Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Titans v Bills Set For Tuesday, COVID Comebacks/Injury Report & Rowland's Rant On Titans Punishment

Episode Date: October 9, 2020

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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 season get football on your time with NFL Game Pass. See all the action from every game with full game replays. You can also replay an entire game and catch all of the plays in just 45 minutes with condensed games. Go to NFL.com slash Game Pass to start your free trial today.

NFL Game Pass, where football never stops. And unfortunately for the Titans, last weekend, football did stop. And it has been a very difficult week for the organization and the fan base. Everywhere from additional positive COVID-19 tests to reports coming out in the media that cast the Titans and the organization, its players, and its staff in a negative light. So a tough week, but on Thursday, the tide started to change. The Titans started to get some positive momentum in terms of getting this season back on track. So we are going to open up this Friday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast going over

all of the latest information, when the Titans game should take place this week, and what other effects the Titans situation have had on the NFL schedule. And then we are going to continue that conversation by talking about the Titans roster and where it sits with a potential game against the Buffalo Bills early next week. And again, more positive information with some of the early positive tests for the Titans actually having a chance to play in this game

against the Bills. So I'm going to give you all of those updates, all of the possible players that could be back for the Titans. Also discuss the injury report from the Buffalo Bills and from the Tennessee Titans, an estimated injury report, of course, but a good indication of where each player would be right now if those teams did have practice. So we will go over all of that roster information

and how it pertains to a rescheduled game against the Buffalo Bills. And then to end off this Friday edition, I am going to give you guys a weekend Rollins rant. So as I mentioned, a lot of misinformation, a lot of misleading information about the Titans in the media this week. I'm going to give you my perspective and wax poetic about some of the things that I've been seeing with local Titans media, national NFL media that just makes

you scratch your head. So a little bit of an energetic Roland's rant to end our week here on the Locked On Titans podcast. But as I mentioned, a very, very positive Thursday for the Titans and hopefully this does result in a game against the Bills next week. And I will have a ton of content coming to you guys next week when that game is played. Going to have a Tic Tac 4-pack, film breakdowns,

tighten up, tighten down. Going to have my game preview hopefully on Tuesday for this game. So a lot coming up on the Locked on Titans podcast as the Titans get this season back on track. And remember, they are 3-0 at this time leading the AFC South. So a lot of great Monday through Friday content coming up for you on the Locked on Titans podcast. Make sure that you subscribe on whatever platform you do stream. And follow me on Twitter at TicTacTitans for additional content as well.

But a very positive Thursday and I am excited to get into all of it with you guys. Let's get it! Early on Friday morning, we got word that the Titans round of testing on Thursday came back with no new positive test. This is obviously a major development for the Tennessee Titans and creates a ton of optimism that they will be able to play their week five matchup against the Buffalo Bills after having their week four matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers rescheduled for later in the year and since the Titans bye week was used up the original bye week was used up to fill in that Steelers game it would make it very difficult for the

Titans to find a way to play a game against the Buffalo Bills later in the season so having no new positive tests for the Tennessee Titans is obviously a great sign for them to get this season back on track now of course the Titans will need to come back with no new positive tests after Friday's round of testing to be able to get back into the facility on Saturday, which currently is what the NFL is trying to orchestrate. And if the Titans do not have any more positive tests throughout the next couple of days and through the weekend. Are able to get into their facility on Saturday to begin some sort of preparation as a team for a game.

Well then the Titans are going to play a rescheduled matchup against the Buffalo Bills on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. on CBS. Tuesday night football could be coming our way. Of course, that would be a great outcome for the Titans as they look to get their undefeated season back on track, but the Tennessee Titans' rescheduled game against the Bills most certainly had an impact on the NFL's schedule for other teams. Thursday night football was set to be a matchup between the Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs. Of course, if the Bills play a Tuesday night game against the Titans, they certainly would not be able to turn around and play two days later against the Chiefs. So the NFL has deemed that that game would get pushed from Thursday to next Sunday at 6 p.m. if, in fact, the Bills and the Chiefs aren't able to play on Thursday, which would be a positive thing for the Titans,

as that means that they had no additional positive tests throughout the week and were able to actually play their Week 5 game on Tuesday night. So some positive momentum for the Tennessee Titans in what has been a very difficult week that included not only additional positive tests and positive tests to some of the Titans' key players, but also included a player testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs and getting suspended for six games. Also, a week that was filled with national narratives and local news stories painting the Tennessee Titans players and their organization in a very bad light.

