Speaker 1: This is the OTP presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans,
Speaker 1: better rates, better coverage, and better service. That's why Tennesseeans
Speaker 1: have been relying on Farm Bureau Health Plans for their
Speaker 1: health coverage for seventy five years. My name is Mike Keith,
Speaker 1: and welcome back to the Official Titans Podcast. We apologize
Speaker 1: that it has been a little while between OTP editions.
Speaker 1: I was out of town. Actually, my niece got married
Speaker 1: in Montana and I actually officiated their ceremony. That's right,
Speaker 1: I married somebody and they're still married as we record
Speaker 1: this edition of the OTP. It is still married, and
Speaker 1: it is still legal as far as we'd know. But
Speaker 1: really had a great time at that and that was
Speaker 1: a very special experience for our family. Told them, and
Speaker 1: I was missing football practice, this better be important. Of course,
Speaker 1: a wedding is kind of important, so even a destination wedding.
Speaker 1: And while we were out one night, we were talking
Speaker 1: about what I do this time of year, because there
Speaker 1: is an assumption among most people that what most of
Speaker 1: us on this end do this time of year is nothing. Well,
Speaker 1: that's probably true. It's not as busy as the season,
Speaker 1: but it is busy because we're in the process of
Speaker 1: OTAs right now. We record a lot of things that
Speaker 1: we will use later in the year because we have
Speaker 1: access to the players and they're not on as tight
Speaker 1: as schedule. And then obviously we watch practice. And one
Speaker 1: of the people in the wedding party ask me, what
Speaker 1: do you actually watch it practice? Because I describe OTAs
Speaker 1: as Pro Football's answer to spring practice. There's no pads,
Speaker 1: but it is spring practice like in that you get
Speaker 1: ten OTAs and then you get a three day mini camp,
Speaker 1: and I think college football, I think they do fifteen
Speaker 1: total practices, So it's almost the exact same thing for
Speaker 1: me when I watched practice, I watch it quite differently
Speaker 1: from Dave McGinnis because I don't understand all of the
Speaker 1: schemes and I don't understand all of the techniques and
Speaker 1: things like that. Just before we released the last OTP
Speaker 1: we had the Titans Foundation dinner, and by the way,
Speaker 1: it went really well. On May the eighteenth, we raised
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty five thousand dollars for the Titans Foundation.
Speaker 1: So a great job to everybody who took part, A
Speaker 1: great job by our friends at Pinnacle and our friends
Speaker 1: at farm Bureau were kind enough to be there, and
Speaker 1: we appreciate Randy Wilmore and everybody, everybody who came out.
Speaker 1: One of the neat parts of the night was John
Speaker 1: Robinson showed the crowd tape of Harold Landry when he
Speaker 1: was at Boston College. Because I asked him, I said,
Speaker 1: what do you watch on tape? And how is it different?
Speaker 1: And then how we watch a practice or we watch
Speaker 1: a game, And he showed six plays that really illustrated
Speaker 1: the difference in what he's looking for and what we're
Speaker 1: watching while we just basically watch a game and watch
Speaker 1: the ball. So those are things in practice I don't
Speaker 1: watch because I don't know to watch that. I don't
Speaker 1: understand how all of that works. I'm doing basic things.
Speaker 1: The main reason that I go to practice is to
Speaker 1: learn players names and numbers and their body types, so
Speaker 1: that recognition is the most important thing. You say, well,
Speaker 1: that's essentially a memorization game. It is. I actually play
Speaker 1: memorization games when I prepare for broadcast, because the most
Speaker 1: important thing that I tell you on Titan's Radio is
Speaker 1: who does what and who handles the ball? And being
Speaker 1: able to identify people quickly is the number one thing,
Speaker 1: And you say, well, that's kind of basic, but it's
Speaker 1: pretty much a basic job if you get down to it.
Speaker 1: So I go to practice because I want to see
Speaker 1: who's playing what position, who's starting, who's getting used in
Speaker 1: different packages. When they go three tight ends, when they
Speaker 1: go five defensive backs, when they put two backs in
Speaker 1: the backfields, or go four wides, what does that look like.
Speaker 1: And you're just reinforcing the names and the numbers for
Speaker 1: the quick recognition and the body type thing too is
Speaker 1: a big thing because I could see from having watched
Speaker 1: practice day after day certain players and recognize them immediately
Speaker 1: from what they look like in their pads. So that's
Speaker 1: number one. And I know that doesn't sound very exciting,
Speaker 1: but that's the job, you know, That's the number one
Speaker 1: part of the job. The other thing that I try
Speaker 1: to do is I try to watch a specific position group,
Speaker 1: and I've spent several of the days that I've gotten
Speaker 1: to watch practice really focusing on tight ends. I think
Speaker 1: tight end is a position that took a step back
Speaker 1: last year from twenty twenty, and I I think that
Speaker 1: factored in the offense taking a step backwards and statistically
Speaker 1: Ryan Tannehill taking a step backwards Jeff Swain did just fine.
