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Speaker 1: with the home field advantage for almost seventy five years.
Speaker 1: Maybe wells on, Mike Keith and many. Camp is complete.
Speaker 1: We made it. The majority of the players are gone.
Speaker 1: The rookies are here for another week. It is a
Speaker 1: week right, Yes, it's a weekend. And then everyone reconvenes
Speaker 1: the last weekend July to start the slog towards August
Speaker 1: thirteenth in Atlanta, the first preseason game, and then obviously
Speaker 1: and more importantly September twelfth, here at Nissan Stadium against
Speaker 1: the Arizona Cardinals at noon Central time. We have reached
Speaker 1: the six weeks of summer. Here it is. This is
Speaker 1: pretty much it for everybody where you can pretty safely
Speaker 1: get lost. Ye yes, And the coaches will get lost
Speaker 1: for a period of time, people on staff will get lost,
Speaker 1: The players will continue to train. This was always the
Speaker 1: period of the year when I first arrived at the team,
Speaker 1: that the coaching staff and the personnel staff were worried
Speaker 1: about so much because guys would just go off and eat,
Speaker 1: which is what I do. Well, your level of responsibility
Speaker 1: slightly different. So when I got here in the late nineties,
Speaker 1: that was a real concern. So guys come back just
Speaker 1: incredibly overweight, or they would have gained a bunch of
Speaker 1: weight since they last saw them. That would happen. It
Speaker 1: didn't happen all the time, but it did happen. You know,
Speaker 1: Eddie George would go off to you know, the desert
Speaker 1: somewhere or wherever he went to, you know, yeah, and
Speaker 1: train like crazy. Other guys not so much. That's not
Speaker 1: really what they do. Other guys be driving through at
Speaker 1: steak and shake, you know, and what all people do
Speaker 1: in the summer. Right, But that was the whole thing. Well,
Speaker 1: now they continue to train. They go to California, they
Speaker 1: go to Arizona, they go to Florida, you know, all
Speaker 1: of those sorts of things, and even if they travel
Speaker 1: a little bit, they go places where they can continue
Speaker 1: to work out and it never changes. I can't remember
Speaker 1: the last guy I saw who came in and you thought, boy,
Speaker 1: he's been doing nothing. Yeah, guys trained, but they found
Speaker 1: beautiful places to train, right, everybody trains in like Arizona.
Speaker 1: These beautiful facilities are in Florida or at a spawn
Speaker 1: in California, like I mean, or the Bahamas or something
Speaker 1: crazy like that. And I'm sure the workouts are very
Speaker 1: rigorous and very hard and not what I would like
Speaker 1: to be doing. But like I would go to the
Speaker 1: Bahamas to train, sure that, I mean that sounds fine.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean what they do is pretty
Speaker 1: Nutso it's like the hit CrossFit to a completely different level.
Speaker 1: It is. It is hardcore, and the things that like
Speaker 1: Derrick Henry does just for fun, just to see what
Speaker 1: would happen, are bananas. But still I'd be more inclined
Speaker 1: to do impossible workouts in a beautiful tropical play get it.
Speaker 1: But they're with their families and they're able to get away.
Speaker 1: And you have some of this because some of the
Speaker 1: guys with children, who you know, we're sort of penned
Speaker 1: down during the pandemic are going to see the grandparents
Speaker 1: and going to visit family and going to be with
Speaker 1: friends and doing things that they can now with all
Speaker 1: of the vaccination that is going on. The vaccination was
Speaker 1: the biggest news of the week in the league. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it overshadowed Aaron Rodgers. Again, it overshadowed everything that was
Speaker 1: out there was the news that the league and the
Speaker 1: players Association came to an agreement, and this was said
Speaker 1: by several analyst, but I think it was very well put.
Speaker 1: Life is going to be a lot easier for an
Speaker 1: NFL player who is vaccinated than one who is not
Speaker 1: right right, And that's just the reality. And it's the
Speaker 1: same as what we're seeing in America just in general.
Speaker 1: Life seems to be a little bit easier, a little
Speaker 1: less complicated if you are vaccinated as opposed to if
Speaker 1: you are not. If you are a vaccinated NFL player,
Speaker 1: you are going to be tested for COVID nineteen every
Speaker 1: fourteen days. If you were a non vaccinated NFL player,
Speaker 1: you were still going to be tested every day. You're
Speaker 1: still going to have a mask requirement, You're still going
Speaker 1: to have a distancing requirement. You're going to be in
Speaker 1: a position where there are certain areas that you can
Speaker 1: only enter at certain times, which you know, for the
Speaker 1: training room or the weight room or however that's done.
Speaker 1: It's just gonna be a hassle. And you wonder this,
Speaker 1: and Mike Vrabel was asked this in his final press
Speaker 1: conference at the end of Mini camp. He was that's
Speaker 1: the question. Our teams that have more players vaccinated going
Speaker 1: to be at an advantage in terms of their preparation.
