

were saying, Cam Ward's got to get the ball out of his hands quicker. But you go back and you look at those plays. And I would once again put the emphasis on Brian Callahan. Why is Tony Pollard helping Lloyd Cushingberry on the interior when Peter Skoronsky is the floater who can help Lloyd Cushenberry while we believe Ali Udo on an island one-on-one with Jonathan Cooper and he gets beat inside immediately, the second play he gets pushed back immediately. If Tony Pollard is staying in to help, why is he helping Lloyd Cushenberry who already has help from Peter Skoronsky, who, Brad, you know, when they do the slide protection, sometimes you leave the left tackle on an island and you let the left guard decide,

do I need to help the left tackle, or do I need to kick in and help the center? And Peter Skoronski can kind of move back and play what needs to be played. Well, why wouldn't the running back be, why wouldn't the plan be, hey, J.C. Latham just went out. Ali Udo is in. He's a backup tackle. We believe in the other four starters. We're going to send Tony Pollard.

Now, is that Cam Ward not checking the protection correctly and telling Tony Pollard where to be? Is that Brian Callahan not calling the right thing? I guess I can't know that. But I was just shocked that Ali Udo came in and immediately Tony Pollard is helping on the interior when Skoronsky is the float guy on the interior. And Ali Udo's one-on-one getting beat

and now Cam Ward's dead to rights within two seconds. Like that was confusing to me. And listen, I played high school football. I don't know anywhere near the schematics of a Brian Callahan or even guys in, you know, D3 colleges and stuff like that. So I can't know the answer, but all I have is questions. And when I watch the tape and I see that, I'm like, why would that be the plan? How did that happen?

I won't get that answer, but it is confusing to me how things like that happen. Well, I can try and give you that answer by defensive formation. If the guard, the guards in the center are covered in what's called a solid formation, right? You got, you know, a bear look where all three of the interior alignment are covered. and if you walk a linebacker or a safety up into the bay gaps, which are on either sides of the center, then it would be the running back to pick up that only available guy in that threat to be able to block him.

But what they did was they brought that guy into the B gap, then they dropped him and brought pressure from the outside. So that's where he should have been looking. But that's by play design defensively to kind of confuse the defense or the offense in where they should be actually protecting. They made him focus on the center. of the middle of that protection and then they dropped that dude off into coverage

and they brought pressure from the outside and the Titans were ready for it. There was a couple of instances where the tight ends were blocking by themselves and Pass Pro. Nick Benito was being blocked by, I think it was by Helm or one of the tight ends, Josh Wiley or somebody, you're thinking, oh my God, that's the matchup

the Broncos want and it allowed some pressure. So schematically they did some things to confuse them and it worked, but at the end of the day, that's what we are. We're taking care of the four down linemen, the middle linebacker, the most dangerous threats that are in the interior. And on the outside, it can be a tight end. It can be a running back. Or more specifically, it can be a quarterback recognizing where the pressure is coming from and him getting rid of the ball because you understand that's a hot route. That's a hot read right there. That means that that guy's coming unblocked. And I've either

got to go where he came from with the ball or find somebody immediately to get this thing out of my hands where it's going to be a sack. A lot to improve for the Titans going into week two, that's for sure. And we are going to talk about that in the matchup with the Rams. What scares us about the Rams and maybe where the Titans can find some advantages that's coming up on the other side of the brain. All right, the NFL season is here and Fandul is making sure you're ready for kickoff with a can't miss offer. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Maybe you like to pick Cam Ward to go over on his passing yard or the Titans are long shot to win

because there'll be underdogs against the Rams. You could do that on Fandle. So are you ready to play? Download the Fanduil app now by visiting Fanduil.com to get started. That's Fanduil.com to place your first $5 bet. All right, fellas, got the Rams coming into town for the Nissan Stadium home opener on Sunday. When you look at the Rams, and I'll start with B-Hop here because your son played for Sean McVeigh, and you know more than anybody else, and he knows more than anybody else, that McVeigh is going to have this team ready to go. I mean, they are going to be a well-coached team every single week.

So when you look at the Rams, what problems do they present to the Titans? Well, it really depends on how healthy Matthew Stafford is to be able to give them a chance to win. I don't like the ball in Matthew Stafford's hands because he's shown time. and time again that he has the minerals to make it work right the one way that he can't beat you is by what standing on the sideline if he's standing on the sideline that offense ain't on the field then they can't score it's just the way it is so in other words defense has to play lights out they've got to create pressure they've got to get the same type of turnovers that they got week one against the broncos which you know they can they can do those kind of things now this is a

smart ass quarterback so you know that's one thing And the way that you can do that really is you've got to win the line of scrimmage. Awaken to the Eternal.com, he said something on the chat that to me stood out. And it was Tennessee could mitigate the pass blocking scheme by becoming more run heavy, which can open up the past game. That's 1,000% correct, okay? So what happens when you run heavy and you win the line of scrimmage? That means that the down and distances that you're working with are what?

