Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - TITANS SQUAD SHOW: Cam Ward MUST WIN in ATL, RB room CONCERNS & run defense TROUBLES

Episode Date: August 12, 2025

The Tennessee Titans are in Atlanta for joint practices with the Falcons. We discuss the importance of winning every rep leading up to the next preseason game. We also tackle the impact of Tyjae Spears' injury and the concern for the run defense following Saturday's loss to the Bucs.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Yahoo FantasyPresented by YahooFantasy #YahooPartner. Play Now at yahoofantasy.com/lockedonnflRugiet150,000 men have made the switch →https://Rugiet.com/LOCKEDONNFLUse code LOCKEDONNFL to get 15% off your order!BetterhelpThis episode is sponsored by Betterhelp. Your well-being is worth it. Visit BetterHelp.com/lockedonnfl today to get 10% off your first month. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get $150 in BONUS BETS when your first $5 BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnfl for 50% off your first year.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)

Well, the Titans are in Atlanta this week, and it's not Thanksgiving, but I'm looking for them to carve up some birds. Tyler Rowland here, and I've broken down all the tape, and I'm ready to tell the haters what they got wrong. Brad Hopkins here, does winning preseason games really even matter? We'll talk about it. Titan up. It's the Titans squad. Sponsored by game time. 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. Welcome to the Titans Squad Show.

I'm Julian Minnesone, and as you heard off the top right there, that's Tyler Rowland and Mr. Brad Hopkins. All right, guys, Titans are in the ATL this week with joint practices with the Falcons leading up to their preseason game on Friday. a game in which you could watch on WTRN News 2, the station I work for, by the way, shameless plug. And we're going to be discussing what we want to see from these joint practices and from that preseason game.

We got a small sample size. Titans lose to the bucks this past weekend, 29 to 7. But a lot of takeaways from there. As we look ahead to these joint practices, what are some of the things that we're looking out for? Tyler, I'll start with you, and then we'll go to Bhop afterwards. Well, I want to see continued improvement from Cam Ward.

You know what I mean? Like, we're supposed to see progression here as he gets closer to the regular season. I think he was pretty solid in the preseason game. I'm sure we can get into the nuts and bolts of how we performed and everything as we lay things out here. But I want to see him continue to get better, continue to improve. Like, that's very important at this stage of things, week ones right around the corner. And I think the Falcons present some unique challenges in situations that are a little bit different. from Tampa Bay. So I think he's in a good situation to have a better week and show those

improvements as well. Yeah, I want to see the Titans take the next step. Next step, meaning this is the second week of OTA or joint practices with another team. And we're going to see just how well they compete. We got a little bit of a glimpse of that in Tampa Bay when it got joint practice work in there. But I also want to see Lloyd Cushenberry, who just got taken off the PUP list. That's the physically unable to perform list if you didn't know, just where he's going to join the team, how much they're going to put on the shoulders early in practice, and just see what that line starts to look like as it starts to shape more into the line we're going to see for the regular season. So I just want to see them take the next step and be

consistent. Yeah, I think consistency is a big thing. When you're talking about being a young team, there are going to be some good days, there are going to be some bad days. I mean, it wasn't too long ago where we were talking about that Sunday where Brian Callahan cussed out his team after practice but then they bounced back by all intents and purposes and had some pretty good practices from what it sounds like out in Tampa and at least early on offensively that second drive there with cam and company I thought was was something to boast about at least or something good to take away from so consistency is key and also Tyler you mentioned it different styles they're going to play different styles throughout the season so as many different styles as you could play throughout

this year or throughout the preseason to get you ready that's going to help you when you have to face, the Broncos, the Rams, the Texans in three of those first four weeks of the season. That's an absolute gauntlet of a schedule, and that's going to only help them. You know, I titled this episode, Ward Must Win in ATL, and I'm not necessarily talking about the preseason game with, you know, we saw a Lions team go four and O in the preseason and then go O in 16 in the regular season. What I mean is winning the reps in the practice portions of this joint kind of, you know, situation they're going on with with the Falcons, right?

now that's what I mean by that that title yeah well I think like we talked about last week the the preseason game isn't what we're really talking about unless we're referencing the depth battles and things like that when we're talking about the starters and the ones that's the joint practices that we're talking about I get all those comments in my show too it's a preseason game the guys you're talking about aren't even going to play well we're talking about the practices where the ones are going to see each other and are going to face off quite a bit so that that's always the difference there, but you're right about that. Cam Ward needs to have a good week against the Falcons, but it's not necessarily about

the preseason game. As Brad was talking about in the intro, does it even matter to win preseason games? Well, the Titans went 3-0 last year, and then they won the same amount of games in 18 weeks of the regular season. So I don't think that winning the preseason games matter, but things within the process of the week of practice and then the process of the preseason games do matter, but the end result, not necessarily important, of course. Yeah, what you want to see in the preseason is the consistency of ways to win ball games and limiting the things that cause you to lose ball games. You know, you hear every coach guy say, well, we never lost to the other team.

We beat ourselves. In essence, they're not lying because the team that makes the least amount of mistakes has the best chance to win the game. And it starts in preseason. It starts with creating a culture of accountability as far as knowing what you're supposed to be doing, right? And then going out there and performing at a level because you've been trained and you practice to get the job done. So let's see if they can take that next step, like I mentioned, in doing the things that help them win the ball games, right? Enriching and, you know, creating

depth, working on your strengths, but then also limiting those silly things. Like we heard Cam mentioned, we didn't have any MAs last week in the game. He's talking about his one unit, which obviously is the one that matters the most, but MAs are missed assignments. Those are the things kill you. Those are the things that create unmanageable down in distances. And if they can keep those on the minimum and continue to grow, then this team has an opportunity. That's a chance. Yeah, they spent that whole offseason eliminating the sins, right? The self-inflicted negatives. That was what that whole competition splitting the guys into different teams was about. Calvin Ridley even called it the most competitive offseason. They're competing in everything they,

you know, they were doing leading up to this point. We are having already a ton of comments. And there is one I do want to get to when it comes to what you want to see. Here is somebody from Ryan Fields. I want to see Femmy get better. Right now looks like a huge risk for a second round pick. What are your thoughts of the way Femi played and what you hope to see from that defensive side, that defensive player?

