Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Titans Training Camp Takeaways: Key Returns to the Field, Vrabel Discusses Try-outs & Rowland's Rant on Raymond

Episode Date: August 19, 2020

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Welcome to the Locked On Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, today's edition of the Locked On Titans podcast is brought to you by Built Bar. Go to BuiltBar.com and use promo code LOCKEDON and you'll get $10 off your next order of the best tasting health bars on the market. But that is going to lead us into today's show. The Titans had another fully padded practice on Tuesday. So we will begin by going over all the major takeaways from Tuesday's practice. We have absences to report. We have returns from absences to report some information about the slot cornerback position and another window into the backup

quarterback competition. So excited to talk about everything that came out of Tuesday's practice with you guys. And then we are going to follow that up by hearing from head coach Mike Vrabel and some of his thoughts coming out of practice on Tuesday. And what I really wanted to highlight for you guys. Is him going over the procedure for some of these tryouts. The signings that the Titans are making at the back end of the roster. And from the coaches perspective.

How that all works and the timing of all of that. Just to give you a window into the roster transactions. That will be taking place over the next few weeks. And then we will talk about at the end of our show, a little bit of a Roland's rant for you guys. There was, I would call it a key absence from today's Titans practice. And I have a little bit of an opinion on what I think it means. And someone was not very happy about that opinion. So I will talk about that situation and give you a little Roland's rant on this absence to round out our show. I'm going to be bringing Titans content to your ears Monday through Friday all throughout

the rest of the season. So make sure that you subscribe to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream. But the Titans had another padded practice on Tuesday. It's time to break it all down. Let's get it. Coming out of Monday's practice, which was the first fully padded practice of the offseason for the Tennessee Titans, there was a slight level of concern early on as there was no appearance from starting quarterback Ryan Tannehill

and star running back Derrick Henry only participated early on in practice sitting out the back half. in practice sitting out the back half. But those concerns were quelled on Tuesday when Ryan Tannehill and Derrick Henry participated fully in Tuesday's practice. There were varying theories as to why we saw those absences on Monday with Derrick Henry and Ryan Tannehill. It is common to see head coach Mike Vrabel give maintenance days to veterans not only in the offseason but during the season as well and since they were able to participate fully in Tuesday's practice

that appears to make the most sense but there is a second layer to those absences this is a limited offseason and a limited training camp and the coaches could be taking the opportunity to get more of a look at some of the guys further down the roster and letting some of their veterans, who they know will make the team, and Derrick Henry and Ryan Tannehill, who they also have confidence are ready to go for the season, let them take a rest for a day, especially the first padded practice when guys are really antsy, to go out there and make contact. So you give them a maintenance day.

You also get a better look at some of the guys who are underneath those stars on the depth chart. So it makes a lot of sense from the Titans perspective to do that, but any concern that anyone might have had was immediately quelled when both of those players participated fully on Tuesday. And that leads us into the players who are not participating fully in practice. And at this time, the Titans are still missing a ton of key pieces on the defensive side of the ball from practice. Kamalei Correa at outside linebacker, Kenny Vaccaro at safety, Vic Beasley, who is still on the non-football injury list and has not passed his physical at this time.

And then, of course, the two members of the Tennessee Titans who are still on the NFL's reserve COVID-19 list, outside linebacker Josh Smith and defensive lineman Jack Crawford. So hopefully those five players will be able to return to practice very, very soon. Also as a highlight from, or we could call it a low light from Tuesday's practice, the backup quarterbacks continued to struggle with Logan Woodside being erratic and 7th round draft pick Cole McDonald throwing a few would-be interceptions. So the backup quarterback spot is still a struggle for the Tennessee Titans at this time according to reports coming out of training camp. And it makes sense as those reports of struggles coincide with the reports of the Titans looking to bring in some veteran quarterbacks for a tryout in Deshaun Kaiser and Trevor Simeon.

