The OTPQs: You Asked. We Answer.

Com Senior writer Editor. We're excited about this edition of the OTP because we're excited about all of them, but we're especially excited because your questions through the otpques, which have been compiled by Amy Wells. Tell people Amy how they submit OTP cues that we like to answer during the Official Titans Podcast. Titans Online dot Com slash o tp Q. I go in. There's a form, I gather all of the questions and then I asked them to you. Fine, gentlemen,

this is how this works. Let him roll, all right, We're going to start at the very beginning, and Jim, this one's directed at you, but everyone feel free to chime in. Mike, Oh sorry, sorry, Howard, this is from Howard in California. I got ahead of myself. Howard asks Mike Vrabel is taking on an additional role in the defense next season. How difficult is it for a head coach to be involved in game day play calling while still attempting to manage the game. How much of a

distraction is that at critical moments within a game. Well, and I'm only defer to coach Mike. I'm gonna let him jump in on this early because he knows that a lot better than I do. I would think that a lot of the work will be done during the course of the week that would make it easier on game day for him. You know, we watch him. You know we're on the few, the select few that get to watch practice and know how involved Mike Vrabel has

been in this defense ever since he's been here. I noticed him coaching guys up, making sure guys are on the right position. If something's not done right, do it this way. And then I'll watch games on Sunday and see some of the things that Mike Vrabel has taught during the course of week, see how it's executed, and thinking, Okay, this is something Vabel taught, and I think he'll continue. It will just be a continuation of what he has done.

I'm not trying to take away from anything Dan Piece has done, because this kind of been his show, but Mike Vrabel has been very much involved all the way through. This is gonna be different for him, and I'm gonna let coach Mike kind of explain that part of it. He can so much better than I can. Well, I've done this, I mean, I've done this, but your perspective, we have watched Mike Vrabel in practice, and he's involved

in much more than the defense. I mean, we watched him do a lot of things hands on with offensive players, with defensive players, And to your point about during game day, you know, Mike Vrabel is not one of those head coaches that stands on the sideline without a headset on. He is. He is very involved in what's going on. And you talked about the hands on teaching out here. He's also involved in the hands on implementation of game

plans during the week. I mean, I haven't set in any of those meetings, but I know that I know that just by talking to him, I know that just by watching him, this won't be this won't be an extra burden what he will do. I think if you know he brought Jim he you know, brought Jim Haslet in here. The one thing you cannot manufacture in this business is experience. You can't manufacture experience. Has has done everything, has has gone through the progression in this league too.

He's been he's been a position coach, he's been a coordinator, he's been a head coach. You know, I've been in the league. You know, you know has came up through. I've done a lot of things with Jim Haslett. He added a lot of experience to his staff, you know, which you've got to have. So he's got plenty of help. But he's also look these last two years, even with danps here, believe me, he's had a lot of hands on to do with this. So his hands on ability

and his hands on involvement will not change now. It will be, it will remain to be seen, and he may share this with us, he may not. As far as to who on game day is actually calling it play by play by play, We'll see how that works out. But this is not too big for Mike ver able to handle. I promise you I've done it now. Mack. You mentioned Jim Haslet and Michael Hayes from Guntersville Alabama knows that you know every person in the National Football

League pretty much. So he said, what do you know about Jim Haslett? Do you know him personally? Absolutely? I know him personally. You know when he when he came into the league. You know when we when the when the combine first started. You know now that they have they have so many of the extra quarterbacks they'll bring in to throw routes, you know, to the individual to individual drills. But we never did that. We we as assistant coaches would throw the drills. You know, That's why

my arm's gone right now. But has It myself? John Fox, I mean a lot of us used to work and throw those drills together. I mean I've known has You know, I knew has as a player when he was in the league. You know, had a very good career at Buffalo, you know, a very good career. Has Uh Who's Jim has It myself? Gary Kubiak and John Fox all interviewed for the New Orleans Saints head job at the same time. I mean, he's been a coordinator when I was a coordinator.

I know, I know has very very well excellent football coach. Really really gets the game from all different levels. He's a lot like Mike Vrabel and the fact that he came up as a player, you know, and as as a significant player in this league. I know has very well he's getting, you know what, and Raves knows him too. And what he's getting is he's getting an experienced football coach that has seen it from a lot of different angles. But as far as do I know Jim Haslett personally,

absolutely yes, I do. And it's a big thumbs up to me on this higher Now mack Is we're talking about coaches. I want to stick with you for just a second because Jerry from Saint Louis asks, how does the addition of secondary coach Anthony Midget improve this Titan secondary. It feels like for years the Titans have been giving up quite a few passing yards. Yeah, passing yards again, Jerry from Saint Louis, Passing yards means Z roll. Passing

yards means Z role. You know, touchdowns mean everything this defense. This defensive secretary carry Colms did a great job with

this secondary. It was it was a very first of all to watch them work and I think to really appreciate what this secondary does and what the secondary did with this defense, to watch them grow and to watch them practice, and a lot of the things that they were doing defensively, a lot of it, you know, and a lot of the problems that they gave opposing quarterbacks during the course of two seasons stem from the fact that they were so synchronized so well because of the

