Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - TITANS SQUAD SHOW: Cam Ward NOT FULLY TO BLAME for offensive struggles, roster cut day APPROACHING

Episode Date: August 25, 2026

Offensive Coordinator Brian Daboll said that the offensive struggles in the preseason aren't fully on quarterback Cam Ward. We discuss whether we agree or disagree with that assessment. Plus, roster cut day is approaching. We highlight the position groups and players to watch heading into the final preseason game for the Titans. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Gusto Try Gusto today at gusto.com/LOCKEDONNFL, and get three months free when you run your first payroll. FanDuel Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Join all the action at https://FANDUEL.COMto play Daily Dingers and make your free pick on who’s hitting a homer this MLB season. KALSHI For a limited time,Download the Kalshi app and use code [LOCKEDON] to get $10 when you trade $10. Square Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at https://square.com/go/lockedonnfl! #squarepod Gametime Today's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONfor $20 off your first purchase. Indeed Listeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/podcast. Odoo Great organizations win because operations matter. And that’s why you should get Odoo. Try for free today at https://Odoo.com/lockedon. 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)   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

And one of the position groups that's impressed me the most has been the one that maybe we'd least expect. We talk about it next. How about stock up, stock down? It's about that time. I'll let you know who I believe definitely raised his stock after that preseason game. Training camp is over, folks. It's time to focus on the regular season. Yeah, speaking of the regular season, let's put the definition in preseason.

Talk about what that means, too. Tighten 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 to the Titans Squad Show. I'm your host Julia Minneson, joined by Kayla Anderson, Tyler Rowland, and Brad Hopkins. We got a jam-pack show for you today. We're going to talk about Titans New Jersey's, the new uniforms, guys, looking fresh and some new things. Looking fresh and some new

threads for the rivalry week this year. We're also going to talk about roster cut day. That's incoming sooner than expected, I guess, based on previous years and how the NFL has handled it before and what positions groups we're going to be looking at in the preseason finale against the Bears. But first off, I wanted to play our favorite game, tighten up and tighten down. Which player, position group, or aspect has kind of raised the stock in your eyes and which one needs a little bit more juice, I would say. So Kayla, you tease it at the top. what's your tighten up and tighten down this week. All right.

So this was interesting. I know that the preseason has not gotten rave reviews in terms of the actual games, but that doesn't mean there's individual players who don't deserve some accolades. And I'm going to go with a guy who I saw a lot of when I was in Tennessee and he continues to find a spot on this roster. Will he find one this year? I'm talking about running back Julius Chestnut. This guy, regardless of the circumstance, regardless of who's the head coach or the offensive coordinator, this guy does one thing when he goes out on the field.

He proves that he is worthy of a roster spot. And when he's out there, he does the job that he is asked to do. I felt like in this last game that we saw this past week, I felt like on Sunday I felt like he was decisive in his runs. I felt like he took advantage absolutely of his opportunity because I know that that running back room, right now is a little crowded and there's going to be cuts that are made. So this makes things very interesting, but I believe his stock is up after this past weekend. Tyler, Tyler, I just want to add in. Bones Fossil talked about Julius Chestnut at his press conference earlier this morning on Tuesday

and was very complimentary of his skills of special teams. And when you talk about a crowded running back room, special teams is how he's going to find a way. and if he's on all of the teams units, which he has been, then he's going to find a way far cry from the Julius Chestnut, who was barely on special teams and gave up a punt block two years ago

under Cole Anderson. He's come a long way as a special teams player, and I'm cool if they reward him with that fourth running back spot on the roster behind Spears, Pollard, and Singleton. I think you're on to something there, Kayla. My opinion on that's changed after hearing possible. Mine is Anthony Hill.

Anthony Hill was nasty in that game. highest rated rookie per pro football focus in week two of the preseason and the film matches. His coverage instincts were on display the way he was reading the quarterback's eyes, taken away windows and zone coverage.

It's literally what you thought about when Robert Sal and Gus Bradley called him the prototypical linebacker in the system. You can see why. His downhill aggression is something we knew about, but if he could continue to be that good in coverage, that's a special young player. And I think they're bringing them all

slowly, mentally. Gus Bradley talked about the play calls and communicating to the defense. You can read between the lines a little and say, yeah, it's a rookie who may not be as advanced with that stuff as Cody Barton. And we don't want the whole defense to suffer by having the talent level of Anthony Hill out there, but they're not going to be able to keep him off the field for much longer. He's just playing so well. Behop. Yeah, hey, Borgo and I talked after practice today, and I really actually, I thanked him for bringing in all the talent, man. You're a guy that this cat can pick groceries, man. You know what I'm saying?

He can pick groceries and they can cook some good stuff there. So just a little chitter-chattle with general managers. Hang on out. Now, I know it's going to sound strange for me to say this, but listen, special teams, Joey Slot. My man had missed a field goal in the preseason. Now, unfortunately, he'd rather be kicking extra points to field goals, but it is what it is.

28 and 35 last year, that's 80% for you, man, petitions. But I'm sure he would have thought that he could have kicked every one of So it seems like he's off to a fast start. And at the end of the day, when I talked to him and when we left the field in San Francisco, I just asked him about the importance of putting points on the board to end drives.

