M what's up Titans fans. Maximus Titan Fan here with the Titans Fan Battle
podcast, brought to you by the Fan Battle Sports Network, and I am
proud to announce that we have a special guest with us tonight, mister Tyler
Rowland from the Lockdown Titans podcast. Go ahead and introduce yourself, Tyler.
Tell everybody where they can find you at. Yeah sure, Tyler Roland,
host of the Locked On Titans podcast Monday through Friday on YouTube Locked On Titans
YouTube channel at TikTok Titans on Twitter, where I'm sure we all met each
other first, and then I do write for Sports Illustrated at All Titans dot
com covering the team on a daily basis pretty much everything you need to know,
so any of those places. But thanks for having me on first and
foremost, I appreciate it. Excited to talk some ball. Oh yeah,
we were super thrilled to have you on. Man. Like I said,
you know you you were obviously one of my huge inspirations for even starting this
podcast. So I'm you know, grateful to you that you were able to
come on and give me a shout out and everything that you're just the greatest
ever. If you don't know this man, you don't watch him on YouTube.
You should be in every day or just like me, get on there,
hit the like button, subscribe everything. Man, this dude is awesome.
Thank you for being on our show. Thank you. So let's they've
brought into it training camp. You know, we're back in training camp.
Everything's going on. Today was the first day with pads, So I guess
my first question for you would be the defensive line domination. You know,
we've seen it without the pads. I was kind of hoping we wouldn't see
it with the pads, but with the pads, it seems like they're still
getting kind of dominated out there. And I heard that Harold Landry was just
kind of having his way with Andrea Dillard. What do you kind of make
of that? And what is your assessment that is it that our offensive line
is just having a real big issues or is it our the defensive line is
just really that good? Or is it a combination? Well, I think
what's the Drake meme that's going around right now. Combination that's what it is
right there. I mean, obviously we all expected the Titans defensive line to
be awesome, right, so why would everybody act out be surprised any of
that when the Titans defensive line is in fact awesome, and we're hoping that
the Titans defensive line would be great against anybody, let alone the Titans offensive
line, which we know, even if everything goes well, they're probably an
average offensive line, you know what I mean, even if everything goes well.
So I think the odds are that it's you know, gonna fall somewhere
in the middle of the Titans offensive line will be a little bit better,
maybe not as good as average, but still probably worse than we all hope
with our most optimistic versions of what the offensive line could be. But it's
a brand new offensive line. I saw something today that the Titans have like
the least amount of returning snaps on their offensive line, which makes sense.
So it's a new offensive line just now. Getting pads on the Titans defensive
line should be awesome. I think that you should be just as concerned about
the offensive line right now as we were before they ever started playing. And
that is just a healthy amount of skepticism as to whether this new group is
good enough. I think the Titans are probably taking an offense to blindman next
year. In the first round of the draft too, like that'll be a
number one top need no matter what happens here. So, UM, I
guess I'm I'm just I feel the same way about the Titans offensive line as
I did before, and everything that's happened just kind of confirms it, not
really changes my mind. All right, All right, well that is well
answered, well answered. What else would I expect? Um? I think,
I mean, are you is it panic vote for the offensive line already?
I mean, if you want to go that route, you might end
up being right anyway. So I can't tell you that you're wrong, you
know, I don't. I don't necessarily want to hit the panic button yet.
Um, I would like to see how they do against other competition,
you know, like I'll be more interested when the preseason starts or when we
get the I don't now the Patriots is the never mind, that's that's further
on, so that that joint practice will happen after the first preseason game.
So first preseason game is when, well, when I'll actually start to judge,
you know, what's going on and if we need to hit the panic
button or not. You know, that's that's my whole feeling I want to
see him against other competition. I have some very skeptical optimism at the highest
point for this. Uh well, one thing I do really want to know
is, because I haven't really been able to see it for myself, is
how is Scarronsky doing? Is he is he coming along or what are we
playing him at guard tackle? What are we doing with him right now?
Yeah, Scarronsky's playing at guard. It's funny because when Rabel started talking about
who could be the starter at right tackle instead of NPF, you know what
options there were, and he was naming the internal options. He was asked
about Scarronsky and whether Scarronsky would move to right tackle, and he basically said,
no, we want to let him kind of settle in at guard.
We think, and I think this is this is purely just theory from me,
but I think Scarronsky's just awesome at guard. And they're like, listen,
you know, we could move him out to tackle and he'll be pretty
good, but we might have like a Pro Bowl. And I know that
Pro Bowl doesn't mean what it used to because of the alternates and all that,
but I think everybody has an understanding of what you mean. He may
not be like the best top five guard in the NFL, but he might
be like top ten, you know. So I think he could be like
a Pro Bowl level guard immediately. And with the way the Titans play offense,
think their zone scheme, I know they're gonna mix in more power.
We've seen Jordan rus pulling in a video, and they're working on their power
and their man run games. They want to diversify the run games so that
they have answers for every defense, but they're still gonna have the bread and
butter inside zone outside zone stuff with Dereck Henry that we're used to. And
when you run those plays, the middle three, the guards in the center
have to work so well together to execute those reach blocks and those scoop blocks,
and do these double teams before they climb up the linebackers and communicate who's
double teaming and who's climbing, and like, all of that stuff is so
important to the Titans run game that I think when you have an excellent like
look what Roger south Fool did when he was hearing healthy, Like he was
awesome to have a big body guy who can just move guys and still move
their feet too, So I think Scarronki is just so good at guard that
they would rather Basically, if you move Scronsky to right tackle and you put
somebody else in at left guard, now you're worse at right tackle and you're
worse at left guard. If you leave Scarnsky at left guard, just put
in whoever at right tackle, at least you're only worse at right tackle.