work that they put in and how intricate and detail they were as disguising coverages being able to work things. And then plus what he did, what carry did, he was able to come in as a as a new coach, you know, the National and the National Football League and very much and very much improved techniques. But they also trusted him. They trusted him, you know, because of his

energy and because of what he put into it. And he had a lot of different guys from a lot of different avenues at a lot of different points in their career that he assembled very very This was a very very good secondary. The last thing that you need to worry about. There's a lot of things in life

to worry about. With football, yards are the last thing you worry about defensively, Jim, I want to switch over to you and talk a little bit about offense, because we got a lot of questions about the offensive side of the ball as well, and this one comes from Ryan in Alabama. He says, do you think that John U. Smith and Corey Davis will get used, will be used,

excuse me in our offense more this upcoming season. I really like both of their games, that would love to see more of a role for them, I would think so. I mean, I think both those guys have continued to progress during the course of their career. We've seen it from John U. Smith. The more opportunities he gets, the more he takes advantage of them. So I continue to see I see continued improve it for him. I think with Corey Davis, you know he's gonna do what is

asked of him to do. And A J. Brown obviously coming off a tremendous rookie season, I expect to see that to continue as well. And you know Davis a great blocker. You know, certainly when given opportunities, he has made a lot of plays for this team. I think that's what's I think you've got to be so optimistic about as you look forward to next season with this offense, you got A J. Brown heading the second year should be that much more improved. Corey Davis as a pro

with this point does all the dirty work. Adam Humphreys another year in the system as long as than keep him healthy. I mean, you've got a good threesome at receiver right there. And we'll have to see what happens with ty J. Sharp and free agency and see you know who maybe who else is competing on the back end. But I like the weapons on this team, and uh, I think both those guys going to get a lot of opportunities moving forward. The thing to keep in mind, please,

is that you have one football per play. Yeah, and that's I mean, you have one football per play, and we've got you've got a lot of weapons, so you know, and and I get this question also just out you know about Corey Davis is a is a good player, and Corey Davis is is a big part of this offense. You know. But to say, well, they be used more, I mean that they're used in conjunction with what the game plan is. But as I said, one ball per play till the XFL throws in three or four, then

we'll adjust. And a lot of times that ball is going to the running back too, so that limits, like I get, you know, continue to get will Ryan Tannehill, you know he didn't play very on the post in the postseason. Is passing over more goodwood because he's through the ball, you know, fourteen times in the first game, in fifteen times second game. Because this team's relying on the running game and that impacts the targets that the receivers are getting. It's not that the receivers had an

off day on some of those days. It's just the game plan caller for you to run the football and that that's gonna impact, you know, targets and catches. Let me take you into you know, you talk about game plan, and that's a good when you're game planning as a coach on offense or defense. I promise you the first thing that you do not do when you go into a game plan is how many yards can we get this guy this game? How many yards can we get this guy this game? That's you go into it, and

how can we win this game this week. That's what good game play is. That's what you saw this football team do last year, a really good job of winning games week to week that they had to win, especially down the stretch, regardless of where the football went. Now, Jim, you brought up Bryan Tannehill. So we have to do this combined question from a variety of ot people who just threw out some names as quarterback possibilities for the

Tennessee Titans. So Steve from Manhattan, Kansas, Luke from Nashville, Tennessee, they both threw out some names. If Tannehill isn't the option, would Teddy Bridgewater be a good option to pursue. What about Blake Bortle's what about Tom Brady? What about Philip Rivers? We've got a running list here. So let's just for this point in the OTP, let's talk about the quarterback. Do you think that there's an option at free agency?

Do you think that there's an option at draft? Do you think that there's an option of signing Ryan Tannehill. Let's talk about it now. I think all those are options. I think the noble one is Ryan Tannehill. I continue to get questions about Tom Brady and my mail bag, and my answer has always been the same one. I'm not going to disrespect Ryan Tannehill by talking about some of these other guys based on what he did in

twenty nineteen and two. I always say I like my job too much than to put myself in a position where I'm accused of tampering by talking about a quarterback that's on somebody else's roster. At this point, I always think, what would the general manager safe He's listening to this and hearing me talking about guys who are employed by other teams right now. So I'll talk about Tanney Hill now, but I'm not in a position where I feel comfortable

talking about anybody else but him until something's resolved. There. There's plenty of time to talk about everybody. And Jim's right, I mean, that's the you know right now, right now that you know, the focus is and the conversations are, how can we make this football team better for next year? That's what That's what everything is focused on, and that's that's what John Robinson and Mike Vrabel and everybody that's involved in a decision making position is involved with right now.