Speaker 1: Anthony Ferkser did not develop the way the Titans hoped,
Speaker 1: Michael Pruett and Tommy Hudson got hurt. And I really
Speaker 1: believe the departure of John U. Smith because of all
Speaker 1: these other things showed up more than maybe even I
Speaker 1: thought it would entering last year. And so I've been
Speaker 1: really interested to watch this twenty twenty two group because, ay,
Speaker 1: I wanted to see Austin Hooper. You know, he went
Speaker 1: to Pro Bowls with the Falcons, he played two years
Speaker 1: for Cleveland. The Titans bring him in and you feel
Speaker 1: like Austin Hooper can give the Titans that tight end
Speaker 1: who can stay on the field in any situation because
Speaker 1: he can and will block, and he can certainly catch.
Speaker 1: He'll be a huge help on third down. He'll be
Speaker 1: a huge help in the red zone. And the point
Speaker 1: about Austin Hooper two is he's big. This is a big,
Speaker 1: big guy. This is not an undersized tight end. This
Speaker 1: is somebody who gives you a formidable nature. Ashley Farrell
Speaker 1: yesterday at practice referred to him size wise like Anthony
Speaker 1: Fasano that you remember who played for the Titans. After
Speaker 1: being a Miami Dolphin and a Dallas Cowboy. Size is
Speaker 1: a big factor at tight end, and Swain is a
Speaker 1: good sized guy. Austin Hooper is bigger, and so Swam
Speaker 1: continues to do nice things. I think the Titans were
Speaker 1: right to bring him back again, a good player, certainly
Speaker 1: as part of a group. Jeff Swain. Tommy Hudson has
Speaker 1: been back and it's good to see him getting some work.
Speaker 1: Briley Moore was the player out of Kansas State last
Speaker 1: year in training camp, second day of practice towards ACL
Speaker 1: was lost for the year, so you're wondering what he
Speaker 1: may be able to give. Thomas Odou Koya from Eastern
Speaker 1: Michigan is the Titans international player. He's originally from the Netherlands.
Speaker 1: He's got a long way to go to kind of
Speaker 1: figure out how this thing sort of works. He had
Speaker 1: a couple of fumbles in practice yesterday, but again, you
Speaker 1: know he's a player getting a shot. And we'll see.
Speaker 1: The guy who intrigues everybody in the group is Chigaconquo.
Speaker 1: Now we got a guy who works here in the
Speaker 1: office who's a Maryland graduate and he was like, oh,
Speaker 1: Chicka Cockquo got a draft Chickacoquo Chigacquo maybe the steel
Speaker 1: of this draft class in the fourth round, in large
Speaker 1: part because he didn't play in twenty twenty and he's
Speaker 1: the fastest tight end in this draft. He had a
Speaker 1: nice year. If he had put together two or three
Speaker 1: good years in a row, then I think he would
Speaker 1: have gone a lot higher. But he comes back. He
Speaker 1: has a good year at Maryland. He runs four five two.
Speaker 1: He's built a lot like John U. Smith. He's not
Speaker 1: the biggest tight end, he's roughly two hundred and forty pounds,
Speaker 1: but he can really really run. And the myocarditis which
Speaker 1: sidelined him for all of twenty twenty, has totally cleared up,
Speaker 1: and so everything is good to go. And he has
Speaker 1: been fun to watch at this point for his athleticism.
Speaker 1: Much like Malik Willis is fun to watch, Chicka Coquo
Speaker 1: has been fun to watch. Is he doing everything right?
Speaker 1: Probably not. Is he ready to take on a massive load,
Speaker 1: probably not. He's a rookie, but he is really really
Speaker 1: talented and he gives them a different element. I had
Speaker 1: a chance to visit with Chickacoquo a few days ago,
Speaker 1: talking about what he went through in twenty twenty and
Speaker 1: talking to him about what it means to be a
Speaker 1: Tennessee Titan. He has said he thinks this is a
Speaker 1: great fit for him. Let's listen to my conversation with
Speaker 1: Chickacock two years ago. Did you think did he sitting here?
Speaker 1: Did I did? In spite of the my carditis and
Speaker 1: everything you were going through, you still believe? I always knew.