So I think that Scronsky has the ability to play tackle, but I think
they just want him to be a freaking awesome guard right now, and he
can be that, and they need that more. I think long term,
I agree, I agree, yeah personally, me personally, I think it's
a little too early to go in panic mode. I feel like we just
need to kill later play out. I mean usually, um usually, most
of the time, defense is always one step ahead of the offense and train
to count. It's just how it is, like they it's easy to jail
as a defense than it is with an offense. And I feel like after
last year Dennis Daily and all the rotation we had, it can't get no
worse. So we'll definitely better be better than last year. So everybody just
take it to everybody just take it to your pills. Just training to count.
We do have a beast defensive line and we'll we'll get their offensive line
would definitely be better. So everybody just chill. Yeah, I pretty much
agree with that. You know, there's there's not really you know, too
much to panic on right now. Um, So on to the next big
question I had for you, Taja Sharp, he's kind of not been talked
about or excuse me, oh my goodness, I went back in time.
Yeah, sorry, I went back in time about ten years there, Taja
Spears. I did it again, didn't I? Uh no, I gotta
write the time. I wrote it down wrong, Okay, that's what I
did. Okay. Anyway, Spears hasn't been talked about much lately. It's
kind of been like on my mind, you know, like is he kind
of falling out or is he just kind of like mixing in or people just
now just starting to get used to him being awesome. Well, I think
that with the lack of pads the last few days, I mean, they
put the pads on now, but with the lack of pads, I don't
think people really care what happens in the run game. You could tell me
that somebody busted off a big run. But if there are no pads,
I mean, you know what, the passing game is different. The passing
game is That's why seven on seven and stuff is so critical to practice and
what they're working on because that really does translate. But run blocking without pads
is I mean, you're basically bird dogging it at that point and just kind
of going through the motions of what you would do since you can't really move
anybody around or anything. So I think with that being the case, there's
not going to be as much pub for running backs just in general because the
majority of where their value is just isn't respected at that time. With the
pads coming on now this week, maybe we'll get a little bit more of
that and there will be some more exciting in there. But I know Spears
dropped a couple of passes in practice a couple of practices ago over the weekend
and stuff like that, So I think he's just adjusting and learning a new
offense. But I think that Taj Spears when the lights turn on, is
gonna be awesome and he's gonna be somebody that people A lot of people were
doing the whole you know, worry about his knee when he was drafted,
and that kind of killed some of the excitement about him as a player.
But I think he's a three down running back who can catch the ball out
of the backfield. I don't think he's quite you know, Alvin Kamara or
anything Christian McCaffrey level catching the ball out of the backfield. I just think
that he can do it. But he can also run the ball and actually
spell Derek Henry for some carry. So I think he's gonna have more value
than people realize. But I think just circumstance and maybe him coming along a
little slow has led to not a lot of conversation I guess about him.
That was a big thing with me with Spears is that I was really excited
about it. I need him to take carries off of Dereck Henry's workload.
Yeahs, I'm just not sold on Hassan Haskins at all, and especially with
all the turmoil it's been going on this offseason with him. Who knows what's
going to happen with him, So really I really want Spears to succeed.
I saw the report about his knee apparently not having much cartilage left in his
knee at all. So I don't know if there's any more reports that have
come out on that, or if we know anything more about that now or
what's going on. I think it's just we know what we know. He
had two ACL tears in the same knee. There's no ACL left in the
knee. He's probably not going to be able to have the longest career of
all time. Maybe he will, but I think the reality always was that
for better or for worse. I don't want to get into the whole running
back philosophical debate, but the smart thing to do with running backs is now
draft them, keep them for their rookie contract, let him leave afterwards,
and draft somebody new. And from the Titans perspective, it may seem inhumane
to talk about players like this, but the reality is the Titans should probably
just keep Taj Spears for the four years of his rookie contract and then let
him go in draft a new, cheaper, younger Taj Spears again. You
know, that's just it's unfortunate. Like I said, it's very inhumane to
say it that way, but that's just the way that is right, you
know. And like all of this, John and Jonathan Taylor's stuff is happening,
and like even go back to Edri and James replaced Marshall fault because they
didn't want to pay, and Joseph and I replaced Edri and James because they
didn't want to pay. Just an example in the division, like this has
been going on for a long time and now it's just in the public consciousness.
But I feel bad from the Taja Spears angle. I wouldn't want to
hear this if I was his friend or his family. But the truth is
the Titans probably just keep him the four years and let him go, and
then a knee injury that will limit how long he can play isn't even a
factor because you're only keeping him four years anyway. So I guess I didn't
have I didn't have a lot of concerns about the injury news because he tours
ACL last in twenty twenty, which means he played two seasons without that ACL,
right, and those were great seasons, and he played great last year,
so clearly he could play without the ACL And if the issue is long
term, you know, then the Titans probably won't have him long term anyway,
because that's how the running back position is. So I just don't see
the downside really at that time, unless you just say you shouldn't draft a
running back in the third round anyway, go later, you know whatever.
I did see one person that was like, well, you can't tear an
A c L if you don't have it, so that's a plus, right
right, Yeah, you brought up my you brought up my counterpoint that Tyler
was that all the highlight reels you watch on Taj Spears is him without the
A c L like ninety percent of all of them, or him without an
A c L. Right, So I'm not worried about it. I think
he's gonna be fantastic at this level. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
All right. So the other big question I had for you is how much
does having d hop improve Traylon Burkes and his play. I think it's huge.
