Speaker 1: This is the OTP presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans.
Speaker 1: Farm Bureau Health Plans has been serving members and protecting
Speaker 1: their health for seventy six years. Learned about our Tennessee
Speaker 1: roots at FVHP dot com. Day two from Indianapolis, Indiana.
Speaker 1: Amy Wells, Rhett Bryan, coach Dave McGinnis. I'm Mike Keith,
Speaker 1: glad to have you with us. We're combining. We are
Speaker 1: rolling with the Combined in Indianapolis, Indiana for twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: Dave McGinnis, I have to ask you right off the top,
Speaker 1: how many minds are changed in a draft room, whether
Speaker 1: it be scouts or coaches by what happens here. A
Speaker 1: lot of what happens here, Mike, and it's a relevant question.
Speaker 1: Make you go back to the film, because everybody's got
Speaker 1: a board of temporary boards set up. You know, they've
Speaker 1: got their front board, their backboard temporarily set up. But
Speaker 1: some of the things that you thought you saw on film,
Speaker 1: the things that you can't discern sometimes depending on the
Speaker 1: level of play of these players, is the true speed
Speaker 1: of the players. You know, true speed, that's number one,
Speaker 1: and then you get a true measurement of the people
Speaker 1: it'll make you go back to the tape. It doesn't
Speaker 1: change a whole lot of minds as far as football
Speaker 1: playing ability wise, but maybe some of moving people just
Speaker 1: a little bit within position groups, it might change it
Speaker 1: a little just because of the physical testing that goes
Speaker 1: on here, also the medical testing that goes on here.
Speaker 1: There are things that are found out here, you know sometimes,
Speaker 1: I mean there's several players that have come through here
Speaker 1: that have been found with congenital heart problems that were
Speaker 1: missed you know, on collegiate exams. A lot of those
Speaker 1: things will will cause the positionals to shift a little bit.
Speaker 1: But there's a there's been so much work done tape
Speaker 1: wise on these guys are ready to this point that
Speaker 1: there's not a you go back and recheck the tape
Speaker 1: to see if some of these things that they've done
Speaker 1: here physically, especially if you've got a guy rated lower
Speaker 1: but physically they test really high, you go back and
Speaker 1: see if maybe you can find out why Now Mac
Speaker 1: in this draft specifically, it feels like for the entirety
Speaker 1: of the offseason, we have been talking about trades that
Speaker 1: could happen early and often it seems to be the
Speaker 1: overwhelming opinion that the draft lineup that we know today
Speaker 1: February twenty eighth will not be the same on April
Speaker 1: twenty seventh, when the draft begins. How much does that
Speaker 1: knowledge that there will be trades, that so much of
Speaker 1: this is going to look different impact the way that
Speaker 1: you ingest that all of the information that you're getting
Speaker 1: from Indianapolis. What you try to do is you try
Speaker 1: to separate it at this time of year. You try
Speaker 1: to get these evaluations just at face value to what
Speaker 1: these evaluations are, and then the other things come into being.
Speaker 1: First of all, everybody's working are reworking their salary cap
Speaker 1: to this point, there are going to be players released, okay,
Speaker 1: And then as and you make a very good point,
Speaker 1: when free agency comes in, then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: some of your priorities may change. But what you try
Speaker 1: to do is you try to do this at this
Speaker 1: time of year, and your right to differentiate and separate
Speaker 1: the times because the time frames are different. But right
Speaker 1: now you are trying to look at this within the
Speaker 1: context of right now, where do they fit? And then
Speaker 1: all those other factors that are relevant factors that will
Speaker 1: figure in as we all get closer to a draft
Speaker 1: day and the draft. They will all figure in, but
Speaker 1: not at this point. They don't. Not at this point
Speaker 1: because at this point you don't really know how everything's
Speaker 1: set yet. Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson, I believe he has
Speaker 1: the most to gain this week in money and showing
Speaker 1: his talents. Otherwise, well, Anthony Richardson, when we all know
Speaker 1: the quarterback draft is a separate draft, but Anthony Richardson
Speaker 1: is a is a very divergent ratings by everybody, very divergent.
Speaker 1: The thing that I think everyone agrees on are the
Speaker 1: physical tools and the physical abilities are there. Then you
Speaker 1: start digging deeper into it, you know, you go into
Speaker 1: a less time played. You know, I mean, if if
Speaker 1: if you want to look at the Utah game, just
Speaker 1: put the Utah game on and watch him play, watch
Speaker 1: him play against Utah, and you go, WHOA, watch the
Speaker 1: Missouri game. You know, I've watched the Missouri game. But
Speaker 1: you I mean, but he's operating as a quarterback that
Speaker 1: you say, Okay, this is the package that we want
Speaker 1: making on time throws. It can run is you know
Speaker 1: is and then some games it's not there at all.
Speaker 1: And so that's gonna be something that you're going to
Speaker 1: have to quantify within yourself. When you're drafting quarterbacks high
Speaker 1: in the draft, you clearly need one, but a lot
Speaker 1: of times, and especially to Amy's point, you talk about
Speaker 1: moving closer to the draft, if you need a quarterback,
Speaker 1: then your desperation meter goes up. We've been there, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, your desperation meter goes up. And all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, you said, regardless of anything else that I
Speaker 1: am seen on the negative side, we believe we can
Speaker 1: get it out of him, and plus we got to
Speaker 1: have one. So he's got a lot of traits to him.
Speaker 1: And I firmly believe there are four quarterbacks that have
Speaker 1: separated themselves from the rest, and he's one of them.
Speaker 1: So see, if you agree with this statement, someone here
Speaker 1: will fall more in love with Anthony Richardson much more
Speaker 1: likely than someone will fall in love with him for
Speaker 1: the first time. Correct. Correct. A lot of this will
Speaker 1: depend on and of course, first of all, how he isthmatically.
Speaker 1: You know, we don't know any of that yet. And
Speaker 1: then how is he going to be just sitting like
Speaker 1: this like we're sitting right here, you know. And then
Speaker 1: just in the short amount of time that you have here,
Speaker 1: I was on the staff when we vetted Marcus Mariota
Speaker 1: and Jameis Winston coming out together, they were the top.
Speaker 1: They were one two, you know when when when they
Speaker 1: were coming out here and we weren't going to take
Speaker 1: a quarterback, but we had to vet them. Okay, you
Speaker 1: have to vet them and go in and the time
Speaker 1: that they can spend on the board in a short
Speaker 1: eighteen minute span, you know, in a room, you know,
Speaker 1: you try to ingest what they're giving to you and saying,
Speaker 1: can does this guy have it to be able to
Speaker 1: be able to do it? But your question is absolutely right,
Speaker 1: somebody's going to come out of this and say that's
Speaker 1: our guy. For sure, for sure, that's our guy, And
Speaker 1: then the other people will go, yeah, that was better
Speaker 1: than we thought, but we're still scared to death. One
Speaker 1: hundred percent true, one percent true, and some you know,
Speaker 1: we'll come out of there saying that's exactly what I
Speaker 1: thought it would be and it's not for us. We
Speaker 1: had a chance to talk draft with the NFL Networks
Speaker 1: draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah. Here's that visit from Indianapolis a
Speaker 1: day two of the OTP. Daniel Jeremiah, I talked with
Speaker 1: someone in mobile who feels like this year's draft we'll
Speaker 1: have a class at the top with less first round
Speaker 1: grades than in normal years. In listening to your teleconference
Speaker 1: last week, it sounds like you agree with that. Maybe
Speaker 1: fifteen first round grades instead of twenty to twenty five. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's fair. That's a fair number. It's again,
Speaker 1: it's it's why it's going to be an intriguing draft
Speaker 1: because there's not that there's normally a shelf in somewhere,
Speaker 1: and I don't even know if everybody agrees on where
Speaker 1: that shelf is. Some might think it's fewer than that.
Speaker 1: So to me, that's where you're gonna have a team.
Speaker 1: He might be. You're gonna see teams in the draft
Speaker 1: room and I've been in there when this happens and
Speaker 1: you see the thirteenth pick and you're like, he was
Speaker 1: our forty eighth guy just went with the thirteenth pick,
Speaker 1: Like that's There's gonna be a lot of variants around
Speaker 1: the league. We've talked a lot about different position groups
Speaker 1: over the years, but it feels like it's been a
Speaker 1: while since we've really dove into tight ends, especially during
Speaker 1: combine week, But this year it seems like there's a
Speaker 1: really good group of tight ends. What stands out to
Speaker 1: you about that position group it stands out is I
Speaker 1: wish they would spread it out a little bit because
Speaker 1: there's so many years when I'm going through and watching
Speaker 1: all those guys, I'm like, you're watching one after them
Speaker 1: that these guys aren't any good. Like there's one guy,
Speaker 1: you watch fifteen more guys and I, oh, this guy's okay.
Speaker 1: This time you're going through the tight enness, I'm like,
Speaker 1: this guy's really good, next one really good. Like they
Speaker 1: all have different strengths, so you have different styles of
Speaker 1: you know, what you're looking for, you can find it
Speaker 1: in this draft. And one of the storylines with that
Speaker 1: position for me is gonna be did they get punished
Speaker 1: because there's so many of them and teams are gonna say, well,
Speaker 1: you know what, we have a little higher grade on
Speaker 1: this tight end in the first round, but you know what,
Speaker 1: we can get this other tight in the fourth round.
