Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Titans Training Camp Mailbag: Roster Battles, Ideal Headline & Biggest Rookie Impact

Episode Date: July 19, 2021

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You are Locked On Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to the Locked On Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, this Monday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast is presented by the Locked On Fantasy Football podcast. Winning your league starts with the right data, and that's why Vinny Iyer of the Sporting News provides you with the edge you need to win your fantasy football leagues. Locked On Fantasy Football is a daily podcast all year round, so your fantasy team never fails. Make sure that you subscribe to the Locked On Fantasy Football Podcast

on whatever platform you do stream. Fantasy football is right around the corner, Titans fans, and that means that Titans training camp is also right around the corner. We are just a few weeks out, and that's why today's mailbag is going to focus on the Titans training camp. I took your guys' questions that you had diving into camp in just a few short weeks, so ready to dive into all of your guys' questions.

Talk Titans training camp on this Monday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast. Let's get it! Titans fans, we are going to dive into this training camp preview. Monday mailbag, got a lot of great questions from you guys talking about possible training camp headlines, possible training camp outcomes, training camp battles. Before we get into your guys' questions, do want to remind you guys that the Locked on Titans podcast is back to five days a week, and I'm going to be getting you guys ready for Titans training camp throughout

the next few weeks, so make sure that you never miss an episode of the Locked on Titans podcast by subscribing to the show on whatever platform you do stream. Also, follow me on social media on Twitter at TicTacTitans and on Facebook at Locked on Titans Pod. But the first question that we have here, and of course, reminder, you can always get your mailbag question read and answered by sending it to me as a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or sending it to me on Twitter, once again, at Tic Tac Titans. So let's dive in.

First question is from Kemguy101 and he says, what roster battles are you particularly interested in during training camp? Right tackle, backup quarterback, something else. Well, I think that the obvious answers here are the ones that everybody's thought of. Of course, starting right tackle is a big position to watch. You've got Kendall Lamb, Ty Sambrillo, the longtime veterans in the NFL. You've got the rookie, Dylan Radins, trying to make a way and get that start right off the bat at the beginning of his career. So that's obviously probably the biggest, most consequential

roster battle that'll take place. We know about backup quarterback. I'll talk more about that later on in the episode. But backup quarterbacks want to watch. And I have to say, you got to feel pretty blessed if you're the Tennessee Titans that one of the biggest roster battles that you have is for backup quarterback. I mean, at the end of the day, that's a pretty good sign. Now, one that, you know, People are starting to talk about more.

I've been pretty solid on what I think is going to happen. At this position. But kicker. You actually have to watch at kicker. You got Tucker McCann. The undrafted free agent from last year. Who was mostly on the Titans practice squad. Then you got the new undrafted free agent.

From this year. Blake Heibel from Ohio State. Which one of those guys are going to win that job? I think neither. I think the veteran, Stephen Gostkowski, is ultimately brought back onto the team. So that's why I don't, I guess I'm not giving as much of my attention

to the kicker spot as some people are because quite frankly, the Titans kicker, I don't think, is on the roster right now. So that's how I see that. But some other training camp battles that I think aren't being talked about as much as they should, I think the running back two spot. Is Darrington Evans going to be ready to go after an injury-plagued rookie season and actually step into that complementary pass-catching role

that we've been wanting him to take next to Derrick Henry? The Titans offense, quite frankly, needs, they have to have a running back that can fill that role or a guy that I was actually very excited to see the Titans sign veteran running back Brian Hill who came over from Atlanta I think Hill has a great chance if Darrington Evans is not ready he's a young guy still just coming off his rookie season. Tons of injuries. He may not be able or ready to contribute on a play-off-minded team. It just may be a reality of a young player.

It would be unfortunate, but it definitely could happen. I think Brian Hill will serve a much more valuable role for the Titans in 2021 than anybody is realizing. So that number two running back role, will it be Brian Hill? Will Evans step up and take it for himself? That's one I'm watching a big deal. Wide receiver five and six. So I think the top four wide receivers is pretty set in stone, in my opinion.

