Speaker 1: This is the OTP Daily presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans.
Speaker 1: Let the experts at Farm Bureau Health Plans coach you
Speaker 1: through it. When you need great healthcare coverage at a
Speaker 1: price you can afford. They've been protecting Tennessee and since
Speaker 1: nineteen forty seven, Amy Wells and me Mike Keith. The
Speaker 1: date is Thursday, January thirteenth. All is quiet here at St.
Speaker 1: Thomas Sports Park today, as this is the first of
Speaker 1: three days off. It feels like a bye week now.
Speaker 1: The first part of the week, I guess the team
Speaker 1: was doing a lot of self scout. They had a
Speaker 1: lot of meetings, Guys were getting treatment and lifts and
Speaker 1: things like that. Now we've reached the portion of the
Speaker 1: bye week as the actual buy where guys are taking
Speaker 1: some time off, They're spending times with their families. They
Speaker 1: are able to actually leave this building and the routine
Speaker 1: of football and take a couple of days to exist.
Speaker 1: And that's the rest and relaxation part of the bye week.
Speaker 1: That's the treat for being number one in the AFC.
Speaker 1: Only guys here today are guys who are on rehab assignment,
Speaker 1: so some players milling about, but mostly just quiet and
Speaker 1: a pretty healthy football team. Yeah, and that's exactly what
Speaker 1: the Titans we're hoping for through all of the carnage
Speaker 1: of the twenty twenty one season. What we were hoping
Speaker 1: for is a healthy football team when it mattered. This
Speaker 1: is when it matters. This is when you want to
Speaker 1: have that healthy team. And so having the extra time
Speaker 1: to really make sure guys can rest, guys can rehab,
Speaker 1: guys can do what they need to do to get
Speaker 1: their bodies right is a great advantage for a team
Speaker 1: that's been banged up all season long. Earlier this week,
Speaker 1: Amy and I had the chance to visit with Titans
Speaker 1: general manager John Robinson to talk about the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: one regular season, what is to come, and what he
Speaker 1: and the personnel staff are doing right now. Here's that
Speaker 1: on this OTP date. Let's talk some regular season stuff.
Speaker 1: The Titans used an NFL record ninety one players this season.
Speaker 1: That obviously sounds very complicated. But John, when you talk
Speaker 1: about the specifics of how that works for a team,
Speaker 1: for the football staff, for the coaching staff, for everybody,
Speaker 1: how do you make that work? What are the complicated
Speaker 1: parts of using ninety one guys? Yeah? I think you
Speaker 1: know Mike certainly, when you know, when you go into
Speaker 1: the game each and every week, you know you're not
Speaker 1: counting on injuries. You think they're gonna happen, but you
Speaker 1: have to be ready to react to what happens in
Speaker 1: the game and guys that get nicked up here or there,
Speaker 1: you know, certainly dealing with COVID still and with COVID
Speaker 1: replacements and how all that stuff goes. But I think
Speaker 1: it's a testament to our personnel staff, our pro staff,
Speaker 1: you know, headed up by Ryan Calden, Manti Austin Fort,
Speaker 1: Brian Gardner, Kevin Turks, those guys having those lists ready,
Speaker 1: having evaluated, talk through players that may you know that
Speaker 1: Mike could come in and help us. And then the
Speaker 1: coaching staff, you know, those guys being adapted, spending extra
Speaker 1: time with these guys, getting them ready on a weekend
Speaker 1: and week out basis, and their teammates, you know, their
Speaker 1: teammates accepting them and trying to help on game week John,
Speaker 1: the Titans defense improved dramatically. Let me throw some numbers
Speaker 1: at you. Nearly seventy less yards and a touchdown less
Speaker 1: per game than in twenty twenty twenty three, more sacks,
Speaker 1: third down defense was fifteen percent better. What made all
Speaker 1: of that happen? Yeah, I mean I think, you know,
Speaker 1: we certainly turned that side of the ball over, you know,
Speaker 1: this past offseason. But you know, I think the biggest
Speaker 1: thing is probably the communication amy those guys weekend and
Speaker 1: week out at practice. You know, the call comes in
Speaker 1: and the formation changes and you know they're in this offensively,
Speaker 1: and then they shift their motion to that, and those
Speaker 1: guys are talking, they're communicating, They're getting on the same
Speaker 1: page with whatever check maybe in place, you know, the games,
Speaker 1: the pass rush games upfront, being on the same page
Speaker 1: there just a great job by the coaches to continue
Speaker 1: to stress you know, the importance of the communication piece
Speaker 1: on defense, and then the players executing it in practice
Speaker 1: and carrying it over to the games. John Deante Foreman
Speaker 1: and Dontrelle Hilliard combined to rush for over nine hundred
Speaker 1: yards and catch twenty eight passes in the last nine games.