And just throwing out random names. I mean, it might make for good clicks, but it's that's not what they're doing right now. I think it needs to be pointed out. To take Jem's point a step further, players are under contract until the next fiscal year starts on March the eighteenth, and there is a legal tampering period. I think it's March the sixteenth through the eighteenth where free agents have

a chance to do that. Now, Philip rivers situation is a little different because he and the Chargers have announced that he will not be back even though he's under contract, so that's maybe a little bit of a different one. I'm gonna tell you what I told my mother at dinner the other night. Okay, where are you guys eating? We were eating the Connors, which is always good, Connor Steakhouse at Cool Springs. Love the Connors. But I said,

with John Robinson, anything is possible. We've seen it. We've seen him go, you know, We've seen him go shopping everywhere. We've seen him go shopping at Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, you know, go to the fanciest stores. We've seen him shop flea markets. We've seen him shop online. We've seen him shop the discount stores. We've seen him shop everything in between. He's gonna look at every single option that's best for the

football team. And when people ask me at church, when my mama asked me, when anybody asked me, that's what I say to them right now is I'm not getting into specifics. I don't know who's who, But Jim, I think that's what in four years of covering this man, I think that's what we've learned, is that John Robinson is gonna look at every option. We don't know what he thinks, We don't know what his conversations with Anna Hills agent has been, like Tannehill has a new agent,

who knows. But I think the unpredictability of John Robinson is one of his strengths as he goes to maneuver. However, we don't know anything except what his past history is, and that is that he's going to look at everything. Yeah, and that's taking the market into consideration. Sure, we've mentioned some of the quarterbacks who could become available and there it's a pretty long list quarterback and that's going to influence what guys are gonna make or what their value

is across the league. And again, as you stated, we don't know what talks alike with Ryan Tannehill or Derrick Henry or some of these other agents. Vin Marino and John Robinson worked through that on a daily basis, But we also all know their different avenues where you can keep players using tags, those are costly and they can impact what you are able to do in other areas, and free as you don't want to handcuffed yourself by signing a guy or two and you lose everybody else

along the way. So there's a lot of things that you have to consider as you make these decisions. And we're still several weeks away before you really have to make some hard decisions and free agency starts. Now, you guys reference something that Chad from Mount Juliet actually asked about, So, just for clarification's sake, to talk about all of the tools that John Robinson has at his disposal, he says, could y'all explain the difference between the franchise tag and

the transition tag? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? You want me to take that? Yes, I had put something together just as sort of a something that I would know so that I would understand. Okay, we're in the last year of the collective Bargaining Agreement between the players and the owners. Because this is the last capped year of that CBA, teams have a right to use

both tags, the franchise tag in the transition tag. In a normal year, teams can only use one of those, but because it's the last cap to year, both tags are available. The franchise tag can be used on one player. That means that player is going to be designated a salary that is the average of the top five players at his position over a five year period, or one hundred twenty percent of what he made the last year,

whichever is higher. So if one hundred and twenty percent of his salary from the year before is higher than the top five average, then he gets that hundred and twenty percent. All that money counts against the cap. Okay, So if so and so gets a twenty million dollar franchise tag, that's twenty million. That's a bite out of the cap right away, and that's why it's a disadvantage to the teams. There are two types of franchise tags.

There's the non exclusive and that allows the player to negotiate with other teams his current team can match if they choose not to. That team is entitled to two first round picks okay from the other team. From the other team, so that's the non exclusive. The exclusive tag, which is rarely used, does allow does not allow a player to negotiate with other teams. He's tagged, all right,

so that's franchise. The transition tag can be used on one player per team this year, pledging a player the average salary of the top ten players at his position. The transition tag allows a player to negotiate with other teams. His team can match, his current team can match, but if they don't, his current team gets nothing, all right. The tag window starts on February twenty fifth and runs through March tenth, so if you're going to tag a player, you have to do it in that February twenty fifth

to March tenth window. The league normally announces the official tag values at each position around March first. Here are the estimates for quarterback and running back that I've seen, and I'm just throwing these out based on different things i've read, but I think they're gonna be pretty close. The quarterback transition tag number is going to be about twenty seven million dollars. That's twenty seven million in salary for twenty twenty. The transition for quarterbacks is going to

be about twenty five million. For running back, the franchise tag number is going to be at ten point four million. The transition is going to be about eight point six million. Teams can use the tag. So let's say that Team X tags their quarterback. They have until July the fifteenth to negotiate a new deal, so they could go ahead and slap the tag on their quarterback and can hold him in place basically, and then they have until July

fifteenth to make a new deal. If they don't buy July fifteenth, then he's playing the year under whatever tag they have applied. So it's franchise transition. And that's and that's how it works. And at this point, with no new CBA in place, and that could change, each team can use both of those this year when in a normal year they can they have to pick one. Let me add one caveat to all that for those things, to all of that, that was a wonderful explanation. No,

it's perfect, and that was beautiful. That's perfect For all of that stuff to happen. The player has to sign the tag. They have to sign it because that the tag can still be put on a player and they can refuse to sign it. That is also that is also in play. Tags can be withdrawn. Absolutely, that's that's

a part of it too. And with the new CBA, this is a question I don't know the answer too, and you guys might let's say this team wants to use to TAG two years in a row without without a CBA in place, Do we know whether that's going to be I think rules would theoretically apply right now based on what's in place. I mean, everybody is going with the theory that you're that you're that you've got to think about the rules that are in place now.

