The OTP | Bye Weekend Roundtable

part of our Titans All Access program. Well, we couldn't use all of it in Titans All Access, so we wanted to give you the whole experience on this edition of the OTP. A discussion wide ranging between offense and defense with three people who are around the team all the time and even me as well. First up, Amy Wells starts the discussion as I ask her the most

impressive part of the Titans offense through twelve games. I think it's what they've been able to do and how much they've been able to do with so many changes. The Tennessee Titans offense lost most of their starters, The big name people that we were talking about in training camp and in the off season, Julio Jones, AJ Brown, Derrick Henry just to name a few, and they went

away at different points throughout the season. And this Titans offense has continued to rise, continue to see performances by players that we never thought would be main stars on this Titans team, people that we thought would be supporting cast, and they've stepped into these roles in a big way. We've seen so many different starters on the football field, and I think that's been very impressive, the way that they've been able to rise and overcome the adversity. Jim,

why did you take yours? No, but I'm going to piggyback out of hers. And I think it's the ability to run the football no matter who's a running back. And we all saw what Derrick Henry did at the start of the season nine hundred and thirty seven yards through eight games. But just this past week you see Dontrell Hilliard Dante Foreman both go for over one hundred yards.

We've seen some different pieces, as Amy said in the you know on the offensive line, guys step out with other guys you know going down with injuries, and they've continue to be run the ball, number number five in the league in a rushing offense. So I'm impressed by that they stayed true to who they are, and that's important because sometimes when you start losing people, and you lose significant people, if you're not grounded in what you're doing, you start to panic, You start to panic and start

trying to rework everything you're doing. They have not done that, and Jim spot on with what he says, they continue to stay with the run. Now. They hit a glitch when they were trying to fit two to three running backs in for a singular back, we had a dominating back. We were an anomaly in the National Football League with

a dominating back. But now that it looks like, especially after this last game, even though we lost the game, the running game seems to have found a little bit of footing and we're going to need to continue that footing with these guys that they found. To me, staying true to who they were once they lost all of the initial players, that to me was a big thing.

The most impressive thing to me about the Titans offense through twelve games has been the job Rob Moore has done with the wide receivers, and you consider that before the year, we thought it's AJ and Julio and that they would put in another receiver at some point and have a great attack. Well a j Brown's misstime, Julio Jones's misstime. They've both played well when they've played. And then you've had guys like Marcus Johnson step in and

have a hundred yard game. Nick Westbrook Akina has stepped in and had a hundred yard game. Cody Hollister, who hadn't played football all fall, had to step up and start the other day. That's good coaching to have receivers ready to play. And I know you're close with Rob Moore, so Coach Mack, you're probably very proud of the job he's done. It doesn't surprise me. He was that type of player for me at Arizona. I mean's he was always ap up guy when things were going good and

when things were not going so good. Didn't surprise me a bit. Plus, if you know Rob his personality, it's very even killed. Rob is not an up the escalator, down the escalator type of guy, and so his even kill ability and plus, look, he's got major respect in that room because of the type of player that he was, and so he brings all of that dimension to his coaching.

All right, most impressive part of the defense through twelve games, Coach Mack, you lead off this second, it's been the ability to get a four man rush when we have all our guys. That changed this defense. That changed this defense from some defense that was really scrambling to try to figure out how to get off of the field to a defense that was really getting people on the ground. And that's extremely important. The ability to rush with four people when we had our good people healthy and then

the people that added in. Now, once you start losing some of that and we saw it, you know again this last week. It's hard when you only have a limit to the number of those people across the front.

But when we can get those people back, that ability to rush with four and cover with seven, and you cover with seven with zone, then then you're able to go four over three, three over two on five eligible receivers, and then you're able to if you're playing a man to man, you're still able to have a spy, You're still able to have a low whole robber. If you can get there with four, that's what's impressed me. Yeah,

and tremendous. There's no doubt about that. I'm gonna go with the run defense, and with so many injuries in the middle, I mean, Rashaun Evans has been out, John Brown has missed time, David Long's missed time, money rising down miss time. The inside bikers continue to do a good job, still doing a good job defending the run. That's where I'm going. I think it's that they already have twenty nine sacks to this point in the season. For reference, they only had nineteen in twenty twenty, so

the amount of pressure they're able to get. Guys like Harold Landry with ten sacks already this year. Jeffrey Simmons was seven and a half already this year. There are guys who are consistently getting to opposing team's quarterbacks, and I think that's a huge improvement and a very welcome surprice. Most impressive part of the defense to me is the re emergence of Kevin Byard. What a year this guy has had so far, sixty four tackles, five interceptions, He's