Now, those were threes by and large, but we'll take those over zeros. So give me Joey Slap. Hey, Brad, I just wanted to say this. They challenged him too. They did tryouts with three or four kickers over multiple days. You know, he felt that pressure

and he responded by not missing a friend. rickin kick yet. You know what I mean? Like nails, man. So I give him not only just doing his job, but to feel that pressure of they might replace me and respond the way that he did, that's more than being a kicker, an athlete, that's mental toughest from Joey Sly. So I appreciate that. Has he always been that jacked? I mean, you know, yes. He was born, Jack. You know what? I mean, it's not that much taller than the baby, but I'm just saying, he does look, you know that man got

Spockage looks like a Viking warrior too with the giant beard also he does yeah he does but he could definitely

be an extra in like you know Vikings yeah he's a really joy with Odysseus

basically did you guys know that the Viking helmet actually didn't have arms I believe it

yeah that was something I would make it unbalanced you know what I mean they said yeah because you can get that thing

caught on some stuff, you know, all kinds of juggies. You ain't lying. My tighten up is kind of the bigger picture of the preseason, but one position in particular is Fernando Carmona. I mean, like, he was probably the guy we least expected to win that right guard job, right, between Cordell Volson, the veteran coming in, Jackson Slater, returner from last year, who a lot of people were excited about.

And then you draft Fernando Carmona, and, you know, he had a mean streak about it, but we didn't really know what to expect after drafting a rookie and throwing him in the fire. And not only is he winning the job, and it's his job to lose at this point, but he took a strangle holdover. And that's what you want to see as somebody at the offensive line. And going to the bigger conversation about the O line, I felt so much better about the O line now than I did three weeks ago. You know, like based on relative to what our expectations were, like that was probably the biggest worry of the position groups that the Titans had,

because it was Peter Skoransky and everybody else. Even J.C. Latham had a lot of questions about himself going into this off season. And it seems like for the most part, they've been pretty serviceable. And the cherry on top is you, it seems like you have found that right guard, assuming Carmona continues that development for the future. And so you have, I think, a solid five guys up front. Now, after that, I think there's the big question of what this depth is going to look like on the offensive line. But I think Fernando Carmona's answered a huge question so far this offseason that Titans needed answering,

who's going to be next to JC on that right side. Offensive line couldn't have gone better. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny because it's hard. Right. Well, that's the thing. That's part of it too. Like he has that fire, that kind of grit in him too that's going to bode well if he can continue to grow as a guy on that line. And it's hard for the Titans to ever get national recognition, whether that be, you know, national articles written up about him or anything like that.

I've read several articles that are putting him in the category of one of the more impressive rookies in preseason. So that's always a good thing that he's kind of. catching eyes of national writers and reporters as well. Yeah. He doesn't stand out either. Assistant offensive line coach, Isaac Williams and I were talking today about that whole selection, basically. And they're like, there's really no other way for them to go. I mean, you can keep this thing as a competition between Jackson Slater, Cordell-Bolson,

and, you know, not commit to Fernando Carmona being in there. And that would have stalled out his development. So he used those exact words, baptized by fire, and just putting the cat in there. If there's anybody that can understand exactly how that felt, it'd be the 13th pick of the draft of 93, where I was baptized weekly at left tackle. So I understand completely. They were anointing me left and right.

That's the best part about the offensive line developments. It's not just that things went better than we expected. They went perfect. It's like if we could have picked the ideal candidate to win the right guard spot, it would be the rookie. He presents the most long-term. maximum value.

But he didn't just win. This wasn't a lesser of two evils. Lesser of three evils like, oh, we got to give it to this guy because nobody's playing well, but he's playing. No, he played well and stole the job away and ran away with it. Like he didn't just, you know, open the door. He kicked the thing down and knocked the hinges off. That is what you want.

It's a 10 out of 10. And the O line overall, it's not just that they found their starting five early. And that they played a lot better than we expected after. like you said, Julian, being the most worrisome position group, I think if you asked everybody now, it would be the secondary, not the offensive line. And to me, that is a monumental. Now,

they've got to prove it in the regular season, but just the vibes around the offensive line right now, I could not have envisioned this when we were yelling up a storm about Schloteman and Volson and all this in the middle of the summer, you know what I mean? So I'm just over the moon about the O line right now. I have high

hopes that they can be a solid average group this year. Kayla, what's your tighten down? Yeah, it's probably one of the more obvious ones, but you can't ignore the fact that rookie Carmel Tate has been kind of invisible the last couple of weeks. And it doesn't help that he hasn't had a catch in two preseason games. He's 0 for 5 with the connection with Cam Ward in those preseason games. I understand that it's been tough with some of the secondaries and stuff in some of these preseason games,

but you're still not going up against most of the time, the ones for the other teams. And it doesn't describe, you know, the reason why in practice you can't have some of these more connections happening. I'm not worried per se. He's a rookie. But when you have a top pick like him and it's a wide receiver and it was already kind of an interesting pick for some, at least, that they didn't maybe go defense, he's expected

to kind of show some things. And it's been awfully quiet the past two weeks. So I understand why maybe some are a little bit frustrated that they're not getting a little bit more out of their top five pick. Tyler. I mean, I disagree with Kayla there, whether it's fair or not, when you take a wide receiver that high, they're expected to be good right away. That's how wide receiver is in the NFL now. It's one of the easier positions to have immediate impact.

And it's not just about Cardinal Tate as a player. It's about his role within the offense and how important he is to everything. else. So if he's maybe going to start slow and not quite be ready to fill that role right away, it definitely is going to impact everything else around him. But my tighten down, I'm just going to, I'm going to do it, guys. It's Cam Ward. He just has not been good enough. I know there's a lot that goes into it. There's new system. There's new players. There's new coaching and everything. but some of the issues from last year, they were their ball security,

inaccuracy. I had a stat that I've been talking about on my show that Warren Sharp brought up. Balls that Cam Ward throws seven yards in the air. The ball travels seven yards in the air or more. He has been 0 for 6 in the preseason and he was 36th out of 36 qualifying quarterbacks last year with a 43% completion percentage

throwing the ball seven yards or more down the field. Like, that is an accuracy problem now. That's people got to get open. Like Brian Dable talked about today at his press conference, people got to get open. Line has to block. But there are a lot of components to it. But no matter how much you want to contextualize it,

that is a bit of a concern. There's no way to look at those numbers and not feel a little bit concerned. So I'm going to say tighten down for Cam Ward. not because and whenever I say that, people are, oh, you think he's a bus, but not because I think he's a bust, but because it just hasn't been good enough so far. It doesn't mean it can't get better and he can't be fine in the regular season,

but it just has not been a good showing so far. Yeah, you know what, Tyler, I'm glad that you said that because at the end of the day, there's a difference between criticizing and critiquing. Right. And right now, critiquing is when you're basically stating the obvious. You know what I mean? I'm critiquing the things that I see. If I see an errant ball, if I see something thrown in the dirt, if I see, you know, miss blocks, if I see mistackles, things are just obvious.

