Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Todd Downing 2017 Offensive Breakdown: Likes, Dislikes and Perspective from Your Boy Q

Episode Date: February 2, 2021

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You are Locked On Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to the Locked On Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland, Titans fans. The Titans have officially promoted Titans coach Todd Downing to the offensive coordinator spot vacated by Arthur Smith leaving to be the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. And on today's show, we are going to dive into the last time we saw Todd Downing as an offensive play caller and an offensive coordinator.

And that was his season in Oakland with the Raiders in 2017. Remember, that is before the move to Las Vegas, but we are going to dive into what I liked from watching the tape of Todd Downing's offense in 2017 and what I didn't like from watching the tape of 2017 Oakland Raiders offense. So I have a lot on the pros, I have a lot on the cons to go over and some that made both lists and I'll explain why that is. Before we dive into that though, I do want to get a little bit of an outside perspective on that 2017 season from Todd Downing leading the Oakland Raiders and we are going to hear

directly from Locked On Raiders host, your boy Q, who also does the Locked On Bets podcast for the Locked On Podcast Network. He was on the ground covering the team in Oakland in 2017 when Downing had his lone season as offensive coordinator, as a play caller. So we'll hear his unique perspective first and then dive into the tape on this Tuesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast. Let's get it.

It is a Tuesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast, and it is getting into your feeds a little bit later than I typically would have the show drop, but I wanted to make sure that I got through as much Todd Downing offensive tape from that 2017 season as I possibly could before I came to you with my results. But one thing that I did want to share with you is the perspective from our host from Locked On Raiders, and that is your boy Q, and what his thoughts on Todd Downing as an offensive coordinator from 2017 were. Now before I play you this clip, I do want to warn you Titans fans, it is not a very

rosy picture of Todd Downing and what he can do with an offense. There was some major regression from the year before Downing took over to the year that he was running the show. So obviously, that has colored the picture that your boy Q will paint for us. But you know, I got positives and negatives coming out of what I heard from your boy Q. So let's go ahead and play that clip here. What's happening? This is your boy Q, host of Locked On Raiders.

And I just want to kind of give this public service announcement to everyone who's listening to Locked On Titans, a really, really good podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. And just wanted to talk about the promotion of Todd Downing to offensive coordinator. Now, this sounds very familiar to me as a guy that's been covering the Raiders for a very, very long time, because in 2017, then head coach Jack Del Rio promoted Todd Downing to offensive coordinator, replacing Bill Musgrave. 2016, the Raiders' offense was really, really dynamic. Amari Cooper was a really good wide receiver for the Raiders.

Michael Crabtree had a really good season for the Raiders. Derek Carr had a really good season for the Raiders. Until that Christmas Eve game against the Indianapolis Colts, where Derek Carr broke his ankle. And then, well, it was a done deal there there but Derek Carr was actually mentioned in the MVP race and the Raiders made their first playoff appearance in a very long team and they haven't been back to the playoffs since that 2016 season well Bill Musgrave he was fired by Jack Del Rio because apparently according to multiple reports Todd Downing was going to be the next guy he was going to be the next Sean

McVay he was going to be the next Kyle Shan He was going to be the next Sean McVay. He was going to be the next Kyle Shanahan. He was the next boy genius as far as offense goes. And so everyone got excited. Everyone got fired up about this new addition. He was the quarterback coach, so he was really good friends with Derek Carr. He was going to get him to do things that he really, really enjoyed. Now remember that both Michael Crabtree and Amari Cooper went over a thousand yards in 2016, had a really good run game as well. Raiders offense was really, really stinking dynamic, you know? And then in 2017, well, it wasn't. With all those promises of innovative offense

and new fresh blood bringing into the offense, that was the dream and that was the promises made by then head coach Jack Del Rio and, of course, offensive coordinator Todd Downing. And it just wasn't. The offense left a lot to be desired. So I saw the other day when the Tennessee Titans, they announced that they had promoted Todd Downing to offensive coordinator,