Speaker 1: And I thought, knowing Vrabel, he would say, you know,
Speaker 1: he would just but he didn't. No, he didn't. He said,
Speaker 1: we will still be able to prepare, we will still
Speaker 1: be able to get together. You could say it in
Speaker 1: the words you want to say to paraphrase him, but
Speaker 1: I would say he more or less said, it'll be
Speaker 1: more complicated. It would certainly be more convenient the more
Speaker 1: guys that you have vaccinated, right, And I think that
Speaker 1: he answered the question well, given that Mike Vrabel is
Speaker 1: not a guy that will make excuses for any reason
Speaker 1: or use any outside circumstance as a reason to point
Speaker 1: to a win or a loss. That's just Mike Vrabel.
Speaker 1: He did, however, say or imply, I guess more than anything,
Speaker 1: it will be more complicated the more people you have
Speaker 1: that are not vaccinated. Right. It is an added layer
Speaker 1: of choreogra fee that the team needs to maneuver when
Speaker 1: you have a lot of guys that aren't getting the
Speaker 1: vaccine just because you have to navigate the protocols that
Speaker 1: still exist. Let's say you get ninety guys and only
Speaker 1: fifty you're vaccinated. Then you get forty guys that you're
Speaker 1: having to maneuver around. Now, that's just in the preseason
Speaker 1: and the games don't count. And I know this, but
Speaker 1: but that's clunky. It's clunky in a time that training
Speaker 1: camp as an entity is clunky. It's it's just kind
Speaker 1: of a bear of an experience for everyone involved, from
Speaker 1: the operations guys, to the cooks, to the coaching staff
Speaker 1: to the players. It's it's just a cumbersome thing. Getting
Speaker 1: ninety guys basically living in a building for a month.
Speaker 1: It's just kind of hard having to separate some of
Speaker 1: those guys and have them operate in a different manner
Speaker 1: than other guys, and have them navigating kind of orbiting
Speaker 1: around some of the other team and not being able
Speaker 1: to participate in the same spaces all the time. It
Speaker 1: would be a little chaotic. Well, if you get to
Speaker 1: the regular season and then you have the fifty three
Speaker 1: and you have the practice squad, so roughly seventy guys,
Speaker 1: if you have twenty to twenty five who are not vaccinated,
Speaker 1: that's clunky. Two Yeah, but then you're preparing and does
Speaker 1: it take time away from the preparation now? But does
Speaker 1: it make it harder and add a layer to it
Speaker 1: that you would rather not have? If you're Mike Vrabel,
Speaker 1: I would say yes, yeah, and I agree with that.
Speaker 1: And there are so many layers to this decision for
Speaker 1: players and the whole vaccine experience. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff to it, and we understand that there's a lot
Speaker 1: of contributing factors that go into deciding whether or not
Speaker 1: a person is going to get vaccinated. However, if I
Speaker 1: am a head football coach, things to be the things
Speaker 1: that I can control to be as easy as possible. Sure,
Speaker 1: So what Mike Vrabel can control right now is providing education,
Speaker 1: is providing ways for guys to access vaccines if they
Speaker 1: want them. He can do everything that he can to
Speaker 1: encourage guys to make that choice, and then it's kind
Speaker 1: of out of his hands. Then what he can control
Speaker 1: is navigating around the chaos of trying to get everybody
Speaker 1: prepared and ready to play. I think that if there's
Speaker 1: a choice, you want every person on your team vaccinated. Well,
Speaker 1: it's like what Bruce arians said, He said, I'm an expert.
Speaker 1: You know, some coaches have brought in experts to try
Speaker 1: to convince guys. He said, I'm an expert, you should
Speaker 1: get the vaccine. And that's Bruce arians. I didn't take
Speaker 1: it as a political comment or a medical comment. He's
Speaker 1: just saying it helps our football team. Yeah, if more
Speaker 1: guys are vaccinated, because then the chances are what we're seeing.
Speaker 1: Then the data clearly shows it. They're less outbreaks, right,
Speaker 1: there's less contact tracing. So what you're doing is it's
Speaker 1: it's like when a team has a flu outbreak, which
Speaker 1: does happen on ball clubs. We've seen it, Yeah, we've
Speaker 1: seen it, and we you know, a couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: three years ago, we had like a stomach bug and
Speaker 1: so there's gross. So they're getting everybody away from everybody
Speaker 1: else because of the stomach bug. Well, I mean that happens,
Speaker 1: you know, people get a cold, people get the flu,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever. This by taking the vaccine cuts down
Speaker 1: on that chance. And the coaches always love things they
Speaker 1: can control to be controlled. Absolutely. I think that's what
Speaker 1: you're saying earlier is the more things that they can
Speaker 1: control is what they like. They're not making political comments.
Speaker 1: They're not making social comments, they're not making medical comments.