Critical is just like, you know, I really, I'm emotionally taking to that next level of judging you, in essence, you know. So I just think that, you know, all too often we go from fact to fiction or from fiction to fact in football because that's the way it goes. You know, if we all of a sudden we start lighten it up and winning ball games and then whatever you said negatively about somebody, that doesn't seem to be true anymore. And it also goes on the flip side, too. You can start out with the world on fire and all of a sudden dig yourself into a hole and whatever you thought was true, there's no longer true. For me, my tighten down is just basically, it's the pace of development, and that's overall. I understand slow and steady wins the race.

We talked about that today on the field, you know, but basic concepts like due to preseason, even Robert Salon himself said that they need to be better, which is true, okay? Cam said that much about himself. He needs to give his receiver something to work. with consistently. So when you talk about pressure with discipline, when you talk about just everything that comes along with, it's like, hold on a second, I've got this written down.

Of course, I can't get on the nose. Oh, pressure with discipline, coverage over the middle of the field, engaging in the deep. Right? Coverage over the middle of the field, it shouldn't be wide open. You know, Desjohn's stripling shouldn't look like an all pro in this first year. Neither should they get gashed up in the middle for 69 yards

by the backup running back. That's part of it, right? But also just how many attempts can we have downfield? Now, I will say fact to fiction. Gunner Helm gets his feet in bounds. I don't know we're having the same conversation about camping. Yep. And that was on Gunner Helm.

Yes, it was. That was on Gunner Helm. We see that from the worst wide receivers and tight ends in the NFL and the preseason all the way up to the. best. That's not a hard catch to make in the NFL. And he's missed that. He missed it in Denver. He missed it one time in Indy. He's got to be, he gets praised for being good body control. He's, I don't know why he tries to slam his foot down like that rather than plant his foot and then fall to the ball. You know, like some wide receivers plant their toes on the line and then

fall to the ball out of bounds so they know their toes are there when they touch the ball. Gunner tries to catch the ball and then slam his foot down inside the lines. And I don't know why he does that. I just don't think that he knew exactly where it was. I knew he knew he was heading towards the sideline, but I don't think he knew exactly where he was to try and obviously do the toe tap. You know what I'm saying on the sideline. But like I just said, though, he makes that catch. Now we're talking about, oh, a terrific scramble outside of the pocket. Cam K keeps a play alive and hits his man downfield. Those are some of the things that we saw them doing last year, which will come, in my opinion. So to add to that. To add to that,

I think that's what's going to be fascinating is with this group of coaches that seem to have more experience, at least overall, than what we saw under Callahan staff and Callahan in general as a head coach. How do they take these preseason games and the film and all of that? And how do they actually learn from these moments? That's the biggest thing. And you mentioned it, Brad Development. This is, it's partly on the coaching staff to help call out these moments and literally get it ingrained in their brain. You have to change things, right? Camp has to continue to work on his ball security and not do stupid stuff.

Gunther Helm, like we just expressed how to be able to reel in some of those catches. That is on the coaching staff. So I'm interested to see really how the development happens not only just now to the start of the season, but throughout the season. because I think that's where we're going to see big wins or unfortunately, I don't want to say this, big losses. Brad, I think you hit on something perfect right there. This has been my point with Cam all along. He is a gunslinger.

I don't think he's ever truly going to be pinpoint accurate all the time. He's going to have some ones where it's like, how did you miss that? That was a layup. And he missed it. You know what I mean? They're going to have times where somebody smacks the ball out of his hand. Those are never going to go away, in my opinion,

because they're just part of who he is. but he can clean them up just a little bit to where it doesn't kill the team. But then those big time plays, those rollouts, cross-body, blah, blah, blah. He is going to, there has to be more good and bad, but the style of player he is, it's like Brett Farf. Brett Farv is going to throw the craziest fricking touchdown pass you have ever seen your life, crazy wild, and then he's going to throw the dumbest interception you've ever seen,

and it's about the good, outweighing, the bad enough for you to win football games. and I still believe that Cam Ward's good can outweigh as bad enough for him to be the guy that Titans fans want him to be, despite the fact that I will criticize him when I see things that deserve to be critique. You know what I mean? So that's where I'm at ultimately is this doesn't surprise me, but he's just got to clean it up a little bit more or it's not going to be a good enough balance for it to work. Like Brad's point, if Carnell Tate, for example, comes down with that ball in that opening drive, or Gunner Helm gets his feet in bounds.

Those drives get sustained and who knows what happens. Maybe they capitalize in the red zone and score. And this is a totally different conversation what we're happening about Cam. But the fact of the matter is, the execution didn't happen, right? And I think my tightened down was kind of a variant of everything that you guys are saying is we've seen it in the practices,

right? Like we've seen Cam move the ball and be mad efficient in the practices. We've seen him find Carnell Tate and Gunnardell Robinson without a hitch in the practices. They went toe to toe. with the Seahawks number one defense, translating it into games, that's the big thing. And this is the last chance for them to do that in the preseason

before the real thing starts against the Jets in week one. So that is going to be certainly under the microscope for the Titans as they get closer and closer to the regular season here. Okay, on the other side of the break, we're going to talk about the position groups that we are watching in this final preseason game, who could be on the roster and squeak their way in and who might be left off.

