Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - TITANSgiving EXTRAVAGANZA - Roster Moves, Colts Gameplan, Rowland's Rewind, Titans Talk & Thankfulness

Episode Date: November 28, 2019

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Welcome to the Locked On Titans Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, it is a Titans-giving extravaganza! We are going to do a huge episode for you guys today. And before we jump into everything, I just want to do some house cleaning. Unfortunately, the host of the Locked On Colts, Evan Sidery, could not make it on the show for our Crossover Wednesday event. He had some scheduling issues on Tuesday evening when we typically record the show and on Wednesday morning said he had some other issues that popped up that just prevented him from coming on. We appreciate Evan for coming on in week two, but we will continue to move forward and I'll do everything I can to give you guys the Colts perspective from what I've seen and some Colts fans who I talk to and some writers who I listen to. So I'll see what I can do for you and I'll kind of build that into today's show.

So as kind of a repayment for you guys in the delay of the show and not being able to have our conversation with Evan, I wanted to really give you a jam-packed episode for the Thanksgiving holiday so you guys have something to listen to tonight, listen to tomorrow during your commute to all of your events. I hope you guys have a safe, fun time with your family and your friends and enjoy all the food and all the football that comes with it. On to today's show though. What we will do is in our first segment, we're

going to talk about the roster moves that the Titans made. The Titans made a lot of roster moves, brought up a couple people from the practice squad, put some guys down on IR, added some people to the roster. So we'll cover all of that in our first segment and get caught up on where the team and the roster is right now. In our second segment, I'm going to give you my best version of the Crossover Wednesday pod and explain to you how I think the Colts plan to attack the Titans on offense and defense. See if I can assume an Indianapolis Colts mindset and kind of tell you guys what you should expect to see from the Colts on Sunday.

So I'll do my best to give you the Colts perspective as you would have gotten from our crossover conversation. In our third segment, we will do as we always do every week. We will do Roland's Rewind. We will talk about the loss to the Colts in week two and why that took place and what's different now and what we should expect to be different playing the Colts now this late in the season. In our fourth segment, I will give you Titans talk and let you hear from Mike Vrabel's press conference as he prepares the team for the

Indianapolis Colts. Make sure you're up to date on how the head coach feels about the roster moves as well that we're going to talk about in segment one. And then in segment five, that's right, segment five, I told you this was a jam-packed extravaganza episode. I want to make it up to you guys. So in segment five, we're going to have just a little bit of fun for the end of the show and going into the holiday. have just a little bit of fun for the end of the show and going into the holiday. I am going to tell you what Titans players are your food items for Thanksgiving. Who's the turkey? Who's the ham?

Who's the green bean casserole? We will go over all of that and explain to you which Titans players line up with those dishes. So we will just have some fun and then I'll round out the show and I'll round out that segment by just telling you generally what I'm thankful for as a regular person and as someone outside of football, just in my day-to-day life. I think it's important for all of us to reflect on that moment and hopefully you guys will take that opportunity to think about your situation and what you can be thankful for as well. So once again, apologize for the programming delays and issues here, but I want to make it up to you guys with a jam-packed episode.

So we will get into all of that right now. Let's get it. Your Tennessee Titans lead story are the numerous roster moves that the Titans did make this week in preparation for the Indianapolis Colts game. Let's get to the lead topic from those roster moves. And that is Delaney Walker and Cameron Wake going to IR and being done for the rest of the season. So we'll talk about Delaney first. He only played in six games this year. Was very limited in a lot of those six games. Other than the Browns game, he really didn't have the type of juice that we expected.

He'll finish the year with 21 catches, 215 yards, two touchdowns. The two touchdowns both coming in the game against the Cleveland Browns. Right now, Delaney's 35 years old. He is recovering off a dislocated ankle that obviously is not recovered. It hindered him all season. It was never fully healthy. Right now, he's in the middle of the first year of his two-year $17 million extension. However, next season, if the Titans were to cut Delaney Walker, he would only be $1.6 million of dead cap on the salary cap. So, at this moment in time, with the play of Jonu Smith, the versatility of Mecole Pruitt, and the pass-catching prowess of Anthony Ferkser, I just don't see how the Titans can justify bringing Delaney Walker back at a decent-sized number.

Obviously, two years, $17 million. We are looking at $8.5 million. I mean, you just can't pay Delaney Walker that. It was probably a mistake to pay him that this year as well, but his leadership in the locker room is important. Honestly though, it seemed like after the quarterback change, some of his press conferences, some of his answers to questions, quarterback change, some of his press conferences, some of his answers to questions. I was worried there that Delaney may become a little bit of a malcontent. He was, even when healthy, he was only used as a role player. I think it probably upset him. Seems like he might have had some differences with the coaches. I don't want to, you know, pontificate on what's going on, but just, I got the vibe from Delaney and his conversations that we saw that maybe he wasn't so happy. So,

