Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Ultimate Division Crossover - Titans

Episode Date: February 11, 2020

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Welcome to the Locked On Titans podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, we are here with day two of the Ultimate Division crossover for the AFC South. We got the hosts of Locked On Texans, Cody and John, who did our Monday show. We got the hosts of Locked On Jaguars, Tony Wiggins, on with us as well. How are you guys doing today? Doing good, Tyler. How about yourself? Cannot complain. Cannot complain. Been enjoying these crossover podcasts with you guys. This

is a good division. Got some good hosts in here, so really appreciate you guys coming on. Yeah, I'm glad to be here too as the non-playoff representative, but it's all good. It's all good. a non-playoff representative, but it's all good. It's all good. It's all right. At the end of the day, only one team gets to walk home champion,

and everybody else walks home disappointed. I remember a couple years ago watching the Jags in that AFC championship game and being pretty disappointed myself, so I understand how things go. But kind of jumping into the Titans here, it is Titans Day on the Locked On Podcast Ultimate Division Crossover. So obviously the Titans finished up in the AFC Championship, lost to the eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. Had a pretty good turnaround after starting two and four. A lot of questions ahead in the offseason. Just wondering from, I guess, the Titans fan perspective,

I cover that daily on the show. From the outside of things, especially, you know, looking at the Texans and the Jaguars, knowing where you guys have been in the past couple of seasons, what was your take, I guess, on the Titans season? What was your kind of surprise level with how they turned around the season? I'll tell you what they did. And it's something I've been screaming for Jacksonville to do.

They found their identity. And what their identity is and was is they're going to do it behind their offensive line and their running game with Derrick Henry, who is a Jacksonville native. And they finally found a quarterback to be able to buy into that who had the talent to make teams pay whenever they want to suck that other man up into that box. They got a guy in Ryan Tannehill who made them pay with his legs

and more importantly with his arm. They also hit a real good wide receiver. And defensively, they played off of that. Basically what they did was they became what the Jacksonville Jaguars have said that they wanted to become for the last three or four years. They played behind their offensive line. They played behind their running game. They used play action.

They hit tight ends. They found a wide receiver. And then the defense stepped up. And to me, from the outside looking in, that's exactly what they did. Well, I just think they got a quarterback. Plain and simple. I mean, when they were rolling with Mariota, when they drafted him up until they made the switch, what was that, week six?

Week seven they made the switch? Week six against the Broncos. We were getting shut out in the third quarter, ended up not scoring that game. When they made that switch, the switch for the entire team clicked on. Going into the offseason, when they made that trade for Tannehill, you know, I said to myself, I'll give it about five weeks before they make a change because that offense is just dirt poor with Mariota. It is. Tannehill comes in and he completely revamps what they can do because

now you have a quarterback that has thrown for 4,000 in this league. He has a very, very good running game behind him. And then when you put him behind center, then now teams have to back up a little bit. And what happens? Well, Derrick Henry can run for whatever he feels like running for that day. Once Tannehill was inserted, A.J. Brown looked like he was the best receiver drafted, rookie receiver drafted since Julio Jones.

Other guys started to look better because you can't pressure one area of this offense. Now you have to worry about being hit in the mouth three-dimensional ways. I had a guy that had boots on the ground in training camp with Texans that called me and told me Vrabel's going to lose this team, man, because he is about as foul-mouthed and as ornery and as mean as you could imagine.

But you know what happens? Winning cures everything. Because five, six weeks in, I thought Frabel was going to get fired. But eventually guys bought into that message. And once guys bought into that message and they developed that identity, that's when it turned around. And you're right, Cody. The thing is, is when you find a quarterback,

what it does is give you credibility in the locker room. It gives you message of credibility because we had that here with Blake Bortles. Guys knew they weren't going to win with Blake. They tried, but they knew that they weren't going to win. And then you saw when Gardner Minshew came in this year and guys started to believe in him. The games that he played, they were 500 football teams because people believed in it and they bought in.

