The OTP: Takeaways from Thursday's OTA Practice

good friends Rett, Brian and also Dave McGinnis. Coach Mac. Guys, thank you for being here to talk a little bit about OTAs because today we were able to watch our first OTA practice of the twenty twenty one season, but this was the third practice for the Tennessee Titans. Coach Mac, I'm just gonna jump right in. I think we're done with pleasantries here. Let's just talk some football. Mac. Do you have any takeaways from being out at practice. Was

there anything that's stuck out to you, anything you noticed? Well, the first thing I will tell you just how happy I was to be out there with you and read that made me very happy to be back out on the football field watching practice with you guys. Yes, this is an important time for these young players. It really is, and I understand you know, I've been in this league a long time. I understand exactly what's going on. You know, as far as with the veterans, you know, it is voluntary.

There were some veterans out there today. But it's a very important time for the young players because they've got to learn how to practice professionally. And the other thing is is the coaches can really zero in on these guys. What I noticed was is they're learning how to practice like the Titans practice. You know, I saw rookie camp

when the rookies were here. I was at rookie Camp, and you can just see the advancement that they've made since the rookie camp because they've had the virtual meetings, they've been in walkthroughs, and now that you can see the difference from just the rookie camp with the first year players that they've made amy to this time right here. That's what this is all about, and it's extremely important. Rhett thoughts, feelings, observations, well by my roster count fifty

three guys at this particular practice. And you know, of course you're for me. It's not about who's not there, just because of where this thing is in time. As we go you know, towards phase four and all those things. But it was who was there. And for a guy like Darrington Evans who did some work at wide receiver today, who you know, missed a whole lot of time last year. The same thing with Christian Fulton of the secondary, it

was good to see those guys there. Amni Hooker there today because he knows what importance that it is on him with the absence of Kenny Vaccaro, you know, being gone in free agency and where he's got to step up in this. And then a Dane Crookshank who has had his share of injury struggles himself and knows that he's got to continue to claw out, you know, a roster spot for himself and the importance of him on

the special team's phase of it too. But yeah, I liked who was there, and I like the vibe that was there because who all was there, Coach Frabel, the sense of urgency. It is definitely dialing up. This OTA is interesting because it's a little bit of a hybrid in that meetings are still virtual, they are able to do in person work on the field, get that going. So maybe it's a little bit best of both worlds. Reht.

They're taking some of the twenty twenty nous in the virtual aspects of it, but they're also getting some of that on field work that they weren't able to get last year. Do you think that's something that's good for the team. Absolutely, And even the coach, Mike Vrabel, in his post practice press or mentioned something to the effect of, Hey, I am coaching the guys in person who are here,

I am virtually working with those who are not. And Yeah, I think that is a byproduct and a good one of the pandemic is that you're able to flex and do those things. You've got enough staff, enough position, coaches and the like to be able to do those kinds of things. Still have virtual meetings, have physical practice in person, and still keep trying to, you know, keep everybody on the same page. I think it's a great thing that

has come out of what was a wacky year last year. Now, Mac, you mentioned that the rookies are doing a lot in terms of learning how to practice. They had rookie Minicamp. That's kind of step one. When you're a rookie. You get in here, you figure out where the bathroom is, You figure out very much to the basics sure of

being a professional football player. Now they're kind of in their second phase of the introduction to the NFL process, which is the first part of OTAs explain exactly what learning how to practice like a pro is and what these guys are trying to figure out how to navigate. Now, well,

I mean, we saw an example of that today. You know, not to give away because we can't talk about, you know, everything that we see there, But there was a there's an instance, you know where one of the veteran players there, you know, with a playdown field where a young rookie receiver you know, went to went to grab a defensive back that was playing a deep ball and grabbed him by the shoulder to pull him. And the vets said, we can't do that. You've got to be able to

protect each other. That's the first thing you've got to learn how to do. The other thing that you have to learn how to do, and they will, they will, This will accelerate for them. You need to learn how to practice in the National Football League full speed technique wise, without pads on. You have to do that because you can only have fourteen padded practices during the regular season. There will be padded times during training camp, but you

are going to have to still be able. And not all practices during the season, I mean we stand at practice every day. Not all practices during the season are full speed, but there are certain periods that are full speed. But you need to learn how to work against one another, protect each other, but both sides of the ball being able to hone their techniques full speed without full contact,

and that's that's something that you have to learn. And the other thing that you have to do is as a coach is yet to put the choke motor on some of these younger players that are trying to make the team and think if I just go a little faster and make one more play. Well, you've got to protect one another, you've got to stay off of the ground.