Speaker 1: They're saying, you know what, we've got to beat Washington
Speaker 1: this week. And if I got all my dudes, I
Speaker 1: got a chance to beat Washington this week. If I
Speaker 1: got ten of them out because we're in a contact
Speaker 1: tracing situation and a couple of them are COVID positive,
Speaker 1: then that's tough. Here's the other thing about the testing.
Speaker 1: The people we worked with who were Tier one and
Speaker 1: Tier two talked about this so much because we were not.
Speaker 1: We were Tier three, right, so we were not near
Speaker 1: the players and the coaches at all last year. In
Speaker 1: our roles with the ball club, you have to get
Speaker 1: tested every day, every day. Now. That means if you
Speaker 1: don't have anything going on, if it's a off day situation,
Speaker 1: you are still getting tested. Still had to go in
Speaker 1: and get tested. And you didn't get to do it
Speaker 1: at four o'clock in the afternoon or what you had
Speaker 1: to get up and drive in every morning. You had
Speaker 1: to do it by what seven or seven early yeah.
Speaker 1: I can't speak to that one hundred percent, but it
Speaker 1: was early. Yeah. And so if we win a ballgame
Speaker 1: and Vrabel says, we'll see you Wednesday on Sunday and
Speaker 1: you're not vaccinated, you still have to get up and
Speaker 1: come in Monday and Tuesday day morning to be tested.
Speaker 1: Because here's the thing about the testing protocol. If you
Speaker 1: miss a day, your whole thing starts over. You have
Speaker 1: to quarantine for ten days, so you can't do anything,
Speaker 1: like you cannot leave your home for ten days, right,
Speaker 1: and then you have to restart in the cycle. It
Speaker 1: is incredibly disruptive to your life, right and overall just
Speaker 1: happiness as a human being. I would assume if you
Speaker 1: fall out of your testing cycle, So you don't want
Speaker 1: to miss a day, and why I even want to
Speaker 1: think about that. I've got other stuff going on. I'm
Speaker 1: sure these guys have other stuff going on, like preparing
Speaker 1: to beat the Jags, right, Like that is a different
Speaker 1: thing that's in your brain to have to think, oh crap,
Speaker 1: I've got to get to the facility. It's a Saturday,
Speaker 1: but I got a test, right, No, thank you? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean I think it's a thing. It's undoubtedly a thing.
Speaker 1: A couple of things who want to hit on it.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about what we saw on the field,
Speaker 1: but I want to talk about six one five day
Speaker 1: really quickly because I don't want to miss it. We
Speaker 1: got free shirts, and so by them plying us with
Speaker 1: free shirts, we promoted it. And we went to six
Speaker 1: one five Day at Severe Park, the farmer's market that
Speaker 1: they do there. It was so cool, It was really cool.
Speaker 1: It's really an outstanding thing. A lot of our Titans
Speaker 1: brothers and sisters were there working it, and we met
Speaker 1: a lot of Titans fans. Thank you to the ot
Speaker 1: people that we met there that they became aware of
Speaker 1: six one five Day and the clothes of it at
Speaker 1: Severe Park by virtue of listening to the podcast, So
Speaker 1: thank you. I also want to thank And this was
Speaker 1: after I departed from you and your dog Weller, who
Speaker 1: you brought to the to the party. Yeah, we had
Speaker 1: to talk about that in a minute. Okay. So I
Speaker 1: met the folks, and of course it's a farmer's market,
Speaker 1: so all kinds of people are selling things. Jim spaghetti sauce.
Speaker 1: What Jim spaghetti sauce? I got talking to them. They
Speaker 1: were looking at season tickets. We had a great conversation
Speaker 1: about Julio and Amy Adams Trunk. They were really cool people.
Speaker 1: Well Jim's and so I get the backstory. Jim steak
Speaker 1: in Spaghetti is actually out of Huntington, West Virginia. I
Speaker 1: lived there for a minute. Okay, so they opened in
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty eight. Well, some of the relatives live here,
Speaker 1: grew up here, and so they sell the famous spaghetti sauce.
Speaker 1: Well that's pretty well, that's pretty great. And I mean
Speaker 1: so stories like that are why these things are so cool.
Speaker 1: And all of the kids and the dogs and everybody
Speaker 1: out wearing their titan stuff. It was a great event.
Speaker 1: So congratulations to our staff here who worked really hard
Speaker 1: to promote that, gave away a bunch of money, did
Speaker 1: a bunch of outstanding promotion on June the fifteenth, which
Speaker 1: is of course six one five, yes, six one days.
Speaker 1: There you go, fabulous time. I'm all for a fabulous
Speaker 1: time anytime, and so to create something that the community
Speaker 1: could enjoy that much, and you know, I just I
Speaker 1: just really had a good time. It was really just
Speaker 1: wandering around. The only problem was by the time we
Speaker 1: got there, most of the food was gone. Yeah you
Speaker 1: ate something that looked delicate, well, but it was. There
Speaker 1: were dessert things, yeah, and I'm not against dessert dinner,
Speaker 1: but I wanted a collachi Oh yeah, Collachi's are a
Speaker 1: hot commodity. You gotta get there. Earlier Collies were gone.