caused a fumble, he's got a quarterback sack. He scored the first two touchdowns of his career, Jim. The Titans needed him to be a big play guy again in this defense and the mayor of Murphy's Burr's doing it. Yeah, and he vowed to do it. I mean, that's one thing I remember about the end of the last season he took was so hard on himself on a kind of a season ending zoom called. Vowed to be better, vowed to work more, vowed to be a better player. Who's done exactly that. I mean, he has been a

consistent performer for this team. Is leadership has been great. The biggest surprise for the Titans offense through twelve games, well, I have to say it. I don't mean to go negative here. I guess the turnovers by Ryan Tannehill and it's the only time I'll go negative here. Seven interceptions in sixteen games last year, only six and ten stars previous year. This is not all on Ryan Tannehill. Obviously, we know we know the situations with his team, Asia

Brown being out, Hulu Jones been out, MARKA. Johnson being out, young guys stepping in. But it's been uncharacteristic some of the mistakes that he has made. And obviously if his team is going to get its footing back in the second half of the the season. That's going to have to be better, coach Mack. It's being able to switch from a singular running back to a running back back committee. That's not as easy as it sounds, and it's not

as easy as it sounds for this reason. When you're game planning and you understand your singular back and what he can do, and you've got two and a half years of knowing what this guy likes and what he does best, and how to formulate a game plan individually

against the opponents with what he likes to do. Now with him gone, you're trying to find out not only what you can do structurally, but you need to find out what the strengths are of the core of running backs now that you're trying to run the ball with being able to make that switch. That's hard to do in the middle of the season, and especially when you're in a playoff push. That's impressed me. For me, it's

the consistency within the offensive life. Despite all of the changes they've seen this season through twelve games, they still haven't had all five starters finish a game together. So going week to week, with different injuries, going almost minute by minute play to play with different guys on the field, you haven't seen huge drop offs in their level of

play and consistency in what they're able to do. And I think that's very impressive because in years past we haven't always seen that when someone goes down there's a bit of a drop off in what they're able to do. This year, we're not seeing that. I'm kind of coming off your topic. My biggest surprise about the offense is David Quessenberry starting twelve games at right tackle, playing well. We know he's a great story. We know he had a four year battle with cancer. We know he battled

his way off the practice squad. We know he started the end of last year at left tackle, which was certainly not his natural position. But at the age of thirty one, he is the Titans starting right tackle, has played all twelve games and has done a fantastic job overall. For me, David Questenburry, we didn't think he'd be the starter in the offseason. He has emerged as the most solid, consistent piece at least to this point for the Titans.

All right, biggest surprise about the Titans defense through twelve games. Coach Dave McGinnis. The biggest surprise to me was an improvement a third down defense, and that goes with the last segment of what I said about a four man rush. Anytime you can win first and second down, you can take all of the angst off of your defense on

third down. It's a huge plus. But to do that, you have to be able to win first and second down, and to win first and second down, you have to be able to deploy yourselves to put the offense in conflict first and second down. We've done that, and then our third down defense has gotten markedly better. Now it goes off of what I said in the first segment about being able to rush with four We need to be able to get back to that because all three

of those elements cascade off of that. For me, it's that the Titans defense has become one of the strengths of this Titans team. In twenty twenty, that was not the case, and you could tell it really bugged not only the guys on defense, but Mike Rabel and he really put a concerted effort into changing this defense and really getting them back on track, and they've become a powerhouse.

They are the game wreckers for this Titans team. They're making plays, they're generating points, They're doing all the things that you needed defense to do to play complimentary football and win football games. So I think that that has been surprising, not only that they're better and they have improved, but that they make such an impact every single Sunday. And we've say so many players step up and play well.