Speaker 1: I just kept my faith and I always knew I
Speaker 1: would come through. I know God would have let me
Speaker 1: down and I was gonna make it through. How scary
Speaker 1: was that? Oh, it was very scary, you know, just
Speaker 1: sitting there just not knowing like what the future holds.
Speaker 1: But it's just it really helped me back then, just
Speaker 1: keeping my faith and just keep knowing that like just
Speaker 1: keep going, just keep going, keep believing that you're gonna
Speaker 1: get back. And then ended up getting back and got
Speaker 1: to have got to play my senior year with all
Speaker 1: my teammates, make a lot of great memories, lead that team,
Speaker 1: you know, to our first Bowl game in like six years. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: that year is very special for me. I was very
Speaker 1: happy about it. What's the most important thing you learned
Speaker 1: from that experience? The most important thing I learned from
Speaker 1: that is don't take you don't take life for granted,
Speaker 1: because it was like having that happen, just everything was
Speaker 1: taken away in the moment like that. And then when
Speaker 1: I got back, every single day I lived was like,
Speaker 1: I want to live this day fully because I don't
Speaker 1: know if it'll be the last time I'm playing football,
Speaker 1: because I remember when it happen and I would think back,
Speaker 1: I was like, wow, what if the last time I
Speaker 1: put those pads on was the last time I put
Speaker 1: those pads on? So for me, it was just don't
Speaker 1: take nothing for granted, to live every day to the
Speaker 1: fullest and make every moment count. Your faith got you
Speaker 1: through it. Where they're specific people that also helped to
Speaker 1: get you through it. Yeah, definitely my teammates, my close
Speaker 1: teammates definitely encouraged me. My family, those guys, my coaches,
Speaker 1: everybody was always encouraging me to just, you know, just
Speaker 1: keep my head on straight and just keep going. And
Speaker 1: I don't stop believing. Why did you come back actually
Speaker 1: a better football player? Like what I said before, like
Speaker 1: just not taking anything for granted. I felt like I
Speaker 1: had to catch up. If I had to catch up,
Speaker 1: I had a lot of stuff to do. You know,
Speaker 1: I lost a whole entire year. You know, that's a
Speaker 1: lot of That's a whole entire year of film. So
Speaker 1: for me, it was just like catch up. I took everything.
Speaker 1: That's when I start taking everything extremely serious, like film practice,
Speaker 1: the way I worked out, the way I took care
Speaker 1: of my body, all those things. I took it extremely serious,
Speaker 1: just knowing like, because you can be in great health.
Speaker 1: I was in one hundred percent great health. I was,
Speaker 1: you know, young, twenty year old, complete great health, and
Speaker 1: out of nowhere I got my acarditis. Is it more
Speaker 1: fun now? It is more fun now? It is more
Speaker 1: fun now from the standpoint that you think back to
Speaker 1: when you were seven and you think about what you
Speaker 1: went through and now is it that same feeling? Do
Speaker 1: you feel that again? Do you recapture that in a way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: That's that's why I say what I was talking to
Speaker 1: my family about, it feels like it feels like when
Speaker 1: I first started playing football again. It's like when I
Speaker 1: first played football, that was probably the most fun I've
Speaker 1: ever had in my life. And then you know, when
Speaker 1: you're going through all the stress of you know, high school,
Speaker 1: worrying about getting offers in college or worrying about getting
Speaker 1: into the NFL. But now that I'm here, it's like
Speaker 1: I feel like a kid again, Like I get to
Speaker 1: really enjoy football for what it is, but just just football.
Speaker 1: What are Titans fans gonna see when they see you
Speaker 1: on the field. Oh, they're gonna see a lot of energy,
Speaker 1: a lot of energy, a lot of fun. I'm always
Speaker 1: gonna be smiling. Oh, they're gonna see a lot of energy.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna see a hard worker, super tough guy. When
Speaker 1: I get the ball, I don't want to go down.
Speaker 1: I want to punish people. So they're gonna feel like
Speaker 1: we're gonna have a lot of fun together. Why did
Speaker 1: you feel like the Titans were eight spot for you? Honestly,
Speaker 1: it's so close to home for me. And then it's
Speaker 1: like the fan base was was awesome when when when
Speaker 1: I got drafted, they were just awesome the way they
Speaker 1: like reached out and like they were just congratulating me
Speaker 1: and just welcome me in. So that and so close
Speaker 1: to home. And honestly, the role I can I can
Speaker 1: play on this team, I feel like that's also a
Speaker 1: big thing. I feel like, can I can help this
Speaker 1: team a lot with the role that I'm bringing to
Speaker 1: the offense. And you have a couple of connections with
Speaker 1: the draft class. Yeah, Chance Campbell played with you at
Speaker 1: Maryland before he went to Old miss. What kind of
Speaker 1: player is he? Oh, man, he's a dog. He's a dog,
Speaker 1: I tell you, Like, he's relentless, he's he's a very
Speaker 1: smart football player. Like wherever the ball is, he's gonna be.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be flying around with his hair and fire.