Well, I mean, I just got done, you know, looking at Femi quite a bit. I ended up watching back through again. And I just think it's a misconception on how poorly he played. And I, you know, I can't talk to Dinard Wilson to confirm this directly. Maybe one of you guys stop him at practice, but he probably wouldn't reveal this information anyways,

at least wouldn't want it out there publicly. But to me, it looked like the Titans were executing a certain technique on the defensive side of the ball, where you crash in with the defensive line to plug up the interior so that there's nowhere to go. It ruins the double teams of the front line of the offensive line, especially Tampa. They run a lot of heavy inside zone,

a lot of duo up front where you have double teams. And if you can crash in and kind of ruin the math that they have there, you force the running back to bounce outside. And then you have run and chase linebackers who are athletes like Cody Barton and James Williams. You have a physical nickelback like a guy like Roger McCreery, a cornerback who's willing to tackle like Jarvis Brownlee, and those guys can make the play. The Titans used to do this against Lamar Jackson all the time with Mike Vrable where they would crash in against that Reed option that Lamar Jackson would have and you create one-on-one matchups on the outside. And you see a guy like Carlos Correa have a good game against Lamar Jackson. It's because Mike Vrable, when the scheme that they're running on defense is putting these guys in situations where they can run and chase and play free, which you hear Cody Barton in the interviews, right? Oh, this scheme lets us play free. What does that mean? Well, you're seeing it with the technique that they're executing. So people are like, Femi's crashing in, he's gap shooting, he's undisciplined, he doesn't know what he's doing, blah, blah, but really we just don't know the technique that the Titans defense

is trying to execute and if you did, you'd understand DeNard Wilson. And it's like we talked about it a little bit ago. They're trying to get certain looks against certain plays to mimic what they're going to see in the regular season. So DeNard Wilson out there is experimenting like, hey, let's try this against a team that runs these plays a lot and I'll see how it does. And then when we come to the regular season, I have more data to go off of how I want to approach this. Like it's so much more high level than I think the casual fan sees when Femmy's just crashing inside into the B gap and you're like, why is he doing that and giving up contain? Well, Cedric Gray was late and he got beat to the outside.

And Gabe Judy Lawley can't get off a one-on-one block in the slot. And then Jalen Kimber has a terrible angle and cuts inside and gets beat to the perimeter. And this happens multiple times throughout the game. And people blame Femi like he played poorly. But really, the other guys on the second level, I don't think, are executing the technique as well. And it's not necessarily Femi's fault. So he had his poor reps. He had one real pass rush rep. And we know that he's going to take time to develop in that way. But I saw him disrupt multiple runs and make plays. And it's like he wasn't as bad as people are saying. And quite frankly, I was encouraged by what I saw all out there for where he's at

in his development. Yeah, well, where's your expectation? You know, is he going to perform like Abdul Carter? Nine, nine rushes, for pressures, that kind of deal. Well, that's, you know, I don't know how realistic that actually is. But like you mentioned, Tyler, it's a balance. In other words,

the guys in the back end want to make the quarterback hold on to the football longer so the guys in the front end can actually get there. It's a balance. If those guys can be disruptive and get into the back field, like if family were to automatically beat his guy, you know, off the snap. And guess what? The quarterback doesn't have time to set up and throw the ball and it causes

disruption and throws off the timing and all those things. So it does matter what those secondary players do in how it affects the guys up front. But also, I don't know that we have a, you know, a bunch of jimmies and Joes that can just get there off of bodies alone. You know, we saw in the Super Bowl last year, the Eagles just basically ran four and were just decimating the chiefs, right? They don't have any exotic blitzes and craziness and, you know, but there are stunts and things that you can do up front to kind of be disruptive. But I think for the most part, Femmy is getting himself used to.

And this isn't even the cast of characters that you're going to see in the regular season that you hope to be in there doing all the disruptive stuff, right? But for what we're working with right now, what they have on the field right now is it presents itself. You know, there is room for improvement. Let's just say that. I think Femi with the second round pick is going to be somebody, I think, that develops into a role player, some of that can come off the edge and be disruptive and take advantage of the double teams that Big Jeff and Devondry's sweat are going to

accumulate, right? So there's going to be plenty of opportunity for him to win those one-on-ones, which is exactly what you want to do in that situation. And I think as a whole player, we need to have expectations in the proper place. Like, this is something I think we talked about recently on the third down where the Titans

first team defense was out there and there was the long pass to a Mecca, Abuka down the left sideline, Jarvis Brownlee Jr. in good position, incomplete, forced the field goal. Femi came off the field because that was a third and long pure rushdown, and it was Arden Key and Draymont Jones as the edge rushers. And I think that's what you're going to see in the regular season. Like Femi is going to be an early down edge setter to play against the run,

and he gives them front multiplicity because he can drop off the line of scrimmage and turn the front into a 4-3 as an off-ball linebacker, or he can rotate down onto the line as an edge, and now you're in a 3-4 front. Like you can go odd, you can go even fronts and have that versatility because of Femi's skill set versatility. But on passing downs, of course, we should know. He played edge rusher for six games in college.

He's transitioning to a new position. He's not going to have great handwork and technique and all these pass rush moves in his toolbox yet. He's not going to have those. So he needs to be a physical early-down edge-setting run defender who can chase backside, set a firm edge. Edge-wall swarm, as Vrable used to say, which I think is a great way to look at run defense.

Like, Femi can be an early-down guy with Draymont Jones, and when it's time to pass rush, now Arden Key can be more of the starter there. That's why they're at the same position on the depth chart. And we know Key is much more of a pass rusher and maybe not as good against the run. And Key is better and more limited snaps than full-time snaps. So it really works out perfect. If he can be the early-down starter against the run and slowly develop the pass-rush moves. And then Key comes in and be that rusher on a consistent basis where he's really at his best.

It works out best for everybody that way. surely some of the expectations are coming with the fact that, you know, there's a lot of hype around the draft class, you know, there's a lot of young players expected to perform right away. And I just don't think that's at least realistic. It's his first preseason game. Maybe we need to pump the brakes on making sure if he's an Abdul Carter or one of these top-level pass rushers and whatnot, at least for right now. And Brad, you mentioned something earlier. I don't think anyone's saying that. I don't know that anybody has ever compared Femmy to if they are. I don't know who they are. They should not be doing that. There's a reason

Carter was the number three big. The comparison was about your expectation of time. The comparison was about what you expect from your from your young player. So obviously, you know, of course you look to have that in Tennessee, but it just hasn't shown itself to be the case just yet. Brad, real quickly, I wanted to get your opinion on something. You mentioned Lloyd Cushingberry earlier here in the show. What are you expecting from a guy coming back, you know, big dude with an injury down there

in your feet, you know, what are you expecting? something like that, at least early on the way they work them back in. I'm expecting him to add six years of experience to this offensive line, which is what they need, right? They need, you know, the guys that can work well together that can actually be trusted to, you know, keep the integrity of the pocket, but also help the quarterback identify the problem areas, right? A lot of times the center will come up to the line of scrimmage and he'll identify the Mike linebacker. Usually offensive lines have four down linemen and the mic. That's what he usually say, right? Well, he's the guy that's basically telling you who's who and what's what and where people.

are and helping that quarterback identify protection. So in that way, it's just one less thing that the Cam Ward has to worry about. So obviously, this is a new cast of characters. Dan Moore is in the building now. Kevin Zatler's in the building. I want to see Kevin and Lloyd get the kind of reps together that will allow that cohesion to take place, right? Both of these guys are veterans, Kevin, way more so.