You have AJ, Julio, Josh Reynolds, and Des Fitzpatrick. I mean, the Titans traded three picks, moved, and Des Fitzpatrick. I mean, the Titans traded three picks, moved up to get Fitzpatrick. He's making the team. So, that's four guys locked in there. Who are going to take those last two spots? Cam Batson, Nick Westbrook-Akina, Racey McMath, Marcus Johnson, Chester Rogers, Mason Kinsey? I mean, there are a lot of different possibilities and different ways that the Titans could sort out the back half of the wide receiver depth chart. Do they want bigger guys to follow the mold that they have? Or will they take some smaller guys to kind of counterbalance all the big size that they have at wide receiver? I mean, I've always been of the thought that you

want to have a basketball team as your wide receiver group, a bunch of different kinds, a point guard, a center, a power, you want to have all different kinds of players in that wide receiver group so you have a wide receiver for every situation. The Titans obviously put a focus on big physical wide receivers, which leaves them with less of the small, shifty, quick wide receivers. So does that give a Mason Kinsey? Does that give a Cameron Batson a little bit of a leg up just because the Titans will want to be varied with their personnel at wide receiver? That's an interesting thing to watch for me.

And then, of course, tight end three. We know Jeff Swaim. We know Anthony Ferkser. Jim Wyatt, the Titans' on-team beat writer, is saying that they're going to add somebody to the tight end room. So, that third tight end spot, who ultimately will get their hands on that, and will that player be able to contribute to the Titans early on or at some point during the season?

That'll be something to watch as well. But we are going to continue answering your guys' questions in the Monday mailbag. Before we get to more questions from you guys, got to remind you about the best tasting protein bars in the galaxy, and that is Bilt Bars. We want to celebrate freedom of choice, and Bilt Bar gives you exactly that with nine delicious flavors on their website, including some of my favorites, the salted caramel and the cookies and cream. Not only that, they have a ton of different flavors that they rotate in, occasionally limited time flavors as one. There is something for everyone on BuiltBar.com.

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Use promo code LOCKED15 and you'll get 15% off your next order. Once again, that's promo code LOCKED15 for 15% off at Bilt.com. Titans fans, it feels good to be back. Five episodes a week for the Locked On Titans podcast from now until next July. So I'm very excited personally, ready to kick things off. I'm ready for football season to be here. I need training camp in my life as soon as possible. And speaking of training camp, obviously the mailbag centered around training

camp questions, but also want to remind you now that we are back to five days a week, want to let you know that the rest of the week and then a lot of next week as well will be training camp positional breakdowns. I'm going to go position by position and kind of just break down what the Titans roster looks like heading into training camp, who is all on the team at that position and how that battle might shake out what I'm looking for at each position. So make sure that you never miss any of those episodes. Subscribe to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform it is that you do stream.

So let's dive back into the mailbag and... Do you smell that? Something smells elite. Also smells like maple syrup. It's gotta be the Canadian Titan and sure as the world, it is. So shout out to the Canadian Titan. His question is, what are the big differences between OTAs, minicamp, and training camp? I think this is an excellent question.

So, breaking it all down. OTAs are organized team activities. Now, often, to give you an example, this offseason, when they talk about organized team activities, there was a lot of conversation about the voluntary organized team activities. And what those are, basically, those are going to be non-contact situations they are voluntary for most teams around the NFL for all teams around the NFL quite frankly it's bargained with the CBA and the Players Association and all that but OTAs is film study OTAs is walkthroughs out on the field just walking walking through what you're doing. A little bit of individual position drills. Think about defensive linemen just working with the bags,

offensive linemen hitting the sled, stuff like that. Individual drills. And there's some team periods, some 7-on-7, some 11-on-11 activity. But for the most part, it's walkthrough, it's's jog through at max they really keep the intensity and the contact and all that down and that's why we saw urban meyer of the jaguars be fined recently for inappropriate contact during these otas that i'm talking about the titans didn't have that problem because they play by the rules um for minicamp, especially the minicamp that happened this year, that is like the first mandatory team activity of the year.