So as I kind of did earlier when we talked about how like the
zone scheme, how important it is for the interior three, I'm going to
dive into something that's a little scheme related here too, And I think any
Titans fan listening can picture the play in their mind. I feel like Matthew
McConaughey and a time to kill. Close your eyes and picture for me if
you will. But literally, the Titans have two tight ends, one on
each side of the offensive line, Derrick Henry in the backfield, two wide
receivers, one on each side. They play action to Derrick Henry. One
of the wide receivers runs a deep post. The other wide receiver runs a
medium crosser or a bang route or strike route, whatever you want to call
it. That medium route to a J. Brown always caught over the middle
of the field. All play action. So the way that imagine that play
in your head and then think about how defenses play the Titans. There's eight
men in the box. Have you got eight men in the box? That
means you only have three men out of the box, which means you're probably
running a single high safety. You got one safety deep, your other safety's
down in the box. When you do that, the Titans are going to
run a deep post against it with one of their wide receivers. And that
intermediate route. Well, now that it's DeAndre Hopkins running the intermediate route over
the middle of the field instead of Nick Westbrook, Aquine or Chris Moore,
I mean, lord, instead of it being one of those guys, now
it's DeAndre Hollis. If you're that deep, if you're that deep safety,
if you're that deep safety, are you gonna come down? And we've seen
Tannehill get picked like this a bunch that deep safety says, I'm not even
worried about who's going behind me. I'm coming down hill to take away that
medium route, that intermediate route over the middle, and I'm picking off Ryan
Tannehill, who's trying to drill it in there thinking he's got space from the
play act. All right, Well, when it's Nick Westbrook, a Kine
or Robert Wood, it's running that deep post. I'm going downhill on Traylan
Burks. I'm going downhill on the short throw. I know Tannehill wants to
make well. When you got Burks running the deep route and Hopkins over the
middle, now the safety has to seriously ask themselves what they're gonna do.
And they're gonna hit the Hopkins over the middle a couple of times. The
safety's gonna get a little impatient. He's gonna take one step forward and then
a six foot two monster is gonna go past him and jump overtop him and
the cornerback and take down the ball, just like trailing Burks did to who
jaire Alexander one of the best cornerbacks in the entire NFL as a rookie.
Now he's in better shape. Now, he's slimmer, faster, more confident.
He's coaching up Coltondow right now, instead of like he kind of admitted
last year, not really knowing the plays a ton and having to ask people
to give him information. You know, he's a totally different player now,
totally different confidence comfortability level. So I think that Burks has the chance to
have better numbers than DeAndre Hopkins because people are more worried about DeAndre Hopkins and
Burkes's gonna catch all these deep passes because safeties are going to be creeping on
Hopkins. So there's nobody I mean, Tannehill, you could make the argument,
but nobody benefited from the Hopkins staying more than than Trailing Burks. If
you go pass Ryan Tannehill for us, the fans, for the offense that
we have to watch each week. Yeah, yeah, I guess I'll put
Burke's third when we take Yeah. Absolutely, man, I truly think that
tray Lin's gonna ball out this year. I thought he was gonna ball out
anyway. But now that you take the pressure off of being that number one
guy that you have to be the number one guy, you know, now
you can be one A or one B or whatever you want to call it,
one and two however you want to dish it out. But yeah,
I think he's gonna do so much better now that he has somebody that can
actually perform next to him. He doesn't have to really worry about. Like
you said, Nick Westbrook, a Keene or Chris Moore or Kyle Phillips or
whoever would have made that second spot is nowhere near as talented as DeAndre Hopkins.
And that's the point I think if we look at the flip side of
that too. I mean, we go through two or three games where we're
burning people deep that are trying to load the box on us. They're gonna
have to put him more dvs to be able to cover these guys, even
Chig. I mean, Chig is basically a huge receiver, so who can
block. So, I mean, this guy is a monster too, so
you're gonna have to put in somebody who can cover him. So this is
going to open up for Derek Henry now and help the offensive line out too,
because they're not going five on eight every play hopefully, you know,
So as we get on into the season, I'm hoping that's what happens to
it. He opens up the entire offense and helps out Henry too, who
takes off once again, some of the workload off of him because he's I
mean, it's only a matter of time the guy's running back who's taking twenty
thousand carries in his lifetime. So well, and that's a really good point
too, man. I mean, you know, you look at Henry's yard
per carry. It's went down over the last couple of seasons. It's obvious
because we can't pass the ball, you know, and everybody can load up
against Derrick Henry. So I mean, if we if we can prove that
we can pass the ball efficiently and not you know, have to rely on
the run to win a game, then it forces defenses to back off of
Henry, which just opens up a whole field for Henry and gives him.
Yeah. Yeah, it just makes everybody on the offense more productive. Yea.
Yeah, with the with the persons and nel we have right now offense,
I feel like Tim Kelly can he can just open it up like he's
almost like playing mad, Like we got so much stuff we can do on
offense, Hopkins. Hopkins made it to where we can do so many different
things, you know, and we can cut out the bullcrap plays like the
jet sweeps with Malik Willis and the screen passes to tight ends who can't really
run. Like that stuff is gone. Man, it's like Todd that stuff
left with Tide downing. And that's Tim Kelly. We need you to we
need you to turn our passing game unto a top level passing game. We
got the receivers for it, We're working on getting the offensive line, and
we got the running back that can you know, run the ball and actually
put a fear on the defense that we might run it now that we got
at a real passing game. So like, hey man, it's a lot
of the sky is the limit for our offense. I feel like we're definitely
gonna be a threat. And Hopkins just put the icing on the cake.
So so I'm hoping for no more three tight end first and tens. That's
that's my for this season. I mean, don't put too much hope in
that, Tim Kelly. I mean, I think we should all be excited.
People kind of laughed when I wrote this article back in like February or
whatever. But Mike Rabel said, after Tim Kelly was hired, the three
things that Tim Kelly was most involved in last year with the offense, and
he said it was the red zone offense, he said, it was early
down passing, and then he worked with the tight ends in individually. Well,
the tight ends last year, Chicka con Quo took a big step,
you know what I mean, So you gotta give him credit for that.
Not only that, but early down passing. I don't know if you guys
have seen the stuff that Warren Sharpe shared, but the Titans were one of
the top fourteen most efficient teams passing the ball on early downs last year.
The Titans early down passing was good. The reason that Todd Downing was a
fool is because he didn't pass it enough. The Titans had like the second
highest run rate on first down with the like third least efficient rush offense.