Speaker 1: He's a dog. And did you know Malik Willis in
Speaker 1: high school? Yeah? I did when he was so he
Speaker 1: was really close. He went to Roswell. We played in
Speaker 1: the same classification. We actually played as his team in
Speaker 1: the playoffs one year. And yeah, so I remember him
Speaker 1: from back then. I remember they went to a state
Speaker 1: championship again his grace, and I remember that's when I
Speaker 1: really started taking notice and I was like, Oh, this
Speaker 1: guy is really good. Chickaca Quo one of the rookies
Speaker 1: Titans fans are most excited about. F obvious reasons. Back
Speaker 1: to what I watched in practice. Always watched the new guys.
Speaker 1: Titan's got a new guy yesterday, Juwan Greene, wide receiver
Speaker 1: who's been on the Falcons practice squad and was on
Speaker 1: Detroit's practice squad for a short period of time. Played
Speaker 1: his college football at Albany for the Great Danes wide receiver.
Speaker 1: We'll see what he's able to do. I've been watching
Speaker 1: Aja Moore, the safety from Houston. He has shown up
Speaker 1: some and certainly we feel like he'll show up a
Speaker 1: lot more in pads because that's what he's known for.
Speaker 1: Justin Lawler and outside linebackers a player I'm really intrigued by.
Speaker 1: Justin Lawler went to SMU. Good pass rusher at SMU.
Speaker 1: He's six four, two sixty five is really good size.
Speaker 1: He's drafted by the Rams late in eighteen, and he's
Speaker 1: part of their plan in eighteen and he actually played
Speaker 1: an all night team games including the Super Bowl, and
Speaker 1: so they're thinking going into nineteen he's going to take
Speaker 1: a bigger role. Well, then he starts having foot problems.
Speaker 1: Breaks his foot I think three total times miss nineteen
Speaker 1: and twenty. Came back last year, made the team. The
Speaker 1: Rams are excited to have him. Starts the season Week two,
Speaker 1: they're playing Indianapolis. He breaks his hand. He needs surgery
Speaker 1: and he spends more or less the rest of the
Speaker 1: year on the practice squad. So you watch a guy
Speaker 1: like Lawlor who has potential and you say, man, could
Speaker 1: he be that fourth or fifth outside linebacker that plays teams?
Speaker 1: I don't know. We'll see, but staying healthy will obviously
Speaker 1: be his trick. Jamarco Jones in the offensive line, the
Speaker 1: free agent from Seattle, is he going to have a
Speaker 1: chance to be the left guard to take Roger Saffold's place.
Speaker 1: He certainly is an experienced looking player that you see
Speaker 1: and when you see him get work, you're like, okay,
Speaker 1: he can do it. Now we'll see. Is he able
Speaker 1: to win that job? I don't think an Aaron Brewer
Speaker 1: is going to give that up easily. I don't know.
Speaker 1: You know, is Raidens going to move to left guard
Speaker 1: Dylan Raidens? Or is he going to play right tackle?
Speaker 1: Nicholas petit Frere the third round pick? Does he end
Speaker 1: up dropping in there? But Jamarco Jones certainly going to
Speaker 1: be part of the conversation. The other guy that's really
Speaker 1: gotten me peaked though, is DeMarcus Walker. Now, DeMarcus Walker
Speaker 1: is a defensive lineman. He's from Jacksonville. He originally committed
Speaker 1: to Alabama and then he flipped and went to Florida's State,
Speaker 1: has a great career in Florida State. Second round pick
Speaker 1: of Denver. He goes to Denver and they try to
Speaker 1: make him a stand up outside linebacker. Oh that didn't work.
Speaker 1: I mean, he did very little his first two years.
Speaker 1: And then you know when Vic Fangio gets a hold
Speaker 1: of him, Vic Fangio says, Okay, you're going back in
Speaker 1: the defensive line, putting your hand in the ground. And
Speaker 1: the thing about DeMarcus Walker is he is similar in
Speaker 1: terms of what he has done the last three years,
Speaker 1: not just two years in Denver, but also last season
Speaker 1: with Houston. He played well for the Texans a year
Speaker 1: ago and he can line up anywhere. So with the Broncos,
Speaker 1: once they got him moved around again, he started making plays.
Speaker 1: He had four sacks one year, four and a half
Speaker 1: sax another year. But it's that Denico Autry thing about hey,
Speaker 1: we're playing this opponent, we need you to line up here.