And I think what happened with Tannehill is people bought in and they said, okay, this is going to work. And so you're right. The quarterback position is extremely important. But you have to have a little bit more than that. And I think whatever that more is, Tennessee found it. And they really, really figured out how to use that to their advantage, Tyler. Well, I think that the biggest thing,

and it is something that you can point to down in Jacksonville, I think this year with Foles and Minshew, when you're not playing the best quarterback on the team, like the news is starting to trickle out in Tennessee that Tannehill was just far better in the preseason and practice more crisp all of that so the players see that too and I think if you're a coach like Vrabel is kind of a fiery guy and you see that I've mentioned in his press conferences he is ornery that's a good way to put it that's that's probably the best you know way to describe it and when you're like that and you give guys hell during practice and in the film room and things like that,

the only way that you're going to be able to have their buy-in is if you succeed, if you win, if you produce on the field. And when you have the second-best quarterback on the team starting games and the offense just looks miserable, well, I think you're going to lose guys no matter what. So putting Tannehill in not only for his play, but letting the locker room know that they were serious about winning and not just giving Mariota the entire world to see if he can do it,

they actually wanted to win. So that was one of the biggest reasons that the 2019 season turned around for the Titans is they actually put the best quarterback on the team out on the field. And I don't think that that's something that can be denied at this point. No, it can't be denied. And the question is, is going into the offseason. And I think it was answered. I heard some some some some pundits. I don't know who it was, but it was an insider that says Tannehill isn't going anywhere.

Are they going to invest the proper capital to keep him as their quarterback and make a commitment to him? And then do you think, Tyler, it's a smart idea to do that? Well, that is the biggest question, I guess, going forward with this team is their internal free agents and how they're going to handle it. And you're right about that report. It was Chris Mortensen down during the Super Bowl media time he said to Joe Shad of the Palm Beach Post that Tannehill isn't leaving the Titans and I think he's right and at this point you can't let that happen if you're Tennessee since Steve

McNair we've had a bunch of different quarterbacks who maybe had a little talent but just couldn't get it done and Tannehill has made the Titans haven't had an offense that looked this good since those early days if you compare it the stats aren't the same but compared to the way offense was played back then with McNair and Eddie George so this offense you gotta try to capitalize on it you try to keep the momentum going I think they gotta find a way to bring back Henry and Tannehill and I would actually expect them to bring back Tannehill on a 27 to $30 million a year deal for three to four years. And my personal hope is that only two years of that is guaranteed.

You know, just give them two years of guarantees on that. But yeah, I definitely do think at this point they have to bring him back. And I do agree with that report. I don't, I don't see that they would let him walk away. Same thing with, you know, Derrick Henry.

They got to keep those two together. Absolutely, and I think when you look at how the QB market is kind of set up right now, I'm okay with – and I'm not, you know, a Titans fan, but I would be okay with him getting that Kirk Cousins contract, just not all guaranteed, you know, tightest fan. But I would be okay with him getting that Kirk Cousins contract, just not all guaranteed, you know. Go out and give him that three-year $80 million, $83 million contract. Maybe those first two, you see how you can work out with the front loader, back loader, I'm not sure.

But I think that money-wise is what is fair for Tannehill because he has the – when you look at his resume because he has the, in the resume, when you look at his resume, he has the tools as a quarterback. Everybody just sucks in Miami. That's just what it is. So now when he's in Tennessee, he's not asked to do a lot of things that he had to do that he was asked for in Miami, but he can still do those things.

And when the draft went on last year, I thought D.K. Metcalf was going to have a better rookie season than AJ Brown because he was going to a better quarterback situation. One was going to Russell Wilson. The other one was going to Mariota at the time. Now AJ Brown can really do some things with Tannehill and vice versa. That deal definitely needs to get done. do some things with Tannehill and vice versa, that deal definitely needs to get done. other podcast, Locked On gives your local company the unique ability to reach local podcast listeners. And not just any podcast listener, a Locked On podcast listener. If your company wants a way to connect with Titans fans and a predominantly male audience

that is well-educated with disposable income, then let's put your company right here on this Locked On podcast. Local fans love to support local businesses. We'll see you next time. Once again, text the word advertising to 33777 or visit lockedonpodcast.com slash advertising. We look forward to hearing from you. But what are some of the weaknesses going into next season that needs to be fixed that were apparent in this past season? Well, I think the number one issue for the Titans going forward, it's something I've harped on quite a bit is their pass rush.