Speaker 1: So let's address the tackle need. Let's address some of
Speaker 1: these other needs where maybe the depth isn't quite there, Daniel,
Speaker 1: Let's play Devil's advocate for a second. Though. This wide
Speaker 1: receiver group is much different this year at the top
Speaker 1: than it has been in previous draft. So do they
Speaker 1: benefit from that because there are past catching tight ends
Speaker 1: in this draft. I think that, you know, the receiver
Speaker 1: thing is going to be really interesting because we've had
Speaker 1: such a run over the last few years and there've
Speaker 1: been you know, these high end, high end players, they've
Speaker 1: jumped right into the next level and just dominated, not
Speaker 1: not like played or been good players dominated early in
Speaker 1: their careers. So we don't have that this year. And
Speaker 1: I think there's a there's an intriguing group of mid
Speaker 1: round wideouts, but I think the teams are gonna look
Speaker 1: at that as as weapons this year, and they're gonna
Speaker 1: they're gonna lump these tight ends and wide receivers together,
Speaker 1: and I think that you're gonna see tight ends replacing
Speaker 1: wide receivers in this draft. The Titans have the eleventh
Speaker 1: selection in the first round Daniel Jeremi. That seems to
Speaker 1: be a place they will be able to get one
Speaker 1: of the elite players if they want to. There is
Speaker 1: discussion about the Titans potentially moving up to go grab
Speaker 1: a player that really fits them. The question I have
Speaker 1: for you, however, is since the Titans figure to get
Speaker 1: an elite player at number eleven. What would be the
Speaker 1: market for somebody wanting to come up and get eleven
Speaker 1: and maybe the Titans be able to gather some picks
Speaker 1: if they were willing to move back. Well, the name
Speaker 1: I would tell Titan fans is Anthony Richardson. You want
Speaker 1: Anthony Richardson to be there when you pick, because you're
Speaker 1: going to I think you'll have some options. There's you know,
Speaker 1: we'll see this is a roller coaster ride with this
Speaker 1: quarterback class. The expectation is the top three guys are
Speaker 1: going to be gone, They're gonna go early, and then
Speaker 1: that leaves Richardson as the fourth and most a lot
Speaker 1: of people feel like that's the you know, the last high,
Speaker 1: high ceiling quarterback in the draft is Richardson. Now, his
Speaker 1: rows can be, but I think teams, as we go
Speaker 1: through this process and in the spring, there's gonna be
Speaker 1: some teams they're gonna talk themselves into Anthony richards because
Speaker 1: of what he can be. And if you're a team
Speaker 1: that's picking around where the Titans are and you kind
Speaker 1: of look over history, that's been kind of a trading
Speaker 1: spot for quarterbacks. You think Deshaun Watson, Mahomes like Um,
Speaker 1: that's kind of an area where teams have looked to go.
Speaker 1: So I think that's the name. And you want Anthony.
Speaker 1: You want to Anthony Richardson buzz to build as we
Speaker 1: go through the spring, and you want him to be
Speaker 1: there when you pick, and maybe the Titans just say
Speaker 1: forget it, We'll just take him ourselves if they keep
Speaker 1: Bryan Tannehill is the quarterback. Yeah, would Anthony richards And
Speaker 1: make a ton of sense for Tennessee at eleven. I
Speaker 1: think you'll you'll get pushed back and people will say, well,
Speaker 1: he's a similar player to Malik Willis, and aren't you
Speaker 1: kind of is this a duplicate? I think he's got
Speaker 1: more ability than Malik Willis does, and to me, he's
Speaker 1: an intriguing option. I you know, I was doing the
Speaker 1: Charter game last year. We talked about during the game
Speaker 1: and when Willis came in there and just the threat
Speaker 1: of him as a runner, I thought, oh gosh, and
Speaker 1: a Charger team that struggled against the run, this could
Speaker 1: be problematic. And then Hill tought that out went back
Speaker 1: in the game. But I still look at the makeup
Speaker 1: of this team in the DNA of this team with
Speaker 1: Vrabel and think, gosh, an athletic running quarterback mixed in
Speaker 1: with what they have kind of makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1: But you know, I don't know what the evaluation of
Speaker 1: Malik Willis is in the building. I'm just saying that
Speaker 1: Anthony Richardson is a more dynamic version of Malik Willis.
Speaker 1: You said something that's interesting to me about Anthony Richardson
Speaker 1: and how he's kind of a raw player, and we're
Speaker 1: seeing more and more of that, guys like Lucas Vanesse
Speaker 1: who have a very kind of unconventional resume. It seems
Speaker 1: like every year there's a little bit more of a
Speaker 1: premium being placed on guys with just raw ability and
Speaker 1: maybe they're not the most polished athlete. Is that maybe
Speaker 1: indicative of an evolution of philosophy across the NFL that
Speaker 1: maybe we don't need the sharpest tool, but we need
Speaker 1: someone with a lot of potential. Maybe. Yeah, it's just
Speaker 1: traits based scouting, you know. So it's a it's a
Speaker 1: constant tugle war in the draft room. It's production versus traits.
Speaker 1: And you can look at it and say, well, look
Speaker 1: what all he's done, And then you have people in
Speaker 1: the him and say he is what he is. There's
Speaker 1: nothing left and you can look at the other guy
Speaker 1: and say, look at all the traits he possesses. He's
Speaker 1: got so much more room to grow. He can be
Speaker 1: a blue level player, an elite level player, and we
Speaker 1: feel like we can get it out of him. But
Speaker 1: you mentioned Lucas Vaness. To me, that's a fascinating story
Speaker 1: because you're watching the video and I'm like, you, guys
Speaker 1: a really good player, he's dynamic, he's explosive. What the
Speaker 1: heck why doesn't he start? And it took me a
Speaker 1: couple months before I finally got the answer on that,
Speaker 1: and they said, look, that's that's the Iowa program. When
Speaker 1: they have upper classman seniors leaders. Those guys start even
Speaker 1: though they know the other guys a better player, and
Speaker 1: he's gonna end up playing more snaps over the game.
Speaker 1: It's a it's an honor thing, so to speak with
Speaker 1: their with their veteran leaders. So that's kind of what
Speaker 1: this combine's about. It's about what the Spring is about
Speaker 1: is digging in and trying to learn more about these
Speaker 1: guys and you know why certain things took place, but
Speaker 1: you are seeing a trend towards teams betting on the traits.
Speaker 1: So at eleven, the Titans obviously have a need on
Speaker 1: the offensive line. Tator to one has been released left
Speaker 1: tackle as as a subject, Yeah, well, Mike told me
Speaker 1: when I was saw him there in the fall that
Speaker 1: he was very pleased with the tackle situation going forward
Speaker 1: and he didn't have any concerns what Jeremiah in spite
Speaker 1: of his family life. Okay, so it's Paris Johnson Junior
Speaker 1: talking about. But you have already stood on the table
Speaker 1: for Peter Scronsky of Northwestern and there's been debate of
Speaker 1: everything I've read. Is he inside better suited as a guard?
Speaker 1: Is he a tackle? Is he a tackle? I think
Speaker 1: he can be a tackle. I do. And I had
Speaker 1: this same conversation, the same discussion on Elijah Vera Tucker
Speaker 1: when he was coming out of USC a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago. So he goes to the Jets and the
Speaker 1: Jets plug him in a guard and he played at
Speaker 1: a really high level, and people said, see, we knew
Speaker 1: he was a guard, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: tackle got hurt that kicked him out the tackle. Turns
Speaker 1: out he's really good at both. So that to me
Speaker 1: is Scronsky. Now it'll be big for him this week
Speaker 1: with the arm length, just to see, you know what
Speaker 1: that looks like. I know he's not a real long
Speaker 1: arm guy. You're hoping they don't come in with somewhere
Speaker 1: in the thirty ones. As long as he's in the
Speaker 1: mid thirty two or you know, I think he's he's
Speaker 1: gonna be fine. Um, but yeah, I watched him on tape,
Speaker 1: and you watch guys. You know, it's really interesting when
Speaker 1: you look at the Big ten in the SEC. I
Speaker 1: was talking to a scouting buddy was on my flight
Speaker 1: and I said, you know, would be interesting if a
Speaker 1: team just said, we're gonna take all of our resources.
Speaker 1: We're gonna stop scouting the whole country, We're gonna stop
Speaker 1: going to all the small schools, and we're just gonna
Speaker 1: put pour all of our resources into the SEC in
Speaker 1: the Big ten, and we're only going to draft players
Speaker 1: from those two conferences. Because the hit rate is higher
Speaker 1: because you see him planning, it's other NFL players on
Speaker 1: a weekly basis. It's it's really interesting how it's changed.
Speaker 1: I mean when you look at the Big twelve and
Speaker 1: the number of draftable players and how low that number
Speaker 1: is especially at some certain positions. The PAC twelve has
Speaker 1: dropped way down. The ACC has kind of been a
Speaker 1: one or two team league for the last few years.
Speaker 1: That the football in the SEC and the Big Ten.
Speaker 1: It's almost like, gosh, you just had a draft out
Speaker 1: of their Yeah. But but to get back to Scarnsky, like,
Speaker 1: I've watched Scronty go up against NFL pass rushers throughout
Speaker 1: his career, so it makes the evaluation a lot easier.
Speaker 1: All Right, speed round out with Daniel Jeremiah the NFL
Speaker 1: Network on the OTP. We're just gonna hit you with players. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm very well aware of the all right, so talk
Speaker 1: to me about Jalen Carter, defensive tackle Georgia. Yeah, he's
Speaker 1: a freak. He is an absolute freak, and he's a
Speaker 1: disruptor and he's dynamic, and to me, I think he's
Speaker 1: a better version of quinnin Williams coming out. What about
Speaker 1: Miles Murphy the Edge out of Clemson. He's a difficult
Speaker 1: evaluation because it's all there. He's got the body that
Speaker 1: you want. He's explosive, He's just got to get more
Speaker 1: polished as a pass rusher. The long corner. Joey Porter
Speaker 1: junior Penn State. Yeah, long, longest corner. That's what I
Speaker 1: would say, because even looks like he's beat on film
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, go go, gadget arms, and
Speaker 1: then he can he can still make a play. He's
Speaker 1: a He's a very intriguing player. Darnell Wright, offensive tackle,
Speaker 1: Tennessee stock Up. He's three hundred and forty plus pounds,
Speaker 1: who had was good on tape at right tackle at Tennessee.
Speaker 1: He was great at the Senior Bowl, and I think
Speaker 1: he's moving his way up into the top twenty. What
Speaker 1: about someone like Jordan Addison, the wide receiver at he See.