Speaker 1: We're in this game situation, we need you to line
Speaker 1: up here. That's the thing about Denico Autry is so
Speaker 1: successful and you have DeMarcus Walker now who has done
Speaker 1: the same thing, and that flexibility was a great thing
Speaker 1: for the Titans down the stretch last year as they
Speaker 1: played good defense. So you know, I don't know if
Speaker 1: any of those guys make the team. I don't know
Speaker 1: what happens, but you're interested to see how those pieces
Speaker 1: might fit when we put pads on going to training camp.
Speaker 1: I'm always interested to when you bring in a rookie
Speaker 1: kicker and a rookie putter. That's something that I watched
Speaker 1: because I try to ascertain do either one of these
Speaker 1: guys have a legitimate chance to kick in the league.
Speaker 1: Some years you bring in a kicker and a punter
Speaker 1: and all they're there to do is take reps off
Speaker 1: your regular guys so they don't basically burn themselves out.
Speaker 1: I think the two guys the Titans have in camp
Speaker 1: both have an unbelievable shot to be in this league
Speaker 1: at some point. Ryan Stonehouse, the punter out of Colorado State,
Speaker 1: averaged forty seven point eight per punt in his career
Speaker 1: with the Rams. That's the NCAA record, that's his career average.
Speaker 1: Now you're saying, okay, he kicked in Fort Collins, Colorado,
Speaker 1: which means he kicked at altitude right, the altitude of
Speaker 1: Fort Collins, Colorado in case you're wondering, is three hundred
Speaker 1: feet under a mile, So they are the three hundred
Speaker 1: feet under a mile high city. Four nine hundred eighty
Speaker 1: two is the elevation in Fort Collins. Still pretty good elevation.
Speaker 1: Here's the stat on Ryan Stonehouse that gets you though.
Speaker 1: Away from Fort Collins. He averaged forty seven point five
Speaker 1: per punt, so he averaged three tenths of a yard
Speaker 1: less on the road than he did at home, So
Speaker 1: the elevation doesn't matter. Here's the other weird thing about him.
Speaker 1: These punters today look like defensive ends. They're six five,
Speaker 1: they're two fifty. There, you know, they're these massive dudes.
Speaker 1: Ryan Stonehouse is five ten one ninety three, may not
Speaker 1: even be quite five ten, but man, what a leg
Speaker 1: and what hang time? And this guy is This guy
Speaker 1: is interesting to watch. Speaking of not much size. Caleb
Speaker 1: Shodac out of Iowa five to seven, one seventy seven.
Speaker 1: He's the kicker. Stonehouse is the punter. Shodak is the
Speaker 1: kicker five seven, one seventy seven. Here is a story
Speaker 1: of perseverance. He waited until his sixth year at Iowa
Speaker 1: to become their regular kicker. He was the kickoff man.
Speaker 1: At one point in year four he was gonna transfer,
Speaker 1: he was gonna leave, He was going in the transfer portal,
Speaker 1: and he chose to stay because they finally gave him
Speaker 1: a scholarship. Last year for the Hawkeys, twenty four of
Speaker 1: twenty eight on field goals, four of six from fifty
Speaker 1: plus thirty six of thirty six on pats. Of course,
Speaker 1: that's just a twenty yard pat. That's not the NFL's
Speaker 1: thirty three yarder. Nonetheless, still, you know, really, really really
Speaker 1: a good kicker who's a good kickoff man. So Stonehouse
Speaker 1: the punter and shoot Act the kicker are both guys
Speaker 1: to watch. I don't know if they're gonna have a
Speaker 1: shot at the jobs here, but you you like what
Speaker 1: their talent appears to be. Then you're looking at returnees.
Speaker 1: That's another thing I'm watching at practice. Caleb Farley. I've
Speaker 1: been saying on radio shows and the different places that
Speaker 1: I've been that I think he looks great. He's recovered
Speaker 1: from his surgery. He certainly, unfortunately, has had this experience.
Speaker 1: In an interview that you'll hear later that he did
Speaker 1: with us just recently, he talks about, you know, having
Speaker 1: to go through some of these processes before and understanding
Speaker 1: what it's going to take to come back. But you
Speaker 1: know he has returned and you see the athleticism. He
Speaker 1: still believes he's the fastest player on the Titans team,
Speaker 1: and he may be. I mean, this is a guy
Speaker 1: in the pre draft or run up before some of
Speaker 1: the back things came up. He had run in the
Speaker 1: four twos at nearly six three, two hundred pounds. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's an unusual athlete. And so if you're up on Farley,
Speaker 1: I can't tell you that he's better in coverage or
Speaker 1: that he's better in a back pedal or you know.