So the fate of the backup quarterback role for the Titans in the middle of training camp is still up in the air, whether it will be someone who's actually on the roster right now or not. So that is a situation to monitor at this moment in time. not so that is a situation to monitor at this moment in time and then on the defensive side of the ball something that was picked up from Mike Vrabel's press conference after practice is who at this moment in time is vying for the slot cornerback position and Vrabel mentioned four guys when he was talking about different positions that match up against each other looking at matchups between the players you're obviously going to have wide receivers and defensive back, defensive linemen against offensive linemen. All the matchups that take place in normal football are good ways to judge guys and judge their performance

in these practices. Well, he mentioned the slot matchup, mentioned some of the wide receivers that would play in the slot, but he mentioned some key defenders that are vying for that slot cornerback role or are playing that in the Titans' different teams that they put out there during training camp. He mentioned Dory Jackson. He mentioned Christian Fulton, the rookie out of LSU. He mentioned Kareem Orr, and he mentioned Chris Milton, and he mentioned Chris Jackson. So five names there that Mike Vrabel has mentioned about the slot position so we can narrow down

who may play that role for the Titans to those five names logically and then the last thing to report from Tuesday's practice was we saw Khalif Raymond be out at portions of practice we also saw Kareem Orr be out of practice now it is worth noting that Paul Kaharski tweeted that nothing quote unquote nothing is up with Kalief Raymond, so hopefully that is a positive sign that it's not an injury, and possibly just another maintenance day that will not only give Kalief Raymond a breather, but also allow the Titans coaching staff, their scouts, and the front office

to get a better look at some of the guys below Kalief Raymond on the roster in terms of the undrafted free agent wide receivers and some of the bubble wide receivers returning like Cody Hollister, Rashard Davis. But apparently that opinion about Khalif Raymond's absence is some controversial statement. So I'll talk a little bit more about that in my Rollins rant at the end of the show. Don't miss that. But next, we are going to hear Mike Vrabel tell us a little bit more about the procedure for organizing tryouts for new players, signing new guys like we saw with Jamal Davis and Wyatt Ray this week. So I want to give you guys a little bit of a window into the actual procedure and process that the Titans will have to go through to bring in some of the

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Following me on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans. Go back and check that out and then come back to this or finish this episode and then go back and check that out too. It's all still relevant information with how recently it all happened. But the Titans brought in eight players for workouts yesterday they also signed people directly in Jamal Davis and Wyatt Ray so just want to give you guys a little bit of insight into the process that goes into signing those players and what the Titans are facing when trying to make roster moves this offseason and Mike

Rabel talked a lot about that after Tuesday's practice. So just wanted to give you guys his direct quotes on how these certain things are working and what the procedure is. Of course, the audio is courtesy, as always, of TennesseeTitans.com. But we are going to let Mike Rabel basically give us an explanation of how the procedure works for guys who he's just signing, like Davis and Ray. Those guys, they didn't need to try them out. They felt comfortable and went ahead and just signed them onto the roster. So what exactly is the procedure like when you just directly sign a guy like that?

The procedure, you know, they're going to have to pass a few tests. You know, they have to come in one day, test, test the next day, off, and then test. So I think we get them in on the fourth day. And once they, I think, clear that testing procedure, you can get them into Zoom meetings and some things like that. And then when they enter into the building and they're cleared to come in, then you can start to practice with them. So it does match up with what we have broken down before about the COVID procedures that the NFLPA and the NFL have put into place. Test one day, test on the second day.

You don't come in at all on the third day. You come in on the fourth day, you test again. If you're cleared, you're good to go on the fifth day. Like you said, get them into Zoom meetings, get some equipment fitting going on, do the physical, get guys ready to go before they can start to practice. So that would have been the procedure for Davis and Ray, the outside linebackers that are joining the roster right now. But what about guys who they're bringing in for a tryout? We obviously talked about uh at least for me ranted and raved about quarterbacks Trevor Simeon and Deshaun Kaiser coming in for workouts as part of that group yesterday and I think they have a great opportunity to make the

roster based on some of the things we're going to hear from Vrabel earlier but what what is the process like for the guys who are trying out rather than different from Davis and Ray where they're just signed on to the team? So those players that were released, because I looked at the personnel report yesterday and, you know, that was out. So once you get them on campus basically and test them, they're not in our building, but they have to go through a testing process. But they have to go through a testing process, and then we can have a workout separate from the players. Our coaches will be there, our scouts will be there. And once those guys are all clear, their protocol that will allow us to work them out here sometime

in the next couple days. So basically what we're hearing from Vrabel there is it's a similar process. You do the COVID, the four days of COVID testing with the three negative tests that have to come back. And then your scouts, your coaches and whoever wants to be involved can be there for the workout of these players.