They couldn't get to Patrick Mahomes with their four down linemen. They have to manufacture pressure through blitzes and scheme, different schematic ways to get pressure on the quarterback with stunts up front. They can't just line up and rush four at you and get to the quarterback. And at some point in time, football is just a line up and beat the guy in front of you game. That's what it comes down to. And you got to have four guys on the defensive line who don't need stunts, who don't need loops, who don't need blitzes. They can just beat the guy

in front of them and get to the quarterback and they don't have enough of those guys. So that'll be the number one thing that they need to attack. But a sneaky weakness right now is the cornerback position. Malcolm Butler's only getting older. and while he played great for most of the season last year, he's still getting older, and he's not one of the top cornerbacks in the league anymore. Adoree Jackson played pretty fantastic throughout the season when he was healthy, but he missed some games, and he has his moments where he makes mistakes. Logan Ryan is a free agent right now, and besides that, we saw that the Titans didn't really want LaShawn Sims, their fourth cornerback, on the field.

We used Tremaine Brock, who probably needs to retire, who got roasted against the Chiefs in the second half. So they really need to attack the cornerback position as well. And while everyone's focused on all the free agents, Tannehill and Derrick Henry and the pass rush, sneakily, cornerback, which has been a part of this team's strength the last two years, could turn into a huge weakness if it's not addressed aggressively. Now, I'll reverse that from the outside looking in from how do you attack them? See, I like Jeffrey Simmons. And then I like

your all-pro three technique. I also like the kid from Boston College. And then Cameron Wake is Cameron Wake. And I know they may have missed the Brian O'Rourke pull a little bit, but San Francisco had the best defensive line in the league. And then Patrick Mahomes took an 11-step drop in the Super Bowl on the third down. They couldn't stop.

That's hard to stop. When I look from the outside looking in, I look at Tennessee and I think defensive backs. Dory Jackson hasn't been what everybody thought he was going to be. As good as Butler is, Logan Ryan, he may have played well. That's the weakness

to me. Kevin Baird is a first-team all-pro. I think the weakness to me is their ability to cover on the back end against an elite team. They can pressure all day. When you talk about trying to win a Super Bowl, you've got to run through Kansas City. You've got to run through New England and those types of teams. The way you do it, you've got to be a lead on the back end,

and I think that's a problem from the outside looking in with Tennessee. Yeah, I agree. I think that it's not just having the guys that they have. It's about an overall talent level, and they need to raise the overall talent level of the cornerback group. That's why I talked about attacking it so aggressively I think you need to add a not an incredibly priced free agent but a decently mid-tier maybe third level cornerback and then use a top three pick on a cornerback as well just to try to raise the

overall talent level add to the depth so that when the injuries do take place you have guys who are talented enough to where you don't completely fall off, which the Titans' pass defense, it was a good thing they were scoring all those points in 2019 because the pass defense was so bad in the back half of the season. They had to score points and keep up. That was the only way that they were going to be able to do it. You look at how bad the Panthers were at the back half of the season, and the Titans gave up 30 points to them.

So once the injuries hit, they didn't have near enough talent or near enough depth to, to kind of keep things rolling going forward. So they will have to make sure that they do something about that quickly in free agency and the draft in the off season. Now. Hey, Tyler,

you know, Tennessee, I honestly, I do believe you guys have a bright future ahead of y'all. But your receiving core is pretty solid. And, you know, we talked about A.J. Brown, but can I just get your thoughts on Corey Davis? Because he is a guy who, in my opinion, is one of the most underrated players in the league right now. Yeah, I think he has the talent.