Speaker 1: He's polished, Um, he's a he's a pure route runner.
Speaker 1: And those are the guys that have had success translating
Speaker 1: quickly to the next level. Staying with wide receiver Jackson
Speaker 1: Smith and Jigba didn't play a lot because of the handstring.
Speaker 1: Where is he in this? Uh, he's an enigma. Can
Speaker 1: I say that? I like, it's gonna be an easy one.
Speaker 1: You just set me up there. Yeah, he's just you
Speaker 1: wish you would have seen more of him. But when
Speaker 1: he's out there, to me, he's a high volume slot receiver.
Speaker 1: So he's gonna catch eighty plus balls in the slot.
Speaker 1: All right, So give me a full thumbnail for the
Speaker 1: ot people on. Peter Scronsky from Northwestern convinced them why
Speaker 1: he should be the guy. When you look at offensive
Speaker 1: lineman that are tough, smart, and can anchor down against
Speaker 1: power rushers. In other words, you're not gonna be able
Speaker 1: to collapse them. That's a quarterback's best friend. They're gonna know,
Speaker 1: they're gonna see pressure, they're gonna identify it. They're gonna
Speaker 1: be able to squad on power. Every now and then
Speaker 1: you might get somebody get up the field on him
Speaker 1: with some speed, But guess what, you can climb up
Speaker 1: and you can get away from that. You're not gonna
Speaker 1: get through him. Do the same thing for Anthony Richards In,
Speaker 1: that quarter back out of Florida. Yeah, Well, if you
Speaker 1: look at quarterbacks's lottery tickets and they all cost the
Speaker 1: same amount of money in terms of first round picks,
Speaker 1: the payout in his lottery ticket is higher. So he's
Speaker 1: got the highest payout of anybody in this draft. If
Speaker 1: you hit on him, you win big. Not that I've
Speaker 1: ever bought a lottery ticket, because remember of the National
Speaker 1: Football like I to go nowhere near anything. He can
Speaker 1: I read to find prints in those emails. I'm not
Speaker 1: so sure. I can't. Can't buy him while you're on
Speaker 1: a trip to the combine. Another guy we saw at
Speaker 1: the Senior Bowl that he is intriguing to be at
Speaker 1: quarterback to find Witherspoon from Illinois. He's my favorite corner
Speaker 1: in the draft. He is so instinctive, He plays with
Speaker 1: no fear um and he just makes one play after another.
Speaker 1: He is a playmaking corner. Now, he's not gonna be
Speaker 1: the biggest guy in the world, but if you remember
Speaker 1: a Sante Samuel's career and what he was, I actually
Speaker 1: even there's some Sumari role, you know, to bring it
Speaker 1: back to the name you're familiar with. That he reminded
Speaker 1: me of Clark Phillips cornerback Utah. He's undersized, he's a
Speaker 1: He's gonna be a value pick. He'll get and he'll
Speaker 1: get punished a little bit because not the biggest guy.
Speaker 1: I don't think he's gonna just run a blazing forty.
Speaker 1: But he is really really instinctive and just always making
Speaker 1: plays and tier your offensive line. And I feel like
Speaker 1: this guy is a center because that's what he's played
Speaker 1: John Michael Schmidt's from Minnesota, plugging play, plug and play.
Speaker 1: That's a three letter evaluation, right, plug and play John
Speaker 1: Michael Schmitt play. Yeah, that's nice. What makes him? Is
Speaker 1: it the six year part? Is it the steadiness? What
Speaker 1: do you like most about him? He's just always he's
Speaker 1: always in a good body position. He doesn't he understands
Speaker 1: who he is and what he is. He doesn't get
Speaker 1: out of control. He plays very under control, working up
Speaker 1: to the second level. Um, it's not like he's the
Speaker 1: most dynamic or explosive player you've ever seen. But you know,
Speaker 1: it's just that, hey, block a guy, just just stay
Speaker 1: in front of him, stay attached to him, and that's
Speaker 1: what he does. You're the best, Daniel. I appreciate you guys,
Speaker 1: thank you for being with us on the OTP. I
Speaker 1: wanted more lightning round. I feel like a lightening round here.
Speaker 1: Let's do that the whole show. Yes, thank you, brother.
Speaker 1: Daniel Jeremiah is so good to have him with his Cotchmac.
Speaker 1: A lot of respect for Daniel Jeremiah because he came
Speaker 1: up through the ranks, real live scout, real live guy. Well.
Speaker 1: I respect Daniel Jeremiah so much. He's done it for
Speaker 1: a living, He's done the draft, he's made picks. I
Speaker 1: mean he's with Ozzie Newsom. He knows how it works.
Speaker 1: I mean he's done it for a living. I mean
Speaker 1: he's he's evaluated, he's he's been a road scout. I mean,
Speaker 1: he has come up through the ranks, as you say,
Speaker 1: so I got much respect for him because he's done it,
Speaker 1: and he's done it when his mortgage depended on it.
Speaker 1: Not just throwing out a lot of ideas rhet What
Speaker 1: jumped out to you about our conversation with Daniel Jeremiah One.
Speaker 1: He's he's very high on Peter Scronski, the offensive lineman
Speaker 1: from No. I mean he loves he loves Peters Scrony.
Speaker 1: You know. Let me just throw something in there about Scronsky.
Speaker 1: I was just talking with Dan Pompeii, who came up
Speaker 1: here and he wrote a great piece of thank you.
Speaker 1: I was just telling and you know that he's known
Speaker 1: that family since Scronsky was four years old. And I
Speaker 1: told Dan, I said, that was as insightful a piece
Speaker 1: as you could ever read. And Dan Pompeii's he said,
Speaker 1: mac he's the real deal. And Dan POMPEII is the
Speaker 1: real deal. Daniel Jeremiah is the real deal. I mean,
Speaker 1: this guy's a player. In talking to just various people
Speaker 1: who have pretty good knowledge, I'd say there is a
Speaker 1: sense that Scronsky might be as safe as anybody in
Speaker 1: the first round, even if he ends up a guard.
Speaker 1: I think that that sentiment is very true. Is just
Speaker 1: an overall package of a player knowing what it takes
Speaker 1: mentally and physically to play in this league at that position.
Speaker 1: I think that what you just said there is I
Speaker 1: think a very general feeling here, and it's a real
Speaker 1: it's a real thing. Mac. I'm sitting here in your
Speaker 1: notebooks right in front of us, so I feel the
Speaker 1: need to bust it out a little bit to get
Speaker 1: to the notebook. But also one of the things that
Speaker 1: we talked to Daniel Jeremiah about with tight ends, and
Speaker 1: he's very high on this tight end group, Mac, I
Speaker 1: want your evaluation on the group of tight ends that
Speaker 1: we have in this draft right now, and if there's
Speaker 1: anybody that really sticks out to you, he says, eleven
Speaker 1: in the first three rounds, he thinks, and Mac is
Speaker 1: feverishly flipping pages, buying him a second because I mean,
Speaker 1: Amy always gets on to me about but this is
Speaker 1: the actual draft workbook that I go through when I'm
Speaker 1: watching take He brought that. He bought that notebook at Kroger,
Speaker 1: just like we would for seventh Great History. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: just worried about the durability of it. Mac. I don't
Speaker 1: make fun of it. It's full of really important information.
Speaker 1: I'm just afraid of it just looks like it's been
Speaker 1: through a fire. By the end of the draft. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm going to get next year is a
Speaker 1: big chief tablet. Michael Mayer from Notre Dame. Why tight
Speaker 1: end fan, Yeah, big, big, big tight end. Uh you
Speaker 1: know we Uh. Dalton Kincaid from Utah, now he's got
Speaker 1: he he had a back injury that that is going
Speaker 1: to keep him from working out here. Okay, that has
Speaker 1: that has popped up, you know since But Dalton Kincaid
Speaker 1: is is Dalton Kinkaid to me in this draft is
Speaker 1: kind of the prototypical tidy end now of what's going
Speaker 1: on in this league, being able to split out, being
Speaker 1: able to you know, make you know, run routes distinct routes.
Speaker 1: Luke Musgrave, we saw him very closely down there at
Speaker 1: you know, at the Senior Bowl. Of course, you know,
Speaker 1: very limited playing time this year because of the ACL injury.
Speaker 1: But I think that that you know, that guy's going
Speaker 1: to be up there. Darnel Washington from Georgia. You know
Speaker 1: this is a big, big dude on the edge. Uh
Speaker 1: Tucker Craft from South Dakota State. You know, is it
Speaker 1: is a guy. Uh Sam Laporta from Iowa has been
Speaker 1: a guy that has been moving up and down. I
Speaker 1: mean I talked to a lot of people and you know,
Speaker 1: just there's some varied opinions. You talk about guys moving
Speaker 1: up and down around here. You know, I got down
Speaker 1: here early yesterday talking to a group and Samuel part
Speaker 1: is kind of moving up and down. We're talking about
Speaker 1: a tight end from Iowa and then Luke Schoonmaker from Michigan.
