Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - TITANS SQUAD SHOW: The BIGGEST PROBLEM with Brian Callahan and Cam Ward CONCERNS

Episode Date: September 30, 2025

The Tennessee Titans are 0-4 and Brian Callahan is still the head coach. We discuss our biggest problem with the coaching staff and how it could be detrimental to the development of rookie quarterback Cam Ward.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!5-Hour ENERGYEnough with boring, flavorless caffeine, it’s time to give your caffeine a flavor upgrade with 5-hour ENERGY®️ shots. Get the favorites you love or be bold and try something new in-store and online at https://www.5hourENERGY.com or Amazon today.RugietReady to level up your confidence in the bedroom? Head to https://www.rugiet.com and use promo code LOCKEDONNFL for 15% off your first order.Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNFL at https://monarchmoney.com/lockedonnfl for 50% off your first year.SquareTo learn more, go support your favorite neighborhood spot and see what Square has been up to in your neck of the woods. And then if you have extra time, check out https://square.com/go/lockedonnfl.PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use codeLOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFLfor $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelRight now, new customers can bet just FIVE dollars and if your bet wins—you’ll get THREE HUNDRED dollars in bonus bets to use across the app.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

I'm Julian Minnensohn and today on the Titan Squad show, I'll tell you the biggest concern I have with Ryan Callahan and the coaching staff. I'm Tyler Rowland and I'm here to tell you that even if they do make a change, I'm not certain that things will change. I'm Brad Hopkins and the Virgo in me is constantly trying to come up with a solution. Can you help me? Titan up. It's the Titans squad. Everything Tennessee Titans every week.

Covering all the big hits and game-changing plays from the heart of Music City, the way only the locked-on podcast network can. Squad up, the Titan Squad Show starts now. And welcome to the Titan Squad Show. As you heard off the top right there, I'm Julian Minneson, joined by my friends, Brad Hopkins and Tyler Rowland. We want to thank you for joining us and listening to us wherever you may be today. Remember, like, comment, subscribe, all that fun. fun stuff. We're here in the Titans squad show two times a week. Also, you could be an

everydayer to Tyler show, the Locked on Titans podcast. We are here to hear your concerns. So please put them in the chat. We're going to answer questions throughout the show. We want to be interactive with you guys. We want making you feel like you're part of the show because there's a lot to talk about with the Titans. And I know some people need to hear maybe some good things or maybe some clarity on things. We'll try to do our best, Tyler, being a guy who's done his show for the last almost decade, right, Tyler, seven years going on? Yeah, Braddock, he can give you that player perspective and then me covering the team from behind the scenes.

We can, we can give you the best of what we can offer here at the Titan Squad show. And today's episode is brought to you by Fanduel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app on today's show. As you guys, if you're watching with us on YouTube Live, can see on the run down there. We're going to talk about the biggest coaching problems that we see. far. As we talked about off air, you guys didn't hear it, but what makes a bad team a bad team? We talk about Cam Ward, some of the concerns we have from him when it comes to maybe

him regressing a little bit. Who knows? We'll see. And then we're also going to play Titan up versus Titan down. So guys, you know, we were going to lead with Titan up, tying down, but Brad started this discussion off air here. What makes a bad team a bad team? Everyone's calling the Titans one of the worst teams, if not the worst team in the NFL. So what makes a bad team a bad team in your guys's eyes? Well, since I was, you know, kind of throwing it out there, kind of tongue in cheek before we started the show about comparing this team with other teams around the league that are struggling.

We saw two 0 and three teams last night playing each other, the Jets and the Dolphins, right? Just like the two, oh and three teams that are playing each other in Houston over the weekend, you know, and one of them is going to come out of winter. But what makes a bad team a bad team? A bad team, obviously, is by definition, one that isn't winning. It doesn't have success. But there are things within that dynamic that make them who they are. And how different is what's going on in Tennessee than what's going on in New York,

then what's going on in New Orleans, then what's going on in some other places that just haven't yet got a first win? To me, it really comes down to execution, doing the plays the right way, discipline, not making those mistakes that shoot yourself in the foot. And, I mean, we talked about talent that's probably debatable. Maybe we stopped there as far as the third being the difference between some of these teams because I do think that at some point on a team that even is struggling, there are bright spots. And regardless of this team's record, there are players on this team that you could see flourish

on another roster, which means that they are pretty talented in who they are. You know, I thought that Tony Pollard might be one of those guys that could be, you know, a bell cow someplace else. You know what I mean, he was really good when Dallas. I think he was worth the minerals for us to buy him here. I think that even Jeffrey Simmons, the leader of this team going into his seventh season, has reshaped himself to be more of a cog that has to deal with a lot of attention from that defensive front. But yet we still see him getting in the backfield. We still see him with a couple of sacks, maybe not as many as we would want, but still being a guy that just, can't be ignored when he's on the football field.

So there are some advantages, but just the question simply remains, you know, what is it about this team that makes them who they are? And Brad, I thought you made a pretty good point right before we jumped on that in the NFL, the reason that the NFL is a league of parity is because it's very hard to get a significant talent advantage over other teams. You only have so many picks in the draft. You can only sign so many players. It's cap space and you're limited in what you could do.

So that's why the NFL is so great, because parity is a real thing because it's just really hard to get a significantly more talented roster than the rest, which is why what I would say in that equation, and my answer to that is what makes a bad team bad is coaching. Like, if the talent around the league is pretty similar across the board, you know, we're looking, I think the Jets have a little bit of a better roster than the Titans, but I don't think that like the Carolina Panthers have a significantly better roster than the Titans or the Saints or the Dolphins, you know what I mean,

or the Bengals, now they're dealing with their backup quarterback, so maybe that's a little bit different. But, you know, I think the reality here is the creativity of coaching. And I appreciate the player perspective. Brad's like, we got to execute. We got to be disciplined, which is things players have to do. You're right. They do have to do that.