But I think there's some understanding that some of these things are going to change, So so teams are having to look at it as we've got to go with what we know right now, because we have no choice to know what's going to happen in the future. And that's why the player's decision about whether or not they are going to accept the offer and potentially put some caveats of the new CBA into the twenty twenty season, you know, that's all up in the air right now,

all right. Susan from Franklin, She said, I think that chemistry on this team is a big part of our success last year. That being said, how will we resign all of our free agents and still have enough money to sign our draft picks. Jim, Well, I don't know when this team is not going to sign all the free agents. I think you know, between unrestricted, restricted, exclusive, right free agent, I think it equals twenty two. Now I expect half of those guys back. I mean, maybe

not even that number. And every year across the league, I mean there're at least a twenty twenty five percent turnover every season between new free agents and draft pick. So chemistry from one season to the next. I think you're able to keep some of it in place because as long as you have your core guys bike but it's I think every year it's kind of a new year, and you've got to got to build that during the course of the off season and that you know, during

the course of the season. Now I'm gonna build on Jim. And regardless of whether you have free agents or not, and the number of the percentage Jim is higher than twenty five percent, it's it's it's a little over thirty percent every year, regardless of how many free agents you have. That's the one thing that is a is a constant in the National Football League since since the free agency and you know, came in. The free agency and the salary cap have made this a constant. It's about a

thirty percent flip every year. So you're never going to have the same team year to year to year. That ended when free agency and the salary cap came in. Now, Mac, I'm gonna stick with you because Richard and Virginia asks, is there a scenario where we have enough cap space to sign Ryan, Tannehill, Derrick Henry and Logan Ryan. Sure you do, I mean you do. I mean you can. You can maneuver. You can maneuver the cap. Vin Marino is one of the best thing. I mean, these guys. Look,

I've worked a cap before. I mean, I've cleared a cap. I mean, just you know, because that's what I did. You know, when I was a head coach and when I was a coordinator and an assistant head coach was involved in these types of things. There are different the cap is. I mean, there's a there's there used to not be a floor to the cap that you had

to spend too. There was only a ceiling. Now that once they put a floor in, and the floor is going to change too as far as how much you know what they call cash over cap that you absolutely have to spend per year. But there are a lot of ways that you can maneuver a cap as to where you can move money. You know, one place and another and and the biggest thing is is even with players on your team, you can renegotiate and give them a chunk of their money and make it a signing

bonus where you can pro rate it out. There's a lot of things that you can do with a cap. So it's not just we have this pile of money, we have this many players. And once you reach zero, you read zero. You hardly ever reach zero in essence. Now Tony from New Zealand says, first off, I love listening to the show. It's the best way to get Titans news on the other side of the world. New

Zealand is rather far away. Guys. My question for you is at what stage can John Robinson begin negotiations with the Titans pending free agents They've already started, yeah, I mean right now. Yeah, I think it probably got a lot of a lot of lines of communication that are being worked, you know as we speak and at and a lot of times these things don't get finalized until

you get closer to a deadline. And I know it used to be, you know, you'd have the combine and then the combine would end on maybe a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and free agency would start that Wednesday. I mean, so a lot of times the negotiations were fast and furious in Indianapolis because you had to make decisions. This year, we've got the combine and you still got a couple of weeks left until free agency start. So, uh, you know, there's potential something could happen with guys here before the

Combine even starts later this month. But I still expect a lot of things will start to take, you know, start to happen once you get closer that deadline in the middle of March. But it's already started because to that point when we were discussing earlier, the Titans players are still under contract with the Titans until the start of the fiscal year March the eighteenth. So yes, you can have those conversations, Jim. I think they'll probably sign.

I mean, we'll probably have some news in the next two to three weeks of some guys going ahead and making deal. Yeah, I think so too, and some of them, mean who that is I don't know, but that that happens with every team. But I think the you know, the longer goes. You know, the players obviously are curious about the market and curious to see what they might get at other places. Some of them obviously might not have a choice because of the tag that we have

talked about that could be applied. But I wouldn't be surprised if we have some deals happened here in the next couple of weeks. And coach, sometimes the teams want players to go test the market. No, absolutely, and that's part of the negotiation, you know, depending on where and where the player is, depending on what the market is. As you said, Mike, is is very you know, sometimes that's part of the negotiation. And and you will say

that to go test it. You will say that to the players representative, go test it, and then you know, let's see if you've if you've reached you know, an impass. And I'm not talking about a hard impass. I'm just talking about if you want to talk in generalities. Absolutely, that's part of the negotiating process. But that's also why to both of your points, why the league has changed

their calendar. That's a big reason because the league sets their calendar and they they found out, you know, throughout the years. And Jim just brought up the fact that, you know, we used to be scrambling I mean quite a bit, you know, and so all of this, all

of this thing takes place. It's I mean and for our listeners, and our listeners get great information from the OTP here because this is they You need to understand that it's not just a real hard and fast Okay, this is how much money we have, and let's sign everybody right now. There's a whole lot too right now, having a lot of being able to keep your powder dry, keep everything close to your chest with what you're doing.