unfortunately, I do not expect Delaney Walker to be back. His career with the Titans was excellent. He was definitely a part of changing the culture here. So nothing but success going forward for Delaney. But I have to be honest and tell you, I do not see him returning to the team next year. Same with Cam Wake, played in seven games, two and a half sacks, three tackles, four QB hits. He's out for the rest of the season with a knee. He signed a three-year, $23 million deal this offseason. At 37 years old, the Titans don't owe him any more guaranteed money next year. They can cut him with only $2.6 million of dead cap. I fully expect that to take place. Both these players in the twilight of their career, Wake 37, Delaney 35, just don't expect them to be back next year. The Titans will need to improve on those positions and add talent at those positions though,

because it's still needed at the tight end and the edge rusher position. Moving forward to some of the other roster transactions that took place here. So we also saw defensive back Chris Milton be put on IR. Very unfortunate. Chris Milton is obviously not going to get a lot of love and a lot of pub all the time, but he was excellent as a gunner and punt coverage. He was excellent on kickoff coverage, excellent in any special teams arena. So I really enjoyed having Chris Milton on the team, even though he was probably one of the lower guys on the active roster on game day. He still served a role and really played well in his role for this team. So disappointing to see him go down. If you see three

people go down, though, you're going to need to see three come up. And the three that we saw come up are outside linebacker, edge rusher, Derek Roberson. He was on the Titans practice squad for most of the season. And then cornerback Kareem Orr, who is an undrafted free agent for the Titans, who has been on the practice squad as well. So both of them get called up to the practice squad. Like Mike Vrabel said in his press conference that you'll hear, that is important because it shows guys that you can come in as an undrafted free agent

or as a little-known guy, not a highly touted guy. You can work your way onto the practice squad, and then eventually from the practice squad, work your way onto the active roster. You will be rewarded for your hard work. So the last roster move that we're going to get into here is the Titans did add a second kicker, Ryan Santosa. Santosa is expected to do kickoffs only, possibly going to kick based on what Mike Vrabel had to say. I'll play some of that for you, but Ryan Suckup has really struggled with his power. He's not been able to get any touchbacks for the team, and that's really important.

So we're going to see him step up, and hopefully he'll be able to boot the ball in the end zone. Santoso had this to say when asked about his role with the team. I quote, I'm just happy to help the team out in any way possible and do my part. I have a big body, a strong leg, and I've had a lot of great coaches who helped me get to this position. We'll see what the coaches think and I'll do whatever they ask me to do. Santoso is a monstrous guy for being a kicker. He's 6'5", about 258 pounds, played at Minnesota in college. He spent some time with the Detroit Lions in preseason, spent time with the Montreal Alouettes in the Canadian Football League in September as

well. So he is hopefully going to be a physical kicker who can boot the ball deep as the bad weather continues to pop up later in the season as we go. Another thing just to finish off, I wanted to get this in while we were talking about Delaney, but just something I want to make sure that I come back to is what Jonu Smith had to say. So I'm going to leave you guys with this and end our first segment here. Obviously, Delaney Walker going down, quite frankly, it sucks. It does suck. Because you know, you got to love everything he's done for the team to get the culture back right and get this team into a competitive stage rather than being a bottom feeder. So you have to give him his credit for that. But the improvement

of Jonu Smith, it kind of lessens the damage per se. And Jonu had this to say about Walker. That guy has been through a lot. It is unfortunate seeing that happen to a guy like Delaney, but we just have to keep stepping up to the plate. The mentality we have is we are not over here just to fill shoes, but to outperform. I know that is my goal, and that is the goal of all these guys. No one is complacent, and we're just going to keep working hard to do our part.

Johnnie Smith knows that he's the best tight end on the team, so you don't want to be disrespectful to Delaney Walker. But if I'm Jonu Smith, I'm saying the same thing. Hey, you know, it sucks that Delaney's out, but we've been pretty good, and I've actually been better than Delaney all year. And the guys in this room, Ferkser, Pru, and Jonu, have been fantastic in their role. So I don't see it as big of a hit.

We haven't really had Delaney at full strength all season anyway. So ready to just move on from that, continue going next man up. And I have full confidence in Johnnie Smith, Anthony Ferkser, and me, Cole Pruitt, to continue to do a great job for this offense. So that's going to do it for our first segment. In our second segment, as I said, unfortunately, we weren't able to have the host of the Locked On Colts on due to some of his scheduling issues and things of that nature.

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Follow me down a dark, dark, dark path as we try to assume the mind state of the Indianapolis Colts. Let's take 10 seconds to collectively put ourselves in the right frame of mind. 20 years of lucky quarterbacks who you both let get injured severely. 20 years of lucky quarterbacks who you both let get injured severely. A terrible owner with a history of off-the-field incidents that are embarrassing. A terribly impressive record against the Titans. Okay, I'm there. I'm there. I hope you guys are there too. Let's do this. So, let's go ahead and take a look at how the Colts would attack the Titans since Evan couldn't make it on. The Colts are obviously one of the best running teams in the NFL. They're third best in the NFL, rushing for 144.2 yards per game.