But I think that there's a creativity in coaching, and we see it from some of the best play callers around the NFL. I watch the Titans stuff every week. And, you know, I don't get to watch every other team, but when I'm prepping for the Titans next opponent, catch two other teams every week. And I just feel like the lack of creativity from Brian Callahan specifically on offense.

And if we want to blame Bo Hard agree now, like we've talked about on the show, it's a committee approach to calling plays. Like the offensive design is not just one person's job and now it's different because it's a different play caller. I think that the creativity and the coaching, the ability to layer plays on top of each other, show the stuff that you show pretty much every week and then divert from that to confuse the defense. like we simply don't see it

and I think the reason that it looks like Cam is regressed and the reason that they went from being competitive against a good team in Denver to getting blown out by their biggest margin of loss with the worst team record-wise that they've played all year in Houston like they're going backwards and it's because the simplicity of the offense

and the inability to be creative off of that they're more predictable now that teams know what's coming and we're starting to see some of these end breakers they run the same concept front side Short in, deep out Or middle guy sits down And then a deep end behind it

And you're reading that inside hook defender What are you going to do Like teams are starting to break on these things Because it's the same on tape every week And they know what's coming And they don't ever build off of that It's like you know You make tacos

People make tacos They throw the ground beef in They brown it Then you throw on the taco seasoning With a little bit of water right Well if you want to plus that If you want to enhance that a little bit use a little bit of beef broth

you know what I mean maybe throw a little cilantro in with the meat to add a little kick Brian Callahan is just still putting water in the taco seasoning with the meat and doing the same thing every week and if you don't get more creative if you don't move off of the tendencies

that you're creating week to week to confuse the defense they're just going to be on top of you and know what's coming at all times and that's why I think things are getting worse because the Titans aren't being creative as other play callers and designers around the league and they're just doing the same simplistic things. And I think we could talk about the Bengals

because the Bengals offense and Bengals fans would tell you the same thing. And when you have Jamar Chase, T. Higgins, and Joe Burrow, you can run a simple offense because you have great ingredients. But when you're the Titans and you don't have great ingredients like those three guys and you're running the simple offense, you get what we're getting right now.

And that's the inability to do anything on offense. You mentioned the coaching perspective, guys. leadership, that is, I think, the big thing that makes a bad team bad, or the lack thereof. I mean, this coaching staff, and I said this on our show on Sunday on our Channel 2 show here in Nashville, they're not getting the most out of their players that they have on the roster. Now, this roster isn't a Super Bowl winning roster, as we know, but we've seen what Calvin Ridley could do at his best. We've seen what Tony Fowler could do at his best.

We've seen what Cam Ward all throughout college what he could do at his best. it doesn't seem like this coaching staff is getting the most out of their players right now that they have you could be 0 and 4 but still be competitive and not taking steps backward what we've seen the last few weeks but it seems like they're falling short of what their talent yeah 46 points two weeks you didn't you didn't sniff the red zone once on Sunday didn't even get in the red zone um and so I just don't think this coaching staff is getting the most out of the talent that they do have so let me answer this what What are the Bengals doing or not doing that is making them struggle?

Because here's a team that just a few years ago with this same staff went to the Super Bowl. So is Zach Taylor now a bad coach because Joe Burrow is gone for a few months? I mean, can we qualify and say that this whole system that they're running up in Cincinnati is inept? And all of a sudden they became vanilla and they became whatever else. The difference is who's running the system. Now, I will concede, Tyler, that you are right to a degree that if I continue to put you in bad positions, bad situations as a coach, or I'm not teaching you or developing the roster, then that is somewhat of a hamstring. But, you know, is it systemic? I mean, who's winning and who's not?

You have to ask yourself that because there are many contests going on during every play during every game. Who's winning those contests? I'm not talking about the game itself. I'm talking about as a route runner, as a blocker, as a passer, as a visionary to see the things that we are working on every day during the week. Who's winning in those instances? And why are we not finding those people when they are winning? So I think that what are they doing that wins is something you have to ask yourself.

But I do think that there is some degree of like, hey, I've given you the blueprint. I've given you the idea, the concept. Now, let's make it work. Because Zach Taylor, in my opinion, is not a bad coach. But his team right now is playing terrible. They got their butts kicked last night. And is it because of one dude not being on the roster?

I'm asking the question. I would say yes. My answer would be yes. It is because I don't think that Zach Taylor's offense, like we see with Callahan, it's so classic West Coast. The route concepts, two-man concept, with a backside dig like it's it's it's just so simple and when you have elite ingredients you can

cook a simple meal you can have the little plate with just a little piece of tuna and a little are you hungry bro yes i am i just woke up i'm starving i love to cook brad so i like i like to take things that i do know that apply and i'm a calling calherd uh cohort man i learned from cowherd and he's an analogy guy so i like my analogies but um i would just say that answer to that is yes and I think that what we're seeing is kind of tied into that a couple of years ago when it wasn't so obvious on tape when you couldn't go back and see what they're doing and watch the patterns and everything like that. Zach Taylor's offense was able to have more success in the first two years of running it with those guys but as we've gotten further along

they haven't elevated the scheme at all they haven't changed thing they haven't layered plays on top of each other to go against their tendencies and confuse defenses and we're seeing that with Brian Callahan through 20 games too. They were better last year. Why? Because it was the first year of Callahan. And teams didn't know necessarily what they would do when things were fresh. But now you've seen everything that Brian Callahan's going to do