You know, when I first started in this league, Bill Tobin had a big sign in his personnel room and the only thing it said was loose lips sink ships. So don't talk right now. You don't talk right now outside of what's going on. That's the way. But there's a lot of conversation going on right now. I guarantee it, all right, Mac, let's talk about some players on the defensive side of the ball. Sean from Bluemont, Virginia says, what do you think DeAndre Walker's impact could be next

year after being out history. Sean, I like that. I like that question, thank you very much, because I think this is one of the or gotten players. And you know,

he was on he was put on. I remember, you know, when when Mike Keith and I were doing the draft this year and we got down to that point and we were both looking and and he asked me during the who is here now at this point you know that we could use and this was one of the guys that we had had pinpointed because of you know, he's not a and I think at the time Mike is what I said was, this is not a player

that's that's got great height, but he plays long. He plays long, he's got you know, and and I really liked the way that I liked the way he played, and I thought that he would really fit into what Mike Varabel wanted to do because he's a he's a high energy player. He's a player that they used in a lot of different positions, you know, once they put him on IR And as you said, I'm one of the fortunate ones with the other three of you that get to watch practice every day. You could watch him

work Uh, you know, I talked to him. I talked to him several times this year, just coming off from his workout when I would be standing watching, you know, and you know, said, you know, how's it going? How you I mean this guy I was. I was excited about him last year, you know when we and right before he got hurt, if you'll remember, we had one the op. Yeah, and I said, this guy is coming on because he's you could just see him, you know, start to work into what he is and and I'm

I'm excited for him. I'm excited for the club to see what he can do. But I think he'll be a help. Well. Corey from Ottawa, Canada kind of has a follow up question to that. He's I love listening to the show. It's hard to get Titans content up here in Ottawa. Question for the group, where is our linebacker opposite Harold Landry going to come from? Will it be from the draft or free agency? Or could it be someone like DeAndre Walker group. I think it's to

be a combination of a lot of guys. I mean, you know, we've got Corea, who obviously depends on what happens to him in free agency. He into the season really well. But uh, you know, then you got Joe andre I think the draft him. I look at the team needs and where it needs to make strides in two twenty, and I think edge rushers one of them. I think you need more of a consistent pressure coming

from the outside. And you know, and I look at this year's draft class, that is one of the areas I think I suspect the team would be looking at. But I think it's gonna be a combination of a lot of guys. Cameron Wakes another interesting name too, to see if at age thirty eight, he wants to make another run at it. And there are a bunch of

guys in free agency that are really intriguing. If you decide to a lot some of your resources in that area, it means you're going to take resources away from another area because you think that this might make you better. Kansas City did that with Frank Clark. They let Justin Houston walk and they went and traded for Frank Clark and then gave him a contract and he played really, really excellent fundamental football for them. Well that's one hundred

percent correct. And those are all the avenues that you have and when you start to look at the list of free agents because you mentioned that, Mike, there are guys now some of those as we'll be off the market because that is that that's a valuable piece, you know, to any defense, because you know, basically this game is now, you know, move the football, and if you're moving the football through the air, the biggest, the biggest piece defensively

is go get the guy that's moving it through the air. And so that's gonna be that's gonna be a part of it. And it's not just about sacks. It's about being able to put you know, consistent pressure into and and and then to be able to walk people down when they do get off schedule. So all of these things. But they've got they're going to pursue all of these avenues. I've started, I've got a notebook over here. I've started the draft and I started with you know, with that position.

There there are guys there. Now, there there's separations like they're always are there levels, But that's that's part of being an evaluator, in which John Robinson and his group have proven that they're really good at evaluating those guys. I mean, it's not necessarily the top guys sometimes that make your draft. Some of the times, it's those guys that you find that have a piece and a and a function that fits what you are going to do

and you're able to identify that. Robertson's another guy you know, who ended strong, who ended really well, and I'm curiously what he looks like you're too, And that, to my point, is one of those guys that they identified. They they you know, Mike Vrabel, They went and worked him out, you know, down there at sam Houston State to watch him. He brought him in for a pre draft, brought him

in for the pre draft though. That's that's what talent acquisition is about, is is digging and identifying and then being able to slot it. All right. Cole from McAllen, Texas asks guys, what can the Titans do to start the season stronger in twenty twenty? Coach Mac, you seem excited about McAllen Texas. You start us off. I love McCallen, Texas. I've done high school clinic in McAllen, Texas. Just for the record, where is McCallan, Texas? Right down there on

the tip ah Corpus Corpus CHRISTI Okay, yeah. So anyway, the thing, the thing that that the question was what do you do to start? I mean, look, there's a long way for we don't even know who we're gonna play start with, right, Okay, So I mean you don't even know who who you play, So all of that

stuff starts now with the talent acquisition. Then it goes through OTAs, then it goes through you know, once you to once you find out who that who that opponent is, you know, then then then you start to work towards beating that opponent because as we all know and our listeners on the OTP know also, the National Football League is really a collection of one week seasons. It's a

collection of one week seasons. And so you do everything that you can to put together a group looking at the big picture before you even know who you're going to play, and then you start to focus on once we know who it's going to be. So that's my best answer after thirty four years of doing this. Yeah, and it's a team game. But obviously, you know you gotta have good quarterback play from the beginning. I mean last year, I look at the start, I mean obviously