Was Jeffery Simmons or Kevin biod or Harold Landry. I'm gonna go David Long just because of the way he played is very Unfortunately he got hurt, but begin the season, there's so much conversations about Rashaun Evans and so much conversation about Jayon Brown, and once David Long got an opportunity, he's just kind of took office. Unfore she got hurt. Hopefully he's back here quickly after the Bob, but really

impressed with the way he played. The Titans strength too, and maybe a surprise is the incredible versatility in the defensive line. Look at all the guys who have stepped in during the course of the year, with not just Jeffrey Simmons and Denico Autry who have been excellent, but tier Tard has been a factor. They've been able to get Laurell Murchison in there, and then Peco and a whole group of different guys who have stepped in and

been productive. Some guys for just one game when they were called up from the practice squad and then unfortunately for them, they were let go the next week. But a nice job by the defensive staff and the defensive line coaches as a whole getting these guys ready to play and certainly giving them a chance to make a difference in the course of ballgames. No matter what the

combination was. Amy Wells is going to lead it off here as we talk about the player on offense who has impressed you the most through the first twelve games, it's Nick Westbrook Akina. He is someone who even throughout training camp we thought would be a solid supporting cast player. That's kind of what I expected out of him anyway, to see the way that he has stepped up when his number is called. He's got twenty five catches for two hundred and ninety seven yards and three touchdowns so

far this season. He showed up in a big way and at times when the team really needs someone to make a play. So for him to step beyond being a supporting cast member and to be a star player on this offense, very impressive by him. I'm going deck Henry just because he's still on this football team even though he's on injured reserve. The start he got off too, he was at an MVP pace. He was going to lead this league and rushing again hopefully weekend. I'm back

in a Titan uniform again the season. But I just think the start that he got this team off too is really going to put this team in a position when the AFC South. Ben Jones has been a solidifying factor in the middle of that offensive line. In previous segments, we've talked about the offensive line juggling people. Quisenbury is another nice story, but Ben Jones is the rock of that offensive line. He has had different people on the left and the right side of him, and also on

the edges. The center in the National Football League is so important, especially if you're running check with me is if you're identifying fronts, all of those things. The other thing is is he's been available. An availability on this football team has been at a premium this year. That's been extremely important. My vote goes for Ben Jones because I can say this, and I think Ben Jones won't

mind that I say this. He's not completely healthy. He has been playing through some things and has been playing very well. Ben Jones is my guy. Guys, you took all of mine. I would have said Ben Jones. I would have said Derrick Henry because he was on a historic pace. I would have said Nick Westbrook, akena. So what do I have left? I guess I have to go back to David Quessenberry being there for all twelve games. But I lose. I lose going like, can I say this?

You don't lose because you picked this staff for this segment here, and you picked a quality staff. Thank you, coach. That's a great quality of a head coach being able to pick a really smart well to let me throw the bouquet right back at you and you start this segment. Dave McGinnis. The defensive player who has impressed you the most during the first twelve Jeffrey Simmons. Jeffrey Simmons has

been everything that we thought and more. And he said, you know, he talked about you know, Kevin Byard declaring coming into a season that he was going to make a difference. Well, Jeffrey Simmons did the same thing, and not for recency bias to come up and what I'm saying, but this last ball game, to see it a defensive tackle the twelfth week of the season, making perimeter plays against screens, being the primary tackler against screens, that's impressive.

I mean, this guy has done it all and more. And plus he's been available too. Jeffrey Simmons, to me, by far is the dude I'm looking at and we need him to continue that for the rest of the season. Harold Landry, he has been a quiet consistent contributor and Mike Keith, you talk all during the games on Sundays. How many times do you say Harold Landry's name. He

is just always there. He's always getting that pressure and he's on pace to do some pretty incredible things in terms of sack numbers and disrupting some sack records for the Tennessee Titans. So that's an exciting thing to watch going forward. But man, he just he doesn't talk a lot. He kind of does his own thing and is really cool. But then you get him on the field on Sundays and he is a major player, and he's making a lot of noise. And we've hit on some of the

big stars. I'm gonna go, who go back to Denico Autry, who I think has really played well for this team. I mean, his numbers may not look like Landry's and may not look like Simmons, but they're not necessarily supposed to with what he's doing. He's getting his hands up, he's knocking balls down, he's working in tandem with Jeffrey Simmons. He's brought a big boost to this team's defense. So I'm going Autry. And the big news about Autrey is

he doesn't play against us anymore. God Lee, I was so sick of seeing that guy with the Raiders and the Colts. The Titans never blocked him ever, and it was like we signed him. I wanted to hug him and say thank you for not playing against us anymore. But I'm actually looking at the defense, and obviously Kevin Bayard as a player that would be easy to mention in this I'm gonna go Christian Fulton and here's why,

vastly improved corner. And I know he's missed some time with injury, but I think he's a key player down the stretch, because in the early part of the year he looked like a shutdown corner. His improvement from year one to year two vast excited to see more of him coming up during the rest of the year. I think he could be a centerpiece for this defense going forward. Coach, it's hard to find shutdown corners, well, a shutdown corner. I mean, it's easy to say, it's extremely difficult to do.