Speaker 1: This guy is. You know, so to me what Daniel
Speaker 1: say eleven, I wouldn't I wouldn't say no to any
Speaker 1: of that the tight end group. Here's the other thing,
Speaker 1: guys too, that I think we all know, tight end
Speaker 1: has become a real position now in offenses. Tight End
Speaker 1: used to be and I'm not gonna say throwaway, but
Speaker 1: tight end used to be kind of an afterthought position.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm going back you know when, But now
Speaker 1: tight ends are the deal, and so that's why there's
Speaker 1: that's why they are a number of them now. Darnielle
Speaker 1: Washington from Georgia probably the biggest guy in this group
Speaker 1: in the draft, monster guy, a guy that we looked
Speaker 1: at last year who wasn't rated as high. Jelannie Woods
Speaker 1: from Virginia, who we saw twice this year with the
Speaker 1: Indianapolis Colts. Is it benefit a guy like that who
Speaker 1: can go in jumbo packages like that as an extra
Speaker 1: offensive lineman, it also be a big red zone thread
Speaker 1: as a big, massive, you know target to go get. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're saying it right, red And we're seeing how many
Speaker 1: times have we seen this year during our game broadcast
Speaker 1: that opponents would be in thirteen personnel, which is three tights,
Speaker 1: one wide, one back, and not only in short yardage
Speaker 1: situations is what Redd is saying. So absolutely yes. And
Speaker 1: Jelannie Woods was the guy that was, you know, didn't
Speaker 1: have a lot of production, new to the position, new
Speaker 1: to the position, didn't have a lot of production, But
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, you know, you get him in
Speaker 1: an NFL camp and then you get packages put together
Speaker 1: for these people. You know. I mean, we've got a
Speaker 1: guy right there at the Titans. That same thing happened
Speaker 1: with him in Chigger Conquo. You know, found a slot
Speaker 1: for him, found a place for him, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden he ends up having a really nice rookie season. Yes,
Speaker 1: here's what I want to ask you about. Look at
Speaker 1: college football. Georgia uses tight ends, Alabama uses tight ends.
Speaker 1: Tennessee Josh Hypel has got to have a tight end
Speaker 1: in what he does. So when all this spread stuff started,
Speaker 1: it was one more wide receiver and no tight ends.
Speaker 1: Now the tight ends are back at an even bigger part,
Speaker 1: and we're seeing more of them come out in the draft.
Speaker 1: Who are you know? It's it's like flavors of ice cream,
Speaker 1: you can get all kinds. Why is the tight end
Speaker 1: so much back in football in this way overall? Two
Speaker 1: distinct reasons. Okay. The first is when they're split out,
Speaker 1: it's a huge mismatch problem. Okay, huge mismatch problem. As
Speaker 1: a defensive coordinator, you've got to decide if they put
Speaker 1: a tight end out there, Okay, if they put multiple
Speaker 1: tight ends out there on first down, you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to decide immediately. Am I gonna go with my standard
Speaker 1: package whatever that is with defensive backs and the numbers
Speaker 1: of linebackers. However that intercedes? And then what am I
Speaker 1: going to do if they don't change the package, but
Speaker 1: they change the alignments and they change the assignments. Who's
Speaker 1: going to be my walk away guy? How am I
Speaker 1: going to be able to get this guy covered? You know?
Speaker 1: And that's the difference. And here's the other thing. Even
Speaker 1: with the spread offense, you still need somebody at some
Speaker 1: point to block one edge. Whether you're running inside or
Speaker 1: outside zone, to the close side or to the open side,
Speaker 1: you need somebody that's the money block out there on
Speaker 1: that side. Somebody to secure an edge, secure an edge
Speaker 1: if you're going towards it, or secure an edge if
Speaker 1: you're going away from it. For the cutback aspect of it.
Speaker 1: The other aspect of that is if you bring a
Speaker 1: tight end into it and you've got defensive personnel packages,
Speaker 1: then the play action game, because if you've got corners
Speaker 1: covering receivers, you pretty much know even on play action,
Speaker 1: I'm going to cover that dude, right. But if I
Speaker 1: if my eye discipline has to be such that I
Speaker 1: have to check and see if this tight end or
Speaker 1: somebody in a tight end position is blocking first with
Speaker 1: the action away from him, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I've got a gap to feel in that run action
Speaker 1: away for a cutback, and then the tight end is out. Okay. Oh,
Speaker 1: and we've all seen it, and the bootleg game, the
Speaker 1: half bootleg game, all of those types of things come
Speaker 1: into being. That's why tight ends that are able to
Speaker 1: do a multitude of things. And when you block on
Speaker 1: the edge for a tight end, we're not talking about
Speaker 1: somebody just massively mauling somebody every time. It's getting away,
Speaker 1: getting the way, hold account, holding edge, holding edge you
Speaker 1: don't have to. You're not talking about someone that just
Speaker 1: has to move the entire pile. So that's why it's happening,
Speaker 1: all right. So let me ask the group this percentage
Speaker 1: chance in this draft in your opinion, knowing the Titans
Speaker 1: have a one, two, three, five, six seven as we
Speaker 1: talk right now in February twenty eighth percentage tank chance
Speaker 1: that somewhere among those picks the Titans draft a tight
Speaker 1: end sixty three and a half. Okay, I'll go higher.
Speaker 1: I think seventy percent chance at some point in those picks. Oh,
Speaker 1: I was gonna go way higher than that. I was
Speaker 1: gonna say like ninety Yeah, I would say eighty percent
Speaker 1: chance they draft a tight end with the need and
Speaker 1: with the availability. Now, is there one of those guys
Speaker 1: you could see a scenario that they take at eleven?
Speaker 1: I think I believe the need for offensive lineman is
Speaker 1: so important right now, I don't see it. And the
Speaker 1: reason I say that there's enough of these guys with
Speaker 1: the picks that you know that we're going to be
Speaker 1: able to get forty two even. Yes, And here's here's
Speaker 1: the other thing that I that I really that, I
Speaker 1: really think is that the picks that we have now
Speaker 1: that's not going to be the picks we have when
Speaker 1: we go to draft day. I agree with that. I
Speaker 1: think somehow they're going to add picks. And like, for example,
Speaker 1: all right, let's say just hypothetically they bumped down somebody
Speaker 1: desperately wanted to get to eleven to grab Anthony Richardson,
Speaker 1: As Daniel Jeremiah just said, let's say Tennessee bumps down
Speaker 1: to twenty or twenty one. Would you think about would
Speaker 1: you entertain the thought knowing that you've gathered some extra picks.
Speaker 1: Would you would you maybe take a tight end there?
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe depending on who's there, they're still they're still
Speaker 1: offensive lineman that may be there at that point also,
Speaker 1: and that would go into your thinking when you're thinking
Speaker 1: about doing that. But eleven in this draft is kind
Speaker 1: of a sweet spot. It is a sweet spot. Eleven.
Speaker 1: I mean when you really start analyzing it, and I
Speaker 1: mean we've all done it. I mean we've all looked
Speaker 1: at the draft deep enough you know that when you
Speaker 1: really start, and it'll be a sweet spot when the
Speaker 1: phone calls start, and that's on draft day. That's that's important.
Speaker 1: I mean, because people are forming ideas now. They're they're
Speaker 1: talking now amongst those suites up there during this whole
Speaker 1: week about possible trades, about possible moving in the draft.
Speaker 1: But that, as I say, and I've been in too
Speaker 1: many draft rooms, a lot of them on the phone,
Speaker 1: the desperation quotient when the clock is running and you've
Speaker 1: got to have something done and you've got two or
Speaker 1: three people, two or three different teams on the line
Speaker 1: going yes or no, yes or no, yes or no,
Speaker 1: it's gonna it's gonna be. The leventh spot will kind
Speaker 1: of be the sweet spot in this draft, because I
Speaker 1: don't really believe that there are there's thirty one picks
Speaker 1: in the first round right. Yes, there won't be people
Speaker 1: that have thirty one first round grades right on these people.
Speaker 1: So that's why mac. As we're here in Indianapolis, obviously,
Speaker 1: the evaluation of the players and the medicals and the
Speaker 1: workouts and everything vitally important to what is going to
Speaker 1: happen going forward. Equally as important, perhaps some of the
Speaker 1: conversations that happen being in a city where every person
Speaker 1: in the National Football League seems to be here right
Speaker 1: now more important because you can do it because of this,
Speaker 1: everybody knows everybody in the league. Of all of us
Speaker 1: have been in the league long enough, we know a
Speaker 1: lot of people. It's the same way with the coaches
Speaker 1: and the general managers now. But to be able to
Speaker 1: do what we're doing face to face, that's when it
Speaker 1: becomes real. I mean, I've been in those you know
Speaker 1: when we made the deal with the Titans. You know
Speaker 1: at the rams that started here. You know that that
Speaker 1: started here. Going one sweet over? So is it important
Speaker 1: that it starts here? Is an even if it's just
Speaker 1: an exploratory conversation that you're seeing face to face the
Speaker 1: person you're potentially have a trade partner with, to gauge
Speaker 1: body language, to gauge interest, throwing things against the wall,
Speaker 1: what would you take? Would if I could, would you
Speaker 1: that kind of thing? Yeah? Well, and nobody's making a
Speaker 1: trade here, no, right, but it's where it begins. But
Speaker 1: you're laying the groundwork. Yeah, you're laying the ground work
Speaker 1: for it. And that and that's this word starts. It
Speaker 1: really does, because I mean, there's a legal tampering period, right,
Speaker 1: Mike's favorite thing. Mike's favorite thing. I love legal tampering. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So to answer your question, yes, and that's why, you know,
Speaker 1: especially for the draft decision makers here, and sometimes the
Speaker 1: trade develops out of that, and sometimes it doesn't. Well, sure,
Speaker 1: I mean, nobody's making a trade here. Yeah, but you're you're, you're, you're,
Speaker 1: I mean, you're everybody here has been deep sea fishing.
Speaker 1: I'm sure. Do we look like a group of deep
Speaker 1: sea fishermen actually have been deep sea fish? It's really cool. Yes,
Speaker 1: So I've never even been on a less than half
Speaker 1: of it. Okay, well, but both the ones that haven't,
Speaker 1: we'll understand this you're chumming the water. Sure, Oh I
Speaker 1: know that. Yeah, you're chumming the water. And that's that's
Speaker 1: what this is here. The question is do you need
Speaker 1: a bigger boat? Jaw's reference in nineteen seventy five. There
Speaker 1: you go, Rich, there you go. Well, that guy who
Speaker 1: knows for sure that the legal tampering period starts in
Speaker 1: thirteen days and the free agency starts in fifteen days
Speaker 1: is here working hard. Visited with the media today and
Speaker 1: was kind enough to with US Titans due general manager
Speaker 1: Ran carthon the ot Titans general manager Ran Carthon, what's
Speaker 1: the number one question you've been getting in a month
Speaker 1: plus on the job, and my drinking water out of
Speaker 1: a fire hydrant? I've never attempted to, you know, And
Speaker 1: so now I've gotten a lot of great advice from guys,
Speaker 1: and Andrew Barry's given me the best piece of advice,
Speaker 1: which is get rest, and you have time to do
Speaker 1: it all. You can't sign any free agents to the
Speaker 1: new league your starts, you can't draft anybody to the
Speaker 1: draft opens, so you have time to get it all.