And they had like a top fourteen, top twelve passing efficiency offense on early
downs but through it like the fourth least. So they were just doing they
were doing early down passing, well, they just wouldn't do it, and
we don't know why. We'll never know why, you know. But either
way, Todd Downing's gar and hopefully Tim Kelly continues what he was a big
part of last year. And red zone. I mean, I think at
the top of my head the Titans were top five red zone offense, maybe
even number one. I knew that they were number one. Yeah, they
were number one in goal to ghost situations on the one guardline. So like
the Titans are great in the red zone, which Tim Kelly was responsible for,
they were great throwing the ball and early down tim Kelly was responsible for
Chicken Conquo took a big step. He was involved in the tight end development.
So I think based on what Tim Kelly did last year, we should
be excited about this offense because I think it could be completely different and he's
actually going to look to get the ball too. I remember last year in
a press conference, it was Mike Rabel or top Downing, but one of
them said, like, we're not looking to like force a guy the ball.
We want to run like smart plays and stuff like that. And it's
like every other offensive coach in the league is like how do I get my
best players the ball the most in the best situations. And the Titans are
like, we don't want to do that. We just want to run our
plays. And it's like, what are we doing? So I'm hoping that
Tim Kelly obviously doesn't do that, and they've learned and based on some of
the reports of the type of plays they're running, the way they're getting guys
the ball, it seems like Tim Kelly understands that that is what he has
to do. Right right, I'm excited about Tim Kelly. I was excited
about to hire. Everybody kind of got upset in the fan base about the
inside hire, and I was like, you guys are not looking at the
stats. You're not looking at what he did the last time he was an
offensive coordinator. But you know whatever, It's okay. But I know we're
getting close to your time. So I want to ask you. I saw
a post earlier on Twitter. Oh we lost your audio. Oh I said
we could do a little overtime. M ain't going anywhere? All right?
Cool? Well, look, I wanted to ask you about the fans at
camp. If I don't know, if you watch my show, I'm sure
you don't, but if there is. I've been kind of on a like
a rant lately about the fans at camp, and it's a thing for me
because I used to be. I've been a fan for a long time,
so you know, Titans caravan, all that stuff. I've been a part
of all that because I live in well, right outside of Knoxville. So
any chance I get to go actually be a part of the Titans, I
do. I drive, and I was happy to drive all the way to
Knoxville like or Nashville like four times a year. I think it was open
to the public or whatever. You could come in and and the last time
I had a football guest on I think last week. I asked him,
Mike Patton, what the you know, what their deal was with that,
and he's, well, they've been building a lot of new facilities. They
don't really have a lot of room. Where the stands were is kind of
not there anymore. And I don't know. I just I hate it that
they've made this. Not only have they made it to where you had to
be a season ticket holder last year, but now they have this lottery for
the season ticket holders just to get into their practices. I don't know,
I feel like it's disconnection from the fans because I'm part of an AFC South
network. They cover all the all the shows in the AFC South and so
um basically, like you know, I get to see all the other shows
and I see that the you know, the cults are are letting their They're
letting their fans in, you know, just like a lot of other teams
do. And I just don't understand why the Titans. I mean, I
know they're really strict about who can and can't be in their facilities or around
their facilities. I know the seven on sevens, they don't you know,
videotape that stuff, and they don't ever allow even media to do stuff with
that. I get all that, but it just kills me as a fan.
I feel like I'm disconnected from my team. I wish my team made
more of an effort to connect with me. Again. Yeah, I think
that's a fair complaint. And uh, you hinted at it, because I'm
sure you know that I've been complaining about it for years now. I don't
understand the titans restrictive nature, how they want to restrict access. They It's
almost like they think they're restricting access to other teams, but they're only hurting
their own fans. I'm sorry, but the Kansas City Chiefs allow all their
fans. The Kansas City Chiefs allow full taping of their practices. Eleven on
eleven, seven on seven, Like we hear about these old trailing Burke's caught
a one handed pass in the back of the endside, like Rabel threw his
hands up and yelled touchdown. Will Levis through three straight touchdown passes. We
would see all of that. If the Titans were like the Chiefs or the
Bengals, or the Jets, or the Buccaneers or you know, we could
keep going. Most of the teams in the NFL aren't as restrictive as the
Titans. And when you see teams like the Bengals, and you see teams
like the Chiefs, and people can say, oh, well, I got
responses, oh Joe Burrow, Pat Mahomes. You could show anybody anything and
it won't matter stop it. These teams have been this way for a long
time. It's not like they just got Pat Mahomes and they're like, you
know what, we didn't show anybody anything because we think it's going to hurt
our chances to win. But now we have Pat Mahomes and we're so good
that we'll just let everybody see. That's not the point. These teams do
it and allow it because they want their fans to experience it. They want
their fans to feel connected to the team at practice. And if the Titans
are sitting in their offices right now and saying, well, not letting our
fans see it helps us win games in the fall, like, it's just
foolishness. It's absolute foolishness. It doesn't matter, you know. And the
same people who will come on and say, oh, who cares if Will
Levis throst three touchdowns and practice it's just practice, blah blah blah, are
the same people that come on my post and say, oh, it's no
big deal to me. I don't need to see more of the Titans blah
blah blah. It's like, how can you have it both ways? Does
it matter? Does it not matter? Don't you want to see it?
There is no argument from the fans that makes any sense to argue that they
want to see less of their team. I want to see less highlights.
I want to see less stuff football is entered, amen, I want to
be entertained by this team. I spend money on, spend my time on,
spend my energy on. I want to be entertained. And if all
these other teams, it's like if you and all your buddies, all of
their wives let them go play golf once a week, and you're the only
one who doesn't get to go play golf once a week, and you come
to me and say, actually, I love my life my wife for she
doesn't let you golf. She just wants me around so much. She loves
me more than your wives. It's like nonsense to me, you know what
I mean? Like, that's how I feel about the Titan's not showing stuff.
Like it's just like, are they fooling themselves or do they just want
to make it less fun for us? I don't know. There is a
lot. I'm I'm with you in that rant, and I appreciate you fighting
that fight. You can't because I don't know. I get so much crazy
pushback from people who want to purposefully want to see what it's like. The
people who go on your podcast in the comments and say, oh, why
are you talking about that? Well, what do you mean? What do
you want to talk about? Do you want there to be no podcast?