All of those things are important and you've got to learn how to do that at a very high speed because these younger players Aimy are practicing now against athletes moving much quicker than they're ever used to at all. So that's important. And to kind of piggyback off of what coach Mack said, while we can't say everything that we saw at practice because we don't want to tip scheme or any of those things, and there's really not

a ton to report. Coach Mack highlighted one of the three or four main things that are one of the key reasons why organized team activities are in place, and he's right, getting those rookies acclimated to things, installing the playbook chunk by chunk so that when they get to mini camp and then they have that break and they come back for training camp, they've got some bearings about them.

But the technique is so big to hand and the eyes, the feet, all those kinds of things they're working on, and it's a culmination of those three or four main things as to why this is so huge and why I go back to saying, you know, it's great for Darnton Evans, it's great for Christian Fulton because they didn't have that this time a year ago. They went straight into training camp when they finally were able to get

all that worked out. So it's important for Laurell Murchison and those guys who are in year two, and then all of these young kids, and then any of the first year guys that are learning new scheme well rhets. So many guys who are in their second year, are now able to get the one on one time to work on the technique, to work on some of the things that they didn't have the opportunity to really hone in on in the off season of their rookie year because of what the world was in twenty twenty. How

beneficial do you think that is? And maybe weighing that up against the fact that veterans aren't here but they don't need that kind of work. Yeah, And I think that's where the divide is over, you know, should a guy be there or should a guy not because he's working out with his trainer or working out with a group of guys in a particular place around the country. Yeah,

I don't think that it's necessarily for the veterans. I mean, now, we did see a Brett Kern there today who did not have to come and punt, but wanted to be a part of it one And I think it goes back to what Coach Max says that we started this OTP is. I think he was just glad to be out there and doing his thing. It's a beautiful day and you know, you want to have some again sense

of normalcy. But for these young cats who are are you know, coming around the block for the second time, or you're a rookie in this thing, or you're an invite or you're an undrafted you want as many of these reps as you can possibly get. And you could see the energy with all of the position coaches, even you know coach Rabel as vocal and as hands on as he is, how excited they were to be able to get that one on one time and that hands

on learning, you know, time set. Gosh, Mac, if you're a coach and you see some of these young guys, the undrafted's, the guys who really want to show what they can do and show that they can make this team, and that they're excited and have energy and all of that, how do you reign that in to keep everybody safe and teach them how to control it and be a pro, but also recognize that they're trying to show out to

make this team. Well, you never want to, you never tamper their enthusiasm, but you have to you have to be able to point them in the right direction. And they've got to understand there are some things that you can do early on that are very non productive, you know, just trying to go fast they have to learn that. And here's the other thing too Amy and rhet and for the OT people, is that they're not in shape yet. They are not in NFL condition yet. Interesting they really aren't.

I mean they what have they been doing? You know up to this time, they may have been working out some but they don't know what they do, not know what NFL conditioning is all about. So that The other thing that I think is important to know is there's no time limit on how long rookies can be up there and how they can be working because they're also doing walkthroughs. You know, they're being able to come out

of those virtual meetings and go do walkthroughs. And I'm not talking about the time that you spend in a OTA. I'm talking about walkthroughs before where you're able to walk through things, implement things that you've gone over in the virtual meetings. All of those things are so important. But they've got to realize this. If they start too fast and through no fault of their own, tweak something and then miss all of this time, that just puts them back.