Speaker 1: Make sure I get my rest, so any event that
Speaker 1: I have to make a tough decision is coming from
Speaker 1: a well rested place, and I'm just not just reacting,
Speaker 1: you know. And so I've with my family not being there,
Speaker 1: I really don't have much to go home to, So
Speaker 1: I stay the office as late as possible, work as
Speaker 1: late as possible. I live very close by, and so
Speaker 1: it's I literally go to my place to sleep, I
Speaker 1: wake up, I'm back in the office, and kind of
Speaker 1: you know, the end in the middle of house shopping,
Speaker 1: I work, go meet my realtor see about three or
Speaker 1: four homes. Back in the office, you know, get a
Speaker 1: little bit of work in. So it's been great, man,
Speaker 1: But that's the number one question in my drinking water.
Speaker 1: Fire hasn't I don't know who came up with that,
Speaker 1: but it isn't descriptive. Yeah, and literally, from the moment
Speaker 1: I got offered the job, everybody was it's going, this
Speaker 1: is what it's gonna be like. So hey, man, to
Speaker 1: each his own. It has to be hard to balance
Speaker 1: that need for rest, though, with all of the different things,
Speaker 1: because this time of year, there's so many different options,
Speaker 1: there's so many different things that can happen in scenarios
Speaker 1: that I'm sure you're playing through your mind. How do
Speaker 1: you balance all of the different things that are just
Speaker 1: rolling through your head. Take inventory. Gotta be big on
Speaker 1: taking notes. I was went to bed after interviews last night,
Speaker 1: go straight back to the hotel, talk to my family,
Speaker 1: and I lay down, shoot Chad Brinker, couple notes, things
Speaker 1: that are on my mind. Wake up at three, three
Speaker 1: thirty in the morning, things on my mind. Shoot off
Speaker 1: a couple of texts, you know, And I let guys know, like, hey,
Speaker 1: you don't have to respond at three thirty or four o'clock.
Speaker 1: I'm just getting these thoughts off, you know. And so
Speaker 1: you just gotta take inventory and kind of prioritize. Somebody
Speaker 1: learned from less sneed. He categorizes things in big rocks
Speaker 1: and little rocks. Right, what are the big rocks that
Speaker 1: are gonna hinder your progress going forward? Let's attack those things,
Speaker 1: and where can the little rocks wait? So that's really
Speaker 1: what I'm doing. And again, man, it's just you don't
Speaker 1: have to make hasty, quick decisions, you know. It's just
Speaker 1: just gotta take your time and make the right decisions.
Speaker 1: So I'm just again taking my time doing everything right.
Speaker 1: I'm not doing things the way people expect or probably
Speaker 1: want me to do it. But you know, this is
Speaker 1: a process, like and I'm lucky to have Mike, you know,
Speaker 1: somebody that's here that's established that the culture is established.
Speaker 1: So again, it's a lot of me assimilating to what's
Speaker 1: going on and me learning, you know, the way in
Speaker 1: where I can add value, and then being able to
Speaker 1: just go right next door to his office, like, hey, man,
Speaker 1: here's what I'm thinking, Like what do you you know
Speaker 1: you've experienced this, like hey, how can you how can
Speaker 1: I do this better? Or like hey, how would you
Speaker 1: handle this? You know, And he's been beyond helpful from
Speaker 1: the job to school districts, like who would have thought
Speaker 1: that Mike Vrabel knows as much about Nashville area school
Speaker 1: districts as he does from the private schools the public schools.
Speaker 1: Like he's got it covered. You know, Jen did a
Speaker 1: really good job of coaching him up on that. But
Speaker 1: he's just been a great resource, you know, between him
Speaker 1: and Adolpho and Burke, Like, I'm surrounded by good people
Speaker 1: who can help me in this transition. Chad Brinker, you
Speaker 1: mentioned highly thought of executive with the Green Bay Packers.
Speaker 1: Why was he the right guy to come in as
Speaker 1: assistant GM to you with the Tennessee type. So if
Speaker 1: you know Chad, Chad's one of the greatest humans, you know,
Speaker 1: God has ever created, just to genuinely person that cares
Speaker 1: about people. But if you look at Chad's background, he's
Speaker 1: played the game, he's done in pro scouting, he's done
Speaker 1: college scouting, he's done salary coup, he's done analytics. Like
Speaker 1: he brings a broad perspective, you know, to our organization
Speaker 1: that's going to help us continue to evolve. You know. Again,
Speaker 1: I come up with the title of football guy. Right,
Speaker 1: nobody knows what you know unless you tell them. And
Speaker 1: so I've always valued having people from broad perspectives that
Speaker 1: can do a lot of different things. I don't believe
Speaker 1: in pigeonholing guys into just a college scout or just
Speaker 1: a pro scout. Like this is player acquisition, right, we
Speaker 1: gotta find where's the where's the value? Right. You can't
Speaker 1: go in draft all these guys if the draft isn't
Speaker 1: strong in a certain areas, right, And so that portion
Speaker 1: may come from free agency. And so we're going to
Speaker 1: cross train our guys and guys will know both spaces,
Speaker 1: you know, so that allow us to build, you know,
Speaker 1: a versatile staff. So if there is movement, and then
Speaker 1: you can take a scouting assistant that has done both
Speaker 1: and plug him in, or you might move a pro
Speaker 1: guy on the road or vice versa. Want to have versatility,
Speaker 1: and I think Chad is one of the more versatile
Speaker 1: guys into our business, much like ran Carthon was in
Speaker 1: San Francisco, Fair Fair, but he brings a lot more.
Speaker 1: I personally feel, you know, Chad won't talk about himself,
Speaker 1: so I'll talk about him in this moment. He's a
Speaker 1: guy that Green Bay thought enough of to pay for
Speaker 1: him to get his executive NBA from Northwestern, Right, So
Speaker 1: not only does he goes and gets his executive NBA,
Speaker 1: but through the course of getting an NBA, he meets
Speaker 1: with some guys that are in the tech space and
Speaker 1: he creates his own AI model for injuries and cap studies,
Speaker 1: and so he figures out a way to create these
Speaker 1: models that he owns the IP for, and so wherever
Speaker 1: he goes, he can bring that IP, you know, with him,
Speaker 1: and again it allows us to grow in the space
Speaker 1: that we're trying to evolve to, which is in the
Speaker 1: analytics department, you know, And so he brings that vast
Speaker 1: I have an understanding of analytics because coming from where
Speaker 1: I'm coming from, but he's on another level den I
Speaker 1: in and so that's an area where he's going to
Speaker 1: be a strength, you know, to our organization. Obviously being
Speaker 1: in Indianapolis, one of the primary goals is to evaluate
Speaker 1: all of the players that are, you know, participating in
Speaker 1: the combine. But it's also an opportunity for you to
Speaker 1: really spend a lot of concentrated time with your staff.
Speaker 1: How are you going through that process of not only
Speaker 1: working together and kind of getting in lockstep with everybody,
Speaker 1: but also just kind of evaluating the chemistry of this group. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's time spent, right. So it started for me
Speaker 1: in particular, get the job. Literally, reach out to every
Speaker 1: single area scout. I knew the pro staff fairly well.
Speaker 1: Reach out to every single area guy, you know, just
Speaker 1: to have an opening conversation. Then Senior Bowl comes, we
Speaker 1: get to spend a week together. In the Senior Bowl,
Speaker 1: we go to dinner one night, just hang out, have fun.
Speaker 1: Then last week they were all just in for four
Speaker 1: days for meetings. So it's it's been a part of
Speaker 1: the process of spending more time together, getting to hear
Speaker 1: them in their space and actually giving them the opportunity
Speaker 1: to speak and speak how they feel about the players
Speaker 1: as openly as possible. And again it allows me to evaluate,
Speaker 1: you know, not only our department, but our processes. And
Speaker 1: so last night, our area guys are coordinators, are in
Speaker 1: there running the meeting in terms of meeting with the players.
Speaker 1: And again it's another good portion for me to see
Speaker 1: because these guys are the ones who've been scouting them
Speaker 1: the last five six years, right, So I can't come
Speaker 1: in pretend to be an expert on these particular players
Speaker 1: from these particular areas, knowing that I hadn't been in there.
Speaker 1: So it's good to let these guys lead take ownership
Speaker 1: of that process. And again it allows me to not
Speaker 1: only evaluate them, but our processes as a whole. Listening
Speaker 1: to you talk about that, it sounds like that's going well.
Speaker 1: Now it's going everything's going well. Again, I'm stepping into
Speaker 1: a space that was already established, right, And again it's
Speaker 1: a little bit of a cheat code because of what
Speaker 1: Jay rob the systems that he brought from New England
Speaker 1: was how I came up right in Atlanta, and then
Speaker 1: we instituted those things in San Francisco, So the language
Speaker 1: is the same, so it makes it easier for me
Speaker 1: to step in and understand exactly what they're saying because
Speaker 1: we speak, you know, some places speaking colors. We speak
Speaker 1: in numbers in terms of our grading scale, and I know,
Speaker 1: even though the numbers are a little different, I do
Speaker 1: know the bucket that these guys belong to because of
Speaker 1: the similarity in the systems. Last week the Titans wave
Speaker 1: Taylor to one, Robert Woods, Zach Cunningham, and kicker Randy Bullock.