Do you not want to talk about the types of period? Would you rather
focus on your work? You are on your lunch break watching a YouTube channel
because any topic about the Titans is still entertaining, and it's better than not
having conversation about the Titans. So more Titans, more content, more podcasts,
more more. Why not be entertained? Why aren't you against more entertainment?
Yes, thank you, thank you. I'm always and that's and that's
really a thing though, like, uh, fortunately my kids and my wife
they got to go to training camp today, but uh, and they have
fun. But they said the titles were real strict about cell phones, no
recording. They said they were kicking people. They were kicking you out if
they cut you with your cell phones and banning you. So like it's serious.
But I just don't understand it. Why it wants to Well, they
think they're gonna score three extra points against the Dolphins in week fifteen or whatever,
like come on, man, let your fans, let's take a video
like doing it. Well, they're not scheming for a specific team or something
like that. I understand if it was like the week before preseason, all
right, I give you. You know you don't want to see that,
that's fine, But when you're like the first two, that's different. Different.
Now, yeah, no team does that. No team is putting out
full practice of team drills during practice for the season, you know, but
tons of teams and and all the teams that win more than the Titans in
the last few years. I'll do it. So don't tell me like it's
not like Joe Burrows losing a game because somebody filmed in eleven on eleven Rep
in June or July. Like, come on, man, just give your
give your fans more. We deserve it, That's what I'm saying. And
like I was showing you every single signature on that head, I got it
a training camp and I felt like, you know, you actually get to
talk to the players, you get to meet them. I mean it human
pictures them, you know what I mean? YEA makes you feel like you're
you know more. I don't know, maybe I'm just a weird guy,
but I just feel like I'm more connected to a person if I can actually
talk to them face to face, then if they're yeah right. And the
more you see them, the more videos you see players, the more interviews,
you see players, all that stuff absolutely like it just brings the customer
to the product directly. And I just I just want somebody from their public
relations department to just tell me why they have stuck with this restricted policy on
media. And I can't speak as much to like the local fans stuff and
everything like that, but at least from like what they're allowed to put out
on social media and stuff. I just want to what they're even if their
explanation is awful and they tell me we think it's a competitive advantage. Even
if that's their answer, at least admit it and say it publicly so we
can shame you, thank you, thank you, yea, and say this
is why you know. Yeah, I'm right there with y'all on that matter.
And the thing that really gets me about it is we're constantly talked about
is one of the lower fan bases in the NFL where to constantly talked about
is one of the worst social media teams in the NFL, worst content,
and it's it's like what we're doing is not working, so let's change something
up. And like you said that, if the Chiefs do it, it
can't be that bad. They're obviously it's not hurting them. They're doing pretty
well. And the Bengals the Eagles. The Eagles beat reporters tweet out like,
uh. For example, they'd be like Elijah Moulden lined up in the
nickel spot and rotated with Roger McCreery three times during all full team periods.
They ran a hook zone three times, he ran a flat route three times.
But like the Eagles tell you exactly what play they ran and where everybody's
at in full lineup descriptions. It's like, well, no wonder they didn't
win the Super Bowl last year. I guess it's because they show their training
camp stuff too much, you know, like exactly what are we talk about
them? What are we doing? But anyway, this is this is a
very uh first world problems pie in the sky man yells at cloud things.
So I guess we could talk about the actual team if you guys want.
Yeah, all right, So last, last, last actual team question I
got for you man, is the the rotation between Monty Rice and Jack Uh.
Well, that was the most interesting thing of the day in my opinion,
other than than the Will Levis thing that kind of flew under the radar
too. Yeah, I agree, look, I'm I'm a I'm a big
Bulldogs fan. If we're talking about college ball, I know a lot of
my my my associates here in Knoxville hate that. But oh well, um
so I really want to see Monty Rice, you know, produced. I
want to see him produce. But he just doesn't seem to be able to
produce in the passing game. He doesn't seem to be able to to run
with receivers or even tight ends really well, you know, he doesn't.
I don't know, he just doesn't seem to get that aspect of it.
Really well. He's really good at run defense, you know, he's quick
sideline to sideline, that kind of guy. But even Rabel had an interview
where he was talking about how Gibbey was just lengthy and just better at pass
pro you know, And I don't know what what's your take on that.
Do you think that's something we might actually see in the season as it goes
along or I mean, I personally, I'm not as high on money or
ice as a lot of people. I think a lot of people kind of
viewed money as like linebacker one coming in, He's gonna take that next step,
He's the next David Long, and I just I don't know. I
think he's got ability. He is speedy, especially he's faster than Gibbons.
That's Mike Rabel even admitted that today. But I just like the versatility that
Gibbons can provide. Like you said, I think Gibbons has the ability to
be better in coverage. I think if you had to have one of them
matchup one on one with a tight end, I would rather have Gibbons because
of that length and that understanding of zone. I think Gibbons has a really
good understanding of like where to drop to in coverage and that sort of we
think about like how fast you are, how you move making plays, blah
blah, but like no one where to be, and like having a good
feel for like where to drop to. David Long was really good at that
last year when they would play action fake, David Long take two steps up,
oops, and he would drop back and he would know where to go.
I think Gibbons has is better at that than Monnie Rice is right now.
But honestly, maybe a rep situation. Rice has missed some time.