But that experience that Lloyd Cushenberry has, I think that that should be featured. And I'll be excited to see what he, what he does. does as far as going into his second year, because I thought his first year, despite the injuries, was pretty good. He showed himself to be a pretty good for agent acquisition last year, and I hope he takes that next step. You know, there was that play that the Cam Ward, his first completion to Calvin Ridley, the 25-yard pitching catch. Did you guys ever remember seeing a pocket that big last year? I mean, he had all day back there. And that was encouraging because that was without Zytler in there and without Cush and Berry in there. And so that, I think, is maybe just a small

sample size. I don't want to get too overblown when it comes to the results of a preseason game, but that is something that is a positive step in the right direction for this old life. 1,000% Julian. As a matter of fact, I was saying that the guy, as Charles even talked about it, just how well the protection was, especially in that second drive, right? Now, of course, it broke down as we start to see the other players that aren't starters getting to the role and they start, you know, it might have helped Tim Boyle get cut. I don't know. But either way, we saw an effort in that second drive, not the first one, you know, where you saw a holding call kind of negate the drive a little bit, not putting it all on that. But three and out, it's not what they wanted to do in that first series.

But they came back and put together six and a half minutes worth of a drive that ultimately culminated in the score. And it was largely in part by the protection that Cam saw in his ability to see the field because he wasn't under duress. So you got to give the big bodies up there a lot of credit. And those goods, Corey, you know, filling in in that spot. And, you know, some of the younger players that we obviously won't be calling during the regular season, they did a relatively good job. And we got to give Tony Pollard credit as well, stepped in there and held the interior offensive line with a great pickup on that big explosive play that you're talking about. So, I mean, if the Titans can get average to better than average offensive line play, it would be such a turn from what they've seen the last three seasons.

And we saw Cam Ward in college. You know, he had a ton of time in college. He had a good offensive line in college. If Cam Ward has time, which as a rookie, it's probably best for him to be more comfortable. We know that he's going to find a way to make explosive plays. And Brian Callahan talked in his press conference earlier in the offseason and talked about the need for more explosive plays. And I know that every coach would say that.

But if you look at the correlation between offensive plays on offense and winning, the best teams in the NFL all have explosive offensive play rates that are at a certain level for the most part. You know, there are always exceptions in there. But that's really where the Titans, if they could just cut down on the turnovers and have a couple more explosive plays, they actually will put themselves in a position to compete a lot more often.

And they are not haunted by the ghost of Nicholas Petit Frere. That's a big thing, too. All right, on the other side of the break, we're going to talk Cam Ward and also another backup quarterback returning to the Titans after spending time with the team last season. We'll talk about that situation as well when the Locked on Titans Squad Show returns. Keep it here.

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now at Yahoo! Fantasy.com slash locked on NFL. All right, fellas, we're back and we're going to talk Cam Ward. Five for eight, 67 yards, but went five for six on that second drive and led the Titans to their only touchdown of the game on Saturday. What's one word to describe his performance from Saturday? Just one. Well, since Tyler's Mike, I'll go, how about steady? You know, we say consistent, right?

You want your quarterback to be consistent, right? You know, that could be consistently low, consistently high. You know, what I saw with him was a steady leader that showed great command of the offense. They didn't ask him to do a whole bunch. It wasn't like they game planned, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. and he was trying to get to certain things and create certain matchups and all this other stuff. But what he did was

he got into a consistent rhythm and albeit because of the protection that we just mentioned in that first segment, but he was steady. And I like that. I didn't want him manically running all over the place. He showed poised inside the pocket. He showed his ability to climb the ladder in essence.

But then when he scrambled outside the pocket, you know, showing himself to be mobile. Didn't necessarily hit his targets all the time. but at least he was looking downfield, you know, for an open receiver versus trying to turn into a runner and getting yards with his feet. So I like his faith in trying to find an open receiver and just basically taking the next step in that offense. So I thought it was encouraging.

But steady for it. I love steady. I was torn. So I got to tell you, I was between professional and resilient. And I think ultimately what's most impressive to me is the resilience. The Titans were at first and 20. didn't even need three plays, two plays. One completion to Calvin Ridley for 10 yards.

Another completion to Calvin Ridley for 13 yards. Now we got a first down. After a penalty, how many times did last year's Tennessee Titans bounce back from a first and 20, and let alone in two plays? Not often, I can guarantee you that. Not only that, but the Titans faced multiple third downs. Third and nine, 10-yard completion to Chigaconkwa over the middle. Third and six in the red zone, where we know early,

You know, Julian, you've been at the practices. Brad, you've been at the practices. Early, the red zone periods were a little bit of a struggle. Cam gets down to the red zone. It's tight. It's third and six. Low red zone. Hits a seven-yard completion, gives you a first down inside the five-yard line, which sets up two runs for Tony Pollard to get a touchdown.

So I think battling back in adverse situations, a first and 20, a third and nine, a third and six in the low red, those sorts of plays right there were resilient from Cam Ward. He overcame adversity. He kept his poison composure. and I think resilience would be the number one word for me because those are things the Titans weren't able to dig out of a lot of those holes and win in those adverse situations last year.