That's next here on the Titans Squad Show. Don't go anywhere. running a business shouldn't feel like you're trying to connect a bunch of systems that were never designed to work together one app for accounting another for inventory another for sales and somehow none of them talk to each other that's where odu comes in odu is an all-in-one business management software that brings every part of your business together in one powerful platform from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing everything works in one place odu is one platform to manage grow and scale your business the best organizations know that success isn't just about talent it's about having everyone working toward the same goal. And that's true in sports, just like it is in business. For example, we just got done talking about the Titans offensive line, all five guys working as one, much better than we anticipated at this point in camp. And great organizations win because operations matter. And that's why you should get O-D-O-D-O-com slash locked on. That's O-D-O-O-O-O-com

slash locked on. All right, guys, so roster cut day used to be in the NFL done incrementally, right? They'd have multiple cut days throughout the training camp. But now it's just a just one big cut day, 90 to 53. And it used to be also on the Tuesday after the preseason weekend. Now it's that Sunday evening, 5 o'clock central, 6 o'clock Eastern. Say that, Tyler. You're muted. Yeah, I'm so annoyed. I tried to prevent myself, but it's just so annoying. They change the day. Now we don't get those two days to have roster conversations and do our 53-man roster predictions. Nope, it's just on Sunday the next day after the game when they're supposed to be talking the game. It's all annoying. Pay attention to content creators NFL. Help us.

No, we need things to talk about. Bhop, I'll start with you on this one, and then we'll go Tyler and then back to Kayla on this. Bhop, is there a position group you're looking at that's going to be really under the microscope in this final preseason game where it's not just an audition for the Titans, but a lot of these guys are auditioning for the 31 NFL teams as well. Yeah, anything past Taze Spears and Tony Potter. I mean, Julius Chestnut, like Kayla mentioned, he's definitely earned a spot on this team, not just by his ability to run the football effectively because he's had the biggest plays in the run game

that we've seen all preseason. We also ran down and made a stick on special teams. And like you said, Tyler, John's talking mad about this dude. Like he loves him from Julius Chestman. So I do feel that there is an inside, you know, advantage there, so to speak. But why did they bring in Deowners Jones or Johnson? You know what I mean?

There's something there. Is it Michael Carter? Is he out? Colell Mullings? Is he out? I mean, there's Nick Singleton, I think, has a spot on his roster as well. So if I said Spears, Pollard, Singleton, and Chestnut are locks,

then what happens with the next three? You know what I'm saying? And there's seven guys. Yep. No way. So I think that's it because I don't see, I mean, is Nick going to run down and cover special teams like Julius? I know. You know what I mean?

Now, Deerunis is a returner by trade. So that might keep him in the building. But it looks like, you know, Kaleel, sixth round pick from last year, maybe even Michael Carter would he just brought in from Arizona after they drafted love, you know, Jeremiah Love, it's just, he might be looking for another roster. Yeah, I think four at Mo. They can't keep five running backs with what, with how much talent they have at wide receiver. And I personally, just me, I'm building a row. I want depth on the offensive line. I'm going nine guys on the O line at minimum. Personally, that would be me every year. It's just how I

see it in today's NFL. But I'm obviously looking at wide receiver. You know, we know the five locks. But Bryce Oliver, you know, he's been okay on deep balls as a wide receiver, but even he had a crossing route from Will Levis that Levis put right in his belly on a play action rollout and he dropped it. But he's so good on special teams as a gunner and as a coverage guy that he's probably going to make it. But are they going to keep seven? And I know that Restrepo, I'm going to make this plea. I know that Restrepo is not going to help on special teams. He sucks. Go watch the tape. He can't block people.

He's not going to tackle. He's 5'7, not fast. He's the opposite of what you want on special teams. I know that. And wide receiver 7 probably needs to help on special teams. I get it. But there's a connection there. He's played on first team.

He's played on second team. He makes catches every single practice, every game. He's always productive. He's always open. Should have had a touchdown for Mitch Trubisky if there wasn't a stupid flag. like he just constantly finds a way to have an impact.

And I just think it would be silly to let him go. And I feel like they're almost prepping for it. They're not going to bring him on the roster. He's going to go somewhere else and get picked up. And they're just going to go to Hank Beattie as the new Xavier Restrepo. Maybe that's what they want to do. But I'm just going to say, keep seven, keep Restrepo. I don't care about special teams.

The guy can ball. Let him play. Taylor. Yeah. And that with what Tyler's saying kind of runs into. what can happen with the tight end position because I know like some people are just going with three and Gunner Helm and DMR and Daniel Bellinger, but does Kyle and Branson make an appearance is maybe that fourth tight end? But that then that then depends on what you do with the wide

receiver group if you decide to keep how many there could take away from the tight end position. I feel it gives you a little bit more heading into the season to scheme up with with some of these tight ends if you keep four of them. So that's one of the rooms that I'm interested in if they keep Granson or if they just decide to go with three. Tyler, before I go into mine here, you said you'd keep nine offensive linemen. Do you have on the top of your head who those nine are? Yeah, it's the starting five. Yep. Brendan Crenshaw-Dixon is the swing tackle. Jackson Slater is the swing interior offensive lineman. I'd keep Pat Coogan around and then I would find another offensive tackle out of cuts from another team to replace Austin Declis.

I want four offensive tackles on this roster, not just three. So that would be my nine. And I think I think Kylin Granson makes it now. I think Jaron Kanek might have kept him off, but I think Granson makes it with Canick being hurt, which is why they can't keep three quarterbacks and they can't keep five running backs. If they're going to keep nine offensive linemen, four tight ends, seven wide receivers, they got to go light somewhere.