Speaker 1: What went into the process of deciding that these would
Speaker 1: be the first moves that you made, and the timing
Speaker 1: of it, well a lot of it too was one
Speaker 1: of the first of all. The timing part, you know,
Speaker 1: wanting to get through the Super Bowl. There's a little
Speaker 1: bit of a competitive advantage that those teams would have
Speaker 1: had had we made these moves prior to because those
Speaker 1: guys would have been available to those Super Bowl teams
Speaker 1: for that time. So a little bit of a competitive
Speaker 1: competitive advantage there. So we wanted to wait until after
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. But those moves were just, you know, roster
Speaker 1: moves that needed to be made to kind of allow
Speaker 1: our program to go into the next direction. You know,
Speaker 1: they were all tough moves. All those guys have made
Speaker 1: contributions to you know, to our organization, and you're grateful
Speaker 1: for him. You know. Honestly, that was outside of Taylor.
Speaker 1: That was my first time talking to those three guys,
Speaker 1: and it was you know, it was tough. You know,
Speaker 1: your first conversation. You hear it in their voice like
Speaker 1: oh hey, and then I'm like, hey man, I'm sorry
Speaker 1: that this is our first phone call. You know, particularly
Speaker 1: a guy Robert Woods, where I have a ton of
Speaker 1: respect for. I was in LA when we first signed him.
Speaker 1: There it was only I was in to build them
Speaker 1: with him maybe two weeks after we signed him, and
Speaker 1: then I left, and then now to come into this situation.
Speaker 1: And I even have Robert featured in my GM presentation
Speaker 1: right for signing the right guys culture builders, guys who
Speaker 1: come in and can help establish a culture. So that
Speaker 1: one was really tough, you know, because of the amount
Speaker 1: of respect I have for him, but him being who
Speaker 1: he is, he handled it like a true pro and
Speaker 1: we actually had a really good conversation. And you know,
Speaker 1: again there's there moves that need to be made for
Speaker 1: us to take the step into a new year. As
Speaker 1: you look at the roster as it stands right now,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of different options for the ways that
Speaker 1: the Tennessee Titans can move forward. How do you, I guess,
Speaker 1: how do you narrow in on some of the specific
Speaker 1: areas that need to be addressed as we approach not
Speaker 1: only free agency, but the draft that's coming around the corner.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of different things that can happen, and
Speaker 1: it seems like a narrowing of a focus would be beneficial. Right.
Speaker 1: So the way I look at everything is it's a puzzle, right,
Speaker 1: There's a puzzle. There's a picture in the end of
Speaker 1: we know when you open the box and you put
Speaker 1: to all the pieces out, you know how the puzzle
Speaker 1: was supposed to look in the end. And so right
Speaker 1: now we're putting we're finding all these pieces on how
Speaker 1: we're going to make that picture come to light at
Speaker 1: the end. Right, So, in terms of narrowing in the focus,
Speaker 1: we'll have that, but we're still gathering all the pieces.
Speaker 1: We're grouping all the pieces of how to put this
Speaker 1: puzzle together. And so we're gonna again as player acquisition, right,
Speaker 1: So we hadn't gotten a free agency yet, draft is
Speaker 1: after that, and so now we got to see where's
Speaker 1: the value. That was a part of our meetings with
Speaker 1: the pro guys. Hey give a positional overview. Where's this
Speaker 1: where's this class strong? Where's it light? And the same
Speaker 1: thing in college, where's its strong and where's it lights?
Speaker 1: So we got to use those two things to balance,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna find the best value in whether it's
Speaker 1: the draft, whether it's free agency, to make the necessary
Speaker 1: moves to make that picture come to light at the end.
Speaker 1: Because you are a new general manager, other teams don't
Speaker 1: know what you're going to do. You have no track
Speaker 1: record in that way. I was going to the question
Speaker 1: is I think it's already been answered by the smile.
Speaker 1: How much of an advantage is that that the Tennessee
Speaker 1: Titans are open for business and people don't really know
Speaker 1: what that business is right now? I mean, the only
Speaker 1: way you will find out is if you call it inquiry.
Speaker 1: That's right, you know. So I have friends, a lot
Speaker 1: of friends in this business who we've had intimate talks
Speaker 1: throughout the years, and so you know, you get a
Speaker 1: little Hey, I think this is who I think, I
Speaker 1: think this is your guy? Could be I don't know,
Speaker 1: you know, so to a lot of my friends knowledge,
Speaker 1: I haven't seen any of these guys, and so we'll
Speaker 1: keep it that way. I haven't seen anybody in the draft.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen any free agents. So we'll see you
Speaker 1: when the draft opens. This obviously is not your first
Speaker 1: combine in your career, but it is your first combine
Speaker 1: as the guy. What has surprised you the most about
Speaker 1: being here in this new role? Has anything changed a
Speaker 1: little bit? No, nothing's changed. Um, well, we're staying at
Speaker 1: one hotel and throughout my career stayed at another hotel.
Speaker 1: So that's been a little bit of an adjustment. But again,
Speaker 1: having such a vast network of friends and people, you know,
Speaker 1: you try to build in the time to see everyone,
Speaker 1: but understanding now in this position, like you're in a
Speaker 1: different light, and so I'm hosting a little bit more
Speaker 1: of Hey, come to my room and hang out instead
Speaker 1: of being out out. You know, in years past, I
Speaker 1: could do that. No one, Oh that's the guy in
Speaker 1: San Francisco, I think, you know. And then then you
Speaker 1: get to peer down at your credential like oh yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: and so now I just you know, I'm aware of
Speaker 1: that I'm aware of my surroundings at all times, and
Speaker 1: so I'm just more so isolating myself and hanging out
Speaker 1: my room, and everyone who knows me knows where to
Speaker 1: find me and how to find me. Last question, how
Speaker 1: different is Ran Carthon in the interview room with the
Speaker 1: prospective players than you were when you were in the
Speaker 1: different roles with Atlanta, La and San Francisco. I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm the same. I'm more in this space of
Speaker 1: information gathering, right. I want to hear more about these guys,
Speaker 1: and so there'll be a couple questions I might interject
Speaker 1: and ask, or you know, ice breakers if I know
Speaker 1: the kids high school, I know the area he grew up,
Speaker 1: or we have someone in common, I might do that
Speaker 1: just to you know, lighten the mood a little bit.
Speaker 1: But more so I've always just kind of sat in
Speaker 1: the back and just to listen and hear where these
Speaker 1: guys are coming from, try to read the guy, to
Speaker 1: try to see, you know, where they are, how they're feeling.
Speaker 1: And you know, again, these young men, this is a
Speaker 1: this is a this is the dream, right. This is
Speaker 1: the last portion of seeing that dream come true. And
Speaker 1: so there's gonna be some nerves, and you know there's
Speaker 1: gonna be some guys to stumble over words or you know,
Speaker 1: just might not be at their best because of the nerves.
Speaker 1: And so I just rather sit back and like I
Speaker 1: said before, allowed the area guys, the national guys to lead,
Speaker 1: allow of coordinators and coaches to lead, and then I
Speaker 1: could sit back and listen and then make my decisions
Speaker 1: or my opinions of the guy of the people, not
Speaker 1: the player, but the people from there. You said a coach,
Speaker 1: Ran Carthon is an impressive guy. Well, I just had
Speaker 1: five years of working with him with a team that
Speaker 1: he and I both were hired into that had been
Speaker 1: fifteen and sixty five in the previous five years. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm not good at math, but that's three wins a
Speaker 1: year for five years. So they weren't good, and so
Speaker 1: there was a lot of personnel work to do, and
Speaker 1: he and I sat in offices pretty late at night
Speaker 1: for a long time looking at players because we just
Speaker 1: had to get that thing rebuilt. Couldn't do it all
Speaker 1: at once. It took seven years, you know, the five
Speaker 1: that five that we were there, and then six they
Speaker 1: kind of got it going, and then seven Shan McVay wins,
Speaker 1: But the base of it was those five years of
Speaker 1: trying to get all of that mess cleaned up. And
Speaker 1: as I said, Rand and I spent with Ray Agnew
Speaker 1: you know who's now at. You know who's now at.
Speaker 1: I mean we spent a lot of time together because
Speaker 1: I was the assistant head coach then and that was
Speaker 1: part of my deal. Is that in watching your drafts
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles with the Rams, and in also watching
Speaker 1: what they've done in San Francisco. I've looked at sort
Speaker 1: of the last ten drafts, five from the Rams and
Speaker 1: then five from San Francisco. Seems like they hit a
Speaker 1: lot of three iron off the tee and don't try
Speaker 1: to hit driver very often. In other words, they want
Speaker 1: that shot right down the middle in good position from
Speaker 1: those draft picks. That those guys are continually giving productivity, productivity, productivity.
Speaker 1: That feels like how Mike Vrabel will view drafts. Although
Speaker 1: he's not told us, didn't tell people to day when
Speaker 1: he talked to the media, I mean, not give anything away,
Speaker 1: but it feels like he and Ran Carthon will fit
Speaker 1: in that way because that seems to be the pattern.
Speaker 1: Don't each do your thing, make sure, you get players
Speaker 1: that can help you and will be not only performers
Speaker 1: and successful performers, but be cost effect. I like your analogy.
Speaker 1: The only driver we hit when I was with the
Speaker 1: Rams was the trade with the Titans. Right, We went
Speaker 1: after Jared Golf, but I didn't think Golf was a
Speaker 1: crazy pick, well, because we had no quarterback, right, and
Speaker 1: then we've talked this through and that was that was it. Say, hey,
Speaker 1: look we're you know, we'd already had Aaron Donald put together.
Speaker 1: We'd already had you know, we we had some things
Speaker 1: put together defensively, but you're right that that was a
Speaker 1: big part of it. And the reason was because when
Speaker 1: we came in there and we started evaluating what the
Speaker 1: product was that was on the turf at the time there.