I coached for thirty one years in this league. I had won Anis Williamson, He's a Hall of Famer and so that's usually what those guys are. And Christian Fulton. I agree with you a lot on this, Mike. You could tell the difference when we first got to training camp and just watched him come out on the field. He looked different physically, so he put in that type of work and then he was really having a nice, nice year, and like a lot of our other good players,

unfortunately they've missed some time. But I agree with you one hundred percent on that. Good to have him back. Great to have him back. Player to watch on offense during the final five weeks of the regular season and hopefully into the postseason. Jim Wyatt, you take the lead here. I'm going back to Ryan Tannehill. You know I talked earlier about some of his turnovers. Uncharacteristic turnovers have been

a little bit surprising. He's a good quarterback. I think we all know that he's proven that during the course of his career. I think once he starts getting some of his pieces back a j Brown, Julio Jones, some guys start to get healthy. I think Ryan Tannehill is going to take off. He's going to play like the Ryan Tannehill that we've come to know here over the last couple of years. So I'm looking for a strong finish from Ryan Tannehill. He's a guy that we're obviously

all going to be watching. I had Ryan Tannehill as well because of his mindsett and his mentality going into these last five games, but because Jim Wyatt took mine. I'm also going to say Dante Foreman because I think that as he continues to get comfortable in this system, We've seen him already have a one hundred yard plus

rushing game. I think that as he continues to get comfortable, learn more about this offensive line, get more in sync with Ryan Tannehill, all those things that happen in training camp and OTAs and those times that he just didn't have with this Titans team. As he gets in the groove a little bit more, I think we're going to see more and more of those big plays and hopefully we're going to see him breakaway for even more of those big yardage moments that we all love so much.

Talking about big yardage, I'm gonna give you two headed monster. We need aj Brown Julio Jones to show up the last part of this season. That's going to be a major major for this football team because what we're lacking right now offensively, and it's through nobody's fault, is the explosive plays you start talking about forming in the run game. We talked about the run game starting to coalesce a little bit and come together. Ryan Tannehill is going to be on track to be on track though. We need

more explosive plays down the field. Those two guys can provide it for us. That's who I'm looking for. I'm going with the left side of the offensive line, Roger Saffold and Tator to one. The buy think comes at a fantastic time for these players. Older players a little bit. They've been dinged up. They've certainly done some good things, but when they're rolling, I think it's the best left

side of the line in the National Football League. As they get healthy and have a chance to take over in cold weather, I think for foreman, for Hilliard, for everybody who carries the ball, for protecting Tannehill, I think those guys can be absolutely huge for this football team. I think the buy comes at an incredible time for Roger Saffold and Taylor to one player on defense to watch in the final five games, Dave McGinnis, you go first.

I'm gonna go to Deneico Autry and Denico Autry for this reason, people have a lot of film on us right now, and they're going to zero in on Jeffrey Simmons and they're going to find ways to be able to get hats on who's ever playing at the second level. Denico Autry is a major disruptor, and major disruptors are usually what you can count on towards the end of the season, and he has been very, very consistent. Jim said it. He doesn't have the numbers, but Denico Autry,

to me, he's a Lynchpin for this going forward. I say Jeffrey Simmons because I don't think all that tape that's floating around on Jeffrey Simmons matters all that much. I think that even though teams know what to expect from him and know what he's able to do, the

man is a monster. He's a machine, and with teams knowing what he's capable of, he's still able to have seven and a half sacks and thirty four tackles so far this season, and he's taken these last two losses that the Titans have had a little personal He's mad. He expects more from himself, he expects more from the defense, and he said it all the way back in the beginning of the season. I'm the leader of this group of guys, and I expect us to play it a

certain standard. It seems to me he hasn't seen that standard in the last two weeks, and he's got a whole week to just sit and get angry about it, and Stu, I think that Jeffrey Simmons is going to be a beast in these last five weeks. I'm going back to christin Fulton because, as you mentioned earlier, I mean, he's shown so much improvement during the course of the season. Had to a little spell there where he was out, kind of got himself back in a position where he's

feeling good again. I think now the next step for him is to make some of these game changing plays like Byer's done at safety. So I'll look for Fulton to have a couple of picks, make some plays that it's going to help change games here down the stretch minus safety, a Monty hooker and the reason is a money hooker had four picks last year, and early in the season before he got danged up, a Monty hooker was all over the place. It's kind of been working

his way back in. I think there are big plays in number thirty seven the rest of the way to sort of piggyback off of what Kevin Bayard has been able to do. As you look for guys who can take that step forward down the stretch. To me, a Monty Hooker at safety is a guy who can certainly do that. So it's time now for each member of our panel, Jim White, coach, Dave McGinnis, and Aby Wells to provide a key to the rest of the season.