And as we'll talk about in our next segment when we do Roland's Rewind, in the previous game, the Colts were able to rack up rushing yards against the Titans. Over 150 rushing yards on the ground. They really imposed their will with three different backs and had that late fourth quarter back-breaking run to which we're used to seeing. So, obviously, the Titans will have to stop the run or the Colts will want to focus on running the football. But the reason that they need to run the football is so they could get into play action. The Colts did not have a ton of success against the Titans through the air last game in terms of racking up yardage, and they're not one of the more prolific passing

teams, especially with Jacoby Brissett, who has been struggling since he returned from his injury. So for the Colts to have success against the Titans, they will have to run the ball so that they can get to play action. They can get the Titans talented back end with the middle linebackers and the secondary and kind of get them out of position with play action fakes and over committing to the run game. It's definitely something they have the possibility of doing. Another thing in terms of running the football for the Colts offense, I feel it'll be important for them to run out of shotgun. The Titans have a pretty solid run defense.

We saw that last week against Leonard Fournette, although he racked up some yards. In the critical situations of the game, the Titans were able to bottle him up when necessary with their run package. You think of someone like Austin Johnson, think of someone like Matt Dickerson, some of those guys who come in. Hopefully, Sheree Finch will have the opportunity to help out there. The Titans running game, or the Colts running game, will be more successful if they're able to spread out the Titans defense

and run out of shotgun, which is something that they're very effective at doing. And then once you're able to run out of shotgun, now you can do play action out of shotgun, which doesn't require the quarterback to turn his back to the defense. So that'll be pretty effective for the Colts, and that should be part of their game plan to try to get the run game going early, of course, but get the run game going out of shotgun to set up easier play action plays to take advantage of the Titans' defense, which can be over-aggressive.

Also on offense, it'll be important for the Colts to attack whether LaShawn Sims plays or if Joshua Kalou, who's also banged up right now, plays. Whoever ends up playing that opposite cornerback from Adoree Jackson, that's where the Colts need to attack in the passing game. Quite frankly, it's not a knock on those guys, but clearly they're more of the less talented cornerbacks the Titans have. It's obvious based on the depth chart, based on their positions within the cornerback room. So I'm not breaking any news here.

They need to attack the lesser talented cornerback in that side of the field. Also, going on, looking at the Colts offense in general, they're going to have to hold the ball. Right now, they are fourth in the NFL in average drive time. So they have the ball in their drives fourth most in the NFL. They'll need to do that. The Titans offense has become explosive. Like we've talked about at the beginning of the week,

this Titans team is averaging over 29 points per game since Ryan Tannehill took over. They are first in the NFL in explosive passes and explosive runs per PFF since Tannehill took over. So this Colts offense will need to hold the ball, and that kind of combines with the run game, combines with attacking the cornerback on the other side on short routes, on slants, on comebacks, on screens, things like that. The Colts really need to focus on time of possession in this game, and it'll be important for the Titans, who were able to turn the Colts over twice in their previous matchup it'll be important for the Titans to get turnovers in this game so that they don't allow the Colts to hold the ball because they will if they have the opportunity they're a well-coached physical team and they're excellent in the run game which should help them control the tempo so

the Titans will have to get them out of that for the Colts defense, it becomes pretty simple. The Titans are still one of the worst teams in the NFL at 33% third down conversion rate. It'll be important for the Colts defense to get the Titans in third and long. The Titans have had some success recently picking up third and short, third and one, third and four, third and eight is a little out of the range, but the Titans have done better at that. If the Colts defense can somehow get the Titans to a bunch of third and four third and eight is a little out of the range but the titans have done better at that if the colts defense can somehow get the titans to a bunch of third and longs then we'll see a repeat of week two where the titans went one for ten and third down conversions because most of them were very long third downs that needed to be converted so that'll be a key for the colts now

the issue with that is they only blitz 23% of the time. That's sixth least in the NFL. I would expect the Colts in this matchup to increase that blitz percentage quite a bit. And the reason why is because Tannehill has fumbled in the pocket every game that he has played. Six straight games, he's fumbled the ball. Whether it was lost or not, he's fumbled in the pocket. So if you're the Colts, you want to blitz the Titans. You want to get to Tannehill and you want to rip the ball out of his hands. He is susceptible to that. His pocket presence and his ball presence makes him susceptible to that. It has to be a key for

the Colts defense. I expect them to come out with a different game plan than they typically show and to blitz a lot more. Now, to be able to do that, you have to earn the opportunity to rush and blitz the quarterback. If you get the Titans to third and long, then you can bring blitzes. You can bring blitzes to get the Titans to third and long on early downs. They will have to stop Derrick Henry with blitzes as well. You cannot let Derek Henry get into your second level and get going. So I think the Colts will kind of go anti what their plan has been most of the year, and they'll plan on blitzing the Titans to force Tannehill fumbles in the pocket, get the Titans into third and long situations, and stop Derek Henry's momentum before it gets going. The Colts give up 97 yards per game on the ground. That's eighth best in the NFL, And while Derrick Henry had about 82 yards and a touchdown against the Colts last time

and was mildly successful, right now in the formula that the Titans have, we'll need to see more from Derrick Henry. So I expect the Colts on defense to blitz a lot more than they have before. And I expect them on offense to try to run the ball out of shotgun to control tempo and make easier play action passes for Jacoby Brissett, who's been a little iffy lately. I know that everyone loves the Crossover Wednesday event. Unfortunately, like I said, Evan couldn't make it. So I hope that that breakdown for you guys there is, you know, kind of get you in the same mind state as the Crossover Wednesday pod would. I'm going

to cover obviously how the Titans plan to attack the Colts or how I think they should plan to attack the Colts on our Friday game preview. I'll dive deep into that so you guys have an idea. But from the Colts perspective, those are the things that I expect to see them focus on in this game. We are going to jump into Roland's Rewind in our third segment and talk about the last time that the Titans played the Colts in week two and what I expect to be different and what happened in that game and some of the things that we learned from that. Just a reminder, in our fourth segment, we are going to hear from head coach Mike Vrabel in our Titans Talk segment. So you can hear from his press conference today. And then finally, in our fifth segment,