in each individual situation. And he's not branching off of that. So it's so predictable to see what he's going to do and know what he's going to do that these defenses are breaking on everything. So many times this year we've been like, is anybody open? And nobody's open because the defense is called the perfect coverage for the route concept that the Titans are running. They run that three-man trips concept where they have the deep sail route,

they have the deep out route, and they have the short sit-down route, and it's meant to attack cover three coverage because you have three different levels. And in theory, with two outside defenders, the curl flat, and then the deep third, one of those guys should be open. But teams know what's coming now, and they're running cover four against that. And the hook defender takes the medium guy, and then the curl flat takes the short guy, and then the deep quarter takes the deep guy, and it's just like,

so many times on tape, the defense has caused. the perfect coverage for the Titans run a man-beater and the defense runs zone and has it covered up. They run mesh against zone and it's like nobody's open because that's a man-beating concept. And to me, one play is, oh, that's a good call by the defensive coordinator, that's one play, you called it right. Good job, you know, and sometimes that happens. But every single week the Titans are running certain beaters for certain things and not getting it and getting beat schematically. And to me that's a pattern and once it's a pattern, now it's on the coaches. You know, like each individual play, you could say Calvin Ridley didn't beat man, he didn't do this.

But if you're consistently getting beat scheme like up, they just called the right coverage for our play. Well, then that is the defensive coordinator recognizing patterns and tendencies and knowing what you're going to do and being there to stop you and knowing exactly what your next move is. And that is where I get to, that's probably a coaching thing once it becomes a pattern. Yeah. But I would also, and I'm not saying that the coaches aren't culpable in any of this. Don't get me wrong when I'm saying this. But when you have drops, those are opportunities to beat those coverages you're talking about. When you have missed blocks, those are opportunities that were missed because your quarterback is running for his life or the play broke down.

When you have something that happened in execution that didn't allow you to win in those instances, that's why I was asking the question, what is this team doing that wins? and why are they not doing it consistently? Because at the end of the day, there's an offense working against a defense, right? They're making each other better during the week. You can't look at one another as a defense and say, hey, offense, what am I doing that allows you to exploit me? Or offense to the defense.

A, defense, am I doing things that are so vanilla that make it so obvious that, in other words, are they winning during the week? Are the things that they're calling on Sunday? Are they working during practice? because if they're not working during practice, why the hell are they seeing themselves on the field on Sunday? You see what I'm saying? So there has to be some level of execution. There's to be some level of consistency that's working during the week. But for whatever happens when they get out there

and go up against an uncommon jersey against somebody else, it's not working. They're not out there and practicing plays that just, well, that one sucked. Let's keep it in there. You know what I mean? like we always had 12 plays that we that we ran at the very beginning of a game you know and those 12 plays were designed with coverages with defensive schemes in mind of how they were going to counter what we were running right but they were things that we were familiar with and we had an anticipation of what they were going to do to try and stop us and we adjusted accordingly but more so than not we won in those first 12 plays because that was we know what we were going to do right versus this offense, this team, this defense, sometimes you're thinking,

damn, is there anything that they're working on during the week that has worked? And why aren't we doing more of that? Concerning, considering a lot of the guys said Thursday was a really good day of practice and it just didn't show up on Sunday either. Okay, that was probably the quickest 15-minute segment we've had on this show. That flew by. Great stuff, fellas. On the other side of the break, we are going to continue to talk about a concerns,

tighten up, tighten down, as well as our concerns with Cam. Ward is he not developing maybe at the rate we would like him to, given all the problems around and we'll talk about on the Titan Squad Show next. All right, you know the saying look good, feel good? Well, the problem is the most dress clothes only check one of those boxes. They look sharp but feel stiff, hot, and high maintenance. That's where Mizzen and Maine come in. Mizn and Maine makes classic menswear with performance fabric, so it's effortless to look sharp

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And if you'd rather shop in person, you could find Mizan and Maine. It's select stores in select states. All right, fellas. So tighten up, tighten down. We talked a little bit of some of these concerns already. But let's go with a tighten up to start right now. And then we'll go to each of our tightens down. So what's your tighten up right now, Tyler?

I would say right. And I don't want to take it from Bhop because he was all over it. But I would say it's Tony Pollard. Tony Pollard's running hard. He's making cuts. I think the Titans run game is something that we can be excited about. I think the Titans run game has a chance to go on. The problem is they're getting down,

and when you're down by a lot, you can't run as much because you've got to throw more, and that makes it hard to lean on the run game. But if the Titans could ever get in a game-neutral script where they're down by a possession, they're down by three, they're down by seven throughout the second half of a game, they would be able to continue to run the football.

and I think the offensive line has done a pretty good job in the run game as well. That's somewhere where they've been successful. I still, I know the offensive line has had trouble, but I don't think the offensive line was as bad of a problem in this game against the Texans as I thought they were going to be against that pass rush. Like, they had their moments where things didn't go well, but like the Titans' offensive line wasn't destroying them in this game, and I'm seeing people send me mock drafts with only offensive linemen,

and I'm just like, I don't know if this is a controversial take or something, but the offensive line has not been an absolute disgrace, you know? Like, I talked about it last week. Half of these sacks are on the quarterback or on a running back missing an assignment or on a tight end getting beat one-on-one against a pass rusher. Like, the offensive line hasn't been incredible, but it hasn't been as bad as it's been the last couple of years. I know that's hard to hear for people, but it's just the reality.