So if Cam Ward can help the Titans do that a little bit more, that would be a massive boon for the franchise. Yeah, you know, I'm going to go with promising. There was that empty first drive that he had. However, on that third down, Brad and I talked about it in the post game show. How many times did we see a Titans quarterback try to do too much on a big play? situation, instead of taking the safe play, throwing it out of bounds. And instead of fourth and 10 at that situation, it would have been fourth and 17, for example. And then the bounce back drive,

obviously going five or six, three of those to his, what's been his shadow and Calvin Ridley. And then executing in the red zone, like you mentioned, Tyler, I mean, this team was in the bottom third of the NFL and red zone scoring percentage last year. And I always bring up this example to B. Hop because we laugh about it. But, you know, there was that game against the lions where they passed the ball four straight times in the in the in the in the goal line and come up man low yeah yeah and then you know last season their best offensive player was tony pollard give the ball to tony pollard and they did that they didn't try to do too much they weren't flashy in that situation or trying to let cam show up they just got the points that they needed to how many times

last year did we talk about this titan team if they just took the points that were there how many more wins they would have had you know so i think being okay with the boring stuff I think that's promising to me, even if it wasn't, you know, a lot of people want to compare it to Shador Sanders, and I know that's going to happen. I'm not going to do that. But I think it's a promising first step for camp. Yeah. I think there's a difference between being less predictable and being unpredictable. Less predictable means that you, you know, you do err on the side of caution in doing the conventional things that you know move the change and when you ball games, right? unpredictable is you don't know what in the world this guy's going to do you know you don't know

what's going to be called you don't know what in the situations that seems like conventional wisdom where you just hand the ball to your best offensive player like tony pollard well let's think this hey they think that we're going to hand it to tony pollard so let's do this let's not you see what what i'm saying so it's like unpredictable versus less predictable less predictable it's more manageable because i think guys understand more of what they're expected to do in those situations but unpredictable is like hey you got you've got to make sure that you have the full expansion of your playbook open because you don't know what in the world you're going to get thrown at you and you may be prepared for everything. Exactly. And we also talked to Tyler Lockett, got some sound

from him after the game on Saturday to describe Cam Ward's performance here. Here's what he had to say. I think Cam came out pretty good. I mean, obviously the first drive, you know, we went three and out, but that second drive, I think he took advantage of every opportunity, made some really great throws to read, got us driving the ball down. And so, I mean, that's very promising. And that's exactly what you want to see. We was able to play a little bit to the second quarter, and I think every play that we get is going to help us as we get ready for the season. Every play that you're going to get is going to get them ready for the season. I think the misconception is he's supposed to have wild success out the gate for a training

camp practices, and I think training camp is meant for you to fail. You know, that's kind of the, that's kind of the, I mean, for lack of a better term, meant for you to fail. That's kind of the, the MO there. You want to put him through uncomfortable situations. It's why they threw the kitchen sink at him and the practice leading up to the Bucks because they knew that's what the Bucks defense likes to do. So that's going to be something at least to monitor in Atlanta how now a team with tape on him and a bigger sample size is going to react to how he plays.

Yeah, real quick, he also dealt with a little bit of adversity, right? Nobody wants to go three and out. It was just mentioned there in that sound bite. But what he did was he rallied. He didn't let that, you know, get into his head and it started affecting the way that he was playing the game. We just went out there knowing what he was supposed to do and stuck to his assignments and had poise in the pocket. He wasn't under duress like we saw Tim in situations, but then again, Tim wasn't working with the best units out there. So it is what it is.

You've got to earn yourself the opportunity to play with the best guys on the field. Obviously, when you're a number one pick of the draft, that's going to be kind of an expectation of what you're going to receive. And he needs to get those reps as a young player. but for the most part overcoming adversity was one of the things that you know we really didn't talk much about um now we're going to talk about the backup quarterback situation um you know titans got rid of tim boyle life comes at you fast and uh bring back Trevor simeon spent time on the practice squad last year suited up for some games too and was i believe it was 20 20 when he was on the practice squad as well um i will say the only thing i'll say about this is there is less

of a gap now between two and three as, you know, with Simeon and Alan as there was with Alan and Boyle. At least that's how I see it. How do you feel about Trevor Simeon joining this team? Is it a big deal? Is it something we need to look into that much? Or is it just, hey, we need a body in there? They just need somebody better than Tim Boyle to get a look at the guys at that level. I think a lot of Titans fans are like, oh, backup quarterback. They got to, because they're thinking about like, oh, we need a better backup quarterback during the season. The Titans are going, we need to get a better look at the rest of our offense with a guy who's a little bit better to do that. Like, that's what this move is, is to get a better look at the lower guys

on the depth chart than Tim Boyle was given you because he was playing so poorly. The wide receivers, the tight ends, the running, the rest of the offensive unit. Brandon Allen's going to be the backup quarterback. Trevor Simeon's not beating him out. Like, this is one of those things coming out of the first preseason game that I think the fan base in general is just It's not a conversation that is going to turn into anything fruitful. Brandon Allen is going to be the backup quarterback. He's a coach in there just like he was for Joe Burrow with Brian Callahan. And Trevor Simeon is in there to get a better look than Tim Boyle was given him

because Tim Boyle was terrible. So Trevor Simeon QB3, I like Trevor Simeon. I was a big fan of him taking over for Logan Woodside four years ago because I'm not big on Logan Woodside and what he can bring for the same reason. So I think this is just they are churning the back end at linebacker. They're turning the back end at IDL. Like, this is what you do. You turn the back end of the roster during training camp to get better guys.

And that's what they've done here. Trevor Simeon's better than Tim Boyle. They're just upgrading QB3 to get a better look at Team 3. It's no deeper than that, even if fans want it to be. Yeah, they all have their certain roles. Of course, you want the best possible backup that you can have in case something happens to your starter, right? A guy that can keep this thing on the rails. And maybe that is Brandon Allen.

but you also have to have someone that runs practice squad gets those guys the look that they need to get better during the week so if timboil is out there making a bunch of mistakes like the two interceptions that we saw or you know whatever i saw a hell of an effort on that one you know you almost knock the ball out at the goal line there but still it was problematic and that you gave it up in the first place um so i think that when you look at just the situation of Trevor simian coming in sure maybe he came in because he understands a little bit of terminology and the things that callie does because he has been in camp. This makes it easier for you to make that transition and getting the other unit better. But that's what the role of the practice squad quarterback is going to be. You've got to go out there and give a look. And if you're stinking in practice, then guess what? You're not getting the guys better. You know, they're going to see in the field on Sunday. So you need to give yourself the best options. Now, as far as the backup, the guy that goes in there, the next line of defense, because we're all always, every single one of them guys is one play away from getting on the field, right? And you just want to make sure that you have a guy that you feel

qualified to be able to take that step and man an offense and make sure that you just don't go into the dirt. So, you know, Trevor Simeon, him coming in is not like some, you know, eye-opening situation like, ooh, they brought in somebody to challenge Cam Ward. That ain't the case. Yeah, you know, we got a comment on the post game show on Saturday is saying, how can we have those guys, the back-end receivers like you talked about Tyler, tight-ins, guys like that, the offensive skill players show what they can do. When the quarterback play isn't up to snuff for those second and third string guys. And, you know, the response to that would be, well, you could still show on tape that you

were open. You know what I mean? You can still show to those other 31 NFL teams that. Yeah, because we talked about it, Bhop. I mean, they're not auditioning just for the Titans. They're auditioning for the other teams for a job. And so that could be something. Hopefully, at least we could see maybe a little bit more of what X could do.