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Roland's Rewind. So I'm going to keep this kind of short for you guys, since obviously this is a game that took place this season. I'm sure you all have a decent memory of how that game played out, but I'll just take you back through some of the key highlights that I saw pop up. They kind of highlight the difference between this Titans team now and the Titans team then. So first, it was a 19-17 loss. As I've mentioned before, Cairo Santos did miss a kick in the fourth quarter from about 50 yards out that would have put the Titans up and won the game, but the only reason that the Titans were in a position to have a chance to win the game in the fourth quarter is because Adam Vinatieri missed two easy extra points during the game, so it's not like the Titans really deserved a chance to win the game

late in the fourth quarter there. Some things that really stuck out to me were the Titans inability to get anything going in the past game especially early Marcus was 19 for 28 for only 154 yards and one touchdown just one of those games where we kind of saw the beginning of the end coming he was not very good in that game and it really kind of hurt the Titans offense for obviously most of the game. Derrick Henry even was pretty successful. He had 82 yards and a touchdown against the Colts. That's pretty good against a tough Colts rush defense and especially considering Dennis Kelly was starting at tackle. Jameel Douglas was starting at guard. Pretty decent output there. Can't really complain too much. Unfortunately, like I said, the pass game

had no chance to get going. There were four sacks in this game. This was kind of part of that unraveling of the offensive line. Quite frankly, the Colts passing offense wasn't that great either. Jacoby Brissett only had 146 yards, but they were excellent in the red zone. He had three touchdowns, one to T.Y. Hilton, one to Eric Ebron, one to Paris Campbell, former Buckeye rookie. Really what it came down to is the Colts were able to run the ball. Jordan Wilkins had five carries for 82 yards in that big back-breaking run in the fourth. Marlon Mack had 20 carries for 51 yards. He'll not be available with a broken hand, but the Titans did a good job of bottling him up for most of the game Jacoby Brissett is really what I want to talk about because if you remember in this game the Titans missed tons of tackles including a really noticeable one on Jayon

Brown which is why it's important that I on Tuesday's show kind of pointed out his improvement in tackling because he was bad at tackling Jacoby Brissett in this game. He had 25 yards. All of that was breaking tackles and then running down the field after a tackle was broken for a sack. So you got to get Jacoby Brissett on the ground. Coming off that knee injury he had a few weeks ago, it's definitely possible that his mobility will be even just a little bit compromised. But that's not something that I think the Titans should bank on.

They got to hit Jacoby Brissett. They have to wrap up. Don't go for the ball. Go get him on the ground. He's a big, strong guy in the mold of like a Big Ben. It's tough to get that guy on the ground, especially for somebody like Jayon, who's an undersized linebacker. So it'll be important for the Titans to not get cute. I know we want turnovers. Those will come if you put consistent pressure on the quarterback. Get him on the ground. That's what they have to be coaching this week. Make sure that every Titans defender knows that that has to be the key. So the Titans were able to put up 10 points in the third quarter. Kind of make a game of it here. We saw them, like I said, rely on

Derrick Henry to get things going. One of the Titans touchdowns, though, did come off a Logan Ryan interception, put the Titans on the Colts' 40-yard line, gave them a short field, and allowed them to get another touchdown. We did see David Questenberry catch a touchdown in this game as well, if you guys remember that. So kind of hitting on how Arthur Smith used Dennis Kelly last week. So we see the parallels there. But overall, the Titans' offense was anemic. The only reason they got their second touchdown is because of a turnover forced by Logan Ryan giving them a short field.

Now I kind of want to transition into how things are different. The Titans' offense is explosive right now, and there's no way that the Colts are going to be able to play them the same. This is practically a different Tennessee Titans team. I mean, it's almost a completely different team at this moment in time. So with that being said, I won't get into the exact details of what I think. I'll make sure to save that for our game preview tomorrow, but the Titans need to win this game. I don't care if it's in Indianapolis. The Colts are running out of steam somewhat they're incredibly banged up the Titans are as hot as they've been all season and I know that we talked about injuries at the beginning but

the Titans have more pieces than the Colts have right now in terms of their health so it'll be important for the Titans to learn from this game but also acknowledge that this is a completely different Titans team and the Colts feel like a completely different team at this moment in time. There are some principles that we can obviously rely on and take. And I talked about some of that in our last segment when I tried to assume the mind of the Colts, but obviously this Titans offense specifically is different. And if you're the Indianapolis Colts, quite frankly, you can't rely on holding the Titans to 150 yards and one of 10 on third down. So that's not going to be the case this time. So they'll have to come to play and have a little bit more explosion in their offense as well. And I'm not certain with all the injuries that they'll be able to do that. Now, the Colts

own the Titans, as we know. It's an unfortunate circumstance but this is a prime prime situation for the Titans to go in and get a victory very similar to the 2017 season where the Titans played the Colts late in the year in Indianapolis and were able to secure a victory over the Jacoby Brissett led Colts at that time as well so hopefully we see a repeat of that and not a repeat of week two. That is going to do it for Roland's Rewind for this week. We're going to move on to our fourth segment of the day in this Tennessee Titans giving extravaganza I'm putting on for you guys.