Now, some of these reports were misinformed. Some of them were incredibly misleading as well. But either way, a very difficult week for the Titans organization and their players. But Thursday and Friday saw the Titans get a tad bit of positive momentum towards once again getting their season back on track as they are undefeated 3-0 and currently sitting at the top of the AFC South. But if the Titans do end up getting to play their game against the Buffalo Bills, what is the roster going to look like?

Well, again, there is some positive information here. The Titans could be getting back some of the players that originally tested positive at the beginning of this outbreak. So that could be some potentially very positive news for the Titans as well. We are going to discuss who exactly those players are and some other players that the Titans could be getting back, not from COVID, but from injury. So let's go over some of the possible COVID eligible players and also what the Titans estimated injury report looks like right now heading into the weekend.

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watch it Pepsi made for football watching go to madeforfootballwatching.com to check out the latest football watching content from Pepsi. How about we talk a little bit of football on this Friday and talk about how the Titans roster could look going into a Tuesday game against the Buffalo Bills. And because the Titans are so far out from when this outbreak started, not considering the Maben diagnosis or the Shane Bowen diagnosis, when things really started to pop off for the players after that Minnesota Vikings game. So when you take a look at how long it's been since this really started with the first three

original tests of Bo Brinkley, Daquan Jones, and Tommy Hudson, the Titans actually have a chance to get some of the players back who tested positive very early on. So who could those players be? Well, there are four names right now that could be eligible to play if they're asymptomatic and if they have multiple negative tests before the game on Tuesday. And those players are long snapper Bo Brinkley, defensive tackle Daquan Jones, outside linebacker Kamalei Correa, and cornerback Christian Fulton. So let's talk about these players and I'll go in order of importance. So obviously in my mind at this point Daquan Jones is the most important person to get back. I know some of you may be saying Christian Fulton because of our cornerback

situation but to me the easy answer is Daquan Jones. A player who will not be eligible to come back into this game because of how late in the process he tested positive is Jeffrey Simmons. And I've talked on this podcast at length about what the Titans run defense that's already the fourth worst in the league could look like if their two starting defensive linemen are out of the game. You're going to get a base package of Isaiah Mack, Larell Murchison, and Jack Crawford. And as I mentioned, Mack and Murchison have both been under 35 in their pro football focus grade in run defense. And the film matches up, Murchison and Mack are getting blown off the ball.

And a lot of the big time runs that we've seen on the Titans defense, including that 39 yard touchdown from Dalvin Cook, came with the backup defensive line in the game. So I think Daquan Jones is the most important return that the Titans could see from their COVID positive players. After that, of course, would come Christian Fulton. The Titans have the slowest pair of starting cornerbacks in the league right now with Malcolm Butler and Jonathan Joseph. They cannot afford to lose Christian Fulton in the slot. And someone I'm going to mention a little bit later on in this segment, Chris Jackson, the other rookie cornerback, while he has played spot duty for the Titans and started the season as the slot corner, it's obvious that Fulton is a far superior player.

And worth noting that when Chris Jackson played, he had one of the lowest coverage grades per pro football focus of any cornerback in the entire league. So Chris Jackson had been one of the worst corners in the NFL in the time that he did play. So getting him back from injury may be somewhat important just from a depth standpoint, but getting Christian Fulton back helps from a talent standpoint. And if there is a chance that Adoree Jackson does return for this game as well then having Fulton and Jackson back is a big time step for the Tennessee Titans secondary so Fulton the second most important that the important player that the Titans could get back from an

early COVID-19 diagnosis next I will say Bo Brinkley the Titans have had the same long snapper for all eternity it feels like with Bo Brinkley and they haven't really had a good opportunity to work out other long snappers it's kind of a peculiar position it's not somewhere that you're going to find a bunch of dudes lining up they can play that position and have NFL experience doing it so very difficult to fill that spot and the Titans are going to be in a very tough game with the Buffalo Bills. They don't need any gaffes on special teams, whether that's a missed time or a mislocated punt snap or a mislocated snap, bad snap on a field goal attempt. So the Titans really can't afford any of those errors. Their margin for error is already going

to be incredibly slim. So to me, Bo Brinkley is the third most important Titan that could be returning from an early COVID-19 positive test. Next is outside linebacker Kamalei Correa. Correa has been getting very, very minimum snaps on defense, especially with the return of Vic Beasley. Clowney is healthy. Beasley is healthy. Landry is healthy. Rashawn Evans has

versatility to play some outside linebacker as well. The Titans already utilize their safeties. Kenny Vaccaro and Kevin Byard as blitzers off the edge and off the slot, along with Christian Fulton and Chris Jackson. So I just don't see a dire need for Kamalei Correa out there. And quite frankly, with the snap counts that we've seen so far this year, the Titans coaching staff does not see him as a priority either. So definitely the most important player that could return is Daquan Jones, then Christian Fulton, then Bo Brinkley, and then Kamalei Correa. But that's just the players that could return from an early COVID-19 diagnosis. Let's talk about the Tennessee Titans injury report and the players that could return from an early COVID-19 diagnosis. Let's talk about the Tennessee Titans injury report and the players who have not tested positive.