the game in Cleveland was a was a beauty. But uh, you know, you score seven points at Jacksonville. You know, you get shut out against Denver, you score seven points against Buffalo, And this offense was sputter early last season, and then in Week seven when the quarterback change was made, the offense kind of took off. So it's a combination of the offensive coordinator the quarterback, but the entire offense got played better, and I think quarterback play was shaky

at the beginning of this season. Look, last year's start was really good. I mean, how excited worldly after that started at Cleveland, after everything that had been made of Cleveland. I mean, so it's not how you start, it's how you play week to week till week that is so important because you talk about it. See this we just came off to me one of the one of the best runs that I've ever seen a teammate in the National Football League. But it was a run at the

end of the season. So you can't differentiate between start, middle, and end. It all has to fit together. And as I said, again, it's a collection of one week seasons, but it would be good to not start too and four that's well normally worked it worked out good this should I would not want to draw to that stack again. We've done it twice. We're two of we're two of the only four teams in league history to start two and four and make an AFC Championship. Would prefer to

do it, you know? For one? Yeah, that would be good, And that's to your point, is right? We would We would prefer that, all right. David from the United Kingdom has an interesting question. He said coach Mac had to have had a team that he cheered for when he first started following football. Then as he moved jobs, his allegiance had to change. Do you still have a sore spot for a particular team or do you just move on and forget? Is that sore spot or sweet spot?

Soft spot? Soft spot? Is that I say this? I went to when when I when I was when I was a junior and a senior in high school, I worked at a summer camp down in the hill country down around Kerville, and I I went to the Houston

Oilers training camp at Shriner Institute for two summers. Charlie Toler that I loved the Houston Oilers idem It's amazing, you know, because you know I went, you know, I went there, and of course everybody, a lot of people, everybody in Texas, you know, was a Cowboy fan, you know, the whole Tom Landry thing. And then I went to TCU, so I was right there going across. But my first training camps that I ever went to as a high school junior and senior was the Houston Oilers at Shriner

Institute in Kerrville, Texas. It was outstanding. So here I am sitting here right now. Wow, well there you go. Isn't that crazy? But we do get asked that question a lot about as. Yeah, I loved the Bills. I loved Oj. Uh. You know, that's my first memories of watching Football's a year when he went for two thousand and three and I was, I was, you know, six

years old, and uh, I still remember that. And I love the Bills, you know from UH from those days with Joe Fergus the quarterback and OJ Simpson you know, Miami had to arm electric company. Yeah, and I remember, you know, back when Monday Night football you show halftime highlights, that'd be the only time you can watch the Bills, not like it was when UH with Sports Center around. So I was a Bills fan all the way through

those days when Jim Kelly was a quarterback. I actually drove to Atlanta and bought a single Super Bowl ticket and went by myself the year they lost the fourth Super Bowl in a row, and uh you know, had a Buffalo Bills beach tower that I hung out my college dorm window the year that they won one game, they beat the Cowboys, and I hung that outside my window. But it's different when you start to work for a team,

all that allegiance goes out the window. I think I probably still have a soft spot for the Bills, but uh not, it's not like it used to be. Did you have a team you chaired for my Damas Cowboys? Yeah? Yeah, it largely Bills beat the Cowboys in nineteen eighty five, the only win of the years not in that Super Bowl, though you went to and I hosted a great party that night. Another reason I followed the Dallas Cowboys was

because of dd Lewis. Dd Lewis is from Knoxville and he grew up in my family's neighborhood in North Knoxville and went to my dad and mom's high school, and they became Cowboy fans because of him and another guy named Ryan Widby, who was a football and basketball player at the University of Tennessee, who was a Cowboys punter, and so yeah, I was Cowboy fan. And don't tell I'm I'm glad I never had to say that in front of mister Adams case. I don't think mister Adams

would have liked that very much. See, when I got hired here, I told mister Adams that story that I just told right now, and he looked at me, and I like that. I was pretty good from that. Well, that was one of the challenges for us. And I've said this on a few occasions. I didn't know any Whitler's fan, did you, Jim? I mean? And so we brought this team here that nobody really knew that much

about they. There weren't a lot of players because when we tried to hire our first color analyst for Titans Radio, we said, okay, the the ultimate would be to hire a former Tennessee vall who played for the Houston Oilers. That would be a great move. There weren't any the oiler. The only Oiler that that played at Tennessee was a linebacker named Steve Kiner, who was kind of out there a little bit um, so we said, really good player. I'm not really good player, a little bit of a

little bit of a different character. But he didn't live here anyway. But then we said, okay, well, how about a former Vanderbilt commodore who played for the Houston Oilers. That would make sense. There weren't any There was like a putter and he was like from the early sixties ors you know. There there wasn't anybody. So we said, okay, well how about somebody who played for any state school who played for the Oilers Memphis or TSU or whomever.

There weren't any because the majority of the people who played for the Houston Oilers, they got the majority of their players from the Southwest Conference. There were they they had signed over the years. Celbricado and the rest of that group stayed around the Southwest Conference. So that was one of our real challenges is there was no allegiance in this area because there had been virtually no tieans.