And one thing I could say is he's an incredible teammate and an incredible blocking wide receiver down the field. A lot of those big, long A.J. Brown plays came with Corey Davis downfield, taking care of his man and doing extra dirty work down there to help spring him. So that's all great. But when you're the fifth overall pick in the draft, the first thing that comes to mind can't be your blocking ability. You've got to give a little bit more than that.

And while he's been underutilized, and I think his talent would allow him to produce more if he was utilized more and was more of a focal point in an offense, there are also things that he is doing out there that haven't quite lived up to the fifth overall pick in the draft. that's the most important thing is are are you kind of given the titans what your value should be as the fifth pick in the draft and he just hasn't he drops the ball from time to time he's not necessarily super explosive out of his cuts and his routes he doesn't always run precise routes he'll let guys get in front of him when you can't sometimes. He's not making mistakes all the time, but he makes them enough that as a fifth overall pick at this point,

you probably can't pick up his fifth year option. You're probably going to have, which is something they're going to have to decide on this year, that they're probably going to have to let him go into free agency and see what kind of offers he makes because at this time he hasn't justified a long-term extension going forward. If I'm him, I'm hoping to have a Devontae Parker type year. And Devontae Parker with Miami was a top 15 pick. Didn't do much because of injury. And then all of a sudden he had people in that room that stood on the table for him. And then he balled out this year.

Now it looks like whatever extension that Miami gave him is a bargain because once healthy, he got it right. Now Davis doesn't have that excuse because he's been relatively healthy. The thing is, though, Mulligan will be given because of Brown on the other side. Brown is the guy. They'll look at it as like this. Okay, well, we drafted him here, but we drafted him here. We still got the production, and now he's just a very, very good number two.

If he accepts that, I think he'll stay there. And if he doesn't and he loses a grand to it, he'll try to go somewhere else. But you guys are right in your assessment. That was a great, great question about Corey Davis. I want to ask you, though, Tyler, about Nashville as a destination place with free agency. And I'm sure at some point we'll get into this with Jacksonville.

Everybody talks about Nash Vegas. The draft was there. People talk about how great of a town it is. I actually had an opportunity to get a job there. My wife had the stigma about Nashville so I didn't go and I probably would regret it, but that's a great, great town.

A great, great place. How do you look at people now getting to understand what Nashville is and their downtown area and how does that bode well for that franchise from a destination standpoint for free agency I think it I think it's a great thing and one of the big reasons why the rumors are about Tannehill that he's not leaving anywhere is because reportedly his wife and him really love the city of Nashville. I think it offers people, especially celebrities, it offers them kind of the best of both worlds.

You could go downtown and be treated like a celebrity. And because of all of the advancements in the downtown and all the construction and all, you know, the things that have been added to the city in the past you know 10 years or so I think that it gives a celebrity an NFL football player the feeling of a big town like you said Nash Vegas you know it can give you the feeling of a big city vibe and also if you get a little bit out of town where a lot of these guys live just out of town you still get that kind of, you know, secluded Tennessee forest, you know, vibes. You can kind of get the best of both worlds. And you, you've seen a lot of people recently, you know, Eric Decker didn't necessarily produce a lot in the year that, that he came.

But one of the reasons that he wanted to come here was Nashville. And I think a lot of the improvements in the city have made it more, I still don't think it's a top tier free agent destination that all these guys are flocking to, but I think it's not a hindrance to be like, Oh, you know, I'm in the middle of Tennessee, Nashville's, you know, a mid tier market, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's not a minus anymore. It may not be a top of the league plus, but it's not so much of a minus anymore because of the way that the city is shown they come to play and the draft was a big deal I think for the city and kind of changing the narrative around the Nashville market in terms of how free agents and

NFL players who maybe wouldn't look at you know the middle of Tennessee as the best place to live I think it can kind of change perception. So that's the best way I can put it is it used to be somewhat of a minus. Now I don't think it's a huge plus, but it's no longer a minus. It's definitely a plus for the Titans, the city of Nashville. Speaking of free agency with the destination, you guys have 22 free agents on your roster. Of course, headlined by Jack Conklin, Ryan Tannehill, and Derrick Henry.