Actually, before we do get into that, I want to mention one other player that would have been eligible to come off the COVID-19 list and play in this game. If, of course, he was asymptomatic and had negative tests and that was practice squad tight end Tommy Hudson tight end Michael Pruitt was one of the last players in the outbreak to land on the COVID-19 list so there was no chance whatsoever that Pruitt will be able to play in this game so it's possible that the Titans would have brought up Tommy Hudson from the practice squad at tight end to have four tight ends as they typically would on the roster so that they can have more depth, more versatility dealing with the way that the roster looks right now. But as I kind of teased earlier in the show, Tommy Hudson did test positive for performance

enhancing drugs and was suspended for six games. So even though he would have been one of the eligible players to come off the COVID list, he is not going to be available due to that PED suspension. But with that COVID-centric information out of the way, let's move forward into the Titans injury report. So of course, this is an estimated, estimated injury report as obviously the Titans have not actually practiced so far this week but this does give us a good indication of what would have happened with these players if the Titans did

practice and when they hopefully do practice on Saturday and Sunday so wide receiver A.J. Brown with his bone bruise in his knee would be a limited participant in all of the practices so far this week. That's the most concerning bit of news on this injury report. But everyone else from here would be a full participant. We got some really important names on this list. Number one, Taylor LeJuan, who left the game or left during the game against the Minnesota Vikings and did not return with a shoulder injury.

We did get a tweet from NFL reporter Tom Pellicero early last week that Taylor LeJuan's injury was not believed to be serious or long-term, but that doesn't mean that it couldn't have a short-term impact. But with Taylor LeJuan listed as a full participant in all of these estimated practice injury reports, that's a good sign for his availability in the game against the Bills. As I mentioned earlier, cornerback Chris Jackson with a hamstring injury also would be an estimated full participant throughout the week.

Rookie running back Darrington Evans, who played in his first game of the year against the Vikings, also would be full. Jadavian Clowney, as I mentioned earlier, with a knee injury, would also be full. And then cornerback Malcolm Butler, who has struggled at times during the season, but also right now the Titans can't afford to have any more injuries at cornerback or at wide receiver, so important to see him as a full participant, even if it is in an estimated fashion. As for the Buffalo Bills injury report, theirs is a lot more dire.

Right now both their starting cornerbacks are looking like they're going to miss this game. Cornerback Levi Wallace was placed on IR this week with an ankle injury, and then Tredavious White, one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL, is actually a DNP for the entire week, and remember, the Bills did have a few real practices. Tredavious White has been a DNP, and right now, it is expected that he will not play in the game against the Titans. Now there are some rumors going around that Tredavious White secretly is not injured, but just does not want to go play the Titans in fear of contracting COVID-19. He did have a very, what some would call controversial, not in my opinion, but some would call a controversial tweet early in the season, basically saying that he was considering opting out because someone very

close to him did pass away from COVID-19 during the pandemic so some people are speculating that his absence from practice and from this game may in fact be just out of fear of playing against the Titans who were the first team in the NFL to have an outbreak of this kind some other players who are on the injury report here, wide receiver John Brown was limited in the Bills' only real practice of the day. Linebacker Matt Milano has not practiced whatsoever throughout the week. Running back Zach Moss has a toe injury and has been limited throughout the entire week. Same with Cole Beasley, the wide receiver who has a foot injury who started limited but then was full in the Billsills Thursday practice. So the Bills do have some injuries and some concerns on that side that are

slimming their roster down as well. Obviously not at the state that the Titans roster is, but we will definitely not be seeing a fully formed, a complete Buffalo Bills team if this game is able to be played next week. So from the Titans perspective, that at least can help even out the field, even in the tiniest bit for a Titans team, as I mentioned, does not have a very wide margin for error. But that is going to do it for the roster impact and the roster review of this Friday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. I am going to get into a Rollins rant to end off today's show just talking about all the negative media attention the Titans have gotten this week, both local and national, and why