I will play Mike Vrabel's, the highlights at least, of Mike Vrabel's press conference right before they left for Thanksgiving. So I hope you guys enjoy that, give you a little bit of insight into what is going through the coach's mind right now, and get you guys set up for our game preview on Friday. In our final segment, don't forget, we are going to have some fun, talk about the things that we are thankful for, and do a little comparison. Between our favorite Thanksgiving food items. And our favorite Tennessee Titans.

So that should be a blast. We'll continue the show. Let's hear from head coach Mike Vrabel. In today's Titans talk. Of course the audio is courtesy of titansonline.com. Yeah, we always try to do what's in best interest of the player and the team. And in this case, unfortunately, we just probably didn't think that we were going to be able to get him back for some meaningful snaps. And that's disappointing to not only Delaney, but to me and to this team. I mean, worked extremely hard to try to, you know, come back and just wasn't able to.

Yeah, I mean, all these guys, they have different roles and they're here for different reasons. And then some guys, you know, get an expanded role. But, you know, I think that that's kind of always going to be the plan, you know, going forward, whether, you know, you're in there with Furk or you're in there with Pruitt or both of them combined or Johnnew. And so, you know, we have to still, you know, find ways to get some production and have that group help us. Well, it hurts for the games.

You know, I think that that's where they're not going to be able to be used. I've talked to both of those players and I'm excited about the fact that they're going to continue to be with us in meetings and work around their rehab schedule to provide the leadership that's critical in the meeting room, in the individual meeting rooms. And that was important to both those players. Well, I think that looking for a young leg to evaluate, and we'll see if he handles the kickoff duties or see where it goes here through practice.

He's going to help us. We'll evaluate him here. We worked him out. He may kick off. He may kick field goals. Ryan off. He may kick field goals. Ryan may kick and may kick field goals. I would say that he would fall into the category of one of those players that continue to improve through the course of the season on the practice squad,

taking a lot of reps, pass rush reps, show team reps, and, again, just trying to send that message that guys that have improved. We've had a number of those guys, you know, Kalief and Roby now. Ty Smith spent some time on a practice squad or those guys have worked very hard and that's where you have to improve. I give those guys, those DBs, always the example that A.J. Boye was one of those guys that practiced against Hopkins every single day. I watched it and witnessed it and he improved into a starting corner in this league. That's how he did it. He improved on the show team. We get, for the most part,

very good punts. I think our gunners have been good. I think that Milton was something that was a strength of his, was gunner play. Dane continues to show up and play very hard. He gets doubled, he gets tripled. The guys try to pick him up down the field. So it'll be critical that our punt coverage is good to excellent this week. You know, Rodgers averages 10 yards a return.

They're fourth in the league in punt return. They've had some returns against us. And so that's something that we're mindful of, and we'll have to be great in that phase. But, you know, anytime you get turnovers in that phase or, you know, Imani made an outstanding play, awareness play. Thought we covered kicks well and continued to try to get the punt return going. We had a big play on kickoff return, a big 34-yard return. Well, I mean, I think that there's been a combination of both.

We've hit, you know, a few shots. I think we need to hit some more, and I think we do. I think, you know, I think Ryan and Corey will hit that the next time. I thought Corey, you know, ran a good route. I thought he stacked the guy. I thought he had separation at the end. I think Ryan just overthrew him there by a little bit. But, you know, that's something we're going to need to continue to do

is work the ball downfield. But then also understand that we have guys that, you know that can do something when they catch the ball and get vertical. When you have guys that finish around you, that's when you can break one. They're a physical football team. They're well coached. They play hard. They play extremely hard. Very few penalties.

They don't hurt themselves. They don't throw in a lot of interceptions. Commit to the run. Their defense is fast, aggressive. It would be a great challenge for us. They're very good in the red zone. That's something that we've been good at. That's something that they've been good at. That's something that they've been good at. And, you know, that'll be a challenge if we can get down there to try to score touchdowns. You guys do on IR sometimes.