And I think running back and quarterback is where you do that. Yeah, so I think what was a competition at the start is becoming less and less. I think we're getting more and more like to see the formation of it now with the linebackers. Like you knew the three with Cody Barton, with Anthony Hill being drafted and Cedric Gray, right? But I think James Williams obviously has really earned that this off season. He's made a bunch of plays in training camp. He had the opening special teams play, the big tackle on the special teams. to start the game against the Seahawks this past week.

You'd say he's jumped Diabati, right? Yeah, at the beginning it was Bahamah Diabadi, who was in there with the three linebackers. He's probably jumped him at this point, wouldn't you say? I would say he's jumping at body and Mausay, probably. So, I mean, I assume that it's just going to be the four, right? Are they going to keep five linebackers, we think? I think five.

I think five is the minimum. So I guess the battle would be for that fifth one between Diabate, Mausay, and see where it goes from there. I know Maozi was talked about by John Fossel today as well as somebody he looked like did a crash course on when it come to his special team's ability as well. So that would be somewhere I'm looking at because I am not worried about the first four that they have. But where would that maybe if it is the fifth one that you guys are talking about, where that person can make an impact and, you know, go from there.

But James Williams has certainly earned that fourth spot for me based on the training camp. He's been probably one of the more impressive guys. And that goes back to last year. Remember, like, we talked about him and Cedric Gray having a competition for that starting spot. And Gray won. And James Williams could have easily pouted. But he continued to make plays on special teams, continued to hang around. And losing the weight, I think this offseason has certainly helped somebody like him. And the entire linebacker room for that matter as well, the way that Robert Sala wants them to play. So that back end of there is probably the other one that I'd be looking at this offseason or this preseason finale. I'm looking at the secondary too. There's a lot of uncertainty in the secondary. I think Eric Hallett, because he's playing the backup nickel spot now after Tony Adams and Marcus Harris, I think Eric Hallett has a chance to hang around at safety

and that kind of combo role there. I'm looking at Michael Robinson, who has gotten a lot of heat because he's had a lot of plays be made on him. But he had a PBU in the preseason game against Seattle. He is a gunner on specialty. themes all the time. And now with Josh Williams being a little bit more banged up than he was when he was even wearing the yellow jersey, I think there's a good chance that Michael Robinson finds a way to stick around despite being kind of a whipping boy for the starting wide receivers

early on in OTAs. What do you think about Mario Goodrich? He made an interception today at practice. There is some talk that maybe he makes the 53, another depth piece there at corner. Yeah, I mean, he keeps making place, right? He's had a few. interceptions it feels like and keeps popping up. I'm curious of where he would fit and how they would want to use him, probably outside, but maybe a little bit inside. But man, we're talking now. If Michael Robinson is in, I mean, we have the three starters.

Josh Williams will probably get a roster spot. You have Michael Robinson. Do we really think that they need to keep six cornerbacks from this group? I think it's more likely that the majority of the depth spots and the secondary are off other team's cuts than it is the guys who are actually on the roster right now in my thing. B. Hop, Tyler laid out his nine offensive linemen, eight that are on the team already, and then another swing tackle spot potentially in free agency.

Do you agree with that assessment from what you've seen? Because I've seen you with the clipboard there, Bhop. You watch that offensive line rather closely. Yeah, I think Austin has struggled handsomely this offseason. Even Cordell Wilson has struggled handsomely. So I don't necessarily see them being as locked. But I understand when you spend one year contract money on a guy, you know, I mean, that's got some veteran numbers too.

You might tend to I don't know. We'll see what happens. But I do think branding Pinchard Dixon has definitely taken a step forward to be the swing tackle. So he is definitely the guy that can want to eat the spot. Emil Wagner and Rashid Miller. They've had flashes, not necessarily the most consistent guys. I've seen them get spun around like Todd. a couple of times but Garrett Dillinger Andre James those kind of guys you know I

think nine is about a number that you want to keep but you know you also want to have I know that they're probably gonna have some guys on practice squad then get those those those those practice squad reps right because you don't want to start or having to fill in for that that next line you know I mean to be a guy so at the end of the day I think that there's there's some depth relative to what they're doing but you know when you got Coogan and you got Slater that's still on the roster. That to me says that there's some material help. And also one of those guards got to learn how to snap. You know, I'm saying consistently, you know, being a guy.

Because filling in for, for Slotman's got to be just a just in case as well. Even though he's done tremendous, I think he's been a quality acquisition, someone that can definitely spearhead, the offensive line, has done a great job of being Kams' extension of reading the defense and getting the line moving in the right direction. You know, so I just think that there's reasons to be optimistic about what they're doing. How deep are they? That's still, Yeah, we'll see. Any chance they keep Will Levis? Well, I was just, literally, I was just going to ask that.

So I'm sorry. Like, I know he came out and said, like, he's better than 32, you know, than. There aren't 32 better than him. Yeah, 32. There aren't 32 better than, I'm sorry. And I like Will Levis as a person, but that just does, that's not a statement that is going to look good, you know, in the long run, I feel like. And I just feel at this point, guys, doesn't it seem like this might be like the most clean break for the Titans and Will? And maybe Will can go battle for a backup job and, you know, rejuvenate his career somewhere else.