a lot of it has been based on misinformation and misleading information and quite frankly is just a poor example of ethical journalism. Roland's rant. I am going to end off this week of the Locked on Titans podcast and this Friday edition of the show by just giving you guys my thoughts on what the media has done this week in terms of reporting on the Tennessee Titans COVID outbreak. And it's coming from local and it's coming from national and a lot of it has been, as I mentioned earlier in the show,

incredibly misleading, misinformation riddled, and unprofessional journalism, quite frankly, the way that I see it, based on the ethics that I have, and how things should be reported, and how things should be handled. So let's first talk about Paul Kaharski. Paul put out a report earlier this week basically saying that the Titans broke protocol. They had an unauthorized off-campus, out-of-facility practice with pass catchers. Also, there was an unauthorized workout with defensive backs. Also, another unauthorized workout with a different position group.

So, let's just talk about this from this perspective. So first, Steve Lehman from a local Nashville TV station, six days prior to Paul Kaharski's report, put out a tweet saying that the Titans were having a workout at MBA high school in Nashville. So that was reported six days prior. And what Paul did is he took that information. He solicited some inaccurate, blurry photos that are supposedly of the Titans during that workout, used quote unquote, an unnamed source and repackaged that same exact information in a salacious way and put it out to try to gain national clout or national attention. He knew that if he repackaged somebody else's report and spun it negatively, that it would

get him attention. And it did. A ton of national NFL media were retweeting his report, quoting his story, referencing his story. So he did exactly what he was trying to do. But of course, after he got all that attention that he was asking for, he came back on Friday and announced that he had misinformation in his stories about when some of those workouts took place.

The Titans did those workouts before the protocols were established that banned that, and therefore the Titans were not breaking any kind of protocol. Now we can have a discussion about morally whether or not the Titans should be having out-of-facility workouts when they're having a COVID outbreak as a team in the middle of a pandemic. You can have a moral discussion on whether or not they should have done that. But the reality of the situation is whether or not they should have done that, there was no confirmation that they broke protocol,

and Kaharski ran the story as if they did and as if he knew. And later you saw reporters like Teron Davenport putting out the memo that the NFL sent with the date of October 1st and the Titans workouts were taking place on the 29th the 28th the 30th before that memo came out and then people tried to say that the the league the league was putting out sources to different media members saying that, we informed the Titans before that league-wide memo came out, so they should have known anyway. Well, prove it, NFL.

Show us the memo that you sent to the Titans. Show us the phone call that you made to the Titans where you can prove that you told them before that league-wide memo that they can't have out-of-facility meetups or team meetups even away from the building. So I'm not here to say that the Titans, what they did, they did practice. They had those workouts. And I'm not here to judge whether that's morally right or morally wrong during a pandemic. You all have your own opinions of that, certainly.

But what I can tell you is when you repackage someone else's tweet from six days ago, include blurry and inaccurate photos with an unreliable source, repackage someone else's report, don't credit them, and then get your information wrong about when the salacious workouts took place? Sit down. Sit down. That is unethical reporting. That's terrible journalism from someone who already made a major mistake just a few years

ago with a Logan Ryan story where he tried to pit Mike Vrabel against Logan Ryan by deceiving Logan Ryan as to what the question is not providing context then having private conversations with Logan Ryan about that misinformation and that missed context and ran the story anyway despite Logan Ryan asking him not to. And then Logan Ryan canceled his radio show. Paul Kaharski issued an apology. How many times is this guy going to apologize for running these salacious articles that are clearly a desperate attempt for attention? It's despicable. Now, I don't expect Paul to be a Titans homer, like some people who are on there telling him that, you know, he's trying to bring down the team and he's trying to do all these things. Okay, his job is to report on the team fairly,

but his job is also to report on the team accurately and with ethics and have multiple sources and have good evidence and none of that was done not to mention that he ripped someone else's tweet and someone else's news and didn't credit them for that anywhere in his story so a colossal failure in terms of ethical journalism from Paul Kaharski this week but he was not alone I also want to talk about Justin Beasley, who's also a TV guy in Nashville, who he wasn't the one saying the nonsense, but he was promoting the nonsense. And this is going to come in the form of a conversation with Mike Florio. And all I want to say is Mike Florio is a national from Pro Football Talk, if you recognize that name.