And we just talked about Darrington Evans, we talked about Christian Fulton. They missed a lot of time last year because of injury, and you never make that up. You never make that up. So what Mike Vrabel and his staff are trying to do, both coaching staff and the training staff and Frank Parreinho in the weight room, is they are trying to ramp the players up. I mean it's like, you know, one of these Lamon's Downtown races we're getting ready to have here. You don't just jump

in and smash on the gas. You got to know where you're going. That's what they're trying to do now is point these young players the right way to get there. So when you're talking about week one versus week two and week three, I mean, OTA's go on for a little bit. How do you manage that ramp up process? And what are you trying to accomplish in the first week that's different than maybe the third week. Well, here's

what you do. The first thing you do when you bring people in and then you monitor it and then you evaluate it and you talk about it as a coaching staff. What type of attention to these guys pay? How's their attention in the meetings? All right? What's their attention? Like you know they'll come in and you know, and I would ask, I say, Rhett, the linebackers just give it to me. How fast it takes them to process it?

And what is their attention span in your meetings? Let me let me hear that, Amy, Let me talk to you about your receivers. Okay, how many repeat offenders have you had? How many repeat offenders have you had where you've gone over the same thing and they continue to not get it? And so that takes you to the next phase is what's their retention? First, it's how much attention are they paying? And I mean quality attention. You can be present and not be paying attention. Okay, how

much quality attention they pay? And now what's their retention? And then the next thing you go to when you get into and you talk about the graduation from week to week to week. Now, what's their execution like? What does what does your receiver him look like running that three step slant route the third week from the first week? What does he look like running that double move? What does he look like running that takeoff route? Being able to beat press coverage from a split alignment the third

week as he did from the first week. Can you tell me give me where he's improved, and now has he improved in all of those other areas that will carry him up there? And if he hasn't improved, which one of those areas is lacking? And how can we help him get there? Well, rhet this sounds exactly like Mike Frabel and what he does best teach and manage his team. Yeah, because he said in a million times he said, I'm just a teacher most of the time, but when those guys come in the building is when

I become a coach. And Coach Mac laid it out perfectly because the key for all of these young guys in there is by the time they're ready to get to mini camp, they will have installed the base schemes in offense and defense and what they're doing, and want them to be familiar so that they can build from there because the vets will come in and know what they're you know, they've already been there and done all that.

But the strength and conditioning is huge in this. But I like the way Coach maculated out in terms of learning their their acumen, their attitude, their attention span, those things so that Coach Frabel and his assistance can coach each guy like they need to because you can't coach

every person the same way. We're all different in DNA, makeup, attitude, personality, background, whatever, and so that's where the litmus tests begin so that you can gather that research, come back and go, Okay, I can coach this wide receiver a certain way, but this dB, I've got to coach a completely different way. The conditioning aspect of it is interesting because some would argue that without having this time in twenty twenty, players were still able to perform on the field. They were

still able to make it through a whole season. Injuries didn't really change that much. So maybe they don't need this, But it sounds like the young guys need the experience in conditioning. They need to learn how to condition the right way. Yeah. Well, I mean your veterans, they know what NFL conditioning is. The young kids coming in last year. We just talked about two of our Titans rookies last year, you know, that were hurt through no faults of their own.

They they're not They don't know how to get ready. They don't know. It's a difference. It's a different world regardless whether you come from a Power five school or you come from an FCS school, it doesn't matter. It's different being a professional. They have to learn how to

get ready to be a professional. And that's what these young guys, the vets that have been here, they know, and they not only know how to do it, you know, in an overall perspective, then they know what they need individually. They know because their body and the way they get ready, that's their life, that's their livelihood. And they find out real quick that the more they understand it can get in tune with that, the better off they are. When it comes to your healthcare coverage, you should be the

one to make the call. So call Farm Bureau Health Plans. They've been protecting Tennesseeans since nineteen forty seven. Guys, I want to talk about some stuff that's been going on around the league, because there were some meetings that were had and some changes were approved, and I would like to discuss what's going on in the National Football League. So to start an interesting rule change that we've been talking about a little bit, changes to the low block rule.