I think that might be the best thing for him and the best thing for the Titans to just kind of kind of have that clean break at this point. You know what? You got to ask below that question. What would you rather do? Would you rather be the practice squad guy here? No. he's certainly not going to be he's not going to be the backup so i bet you if you ask him hey we're going to give you your walking paper where you can jump onto somebody else's roster before their roaches get filled what would you rather do guaranteed he's on the first thing smoking yep yeah his new hospital he's not been renewed

than just having to go around on the hamster wheel right it's not because i'm saying that hinden hooker's out playing him by any judge he's saying at that point you already see the roles mr trubisky is the backup guy he is the veteran backup. Henn and Hooker can run practice squad and be in emergency if they, dare we say, go through two quarterbacks and need to get to him. You know, so I think Will is thinking, if like you said, Kayla, if he's thinking that there's another team out there that he can push that starter to get in that role, he's definitely going to want to take that versus being Mitchell Chubisky's backup. And I would rather keep Julius Chesna as a fourth running back to help on special teams than keep a third quarterback whose contract is up after the

year and he's going to leave anyway. Will Levis-Ate, re-signy, and it's like if a team doesn't want to trade for Will Levis now, you're going to want to trade for him before the trade deadline after he hasn't played or showed anything new, probably not. There's probably not a team that's going to get desperate enough to trade anything for Will Levis. So at this point, I think the likely conclusion like you guys, he's probably just going to get cut on something. It feels like the breakup that both sides know it's over.

You know what I mean? It just needs a kind of cold turkey. That's how it happens. They have a joint Facebook account, Julian. It's Will and Titans Facebook. And you know, yeah, yeah, but soon, soon. On the other side of the break, we're going to hear some. Bhoff, you have a hop take for us on the other side?

Yeah, I do. We got that, and we're also going to react to the rivalry music city jerseys too. That's next on the Titans spot. Support for today's episode comes from Indeed, sponsored jobs. When workplace chaos hits and you need the right hire, Indeed, sponsored jobs, helps connect employers with candidates who match specific needs like skills, certifications, and location. So less time gets spent searching and more time gets spent finding the right fit. People are finding quality hires on Indeed right now. In the minute that I've been talking

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sponsored jobs. All right, Bihat, floor is yours. Take it away. Well, I kind of teased it in my open, you know, we talked about preseason by definition, and that does mean before the season. You know, I remember listening to Camp's quote after the game, and he said, we're getting game times reps, but not in the game time situation. And that's true. Now, if this team was dominating preseason, you know, I still would keep my farm betting on the regular season, right? In the last 20 years, 33 teams started the preseason undefeated. 12 of them actually made the playoffs. That's 36%.

Now, conversely, teams that didn't win a game in the preseason, they made the playoffs 45%. So basically what I'm saying is that preseason is individual. Regular season is team. You're scouting yourself. You're looking at other teams. You're trying to fill the roster. You know, I think that at the end of the day,

60 minutes is what it takes to play ballgame. And what we've seen is glimpses of what this team can be. You have ebbs and flows of the game. You have slow starts and you have fast starts. But I'm just saying that we shouldn't put so much stock in who this team legitimately is before that the regular season starts. Now, if we start to see after the regular season, some habits being formed, good or bad, that's who they are, especially after Sunday when they get down the cut day and basically

decide that this is the 53 that we're going to ride out with for 2026. So all I'm saying is pump the brakes. Thoughts, everybody. Tyler, you're muted. I agree with Brad that it's individual. Like, to me, I don't know that the Titans are going to be good or bad or this and that. But I know that Kevin Winston completely overran his gap on that long run. I know that Amani Hooker overran the gap and shot up forward and ended up on the right side.

I know that, you know, Dan Moore has been a little up and down in preseason. I know that Cam Ward is inaccurate on a five-yard out. You're right. It's like individual things. Can you tackle? Can you block? Things that have been a – things that you do in football since you started playing football in peewee.

They don't require being in the scheme or having a game plan on the opponent or, like, they're just football things, tackle, block, catch, throw, things like that. Those are the things that I look at as. well. And there are individual players where recently I did like a reality check episode where it's like we're all very excited, but we also need to take into account some of these players are very, very young. And it may take some growing pains for them to get to where we want them to go. So from an individual standpoint, you're 100% right, Brad. It's better to pay attention to how guys are performing than the overall team. We're like, I don't care that the Titans won the

games. Like it doesn't matter the big one. Titans had a winning record in the preseason the last couple of years. So two Brad statistics at the top. And Peter Skronski talked about it after the game this past week. It was like, yeah, like it doesn't matter. Like, you know, we've had a winning record. Haven't made the playoffs. You know, this is what the preseason is for. Taylor. And I think though, that, you know, that can be frustrating too, though. I mean, no one's looking at win loss and, you know, really saying there's something to it, but people are looking at individual performances in the preseason, especially if they're starters, and they're coming to maybe some over,

you know, over exaggerated opinions. And not calling yours, Tyler, because yours are constructive criticism opinions, but I have seen many people. Yeah, I've seen people. I've seen people on. I've told the line. I tell the line. I can go on the Titans platforms, though, and it's just like the end of, it's the end of the world.

And I keep reminding people that this organization has not been stable for a minute. And that means there's been new GMs, new coaches, new players, new offensive coordinators. And when you are looking at this team this year with all this newness, yet again, it's going to look different from the start. And this is a time for them to just go out there and try things and figure out what is working or what's not or what I'm picking up quickly and what I'm not and what I need to. I mean, it is pretty much like we're in there and we're like doing a pre-test, right? And but people would be would literally be like saying you suck, you failed it already when we're just in there trying to work out the kinks. I think that's how I look at the preseason for teams like this that have been through so much. ever changing that maybe in two years, if this is the case,

and they still have the same staff and the same people, then we'd be worried. But it's still just a lot of working out the kinks, and it just happens to be in front of a national audience. Isn't the Kevin Winston play a perfect example, the coverage bust? Like, that is exactly what preseason is about right there. They saw something that they hadn't seen yet,

or they didn't recognize properly, and they got it on tape, and now they can be coached on it. Like, that is what the preseason is. all about is that play, that mistake, having that happen then, rather than in week one against the Jets? Yeah, I think people are, fans are quick to want a finished product right away, and they are not getting a finished product right now. Again, I said it on the show the other day. The Titans we see now aren't the Titans, hopefully, that we see in week one or that we see in week five or that we