Coach Dave McGinnis of Titan's Radio, You were first. You got to get back into the plus turnover margin world. You've got to get back to that. It's incredibly important. It's been an issue. We know it's been an issue, and we're always honest this team. Mike Rayel's honest with his team. We're always honest with our listeners. You've got to get back to that world. You have to get back to the plus turnover world. And it happens in two ways. You've got to protect the ball when it's yours.

That goes without saying, but you've got to make a particular point of doing that because when people see on film that they can take it away from you, they're going to work even harder in practice to practice going after it. And then it's not turnovers on defense, it's takeaways. You've got to get takeaways. We defensively have to take the ball away from our opponent. We need to get back to the plus turnover margin world. This team has got to get healthy and it's got to stay healthy.

I mean, we're in the position we're in now coming in with the two game losing streaking the bye week because of all these injuries seventeen guys on injured reserve, set of league record for most players used in a season. You need to get some of our key players back in the lineup. You know, some of it's just bad luck, but I think that's the key of the season. This team's only gon beit to go as far as as the injuries and the health of the key players going

to take them. The Titans need to score in the red zone. They're doing a good job of moving the ball and getting into that scoring area, they are not scoring once they get there, and that's something that really is impacting this Titans team. Just having field goals isn't enough. You've got to score touchdowns. You've got to create those big margins between you and the other team. It seems so silly to say score more points, but you got to score more points to win the ball game. That's

the whole point of football. So when you're in the position to score, you've got to take advantage of it. You got to cut out the mental mistakes. You know, the penalties in the New England game early in the contest on special teams were killers. So the penalty on the first punt change field position by thirty two yards. That's not Titans football, that's not Mike Vrabel football. They've got to get back to doing what they do. Let

the other team do that. You know. That's what's happened when the Titans have won, is they have watched the other team make mistakes and then they have taken advantage. For the Titans get back to playing smarter. And some of that is due to the fact that you're playing guys who are inexperience. Got it but to win down the stretch, I think that's a big key for the

Titans and certainly something they're capable of doing. The bottom line, though, Dave McGinnis, is the season really starts now the first twelve games. You're eight and four, you have a two game lead in the division. Here you are. If you play well from here on out, it can be very special to this pointless season. Everybody. It's positioning and they and the Titans have done enough earlier in the year to position themselves. Have they done enough to be able

to sit in a position where they can't be caught? No, So this is a new season. It does start now. To Jim's point about getting people back, that's going to be huge, But all of these points that we've brought up, Believe me, Mike vary Well and his staff this week in the off date, that's what they're going over. And then they will very specifically go over not only as a group with this football team, but individually they will individually.

And that's what you do after you individually go and you have nameless rank debriefings individually after the open date. During the open dates, you do it, and then you have to have honest discussions with each individual player saying here's what you have to do, here's what you must do, and here's what you have to eliminate. That's going to go on this week. Yeah, Mike Vaibel said it on his radio show, Truthtelling. We're going to spend some time

with the truth, Jim. Yeah, and sometimes the truth hurts, but that's how you get better. And I think that's what this team will do. Evaluate itself. Usually sometimes during the byway you can do some self scouting. The five week comes late this year, you've got a bigger body of work to look over, what's going right, what's going wrong, and you've got time to get it fixed. This team's in a good spot with five games left, now again. Just need to get healthy, play better football, make a run,

make a run. It's about that time. This is when the football starts to get exciting. This is when every game in the NFL really matters. As a Titans fan, this is a great time to be watching football because there's a lot of games out in the world to watch. There's a lot of games that matter to Tennessee Titans fans, so there's lots of football to watch. And then the Titans have an opportunity to do something really cool and control their destiny a little bit. That was a lot

of fun. We hoped you enjoyed it. This edition of the OTP presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans. Look to the folks at Farm Bureau Health Plans when you need someone who understands the x's and o's of healthcare coverage. They've been protecting Tennessee and since nineteen forty seven for coach Dave McGinnis, Jim White and Aby Wells. Mike Keith, thanks you for listening to the o t P. Welcome to the Big Show where the legends go. Everybody knows

it's our house. Find foot Tennessee Makingstree greatness is means to be. We got side and Boodle running through a vase.