Coach mac, I would like for you to explain what it is and how it's going to impact things on the football field. Well, what they're trying to do is they are trying to take out blocking below the waist. You know, they've taken it out in the general field of play. They've taken that out, you know, in the all the kicking situations. So basically, to explain it simply,

they have taken that space in that area. Are are the the you know, you hear hear me a lot talk about that center guard triangle that works that you have to work and when you're at a second level of defense or you're on that center guard triangle. They have taken the triangle of the space that you can commit a foul below the waist. They've shrunken that. They've shrunken it now down to the tackle box. You can't do anything outside of that tackle box below the waist.

And it's a player's safety rule. That's what it's for, and that's it's extremely important. You know, this is a little bit of the extension of where they've taken the cut block because you used to as an offensive lineman, you used to could cut block the man right over the top of you when the play in a way Now you have to be two players removed, you know, before you can do that. That's still within the tackle box, but this is an extension of that not being able

to do it outside of the tackle box. They're just it's a player's safety rule, and I agree with it, yeah, because they started with years ago and rule changes as they you know, tweaked those every offseason, you know, chop blocks, crackback blocks, peelbacks, all of those, and so it's finally down to you can do this in that center guard triangle and nowhere else. It's probably a poor correlation, but it's like you can have contact as a dB with a receiver in that first five yards and then nowhere

else unless you want a DPI. So it's not the cissification of football. It is a safety well, it's a safety rule because there again, as I say, I don't like to say how long I've been doing this, but when I first started this, there were not a lot of rules, and so there were a lot of things that you could do that weren't real good for your opponent's body. You guys are funny. I said cissification, which

is for sure not a word, and nobody blinked. Everybody just and then that's because that's the amount of respect that we have for your knowledge I figured if Amy Will said it's it's good. Yeah, I made it up and Playingcary go. Nobody even looked at me sideways to make football more sissy esque cissification. There you go. You're welcome, OTI people. Here is the next thing that was announced earlier this week that we would like to discuss a little bit, and that is the dates for roster changes

cuts during training camp. We are back to doing cuts in three different phases. So on Tuesday August seventeenth, the team roster will be reduced to eighty five players. On Tuesday August twenty fourth, the roster will be reduced to eighty players, and by Tuesday August thirty. First you have to have your roster to your final fifty three players. Coach Mac, how is it beneficial as an evaluator to

have these cuts built in? Well, it's it's important, uh, you know, and for a while, you know, you had tears that you would take it down. If you guys can remember, and I know OTP listeners can remember, when you had four preseason games, there was a time when you took it down to seventy and then that was a hard getting people enough to play in that fourth preseason game. So this is what it's for, and you didn't mention it, but I know you meant to. Is

that it starts with ninety players. Correct, You start with ninety. The max is ninety that you can take, and so you start with that. Now, as a coaching staff, during training camp, you have personnel meetings every night. Every night. You have personnel meetings every night with John Robinson and his personnel people, and and you know he has his scouts out there watching practice, and so you have you

have position ranks every night. And so what you'll do in those position meetings you'll go, I'll say, Amy, your wide receivers, Uh, we're we're gonna we're gonna keep six. Draw line. Draw the first line, Okay, who's the first you know, first two out, first two out from the bottom up, First two out, okay, next three out. And so you do that periodically as you work through with in mind that at a certain point, as you said, you've given us all, you know, the quantitative dates that

you're gonna have to meet that. But it's not something that you all all of a sudden come up on and said, oh here's the date, Well, who were who we're going to release. You're doing this every day, so it's important that they set that so that you have the schedule that you know you're going to work on your roster at the advantages I see in going back to this is clearly it's lined up with you have

a cut after a preseason game. You only have three preseason games this year because they moved to a seventeen game regular season schedule. To coach max point, you've got enough bodies to get you through that third and final preseason game. The other thing I like out of this is getting to fifty three by August thirty first, with that seventeen game schedule, the league doesn't start until a

