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