see in week eight. They're building towards something. And that's where it starts right here, the foundation during training camp in these offseason, getting some good. stuff on tape that they can learn from. On the other side of the break, some pretty cool uniforms that were released this morning. We're going to react to them, get everyone's thoughts. That's next here in the Titans Squad Show. All right, the Titans released their rivalry music city uniforms. They're going to be wearing them November 15th against the Jacksonville Jaguars. I have a couple pictures I'm going to put for the watching the viewing audience here on YouTube. Guys, just what do you think? I mean, to me, they're the

best out of the four jerseys, rivalry jerseys. these that were released in the AFC South to me. Oh, that's a big Jeff. What's the blue sleeve about, bro? He's a red sleeve. I'm like a light blue sleeve on this one. I think that's too much, too much navy blue. Throw a white or a light blue sleeve in there, Big Jeff.

That'll really pop. They have obviously the two-tone, the homage to the two-tone era, two-tone blue era was still keeping the new powder blue that they got the Music City on the chest. They got the guitar strings as well with an homage to Music City also. I think it's pretty cool, guys. I think they did a really good job.

You know, it's funny, though. I love it. I think it looks really nice. I discussed this on a radio show this morning. We went over all of them. And this seemed to be a favorite amongst everybody here in Northern California, too. My one question is, I'm a big Navy person. So I loved the old Navy.

Like, I thought it was one of the better-looking, you know, pieces, whether you mixed it or you went all all Navy. And I thought they were like going away from Navy, but now we see the Navy back in here. I'm happy. But I was just like, I thought we were getting away from the Navy. They didn't want any more do with Navy.

Be hot. They kept a little bit of Navy in the New Jersey's with the guitar strings. You know what I mean? But that is my favorite part about these jerseys is the guitar string element. If you look at the guitar strings, they're not straight lines like they are on the usual kit.

they're fuzzy, they're quote unquote, amped, like they're strumming guitar, like, you know, they're vibrating to the noise. That little design change from the regular guitar strings to the vibrating guitar strings, that right there, whoever thought of that, that's a creative person. That kind of, those kind of ideas just leave me in all.

Whoever thought of that, imagine how happy they got the moment they thought of that idea to pitch that in the meeting. That is such an elite design change to make these jersey unique to the regular ones. Like that's, I have no more words. That's so impressive, creative. So at Seth Cropley is in

the chat. He actually works security for the Titans and he showed you the uniform today this morning when I walked in. I hadn't seen it yet. And I told him, hey, it's a helmet for me, man. That helmet is like awesome. And Tyler, it kind of looks like that helmet that you have

over your right shoulder. Yeah. That has the, um, it's the titans helm with a flaming throne. Flaming Thumbtack. But it's still kind of like, you know what I mean? That's wrong. It's signed by Trailin Berks. Oh.

Oh, no. I don't even want his signature showing. I just like the helmet. That's really funny. Oh, no. Let me ask you guys this then. These jerseys are going to fly off the shelves, obviously. If you can invest the jersey into a first or second year player that the Titans have right now,

that you say, hey, I'm investing this jersey because they're going to be a good Titan for a long time, and it's only a first or second year player. Whose Music City jersey are you guys buying? Well, mine's probably obvious. You know me. Like, if I'm going to be sticking with a person, I'm going to fight till the very end. Like, I'm about as loyal as you get. And I don't think it's fair for me to be with Cam Ward through this whole ride

if I wasn't going to go and go get his jersey and wrap Cam Ward. Like, that'd just be stupid to me. I'd look stupid. So I'm going to have to go with my guy, damn Warren. Yeah. I'm going to Kevin Winston. That's a good one.

Out of everybody on the team that has superstar ability, I think if you rank them out, Kevin Winston might be number one. Like six foot three, four four speed, the range, the physicality, the tackling ability. He literally has every aspect that you could want from a player in the secondary.

I'm going to go Kevin Winston, but I sure thought about Anthony Hill. I'll go Kevin Winston. Brad, are you going with the lineman? You know I am. Because my lineman's missing just one six because he plays like the devil. He's getting baptized by fire. Give me Fernando Carmona, man. This dude right here is going to be something.

You know what I'm saying? So we're going to have two nasty guards playing in the national football league for us, right? And I think that Carmona, the reason why, you know, when Isaac Williams and I were talking today that he felt that he won that spot because he plays hard. I mean, he gets in Jeff's face. He just finishes his place. He doesn't be not always in the right spot. And he does tend to lose every now and then.

At the end of the day, man, I wouldn't want to see him in a dark alley. You know what I'm saying? That guy right there? No, he's definitely got cans back. So give me 66 minus the six. Brad, my coach is always used to say if you're going to make a mistake, make it going hard. 100%. Maybe 100%.

I'd probably go, Tate. I haven't, I'm not worried about the cold streak right now. Also, I just think the 14 on the new jersey would look really cool. Like there's just some numbers on jerseys that look better than other numbers on jerseys. You know what I mean? And I just think 14, a short last name. Like, I think that's, that is the recipe for a really good jersey, I think, for Cardinal Tate. I would love to make a 72 Hopkins jersey.

That would be awesome. Yeah. I saw somewhere they are putting out a McNair and Eddie George version of those jerseys. I don't know if that's true or if it's fake news, but I did see that somewhere. I just can't wait to see what the throwbacks are going to be. Are they going to be, you know, the white helmet or the dark helmet? You know what I mean? What did you guys think of the Houston Texans?