And it's not just that he misses time. It feels like he can't get
momentum going because his injuries like disrupt patches of time. So I'm hoping that
that Monty Rice gets more reps. But at the end of the day,
I don't see Monnie Rice is like, like, do you think Monty Rice,
will we ever be better than David Long? Like than what we saw
from David Long last year? Like when hell is this year? Is this
his third year? That's what I thought. Yeah, I didn't say him
and Racy McMath were drafted in the same year, right, YEA, yeah,
that's what I thought. So if I and I obviously now I give
you that. Yeah, but we're talking about progression right throughout, you know,
from rookie to now. I love my bulldogs and everything, but I
have to say, you know, there's not that much progression from the time
we drafted him to where he's at right now. And yeah, it's kind
of the same with McMath. And if I'm gonna be hard on McMath and
say, all right, it's time to move on from him. We've given
him enough time, you know, unless he does something just absolutely amazing and
training camp in preseason, we need to let him go. Then I don't
think, Yeah, I try to connect the dots and maybe with the rotation
and the stuff the Titans do, it's it's out of line. But like,
if will Levis is the third team quarterback and will Levis has thrown touchdown
passes to Racey McMath either, will Levis got to play with the twos,
which Paul Kaharski reported today. Will Levis did start rotating in with the second
team here and there, and him and Willis were rotating, which was interesting
as well. But uh, like, if if will Levis is thrown touchdown
passes to Racey mcmatt, that means Racey mcmtt is playing with the third team
offense, he's going into his third season. I just don't think it's there,
you know what I mean. But Monny has been better than Racey,
that's for sure. But I understand. I think that you keep Monty on
the team no matter what. It's not like you'd go away from him after
this training camp. He's gonna be on the team this year and next year.
Borrowing something crazy. But I guess the question is, like, do
you guys really see Monty Rice developing into somebody who you're gonna give a second
contract too? Yeah, you're probably just gonna draft another linebacker after you in
next year's draft or the year after's draft and have him replace Monnie Rice and
let Monty Rice go because like he's just a replacement level linebacker in my opinion,
He's not anybody who's gonna be like even an above average starter, like
you know we talked. If you think about it, like all pro level,
pro bowl level, above average starter, average starter, below average player,
practice squad player, you know, like Money Rice to me is just
like average. He could start for you. He's like David Long. I
know, they're different. Like David Long is a good linebacker. He can
make some good plays, crazy interceptions, good against the un but you're not
gonna pay him a ton of money and keep him, like you're just gonna
get a different guy who's probably about the same level. And like for every
every money Rice, there's an azz out Shire And it's like I'm not paying
Money Rice six or seven million when I could just pay a veteran who's just
about the same, maybe a couple mill less. Like it's the same why
they let David Long go and then replace him with his zes who's the same
price. It's just they're just an average replacement level linebacker. And I don't
see Money or Ice ever being more than that. So would I be shot
if Jack Gibbons, who could maybe be a replacement level linebacker, could beat
him out because his skill set is just a little more diverse. Believe that.
And that's just based on where I always saw Monty Rice. I never
saw him as like a true linebacker one. I never I've never even seen
Monty Rice as a guy who I think is on David Long's level and how
I viewed him, So I don't know. I guess I wasn't shocked to
hear that, but some people have been higher on Monty Rice. Maybe are
shocked to hear that, but I guess I wasn't. I've been I think
this is the year, though, that we're gonna find out, well,
who's right and who's wrong on Monty Rice. Really I do, because because
I mean this year three, like we talk about year four is the contract
year. Everybody tries to ball out in year four, but I feel like
year three is when you see who a player really is. Yes, that's
we're about to see. So I'm really excited, And like I told him
before the show started, I'm a big Monty Rice fan. I know a
lot of his family from Alabama, so like, I'm big on him,
I want him to do well. I'm also, like I said, a
skeptical optimists, So I'm not really I'm not too not too optimistic about it,
but I do hope, right, Yeah, twenty two years of disappointment,
but uh, I got yeah, go ahead, Tyler. I got
two questions. I got two questions. I want you before you leave and
Max Maximum bust out laughing on the first one. How was your honest to
God feeling about Caleb Farley? Okay, your feeling on cable h Well,
I mean, there's two different opinions that I have here. One is the
football opinion and one is the opinion that I have on on just Caleb's situation.
The football opinion, brother, he's done, Like I'm sorry, it's
a whole count. And this goes into my second opinion. This goes into
my second opinion. But he switched positions early in college, so it's not
like this guy's been playing cornerback for a long time. He tours ACL in
college, barely gets an opportunity to play cornerback, comes back as like one
good season, then back injury. Then COVID happens too, and he misses
a bunch of time where he could be playing because of injuries and COVID and
all that comes into the NFL first two NFL seasons. Toward ACL second season,
reaggravates the back, So that's two acls, two backs, a position
change, like limited reps, three seasons off. Yeah. Yeah, there
is just no way that a developmental guy. He was always a guy who
had a ton of athlete. He's super tall, super fast, physical,
He's got all the athletic skill in the world. But he just needs time
to develop. And unfortunately he's not going to have time to develop, and
any time that he would have he's been robbed of because his body is just
not built to be a professional athlete. I guess, you know, I
don't think that. Like when I say that, people think it's a big
critique, Like most people's bodies are not built to withstand professional sports. You
know, none of us are. I could die out there, you know
what I mean, Like I would literally die. So like I'm not criticizing
the dude, it's just the reality that not everybody's body is built to withstand
it. So he got screwed from an experienced standpoint. He got screwed from
a body standpoint. So I feel bad saying it, but I just do
not see any path where he comes back to be a relevant player for the
Titans at all. He's never going to be close towards this draft selection.
They'll probably get one more opportunity after this, because everybody gets a second chance
when you have talent. But I just don't see it happening. What I
do want to say is, with all that stuff that I just said happened
to him and his mom dies from cancer, Like from a human perspective,
think about how hard the last like four years have probably been. Plus you
get on social media at all and everybody's like dog and you, dude,
just absolutely do I host a podcast and you know, I'm not really you
know, it's only the couple thousand people or you know, the twenty thousand
people my ecosystem is. But some days I'm not having a good day for
whatever reason, and then somebody says something really mean to me. You know,
like even though I know, like I'm good, like that mean in
Saul isn't real. You know, like every day, like some days it
just sucks. So to like, like you know, and to not have
your own mother like that's hard because who's the nicest person to you ever in
your whole life? Most of the time it's your mom. I know everybody's
situations different, maybe that's not always the game, but generally your mother loves
you more than anybody else in the whole world. That'll be tough on you,
But but mama, Mama always is well. When he's going through the
hardest period of his entire life and everyone is as mean to him as they've
ever been, the one person who loves you most and who is nicest and
sweetest to you isn't there to give you any balance. And that's why maybe
I should think about this morning. We discussed players, but I get like
my hair stands up because I feel so so bad for him, and I
know in my mind that there's just no way he's ever gonna get back to
who he hoped he could be when he was in the in the driveway on
the playground, hoping he could be that NFL player. His body is never
gonna let him get close to that. And it's just, you know,
just a human to human man. That's I don't care that he got a
couple million bucks. That's hard, man, that's tough. That money's gonna
go and he's not gonna have his mom or his dreams. You know.