So I think the run game is something that they can build on if they can just find a way to not get throttled in the second half and be down so much that they have to abandon the run game, then they could be in a pretty decent spot. But I would say Tony Pollard in the run game and you're expecting to get Tage Spears back this week, who is more of a jitterbug,

has more of an explosive quality to him than Tony Pollard, who's been running really hard. I think that could help the Titans have some more explosiveness in the run game and help things out. So I know right now people throw the baby out with the bathwater when you're O and 4, everyone's bad, everyone. I have people telling me, Jeffrey Simmons sucks. How come they didn't win?

And I'm just like, how can you look at life in that way? Like, result bad. So, I mean, what if you studied for a test for hours and hours for a week and you only got to see, you've got to look at yourself in the mirror and say, look, the result wasn't what I wanted, but I worked hard. And I had a good process. And I did the right things.

And if I continue to do that, things will happen for me. So I'm just like, you know, the offensive line is moving bodies in the run game. I think that's something we should all be excited about. and with Tajay Spears coming back, I think the run game will continue to be good. And if they could, again, my big issue is the simplicity of the passing offense. I think that is the biggest problem with the offense right now.

And I'm pretty satisfied with the run game, which goes back to Bill Callahan, who's the run game coordinator. Yeah, you know, no one wants to hear you say that, you know, you need to run the football more because it's just not sexy football. right but not running the football has lent to this team's problems because what is running the

football deal running the football if you're effective at running the football that means that you're winning up front right if we say that tony pollard is their best offensive player to this point at least most consistent that meant that something that the guys are doing up front is creating opportunity for him to be this player that we're talking about affectionate they're winning so i would do more of that because what happens once that is established is everything else opens up from there it doesn't work pass first then the run works no it's run first then the pass works now we put a lot more credit or blame on the quarterback position because they are the most identifiable position on the football field they're the one

ones with the most responsibility and how that guy plays seems to be more indicative of how an offense seems to run, right? But it doesn't always have to be that way. I was thinking about it last night. We would all agree that Steve McNair was a great quarterback, right? Warren Moon was a great quarterback. These are two guys that I block for and I have a lot of respect for. But you know what they had behind them? Awesome running backs. And I mean awesome running backs. Lamar Jackson, I think, is Lamar Jackson, in part because he has Derek Henry when he holds him to the football. You see what I'm saying? So in other words, it's easier for Steve to be Steve when he had 2-7 behind him that was

sometimes unstoppable. You've got to have that balance. It just doesn't work quarterback first, especially if you don't have as an offensive arsenal dudes that are catching everything in the radius downfield or taking. full advantage of the balls once they do catch them. So I'm saying that once you start establishing the physical aspect of this game, which is winning up front in the trenches, which we've seen this team do at times, that's when the playbook becomes more expansive. And guess what? Like you're saying, Tyler, that's when you become less predictable.

You see what I'm saying? Because if you don't know that I'm going to keep running this thing until you stop me and all of a sudden I hit you with a pass somewhere, you don't know what I'm going to do. I'm in the most predictable passing situations that make it obvious that I've only got a few options. So I guess I would say my tighten up would be they haven't lost to the Cardinals yet. It's as simple as that, which means that let's do something during the week that can prepare us for this opportunity that has not been lost yet. Now, hopefully it works, but at the end of the day, the Titans not having lost their fifth game is the only thing I can see right now is being potential tightened up because we don't know what's going to happen next week.

And Brad, a couple of things to add on to that. Look at the Kansas City Chiefs. Everyone's been dogging their offense. They're not explosive anymore. They can't get anything going. What did the chiefs do this week? They lined up under center more than they have in years. They play with two tight ends more than they have in years. They ran the ball. They found a way to get their run game going with their three-headed trio. It's like Patrick Mahomes is the best quarterback on Earth, right? But even he looked better when they finally got a run game going. And they were a little less predictable

because they were doing things that they haven't done before. You know what I mean? Like, that is a great example of exactly that. And look at the Bengals. Joe Mixing goes away. And now the offense is falling apart. You know, I'm somebody who believes that you do got to have balance, but the passing game is what ultimately is what you need

when you've got to have it. But you're right, there has to be some semblance a balance here. And the problem is the Titans get into the second half and they're down by so much that they can't keep running the football the way that they want to. And now the defense knows that they're going to pass. And the pass rushers pin their ears back. And then that offensive tackles look worse because they know what's coming. And it just, it's a domino effect that, you know, the crap rolls downhill on them like that. So I think you're definitely on to it there. Well, it's winning, obviously, in the first couple of downs. Just real quick,

I'll rub it up to them. Yeah. It's win. In other words, For third down to not be a problem, you've got to win in one and two, right? I've got to make some positive gains. I've got to make something happen. I've got to move the football in those first couple of plays. And going back to what you're saying, Tyler, maybe it is the first play that I call in that drive or the second play that I call in that drive. Because those two downs have to take place before I'm in a predictable third down situation that then determines what my play calling is because I've taken it to three downs. like what if this team got first downs in two plays and didn't get into third down are we allowed are we

allowed to do that do they know i think it's allowed but where does this team become more predictable it becomes predictable when in third down because in first down it's first and 10 and i've got two more downs to do something with it before i have to punt right so if i'm getting to third down which has been a huge problem converting now there's the problem you see what i'm saying so maybe it is at some degree execution in the first two and the plays that I'm calling in those first two that can be an issue and when you get 21 yards on two back-to-back run plays and then instead of continuing to do that you run a flea flicker on first down that gets a sack for six yards and now it's second and 16 and it's just like what are we doing folks you being a hypothetical uh tighten up

something we talked about on the show on sunday b hop small victories but the sacks were down and the penalties were down. You know, so, you know, when you're the most penalized team in the league, and the most sack team in the league, and it goes down, you know, I mean, hey, small victories, what can you do? So, you know, when Brian Callahan gave up the play calling, I think the misconstruion was, oh, he's giving up, you know, his entire offense. It's still his offense. You know what mean? It's still his playbook. There's just a different trigger man. And the whole idea of him changing the, or changing and relinquishing the play calling was so he could better manage the game. And from that aspect, I guess it was, for most part, pretty clean on Sunday.