Speaker 1: I mean, you had Chris Long, yeah, James Lornidas was
Speaker 1: right at the end. You had Robert Quinn, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, and then you had Roger Staffold and when
Speaker 1: you really started looking at it, you know, Stephen Jackson,
Speaker 1: the running back was was done. He was aged out,
Speaker 1: and so he started drafted Aaron Donald too, which is
Speaker 1: pretty smart. Number thirteen. There's a great there's a great,
Speaker 1: great draft day story on that and a pre draft
Speaker 1: story on that that I mean is it's pretty amazing
Speaker 1: really because we just drafted Michael Brocker's year before from LSU,
Speaker 1: who just now retired, who's been a wonderful, pro tremendous, pro,
Speaker 1: big force, you know, defensively, and when we were drafting
Speaker 1: Mike during that time, we were drafting to beat Seattle
Speaker 1: because they were well they were the dudes. Everybody else
Speaker 1: you could kind of figure out with, but they were
Speaker 1: the dudes and Russell Wilson was running, they had, you know,
Speaker 1: they had the legion of boom going and they were
Speaker 1: in a hard place to play up there, and the
Speaker 1: Rams had not beaten them in one hundred thousand years
Speaker 1: or whatever it was. And so I mean that's what
Speaker 1: you were looking at. And that's where the Aaron you know,
Speaker 1: the Michael Brockers came into it. To pair him inside
Speaker 1: with Aaron Donald and had Robert Quinn on one side
Speaker 1: edge and Chris Long on the other edge, and then
Speaker 1: you know, all of those things started to work together.
Speaker 1: But Aaron Donald, I mean, he was the thirteenth and
Speaker 1: you know, the you know, the room wasn't let me
Speaker 1: say this, it wasn't just like just sitting there on
Speaker 1: go for everybody, there's some that really loved it, loved him,
Speaker 1: and then we're just you know, sitting there holding their breath,
Speaker 1: you know, hoping it's gone, and others were holding We're
Speaker 1: hoping he would be gone so they wouldn't have to
Speaker 1: make that decision when it got there. But why well,
Speaker 1: there was because of his height, really and there was
Speaker 1: a real there was a real you know, I mean
Speaker 1: a lot of times you know that there's got to
Speaker 1: be give and take when you're in a draft room
Speaker 1: with twenty people reading a report. You know, you can't
Speaker 1: talk in the draft room unless you've written reports, unless
Speaker 1: you've watched at least five game tape on him, and
Speaker 1: you can verify your grades at certain points in the film.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know you have to have. So you
Speaker 1: had you know, some people would say, you know, he's
Speaker 1: too short. You know, he's working against people. He's got
Speaker 1: to jump around moving, that's it. And he's worked this
Speaker 1: in another city. Is this one of the ray agnew
Speaker 1: He said, this is one of the strongest, one of
Speaker 1: the most physical called dynamic three techniques I've ever seen
Speaker 1: on tape, ever seen. And Ragney was a number one
Speaker 1: draft pick, right. He knows, you know, he knew, so
Speaker 1: he was on the table for it. And then the
Speaker 1: defensive line coach, Mike Waffle is, I've told you all
Speaker 1: this story. I don't know if the OTP has ever
Speaker 1: heard it, but we were having a draft meeting. We're
Speaker 1: looking at quarterbacks, you know, because and then only your
Speaker 1: thirty visit you have people in. Well, Mike Waffle, it
Speaker 1: was Aaron Donald's day to be in. So you break
Speaker 1: it noon and then everybody has their segment of time
Speaker 1: when they talked to, you know, Aaron Donald. But Mike
Speaker 1: Waffles given him a tour of the facility, and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, the door just flings open, slams up
Speaker 1: against the board. He says, hey, I don't care who
Speaker 1: you're talking about. He walks Aaron in the room. Aaron's
Speaker 1: going like what the hell? And he says, I don't
Speaker 1: care who we're talking about. This is the best player
Speaker 1: on the board right here, Aaron Donald. We don't take him.
Speaker 1: We're out of our minds. Thank you. Wore helpful, walks
Speaker 1: back out. Whoa I like Jim Washburn used to do?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, And both defensive line coaches were two of
Speaker 1: the best I've ever been around, sure, but they knew
Speaker 1: who they wanted. They knew who they wanted, and so anyway,
Speaker 1: but Aaron Donald's there, and he's had a pretty good career,
Speaker 1: and Mike, there will be a similar story in war
Speaker 1: rooms this year because of a guy from pitt He's
Speaker 1: not Aaron Donald now, but because of the size they're
Speaker 1: making him out to be. Who were right, because of
Speaker 1: the size and where he came from, same program, Colijah
Speaker 1: Kancy with thirty four and a half sacks in his
Speaker 1: career something crazy like that, and he's undersized like that,
Speaker 1: and so yeah, the comparisons already, and it's like eight
Speaker 1: a minute, there's only one Aaron Donald. But go ahead,
Speaker 1: mac oh no, no, you're you're right. I mean, I've
Speaker 1: got him as a fringe first round pick, you know,
Speaker 1: just watching him. And of course I've had history with
Speaker 1: Aaron Donald. But everybody else in the league does too.
Speaker 1: But this also for Elijah Cancy, rhet and for all
Speaker 1: of us can kind of work against him too, because
Speaker 1: people will say Aaron Donald's a one off. Aaron Donald's
Speaker 1: a unicorn. He's a unicorn. We we can't we can't
Speaker 1: run that tape again, you know, and so it's going
Speaker 1: to be very very interesting to see. Uh. When I
Speaker 1: watch Klijah Cancy, I see a lot of the movement stuff.
Speaker 1: But Aaron Donald is in human. How strong he is
Speaker 1: inhuman and it comes from when he was growing up.
Speaker 1: I mean his dad had him pushing iron. I mean
Speaker 1: when he came out of the womb. I mean, so
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know Elijah Cancy that well
Speaker 1: from Pitt you know, I haven't, but I dug into
Speaker 1: Aaron Donald. There's an explosion to the really special people.
Speaker 1: I mean, you think about Walter Payton's explosion. Do you
Speaker 1: think about Adrian Peterson's explosion? Aaron Donald and I'm talking
Speaker 1: about two running backs. They're players at various positions who
Speaker 1: have that, and Aaron Donald has that same sort of explosion.
Speaker 1: It's it's God given in some ways, it's brought out
Speaker 1: by work. But there's just something different about certain people,
Speaker 1: no matter their size. You know what we call those guys.
Speaker 1: When I was still in the scouting business for a
Speaker 1: living womb to tomb guys. They came out like that.
Speaker 1: They'll go on the ground like that and then they
Speaker 1: can develop it. As you say, but because because football
Speaker 1: is played in short burst of power and speed. It's
Speaker 1: a short burst game. I mean, you know you have it,
Speaker 1: you have between snaps. You have a snap and then
Speaker 1: you go back and you know, recover again. I mean,
Speaker 1: so these guys that have that type of thing, and
Speaker 1: then you know, the mindset comes into it too, because
Speaker 1: it's exhausting to play like that all the time and
Speaker 1: you've got to have a relentless mindset, which how do
Speaker 1: you try to find some of that out here? You
Speaker 1: try to find some of it out on tape, but
Speaker 1: until you really get a human being with you, you
Speaker 1: don't really know. I mean, we kind of knew that
Speaker 1: Aaron Donald was relentless the first nine on seven that
Speaker 1: we had and a guard tried to cut him on
Speaker 1: the back side, and Aaron Donald grabbed him by the
Speaker 1: face mask and worked him around the field like a
Speaker 1: dog dragon a dish ray and then yanked one time
Speaker 1: and pulled the face mask completely off the helmet and
Speaker 1: threw it at him. Oh and we went, okay, So
Speaker 1: publicly you're saying, Aaron, don't do that. Privately you're all
Speaker 1: walking in the coach's office going what did we just see?
Speaker 1: All right? Part of True Mac. You had mentioned that
Speaker 1: the comparison to Aaron Donald could be detrimental to somebody.
Speaker 1: How often do those comps, which at this time of
Speaker 1: year we're all doing, you're and I think we're trying
Speaker 1: to provide context or a touch point. This person's kind
Speaker 1: of like that person, This person reminds me of this
Speaker 1: person's body type or skill set or whatever. How much
Speaker 1: does that help somebody? And how much does that hurt somebody?
Speaker 1: You know what you're really First of all, if you're
Speaker 1: doing this for a living, you think you're doing a
Speaker 1: disservice to both individuals, right, So you don't make comps.
Speaker 1: You don't. You don't make comps. You're doing it, you
Speaker 1: know now when you start digging deeper into it, Okay,
Speaker 1: if you've everything's worked out and you've seen because you guys,
Speaker 1: we all know, we all know, there's so much more
Speaker 1: that goes into it other than just the how you
Speaker 1: because some guys may show up and can't take the grind.
Speaker 1: Some guys made so those guys that normally you're making
Speaker 1: comps too, have already been through the grind and proven
Speaker 1: that they can do it. But it's still it's still
Speaker 1: human nature. You can you know, you can see it.
Speaker 1: I mean you still you look and if you've been
Speaker 1: at it a long time, which we all have, you go, wow,
Speaker 1: that really reminds me of, reminds me of and I
Speaker 1: think I think the way that you say it is
Speaker 1: important reminds you of is different than he is him.
Speaker 1: You know, that's that's the difference. He reminds me of.
Speaker 1: You know, this person, which physical traits can be true,
Speaker 1: but you're not that person because that person has done
Speaker 1: a whole separate thing to get to this level and
Speaker 1: where you're bringing these kids in now it's just the
Speaker 1: start of it. But so comparisons aren't They're not all bad,
Speaker 1: but they're they're not the end all to be all.
Speaker 1: Mackett goes back to what ran Carthon said the first
Speaker 1: day he was introduced to the media. He said, I
Speaker 1: have a good idea about this Titan's roster. I see
Speaker 1: the film. I don't know the people on the film. Sure,
Speaker 1: and that's and that's what's important, and that's what you
Speaker 1: try to glean a little bit here during this process.
Speaker 1: And then but that's the proper way to look at it.