and I just put out a tweet, good luck, Titans. Having Derrick Henry is going to help in a major way. Having Ryan Tannehill, who has a good command of the offense, having some really good players is going to help as well. And maybe Todd Downing's got better over the years. But I will say, as a guy, and I'm not trying to be a hater to Todd Downing at all, but his offensive scheme, his offensive play calling has a lot to be desired. So, yeah, he might be a little bit more creative,

but I don't think it's much of an upgrade. I don't think Tennessee Titan fans are going to be excited by what they see I would not do like Raider fans did and get very very excited about this hot shot young guy coming into the fold that's going to be the next Sean McVay and I it's funny on my radio show I always say you know whenever these young dudes go into this offensive coordinator position or sometimes these young dudes get this these head coaches position like Matt LaFleur did with Green Bay I always say yeah hey this could turn out to be a Sean McVay situation or this could turn out to be a Todd Downing situation and every time I say that on

my radio show everyone says well who the hell's Todd Downing exactly Todd Downing was the boy genius that was a fail it was not a very good experiment as far as the Raiders and that offense goes. So I say all that not to scare anybody who's a Titan fan, anyone listening to this. I'm not trying to put poo on them. I'm just trying to let you know exactly what Raider Nation felt as Todd Downing was the offensive coordinator in 2017 and was not the offensive coordinator after that. Jack Del Rio got fired at that 2017 season and the Raiders have had John Gruden as their head coach ever since. So those are my thoughts on Todd Downing. I'm your boy Q from the Locked On Raiders podcast.

First and foremost, big thank you to your boy Q for sending that snippet over to give us his unique perspective from the Locked On Raiders podcast. Second, that smooth and sultry radio voice. Q is one of the best we got. Big shout out to him for doing that. But what I want to talk about in regards to his comments, though, is that kind of view that he was one of these young, up-and-coming,

innovative, offensive minds, and that didn't really pan out. Well, you know, you can look at that both good and bad. The good side of that and the positive way to view it is he was viewed in that way and the Raiders made changes on the coaching staff to make sure they kept Todd Downing around because he was highly regarded in the NFL. Now that shine has clearly come off of Todd Downing in the last few years, but I look at it as a highly drafted player that didn't necessarily work out with their first team. The talent is there.

So if Todd Downing was respected in that way. As a young innovative offensive mind. Then that talent is still in there. And maybe working with Arthur Smith and Matt LaFleur. The last few years. Will help unlock that from Todd Downing. And get him to live up to those expectations. Now there's obvious regression there. Derek Carr regressed in a major way, but maybe some guys are more offensive

coordinators than actual position coaches for the quarterback spot. Maybe he didn't do a great job developing Derek Carr as a young player, but you don't really need all of that development when you're working with a veteran like Ryan Tannehill. So I heard some good from your boy Q in there that could be mined out of his comments, but obviously a lot of concern coming from him as well. But let's dive into the tape next. I'm going to tell you what I like and what I didn't like after watching the 2017 Raiders offense. Before we do that, though, I do want to tell you about our friends over at BetOnline.ag.

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deposit. We are going to continue this Tuesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. But before we do, I want to remind you guys that I will be putting out Monday through Friday daily Tennessee Titans content all season long. So make sure that you're subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream, whether that be Apple iTunes, following on Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher. Like I said, whatever platform you can listen to podcasts on, you will find the Locked on Titans podcast there. Make sure that you're locked into the Locked on Titans podcast every single day. Follow me on Twitter at TicTacTitans as well.

And check out the new Locked on Titans Facebook page at Locked on Titans Pod. But let's dive into the film room here. And I want to give you guys the notes that I picked up from watching the Raiders offense in 2017 over the weekend. And again, the show is coming out a little bit late today, but wanted to make sure that I dove through all of the tape and bring you guys a complete picture here. So let's talk about what I did like to start things off. Number one, Todd Downing did use some at snap motion, some jet motion, some orbit motion, different things like that to get some of his speed threats, different matchups outside, or just create space for his speed threats outside.