Third and three, second and five. You know, third and one, very completable situations where you're continuing the drive. You're eating up clock and you're putting even more pressure as you're leaning on the defense. You got to win the line of scrimmage. If you're in passing downs where you need to pass the football, where I mean you need to pass the football, that is a, that's a formula for disaster for the Tennessee Titans. Because those teams can then pin their ears back and create so much havoc that it either creates a turnover or an incompletion. Now, let's see, six possessions the Titans had, five of them were punts and one was a turnover.

That's not going to win against the Rams. So you've got to score points, not field goals. You've got to win the line of scrimmage to be able to dictate the pace of the game and how things go. And let me just say that's why I hated that on the opening drive, it's third and 10 in plus territory, and you run the ball. Like it wasn't even a draw play. It was an inside zone out of shotgun.

like, you know, and everybody's like good, rookie quarterback, get three points on the board, feel good about, and I'm like, you're going to need more than field goals. That was a good opportunity. You got good field position. You had an explosive play from Cam Ward on a third and long that kept your drive alive. Like, now is not, see, that is the time where you should be getting aggressive, not on your, the shadow of your own goalpost with 40 seconds left until halftime when you're when you're leading the game. But I, listen, Titans fans, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry for what I'm about to say I have a strange level of confidence this week I don't I I'm as critical as any Titans content creator out there everybody says it everybody knows it and I admit it I'm a critical person it just is what it is but I have a strange confidence

and it's because you're talking about winning the trenches Brad and you're 100% right not just they need to do that yes but I think it's possible look at the way they played the Texans last week Matthew Stafford was probably the best quarterback in the NFL last week just from a watch the tape. This guy is absolutely slinging it. But the Rams were not able to run the ball with success on the Texans.

25 carries for 72 yards. That's less than three yards per carry. And look, the Texans have an incredible defensive front. But I think the Titans have a really good defensive front. I really do. And not only that, but the Texans were able to run the football. They ran the ball for 114 yards, 4.2 yards per carry. So the Tennessee Titans should be able to run the ball better against the Rams than they did against the Broncos, which helps Cam Ward, helps the offensive line, helps give them third manageable situations, and then on the flip side of it, if the Rams can't run the football, the Titans defensive line should be able to prevent them from running the football as well. And a big injury thing to watch,

both the Rams starting guards, both of their starting guards are considered week to week with lower body injuries. The last time we saw Jeffrey Simmons, maybe it's not the very last game they played against the Rams, but it might be four years ago Sunday night football one of my favorite Tennessee Titans games of all time. Kevin Byard gets the pick six on Matthew Stafford. Jeffrey Simmons has three sacks in prime time.

The Titans get the number one seed that year. That was a magical year. Well, if Big Jeff was dominating one of the best offensive lines in the NFL with Ben Powers and Quinn Miners at Guard and he's going to be going up against a worse interior offensive line with multiple backups in,

Jeffrey Simmons could have a repeat three-sac performance. And even if it's not three sacks, if it's two and a half, if it's two. I think Jeffrey Simmons can absolutely dismantle the Rams. He can ruin their entire plan. Stafford is not a mobile quarterback. He's not Bo Nix. He's not somebody who can move around. He's a 36-year-old dude with a back problem.

If Big Jeff dominates that interior offensive line like I think he can, that could totally wreck the Rams game plan. And if the Titans can run the ball better, then Cam Ward's going to have better opportunities to make plays in easier environments. I can feel it tingling in the back of my head, fellas. Titans win prediction might be coming their way this week. And that's what I was going to talk about, Tyler.

Kevin Dots and Steve Avila, the two starting guards there for the Rams suffered ankle injuries. And that lends itself for a big time Jeffrey Simmons game. We saw the lighter, quicker Jeffrey Simmons this past week. He was great. Now, he was awesome, an absolute game record. He not only had, you know, forced the fumble, but he caused the pressure which led to the Xavier Woods interception.