Sucks. Yeah, damn. Second question, do you finally think the injury
book is leaving us alone? Man? Don't talk. It's the second week
of training camp. No, don't do this, Listen. I think there's
to be a level of injuries with this team no matter what, because of
the way Rabel wants to play rabels, running these guys into the dirt in
June and OTAs and stuff. We're building a callous you know, like that's
what he's doing. And then we're gonna play a physical brand of football that
takes its toll on guys. So I think the Titans are never gonna be
like one of the least injured teams in the NFL. It's just not gonna
happen. But if they can just be like fifteen to twenty instead of twenty,
instead of thirty two every year, If they could just be like fifteen
to twenty in injuries, I think they'll be fine. And yeah, I
think they can do that. I think they can do that this year.
Please Lord. Yeah, Yeah, all right, man. You know,
obviously I was the big, the big fan girl here, so I wanted
to get most of you know, on most of my questions, and I
did, And that's cool. Flame. You got a couple of questions in
there, Tyler. You have any questions for Tyler before we wrap this up?
Wait, who you asking? I'd have a question for you? Yeah,
I'm ready to feel it. Any questions. But my biggest question was
about the linebacker situation. I'm really uh And I actually had a question about
Caleb Farley as well. Um, I saw where his agent was at practice
earlier today and was talking to Rabel before the press conference, which I find
very odd. I don't know if that's something that happens often. I don't
see that in the news very often, so seeing that was kind of weird,
and I didn't I didn't really like that too much. But I don't
want to be that guy. I just wanted to ask about it before I
really gave my opinion on it. Well, that's fair, uh, but
yeah, that is a good question. Let me talk you off the ledge.
So while I know it's Caleb Farley's agent and he's hurt and like he
like poked his head out of like you know that kim Ka meme where she's
hiding behind a bush and she like post her bed out just a little bit.
That's what I imagine Caleb Farley did out of the door of the locker
room today. The way it was recorded, it said Caleb Farley like snuck
out the side more of a locker room like that. He just like you
know what I mean. But I think that there's there's a terror way to
view this, and that's like early retirement. The Titans are releasing him like
some sort of big like negative thing, which if the Titans cut Farley it
would cost them two and a half million dollars in salary cap space. It
would save them nothing. So it doesn't really make sense unless they truly do
think like hey, this like it's a medical retirement and they can get their
money back or something like that, like on the cap. But unless it's
something like that, I think the reality here is it's just a courtesy agent
visit. Like Drew Rosenhouse is Caleb Farley's agent, and he's one of like
if you ask people like who's an agent in the NFL, Drew Rosenhouse might
be the number one guy that people actually know, and I think he's just
the type of guy. And I think agents do this a lot. They
just visit their players throughout the summer. You know, they have a client
list, it's not like you know, so they'll go visit, especially a
guy like Rosenhouse with a lot of clients. They'll probably just go visit as
guys and take a trip during the summer and hit all the different training camps,
see all as different clients, talk to their coaches, blah blah blah,
established connections. Everything's about relationships in life and in business, you know.
So I think the truth of it is, while it does feel weird,
I think the reality is it's probably just like a courtesy agent visit regular
generic Hey, an agent's just stopping by training camp to see his player and
check in and you know, keep tabs on those relationships that he's built and
blah blah blah blah blah. I think it's most likely something like that more
than it is like something crazy with Farley is happening, but based on what's
happened with him in his career and with him being on pup still and all
that, who knows if it is something crazy but I guess if I had
gun to my head, I would tell you it's probably just standard run of
the mill agent visit that happens during training camp, because I think Rosenhouse has
come out to Titans training camp before, whether it be last year or the
year before, one of the years that I've been covering the team, Rosenhouse
stopped out there before, and it was similarly like so and so's agent was
here, blah blah blah blah blah, and people were like, what does
it mean? And I think they're just stopping by. That's good to hear.
I'm glad. I'm glad I didn't jump off the LEDs there before.
I has asked a question, and I have a question, since you brought
that up to the Rosenhouse thing, do you think that, like his history
with the Titans since since we've changed pretty much everything about the team since all
that went down, do you think that that our history with them is our
team with him? Is? Are we cool? Do you think? Yeah?
I think everything's fine there. I think you know, when a single
thing happens with a player and people are always like, oh that agent.
You see it in basketball a lot. I'm a big Lakers fan and Aaron
Mintz from CIA represented Paul George for a little while. I don't know if
he still does, but like the Titans had some issue with one of his
clients and they're like, oh, the Lakers will never get Paul George,
I said, the Titans, But the Lakers will never get Paul George now
because their agent hates him. And then like a year later, they signed
one of one of his players that he has as a client. And it's
like, there, you can't have those kind of beefs in pro sports because
eventually you're gonna want one of your clients to go to a certain team.
One of your clients is gonna want to go to a certain team this and
that, you're gonna your client's gonna get traded to that team. And it's
just there's only thirty two teams. Agents can't they can't be like, oh,
I'm never doing business with that team, or my relationship is terrible with
that team. I mean, we're people, so we know dealing with somebody
you don't like, it's gonna happen. But I don't think they can afford
to just be like, I'm not doing anything with that team. So I
wouldn't. I wouldn't make too much of the Drew Rosenhouse thame from many angles.