He had a guy like Seth Roberts, who is a very speedy guy. Also, had a guy like Corderell Patterson, who is a very versatile piece in the NFL. And while I had high hopes early in his career that he could be a much more dynamic guy he's been used very creatively by a lot of different coaches and when used properly can be used as a weapon I'm encouraged to see what Todd Downing could do with a guy like Darrington Evans or if the Titans actually get a speed guy in there in the mold of a Cam Batson I guess we could get excited about what he could do with Cam Batson, but I'd like to see the Titans upgrade on that speed option there in their offense and then give Downing a little bit more creativity and a little bit more options from there. Likewise,

saw some RPOs in there. Now, not quite as much as I was hoping to see, but we'll talk about that more. But some RPO elements, some quick screen elements, some smoke screens. Think about the play that the Green Bay Packers run all the time where Aaron Rodgers takes the ball and just throws it immediately out to Devontae Adams in one-on-one. Devontae Adams makes a guy miss, and all of a sudden you got yourself an explosive play or at least a play that you can count on a reliable play to gain some yardage. Wouldn't you like to see A.J. Brown get opportunities like that? Well, I saw a couple of those plays scattered throughout the Raiders offense, so hopefully Todd Downing will increase those opportunities,

increase the usage of those type of plays. But the fact that they are there, the fact that those concepts are in there, gives me hope that we'll see more of them as those different concepts, RPOs and jet motion and things like that, at-snap motion, that's become more common in the NFL since 2017. So hopefully since Downing was already using those things and then the proliferation of them in the NFL throughout the past few years, we'll see an increased amount of usage on those different types of concepts from Downing and the Titans offense. One thing that Arthur Smith did

really well, condensing formations, using splits, getting your outside receiver as far away from the sideline as possible as they run an outbreaking route. You're trying to maximize space out on the football field, different things like that. I thought Downing did pretty well. He did a good job of using slot alignment. Think if you have trips to one side, three guys, the two most inside guys, did a good job of playing with their alignment at times to create separation against man coverage. The Titans, when they did struggle on offense, it was beating tight man coverage. And I thought Downing showed a use of condensed formations

and using splits and manipulating splits to create advantages in the release against man coverage. So that's going to be important for the Titans offense to take that next step. And I saw a lot of that from Downing, so I was excited to see that. One thing that I did see from Downing that the Titans didn't do as often as I would like to see with Arthur Smith, something that Downing did a lot, maybe to a fault, but it was matchup hunting. So in that Raiders offense, you had Amari Cooper, one of the best route runners in the NFL.

You have Michael Crabtree, one of the better physical wide receivers during his prime in the NFL. You also had a tight end like Jared Cook, who with his size speed combination is a matchup threat, if not one of the top notch tight ends in the NFL. He's definitely a matchup threat based on that combination of size and speed. So, I'm dying here. I'm trying to get through size and speed. So, I really liked, Downing would do a lot of isolating the tight end on one side of the formation, so think he'd have trips to one side and then have the tight end just to one side by himself.

That's going after matchups. tight end just to one side by himself. That's going after matchups, but Jonu Smith isn't really the type of tight end who can take advantage of one-on-one matchups like that. He isn't a fantastic route runner who can do that one-on-one. Also, if you do something like that, the Raiders offense tend to force it to those guys. Derek Carr threw a lot of back shoulder fades to Jared Cook, to Amari Cooper, to Michael Crabtree. And that's not something that the Titans have the skill set of players to really do outside of A.J. Brown if they lose Corey Davis, who wasn't great at back shoulder throws like that anyway. It wasn't something he did all the time.

And Johnnie Smith definitely isn't a guy who's going to do that consistently throughout the game. He's made some big plays on back shoulder catches over the middle of the field, but it's just not in his wheelhouse as a player. You want to get him on the move and create space for him. So the Titans don't really have the personnel right now to match up Hunt in the way that Downing did in 2017. So curious to see what they do there. Downing did some rollouts in the red zone. I love seeing that. That wasn't something that Arthur Smith did a lot. Think without play action, just rolling out to one side of the field, trying to hit a quick hitter to the outside. Don't want to see all of that, but having that as an option is something

the Titans didn't do. I did like the route concepts that I saw from Downing. He's much more creative in the passing game than he is in the running game, but he was limited by the run blocking skill set of the offensive line, who much more pass blockers in 2017 for the Raiders. But he did a good job of flooding zones, flooding a certain side of the field, giving Derek Carr high-low reads. So you have a guy all the way deep at a certain level. You have a guy intermediate at a certain level. You have a guy short at a certain level.