Speaker 1: I was very disappointed. Yeah, I know. Collichi's are a
Speaker 1: Texas thing that Amy Adams Strunk actually introduced me to
Speaker 1: when we were down doing something with her. At one
Speaker 1: point she had Collachi's brought. She was also the person
Speaker 1: who introduced me to Colachi Does she get a cut
Speaker 1: from that? She is also the person who gave me
Speaker 1: my first case than good for her because they are
Speaker 1: a delight m And I was so disappointed that the
Speaker 1: collache folks we're out. Yeah. Well, and this brings me
Speaker 1: to a good point. The food at the event because
Speaker 1: so great to be at six one five day. We
Speaker 1: had an absolute blast. It was so much fun meeting
Speaker 1: so many people, and everyone came up to talk to
Speaker 1: us and kind of tell their stories. And I decided
Speaker 1: to bring dear sweet Weller, my dog to this event.
Speaker 1: And so I'm talking to just someone who had come
Speaker 1: up to just kind of chat and I looked down
Speaker 1: and my dog has an entire bagel in his mouth.
Speaker 1: Whole bagel. No clue where it came from, don't know
Speaker 1: who he took it from, but there is somebody out
Speaker 1: there who I owe a bagel too, and I am
Speaker 1: so sorry. Weller is Eclept, Yeah he is Weller the Clept. Well.
Speaker 1: I hope it's a good band because to whoever it
Speaker 1: was who was out at Severe Park and thought they
Speaker 1: were going to have a delicious bagel and then looked
Speaker 1: down and it was gone, it was me. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: my dog took your bagel, and I want to buy
Speaker 1: you another one, but you gotta tell so here's the problem.
Speaker 1: I feel so bad this is let me tell you where.
Speaker 1: This is a rookie mistake. I feel so they're going
Speaker 1: to be eighty seven people claim that your dog took
Speaker 1: their bait. Okay, well, then the bagels are what seventy
Speaker 1: five cents? Well, I don't know where you live, but
Speaker 1: just is gonna end up costing you a hundred bucks.
Speaker 1: That's okay. I'm happy to do that if it makes
Speaker 1: up for my dog being a thief. Bagels are delicious
Speaker 1: and if someone was genuinely excited, it's just a Plaine bagel.
Speaker 1: Now they're okay, It matters where you get them, and
Speaker 1: have they been toasted. I don't think it was toasted.
Speaker 1: It didn't look toasty, but it was. It was a
Speaker 1: full bagel. But if if I had been really excited
Speaker 1: about it, had it sitting next to me, looked away
Speaker 1: and looked back, and bagel's gone, you know, I'd be
Speaker 1: really upset. Who lost that bagels? Timmy, little Timmy lost
Speaker 1: that little Timmy. No, it was taken from a kid. Well,
Speaker 1: and that's even worse. And I've got to get this
Speaker 1: off my conscience, like it's been bothering me for day.
Speaker 1: So just like I'm listening to the second, I'm getting
Speaker 1: a free bagel out of Amy Wills because she's a sucker.
Speaker 1: I'm really smart thinking. I just I need to clear
Speaker 1: my car. Wait a minute, you live in Berlin, Germany
Speaker 1: and you were six one five day. Yes, you can
Speaker 1: probably get better bagels in Berlin, Germany. Anyway, just stick
Speaker 1: with what you got, all right? So six one five day,
Speaker 1: huge success, awesome, so great, great stuff. Thanks to the fans.
Speaker 1: As always, thanks to the folks. Jim. They gave me
Speaker 1: some spaghetti, so they did. Oh I felt so bad.
Speaker 1: I wanted to pay for it because I'll eat spaghetti. Wait,
Speaker 1: Mike's getting free stuff and I just lost a hundred
Speaker 1: bucks in bagels. What kind of a show is that. Well,
Speaker 1: I've got segnor that's smart enough not to bring my
Speaker 1: dogs because they would have been everywhere. Yeah, all right,
Speaker 1: that's differ ranciate. One thing, Mini camp is different from
Speaker 1: OTAs OTAs organized team activity. You can have ten of them,
Speaker 1: and the gist of that is those are very set
Speaker 1: days where everything is very limited and they are not mandatory.
Speaker 1: And this year and for years, mandatory to many people
Speaker 1: seem like the old wink win because in air quotes
Speaker 1: air quotes mandatory. Well, this year the players obviously took
Speaker 1: that seriously. Most of the teams did not have full
Speaker 1: attendance for all of the OTAs. Now. Mini camp is
Speaker 1: different in that it is mandatory, but that's not the
Speaker 1: only difference. You can have the players longer in the facility,
Speaker 1: you can do more things with them, and it really
Speaker 1: sets up training camp right. Mini camp is basically a
Speaker 1: pretty good preview of like training camp is going to
Speaker 1: be like, not for the full like longevity of it,
Speaker 1: but in that you get an idea of what a
Speaker 1: day is most likely going to be structured. It's like
Speaker 1: a sampler. It's a sampler. That's a very nice way
Speaker 1: to put it's like a little tease, a little sneak peek.