I mean, I mean, there was, there was no real giant. Still super conservative before halftime. He still once again went Uber conservative with a timeout in his pocket, 30 seconds left, playing for field goals. There was the other play in, in, they were in plus territory. Was it the opening drive of the game there in plus territory? It was third and 12 and they decided to run, a run play. Do you remember that play?

I think it was their second drive, and they had Julius Chestnut in, and they ran on third and 12 from about like the 42 or something like that. That was a little confounding to me. The tightened down. But guys, whether it's Boehardigree, whether it's, I keep mentioning John Gruden, because people keep putting these beams up with him in a Titans hat. They do.

They do. But the point I'm trying to make with that is a system has to be in place. because it takes teams a while to get to run a system effectively. In other words, if into week five, all of a sudden, the Titans scrapped everything they've been working on all offseason, all preseason, all this other thing, how well do you think that they would run this brand new system? They wouldn't because there's too much newness. There's too much thinking.

There's too much inconsistency. So scrapping what they've been working on isn't the answer. doing what they've been working on better is the answer because you know how they say you master something you got to put 10,000 hours into it right that's how you master something right if you flip-flop after five plays or five attempts at doing whatever it is you're trying to be great how great will you be in the end it makes it so much harder so I don't think that coming in and scrapping everything that they've been used to whether it's play calling play design scheme, all this other stuff, they have to make those things that they are now most consistently

working on, make them work versus trying to do something brand new. Because I remember when I was a freshman in college, they issued us brand new tennis shoes, right? And then they had us go out and run a mile and a half conditioning test in brand new tennis shoes. You know how that hurts? These shoes aren't even broken in. They're terrible. You know what I mean? So it was a bad idea to issue us all this brand new equipment and then have us go out and do something like that. So I said that to say, scrapping the things that they're comfortable with doing, even to the degree that they are at this point, even though they haven't won a game, I don't know that that is the answer because that newness is also an adjustment

that will lend to the same type of frustration. Well, for a tighten down to your point then, then execution, because of the consistency needs to be, but they need to sustain longer drives. because by the end of these games, the defense is doing all they can through those first three quarters. And then the fourth quarter, they just break. They're on the field way too darn much. We talked about the time of possession. I mean, Houston had the ball for almost twice the amount that the Titans did because they couldn't

move the chains. I mean, if the Titans had the ball the entire fourth quarter, they still would have lost the time of possession battle. And that's concerning, not even getting in the Red Zone. So that's probably, I'd say, the Titan down, the consistency and execution part, what you're talking about, Bhop, instead of scrapping everything all together, whatever, the execution of what you are already doing. Yeah, somebody in the chat, you know,

asked me a question directly about what's going on, you know, what's happening. And here, you know what? It's not that hard. Really want to hear from Bhop has to say about all the nonsense happening right now. It was the first one we saw. And they also said Tyler, how pissed he, how this Tyler was. I will say if you've watched Tyler's show,

he's all out of the, his anger tank is all out. So he's just disappointed. So if he looks at this now. Is that curling his hair that gets to moving and waving and shaking? I think that I listened to Legerius Sneed. And the first question he was asked is about what? The second and 33. Second and 33.

And did he answer it, Tyler? No, he's had next question. He's the next question. He said, is that all you saw? Next question. It was a pretty big one. It was a pretty big play. It was very valid.

But to me, that lens down, I mean, it comes down to confident players not playing confident. Like you remember when Jeffrey Simmons was saying, our best players have to play their best. Even Brian Callahan said that at the podium, right? Our best players have to play their best. Confident players, normally, they're not playing confident. And like Dionne Sanders said, confidence wins games. Confidence has a smell to it. what's that that's confidence baby doesn't that what he said but that's what the difference is in

this league the difference is in this league for players to walk up to the line scrimmage and say you know what i'm about to whoop your butt and why do you say that because you're confident because you know at the end that you believe in yourself and you believe that what you're about to do that that guy across the line of scrimmage whether it's offensive defense is going to work and it doesn't matter what you try and do we don't have any of that they have none of that now it's hard to be confident when you've yet to win a game. It's hard to be confident when there's enough blame to go around for everybody to see that you're contributing to the reason why this team isn't winning. So for me, it's the lack of confidence. I mean, I'm going to say that in those

teams that we had, back in my day, you know, well, hell, we won't say a six championships. I've been to three of them. You know what I mean? Hell, I've been to the Super Bowl. Those are some confident teams I played on because we knew at the end of the day, man, we was baddest boy in the jungle. We dare you line up against us. That's how we thought about ourselves. Now, it wasn't always true because we didn't go and defeated, right? Somebody beat us, but at the end of the day, even if we did lose in those opportunities, we still felt a certain way about who we were. And this team is yet to identify that. We're going to have to clip that confidence, the Behov's confidence line there and use that after a Titans. Let's be helpful. All right, guys. So on the other side of the break,

We're going to talk about Cam Ward, somebody who's never short of confidence, but maybe a little bit frustrated with the things and how they are going right now with the Tennessee Titans. We're going to talk about it on the Titans Squad Show. Keep it here. All right, the NFL season is here, and Fanduil has an offer you don't want to miss. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win. That's right. Pick a bet, put down $5. And if it hits, you'll unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app.