And that really differentiates it from an organized team activity. I mean, technically everything is an organized team activity. But minicamp is like the first mandatory team event that happens in the offseason, and that is roughly the same as the OTAs. Some film study, some film work, individual drills, team drills, but the whole team is there. OTAs are more of like a baseline of what your coaches want you to do. Minicamp, they start doing things a little more to what we would see

from a practice in the season. But again, it's mostly 7 on 7. Mostly team walkthroughs, individual periods, things like that. Now training camp. Training camp is what you would think of when you think of football practice. There's contact in training camp. They really start installing the playbook. What we're going to do as an offense.

What we're going to do as a defense. Things get very competitive. You have the entire team there. It's completely mandatory. This is what you would think of when you think of a traditional football practice environment. With contact. All that. Individual.

Teamwork. 11 on 11. Red zone, all the different situations that teams practice in the NFL. Different than college football, the one thing that most people say the big difference other than the general speed of the game because every athlete is a high level athlete in the NFL. One of the big changes is situational football. There's so much more of an emphasis on situational football at the NFL level

because you don't run as many plays as you do in college. And the pace isn't as high as it is in college football, which means every single play and every situation, red zone, third down, four minute, two minute, end of half, all that stuff is emphasized so much more. So when you get to training camp, you start seeing a lot of that work as well. So that's the big differences between the three. It's just when they happen and what they're doing out on the field.

And then, of course, who is involved. So great question there from the Canadian Titan. An elite question question if you would go as far to say that we got another elite question here from the Canadian Titan two more actually so appreciate the questions there first one is what would be the best possible headline for Titans fans to read during training camp what would be worst? I think this is a simple answer, and it's all health-related. It's training camp.

You know how deflating it would be if the Titans experienced a big-time injury in training camp? And just going into the season knowing that there's this big injury looming over the Titans? Now, depending on what that injury is, it wouldn't completely derail the season,

but there are definitely opportunities for that to happen as there are with any NFL team. If you have a player who's that good, get hurt. So the best headline the Titans could possibly read, Titans fans could possibly read for training camp is Titans training camp ends with everyone healthy. I mean, that is what really matters. It's going into the season as healthy as possible.

There's going to be a ton of injuries, guys. It's football. The injury rate is 100%. Everybody will get injured playing football. Period. That's the truth. But staying as healthy as possible when you're not playing games that matter

that's really what counts so everyone healthy at the end of training camp would be the best headline the worst an injury to Derrick Henry I don't want to talk about it I've had enough I don't want to talk about it anymore but that clearly would be the worst headline that Titans fans could read from training camps.

Continuing forward to another question here, it comes from my guy KSaj, and he says, of the primary training camp battles, if you could have one play out exactly as you prefer, which would it be and how would it play out? So you think about some of the training camp battles we talked about, right? Tackle.

We talked about backup quarterback. We've talked about the interior defensive line a little bit, kicker. But for me, it's cornerback. If Christian Fulton is good enough to start at cornerback and win that cornerback two spot if Caleb Farley is healthy enough to win one of those top three cornerback spots that is the ideal outcome

because while I guess who wins the right tackle position I think will matter, but the Titans have shown that they'll get pretty decent play out about anybody on the offensive line. So, that's important, but the Titans' defense was terrible last year and a lot of that had to do with poor cornerback play. If the Titans were to get good cornerback play out of Christian Fulton and Caleb Farley, to get good cornerback play out of Christian Fulton and Caleb Farley, two young guys, that would just absolutely give the defense a chance to be way better than it was last year.

So for me, that was a pretty easy one to answer once I saw that. And before we move into the last segment of our Training Camp Monday mailbag, I have to circle back. I left out one of Canadian Titans' questions, and it was his second question here. It said, can Deshaun Kizer realistically win the backup quarterback job, or does Woodside have to lose it, and how does he? Okay, this is simple to me. Guys, I've stayed true to this opinion since last year at this time

Logan Woodside is not an NFL quarterback he's a clipboard holder who the coaches trust and the Titans don't want to spend a bunch of money on their backup quarterback position it's something that they've decided to just not put a lot of resources to so I absolutely do think Deshaun Kizer can realistically win the backup quarterback position.