He's a national NFL guy. I respect his story and how he got into the industry. He's made appearances on Sunday Night Football. I get that he is a somewhat respected national media guy. The respect term I use loosely as a lot of people who I respect as journalists in the NFL do not respect Florio, but I'm not in a position to say that I disrespect him or I respect him or anything like that. But what I will say here is he went on the Titan, the Nashville ESPN radio station and had this to say about what the Tennessee Titans should be expecting from

a punishment standpoint. Quote, a higher up with another team guesses Robinson and Vrabel get suspended for the rest of the year. The Titans lose a first round pick and get a $10 million fine. That is utter nonsense. That is trash. There is no one who is actually reporting those details, even guessing. That right there is salacious journalism. That is where you go on, you say some nonsense that you know is going to gain attention, gain attraction, and you literally say it just for those benefits not because it's accurate

whatsoever and Florio looks like a complete fool when you consider the report that came out on Friday that Kayla Anderson who's also a TV person from Nashville reported directly from Diana Russini and Russini has been all over this story the entire time with accurate information, and as I mentioned before, she clearly has her ends into the Titans organization. So this is what Diana said about the Titans investigation. Quote, when it comes to the situation of them meeting for workouts, what we can gather with talking to the league and players seems like there was just a, quote, gigantic miscommunication. them meeting for workouts, what we can gather with talking to the league and players seems

like there was just a quote, gigantic miscommunication. The NFL is chalking up this workout to a miscommunication. You want to know why? Because they don't have any proof that they told the Titans not to have these outside meetings. That memo was sent out league wide on 10-1, October the 1st. The Titans workouts with their players took place before that. You cannot punish people for rules that you made after they broke them. You cannot retroactively go back and instate a rule and

protocols to punish the Titans. So, Florio looks like a fool for saying $10 million, suspension of a coach and a GM, loss of a first round draft pick, when in reality the NFL is going to say it's a giant miscommunication and not suspend the Titans or punish the Titans at all? I mean, what a hack. What a screw job. What a loser. That is terrible, unethical journalism, and I apologize. It really gets me upset.

Everybody is wrong, but to be that bold and that extreme and then have it be the complete opposite, it's an embarrassment. And anybody who follows Mike Florio or follows pro football talk should immediately quit taking anything he has to say seriously whatsoever. And might I add that earlier in the year when the Titans season was rolling and the Locked On Titans podcast was hitting record-breaking highs every single day, this podcast was rated higher than Mike Florio's podcast on Chartable. So already, clearly, people were skeptical of him if a local niche locked on podcast is out doing his national show.

So that's all I got to say about that. So egg on the face of Paul Kaharski. Egg on the face of Mike Florio. Egg on the face of Justin Beasley for reporting that. So I just want to get all that out of the way. Incredibly disappointing that we are seeing these unprofessional incidences of journalism, especially aimed at the Tennessee Titans. And then when you take into account that there are tons of players complaining all around the league, it's not fair this, it's not fair that,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You have streams and rivers and lakes of tears online from opposing fan bases complaining about the titans they should forfeit blah blah blah blah well guess what if they forfeit a game not only does it set a bad precedent that they that you if this happens to another team you're gonna have to forfeit two, players don't get paid if they forfeit a game. Staff do not get paid if they forfeit a game. The NFL does not get the revenue that they are supposed to get from the TV station if they do not have a game for that TV station to broadcast. It does not make sense for the health of the Titans or the health of the entire NFL to forfeit games. It's not good for the players.

It's not good for the league. Doesn't matter what team you're on. And what I do want to say is while there are a ton of NFL players crying and being short-sighted about this situation, I do want to shout out Steelers center Mike Pouncey and Bills tight end Lee Smith. And I want to give you this quote from Bills tight end Lee Smith, who's playing against the Titans this week, hopefully. Quote, we're all human beings.

It's been a different week. We're happy we are playing football this year. This Titans deal could end up being a positive because we have adjusted protocols. My final point here is that the NFL is almost just as much to blame, if not even more, than the Tennessee Titans. Why were there not extra bye weeks built into the season to deal with schedule changes? Why weren't the protocols that the NFL put into place on October 1st already in place? The NFL has egg on their face as well, and I guess my point is the Titans are not completely

innocent in this situation, but I think some of the disrespectful and unprofessional journalism and the lack of preparation by the NFL is just as much of a guilty party as the Titans are as a team and an organization. So that's all I have to say about that. A very highly charged Roland's rant to end this week, but I had to get all of this off my chest before we go into the weekend. So hopefully when I'm back with you on Monday, we are talking about a Tennessee Titans game on Tuesday, and no new positives over the weekend.

So say it with me one more time, Titans fans. No new positives. I will see you guys on Monday. This is going to do it for this week of the Locked on Titans podcast. You guys have been sending reviews in. I appreciate that. Please subscribe to the show on whatever platform you do stream. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked

on Titans.