I liked what he was able to do with his route concepts there. Like I mentioned, isolating the tight end a lot. He had the tight end detached from the formation, so not with his hand in the dirt next to the offensive tackle. A tight end out like a wide receiver. Again, though, Jared Cook Jr.'s skill set lends to that, where the Titans' tight end position is up in flux. I saw a lot of running back usage, like I said,

with Corderell Patterson, DeAndre Washington. They had Jalen Rashard as well. They used their running back in creative ways, had running backs running wheel routes down the field, a lot more screens, a lot more motion, five wide receiver motion and running back into the backfield, then run a run play. I like that creativity with the running back spot. And as I mentioned, wide receiver screens. I want to see more opportunities for A.J. Brown out on the perimeter in one-on-one situations

like you get for Devontae Adams, like the Raiders were creating for an Amari Cooper or a Michael Crabtree, so I want to see more of that from the Titans offense. So that's what I did like initially overall from Todd Downing's offense in 2017. We are going to get into what I didn't like seeing on tape here in just a moment. But before we do that, I want to remind you guys about the new podcast from the Locked On Podcast Network, Locked On Today. It's bringing you all the biggest sports stories from the day before, all within a 20-minute condensed package.

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TurboTax Live tax experts give you the confidence that your uniquely you taxes are done right. Into it Turbo Tax Live. We talked about what I did like from watching the 2017 Raiders offense led by new Titans offensive coordinator Todd Downing. But now we do need to dive into what I didn't like from watching the Raiders offense. And the Raiders offense wasn't a good one. They only scored 18 points a game, 25th in rushing, only 18th in passing. now they did have some successful numbers on third down and in the red zone they were top 11 in the NFL in both those categories so there was good and

there was bad but really where the view of Todd Downing is skewed is based on what we saw from the Raiders offense in 2016 and Derek Carr broke his leg he had an injury similar to Marcus Mariota at the end of 2016 and obviously he regressed quite a bit in 2017 how much of that you're going to put on Todd Downing I don't know 100% obviously it's going to be a different scheme a different system with different players but there is some stuff that I saw that I wasn't a huge fan of that lends itself more to the tendencies of Todd Downing than the situation that he was in. Before we get into that though, I want to remind you guys that it was a Manning Monday yesterday on the Locked On Giants podcast.

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I'm going to bring up a few things that I talked about in the previous segment. And I mentioned one of the things that I did like was there was some at-snap motion from Todd Downing's offense. We talk about pre-snap motion a lot, but what I would like to see more of is at-snap motion, actually having someone in motion on the snap to influence defenders. The Packers really hurt the Titans with this in Week 16. So I would like to see more of that. And we saw some from Todd Downing's offense in 2017. But my big issue, there wasn't enough.

It was too rare. I want to see more of that. And like I mentioned, I hope that you know the progression and the evolution of offense in the NFL will allow Todd Downing to use more of that in the 2021 Tennessee Titans offense same thing the RPOs I saw RPOs and as I mentioned last week Todd Downing's offense had a lot of success at least in the passing game with RPOs they were second in the NFL in yards per attempt on RPO pass attempts at 8.8 and while they had success I need to see a lot more RPO usage and again that's another one of those things there's been a lot more RPO usage in the NFL into 2020 than there was in 2017 so hopefully that's something that Todd Downing will just go with the times and use more of

because the NFL uses more of it. And that's something that we didn't see in the Titans offense whatsoever with Arthur Smith. And to me, that's an easy way to deal with the pressure that teams were putting on the Titans offense and the blitzing that was being done. That's an easy counter that the Titans can go to. Want to see more of that. My big knock on Downing was he's a repeater. He would run the same play, the same formations over and over and over again. And while I like the opportunities that

that can create for you by giving teams similar looks, but running different plays. I mean, that's a great way to get your play action game going. It's a great way to counter defenses when they start playing your bread and butter plays. But man, Downing just repeated the same plays over and over and over again. Some teams, most teams were able to catch on. He ran a lot of outbreaking routes against man when he's in a dual set coverage where he's got two wide receivers on either side and shotgun. He ran a ton of three tight end with one wide receiver inside zone.