I know he had that penalty that a lot of people are killing him for it. He's probably killing himself over. You know, he probably went to bed in the pillow that night and said, you know, that's probably the play I'm going to be thinking about the most, not the turnovers, of course. That's how Jeff is. But he has a chance to be a game record against the Rams, especially with those two starting guards being kind of week to week

and we'll see how effective they are on Sunday. The other thing I'm looking at is that Rams receiving court. It's going to be one of the best receiving cores of the Titans faced all year. So that secondary is going to have to, they're going to have their work cut out with them with Pook and Nakua, Devante Adams and the other guys there. So we'll see how this defense does. It was a good sign that they forced.

I guess technically it was four turnovers, but one of them was special teams. So we'll call it three turnovers on Sunday. But yeah, good step in the right direction. But yes, that's kind of the matchups on Sunday that's keep an eye on if you're a Titans fan. Yeah. And going back to what you just mentioned, Tyler,

in Jeffrey's performance, especially that last play, it was, you know, live by the sword, but die by the sword. It's that type of energy and emotion that you want from Big Jeff because that's what makes him so disruptive, you know, but you've got to be disciplined enough to know when to throttle it down and get ready for the next play. That little shove right there, which, you know,

actually put Marvin Mims on his back or whatever it was. That just, you know, he would have taken that back a million times, especially when the official's staying it right there. You know what I mean? But it's that type of emotion, the type of energy, that type of second effort that got him, through double teams and as being disruptive as we saw him. So I wanted to keep up that pace.

And it seems like this new reshaped Jeffrey Simmons, you know, might be the guy that can continue to do that at the level for four quarters that we need him to. And somebody in the chat brought up T. Sweat. Hey, who shut down the fourth, the, uh, that was sick. Big, that big rascal right there, man. You know, I hope he's okay because I think he came off after that player or one of the, Maybe an ensuing play came out off the sideline, but still, those two big bodies in the middle like that, man, that should open up everything on the outside for Arden Key, for, you know, Sebastian, for all these cats, linebackers, maybe even a strong safety coming down in the box to really create that kind of pressure that could make Matthew Stafford start running for his life and ultimately bring that back or whatever's dealing with him to the forefront. Yeah, I got to defend Jeffrey Simmons. Look, I know he got the penalty at the end.

But I'm sorry, if I made a list of reasons why the Titans lost that game, Jeffrey Simmons penalty at the end is near the bottom, if not at the bottom. What he did during the game, like you said, Julian, he gets the strip sack fumble because he's just a freak of nature and hits bone it so hard. Again, little science, mass plus velocity equals force. You know what I mean?

And Big Jeff brings a lot of force. And then you're right on the Xavier Woods interception. He literally has to spin off of an offensive tackle, still gets the pressure on Bo Nix, causes an accurate throw, and it turns into a pick. So I would say Jeffrey Simmons is almost directly responsible for two of the three turnovers. The defense was able to force. He was far more of a massive positive in that game than that play.

The Titans lost that game in way many other ways than Jeffrey Simmons penalty. Yeah, did it ruin their last chance to get the ball back maybe and go down? Sure, sure, sure. But we got to be honest. there are just way more things that we got to worry about. I'm overly encouraged by what we saw from Jeffrey Simmons. I think he's going to have a monster year. Yeah, the only thing he lost was time.

They didn't give up any points on that situation. You know, they gave up the ball and forked down anyway. So, you know, regardless, like you said, there's plenty of blame to go around more so than just Big Jeff, you know, extending the drive, which basically stalled out anyway. And Julian, I think you hit on the best thing after that, and it's the defensive back matchup. Legerius Sneed was in the locker room,

and he wanted to play more, he was ready to go. I don't have a problem with the Titans managing Ligerius needs snaps. I actually, a lot of people were mad. I don't care that they only played him 20-19 snaps or whatever, and he said he could have played more. Sometimes you do got to protect players from themselves because the player's always going to want to play. What I have a problem with is how he was deployed.

They basically let him do those 19 snaps in the first half and then didn't use them at all in the second half. Why wouldn't you do the first series? The last series before halftime. the first series out of halftime, maybe a couple series in the fourth quarter. I just wish they would have smoothed out those reps a little more throughout the game.

But Pooka Naku and Devante Adams are one of the best wide receiver duos in the NFL. And we know that there was some injuries at corner Jarvis Brownlee Jr. At the end of the game is holding his back and he looks like he is writhing in pain on the sideline. If he's banged up at all and then Sneed is still on the 19 snap pitch count,

you're going to have Marcus Harris and Daryl Baker Jr. going against Puka Nakua and Devante Adams. And that is a very scary situation. So I'm really looking at, we talk about the interior defensive line against the interior offensive line of the Rams. But the Titans cornerbacks against the Rams wide receiver is the other big time matchup positionally at least

where I'm like, that could make or break the game for him depending how it goes. Yeah, and you talk about Brownlee too. He was penalized three times on Sunday. And penalties with him have been an issue talking about being too handsy and him working on that this offseason. So that's going to be if he does indeed go. And it seems like all intents and purposes that he'd be okay to go.