Whether you're a casual fan or love diving into the stats, Fanduel makes the game day experience so much better. So what are you waiting for? Visit Fanduil.com to download the Fandul app today and get started. All right, fellas. So we're going to talk a little bit of Cam Ward here. I'd venture to say it was his toughest performance, toughest day at the office as a Tennessee Titan.

on Sunday. His final stats of the day for Cam Ward on Sunday, 10 of 26, 108 yards, obviously had the interception that bounced off the hands of Elyle-Manner to Derek Steenly Jr. And that was certainly a backbreaking type of play. What are you making Cam Ward's performance right now? Because the thing that I am worried about the most fellas is him taking steps back and stunting his growth and development with everything going on and how tough things are right now. because it seems like every week he's taking step backward. You know what I mean? It seems like every week, it's tough sledding for the guy.

I've never seen him that frustrated after a press conference. So what do you make of how things are going for Cam Ward? I just think it's tough. Are you seeing the chat, Brad? Yeah, I am. Yeah. Yeah, Wild Bill said you could smell something with this team, but it ain't confident.

That's a good one, Bill. You got us all on that one, for sure. I was laughing at that one, too. But listen, I don't know. Like, you want Cam Ward to play better, and quite frankly, I went through all his dropbacks. I would say there are three or four plays. Like, that interception to Ellick Iommanner,

to me, that's a litmus test for whether you're going to be honest about Cam Ward or not. That is a bad throw. He threw it inside. He threw it way too hard. That, oh, it touched his hands, he should have caught it. I mean, Iommanner was going this way, and he had the Neo in the Matrix. turn back the other way and try to get it like come on man we got to have some semblance of

reality here that was a bad play by cam and not only that but he missed two guys that were open on the front side got a little spooked by the pass rush coming to the backfield and then ran out and made a bad throw sidearm to alecayo manner that you know like let's just be honest about what that was so I think that was bad there were a couple other plays where I think he missed a few guys but overall the big problem is and this is something that I've been talking about all week. The issues with the offense, fundamentally, is a domino effect. So when you don't feel confident in the offensive line, because you're going against a good pass rush that's given you a ton of pressure, you're going to leave guys in. And when you leave two guys in, now you

have seven going against four. All right? And now you don't have a checkdown because both your checkdown guys are inside blocking. And they're getting out late. And the pressure's already there. And there's nobody to check down to. And flip that to the other side. Now you only have three guys out in routes. And you got seven people in the defensive backfield. So it's seven against three. And you're running two scissors routes on one side and a go route on the other side, and nobody's open.

You know what I mean? So I think that while things look like they're getting worse for Cam, the reality is the sickness of the offense is starting to have a domino effect on the math. You can't win three against seven consistently on third and six, third and eight. You know what I mean? and when Cam doesn't have a checkdown to go to

because both the proverbial checkdowns are in blocking Max Protect with seven guys now he doesn't have a checkdown to go to so he's got to hold it there's only vertical routes which he's got to wait on and there's three guys trying to get open against seven

and it's hard to get open so there are some misses there from Cam Ward there are some issues get rid of the ball quicker all that but I went through a bunch of second and long third and longs and it's just like there's nobody open and this is a problem that isn't unique I've been as critical with Brian Callahan as possible.

But this is a Todd Downing issue from 2022. This is a Tim Kelly issue. Like, these are problems that the Titans have had forever because they don't trust their offensive line. And we can blame the quarterbacks, and we can keep saying, Ronnie Tana Hills washed, Will Levis, ain't the guy,

Cam Ward's regressing. We can keep doing it, but it's a larger problem of the offense that stems from their lack of confidence and being able to protect. And it just ruins the mass. problem all over the board well then are you work are you guys then worried that because of the problems around him that then he ends up pressing and ends up stunting his growth and ends

up developing that's already happened that's already happening yeah he's already pressing he's already playing out over his skis because he's trying to make something happen you guys know what cam was playing like a rookie yes he's playing like a guy that he's playing like a guy that I don't know, it's his first year in the league. And this team just isn't built to protect him from being a rookie. Period. At the end of the day, when you look back at it, one of this team's best players, and this is the second time I mentioned him on this show today,

number nine took him three years to get into the lineup. Because there wasn't confidence that in the first year of him being drafted with the number three pick, that he was going to be able to lead this offense. He just wasn't ready. And I'm not saying that this team isn't, that he's not. ready to lead this team, but to lead this team to some sort of success, uh-uh. That's not happening right now. Because first off, it does take more than just the quarterback to make this thing work. And the guys around him in connection with who Cam Ward is to this point, aren't

overcoming his issues, basically. You see what I'm saying? The thinking that comes along with something that's unfamiliar, it affects your clock. You see what I'm saying? And ultimately, if you're going to have guys that are winning in their certain situations to create themselves as an option for him to go to and then making something happen once he does find you, it just seems like Cam Ward is playing exactly like who he is, a first-year player. And they're putting him in difficult positions too. I just want to say that the play action rate was as low as it's been all year in this game when play action is where Cam's had his most success so far.

They didn't move the pocket for him at all in this game which minimizes his athleticism and maximizes the burden on the offensive line. They're not running RPO concepts. The screen game is terrible and a good screen game would help this group so much because teams are pinning back their ears

and coming downhill with reckless abandon and no fear and their screens are slow developing, so slow developing. that by the time they get to throw the screen, the defense has recognized it. Like, they got to hit their slip screens quicker. They got to have better execution on the players, on the outside screens to wide receivers.