He ran a ton, a ton, a ton of three wide receiver, one tight end, one wide receiver to one side. A condensed bunch trips to the other side with the tight end. Just off the line of scrimmage, hands on knees. bunched trips to the other side with the tight end, just off the line of scrimmage, hands on knees, a wide receiver right next to him, but on the line of scrimmage, and then another wide receiver on the other side, off the line of scrimmage in a trips formation. He just ran similar formations in the same exact place over and over and over again. And there are, like I said, there are pros to that. You can adjust, you can counter, you could show the same look, but run a different play. But more often than not with Downing, he was just running the same plays and teams knew what were coming.

So, too much predictability. Tons of 11 personnel, not a lot of 12 personnel with two tight ends, not a lot of 13 personnel. Like I said, he ran that formation but it wasn't a ton. Not a lot of formation variation there. And that's concerning. Another thing, not a lot of shifts from the formation. Often, the Raiders offense came out in the formation that they were in and just ran their play. They didn't change the formation up. I didn't see a lot of creativity from Todd Downing in terms of using his personnel. Now, Lee Smith was the backup tight end outside of Jared Cook Jared Cook's not a fantastic blocker

either so maybe if you ask Todd Downing he would say he was limited and getting his tight ends involved another thing they didn't use a fullback at all literally at all and I'm not here saying that a fullback is is a crazy important part of an offense but it just gives you the versatility like Arthur Smith would use the fullback when the numbers advantage would get taken away based on defensive alignment. So does Todd Downing have that in his back pocket if the Titans need it? Can he use a fullback and have a fullback in his offense? Didn't really see it. The over-reliance on shotgun, too, is simply not going to work for the Titans.

The Titans like to run under center. If Todd Downing had a situation that was second and long, he just gives up on under the center plays, goes straight into shotgun. Is that something about his personality as a play caller that he's going to inject into the Titans offense? Or is he going to bend to what the Titans do well and run more under center plays?

That's something to watch there. The run game was incredibly poor. Like I said, the 25th overall run game in the NFL, but the Raiders offensive line wasn't really set up to run outside zone or run zone schemes. They were more of a man blocking scheme, a gap power scheme. They didn't execute very well. They were much better at pass blocking. They only gave up 24 sacks. That was bottom 10 in the NFL that year. When I say bottom, I mean the least, top 10, I guess you would say. So looks like he had a good understanding of the passing game. I was impressed with what he did in the passing game, but not very impressed with Downing in the run

game. But that could be more about the personnel that the Raiders had with an old running back like Marshawn Lynch and an offensive line that didn't pretend itself to run blocking. But, you know, the concerns that I saw were there over reliance on shotgun, not a lot of formation variation, not enough creative stuff like RPOs and at snap motion, repeating the same plays in the same formations over and over and over again. These are all concerns that I have about Todd Downing, but hopefully, I'm hoping that a lot of the foundation that's been laid by Arthur Smith and Matt LaFleur in Tennessee with their scheme and their system, if we can just add in some of the stuff that Todd

Downing did well in Oakland to what the Titans already have, then I have a lot of hope that the Titans offense can continue to be just as good as it was and potentially improve in certain places. But that's what I saw on tape that I liked. What I didn't like, we heard from your boy Q from the Locked on Raiders podcast, his unique perspective on what he saw from Todd Downing in 2017. So I hope this is a pretty good base for you guys to have an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses and what we should expect to see from Todd Downing's offense. But do want to remind you guys before we head out of here that this episode has been brought to you by 1010. 1010 is an exclusive collection of 10 one-of-a-kind

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