They can be separated from the team for a bit. Can you still count on leadership from guys like Wake or Walker? Do you still want those guys to be, you know, as involved as possible? I think he fits it. You know, it's been good. You know, been good for us, been very good for us. I think you could see the ability that when we were able to stay in those third and manageable distances, you know, picked up a third and eight, picked up a third and four, third and one, third and one,

had the third and five, had some guys open, and Ryan, you know, like he's being asked to do, was aggressive, and we missed a shot down the field. But to be able to survive in those down and distances and also getting the ball out of his hand, being decisive, he only got hit one time, so that always helps when you're able to function in a world where a quarterback only gets hit once. Those are positive things. He was a player of a game

for us on defense and that was great to see. We knew they were going to take some shots down the field and this will be a huge challenge for all of us this week. Again, there's great players in this league and I know that the defensive backs are excited about the challenge earn the right to rush the passer by stopping the run up front and then be ready to take care of those shots and those balls down the field

I want our players to prepare today come in and work tomorrow. Spend time with their families. Be thankful for the blessings that we have. Come back on Friday. Continue to prepare and then get on the road and go win a game. That was Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Rabel in his press conference leading up to the game against the Colts. I hope you guys enjoyed that. We are going to jump into our fifth and final segment of the Titans giving extravaganza and have a little bit of fun, talk about what we're thankful for,

and also see which Thanksgiving food items match up the most with our Tennessee Titans favorite players. In our fifth and final segment, I want to have a little bit of fun as I've been teasing all show. I want to kind of look at some of the Thanksgiving food items that we all typically enjoy on this holiday and see which Titans players most align with each dish. Tell me what you guys think and who you think is who on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans. You can follow me there and respond and let me know how you feel about my choices and what your choices would have been.

This is just a fun exercise, though. If you disagree with me, I enjoy that. Just let me know. Obviously, this is kind of just having a good time, something we can all kind of laugh about and go into our holiday thinking. So I hope you guys enjoy my breakdown of which titans players are which thanksgiving dishes first off you gotta start with the turkey the centerpiece the the foundation of the meal and who else could that be than the king derrick henry he's the turkey He's the king of Thanksgiving. No doubt everything that the

Titans do is based around what we can do with Derek Henry. Therefore, he is the turkey. No question. I don't think that anybody can deny that. Now, let's stay with protein here. It has come to my attention that honey baked ham is starting to, no pun intended, carve out its own role in Thanksgiving. it's a little more popular than others. My family and my experience has not been one of having a honey baked ham on Thanksgiving that is typically reserved for Christmas or Easter, things of that nature. But it seems to be a big enough thing that I think at this moment in time, we have to acknowledge Ham's place in the Thanksgiving lineup. And who better to represent Ham than Ryan Tannehill? Kind of a newcomer. Ham is, you know, popping up on the scene as a new Thanksgiving kind of staple. So new to the Titans, just showed up mid-season to take its place as one of the most important parts of the offense right next to the turkey of Derrick Henry. It's becoming as important to have Ryan Tannehill out there. So I want to give

him that jump right there, that boost right there. I would say Ryan Tannehill is the ham. He seems like he's going to stick. He is the new craze, but it seems like he's going to stick. So I'm going to give him ham. Moving forward, the mashed the mashed potatoes gotta be Kevin Byard and hear me out he just brings everything together he's a staple you think you have a good meal you think you have a feast with all the weapons on defense that this team has but if you don't have the mashed potatoes to cap I mean mashed potatoes are almost as good as the entree. They may be better. I have days where I say mashed potatoes are better than the turkey.

So I'm going to give that to Kevin Bayard, who is clearly the second best player on the team behind Derrick Henry, if not the best player on the team. He just brings everything together. He allows the defense to do so many things. He allows the meal to be what it is. We got to give Kevin Bayard the mashed potatoes. Going forward, the stuffing.

Got to be Taylor LeJuan. The stuffing goes directly with the turkey. A lot of people cook their stuffing in the turkey. So, Derrick Henry, Taylor LeJuan, going those left side runs that have become such a home run threat for the Titans. That's going off Taylor LeJuan who sets a great edge on those outside zones. He is protecting all the other food too. Like you got the stuffing which can be a little dry. It will soak up some things around it.

It kind of acts as a barrier between two messier foods in my opinion so i'm gonna give taylor lawan the stuffing it is linked directly with the turkey derrick henry and it kind of separates certain things from each other hopefully taylor lawan continues to separate the defense from ryan tannahill Green bean casserole. My personal favorite side dish of Thanksgiving. Love it. And I'm going to give that to Logan Ryan. Why?

Because green bean casserole is savory due to the cream of mushroom. It is sweet due to the incredible green beans. But it's also crunchy with the onion straws on top. Some people, like myself, love to put bacon or pork, which adds a little bit of spice and salt. Logan Ryan does it all. He'll get you in run defense. He'll be a weak side linebacker. He'll be a cornerback in the slot.