But if he does indeed go, how effective is he going to be on that front? Okay, we're going to take some viewer comments and questions on the other side of the break as we wrap up this Titan squad show. Remember noon central kickoff against the Rams on Sunday for the Nissan Stadium opener and Cam Ward's regular season home debut. We're going to talk about some of the questions you have next on the other side of the break. Keep here. All right, NFL season is back, and honestly, there's nothing better than being in the stadium

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All right, guys, we have a few minutes left in the show. There was certainly a lot to talk about today, but wanted to get to some of the comments here. Let's see what we got here. Let me just look through some of these comments that are in the chat because this is probably one of the most, one of the hottest chats that we've had since we've started the show together. Let me see here.

Somebody called Tyler hot. Hey, Tyler, are you in Ares? Yes, I am. Yes, I am. Two, our personalities couldn't be further apart. So I don't know where that's going. It's right there on that Pisces borderline, depending on when you were born.

So I guess it depends. But I am a full on hardheaded, stubborn Aries. That's an absolute fact. All right. So somebody had, I think it was an O-line question. Oh, actually, no. I want to go back to Awakentheaternal.com because he had some pretty good questions.

And he had one earlier in the show that Bhop answered. So what do you think about this, guys? needs to voice your concerns sooner than later and stop hanging his assurances on Cali because he isn't going to be here after the season. Is that just kind of fan fodder? Yeah. Listen, Cam is still learning how to be a pro. You know what I'm saying?

He can't go in there and start, you know, saying, throwing his weight around like that. He's still learning. You know, if this were, you know, Josh Allen, Joe Flacko, Joe Burrow, somebody like that that's got a lot of experience that has seen a lot that's, you know, even had a lot of success to say this is the way I like to customize things, then I could see him having a little more weight. Now, you want your quarterback to be your leader. You know, leader in getting the play's directives rant, okay?

Getting in and out of the huddle, you know, doing the things that don't make you a liability in this offense. You know, I just don't think that, you know, he's seen enough or has enough experience to start saying, hey, this is the way I want things. Now, a smart coaching staff will look at his strengths and say, hey, look, we're going to make you and put you in the best sense. situation, the best position that you can be in, to maximize your strengths. But we also need you to continue to develop those things that are problematic for you

because if you don't fix it, every single defense you face from here until you do will be doing the same thing. Yeah, I just can't. I can't. There's no way that a rookie quarterback is going to go in there and say, hey, I can't win with Brian Callahan. This coach ain't good enough for me. Maybe a 10-year veteran or, you know,

A multiple, if Tom Brady or Aaron Rogers or Peyton Manning wanted to do something like that, they would have the cachet to do it. But come on, guys. That ain't how this works. That's not how the NFL works. You can't do that. I mean, Aaron Rogers, man. Aaron Rogers was bringing in players and coaches.

You're doing all kinds of stuff there in New York, right? Robert Salas said, hey, what do you need, man? Yeah, players got to play. Coach has got a coach. Everybody's got to do their role. And, you know, let Mike Borgonzi and Chad Brinker evaluate things. Cam needs to worry about his teammates, the playbook, the game plan, week to week. He can't be out there trying to be the general manager too.

That's just not what he can do. I got to tell you guys, should I be like going outside? How do these people know my birthday like that? How do these people know my sign? I promised you, I was wondering where you had that. I was wondering when you had that hung to someone knew when your birthday was. Does somebody make you a fake-week a media page or something? I have no idea.

I mean, I'm sure I've said that, you know, said something about my birthday on Twitter before, but the fact that people remember stuff like that, that's always crazy to me, man. But, yeah, I mean, they peg me right. I can't be mad. Like, you're right, I am. But how did you know that? I don't know.

I'm like, one question from Dalton Huff here. How do you think Cedric Gray played? Now, from the broadcast view, it seemed like he was fitting the run very well and was around the ball a lot in the past game. He had, I think, five solo tackles, eight total tackles, which is tied for second on on the day. Obviously, he came on quite a bit at the end of the preseason. to earn that starting role next to Cody Martin? What did you think about Cedric Gray's first regular season game this season?