Speaker 1: They were so effective. What made that duo work so
Speaker 1: well at the running back spot down the stretch. It's
Speaker 1: a different skill set that they both have. Both catch
Speaker 1: the ball really well. You know, Foreman's a little bigger back,
Speaker 1: he's a little more downhill power guy Dontrelle has got
Speaker 1: some shiftingness, a little bit of cut and slash to
Speaker 1: his skill set. But I think the biggest thing was,
Speaker 1: you know, those guys were they were at home, they
Speaker 1: were working out, They didn't they didn't have a job,
Speaker 1: and you know, we gave them an opportunity. And like
Speaker 1: I said earlier, their teammates welcomed them and got them
Speaker 1: on the same page with what we're about as an organization,
Speaker 1: as a football team, and those guys got a taste
Speaker 1: of success and they seized the opportunity and they didn't
Speaker 1: want to let it go. You know, they kept working
Speaker 1: a weekend and week out in the meeting room, on
Speaker 1: the practice fields, and you know, their their success showed
Speaker 1: on game days. What impressed you the most about Ryan
Speaker 1: Tannehill season, Yeah, I think it's you know, he's such
Speaker 1: a commanding leader. He's done a great job from a
Speaker 1: leadership standpoint on the offensive side of the football. It's
Speaker 1: barely been a point of emphasis down the stretch here
Speaker 1: to take care of the football. He's been ever mindful
Speaker 1: of that. You know, I saw him Sunday in the
Speaker 1: Houston game, in that four minute situation at the end
Speaker 1: of the game, really rallying the guys like, let's put
Speaker 1: this thing away. You could see how important, you know,
Speaker 1: that series was to him and this team is to him.
Speaker 1: He's made some great throws for us. He's made some
Speaker 1: huge plays running the football. The San Francisco game comes
Speaker 1: to mind on the scramble where he got us down
Speaker 1: there to kick the game winner. So, you know, both
Speaker 1: as a runner, as a passer, as a leader, you know,
Speaker 1: he's really done a good job for us this season. John.
Speaker 1: Part of the success of this team is some guys
Speaker 1: stepped forward to play more important roles for the Titans
Speaker 1: than we probably expected in training camp. Who are some
Speaker 1: of those guys that you'd like to site that stepped
Speaker 1: forward in a bigger way than maybe what was expected. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think I think my you could name
Speaker 1: it just about anybody on the football team. That's everybody's
Speaker 1: probably worthy mentioning their name here, because you know, so
Speaker 1: many guys have contributed. I mean, Randy Bullock wasn't even
Speaker 1: on the team in training camp, and he's made some
Speaker 1: huge kicks for us this season. The two running backs
Speaker 1: that we mentioned, Dylan Cole, who we signed and caused
Speaker 1: a big fumble that change the outcome of a game
Speaker 1: for us on a kickoff Cover. You know, there's just
Speaker 1: so many guys that have come in here and done
Speaker 1: things for us. Buster Screen comes to mind, you know,
Speaker 1: Cover guy who you know we signed a month month
Speaker 1: and a half ago and he's done some really good
Speaker 1: things for us. But that's the mindset of this football team.
Speaker 1: That's a fabric of this football team is you know,
Speaker 1: we said that all the time, it doesn't matter when
Speaker 1: you get here or how you got here, but that
Speaker 1: you take advantage of the opportunity when you do get it.
Speaker 1: We've got a great locker room full of guys that
Speaker 1: are supportive, great staff of coaches that get these guys
Speaker 1: ready to play. I'm just I'm proud of the team i'veford.