little later. Everybody's almost gotten kind of a bye week to begin the regular season window so that you can get those practices and everything under your belt outside of churning the back into the roster. But your fifty three is getting those reps and you're getting ready for week one action several days later, like the Titans being what September the twelfth, right, let me add to that, and

that's a great point. It's completely different practicing from ninety to eighty five to eighty and it's a massive difference practicing with fifty three, Yes, massive. I mean you notice it. You notice it as a player, as a coach, as when we stand out there and observe it. All of a sudden, you've been in training camp and you go where is everybody? And then you know once you once

you get here. I don't know how many practice squad players were going to be able to have this year yet I can't sit here and tell you exactly, but even that number, it is so different, and then your practices are different. And so the gradual moving those numbers down that puts you, that gets you in that mode too,

and so it's important. But they left him enough, and Rett brought up an important point because there was a time in my coaching career in the National Football League where you were hard pressed to find enough guys to play a fourth preseason game. Does it give a player the opportunity to earn a spot back on the roster, does not that he has been cut, but give him the chance to kind of see what's going on and maybe have a wake up call and change the way

that he's performing. Well, I'll just say this, once lockers start being empty, people notice the other thing that's important too. Though you release a player early, he may possibly get a chance somewhere else. Because the wild West the free agency is after the draft. There are some players that you had your eye on that you couldn't get and they may be released in that first or second cut, and you say, you know what they might not could have gotten out of are seen in him? What we saw,

I'd like to take it. I'd like to take a shot at this guy. So all of that stuff goes on too, But the human question that you ask me, do guys notice when people start leaving? Yes, the moving around of players brings up another interesting point and another thing that was approved this week, and that is the salary cap ceiling for twenty twenty two. As of now, it is set at two hundred and eight point two million dollars, which is roughly eight million dollars than what

we expected that ceiling to be at. Rhett, Do you think that that will change the way that teams are approaching this offseason in twenty twenty one well to a degree. You're talking about a potential fourteen percent increase of the cat from the one eighty two point five that it is sitting at right now, And again, I go back to the strength of the national football that it took a pandemic to bring about your first retraction of a

cap since its existence in nineteen ninety three. The thing I think is as big as the money part of this is what we're going to see in the effect of the twenty twenty two draft, with how many kids are going to be coming out. You may have a larger draft class. Now that's not a big, big money thing, you know, considering the grand landscape of things, but you've

got so many kids. You had six hundred and seventy eight players or whatever it was that was available this year, it was very shallow where it was almost eighteen hundred. Every time, you may have a bigger draft class if you've traded enough picks around in this whole thing that

you want to bring aboard. But yes, knowing where it's going there and then in twenty twenty three, no telling what it's going to be when those new television contracts hit ken, there will be some teams, depending on where they feel they are close enough to competing for a championship, that will do some different things to acquire what they need.

Now in terms of John Robinson and the Titans. It's important for that increase because if you want to pay and a J. Brown what you're going to have to, if you want to pay a Jeffrey Simmons what you're going to have to, it gives you a little more caveat and money to consider those things a year early before they get to you know, street money kind of stuff.

When you start looking at this, it's always important. I've cleared a couple of caps in my career, but you need to understand what you have to work with, what you're working for in the future, because when you build your cap, you're building your cap in three and four year segments. So it really helps knowing at least and Red is right coming off the first retraction that we've

ever had, you know where basically you were down. You know, I know the money was down fifteen million, but it's basically down twenty five because you're expecting at least a ten million dollars increase that you never saw. And so to me that it helps. It helps, but the real boost to it is going to be twenty twenty three. But it helps at least knowing where it's going to be over too, one hundred million the next one that you can work some of these extensions off of two.