Speaker 1: They are given the ability to see, Okay, you come
Speaker 1: in for breakfast, we have meetings, we get a lift in,
Speaker 1: we go out to practice, we have meetings, we do
Speaker 1: You kind of get the run of show for a day,
Speaker 1: which veterans of course don't really need it. For vets,
Speaker 1: it's a chance to get back in the building, kind
Speaker 1: of get your feet back under, You get to know
Speaker 1: some people. It was very exciting having Julio there, so
Speaker 1: that you get the meet and greed experience in that regard,
Speaker 1: you know, it kind of kicks off the easing back
Speaker 1: end process for a lot of veterans. For rookies, this
Speaker 1: is great. It gives you an ability to see. It
Speaker 1: gives you a little window into what training camp is
Speaker 1: going to be like, because training camp is a very
Speaker 1: different experience when you get to the NFL. This isn't
Speaker 1: like college. No, it's not all camp. Right, and we've
Speaker 1: discussed this before, so I'm sorry to be repetitive, but
Speaker 1: for those of us that played say high school ball,
Speaker 1: most of us would tell you would try to survive
Speaker 1: two a days. You would just try to survive. That's
Speaker 1: all you were trying to do is just make it
Speaker 1: through two A days because the basis behind two A
Speaker 1: days was more or less conditioning. Yeah, you got better
Speaker 1: at the football and you put into plays, but it
Speaker 1: was really conditioning because teams just started to have offseason
Speaker 1: conditioning programs when I got to high school, it was
Speaker 1: just the start of it. Well, now even high schools
Speaker 1: are doing things throughout the summer. Colleges are doing things
Speaker 1: throughout the summer. The pro guys stay in shape all
Speaker 1: the time. So it's one practice a day, it's some walkthroughs.
Speaker 1: The difference is it's about advancing, it's about learning, it's
Speaker 1: about getting ready for the first game already. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of stuff that from a mental standpoint,
Speaker 1: you're expected to know and go out and execute every
Speaker 1: single day. And so it's very, very different than what
Speaker 1: it was thirty years ago, or even twenty years ago
Speaker 1: when I started going to training camp practices in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety eight at TSU, when they would go out and
Speaker 1: have pads on for both practices and just beat the
Speaker 1: crap out of each other better time. Well, this doesn't
Speaker 1: this doesn't resemble that at all. So if you're a
Speaker 1: young guy, You've got to be able to have a focus.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't just mail it in in an
Speaker 1: afternoon walk through because you were trying to sneak in
Speaker 1: a nap in the meeting, right, I mean, you'd better
Speaker 1: be on point. And these days are going to go
Speaker 1: six am to ten pm. Now, the mini camp days
Speaker 1: don't go six am to ten pm, but they are
Speaker 1: longer and they do have the right to have you
Speaker 1: for more. And so you get a gauge the newer
Speaker 1: guys get a gauge on how drills look, on how
Speaker 1: meetings are run, what the head coach likes, what the
Speaker 1: coordinators like, what the position coaches like, what the dynamic
Speaker 1: is between the guys, all of those sorts of things
Speaker 1: right well, and it's one of those things and Coach
Speaker 1: Mac has brought this up before on this show. They
Speaker 1: learn how to practice as well, because that is very different.
Speaker 1: They learn how to have restraint, They learn how to
Speaker 1: go fast but not go hard. They learn how what
Speaker 1: a walkthrough looks like, what jog through speed really is.
Speaker 1: All those little nuances of practice that Mike Vrabel is
Speaker 1: not interested in teaching you once it gets to training camp,
Speaker 1: because training camp is when we're working. Well, there's no
Speaker 1: time yep. I mean there's no time because you've only
Speaker 1: got the one practice a day now. Yeah, and you're
Speaker 1: expected to go out and to execute what you have
Speaker 1: seen in the meetings, what they have put up on
Speaker 1: the board. They're going to review practice with you. I mean,
Speaker 1: the level of intelligence of an average NFL player is
Speaker 1: very different than when I got here, Yeah, because the
Speaker 1: mental part of it is so much greater than the
Speaker 1: physical part of it. In terms of preparation. The practices
Speaker 1: are not nearly like what they used to be. The
Speaker 1: games are rough, yes, just like they used to be,
Speaker 1: but the practices are not the same because they're trying
Speaker 1: to get everybody to the games. It's like, why was
Speaker 1: Bud Dupree not out there during minicamp, But dude, pre's
Speaker 1: got to be ready for September twelve. Yeah, Barley, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Caleb Farley, you don't get him hurt on June sixteenth. No,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's really what it's all about. And that's
Speaker 1: why you're not going to run a J Brown out
Speaker 1: there and do this, because you're trying to get those
Speaker 1: guys to the game. The key to this season for
Speaker 1: the Titans is this The whole key is if you
Speaker 1: take the top fifteen players on the ball club in
Speaker 1: terms of salary, how many of those players are able
Speaker 1: to play the whole season? How many of the players
Speaker 1: that you're paying the most money are able to be
Speaker 1: there down the stretch, or if you're fortunate enough to
Speaker 1: make the playoffs, how many of your top fifteen most
Speaker 1: highly paid players are available for the playoffs. That's the key. Well,
Speaker 1: that's what Tampa head. Tampa had their best players available
Speaker 1: at the best time. Patrick Mahomes is playing with an
Speaker 1: offensive line that's just a bunch of guys. That's the
Speaker 1: difference is Kansas City was not as good at Tampa
Speaker 1: at the end of the year. Through the course of
Speaker 1: the year, they were better if you took the entirety.