Speaker 1: It truly has been a team. I've certainly been some
Speaker 1: great individual performances from players throughout the season, but the
Speaker 1: effort of a football team, which is the most important thing,
Speaker 1: has been really good this season. John, both you and
Speaker 1: Mike Vrabel are constantly looking for areas of improvement. What
Speaker 1: are some areas where this Titans team can improve in
Speaker 1: the postseason? Yeah, I think you know, it's really playing
Speaker 1: sixty minutes of Titan football. You know, we've certainly done
Speaker 1: that at times in games this season, and there's been
Speaker 1: games where you know, one half is really good and
Speaker 1: then the second half or the first half is slow,
Speaker 1: and we pick it up in the second half. We've
Speaker 1: got to replicate what we've done in those games where we,
Speaker 1: for sixty minutes have played stylistically fast, aggressive, physical football.
Speaker 1: We've got to do that in the playoffs. You know,
Speaker 1: it's a single elimination tournament. It's going to take all
Speaker 1: sixty minutes to stay in the tournament, and we've got
Speaker 1: to play our style of football for those sixty minutes.
Speaker 1: The goal is to win the Super Bowl, and that's
Speaker 1: what you're focused on right now. But in your area
Speaker 1: of the team, you're also getting ready for the Senior Bowl,
Speaker 1: which is three weeks away. The Combine is less than
Speaker 1: two months away. Free agency is roughly two months away.
Speaker 1: The next three to four months for you and the
Speaker 1: football personnel folks, I mean, they're wild anyway. So how
Speaker 1: do you balance the run to the Super Bowl and
Speaker 1: sing ahead, which you absolutely have to do. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the way it goes, Mike. I mean
Speaker 1: it's it's the same thing every year. I mean, our
Speaker 1: focus you know this week is is you know, watching
Speaker 1: who we're going to play, familiarizing ourselves for the divisional
Speaker 1: round game. It's it's it's one game out of time.
Speaker 1: That's our focus. You know, we've seen a lot of
Speaker 1: these teams in the regular season, but it's it's getting
Speaker 1: to know and watching film on some of the teams
Speaker 1: that we haven't seen this season. And our focus is
Speaker 1: on that divisional round game. And you know, from a
Speaker 1: roster standpoint, our college scouts are at these All Star games.
Speaker 1: You know, they're watching these guys. Our pro scouts, you know,
Speaker 1: they're certainly working on the advances for our potential opponents
Speaker 1: here in the playoffs, but they're working forward towards free
Speaker 1: agency and evaluating those potential players. And you know, we'll
Speaker 1: have those meetings on those guys, you know, after the
Speaker 1: Senior Bowl, probably the first of February, you know, as
Speaker 1: we start to strategize and try to map out the
Speaker 1: roster plan you know, for the future seasons. But it's
Speaker 1: right now, you know, all focuses on our next opponent,
Speaker 1: you know, whoever that may be. And whenever we find
Speaker 1: that out. All chips will be in on that game.
Speaker 1: So from a football standpoint, how do you spend this
Speaker 1: weekend when you're not playing. Yeah, well it'd be a good,
Speaker 1: great chance for our players to get some rest. We've
Speaker 1: gotten some work in this week with the downtime, some conditioning,
Speaker 1: a little bit of stuff on the field. Let guys
Speaker 1: get healthy, you know, that's the that's the that's the
Speaker 1: big thing about this that has been about this bye
Speaker 1: week is getting guys healthy so that we're you know,
Speaker 1: hopefully we're one hundred percent, you know for the next
Speaker 1: week's game. But you know, we'll be watching these these
Speaker 1: playoff games this weekend and taking notes on players and
Speaker 1: you know, spending a little bit more, maybe a couple
Speaker 1: extra hours with the family at night, have some dinner.
Speaker 1: And we hadn't seen him in a while, but you know,
Speaker 1: we're looking forward to getting back at it and making
Speaker 1: run at this thing in the playoffs. That's General manager
Speaker 1: John Robinson on this edition of the OTP Daily, presented
Speaker 1: by Farm Bureau Health Plans. Healthcare coverage from Farm Bureau
Speaker 1: Health Plans is like an extra set of pads when
Speaker 1: you need them the most. They've been protecting Tennessee and
Speaker 1: since nineteen forty seven. Tomorrow on the OTP Daily Friday,
Speaker 1: January fourteenth, a chat with Julio Jones until then, for
Speaker 1: Amy Wells, I might Keith thanking you for listening to
Speaker 1: the OTP Kitty