But that would be the response, at least to that question, right? 100%. They're constantly getting scouted. Go ahead, Tyler. Well, my response to that would be there's more to receiver than just getting open. Like, you know, I want to see how you doing contested catch situations, traffic catch situations. If you're a guy who excels in those situations, you're not a guy who is going to thrive off separation. You're going to win contested. You're going to be physical stuff like that. Like, that's not enough for me to not upgrade QB3, I guess. And, you know, and I'm sure the other guys would want them to. But I guess I go back to

what we talked about a couple of weeks ago. I'm not convinced that they don't want to go into the dirt if Cam Ward's not out there. Like, I think the Titans do want to go into the dirt if Cam Ward's not out there. I go back to the Bengals. It's just the easiest situation. Joe Burrow terraces ACL halfway through, and of course, knock on wood, you don't want any serious injury to Cam Ward.

But if you're the Titans and Cam Ward has an injury and he's going to miss a month or two months or anything like that, I don't think you want to win. The Bengals ended up with Jamar Chase and the top five. This roster is not good. They need high-end top-tier blue chips. talents to build out this roster. There's no star players here that they can build around going forward into the future. Jeffrey Simmons is the only one that they have and you hope

Cam Ward is, but like they need high level talent. It would be best for the Titans as they continue to rebuild towards 2027 to get a high draft pick if Cam Ward's not playing. I don't want to see the Titans win a bunch of games if they don't have Cam Ward out there developing and get the whole point. Tyler, touch your mouth. That's got to be a hot tape. Titans don't want to win a bunch of games. If Cam Ward loses himself injury and this team rattles off seven or eight games straight, you're going to think that they're ticked off about it?

Come on, man. You're not going to win seven or eight games this year. What, you know, what? No, they're not going to win seven or eight games with a backup quarterback. Listen, if the Titans win a bunch of games, they'll take it however they can get it. Because if one guy goes down, you don't expect the other 21 to lose the competitiveness and say, oh, man, we lost our leader. we might as will just go into the dirt.

No, not the players. No, of course not. The players won't want to lose. Of course not. Right. I thought that's what you were saying. I'm talking about the organization, the people upstairs, Mike Borgonzi, Chad Brinker, they know that this roster is far away, and better draft picks would be better for this team.

Just again, the Bengals, Joe Burrow got hurt. They got a top five pick. They were able to get a Jamar Chase level talent. It totally changed their franchise. It's going to be a great edge rusher draft class. They're going to be a lot of quarterbacks up. at the top at least three, as we see every year. The Titans would be in a much better place

with a top five pick in this year's draft class than having a backup like Garner-Menschu or something that they, or James Winston, they trade for, bring him in. And what are you going to win? One or two more games than you would have won with Cam Ward with a backup quarterback. Like the risk reward of winning a couple more games

versus getting the better draft pick totally favors the draft pick for the future of the team. Think of it like this. Great players have been to, discovered under duress. We never would have heard about Tom Brady if Drew Bledso didn't get hurt. We'd never would have heard about, you know, Brock Purdy had, had Jimmy Garapolo gotten hurt. What I mean by that is that's an opportunity for a dude that doesn't get an opportunity to step into the lineup and show you what he can do.

I understand what you're saying about draft pick and all the stuff. This isn't moneyball. But what I'm saying is that the guys on the football field, they're going to go out there and do the best that they can with what they're working with. And if it produces the results like winning a ball game, I remember when 1993, we won our first game and then lost the next three. And people were just rubbing dirt all over us. They were saying this team was terrible. We rattled off 11 straight games after that is wins and got into the division

around the playoffs before Joe Montana beat us. So it just goes to show you that if a team can deal with the circumstances, regardless of their quality star players being in there, they're going to do what they can to win a ball game. I know you're talking about the dudes that aren't on the football field. But at the end of the day, Tyler, they don't matter. They don't matter because they're not out there on the football field. They're not out there taking snaps.

They're not blocking, catching, running, throwing, all this other stuff. Are they there to get the best possible situation for the team by finding the right players that can actually fit the system and style and go up and have success? Sure. But if that team's already doing it, that's a situation differently. If you lose Cam Ward and all of a sudden, you don't win a game in the season. I mean, obviously, they need to do whatever they can to get the best players there. in there. But if they win ball games, despite the injuries, despite what's going on,

that's, it doesn't matter. I think for me, I just, I doubt, like, I don't see 2019 in this team. I don't think the roster's good enough. So it's like, I can't even see as a possibility that this team would rattle off seven or eight wins with a backup quarterback in and Cam Ward being hurt. Like, I just don't think that that's possible, I guess. So maybe you're right. Maybe I'm wrong about the team. I'm not saying it could happen. I'm just saying, I mean, yeah, I'm saying it can happen because this is called football. You thought football in New York. You tell me which way it's going to bounce.

Nobody can't, right? That's just the way football games are played, and you have to go out there and play the game. But if it just, if all of a sudden this team finds some confidence because they have been winning ball games and beat somebody that they shouldn't beat, that's what builds the roster, right? If all of a sudden you start realizing who you are, your identity,

you know, the team's perception about itself, and you go out there, you start punching people in the mouth because now all of a sudden people get that, fear in their eyes like, hey, man, these aren't the same Titans that won three games last June, pick first of the draft. We better be very well aware of who these cats are because they can play. I think what you could say is if they come out hot and there are three and three or they're four and three and three, and Cam Ward gets a hamstring strain and he's out for two to three weeks and you want to make a trade to go get a better backup quarterback because

you're like, all right, if we just stay afloat here and get one win, when Cam comes back, we're still in it. If that is the situation that they're in, then I could understand making a move for a better backup quarterback. But just, I guess right now, I guess I'm just opposed to it. Let Brandon Allen do what he does. I think we can agree on one thing. We don't want Cam Ward not playing games this year. That in any sense of imagination. We are going to talk about an injury here on the other side of the break. One of the running back, Taj Spears, and how that impacts the rest of the running back room. We'll talk about it when the Titan squad show returns. All right, August 26th is officially Fanduel Futures Day, a brand new holiday for football fans who live for bold predictions and preseason hunches.