Speaker 1: I do think he makes clear and it would make
Speaker 1: sense that he has seen his football IQ improve a
Speaker 1: lot because he's gotten to be meetings and spend time
Speaker 1: with the d backs and all of those sorts of things.
Speaker 1: But what I can tell you is athletically he looks
Speaker 1: like Caleb Farley and probably to a certain extent, more
Speaker 1: comfortable than a year ago, staying with returnees and staying
Speaker 1: in the secondary. Amani Hooker in Wednesday's Ota had just
Speaker 1: a fabulous practice and continues to improve. When he was
Speaker 1: drafted in the fourth round, like Chicka co Quo. I
Speaker 1: referred to him in twenty nineteen as the steel because
Speaker 1: he was a guy that the Titans had their eye
Speaker 1: on and most people thought they would have to take
Speaker 1: him in the second round. And just because of you know,
Speaker 1: those weird circumstances that come up there, runs on positions,
Speaker 1: or you know, not everybody has the same evaluation of
Speaker 1: a player, and so he falls because of the needs.
Speaker 1: The Titans got him at number one sixteen overall. This
Speaker 1: is still twenty three years old, and year he started
Speaker 1: twelve games, sixty two tackles, a forced fumble, an interception
Speaker 1: in the playoff game against Cincinnati, seven tackles and an interception.
Speaker 1: A Monie Hooker can play, and in year four, I
Speaker 1: think everybody is really excited to see if he can
Speaker 1: continue to take the steps just like he has done
Speaker 1: since he got here. Here's my talk from earlier today
Speaker 1: with the stealer number thirty seven himself. A Moni had
Speaker 1: an interesting run up for year four, rookie year kind
Speaker 1: of learning growing second year of the COVID year twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: you find a role on the team. You're certainly part
Speaker 1: of the defensive package. Last year you become a starter,
Speaker 1: and now you're one of the established parts of this defense.
Speaker 1: You're one of the guys that they bring out to
Speaker 1: talk in front of the media and have all sorts
Speaker 1: of that presence that comes from being one of the guys.
Speaker 1: What's that been like, It's been awesome. I was just
Speaker 1: talking to my parents, you know, the other day, about
Speaker 1: about my journey and know how I was saying, like
Speaker 1: when I was a rookie, like watching Kevin and adoring
Speaker 1: them come out, you know how you know they're they've
Speaker 1: been in the league for a while and established and
Speaker 1: have some years of starting under their belt. And you know,
Speaker 1: I was like, one day, I'm gonna be at that point,
Speaker 1: and I just it's gonna take a while. It's gonna
Speaker 1: take time. That's gotta be patient. But you know, if
Speaker 1: I could just learn from guys in front of me
Speaker 1: and older guys and just take as much as I can,
Speaker 1: then it's gonna make right now as best as it can.
Speaker 1: It's it been an experience almost like college at Iowa. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that's kind of what I referred to all
Speaker 1: the time, Like my freshman year, it wasn't you know,
Speaker 1: it wasn't started special teams kind of played a little
Speaker 1: bit on defense, and then sophomore year started a couple
Speaker 1: of games, and then my third year I was the
Speaker 1: start of the whole year and then I left. So
Speaker 1: it's kind of like that same kind of routine as
Speaker 1: it was in college as well. What's the most important
Speaker 1: thing that you've learned that you've been able to apply
Speaker 1: to get you to this point. I think it's never
Speaker 1: being satisfied and always always wanted to learn, always being
Speaker 1: able to take information in whether it's someone doing something
Speaker 1: negative I can learn from it or a positive thing,
Speaker 1: and just slowing the game down, and you know, not
Speaker 1: making it as big as you know they make it
Speaker 1: seem you know, when you're younger, it seems like it's
Speaker 1: huge and all this, and then you know when you
Speaker 1: get here you just kind of have to you know,
Speaker 1: I can play at this level. I can't do the
Speaker 1: certain things that you know I've seen other guys do.
Speaker 1: So start A twenty twenty one Monny Hooker is the
Speaker 1: starter at safety opposite Kevin Byard. Here we go. You
Speaker 1: get hurt, hurt your foot in the Arizona game, You're
Speaker 1: put on ir. You come back against Buffalo, you have
Speaker 1: nine tackles, and you force a fumble, and then you
Speaker 1: miss the Kansas City game, and from there you came back,
Speaker 1: the defense got better and better. You were a catalyst
Speaker 1: in all of that. Take us through that experience for
Speaker 1: a second. What was it like? You know, like the
Speaker 1: injury was tough. You know, I always obviously wanted to
Speaker 1: play the whole season and stuff, but I knew that
Speaker 1: if I could just get back on the field and
Speaker 1: fast as possible to help the team, and then from
Speaker 1: there I would just I didn't want to miss a beat,
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't want to make it seem like
Speaker 1: I missed, you know, five games. I try my best to,
Speaker 1: you know, stay in the a book and the game
Speaker 1: plans for the weeks that I wasn't playing, so that
Speaker 1: when I did come back, I was ready. Why do
Speaker 1: you and Kevin Byard buying together so well as the safeties.