We didn't see them much on TV. And that was part of getting you know, when the team came to Memphis and Vanderbilt, there were no built in fans to go run see them play. So we had to establish that identity long answer to your question, but it was. It was a really interesting thing for us because we there was there was no connect. It was like they were dropped in on us. I had no opinion on the Houston Oilers. I rooted for him some weeks, I

rooted against him somewhere. You know, I didn't know anything about him, really. I knew Earl Campbell and Dan Pastorini, but you know, so in finding out more about their history and working for him this time, it's been really a lot of fun to see. And again, but you're a Texas guy. I'm a Texas guy. And again I'm probably one of the few that's been to their training

camp in the Hill Country, I would imagine. And also then when they moved, they moved their training camp to sant Angelo, right and then, and sant Angelo is like eighty miles from where I grew up. And so yeah, I told mister told mister Adams all this when when he hired him, I did not tell him my story, and he liked it. He liked mine. Did you have, Mike, did you have one of those wool jackets with the plastic sleeves. Everybody used to wear a shirt had the

Sears catalog. My brother and I had bunk beds and we had the Sears catalog, NFL kurt and sheets and comforters with all the NFL teams. That's really cute. Oh love, Yeah, that's it's that's outstanding. But it seemed like the NFL. If you grew up in this area, it seemed like the NFL was in another planet. And so when we moved and when we got a team here, it was like, this is the coolest thing ever, because a lot of us were NFL, huge NFL fans and never thought we'd

get to It's like hiring Jim Haslet here. That's still so cool to me because I've watched Jim Haslet since he played for Buffalo, and so to see him walking down the hall, You're like, that's Jim Haslet. How about that he used to coach the Saints. How about that even after twenty years, that's still exciting to me because I was a fan of the league way before I ever went to work for a team. Right, that was actually a really good answer. I'm pleasantly No, I'm pleasantly

by that. Wow, thank you. Here's Bow from Big Stone Gap, Virginia and he asked home of Thomas Jones, former NFL running back yep, former Cardinal running back to coach mc drafting, you drafted Thomas Jones. How about that this world is getting smaller and smaller in here. I tell you what, what did you guys, especially Mike Keith think of the XFL kickoffs given that the XFL just became a real thing, we got our first weekend to experience all of that.

Kind of liked what they did. Ninety one percent of their kickoffs were returned, as opposed to thirty six percent of NFL kickoffs. I want to see more. I want to see how teams scheme it, to see if they can break anybody loose because of the setup. I think it's safer, which is good. I think it's a way to potentially keep the kickoff in the game and have it be a football play instead of sixty four percent touchbacks. So yeah, I thought it was good. I thought I

thought the XFL overall was pretty good. I watched almost an entire game on Saturday. I watched all four games. Did you really absolutely? I had one TV going watching them and had the other one going doing the draft, and we can't turn them off. But the first person I thought of all seriousness, which you know how serious go to Mike is all was Mike Keith on the kickoffs. I liked that kickoff. I did too. I liked that

concept and it makes sense. And you started talking about if you'll notice, I mean because I started watching that for most all of every one of them, they tried to run a sideline. The returner went to the sideline to try to take away the numbers, to reduce the numbers. So I think to your point, what you will start seeing is you will start seeing some turns you know as to where they will try to But I like that. I like that part of it. I thought of you immediately.

It's first I said, I hope, Mike. I knew you would be watching. It's a better football play than a touch and I agree with that one hundred percent, Mike. And again that's my complaint about the whole kickoff thing is I don't want to see guys line up and the kicker just kick it through the end zone. That's a waste of my time. But I thought of you immediately when that thing started. And the XFL stuff, nice job they did. They did a good the production of

it was good. And here's the other thing that you can tell. I mean, you can tell money when you see money, it's got money behind it. You can tell just with the production. Well if that and they're not and Oliver Luck came out and said this, they're commissioner. They're not trying to be the NFL. They're not trying

to compete with the NFL. They're not doing what they did the first time around with you know, some of the silliness and stuff like that, which I mean, I'm all for silly sometimes, but this looked like just good football. I enjoyed it. I'm going to be interested to see how the ratings keep up before we get to March madness.

You know, that's their challenges. They've got to do well in February because when basketball starts to get serious and baseball starts coming around and then they have competition, can they get a niche established before that happens. But Week one I thought, I thought nice work, and on TV, I thought they did a great job. Yeah, and I

flipped through. I can't say I'll watch games from beginning to end, but I probably watched good, you know, parts of at least I think three games and I was entertained too, And I like to kick off from a safety standpoint is much better. You don't have guys spreading down the field and you don't have those high impact collisions. I was surprised more people didn't go for two instead of going for one. A lot of the one point tries, you know, we're not successful. I think I'd go for

two every time. I wouldn't go for two as well. Help you help your odds and uh so, I'm surprised more teams didn't do that. I'll be curious to see how that goes moving forward, all right, Marty from Scotland real quick was asking Marty from Scotland. Marty from Scotland the country like the country? Yeah, not like Scotland, Tennessee. Is that a place, ye, very close to Scotland the country.