Speaker 1: But they don't give a regular season championship in the NFL, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, there's no hey, way to go, guys, here's
Speaker 1: a parade. I mean, it just doesn't happen, right, It's
Speaker 1: all about the Super Bowl. And so if you're Mike Vrabel,
Speaker 1: how are you pacing this club in May, June, July,
Speaker 1: and August to give yourself the best chance to be
Speaker 1: healthy in January? Now? Some things are going to happen
Speaker 1: you can't control, right, Oh, of course, but you've got
Speaker 1: to be smart. And I think that's one of the
Speaker 1: advantages of rabel. I really do think about the twenty
Speaker 1: nineteen Titans versus the twenty twenty Titans, Well, that's one
Speaker 1: hundred percent right, because because when we looked at it,
Speaker 1: and we're talking about it going into the New England
Speaker 1: playoff game, and we're saying privately, I think the Titans
Speaker 1: are better than the Patriots right now, and that sounds
Speaker 1: like crazy talk in these are the Patriots. How can
Speaker 1: you say this? But you look at the Titans and
Speaker 1: they've got Ryan Tannehill at quarterback. And you look at
Speaker 1: the Patriots and they don't have any wide receivers to
Speaker 1: speak of who can get down the field. And defensively,
Speaker 1: their pass rush has not been great and they've had
Speaker 1: they've had some injuries, and you're going, oh, my goodness,
Speaker 1: if we play well, we're gonna beat these guys. And
Speaker 1: it was how the game turned out. The Patriots dominated
Speaker 1: the first quarter and then the Titans dominated the rest
Speaker 1: of the game. It's about getting to that point and
Speaker 1: that's gonna be the key for these Titans. How do
Speaker 1: you pace Julio Jones? How do you pace Derrick Henry?
Speaker 1: Do you take care of Ryan Tannehill and not let
Speaker 1: him get hit? Do you pace you know, a guy
Speaker 1: like a J. Brown? All of those sorts of things
Speaker 1: are such a key right. But to your point earlier,
Speaker 1: Mike Vrabel is so conscious of that. He is constantly
Speaker 1: working with the training staff to make sure that guys
Speaker 1: are not going too hard and aren't taking too many
Speaker 1: reps and are able to really do what's best for
Speaker 1: their bodies. And Taylor mullane even said it when he
Speaker 1: spoke to the media a couple days ago. He was
Speaker 1: talking about his recovery and kind of coming back and
Speaker 1: getting back in the flow of working out and conditioning
Speaker 1: and doing that kind of stuff, and he credited the
Speaker 1: Titans training staff and Titans coaching staff because they do
Speaker 1: such a good job of trusting players and what they
Speaker 1: need and also helping them move on and be at
Speaker 1: their best level. What do you say, I'm going to
Speaker 1: come back and start practicing? When Vrabel says I'm ready,
Speaker 1: that basically that was basically what he said. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: pretty dead on. Speaking of Titan's brass have you seen
Speaker 1: the video of me standing with John Robinson at practice
Speaker 1: yet from a few days ago. Yes, what do you think?
Speaker 1: I think it's pretty good. I think it's so cool
Speaker 1: you had that opportunity was I think that's such a
Speaker 1: neat thing that you were able to. I mean, who
Speaker 1: in the world wouldn't want to do something like that.
Speaker 1: I mean what a unique like when you step back
Speaker 1: and think about it, to be able to stand with
Speaker 1: an NFL general manager on an NFL practice field during
Speaker 1: an NFL practice and just chat. I thought it was fantastic.