Not only that, I think he does. He's way more athletic than Logan Woodside, which fits the Titans scheme. He's had more experience in the NFL than Logan Woodside. He's just a better football player. It's just the truth. So I do think Deshaun Kizer

wins that backup quarterback spot, and I really do hope that I'm right. I've had enough of Logan Woodside. We are going to cap off this Monday mailbag. I'm going to continue answering your guys' questions in the next segment. Before we get to that, though, I do want to remind you about betonline.ag, the fastest and easiest way to bet on all your sports action

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head to betonline.ag today using your personal computer or your mobile device. You can sign up for free and when you use promo code LOCKEDON, that's one word, LOCKEDON, you'll get a 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit. Bet online, you're online sportsbook experts. Let's round out this training camp Monday mailbag, finishing up the rest of your guys' questions before we dive into the last few questions that I have here, gotta remind you guys about the Locked On Today podcast hosted by Peter Bukowski. It's all the biggest sports stories in under 20 minutes from every major sport. It's like having the sports section read to you every morning.

Make sure you check out the Locked On Today podcast on whatever platform you do stream. But the next question that we have, and it's a very interesting question too. It's a little off the beaten path from the type of questions that I normally get and that makes it very enjoyable to answer and to think about. It comes from Paris De Soto. And he said, Tyler, do you think during training camp these guys drink? I would think after working out

they drank beer to carve up. Side note, Dipset vs. The Locks vs. Battle August 3rd. Okay. So number one, I am so hyped for that vs. Battle. If you guys haven't been listening to the show for a long time, maybe you don't know this, but if you have, obviously you do. I am so hyped for that versus battle. If you guys haven't been listening to the show for a long time, maybe you don't know this, but if you have, obviously you do.

I am a monster hip-hop fan and have been for 20 years now. I will say that the locks and dip set, while I did like a little bit of dip set, I was really young when the locks was really popping. Styles P, Jadakiss, and I didn't really understand their content when I was that young, when they were really hot. So it's actually something where I've listened to a lot of their music now, you know, even

though it's 20 years ago that it was hot. So, very excited now that I'm much more acquainted with the music of the Lox and obviously Dipset, Joel Santana, Jim Jones, Cam'ron. Some good and some bad there. That's kind of where I'm at with New York rap on a general basis, I guess. But very excited for that. Going to be in Madison Square Garden. If you guys don't know, Versus Battles are basically something in hip-hop culture

where they take two very famous people who have similar styles of music and they kind of have a battle of songs. Basically, two artists, girl, guy, whatever, they stand next to each other in a room and they take turns playing their songs back and forth and it's kind of like who had the better discography who put on the better performance while doing it

all that so really really cool that they do that love all the versus battles and the locks vs dips set is an all-timer quite frankly especially like I said in Madison Square Garden. Man, what a treat for New York City. I mean, what a treat.

So definitely excited to watch that on August 3rd. I share your excitement for that, Paris. But as to your regular question, yeah, a lot of the guys drink. I mean, they go out and they party after practice, have drinks. I mean, not every guy does. Some guys are family men. They just go home and are with their kids and their wife. You know, that's, it's normal, but there's a lot of wealthy, single, attractive men, and they're going to go out. Now, here's my thing. I don't think that a lot of these dudes are drinking beer to carb up.

They're professional athletes. They don't need to carb up in the sense of the way we thought. Whenever I had a big football game or a big basketball game or something growing up, my dad would make me spaghetti the night before and say, I needed the carbs and I needed the energy and all of that. I just don't think the nutrition is that way anymore. We know better now. So I don't think that the guys are out there drinking, crushing Miller Lights to try to like

carb up for nutritional purposes, but they definitely go out and drink because they're young, successful men who are able to do that. So they definitely drink some of them, not all of them, but some of them. But I don't think it's like to carb up or anything like that. They're just out having a good time, quite frankly. Good question, though, Paris. I love that. I love bringing up the versus battle as well. You know me very well.

Next, the next question. I'm going to talk about rookie impact here, and it comes from Slappy, my boy Slappy. He says, I feel like we get to see two draft classes this year with last year's class not playing much due to injury. That's a great observation, Slappy, absolutely. It'll almost be like the Titans are getting two rookie classes, which is pretty cool, but also means that they were a super disappointment last year, which is not as cool.