For just 24 hours, Fandul is giving you deals on NFL predictions. So whether you're calling your MVP, eyeing a long shot division winner, or ready to crown your Super Bowl champ before week one even kicks off. This is your moment. I don't know who Tyler or Brad have is their Super Bowl pick. But I actually like the Rams if Matthew Stafford is to be healthy. they could be a dark horse kind to win that whole thing well visit the fan duel app today and start planning your futures bets now because futures day is one day and one day only fan duel play your game all right fellas so tajey spears got to be missing a few weeks um

with the ankle injury there you hate to see it for for a guy like that trying to get him on He's had really good practices, too. Shows great burst of speed in practice. But now this leaves it up for not just Tony Pollard, but Kelle Mullings, the rookie from Michigan and Julius Chestnut to get more opportunities. Big deal, concern level for Tajay Spears. What is it for you guys right now? That was a guy that Callie mentioned a lot, you know, in the preseason to this point,

because he talked about how hard Taije worked during the offseason, and how he's kind of matured and developed into a guy that deserves more responsibility, right? I think we all agree that Tizier Spears was going to see the field more than he did last year, and that was something that they referenced in going into camp during OTAs, all the stuff. And Tiesie with his energy has really kind of made that a topic of discussion by how well he's playing, but I wish the guy could stay healthy. you know i think that somebody somebody doing the comments left uh when we did the post game show julian said that is there a guardian suit that we could somebody just said it again right now

which it's a thought was great it's very apropos though right but injuries are part of the game i'm not just going to say that whatever um but just for what he figured to be in the game plan you know that's maybe a step back a setback but tony pollard is going to be rb1 okay but can you run him for 30, 30 plays, you know what I'm saying, 30 rushes or whatever, is he durable enough to be a down one through three guy that you don't have to sub out, you know, and that kind of stuff. So what this does do is it gives Khalil Mullen, who led the team in rushing Saturday, and of course, Julius Chestnut and those guys' opportunities to get more immersed in this offense, show what they can do, and just fill in for these few weeks that

that the Tajay is going to be out there, showing some sort of value, if you will. Tadji, good thing that's only been a, going to be a three-week injury, so he just misses the rest of preseason, and hopefully he'll be ready for week one to kind of get those reps that we know that he's deserved and earned this offseason. I think the issue is the Titans desperately need his explosiveness in the offense. They just don't have a lot of people with the juice that Tadier Spears has. So now that he's not out there, again, that means more wear and tear,

on Tony Pollard. And we could say, you know, it's three-week injury. He's just going to miss the preseason. But now, you know, we're talking about a soft tissue thing. And, you know, you got ligaments and high ankle sprains linger. And we've seen Taj Spears throughout his career. I mean, it's a guy who had two ACL tears. He doesn't have an ACL in one of his knees.

Like, he's just always dealt with injuries. And some guy's bodies just can't, you know, they have the talent to play. But the body just can't hold up of the physical demands of football. And Taj might just be one of those guys. great guy, great talent, his body just won't hang up. And I'm personally looking at this, like, this is a nightmare. Because Tony Pollard cannot handle the wear and tear of being a bell cow back. He can be a feature back, a number one back in a committee,

but he can't handle another season of the wear and tear that he took last year because Tage was hurt. And they, I'm sorry, I'm not high on Julius Chestnut. Maybe Mullings can turn into something quickly, but he's a convert from linebacker at Michigan to running back. So I'm not expecting a ton from him outside of special teams in his rookie year. and we talked about the goal line thing at Detroit last year. They ran four straight man beaters. They ran basically pick plays to the flat to beat man

because the lions play a ton of man in the red zone. So they just knew what scheme they were going to see and they just couldn't execute it over and over. But the reason is Tony Pollard is not a good goal line back. He's not good in short yardage. He barely got across the goal line in that situation. It was tight. Like he's not a consistent good goal line back throughout the season.

So I think this is a year ahead, But, you know, that's how we need to think about rebuilding teams, in my opinion. Running back's going to be a big need next year because Tony Pollard's going to wear down of Spears, deals with this throughout the season, and it's a make or break year for Tajay, and if he deals with injuries the whole time, how can you count on him to be your RB2 going into year four?

So I think we're a year away from being like, the Titans need running back help. Yeah, the unfortunate thing about this was that the plan going into this season from Brian Callahan was they wanted to split the load of carries a little bit more than they did last year. Tony Pollard is not a spring. They have to. He's not a spring chicken anymore, and he's banged up at the end of last season. And he was your best offensive player last year. You need him to be effective. However, training camp in this preseason is, the purpose of it is to develop depth. And at least maybe you can get Calell Mullings some more more reps. He's going to need all the reps he can get coming as a converted linebacker. That's also a big part of this as well. I asked Brian Callahan about that in his post Zoom call on Sunday. Here's what he had to say at least about Collell Mullings and Julius Chestnut now with Spears being out and the importance that those two hold. They're both bigger backs. They both run with some power. And we like that. And so those guys

are going to keep battling. I think Calais is coming along really well. Again, considering he missed all the spring too, for the most part, it's good to have him out there and participating because I think they're both talented and I think they got a chance to help us. And, you know, Calel started off a little bit hesitant, I would say, is the word, to start off there. But then he ran much harder at the end, I guess, as he got further and further along and maybe more comfortable in the game. What are you guys expecting? I know, Tyler, you mentioned you're not the biggest fan of Julius Chestnut, but what are you expecting at least about those two guys and what they hope to show you at least throughout the preseason? If it push comes to shove, Spears' injury ends up

being longer than just these few weeks. Well, I think Chestnut can take the carries. You know, like he can handle the workload. And that's why he's so good to have around. Because in the preseason, where you've got to run these backs, I think Chestnut is just good at you. eating the carries for the team. He just doesn't have a lot of special juice or wiggle or anything that makes him stand out. I think with Mullings, they could use him in a big way because he is that big body powerful back. And I'm hesitant to think that he can, you know, take that spot from Spears, at least while Spears is out. He wouldn't take it from him long term, but I'm skeptical whether he can hold that spot for Spears and he's quite that advanced

to do that going into the season. I think the Titans would just give all the carries to Tony Pollard and maybe one or two to Julius Chestnut. But I think for the preseason, it is a good opportunity for him to get a ton of reps because Superman Molling is going forward with his special team's value and that different skill set in the running back room because of his size.

I think he could be valuable going forward. I've just skeptical of his immediate impact in the running back room right away. Let's just get to the nitty gritty. It's about down in distance and it's about blocking. You know what I'm saying? If it's third and 10, you're not going to be seeing many run-placed out.

up, therefore, that does affect the running back position. If you don't have an offensive line, they can open up holes, and guess what, you lose guys like Derek Henry. When this offensive line was at its worst, we felt that we can compromise and get rid of 22 because you didn't have the kind of season that we expected them to have. Well, hell, it's hard running when guys are standing against your feet in the back field, right? And that's what we saw consistently. Even one of these running backs, Julius or Khalil, can do exactly what Taj is doing by design.