Speaker 1: I took it seriously because I'd never gotten the opportunity
Speaker 1: you'll certainly never get it again. It was fascinating, you know,
Speaker 1: all of the notes he writes down, and the things
Speaker 1: that he's watching and where he's mentally going. What I
Speaker 1: can't get over is how many things he's keeping up
Speaker 1: with all at once. He's got eyes everywhere, He's got
Speaker 1: eyes everywhere, but he is so interested in three different
Speaker 1: things at the same time. It is multitasking at its finest,
Speaker 1: and he's in it deeply. But then you know he's
Speaker 1: not afraid to make a wise crack, or he's not
Speaker 1: afraid to you know, I mean, so he's still him
Speaker 1: while he's doing this. I've always had tons of respect
Speaker 1: for him. I have even more after having a chance
Speaker 1: to stand with him and watch that. It's incredible what
Speaker 1: he's able to accomplish and be aware of and still
Speaker 1: seem so chill, if that makes sense. Well focused, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because if you're going to go back and watch the
Speaker 1: practice tape, don't you have to know what you're going
Speaker 1: to be looking for when you sit down to watch
Speaker 1: the practice tape? Yeah? Do I want to watch Dylan
Speaker 1: Raiden's playing tackle or Dylan Raidens moving around? Do I
Speaker 1: want to watch the kickers? Do I want to watch me?
Speaker 1: I mean, you have to make some decisions. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: think you're going to watch a lot of Derek Henry. No, No,
Speaker 1: I think you've got to You're gonna key into the
Speaker 1: question marks and not so much the certainty. But man,
Speaker 1: he just seems so chill, Like when we're at practice.
Speaker 1: We have things that we're watching, but I mean it's
Speaker 1: a very kind of relaxed, chill experience. As a spectator.
Speaker 1: John Robinson of course is not a spectator, but he
Speaker 1: always seems so chill. And to realize how many things
Speaker 1: he's dialed into even when he seems like he's just
Speaker 1: kind of taking it in. It's amazing free agent that
Speaker 1: grabbed you the most that you saw either in an
Speaker 1: ota or a mini camp practice. Jack Rabbit, Jackrabbit. And
Speaker 1: it could be because I happened to be standing close
Speaker 1: to coach Mack and so Mac has a relationship with him.
Speaker 1: But man, he moves, he's and I knew he was fast.
Speaker 1: He's fast fast. There were like three plays in a
Speaker 1: row where it was like pass breakup, pass breakup, pass breakup,
Speaker 1: And I was like, is he just gonna do this
Speaker 1: all day? Like they can't get anything done. He's making
Speaker 1: too many play And that was the whole part about
Speaker 1: bringing him in and also drafting Caleb Farley, who we
Speaker 1: haven't even seen on the field yet. Speed Right, the
Speaker 1: Titans weren't fast enough in the secondary, Well, he's fast.
Speaker 1: I think the guy who probably I can't say solidified
Speaker 1: because he's not a starter yet, but took the biggest
Speaker 1: step was a money hooker though. Yeah, I mean you
Speaker 1: watched the money Hooker and he was in with Bayard
Speaker 1: and it's like, Okay, I'm the guy that's That's what
Speaker 1: I'm doing that's what I'm here to do. I'm here
Speaker 1: is Kenny Vaccaro's gone. And because Kenny vacar was gone
Speaker 1: and I was second string, now I'm first string. It's
Speaker 1: like the senior graduated and I was the sophomore, and
Speaker 1: now I'm a junior. Now I'm the starter. It wasn't
Speaker 1: incredibly smooth transition, wasn't it. He looks fantastic. I mean,
Speaker 1: he can run. He's changed his body some over the
Speaker 1: last two years. I think he's thicker, but it's like
Speaker 1: he's he's faster too, you know, because some of those
Speaker 1: safeties build up to like wear their linebackers. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: they're not very flexible, They're not very quick. It's almost
Speaker 1: like they get too big because they want to be
Speaker 1: these thumpers, you know, they want to, you know, really
Speaker 1: hit people. And I mean, he's he's still got some size,
Speaker 1: but man, he can move smooth player. Yeah yeah, I
Speaker 1: didn't really notice, But now that I'm thinking about it,
Speaker 1: that tells you everything you need to know. That a
Speaker 1: guy's in this spot and it never even occurred to
Speaker 1: me that he hasn't been there for three years, you know.
Speaker 1: It just that's impressive. That was a good one. My
Speaker 1: guy was Denico Autry though, Yeah, to see how slippery
Speaker 1: Denico Autry is. He's that veteran who you know, he
Speaker 1: was working over some of the offensive linemen at times,
Speaker 1: even though they're not in full contact, and to their credit,
Speaker 1: they're not give in him the full you know, blow
Speaker 1: up either. But I mean he's doing things with his hands,
Speaker 1: and he's ducking, and he's going outside and he's spending,
Speaker 1: and you're like, Okay, this is a guy who knows
Speaker 1: how to play in the defensive line. Yeah, and to
Speaker 1: put him with Jeff and I guess tier Tart, I
Speaker 1: mean tier Tart, I mean it seems like he's to
Speaker 1: go into camp. Yeah, it feels like he's the third
Speaker 1: dude right now. I mean, we'll find out it's not
Speaker 1: over and the Titans may sign somebody else, right, But
Speaker 1: Tart has remade his body. He's much more muscular than
Speaker 1: what he was this time a year ago. Right, he
Speaker 1: was just a load a year ago. It's not a
Speaker 1: nice way to describe somebody. I guess. Well, I mean
Speaker 1: he was, I mean he was like three hundred and
Speaker 1: whatever pounds and you just weren't going to move him.