What would you think? I thought he was pretty good. I mean, I think in coverage, you could be a little bit. I remember there was a specific curl flat where he could have got a little bit deeper, but it would have been tough. I thought overall he tackled very well, didn't miss any tackles that I can recall seeing. I think he had, like you said, Julian, about five or four stops, not a single miss tackle. I thought he was flying around with energy and effort.

he was the best run defender on the day for the Titans in the front seven. I thought he fit his gaps well. Cedric Gray is not a player who is going to make incredible plays right now, straight out of the gate, but I was very impressed. I mean, he played 62 snaps out there, and he didn't make any critical mistakes. So I got to give Cedric Gray a ton of credit. Can he get a little bit better in coverage,

maybe have a better understanding of where routes are going to be? That's all film study and game time and reps and all that. but for what I expect from Cedric Gray, play with physicality, play with effort, read your keys, fit your gap. He did everything that he needed to do when the ball carrier came to him. He made the tackle and put him on the ground. So I was really impressed with Cedric Gray. One other question.

This will take this last one here because there's a lot of people talking about Xavier Restrepo. Why not look at Promising X? They think this really could help out Cam. And adjusting, obviously, he's become a fan favorite with his connection with Cam at Miami. and the receivers. Obviously, he's maybe highlighted a little bit more because a lot of people didn't like some of the way the receivers played and dropped some passes on Sunday. So what do you guys think about about X? Because I don't know, it feels like he's, it's an uphill climb for somebody like him to even get a sniff.

Ellick, two of seven, 13 yards. Tyler Lockett had just one target. He didn't catch it. Chig, three of four for 19 yards. Calvin Ridley was the most targeted player, four of eight, 27 yards. Not enough. attempts, in my opinion, to say that we've seen enough to be able to go down the depth chart in the receiving core. We just need to see more productivity, you know, from these guys, more activity, if you will, before we start saying, hey, look, we need to start making changes that receiver. Now, I understand where it comes from. Obviously, he probably, in the whole grand scheme of things, has more hours working with Xavier Restrepo than anybody. But there was a reason

why no one picked him as soon as they did in the draft. You know, I mean, does he look good for us because he has rapport with our quarterback, sure. But the other 31 teams weren't looking at him like, man, let's get Xavier Restrepo in the lineup because he's going to make us better. At this point, I don't think we've seen enough from the guys that actually are in front of him to say that he needs to start getting into the lineup more. And quite frankly, Brad, let's just be honest. Not only did he not get drafted, he didn't get picked in the second draft either,

which is the claims process after cutdowns happened. Like, nobody claimed him there either. And I think that that tells you all that. you need to know. I feel the same about the Xavier Restrepo comments as I do about the Brian Callahan needs to give up play calling comments. People just want change for the sake of change because they're angry. I want to see, I want these wide receivers off the field who didn't catch the ball. You're telling me that you want to see Xavier Restrepo out there instead of Calvin Ridley. Come on, guys. Like I know Calvin Ridley had some drops, but we're talking about

a thousand yard receiver last year versus an undrafted free agent who didn't even get claimed after he got cut. I know everybody's angry and everybody's frustrated, but take a deep breath. They don't need to do everything right now. Let's play a month of the season. Let's play a month of the season. Let's get to the first of November. And then if Callahan is still making stupid mistakes, then you could talk about, hey, maybe it's time to cut him in the middle of the season.

Elevate Mike McCoy to the head coach. And then get a head start on your head coaching search. If you want to say, you know, Van Jefferson, Chim D.K., they're disappointing after six or seven weeks. Then we can have those conversations there. But it's a frustrating first week. but at the end of the day, it's still the first week. And if a hot-headed, stubborn, arrogant Aries is telling you to just calm down,

maybe we should listen. Y'all sound like David Bowie. Chich changes. Well, I'll end on this from two Aries to somebody who just had a birthday. Happy belated to Brad Hopkins. This is the first show we've had all together since his birthday this past weekend. We saw the Titans Post, and maybe we're sorry they can. couldn't give you a victory on your birthday weekend, but maybe they'll make up for it a victory

against the Rams. Noon Central on Sunday, that's when the Titans and Rams kicked off. And, of course, we'll see you guys, whatever, twice a week, once during the week and another on game day here on the Titans Squad show. Thank you guys so much for listening wherever you get your podcast, and even here live on YouTube. Remember, keep those comments coming because we love to answer them and love to get to your questions.

So for Julian Minnison, Tyler Olin, and Legend, Brad Hopkins, we'll see you guys on game day. Thank you. Thank you.