One key thing to remember is that if the Titans current players are at the team facility working out, then the tryout has to be at the stadium and vice versa. If the team is at the stadium, then that means that the workout has to be at the team facility. And that's kind of important. I mean, it's not going to change the workout mostly, but we did hear that the Titans will have their first practice at Nissan Stadium to kind of simulate game day operations in

this COVID-19 era of things. And if that's the case, then based on the timeline of when those tryouts were announced, then they should be taking place on Friday at the team facility. So whether that was orchestrated on purpose or not, I obviously don't know for certain. I would love to ask, but just something to keep in mind. And then the next obvious question that we would wonder about is, now that we know the process and the procedure for signing guys and for tryouts, let's talk about the tryouts themselves.

Why the names we saw on the list, why were they brought in for an additional tryout? Vrabel was asked directly. I would just evaluate guys to see where they're at, who's available, what they look like. We felt like this would just be a good time here to take a look at some of those skilled players that showed up on that list. So obviously Vrabel isn't going to go into details about guys on the roster who are underperforming at this time. of details about guys on the roster who are underperforming at this time.

It's general coach philosophy, at least in my opinion. It should be. Good coaches, they praise in public and they criticize in private. So you're not going to get out there in the middle of a press conference and start saying, well, Cole McDonald and Logan Woodside have been terrible. They haven't really lived up to expectations. They aren't getting the job done. So we need to look at some other options. That's implied. We know that. Vrabrabel's not gonna go out there and say something

like that so that shouldn't be the expectation but obviously he's gonna keep it quiet and not try to you know crush these dudes in public but I think it's obvious from the names on the list where the Titans are looking for some help but that leads us into the next answer that Mike Vrabel gave us. And it's in reference to actually changing faces on this roster and changing out players and turnover with the lack of an opportunity that John Robinson and the Titans scouts will get to look at players on the end of the roster on other teams. There aren't going to be preseason games. There aren't going to be joint practices. These were all opportunities the Titans scouting staff had to look at players on other teams, there aren't going to be preseason games. There aren't going to be joint practices. These were all opportunities the Titans scouting staff had to look at players on other teams.

That's how a Reggie Gilbert ends up on the Titans last year. You're scouting the Packers preseason games. You see a guy who you think can help you. The Packers just signed two big-name free agents at the outside linebacker position and have depth at that spot and are probably going to release a quality player just not because they're not good, but because they have too much depth at the position and too much talent. That's where you really bolster your roster as you scoop up guys from other teams that

they did not make those teams because they weren't good enough. That team just had too much at that roster spot to carry guys. Think the Titans could have kind of an issue like that at offensive line. We've seen that with Titans offensive linemen who were cut from the roster be picked up by other teams recently because the Titans have a pretty good offensive line and they can have some decent depth that they feel comfortable with there. And it's a numbers game and the Titans aren't going to keep 10 offensive linemen if they have 10 quality NFL offensive linemen. They just can't do that. You just can't play the numbers game that way, so quality offensive linemen on the Titans,

if they had that many, would have to be cut, and other teams would be waiting to scoop those players up who aren't bad players. They just were a casualty to roster limits and the way you have to structure your team. So players like that, the Titans are not going to have as good of an opportunity to get a look at. They're not going to have any opportunity to get a look at them, quite frankly. So the question is, does that make it more likely that the guys you have in the building right now will keep those roster spots and those practice squad spots because of the lack of opportunity you have to see guys on other teams who could maybe come in and compete and possibly take those spots going forward. Like once again, like a Kamalei Correa, not a bad NFL player, just too much, too much depth on the Baltimore Ravens, coincidentally, because of some of the

same linebackers that gave us Reggie Gilbert from the Packers. But, you know, that's a good question for Mike Vrabel, and this is what he had to say about that. You know, John and I have, you know, we talk about the roster all the time and working with guys, and I think the familiarity, the question that we answered earlier about the process of getting guys in. So even if you wanted to get a guy in,'s, it's four days, you can't say, Oh, this guy got cut, you know, let's get him on a plane here and he can work with us tomorrow.