But you also have guys like Logan Ryan. When we look at the rest, Tarjay Sharp, Ty Smith. So with those 22 free agents, going into free agency, We know who are the top priority guys, but who are some of these glue guys, so to speak, that needs to be returned back to Tennessee? Well, I think that is probably the biggest question for the Titans going forward is how they handle who comes back and who doesn't come back. One thing that I kind of said on my podcast when I talked about that is, you know, whenever you were going to have company growing up and you were going to have people come over, your mom always told you there was one thing that you had to do, and that

was you had to clean your house first before you had company over. So that's the big thing for the Titans is before they start bringing in these draftees, before they start bringing in these outside free agents, they need to clean their house. So they need to look at who they want to bring back. And they do have quite a bit of guys, but some of the people that I really want them to bring back and focus on, somebody who maybe not a lot of people would know,

but can make a big impact is Anthony Ferkser. He's actually from Harvard. He caught a lot of touchdowns in the playoffs, have one catch, two catches, but they'd always be in the red zone. He's very sure-handed. He's a backup tight end, and you need role players like that on your roster to be a successful team in the NFL. So I'd like to see him come back at the tight end position because he really balances out that group. With the tacklesles you talk about Jack Conklin and he's a priority of course but if he gets too expensive because that's you know the tackle market right now Dennis Kelly when Taylor LeJuan was suspended for the first four games of the

season Dennis Kelly was the starter at left tackle and he would be even more effective at right tackle he's one of the better swing tackle backup tackles in the NFL. So that's somebody who would definitely need to come back. Tajay Sharp, who you mentioned, I think as a third, fourth wide receiver, he runs precise routes in the red zone. He's got good hands. So he can be a great role player for the Titans if they can get him on a value on the defensive side of the ball. I would like to see them bring, he's the fourth string inside linebacker, but Darren Bates, he is a special teams captain. And if you look at some of the videos of the team in the locker room, Batesy is always in the middle of the scrums. He's always in the middle of the action. He's got the jukebox. He's playing the music. He adds a

certain attitude to the special teams crew that the Titans have made an actual position group, the special teams unit. He's actually made them have an attitude that this team lacks. Not a lot of guys on this football team are dogs. You know, A.J. Brown is. You see some other guys who have some attitude to him like Jeffrey Simmons, but Darren Bates, although he's like a fourth-string, fifth-string linebacker, core special teamer,

he just has this attitude about him, this swagger that you need. You need to play NFL football. So I really like what he brings, and he should be a good value. And then Chris Milton got hurt. He was picked up from the Colts in the middle of the season as just like a fifth-string defensive back. But he's a really, really good special teams player. So I I'd like to see him come back. Those are some, I guess,

some role players who are not the big names, but they're valuable guys on a football team, whether it be personality or fit or role. And those are some guys that they can get at a value that need to come back and fill out the roster. Yeah. When you mentioned Jeffrey Simmons, all i do is go wow and uh tremendous tremendous football player you know checkered past if you will and a little bit of controversy but and then he was injured but he was well worth it uh when they picked him and uh you know what i'm sick of both

of y'all man i'm tired of talking about all this playoff success man i guess at some point we'll get to the as the world turns segment of this uh the soap opera segment or portion of this uh crossover the ultimate crossover podcast and uh i think the fans in those cities should be very fortunate and lucky and realize how blessed they are i know they're not looking at it that way because they want to win the whole thing uh but we would love to have a little bit a modicum of that success that the two of you uh have had well i i know that uh it comes and goes and you know a lot of Titans fans were in the doldrums and in the middle of you know the aughts and in the early 2010s and things like that so obviously it goes around and it comes around but for the Titans I think the the biggest thing is

keeping this group together I like that you mentioned Jeffrey Simmons and you're right about that as soon as he showed up on the scene he he made a huge impact. I mean, the very first game that he played, that goal line stopped. The Titans got against the Chargers on the one-yard line to win the game. He was vital. He was the number one guy getting push up front and moving things back. He had a sack in that game. In the Patriots game, in the playoffs, sorry to keep bringing up the playoffs, but in that playoff game, when we got that goal line stand against the Patriots, he was the one pushing their center, Ted Karras back, him and Daquan Jones up front.