But, of course, I think there's a little different element that Tajay brings to the table, his ability to catch out the backfield. So he's got the nice soft hands, his shiftingness, you know, in and out of the holes. He can do a lot of those things. But I think that what you'd see is in manageable down in distances, Cali have the ability to play action to do all kinds of different things that open up the run game. You know, so I wouldn't worry too much about Taj being injured and then bringing somebody in that can replace him. I think the scheme itself will be just fine. Now, Tony Pollard's health is another thing, too. Obviously, he showed himself to be a very, you know, capable back,

worthy of being a starter in a national football league, even when he was in Dallas. But like you mentioned, Tyler, this guy is going in a year seven. I hate doing that to running backs, but it does seem like their shelf life just expires faster than a lot of people does because of the workload that we, you know, tend to put on them. So I think that that's one of the reasons why Cal is like, hey we got to manage this guy we got to make sure that we take some of the pressure off of them because

there's no sense in running him into the ground like we see so many offensive coordinators do we need him available because he is our best option so the healthier he is the better this offense is but if there's somebody that needs to be filling in I think that it also relies on those other players that aren't skilled players to get the job done and give him opportunities and make sure that you can have that the whole use of your playbook versus the the stuff that you just kind of throwing against the wall hope it sticks yes and calell um actually to tyler's point about being superman mullings will have to be that his parents actually named him callel after superman so that's a little bit there yeah calell okay on the other side of the break we're going to talk

about the run defense obviously um some things to pick and choose at that even without jeff simmons and tivandre sweat and there we're going to talk about it this titan squad show returns keep it here All right, fellas. So Titan's squad show here is back. At least, I think there's Bhop popping back in there. So Titans run defense gives up 178 on the ground on Saturday. Granted, no Jeff Simmons, no Tavondres sweat. But here, I want you to hear what Brian Callahan had to say about that, that number 178, what he thinks of the run defense. Here is what he had to say on Sunday Zoom call. Oh, yeah. I mean, obviously the number sucks. I mean, we're not looking to give up a hundred

78 yards at any point in any game preseason or otherwise. But yeah, I think there's definitely some things that, you know, we misfit some runs, you know, the later part of that game. We've got to do a better job there and making sure that there's not the type of lanes to run the ball that there were. Some of that is, you know, we just had multiple kind of multiple issues in a couple of those rounds. So got to get it corrected. I don't want to see that very often. I mean, again, 178 yards is 178 yards, no matter how you cut it. So not the number we're looking for. and that's got to get, that's got to get improved. So your thoughts on what Kelly had to say

and the results from the run defense, even without their two big run stoppers in there up front? I mean, even the first team defense without, I mean, the only defense that was missing those two guys was the first team defense. They played the first series, and the Bucks had three runs for nine yards, average three yards per carry.

So in the run defense that actually mattered, I thought the Titans run defense was fine. The Bucks have a great run. game too. So, you know, I guess I'm not, I know that Brian Callahan has to look at the entire roster. I know that Dinard Wilson is evaluating the depth and everything like that. And, you know, after the end of last year, some of the performances we saw, especially that record breaking game against Indy where they gave up, you know, 300 rushing yards or whatever, got Moss or whatever, Zach Moss there. But outside of that, I don't really, I guess I feel bad,

but I don't care that the run defense was bad with the guys who aren't going to make the team like the first team defense did a good job slowing down the run some of the depth guys didn't do as good the linebackers weren't very good which is why we're seeing churn at the linebacker position this morning you know i i guess we could talk about the 178 but i'm just not very concerned about the run defense based on this because the first team even without jeff and simmons and with james lynch in there and with timmy horn in there who aren't going to be starters week one they still did pretty good against against the run so i thought the run defense when it mattered to me was good. I just don't really care about when the run. The run defense was

horrific in the second half. You know, with guys who, let's be honest, that's the bottom 30 on the roster. They're probably only going to be practiced squad at best. So I'm not going to freak out about run defense from guys who simply probably won't make the team. Hey, you guys know that there was a pick six in the second half of that game, right? We're not really, we're not really focusing on that, are we? Why? Because it was by somebody that's not going to see the field. He's not on the team anymore. Exactly. That performance that you saw giving up 178 yards on the ground. That's not an indicator of who this team actually is.

I mean, sure, was Cali disappointed because 178 yards is 178 yards? Yeah, that means your defense couldn't get off the field. But then again, what issues do guys have that are in that role with getting off blocks, lane discipline, you know, the things that cause those crevices that running backs and coordinators take advantage of, that's not going to be the consistency of this team when you get the starters out there. If it is, oh, my God, we got a problem. But that wasn't what we were looking at Saturday.

Saturday was, you know, obviously we're, you didn't see the stars in the lineup. You know what I mean? You didn't see them, you know, having blitz packages and doing all kinds of exotics and flying around. They were just wanting to go out there and compete. Now, those guys that were in those positions, some of them might have lost opportunities to keep a job. You know what I mean? So being well aware of that, they probably should try and do better. this next week against Atlanta than they did in run defense,

just because the guys that are out there right now in the football field are trying to get that W-2 situation as well. Yeah, and I know it was, you know, a small sample size. And Tyler, I know you mentioned you were happy with the run defense, at least for the run defense reps that mattered, the snaps that mattered. I think it's also just a reminder just how important Jeffrey Simmons and Tavondry's what are to this team too. I mean, like, this defense predicated on them being game records.

And Cody Barton talked about it. We talked about, I think, two shows ago when we had all three of us together that the offensive line can't leave Jeff Simmons, you know, and climb up to the next level either. You just cannot do that, especially with Jeff being lighter on his feet this year. I wanted to play a little bit of a thing called over under with you guys. I wanted to give you guys three situations here and say over under, at least on numbers for this season. And I think it goes, it's appropriate to start with Jeff Simmons, five and a half. sacks. Do you think he gets over that or under that this year? He hasn't reached six sacks

in each of the last two seasons, but he is 20 pounds lighter, still over 300 pounds being 20 pounds lighter, by the way. He looks stronger. I think that's an over for him this year, but what do you guys think? I mean, it better be. I'll go quick. Yeah, go ahead, right? It sounds like a cop out to say this, but if Sebastian Joseph Day, if Arden Key, Femi, if these guys are better in the edges, then what that does is it frees up more opportunities for Jeff to deal with one-on-ones or at least in situations where he can get to the quarterback, right? So they have to be better on the outside to be better on the inside. Now, assuming that this team is better, you know, with maybe the next year of Denar Wilson scheme, getting some players

into that incompetent like Cody Barton, you know, that are making tackles and flying around and doing all these things, then I would assume that they're going to be able to apply more pressure. Therefore, it will be an over for the five and a half sack. I'm thinking that he will get more than five and a half sacks because I'm just going to assume that this front four is going to be better than than schematically what we saw last year. And they'll be able to do more of that thing. I think the second round pick is a second round pick. That's a serious pick, right? That guy can develop into somebody that they can rely on in rotation.