He goes on to say, with training camp here, who is on your radar to really have an impact this season? Picking only from this year and last year's draft classes. To me, this is kind of like, I hope, but it's Darrington Evans. I just think what Darrington Evans could bring to this Titans offense because of how different his skill set is from Derrick Henry. He can be used in RPO game. He can be used in quick screen game. He can be used orbit motion. Jet motion.

Jet sweeps. Gadget plays. Return kicks. If Darrington Evans played up to his potential. I think that would be an absolute boon. For the Titans offense. Because of the versatility that it would provide them. And guys I've been very staunch on my beliefs that Derrick Henry is an all-time unicorn.

All the different standards that you apply to running backs don't apply to Derrick Henry. but 300 carries in 2019 370 carries in 2020 the guy may be a unicorn but eventually he's going to wear down there's just no way around it and if we want to elongate his career if we want to keep Derrick Henry

effective for as long as possible, at some point somebody's going to have to get in there and do a decent job of spelling him. We can't be scared to death to take Derrick Henry off the field and give him a little bit of a rest. And it can't be such a detriment to the offense that it's like we're wasting a drive if we spell Derrick Henry for a few plays. So, Darrington Evans having a good year and being involved and being ready, not only does that help the Titans offense evolve and grow, but it would go a long way to helping Derrick Henry as well. So, Darrington Evans is my answer for that.

The last question that I have here comes from my guy, Tyler Chandler, and he says, we got 17 offensive linemen on the roster right now. How many make it to the 53? Who do you expect to go to practice squad? This is tough. I'm back and forth between eight and nine offensive linemen. The Titans kept nine a lot of the year last year with the pandemic and increased roster flexibility and things like that.

That might have had to do with it. Typically, you would see the Titans carry eight offensive linemen into training camp. You would like to have a backup tackle, a backup interior guy, and then a swing guy who can kind of do everything. For me, you know that you're going to have the five offensive linemen, the starters. You're going to have Taylor LeJuan, Roger Saffold, Ben Jones, Nate Davis,

and we'll just say Dylan Radins. But after that, Ty Cimbrillo, Kendall Lamb, Aaron Brewer. That would be my top eight guys. That's who I would think make it. I was very impressed by Aaron Brewer and his stints last year, especially that Baltimore game when Roger Saffold was out during the regular season. So I like Aaron Brewer as an undrafted free agent, interior offensive lineman.

Ty Cimbrillo has the ability to play some pretty quality left tackle as a backup like he did last year before getting hurt and he can also play some interior offensive lines so there's your swing guy who can kind of do a little bit of both and then you have Kendall Lamb who the Titans signed as a free agent from Cleveland and Lamb has the ability to be a backup tackle but also be kind of a big bodied tight end on goal line packages. So I love the versatility that those guys provide right there, and I think that gives them a leg up to getting on the roster.

Now, as for who I would like to see go to the practice squad, I would imagine we would see at least two offensive linemen going to the practice squad. It kind of depends on whether they're going to go back to what they originally wanted to do in 2020, and that's have 12 people on the practice squad, or if they're going to keep the increased practice squad limit of 16. If they do 16, they'll probably keep three linemen. If they do 12, they'll probably only keep two. But for me, I would look for someone like David Questenberry, who started for the Titans quite a bit last year. Daniel Murner as an interior offensive lineman,

who should get an opportunity to stick with the roster in one way or another. And then you look at some of the guys who have, you've heard their name in the training camp offseason process. Number one, Chandon Herring, the undrafted free agent out of BYU. Big guy, athletic guy, system fit from his time at BYU with that zone scheme on the offensive line. So very interesting to see if he can kind of hack it and make his way. And then the wrestler turned football player Adam Kuhn.

Will he be able to find a way onto the roster? I would like to at least see him on the practice squad so the Titans can continue developing him and see what they might have. But that is going to do it for this Monday Mailbag Training Camp Edition. I'm going to be back with you guys tomorrow. We're going to start breaking down positions as we head towards training camp for the Titans. Football is near, ladies and gentlemen. So make sure that you subscribe to the Locked on Titans podcast so you never miss an episode.

That's going to do it for me today, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans. Thank you.