So you're correct, off an ACL tear, no training camp, no opportunity to play preseason games, get reps. He just showed up first week he was able to play came out made a huge impact so really really impressed with him but the thing is the titans need to add to him jor-el casey's fantastic as that three technique all pro but he's only getting older and he's not going anywhere in terms of a free agent or anything like that but they do need to get some more people in the pipeline to help out and create more of a rotation there to keep somebody like jor-el casey in his older age a little bit more fresh because he didn't really come on until late in the season even though he got the Pro Bowl bid just out of respect quite frankly is what I think happened

there's but having Jeffrey Simmons up front is a great start they need to add to that Harold Landry from Boston College great but they definitely need to add more talent on the defensive line need to add more talent to the cornerback room and continue to make decisions on offense with the free agents that they have and decide who they want to keep around and continue to build this to take this next step like we're all trying to do. So I think that that's pretty much where they need to go into 2020. Yeah, I kind of want to end it off with my last little insert of what the Titans are doing. They finalized their coaching staff.

They hired veteran coach Jim Haslett as the inside linebacker's coach, but they will definitely operate without a true D.C. following the retirement of Dean Pease. How do you feel about that? Following the retirement of Dean Pease, how do you feel about that? Well, I feel mixed about it because there is a lot of examples of success in the NFL with head coaches calling plays on both sides of the ball. That'd be Sean McDermott for the Bills. You look at Mike Zimmer for the Vikings, even though they have co-DCs,

he still calls the plays. Obviously, there are a ton of offensive head coaches who call their own plays, even though they have an offensive coordinator, don't have one at all. So there are examples of success and failure from both sides. My thing is Vrabel made some questionable in-game decisions. I think he's a good coach overall with the way he handles practice and he can work with guys with their technique and he can speak on all the experiences that he's had as an NFL player, his game planning. I think he's smart about that.

But when it comes to being in the game and making decisions on the fly, he can struggle at times. And now you're adding more to his plate in the game I'm hoping that he hands off play calling responsibilities either to a veteran coach like Hazlett who's been the defensive coordinator and in the NFL for a lot of years almost a decade or maybe Shane Bowen the outside linebacker coach I'm hoping that he hands off play calling responsibilities to a different defensive coach and is just the defensive coordinator in terms of game planning throughout the week and teaching the coaches what to teach the players. So I hope that he actually hands off play calling duties,

but I'm not as concerned about it as maybe some people are because his coaching staff hiring so far have been fantastic. He hires good coaches. Matt LaFleur wasn't incredibly successful on offense, but he went and took his team to the conference championship as a head coach. So you can't say he's a bad coach. I mean, you just can't. The facts won't let you do that at this moment in time. So clearly, he hired a good coach who in his first season

took his new team to 13-3 and deep in the playoffs. So you've got to give Rabel credit for his coaching hires Arthur Smith turned out fantastic and took this offense to heights it hasn't seen in in almost two decades so you got to give Rabel the benefit of the doubt when it comes to coaching decisions at this moment in time so I'm going to give him time to see how it works out but if the defense doesn't improve and looks as bad as it did when he was the defensive coordinator in Houston, then there are going to be a lot of questions and a lot of answers he's going to have to give.

That is going to wrap up today's show, though, for the Titans and our episode of the Ultimate Division Crossover. We are going to be back with you tomorrow with another edition here. Going to be talking locked on Jaguars. Going to be talking locked on Colts throughout the rest of the week. So we had Cody and John from the locked on Texans and Tony Wiggins from the locked on Jags. Appreciate having you guys on that is going to do it as always.

I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was locked on Titans.