You know, there's a, there's a process that has to take place. And again, that's, that that's a four day process right now. And so, you know, we'll see, we'll, we'll see what we have and see what we feel like we need and then, and then try to add to the roster accordingly. But in my mind, I'm still trying to get us to practice with a pace and a tempo and an urgency, you know, conducive to being a pro football team. In some way, that was basically an acknowledgment that, yes, it's an issue

and it does make it more likely that guys will stick on the roster because you don't know as much about other guys around the league with not only missing preseason games, but the amount of time it takes to actually have a tryout, four days, five days to get a guy into your building, four or five days before you can even start getting them into practice. It lessens the reward for bringing in someone from someone else's program because it's that much more time to get them up to speed. It may not even give you the benefit that you're looking for by getting rid of a guy that's already in your building and

knows your program a little bit. So it's going to affect roster turnover. It's going to affect how the Titans approach turning over that back end of the roster, the back, I guess it's going to affect how the titans approach turning over that back end of the roster the back i guess it's back 11 at this point because the titans are going to be able to keep you know quite a bit of people on their practice squad about 69 total guys will be with the program for for week one including the practice squad so 11 guys are going to get cut and the titans may cycle out that 11 but obviously there are complications with So 11 guys are going to get cut, and the Titans may cycle out that 11, but obviously there are complications with that. So that is going to do it for here from Mike Vrabel.

I thought that was very insightful in terms of the process and procedure and then his views on turning over the roster, at least at the back end. But that is going to lead us into a quick Rollins rant to end out our show. Going to go back to the Kalief Raymond absence from practice today. Give my thoughts on why he was absent from practice today based on some reporting I saw coming out of practice. And then talk about the interaction that I had with the reporter himself who wasn't very happy about my opinion on the situation.

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that I thought was pretty interesting considering the context that came in the tweet about the absence. So first things first, let me tell you what the tweet was and then what my response was and then a little bit about the interaction that took place following. So first, Paul Kaharski. Paul Kaharski, a veteran reporter in Nashville. A lot of people have problems with Paul. I've mentioned on this show that I you know, a lot of people have problems with Paul. I've mentioned on this show that I don't. I don't have any problems with Paul's kind of thorny style. A lot of the times I'm happy to see him kind of press certain people.

Obviously go back to the famous interaction with Kevin Dodd. I thought that, you know, that was necessary at the time. A lot of people didn't like it. And I understand that that kind of prickly style and getting in people's faces about things and not really being afraid of confrontation, I think that that sort of style is all right, in my opinion. I think that it's, you know, it's needed in certain areas, in my opinion. So I've never really had a big problem with Paul or his style, anything like that. Just want to say that first. But he tweeted today, nothing's up with Kalief Raymond, who was out

of practice today. So Kalief Raymond was out of practice. Now, yesterday I talked about, and earlier on the show, I talked about my theory that you're seeing maintenance days for guys like Ryan Tannehill, Derrick Henry, because not only does it give them a maintenance day, but allows them to get a better look at the guys on the depth chart below them. Well, why would that not be the case for Kalief Raymond here? Kalief Raymond, really impressed with his speed at the end of last year, made big plays for the Titans at points and times last year, made big plays in the playoffs, has been one of the top performers of training camp so far, according to multiple sources who are raving about his speed and explosiveness.