Speaker 1: I think we both love ball, We both have a
Speaker 1: knowledge of the game. We both just compliment each other.
Speaker 1: We understood. We talk with each other all the time
Speaker 1: about like what we want to disguise and what we
Speaker 1: want to do here, and then you know, we both
Speaker 1: ball there if we both just make plays, we both
Speaker 1: just find a way to help the team win. You
Speaker 1: claim to be the best basketball player on the team.
Speaker 1: You've claimed that before. I mean, I haven't still be
Speaker 1: seen the rookies yet, but I'm gonna hold that's okay now.
Speaker 1: But you and Kevin are like a backcourt in basketball. Yeah,
Speaker 1: complimenting one another in that way. Is that a good comparison. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like two point guards out there. It's like literally,
Speaker 1: like we want to get guys lined up if we can.
Speaker 1: If someone makes a mistake, we'll well, we'll hopefully we
Speaker 1: can help them out and communicate and you know, get
Speaker 1: guys lined up. And that is kind of how it's
Speaker 1: like a basketball you know, just making sure that you know,
Speaker 1: not technically given assists as like passing the ball, but
Speaker 1: you know we're assisting by you know, giving help to
Speaker 1: where it needs to be an assistant, by helping guys out.
Speaker 1: So twenty nineteen, you're on the team, twenty twenty you
Speaker 1: get a role. Twenty twenty one, you become a starter
Speaker 1: and really start to take a bigger role. What's the
Speaker 1: goal for twenty twenty two to keep improving and continue
Speaker 1: to you know, be the best player that I can be.
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like last year, towards the end
Speaker 1: of the year, I was just starting to get into
Speaker 1: a groove. So I just want to make sure that
Speaker 1: carries over it. I don't want to feel like I
Speaker 1: missed a beat or when declined to any form of way.
Speaker 1: I just want to make sure that I keep improving
Speaker 1: and keep learning. Do you have a more specific personal
Speaker 1: goal super Bowl? Honestly, I mean that's I mean, that's
Speaker 1: personal for me. I mean, even though it's a team goal,
Speaker 1: but like that's always been a personal goal. One more thing,
Speaker 1: what was your welcome to the NFL moment? Now that
Speaker 1: you've had it in the rearview mirror year in year four.
Speaker 1: I'm always interested to ask this question when a player
Speaker 1: gets to the age you are, which is still you're
Speaker 1: still just twenty four, twenty three. Yeah, my birthdays in
Speaker 1: thirteen days. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. For me, I had
Speaker 1: a couple like that my my rookie year. But I'd
Speaker 1: probably say it was Odell Beckham first, the first game
Speaker 1: of the year. We end up blowing them out, actually,
Speaker 1: but it was Odell. You had Baker, they had Nick
Speaker 1: Chubb and I'm and then you have Miles Garrett. I'm
Speaker 1: watching them. It was crazy. It was pretty sweet playing
Speaker 1: against Cleveland. YEP, in Cleveland, you forced Baker Mayfield to
Speaker 1: hold the ball because Gotta Waite got the safety. So
Speaker 1: that's a Mony Hooker. Best basketball player on the Typhan's
Speaker 1: roster according to him. Also excited about the Prince channel
Speaker 1: on Serious XM Channel one oh five because he's from Minneapolis,
Speaker 1: so loves the Purple Man himself Prince. A couple of
Speaker 1: other notes. As we wrap up this edition of the OTP,
Speaker 1: two players from the two thousand and five draft have retired. Finally,
Speaker 1: the number sixty five pick in that draft, Frank Gore,
Speaker 1: who I think is a running back on his way
Speaker 1: to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, he
Speaker 1: has decided to give it up. The most impressive high
Speaker 1: school back that I saw on tape, and I saw
Speaker 1: when I saw him on tape, I saw sophomore film.