I haven't seen a tight end screen all year as well. Like, while Cam Ward is starting to regress and playing like a rookie, there are simple things that they could do, incorporating more RPO, which he did in college, which puts the defense in a bond and gives them quick avenues, doing better in the screen game. like rolling out the pocket more play action which goes to running the ball more which we talked about earlier right now cam ward is being asked to play quarterback on the most difficult setting he's playing on all madden right now

and when you're a rookie look at jaden daniels last year that's why so many people like cliff kingsbury as a potential head coach again because he put the game on easy mode for jaden daniels gave him rpoes and stuff he did in college the screen game was creative in the run game got the ball out of his hands quick It's not like the Washington Commanders had an elite offensive line last year. That's why they go out and trade for Laramie Tunsell because they knew they had Sam Cosme at Guard and he was really their only elite offensive linemen last year.

But the design of the offense and the incorporation of what he did in college and all those things. I think Brian Callahan really struggles with doing what's best for his players. I think Brian Callahan plays his offense and what he does. And I think he struggles.

We saw it with Will Levis last year. What's Will Levis good at? Play action. and then ripping over the middle of the field down the field. But Callahan wants to run these two-man West Coast concepts to the outside that are all about precision and timing, and that's not quite what Will Levis is good at. And that's maybe not quite what Cam Ward is good at.

So I just think the things that they're asking Cam to do don't help out a rookie quarterback enough. And that's why I continue to come back to coaching. But here's my thing, why I said at the beginning, I don't know if a change is going to make change. Because like you've said, Brad, and like you said, Julian, it's still Callahan's offense no matter who's pulling the levers

and pushing the buttons. They're still within the same confines of the box. So Cam Ward has regressed a little bit. He needs to be better and get the ball out of his hands, but they are asking him to play on hard mode and not doing simple things

that could help him get the ball out of his hands quick, help him use what he is good at, and help him have some easier opportunities. Bonnie Taylor wrote a song holding out for a hero, right? Well, in this roster. Sing it.

Yeah, go here, go here. Yeah, exactly. But I got to go back to Eric. Yeah, I was a little comment for you, Bhop here, because it kind of explained everything you were talking about. Yeah. Julia, how long have I been saying that? How long have I been saying what Eric said?

You said it on Sunday, too, on our post game show. Exactly. Exactly. What was, what was Justin Fields's best play last night against the Dolphins? When he took off running. Exactly. And he scrambled and used his feet. and you ran at least like you're talking about tyler that creates another option right it creates

something that the defense has to think about r pos and also 12 personnel okay having one more blocker up there up front then the defense can block that's going to create opportunity so while it might seem more vanilla it's just the grassroots of football guys it'd be awesome to be exotic every single play and do things that put the ball in the air and let cam war feature his arm and all this other stuff at the end of the day those are the things that are creating situations that are hard for the titan to overcome to have success and brad i'm saying brad not to cut you off but let me tell you this just to add numbers to that right now in the NFL uh as of today through four weeks the team in the NFL that has played the most 11 personnel and for people watching 11 personnel is

one running back, one tight end, which means three wide receivers. The most 11 personnel team in the NFL right now, Tennessee Titans, 86% of their plays have come out of 11 personnel. The second closest team is the Minnesota Vikings at 75. The Titans are 11% higher than the second team in the NFL with their uses of 11 personnel. I said before the season, 11 personnel is Brian Callahan's baby blanket. It's what he feels safe in, it's what he feels comfortable in,

and when you're starting tight end is Chica Conquo who isn't a good blocker and you're not using more tight ends to create that illusion it's so predictable everything that we've talked about today guys is a full circle conversation like everything perfectly ties into one another 86% 11 personnel for the Titans

I don't care what the game script is that's not going to get it done and they're negative 50.99 and expected points added on those plays they are getting destroyed and 11 personnel and they won't get out of it. For those who are listening on audio, the comment we are responding to is from Eric Reinhardt, where it says it just looks like the offense isn't suited to the strengths of the QB,

get him rolling, play action, RPO's, you know, simplify reads, run, run, third and nine dropback is not going to do it. Make sure you guys put in the comments, any questions or concerns that you might have. We're going to answer them here on the other side of the break for you guys in a little Titans therapy session as we end the Titans. squad show keep it here all right guys you've probably heard of viagra or cealis maybe you've even tried them but if you're looking for something beyond the usual pill it's time to meet

ruggiat go long that's exactly where ruggiat go long comes in this isn't just another ed pill it's a total game changer for confidence um the effects can last up to 36 hours that's confidence all day all night and even into the next day so ready to level up your confidence in the bedroom, head to RUGIET.com and use promo code locked on NFL for 15% off your first order. That's RUGIET.com promo code locked on NFL. Make sure to use our code so they know we sent you. All right, guys, wanted to answer some questions from some of our viewers here on the YouTube live chat. Remember, we are live on YouTube. every time we have a show here in the Titan Squad show,

so make sure you keep your comments and questions coming in. We will try our best to answer them, like we said. Tyler has been covering this team from his show for a while. Bhop, obviously, with the former player perspective and myself covering the team. Here is what Eric Reinhardt, another question from him. He had the one at the end, a comment about the offense. Here's another one he had to say.

He said, I'm not a Titans fan. Objectively, I'd fire Callahan and let Kim sit all year. so he doesn't take 13 more weapons and loses confidence. He's talented. Don't ruin him. What do you guys feel about maybe not sitting in the entire year, but ruining his confidence and continue maybe the, I guess, for lack of a better term, steps back or regression that we're talking about.