So maybe, is it possible? And this is just my opinion. First of all, it's my opinion that it could be possible that Kalief Raymond's a lock for the roster. He's not fighting for a roster spot anymore. I'm not saying they told him that or he's been told or he knows that or thinks that. Just saying maybe they're satisfied with what they see from Raymond because of the lack of depth and talent at the wide receiver position after the top three guys and with Corey Davis's injury, which could still come up and bite him.

He's been injury prone throughout his career. Adam Humphreys missed a lot of time last year. Maybe they just really need to have somebody like Raymond on the team who's comfortable with the system, knows the system, can give that speed that they can count on. So now you have four guys that you can count on. So maybe to keep Kalief Raymond healthy, because the pads get on and people get a little overzealous and want to hit, they gave him the day off as a maintenance day, but it also allows them to get a better look at all of the other receivers at the back end. Like I mentioned earlier, Rashard Davis, Cody Hollister, all of the undrafted free agent

wide receivers. Maybe the Titans are trying to decide who that fifth or sixth wide receiver is going to be and having Kalief Raymond out of the equation for a day benefits his health and also benefits their ability to get a look at these guys since there aren't preseason games I mean it's it's not illogical well I basically said this on Twitter what I just explained to me and some may have already thought this but this means Raymond is a lock for the roster they're giving him a rest day to get more looks at other guys that's my opinion that's why I said to me and some may have already thought this,

which a lot of people already thought that Raymond was a lock for the roster. I am probably in the boat of being more skeptical of that. But Paul basically responded, said that I was way overreaching, and sometimes it can just be one day. It doesn't have to be some big explanation or interpretation. He could have been a little tight. Who knows? Well, in my opinion, if he could have been a little tight and you know that, then why would you tweet nothing's up with Khalif Raymond? If he's a little tight somewhere, a hammy, whatever, if he's a little tight, then something's up. I mean,

it doesn't have to be major. I'm not saying it's big news it needs to be a big story but obviously if nothing was up then he's not a little tight so it can't go both ways um I just trusted the reporting but if I'm being told that the reporting is actually false and something may be up then what am I to do? And basically Paul wasn't very happy. He said, I jumped to conclusions and I'm wildly misinterpreting his interpretation or his information. He has the right to respond back, tell me I'm an idiot basically. And sure, he does have the right to respond back. No problem with that. But I don't think I jumped to any conclusion. It's not a conclusion. I'm not reporting this as the facts of what's happening, which is what I'm being painted as here

in this circumstance. I'm giving my opinion of what I think is happening based on reporting that I saw. So I don't quite understand, but Paul basically finished off the conversation saying that I was trying to seem authoritative. I was spinning what he was saying. I don't think I was being authoritative. I was giving my opinion. I wasn't saying this is what's happening. I was saying I think this is what's happening, which is what we're all doing anyway. Appreciate the support from a lot of you guys who were like,

this isn't a big deal. That's what I thought already anyways. But I guess ultimately my point is I think it's possible. The biggest news here is I think that it's a possibility that Kalief Raymond is a lock for this roster. That is my opinion. I'm not reporting that as fact. It's my opinion that I think that is the case. He's a lock and John Robinson and Vrabel know it. They want to get a better look at some

other guys and keep Kalief Raymond healthy, who did have a concussion at the end of the year last year and is a, you know, a smaller built guy. So I'm not trying to be authoritative guys. I'm not trying to tell you that I am a hundred percent right. I'm giving you my opinion on the matter based on information that I found. I think it's a very informed opinion, in my humble opinion. My opinions are educated and informed, and I'm using every possible avenue to give you the best information and give the most informed opinion possible. So I think to accuse me of being authoritative or acting like I'm reporting something that's fact, I think that's a little facetious. But that's all I have to say about that for today.

But that is going to do it for today's show. I'm going to be back with you guys tomorrow. The Titans don't practice on Wednesday, so we are going to kind of take a breather, recap everything that's happened so far, and take a look at the future of what should be coming next, including when the heck is Vic Beasley going to play football for the Titans? But before I get too worked up about that, I will send you guys off into hopefully a very enjoyable Wednesday. I will be back with you guys tomorrow.

As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.