Okay. I'm getting heat on X because I'm sorry. You, like, the Oilers moved. Like, it does not belong to Houston. How many times do we have to tell these people that it's not belong to Houston? So technically, Brad's rolling his eyes, but technically they stole what is now the Titans' jerseys. They look like they could be wearing the Titans jerseys. Yeah, it's just the Titans away jerseys.

And then of the timeout, real quick, I get at Jacksonville's in our division, right? We play them twice a year. But if I'm going to break out the rivalry jerseys, break them out for them dirty birds up in Baltimore, stealing all our players. You know, you got Henry retiring as a raven. I mean, come on, man. I like the DDT them.

You don't remember that, Brad. You got to be an old school Titans fan to really hate the Ravens like that. These New Age Titans fans, they don't know about that Ravens hate. They even felt it like that. But you're right, man. We hated the Ravens back in the day.

I say we like I was on the team. Brad actually was on the team. But I was with you, Brad. I was with you all along. By the way, the Jags, I cannot with those The worst. I mean the leopard Come on now. Like why?

They just never can get it right. They can never. The Jacksonville. I think it's the teal that they have. Yeah. He said yoga pants. That is hilarious. I have a pair.

That looks like those. Yeah. Jack. My sister wears the orange green. I think it's the teal too. The teal makes it hard for for the Jags also.

Yeah. All right. The Vikings jerseys were good. I just want to say that. With the Norse markings on the shoulder, they were the only other jersey that I thought was good. Everything else was just okay. But I love the Vikings ones and the Titans ones.

Haunting Pi 026 asks, do you think there's going to be a surprise cut? And if so, who? Now, I will say this. I think when we were talking about the receivers earlier, you're going to see some receivers get cut, and you're going to be sad because it's like, man, this receiver group was, there's some depth there.

And I would have liked to keep some of those guys. And then you're going to see, you know, some depth offensive linemen stay on the team. And you're going to be like, wow, like, that's who we have staying for the depth pieces on that side of the ball. You know what I mean? Like there's going to be, I think, some wide receivers that fans are going to have to reconcile that they're going to be sad that they're going to go. Yeah, I mean, there's no way that they're going to be able to keep everybody that everybody loves. Xavier Restrepa will be the one that makes everybody mad. But I have a couple.

I think if there's really a big surprise, it'll be at linebacker. Because it's either going to be James, it's either going to be Cody Barton, because they literally just, they're ready to move on. That would be the only one that I think could truly be a surprise. I don't think it's going to happen.

But if there is a surprise that really has everybody like, whoa, they cut him, it would be Cody Barton. But the other one is James Williams. So I know that James Williams has moved up the board. and he's been good, but they like Muhammad Dio Badi. If they want to get Anthony Hill more time, if they only want to keep four linebackers,

you know, maybe it could get fuzzy. But I don't think either of those are likely, but if there were an unlikely one, I think that's where I would go. Jackie Marshall, the Titans draft pick on the defensive line. He's been banged up recently. Maybe they keep him around, but I think Jalen Holmes has been real good as a big end.

I think Kalin Saunders, Some of these veteran defensive linemen have been impressive, and maybe they could cut bait with one of their rookies early on. It's not a guarantee that every rookie pick always makes the roster. So those are a couple. My thing is I don't think that they make a surprise cut. I think that anybody that gets released, you'll be like, yeah, that makes sense versus somebody that you really thought was going to make this team.

And all of a sudden just came out of nowhere and didn't make the roster. So I think when you start looking at it, like you said, Cody Barton could be a definitely polarizing, conversation, right? Yeah, but guess what? Between Cedric Hill, between Anthony Hill Jr., between James Williams, Sr., there are guys that are younger, there are guys that are faster, more athletic, and they're making plays already. So you'd be like, yeah, I can see that happening. You know, you don't want to see something's happen. I don't want to see Julius Chess not getting released. You know what I'm saying, but they're, you know, crazier things have happened. So I think at the end of the day, when we look at it, we'll probably look at what they did with conventional wisdom and say,

it made sense. I agree, Brad. I don't think there will be any surprising cuts. Just kind of trying to, if there was one, what could it be? You know what I mean? I do. Maybe Austin Declis, right? We all thought for sure that Austin Declis would be the third tackle. And credit to you, Brad, you said during the summer, like, hey, Brendan Crenshaw, Dixon's

looked pretty good out there. His body's in better shape. You pointed that out early, Brad, and it stuck with me when I've watched him on tape. I did not think that he could pass Austin Declis with his experience. and he clearly has. So deckless could be cut. Maybe that's a surprise cut, I guess. Maybe even relative to what we thought the starting offensive line was going to be,

I guess Volson, everybody thought, oh, he's the band-aid option at right guard. He's not going to be the long-term guy, but he's got experience. He's probably going to start. And then Carmona's emergence may damn near put Bolson off the team. You know what I mean? Well, I think about Jackson Slater and Pat Coogan as well.

Like, maybe they don't want to keep, nine guys on the offensive line. And if they do that, you have Slater, you have Coogan, you have the three starters, Carmona, Slotman, and Skoronsky. That's five guys on the interior. Are they really going to keep both of those guys?

You know what I mean? And then Brendan Crenshaw-Dixon, now you're up to eight, and you don't have that second offensive tackle. Maybe Slater or Coogan could be a surprise cut as well if they decide to go a different direction. Yeah, no, certainly something to watch out for for sure. That will do it for today here on the Titan Squad Show. We wanted to thank you guys for listening, subscribing, commenting, all of that fun stuff.

Make sure to be a every day or to the Lockdown Titans podcast with Tyler Rowland. And tune into us here in the squad show twice a week. The Titans have their pre-season finale Saturday, 5 o'clock Central. You can watch it on news too. Shameless plug for against the Bears. That'll do it for us. I'm Julian Minnesstone, Kayla Anderson, and Tyler Rowland, and of course the last. and Brad Hopkins. We'll see you guys next time.