Really don't think it's epic of deal. All right, anything anybody else
wants to bring up Before we wrap it up, I just want to give
a shout out to Tyler Man. I appreciate you coming on. You know,
I've been rocking with you for a long time. Yes, dude,
Yeah, I remember. I used to work thirst if a vandy man.
You got me through a lot of nights. Man, dude, yeah,
I appreciate it, especially early on. You know, I always tell people
when I first started, I had fifteen followers on my Twitter account. The
first check I ever got was like ninety bucks, So, like you know,
it was small. And I definitely do remember some of the people,
very very early on that would even give me a shot and give me a
chance to listen. A funny story. I got added to a Titans group
chat one time, and uh it was on Facebook. Don't add me to
these if you're listening right now. People were headspace for group chats or anything
like. I have group chat with my high school friends. That's all I
can afford to spend my energy on nowadays. But uh, somebody added me
to like a random group chat based on one of those Titans Facebook pages,
and it was a bunch of people I didn't know. And one day they
like mentioned something about podcasts, and like some dude went off about locked the
new Locked On Titans guy is such a nasally annoying voice blah blah blah.
I was like, yeah, yeah, like they didn't even know that it
was like me, you know, they were I was so early on.
I was like, oh my god, I'm screwed, Like no one's ever
going like this show whatever. But it turned out all right, So yeah,
I guess, uh, you know, at the end of the day,
we're all just fans, and I appreciate anybody as willing to listen to
me for you know, a couple episodes a week or two and a half
hours. I never lose sight of I'm not so famous minus celebrity, not
so famous. I don't forget that we're all We're all just the same,
just fans wanting to talk about our team, you know, So I appreciate
it. We appreciate you man. Um all right, so uh yeah,
well we'll see you later, man, if you want to go ahead and
just tell everybody where again where they can find you at and then you can
jump off and I can do my outro. Cool. Yeah. Locked on
Titans podcast, All apps Monday through Friday, always free. Don't do pay
walls. Don't make people pay for content that they can get everywhere. Make
your podcast free, make your articles free, sell the advertising, do it,
do it right. People hate commercials, but it's better than paying for
the content. Uh and uh so YouTube Locked on Titans YouTube and uh sports
Illustrated All Titans dot com really appreciate any support there. We're in the infancy
stages of kind of building that up and then uh TikTok Titans on Twitter.
You can tell me how bad my takes are. How about my tweets are
everybody else? It's fun, especially my Kyle Phillips article today. Everybody thinks
I'm wanted to focus on punt returner. So it's just a new day.
You can tell me I'm an idiot tomorrow. All right, man, Well,
we appreciate you being on the show. Thank you so much for stopping
by. Um again, I appreciate you guys, thanks for having me on.
Thank you, and you come on again if you ever want to for
sure. Man. Absolutely, I loved chopping it up. So I'll be
on again. Maybe sometime during the season. We'll have a little, uh
a little recap here and get back together the four Horsemen here the Titans Apocalypse.
But uh, all right, guys, I will see you. Thank
you so much. Tighten up, thank you, have a great night.
Yeah, all right, So that was Tyler Rowland. Everybody, Um,
we are about to end the show. Thank you for tuning in. Um,
what's up, Jason? Just a shout out? Um? But I
did. I felt I thought he was gonna get off a lot. I
thought Tyler Rowland was gonna stop a lot earlier than he did. I was.
I'm blessed that he stayed as long as he did, so I'm really
happy about that. But I was waiting until after he left it to let
y'all know that if you notice the guy below me, Um, he's new,
he's brand now. Yeah, and he's he's gonna be a part of
this podcast from now on. So y'all should just get used. Yeah.
So Tyler Man, welcome to the podcast. Brother. Thank Tyler. You
want to introduce yourself, Let let people know what made you a Titans fan.
Oh Man, Well, I was three years old and they had just
moved to Nashville, just started being the Titans actually instead of the Oilers,
and I remember watching them on CBS and I was like, hey, I
like their colors. Ever since then, I've been disappointed every single year in
my life. That's what made me a Titans man. And I'm here because
whenever we win the Super Bowl one year of my lifetime, I'm never ever
going to shut up about it ever, so waiting on that time. I
never shut up about playoff victories. Any moral victories I can take or I
will take them. But I am a huge Titans fan, love the Titans,
been a Titans fan literally since they moved to Nashville. So I'm here,
I'm not going anywhere, and I'm extremely excited to be able to come
on here and not just to annoying my work friends with my Titans takes anymore.
So the guy they couldn't care less about the Titans, and I'm gonna
sit there and talk about them anyway. So I'm glad I get to come
on here and actually have a some of an audience that actually somewhat cares about
what I have to say. So I'm glad to be here. Man,
tell them where they can find yet. I have a tightened underscore always twenty
two on Twitter is the Ryan Stonehouse Stan account one and only the original one.
I was the Brett Kurrnstan account. We show love to the specialist over
here all the time. So follow me on Twitter. I'm trying to put
out new content all the time with pictures and videos and things like that.
Mike Tyler, rolling Ted, come on there and tell me how stupid I
am with all the takes that I have, because I mean, we all
have stupid takes. We're not always right. So come on there, argue
with me, love me. I don't either way, I'm gonna I'm gonna
show love back. So you just find me on there. Let's let's talk.
Man. I'm excited, beautiful, all right, man, flame,
tell them where they can find yet. Brother. Yeah, so you can
find me a flame Douglas on Facebook and now on Twitter, you can find
me a flame underscore six one five. Let's come follow you, boy,
keep you updated on any tights news, and you know, keep on this
show man with my boy Max am I you co host Tyler? Yeah,
man, and as usual, you can find me everywhere on Maximus Underscore,
Tighten Underscore Fan that's at Twitter, YouTube, Facebook or excuse me not YouTube,
TikTok Facebook. You can also find me on the Titans Fan Battle podcast
on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. Also, please like, subscribe,
Share Sharing is Caring. Thank you for our show tonight and we will see
you guys next Monday night, same battime, same bat channel. Enjoy it.
Tighten up everybody. Tighten up, y'all be pain lad and lady and la