He asked you. Any of you have any Scottish connections in your family here Keith Scotland, Keith Glad, I mean, yeah, we're Scottish. Are you like Scottish Royalty? No? No, no, no, uh Keith. Scotland is well known for wool shepherds. Most of the most of the people there are shepherds. That seems about right. See, that is the only type of information that you could get on the OTP. I'm dying to go to Scotland to meet my you know, meet my ancestors, because that's a Jim's looking it up right now.

That's one hundred percent a real thing. Yes, I talk about doing that, Mike, and that's a cool thing. And you need to do that because you know, I'm Irish and I went to you know, I went to Ireland to do that. That's a cool thing to do it. Yeah, I'm very interested to do it. It's cool thing to do. Well, there you go, Marty us there on the OTP. We're talking. I'm talking to my guy Marty. There you go. All right, this is the last question. You guys are gonna think

I made this up, but I really didn't. It came through the line Titans Online dot Com slash otpq Andy from Brentwood, Tennessee, says, I am suffering from some serious amy wells wonders withdrawals. What happened to it? What's brewing is a great segment, and it's awesome to hear from all of you. But AWW gave us an insightful and sometimes eerily dark look inside Amy's brain? Why not do both segments? Also, there's a caveat Amy is definitely not paying me to say this just so that she can

get a solo segment. Again. The people want enough. Don't you think Amy Wells Wonders became What's Brewing? Well? Yeah, but you all are involved. Amy Wells Wonders was just me, But you're the one that came up with What's Brewing? I did, and I expanded it to the masses. But I mean so, I mean, isn't that the answer to the question is that you basically did away with Amy Wells Wonders when you came up with What's Brewing? I think so, But I think Andy wants more. You think so?

I think Andy is asking why right now? Tell us, well, I'm wondering why you guys don't want to give me more time in this podcast. You're hosting the podcast today. I'm just giving the people what they want. What was my man's name from Brentwood? Andy? Andy? The consensus at this table right now, I just took a vote. Everybody loves Amy Wells Wonders. There it is. It came through. I am just I am just the conduit. I'm the one asking the questions of the OT people, and you

guys get a great job. And if people want to ask their questions again, tell them. I mean, this is not the Jim White mailback. No, no, this is different. It's totally different. Jim, is there anything in here you would like to steal for this week's mailbag? A lot of great questions in there. There were good us, a lot of good ones. I really like the OT people. Yeah, you too. I'm a big fan thet P. Well. I couldn't believe the response we got on the road trips

during the playoffs. I was dumbfounded by how many people listen to the podcast and and just elated and how nice they were about it. I mean, it was really it was really heartwarming. Everyone has been exceptionally kind regarding the podcast. As we've kind of gotten this thing started and have continued to try new things and change it, people have been just so gracious. I want Jim Haslet on the podcast. I want to sit down and talk.

I want to hear some stories from Jim Haslet. Has has got some Yeah, I'm sure he's a former linebackers. That's you start there. Yeah. I just hope he doesn't tell any concerning he and I both. He's a really good football coach though, And when Jim told me he's like, hey, I think it's Jim Haslet, I was like, seriously, I mean he's really this Jim Haslet I've always liked has a lot, you know, as as just a guy too. Yeah, well he fits. The head coach is kind of mix, right,

What more can you ask for? Again? Tell people how they can ask the questions. Titans Online dot Com slash otp Q. Keep them coming because we will do more of these. I think these shows are so fun. Jim Wyatt has done a great job at Titans online dot Com recently, You've written a lot of really good things. The thing comparing the leaders from twenty eighteen to twenty nineteen was fascinating. Yeah, and you can tell how big of a jump this team made in so many different

categories compared to a year ago. A lot of them. You know, A J. Brown established himself, We talked about him earlier, Ryan Tannehill obviously, Derrick Henry, you know, great strides by this team in two thousand nineteen, and now got to figure out here, try to keep as many of these guys with the squad and have momentum going into camp. Jim Wyatt at Titans Online dot Com, Senior

writer editor. How can you follow Jim Wyatt on various social media playform at j Wyatt Sports on Twitter and Instagram at Titans Amy, Amie and you were on one oh four five Coach Mac at what time? All the time, all the time. He's on twenty first set. I saw they're promoting a minigod sitting here on Twitter and night they're promoting them being on today. Yeah, I'm on, I'm on. I'm on officially, I'm on Monday's, Wednesdays and Thursdays, but I pop in a lot. I had dinner last night

at the Southern. I had the person serving said, Coach Mike, really glad to have you here. I really enjoyed you and Mike Keith. I also enjoy the Titans podcast Wow Hey, better known as the OTP. The OTP which is good mention of the Southern in there too. I like how you work that is, that's a good spot. So Connors the Southern get props this week after Crystal. Last week Crystal got some love Crystal. Crystal was fired up about the mine. They were very excited. Um, I'm going to

the Southern for dinner tonight. So that's another Southern mansion. I really am. That's good reservation. Well, good for you. Well, that's why we need to conclude this edition of the OTP so you can make it otherwise she would keep talking for Amy Wells, Jim Wyatt and coach Dave McGinnis. Mike Keith says, thanks for listening to this edition of the o tp Q