Speaker 1: And now he's more of an athlete. He looks a
Speaker 1: little bit more like Jeff. Not totally. I don't know
Speaker 1: who all looks like Jeff, but right, I mean, it's
Speaker 1: the scary thing about Jeff is nobody is Jeff Well,
Speaker 1: he's I mean, as cut up as he is. To
Speaker 1: be that big a man is just scary. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: glad he placed for us. I am too, I am too.
Speaker 1: You know who else I was watching a little bit
Speaker 1: who caught my attention, Darrenton Evans. Yeah, he looks like
Speaker 1: an adult, and I mean that in a very nice way,
Speaker 1: Like he looks so much more comfortable. He looks he
Speaker 1: looks like he fits in that spot in every possible way.
Speaker 1: I was very pleasantly surprised by him and what he's
Speaker 1: going to be able to do and how he can
Speaker 1: possibly contribute. I'm very excited about him. The other guy
Speaker 1: that just continues to impress me, and I spent a
Speaker 1: lot of time watching him work, was Ben Jones. Ben
Speaker 1: Jose is at his tenth year, and there's part of
Speaker 1: you that just keeps waiting for him to just sort
Speaker 1: of not have it or whatever. But it's almost like
Speaker 1: he gets better. Yeah, he does, he gets smarter, He
Speaker 1: works hard to be in better condition. Every year he
Speaker 1: looks like he's in better shape. He's found something else
Speaker 1: to improve his versatility as an athlete, and I mean,
Speaker 1: just a really good football player. The Titans are really
Speaker 1: lucky to have been jokes, absolutely, I mean, the consummate
Speaker 1: pro in every possible way. And I think that he
Speaker 1: of course is a leader in that room because he's
Speaker 1: such a consistent veteran, but he's also a leader on
Speaker 1: the team just by the way that to your point,
Speaker 1: he continues to improve and change and tweak and get
Speaker 1: just better and better. And man, it's so good to
Speaker 1: see him healthy. He was hurting for certain by the
Speaker 1: end of twenty twenty, and it's good to see him
Speaker 1: like with both legs attached to his body again. Well,
Speaker 1: he was sort of representative of the entire Titans team.
Speaker 1: They were out of gas at the end. YEP, Baltimore
Speaker 1: was a better team in the playoffs because the Titans
Speaker 1: had they had done everything they could to win the division,
Speaker 1: and they had to win it by banking in a
Speaker 1: field goal, which was kind of a great representation of
Speaker 1: what they had to do with a third string left
Speaker 1: tackle with injuries at other spots with COVID and having
Speaker 1: had a major COVID outbreak with you know, sort of
Speaker 1: all of these things. They had been through so much.
Speaker 1: The defense didn't play very well. They fought to get
Speaker 1: to eleven and five, they fought to win the division,
Speaker 1: but by the time they got to the playoffs that
Speaker 1: was pretty much yet. Yeah, you know, they started five
Speaker 1: and zero, they ended up six and six. That was
Speaker 1: how they ended the year, whereas the year before, you know,
Speaker 1: they started off two and four and they ended up
Speaker 1: what nine and four. Yeah, yep, we had this conversation
Speaker 1: just a little bit earlier here on the OTP. You
Speaker 1: end up in different places. That team was beaten up
Speaker 1: and out of gas at the end. Would have been
Speaker 1: great to beat Baltimore, would have been great to go
Speaker 1: all the way super but that team had done all
Speaker 1: they could in the regular season to get to the playoffs.
Speaker 1: What you hope is that you can get a few breaks.
Speaker 1: Taylor Lea one can make it through the whole year,
Speaker 1: Ben Jones can can survive it. Your big time players
Speaker 1: can survive it, and that you can get to January
Speaker 1: and say here we go, right right, we're in the tournament.
Speaker 1: We can play with anybody. It's all about that health. Well,
Speaker 1: it's all about what you look like coming into the
Speaker 1: tournament and where you're seated. Yeah, you want to get
Speaker 1: a good seed to where you get to play at home. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that is fun. It is fun. It's really fun. It's
Speaker 1: really fun. Turn to the folks who've been in the
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Speaker 1: offers the great healthcare coverage you need with a price
Speaker 1: tag you can afford. So Amy Wells is offering to
Speaker 1: buy everybody in the free world of bagel. I am not,
Speaker 1: basically did. I just want to make it right, That's
Speaker 1: all I want to do. I'm afraid that someone was
Speaker 1: very sad that somebody's going to send you like a
Speaker 1: picture of their kid like crying. It's say, yeah, weller
Speaker 1: took Timmy's bagel and it Well, now you're telling them
Speaker 1: how to do it like they're like they don't know. Okay,
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Speaker 1: Thank you, I might Keith and we appreciate you. Joining
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