I think it's the opposite. Yeah, this is baptism by fire, bro. Because right now this team, Brandon Allen ain't coming out of the bench to make this team any better than it is. so at the end of the day i would rather have cam war take its lumps and learn in this fashion than to have him just sitting on the sideline getting no experience let him go through these growing pains you know let them experience what it's like to lose so that way you can put that feeling that emotion to work for you because you understand exactly what it's going to look like

and what it feels like if this thing doesn't work if you don't put the work in if you don't you'll have to the to the things that you know people are going to have bring against you you know so you know at this point it just you just got to try and make him better you just can't replace them that's yeah only only way to better is to play right jump into the deep end of the pool and try to swim that's certainly that's certainly what uh somebody had another funny comment here because uh ruggia it's one of our sponsors i nominate callahan for a free trial ruggia to help him overcome him was shyness before and during games. That's pretty much, that's pretty funny.

I don't know if Ruggiat is trying to undo shyness. I think, uh, I think, uh, Asana may have misunderstood what Ruggiat is really trying to do for you there. But shout out to Ruggiat, uh, and all their great work, but I, I'm with you, Brad. I'm with you, Julian. Listen, people just want change right now because they're angry and they want something to change. They want Callahan to be fired.

They want Cam to get bench. They want someone to be traded. they want someone to be. I'm seeing people cut legious knee, just get them off the team. Like, I say this all the time. The finances don't make any sense to do things like that and people are just angry and want something to happen. They want action to be taken.

Now, I do think that letting go of Brian Callahan could result in a good bump for the team and increase production. And there are numbers behind that to show that. My guy Superhorn, who does Titans film on Twitter, put out a really good thread going over over the last 30 years when you fire a coach in season

what that can do for your win percentage and your success rates and things like that so I think that firing Brian Callahan could naturally just give the Titans a bump but we've also talked about it's going to be his offense the rest of the year and sit in Cam Ward isn't going to make Cam Ward look at J.J. McCarthy from the Vikings he sat all year last year and had a redshirt year

and when he came in he was still struggling to say the plays and get guys lined up and doing that the best teacher is hands-on experience and I have said it throughout the season and I'm going to keep saying it I don't think Cam Ward ain't Marcus Marriota I'm sorry I'm a Marriota

detractor I never believed in Marcus Mariota I didn't believe in his personality and his confidence as a person I just never believed in him and I think Cam is the opposite of that Cam is so confident I'm not worried about Cam

losing his confidence in this and that I just don't think that that's true he's too serious and motivated about winning He just cares too much for his confidence to be shattered. Like, I just don't believe that that's a real thing with Cam Ward. So I know people want change just to change it, you know what I mean? Like, because they're mad, but sitting Cam Ward is not the answer here. And again, I didn't want Brian Callahan to give up play calling duties either.

I don't think that that's going to make him a better game manager because he's terrible with that. The one thing that he is okay at is calling plays. So I thought that was a mistake too, but I don't think it was up to Brian Callahan. We have a comment from CA1. I thought this was pretty funny. What will it take to get Brad Hopkins back? Problem solved. You see this gray here?

That's the hands-on experience, Tyler, was talking about. Yeah, I got a better chance of making the Titans right now. I mean, shoot, Brad don't need to do that. I get that a lot. And I understand. It's just really basically people complimenting the success that we had back in the day, right? Because they know that I can't play nowadays. Hell, I've got a brand new knee.

I'll minute somebody hits me in this titanium knee. I'm done. Yeah, so, you know, but this way, there's a reason why you don't see 60-year-old. I'm not 60. There's six, you don't see 60-year-old football players. It's just because we time out. We age out. That just happens.

As a matter of fact, in this league, if you're 35 years old, you're mentioned as an old guy, right? Yeah, 35. Exactly. Exactly. So I get it. And I understand the frustration that the fans have, that the viewers have in that they're emotionally invested. Because if you didn't care, you wouldn't be commenting. Right? If you didn't carry it up, tight and suck them off. Let's talk about something else. But the fact that they're venting and airing their frustration means that they're invested some way emotionally into the outcome of these games, right? So it's frustrating. And if it ain't working, you just want to do something different you just want to change something right but at the end of the day i mean when you're talking about family this is where i look at it sometimes we played our best sometimes we didn't but we weren't talking about trading in your brother you know what i mean we weren't talking about you know getting rid of the head of the household because things weren't going because you

weren't where you wanted to be economically or you know whatever it's just you you you wanted something within that dynamic to change you'd be better somehow than you had been to that point. And that's the only thing that I think that we can ask of this team because, guys, as much as you want change, the change angle make things better. Not this year. We're already a quarter of the way, almost a quarter of the way into the season. So if you think about, if you think somebody's going to come in here with this, this file of how it's going to work, what has taken that guy so long to present someplace else? And why isn't he making money doing that someplace else? Because that, it just don't, it don't work that way.

You know, it takes time to create something to mold what works, and these guys have to have that feel to it, and they just don't. Hopefully they can catch a spark this weekend. We'll see taking on the Arizona Cardinals on the row for their second of three straight road games, Titans, trying to get in the win column as desperately as possible. We wanted to thank you guys for joining us today. Keep liking, keep subscribing, keep commenting, keep subscribing, keep commenting during the show. shows twice a week and also be an everyday day or two Titans, the Locked on Titans podcast with Tyler Rowland.

But for now, I'm Julian Minnesone. That's Brad Hopkins and Tyler Rowland. We'll see you guys on Game Day.