He'll be a safety who comes in the box and defends the run. Logan Ryan gives you everything. In the slot, he'll be a safety who comes in the box and defends the run. Logan Ryan gives you everything. He gives you sweet, salty, savory, spicy, all that you want in one package. He is the versatile Swiss Army knife of the Titans defense. That's green bean casserole in my opinion. And if you have anything bad to say about green bean casserole, then just don't say anything at all. I'll go to the grave fighting for the GBC, baby. So let's step to the most flavorful and delicious side,

mac and cheese. And I'm going to do a little combination here. It's Jayon Brown and Rashawn Evans because everybody loves pasta and macaroni, and everybody loves cheese. Rashawn is the Mac in this circumstance. He's the tough foundation. He's the strong substance that is going to be able to carry the defense in multiple situations. But, man, once you throw some cheese on that macaroni, it just takes it to a whole other notch,

and that's Jayon Brown who adds a special element to this team cheese is versatile as well it can be used in different situations just like the green bean casserole so Jayon Brown is our cheese in this circumstance and cheese is good macaroni is good you put those two together and by god you got the best inside linebacker group in the league so mac and cheese Jayon and Rashawn. Love that. Moving forward, sweet potatoes. A lot of people got to have the sweet potatoes with the marshmallows

roasted on top. I understand all of that. Love that. And who was our other potato? Kevin Byard. He was the mashed, baby. The sweet potatoes got to be a Dory Jackson. Just like KB in terms of he's a secondary member who helps us in pass coverage,

but Kevin Byard's a little bit tougher. He'll get down in the run game, make some tackles, hit some people. Adoree doesn't necessarily love that stuff, just a little bit on the sweeter side. So Adoree Jackson is our sweet potatoes. Moving forward, corn. Now we know how corn is. Corn doesn't really give you much in terms of nutrition. Kind of goes in and goes out, but boy, we still eat corn. Why? Because it's delicious and it gets the job done. It's not too fancy. It's nothing to write home about, but man, it's solid. Nobody complains about having Korn, and that's why Korn is Daquan Jones. The Titans nose tackle, who's been fantastic against the run this year,

dropped back in pass coverage, done a lot for this Titans team without being very flashy, without getting a lot of acclaim. I try to pump him up as much as possible and make sure people understand everything he's doing for the team. And that's why he is the corn. Not so flashy, not talked about all the time. But boy, just a very solid side dish and role player in the Thanksgiving meal. Going forward, we're looking at the rolls. You gotta have a roll on your plate.

You don't have a plate unless you got a roll. Okay? It's going to soak up everything else. It's going to soak up all the mistakes that are made in the secondary. Soak up any mistakes that are made by the linebackers. Because if Harold Landry and Jeffrey Simmons can roll their way to the quarterback nothing that happens behind them matters therefore they're the roles this defense was great this defense was solid last year but until they got Harold Landry playing at the level

he is until they added Jeffrey Simmons we didn't see what the pass rush was capable of. The plate was not complete until we got the rolls. And I'm rolling with Harold Landry and Jeffrey Simmons on the defensive line. Moving to our last side here. And that's the gravy, baby. And I put that separate because gravy doesn't just go with mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving. I'm putting gravy on everything. And it just takes the plate to a whole nother level.

That is why the gravy on this ball club is A.J. Brown. Now, you could have the offense without A.J. Brown. Tajay Sharp plays a lot. A.J. Brown doesn't have a super high number of snaps every single game. Some games, you know, he gets a little bit of a lower snap count because he can't do everything, and he can't be on his own as the only wide receiver we rely on, just like Gravy can't be by itself. You got to have other stuff to put the Gravy on, and in my opinion, this team was in a great spot with the weapons but adding A.J. Brown and

his ability to catch the ball and run after the catch that's just gravy on top of this beautiful plate that we're putting together here in Nashville so A.J. Brown is the gravy delicious swaggy he's clearly a different kind of guy than we've seen on the team so far and that's why he's the gravy baby that's all there is to say about that. AJ Gravy Brown. And his last name is Brown, which gravy is typically brown. So it just works out perfect in that situation. So we're going to go to our very last comparison here. And I wanted to make sure to get this in because this man deserves the recognition. this in because this man deserves the recognition. That is the pumpkin pie. You've had your meal. You've had a couple plates, turkey, ham, all the sides, all the fix and doused it with gravy. Maybe even drank some gravy on the side. Who knows how lit you're getting on Thanksgiving. But the meal

is not complete until you get a nice slice of pumpkin pie with some whipped cream on top. The dessert that really just completes the entire day, completes the entire meal, makes it a well-rounded dinner, well-rounded lunch. You got to have a good dessert. You got your entree. You got your side dish. You need that third level, and that is dessert. That's why we got offense, we side dish you need that third level and that is dessert that's why we got offense we got defense and that third level is the special teams and that's why pumpkin pie is brett kern boy some people like dessert and pumpkin pie better than anything else on the menu and it's a possibility that brett kern as a punter, is the best player on the Titans. He's the best punter in the league.

So if you're comparing positions, he's the best player on the team because he's the best at his position in the NFL. And you can't really say that for anybody else on the team except maybe Kevin Byard or Derrick Henry. So I'm going to give pumpkin pie to Brett Kern. We are approaching about an hour-long show for you guys. So this is a double edition of the podcast. I know that some of you guys are frustrated with the delay in the schedule. So I hope that me giving you this much to get you through your holiday commute will suffice

and garner some favor for me. I apologize about the delays. Like I said, I expected to do the crossover Wednesday pod yesterday, scheduling delays from the Colts. Woke up this morning and unfortunately just wasn't able to make it on our show. So I hope that this has given back to you guys for my delays in that sense. I wanted to get something out to you as best as possible. And literally as I'm recording this show, I'm getting hit up on Twitter asking about where the show is. So I'm going to put this up as soon as I get done. Like I said, we're approaching 50 minutes.