Then you keep the level of consistency up. and Big Jeff will find those opportunities. So, you know, I know it might be a stretch to say, but I'm going to call, I'm going to call eight sacks for Big Jeff this year. I like it. T. Row? Eight sacks would be a good season. I think he has to have more.

And I know that it is a unit situation. Like the edge rush needs to be better. If the edge rush is better, that forces the quarterback into Jeff Simmons, makes it easier for him to pile up sacks. Like it all works together. But even just one-on-one situations that he will get, you look at like the double-team rates last year. Devonre Sweat actually was getting more double-teams than Jeffrey Simmons.

It's kind of crazy to see Simmons needs to win one-on-one more often than he won the last two years. I think he will do that, so I'll go over. But he better because for what he's getting paid, the mystique that he has, the rankings he has from the executives in the all-season, like he needs to be, he is the best pass-rusher on the team. He is. so he has to have more than five and a half sacks if this team is going to have any semblance of pass rush this season he has to yeah i agree i agree all right so now cam ward i know it was

asked during the broadcast on saturday uh 3 500 yards over under Caleb williams and jane daniels each had that last year that's what ESPN was projecting him around over that number what do you think is i i might go slightly under under that um i might might go slightly under the 3,500 that, you know, the last two big quarterbacks that to at least show something had reached. But what do you guys think? Is Calvin Ridley, Terry McLaurin? How about Van Jefferson, Tyler Lockett? These guys compliments enough to give yeah, you know, a 3,500 yard season to a rookie quarterback. I think it'd be a stretch. And I'm not talking about Cam's ability versus Jane Daniels' ability versus C.J. Stroud's ability,

his first year, just, you know, maybe the complement of skill players does lend to them having that type of success. Am I taking shots of Calvin either? Because, I mean, three for three, for 50 yards, that ain't bad. You know what I mean? And we'll see more of that. And even better situations as this thing progresses. But, you know, I don't want to put Cam in that category of having to have the type of season that all of a sudden we look up and say, hey, the Titans are a playoff caliber team because I just don't think that that's the reality. So I'm going to go under with the 3,500, but it's not to say that he's going to have a bad season, maybe 3,000 yards, you know, 3,200, you know, that'd be a nice compliment, but it

wouldn't be in that, in that space, in that air of talking about a guy like he's rookie of the year for the league, not just the team. So 3,500 yards would be 205 yards a game, 17 games of Cammore played. That doesn't seem like a lot, right? like 205 yards a game that doesn't seem like a lot he could get there but I got to tell you guys I've been in Tennessee Titans fan

for 26 years now this franchise has never had a 4,000 yard passer and I am going to sit up here and say that Cam Ward's going over 3,500 in his rookie year I'm a Titans fan I know better than that that ain't going to be what happens they never throw the ball like that

they never have like that's not what they do you know so I just I would be shocked if a team with this little of like passing statistical success somehow has a but if Cam Ward's that guy if he goes over 3,500 that means he had a good enough season that people are going to be very, very excited. So I'm open to it, but I call it my PTTD, my post-traumatic Titans disorder. I simply can't, I cannot expect a rookie quarterback to come in here and have one of the greatest statistical seasons a quarterback's ever had in the franchise's history, especially coming off

a 3 and 14 years. So 2.05 a game doesn't seem like a lot, but I got to protect my peace here, and I got to say under. Honor, yeah, and just like Bhop said, just because if he goes under, it doesn't mean it's going to be a bad season by any stretch of the imagination. Last one before we go. Calvin Ridley, who had 1,16, 2 seasons ago, 1,017 last year. Does he get that 1,018 mark this year? I'm going to say yes. I'm going to say yes. $1. $1 because, you know, just the bond that he and Cam have had this offseason,

they're each other's shadow already. I mean, and if Saturday was any glimpse of what we're going to see during the regular season, granted, I know it wasn't against the Buck's top level defenders, you know, by any stretch. But I think it is a good sign to see that he is that safety blanket for Cam. And I think he's poised for bigger. Mind you, 10017 with Will Levis and Mason Rudolph as your quarterback last year. So he doesn't get a thousand. yards if he gets hurt so the only way he doesn't get a thousand yards is basically if he doesn't play 17 games you know what I'm saying so if he plays 10 games you know nine games something like that then obviously he won't get a thousand yards but if he's playing 17 games if he's in the

lineup consistently even even if he misses one game he still gives a thousand yeah I think he gets 1100 that's what I would say that he's somewhere above 1100 I'd say probably not 1,200 but I think 1,100 yards for Calvin Ridley, you're right. Let's be honest, you could argue, and it would not have to be a strong argument to win, that the Titans had the worst quarterback play in the NFL last year. And for Calvin Ridley to switch teams, and Jacksonville had him run an X receiver, he gets to move to his natural Z with the Titans, so he's switching kind of his spot in the offensive scheme as well.

A lot of change for Calvin Ridley, I think he's going to settle in great this year. I'll go with 1100. I think he's one of the, like you guys have said throughout the show, that Tony Pollard was the best offensive player on the team last year. And I hear that, I hear that, but I actually would go with Calvin Ridley. I think he's the best player on the offense right now, and I hope that with better quarterback play, he can kind of show people just how good he is.

Because you say, is he Terry McLaurin? I don't know, but I don't think it's as different as maybe what someone else would say. I think you put Calvin Ridley on the commanders last year. he could probably match Terry McLaurin's production, I would say. So I think it's closer than people would say, even though McLaurin, I still say, is better. But I think it's close. I think Calvin Ridley will show that this year. He certainly seems re-energized.

We wanted to thank you guys for spending part of your day with us. The comments were crazy today, kept on coming. We love that. We love when you guys tune in. Make sure you guys listen to our show here on the Titan Squad show and Tyler's Locked on Titans podcast, wherever you get your podcast. podcast, Apple, Spotify, and even YouTube live here with us on the Titan Squad Show on Tuesdays and game days throughout the regular season. But for now, I'm Julian Minnisone.

That's Tyler Rowland. That's Bhop. We'll see you guys on game day later this week.