Speaker 1: That's when I was still covering recruiting. He was a
Speaker 1: guy who forced Willis mcgaye and others to go ahead
Speaker 1: and turn pro because they knew that once he came
Speaker 1: back from his knee injuries, he was going to be
Speaker 1: the guy at the U. So Frank Gore giving it
Speaker 1: up the number two fifty pick in the two thousand
Speaker 1: and five draft, Ryan Fitzpatrick. He was drafted originally at
Speaker 1: number two fifty overall by the Saint Louis Rams. Of course,
Speaker 1: he made, you know, starts for thirty seven NFL teams
Speaker 1: and probably the Canton Bulldogs and the team in Hammond, Indiana,
Speaker 1: and all of that. He played with everybody. He played
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen with the Titans and played some good football
Speaker 1: on what was not a very good Titans team, a
Speaker 1: really poor Titans team, to be honest. One of the
Speaker 1: most interesting players I've ever covered. Went to Harvard, had
Speaker 1: a forty eight on his wonderlick. Some guys go to
Speaker 1: great academic universities and play football, and you meet them
Speaker 1: and you say, the only reason they went to that
Speaker 1: great academic university is to play football, that they're kind
Speaker 1: of you know, this was not one of those guys.
Speaker 1: This guy is super super smart to the point that
Speaker 1: it makes him eclectic or eccentric or however. You see
Speaker 1: him wear all the crazy sunglasses and the shirts and
Speaker 1: all of the stuff that he does. That is really
Speaker 1: who he is. Fitz Magic is really that person. I
Speaker 1: always liked him lalat very streaky player could get hot
Speaker 1: and he could go cold. But seventeen years in the
Speaker 1: National Football League as pick number two fifty, he's made
Speaker 1: a lot of money. I think he's turned it into
Speaker 1: a lot more money based on how smart he's been.
Speaker 1: There's talk that he's going to end up in Amazon
Speaker 1: as part of not taking care of your packages, but
Speaker 1: as part of their Thursday night coverage. I think he
Speaker 1: may be really really good, really really good, because I
Speaker 1: think Ryan Fitzpatrick, if he decides to really delve into it,
Speaker 1: which I think he probably will, I think he will
Speaker 1: be good based on the fact that he will say something.
Speaker 1: He will have opinions, he will have comments on things.
Speaker 1: You probably won't like some of them. You probably will
Speaker 1: like some of them, but he will say something. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of these former players go into broadcasting and
Speaker 1: they think that just because they're a former player, they
Speaker 1: can give you the same lines that they gave you
Speaker 1: at their press conferences and that that's going to be okay. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: I think that's what happened to Drew Brees at NBC. Now.
Speaker 1: Hopefully as he goes into his next broadcast opportunity, he
Speaker 1: will do that. But if you look at Tony Romo.
Speaker 1: Tony Romo says something, He's given you an opinion, He's
Speaker 1: given you a thought. He's doing it enthusiastically. He's having
Speaker 1: a good time. It's not that well. We're gonna take
Speaker 1: him one at a time, and you know, when it's
Speaker 1: second and six, you know what you need to do
Speaker 1: is get six on the next two downs to be
Speaker 1: able to keep moving the change that doesn't work. You
Speaker 1: know why was John Madden so great because he was
Speaker 1: having a good time and he was telling you something.
Speaker 1: Why is Dave McGinnis so fabulous on Titan's radio because
Speaker 1: he does coach mac stuff. It's interesting. I think Fitzpatrick
Speaker 1: may be really interesting because listen, he's an interesting dude
Speaker 1: that I've never met anybody like him in my entire life.
Speaker 1: So if he does go to television, I look forward
Speaker 1: to watching him. That's the comeback edition of the OTP.
Speaker 1: We're gonna have a lot more to come in the
Speaker 1: coming days as we continue to work through these OTAs
Speaker 1: towards the mini camps and excited to be back with you,
Speaker 1: excited to be back in the groove, and headed toward
Speaker 1: training camp. If you can believe this, As we record
Speaker 1: this today, we are fourteen weeks away from the first
Speaker 1: regular season game on September the eighth. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: it's not that far And I think we're at this
Speaker 1: point eight weeks away from the very start of training
Speaker 1: camp when the rookies, the injured players, and the quarterbacks
Speaker 1: come in. So it is not that far away and
Speaker 1: we are going to have a lot to do. Thank
Speaker 1: you to our friends at Farm Bureau Health Plans who
Speaker 1: reminds you need great healthcare coverage and an affordable price
Speaker 1: tag like Farm Bureau Health Plans coach you through it.
Speaker 1: They've been protecting Tennessee in for seventy five years for
Speaker 1: Ashley Farrell. I'm Mike Keith, and you have been listening
Speaker 1: to the team. Welcome to the Big Soo where the
Speaker 1: legends call never got a nose, our house, fighting for Tennessee,
Speaker 1: making history. Greenness is meant to be