And before we go, I do want to go over one more thing. I think we can't lose sight of what this holiday is about. And that's about being thankful and grateful for everything we have. about being thankful and grateful for everything we have. And while comparison and comparing yourself to others and things like that can be the death of happiness, quite frankly, today is a perfect day to just sit back and appreciate what you have because there's always someone who has less and wishes to have what you have. So just keep that in mind at all times. The man who walks wishes he had a bike. The man who has a bike wishes he had a car. The man who has a car wishes that he had a better car.

So it just never ends. So let's be grateful for what we have. And I want to keep it football related to start here. I said this yesterday on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans. I am thankful for John Robinson. So thankful for John Robinson. So thankful for John Robinson. We look at some of the moves that he's made in his drafts the past couple of years. Adoree, Corey, Simmons, Rashawn, Landry, Amani Hooker, Jayon Brown, Jack Conklin.

I could keep going. I don't know if I mentioned Jeffrey Simmons yet. He drafted Kevin Byard in the third round. Jayon Brown in the fifth round. Some of these back end of the roster guys are so excellent in special teams. Chris Milton was fantastic as he was picked up at the beginning of this year. Claimed off waivers from the Colts. Reggie Gilbert will have an increased role now since Cam Wake is done for the year.

And he's been pretty solid. Joshua Kalou on special teams. Darren Bates on special teams. Dan Cruikshank on special teams. Just fantastic building out the back end of the roster, the last 8 to 10 guys on the roster. He traded DGB. Let's all laugh for a second.

DGB. DGB. Lord. Dennis Kelly has more catches and more touchdowns than dgb since the trade so um dennis kelly for dgb trading for demarco murray and changing the entire culture of the offense in his first season here trading up for rashaun evans trading up for harold landry trading up for amani hooker i mean what what else can we say uh John Robinson has made some excellent moves. He's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination whatsoever. He is not perfect.

Some of the free agent signings have not panned out. That's a fact. Some of the draft picks have been a major bust and a major miss, like Austin Johnson and Kevin Dodd and Luke Folk. You know, some wasted picks, some bad signings, but John Robinson isn't perfect. He's not the best GM in the NFL, but he's definitely a top GM in the NFL. And what he's done for this franchise in getting us out of the Rustin Webster era

and being, if you guys remember 2014, 2015, this is one of the worst football teams in the NFL. And I'm just thankful for John Robinson putting a roster together. He traded for Tannehill for a fourth-round pick, baby. How could I forget? What John Robinson has done for this franchise to keep them a competitive football team week to week, year to year, just from a fan's perspective and a viewing perspective and looking to be entertained and have fun football to watch,

John Robinson got us that playoff win. He put together a roster that, despite poor quarterback play, has been able to consistently compete and be a winning football team. What else could you want from John Robinson? J-Rob DaGoat. Thankful for you. Moving forward, out of football, into life. I do want to say that I'm thankful for you all.

I just started doing this show this season. There is no guarantee that anybody would come back after the show wasn't posted for multiple months from the previous hosts leaving. Who's to say anybody came back? And you guys have really supported me on Twitter and in the reviews and in the comments. I've gotten such good feedback from so many people from Scotland to Germany to California, from all these different states all across the country and all over the world. It's really humbling for me as a person who's loved this team for so long and written about the team and done all this to finally see the support from you guys.

It means the world. I don't want to get emotional on the pod and go out on a on a solid note, but I'm thankful for you guys, my audience. I also want to say I'm thankful for my brother, my father, my mother, my sister, my nephew, my dogs, who I love very dearly. I'm thankful for my health. I'm thankful for my ability to watch football every Sunday. So shout out to the armed forces for giving us the freedoms that allow us to do these things as well. I'm just thankful for life and thankful for football and thankful for family and friends and all the things that make this day-to-day grind that we all go through as regular human beings worth it at the end of the day. So thank you. Thank you guys for your support

and following me along this journey. I'm going to keep working hard to give you guys entertaining content and try to be consistent for you guys so you always have a podcast to rely on that will be there for you. So thank you. This is the longest show I've ever done in

my entire life. I love to talk. I could talk all day, but I did not expect to run this long, but I thought I owe it to you guys. So obviously I'm not going to be putting out a show on Thursday on Thanksgiving at this point. This is kind of a double edition. Thanksgiving extravaganza. That I will post on Wednesday night. For you guys. So. Hopefully this will ride you through the holidays. And I will be back on Friday morning.

With a game preview. For you. To get us ready. To take down the Colts. Spoiler alert. We are winning this ball game. I'm going to go into more details tomorrow. How I think the Titans will accomplish that.

But at the end of the day, that's what's most important is the Titans moving forward and getting a win. So hopefully you guys all enjoy your holiday. Please be safe out there while traveling. Please be safe with your crazy family members as well. Stay away from the topics that you know will be a problem unless you got some Thanksgiving clapbacks stored up and ready to go. Either way, if you guys made it through this whole episode, thank you so much. I really enjoyed recording it and I hope, as I said, it makes it up to you guys for

missing the show this morning. So, that is going to do it for our Titansgiving Extravaganza. I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.