That's something that people need to understand when you start talking about your roster, there are extensions, and rhet talked about those, but also with extensions, then you start looking at some of your other players that are carrying big cap numbers that you might be able to redistribute a little bit. So there's more to consider than just the

current free agent market. And I don't know a wide receiver who may or may not want to continue playing in a city that will call Atlanta in this case, No, but seriously, not just for the Tennessee Titans, for all of the teams in the National Football League. Does it change the way that they are approaching and looking at players who are still available right now that may come with contracts that a week ago. People are not necessarily

wanting to take on a bite that big. Our general manager's more willing to take a swing at a guy like a Julio Jones or some other bigger name free agent. Well, you understand, when you trade for a player that has a contract, he's going to get that money. Now, just how he gets the money is and you know how much you are going to be responsible for that's the issue.

That's the issue. So it's not it's not only the way that the acquiring team is looking at him, it's the way the team that he is leaving is looking at him too, because they could possibly be a part of his money that's he's going to get. We witnessed that here with Ryan Tanney. Right, we've already seen that it happens the National Football League. I've been involved in it. But the thing that happens is when that when that happens, then you've got to look at the length of that

contract where it fits with the other people. And you've also got to keep an eye on you know, your your capologist, Vin Marino, has to keep his eye on not only now, but three years from now. And that's where it helps. Going back to what you talked about here, at least knowing what the money is going to be in twenty twenty two. And in the grand scheme of things, eight million dollars is a lot of money to say me and my bank account. But in the grand scheme

of things, is eight million dollars a huge raise? Yes, all right, No, it is, it's enough. Because here's the thing you always need to keep operating capital during the year, and so as the cap rises and you are able to get your salary caps stair stepped on one your salaries stair stepped on one another, you can and then it doesn't become a big problem to keep operating capital because during the year you still need money to operate on. You can't spend your cap up to zero, and then

the season start. You can't say, okay, here's my credit card, max it out and the and sir, and the season starts because you need money during the season for a lot of transactions. Yeah, And I think Titans fans sometimes don't realize that. Not only Titans fans. Fans don't realize that. They just think the cap is like, okay, Amy, here you're going you're going out tonight and you've got two million dollars to spend, and spend it all and it doesn't matter what else goes on for the rest of

the year. That's a salary cap has to last. You not only signing your players, your top fifty three, it's it's going to have to be. It's going to have to be practice squad injury settlements, acquisitions of players during the season, rookie draft, class. So there's the salary cap is not just your salaries? Interesting interesting point. Well, guys,

so great to have you here on the OTP. Does anybody have thoughts or feelings as we get ready to face week two of the OTAs anything particular you're looking for? Rat two things I am looking forward to seeing more of is more Rashad Weaver, who has a large human being, and the same thing with Dylan Raden's. I like both

of those guys early on. I just you can see what they saw in them, what John Robinson sawing them, and I'm just like, I don't want to see them develop as we go along, but I like seeing those two big dudes get around. I'm looking forward to being back on the field with you and Rhett. That's what makes me so happy. I've watched football players for thirty five years. I haven't been able. I haven't been able

to be with you guys that long. But I agree with Rhet and I liked I like watching as we talked about when we started this, just the progressions these players are making. And I also when I go to practice, you know, and I listen to what the coaches are saying,

and the thing I'm listening. Is what you would like to see as you watch them coach these players when they go from individual to group to team, is that they're If they're speaking to them less and less and less, it means the players are getting it, or if they're constantly saying and you heard it said some today. I told you this in rookie camp. You don't want to hear that very much. You don't. You don't want to hear two weeks into it. You know, we went over

this two weeks ago. It goes back to the attention retention execution part of it. Coach Mac and Rehet Brian here eavesdropping at practice so that you the OT people do not have to. That's what we're here for, providing a service. Thank you. Thank you to both of you, Rhett and Coach Mac for being here today. Thank you to the OT people for tuning in. We're going to have so many more episodes of the Official Titans Podcast coming your way because this is just starting to get good. Guys.

We are back on the football field for some workouts and it feels so good for Rhet Brian, Coach mcdave McGinnis, I'm Amy Wells. Thank you, thank you, for tuning in to this edition of the OTP. We the Legends called everybody Knows It's our house. We got sighting Burter running through a vase.