Speaker 1: I mean, you have to look at it like that
Speaker 1: because you're still dealing with human beings as an evaluator
Speaker 1: and as the people you're evaluating. So you until you
Speaker 1: really work with somebody for a long That's why I say,
Speaker 1: I work with Rand for five years, I know what
Speaker 1: he is. But until you really work with somebody day
Speaker 1: to day and go through the pressures and the highs
Speaker 1: and the lows of what this business is, which is
Speaker 1: it is, you never really know who they are. Well,
Speaker 1: one person who's going to go through the highs and
Speaker 1: lows and pressure is Tim Kelly, the Titans new offensive coordinator,
Speaker 1: who was here earlier this afternoon, and we got our
Speaker 1: first chance to meet him and to talk with him.
Speaker 1: Amy and I had had you met him before. I've
Speaker 1: never met him. When people say Tim Kelly was retained
Speaker 1: from the previous staff or promoted from the previous stamp,
Speaker 1: I mean that's technically true, but Tim Kelly was not
Speaker 1: deeply involved in what we witnessed. It was very much
Speaker 1: Todd Downing's offense. Now it's Tim Kelly's offense. We were
Speaker 1: throwed to meet him and have a chance to ask
Speaker 1: him some questions here in Indianapolis at the combine. We'll
Speaker 1: share that with you now on the ot poot Tim Kelly,
Speaker 1: it is nice to finally get a chance to meet
Speaker 1: you and to visit with you. You completely freaked us
Speaker 1: out in December when you shaped your beard. That's been
Speaker 1: a big talking point. I yes, And so we're so
Speaker 1: We're at practice every day and Tim Kelly stands off
Speaker 1: to the side watching the offense, doing his things rather surreptitiously,
Speaker 1: just sort of just so going about the business. And
Speaker 1: one day this guy appears out there. We don't know
Speaker 1: who he is. We're like, the Titans have hired somebody else.
Speaker 1: Who is that guy? The beard is back and grow
Speaker 1: it back? Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty self aware as far
Speaker 1: as that. And it wasn't a good look for me.
Speaker 1: Kind of got a chubby face, and um yeah, I
Speaker 1: was looking to kind of change the mojo up a
Speaker 1: little bit at that time of the season. Um didn't work, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: But yeah, the beard couldn't grow back fast enough. I
Speaker 1: do appreciate the commitment to the cause though, I mean,
Speaker 1: that's a major attempt to change any sort of going
Speaker 1: And I knew what I was in for with that too,
Speaker 1: So it was, you know, doing everything we couldn't try
Speaker 1: to get a win. So you're you're on the staff
Speaker 1: and you're promoted to offensive coordinator, but in essence you're
Speaker 1: coming in from the outside having been the offensive coordinator
Speaker 1: in Houston. So the Titans sort of get both in you.
Speaker 1: How much of an advantage is it to you that
Speaker 1: you had a year to observe, to see everything, and
Speaker 1: now you get to sort of institute a lot of
Speaker 1: what you'd like. Yeah, um, you know, obviously being able
Speaker 1: to come in and no firsthand personnel wise, who does
Speaker 1: what well? Um? And then the other thing really as
Speaker 1: far as some of the carryovers being able to see
Speaker 1: what were we effected at, what was good? You know, um,
Speaker 1: what do we want to carry over? And then what
Speaker 1: needs to be adjusted? What do we need to change? Um,
Speaker 1: you know what things just need to be different. So uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the thought the hope of that is is
Speaker 1: that hopefully that that allows the younger players, you know,
Speaker 1: especially trailing Chig you know, Nick Malique, these guys that
Speaker 1: that spend time learning the offense that it's just not
Speaker 1: a complete overhaul just for the sake of change. Um,
Speaker 1: if it's something that fits and it's something that that
Speaker 1: we do well, and it's effective, We're going to keep
Speaker 1: it the same, which should hopefully help the learning curve
Speaker 1: for those guys. Does it also give you the ability
Speaker 1: to understand kind of the dynamics within position groups, within
Speaker 1: the offense as a whole, to really have some consistency
Speaker 1: in terms of keeping some things where you don't want
Speaker 1: to rock the Yeah, no doubt. I think anytime you
Speaker 1: can do that while still again continuing to change, you know,
Speaker 1: whatever needs to be enhanced. Being able to do that
Speaker 1: and make those adjustments, I think that helps make that
Speaker 1: transition smoother. When you talk to Mike Vrabel about this
Speaker 1: post about being becoming offensive coordinator, what do you think
Speaker 1: are the most important things that you told him that
Speaker 1: made him make that decision in terms of how you'll
Speaker 1: take the offense for Yeah, you know, really want to
Speaker 1: be versatile. I want to find different ways to put
Speaker 1: different players in certain positions to take advantage of their
Speaker 1: skill set. So being able to identify what people do
Speaker 1: well and then continually put them in positions to be successful.
Speaker 1: And that that means change in formations, change of personnel groups,
Speaker 1: changing how fast we play. Those are all things that
Speaker 1: come into that. Um, you know, want to make sure
Speaker 1: that that on each snap were for forcing the defense
Speaker 1: to defend as much as much grass as possible, so
Speaker 1: you know, vertically with the field all of it. So
Speaker 1: if if you know, by stressing the defense, you know,
Speaker 1: hopefully that gives us more opportunities to have big plays,
Speaker 1: to take advantage of bad football, um and to just
Speaker 1: be a more explosive offense altogether. As we're continuing through
Speaker 1: the off season, free agency is looming, the draft is approaching.
Speaker 1: We're here at the combine right now, so there's so
Speaker 1: much evaluation going on. How much do you take into
Speaker 1: consideration maybe some of those strengths and weaknesses within the
Speaker 1: offense that you've seen the roster that you currently have
Speaker 1: that you're familiar with, and then some areas potentially of
Speaker 1: need or some areas where you could do some tweaking.
Speaker 1: How much is that rolling around in your brain as
Speaker 1: you're continuing through this offseason. Yeah, a lot, a lot.
Speaker 1: I mean that's why we're here, right Everyone everyone's trying
Speaker 1: to improve and uh, you know, improve their areas of
Speaker 1: weaknesses and things along those lines. So again, having that
Speaker 1: firsthand knowledge of being able to watch development and being
Speaker 1: able to have a you know, a pretty good projection
Speaker 1: as to where you see some of the trajectories and
Speaker 1: these guys going, you know, helps with some of that.
Speaker 1: It allows you to know what limitations are and allows
Speaker 1: you to know where hey, Okay, this guy may not
Speaker 1: have done that, but i've we've seen a skill set
Speaker 1: and we've been able to identify that that he can
Speaker 1: check this box. So, you know, the more information you
Speaker 1: can have while trying to build a roster and trying
Speaker 1: to get guys on your team, Uh, they're going to
Speaker 1: help you win. I think the better off you're going
Speaker 1: to be. Earlier in this edition of the OTP, we
Speaker 1: talked extensively about the tight ends in this draft, which
Speaker 1: are pretty impressive, and we talked with coach Mack about,
Speaker 1: you know, the use of tight ends and the growth
Speaker 1: of tight ends, especially over the last five years. You've
Speaker 1: certainly spent a lot of time working with tight ends.
Speaker 1: You've had some good wins. What are you looking for
Speaker 1: from that particular position in your offense? Yeah, you know
Speaker 1: that spot. Obviously you're looking for for a form of physicality,
Speaker 1: and I think that all looks different, um, you know,
Speaker 1: based upon whatever body type you may have. So just
Speaker 1: because you're not six foot six and you know, two
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy five pounds or whatever. It maybe it
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you can't be physical in your own in
Speaker 1: your own way. So finding a way to be physical
Speaker 1: and then finding a way to be versatile. The more
Speaker 1: you can do, uh, you know, the more you're going
Speaker 1: to be able to be on the field, and you're
Speaker 1: more the more you're gonna help us win games. So
Speaker 1: being physical and being versatile, I think are two things
Speaker 1: that we really are looking for. Leads be right into
Speaker 1: a question about Chicka coquall. Were you pleased with what
Speaker 1: you saw from his development throughout the course of the year,
Speaker 1: especially from the standpoint of his availability to play more
Speaker 1: plays because he knew more. Yeah, he knew more. And
Speaker 1: you know, chi Chick did a good job a learning
Speaker 1: when it takes to be a pro um. You know,
Speaker 1: I think oftentimes that's something that we'd take for granted. Uh,
Speaker 1: with guys coming into the NFL and learning what it
Speaker 1: means to play professional football. There's a lot that goes
Speaker 1: into it, studying, you know, being able to take care
Speaker 1: of your body, some of the different uh, just challenges
Speaker 1: that that going on with that transition. So he did
Speaker 1: a good job handling that and then, um, you know,
Speaker 1: as far as his development throughout the year, he showed
Speaker 1: us that that when the ball would find him, he
Speaker 1: would make a play. So you know, the one that
Speaker 1: comes to mind is the ball that he caught here
Speaker 1: in Indyum. You know, the ball found him and he
Speaker 1: made the play. And so when that starts to happen,
Speaker 1: you start to feel more and more confident that, Hey,
Speaker 1: if we can get the ball in this guy's hands,
Speaker 1: you know some some good's gonna happen. Um. And the
Speaker 1: other thing is is he never blinked like we would
Speaker 1: ask him to do some things and there was never
Speaker 1: any huh and any kick back anything. He was Okay,
Speaker 1: here we go, let's go do it. Um. So again
Speaker 1: kind of speaks to his ability to go in there
Speaker 1: and be versatile and fiel multiple roles for us. There
Speaker 1: were a lot of guys who were younger last year
Speaker 1: and were asked to contribute in big ways as the
Speaker 1: season went on trail and Burkes was contributing early. Um,
Speaker 1: Nicholas petit Freres a guy who contributed a lot. How
Speaker 1: excited are you about that young talent and the amount
Speaker 1: of reps even though it was maybe under circumstances that
Speaker 1: were less than ideal, they were able to get a
Speaker 1: lot of reps. They were able to get a lot
Speaker 1: of that experience. So going into year two, it's almost
Speaker 1: like they had an accelerated course. Absolutely, And you know,
Speaker 1: as you go back and you watch the season succession,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's pretty cool to see the improvement that
Speaker 1: those young players had um each week. As you kind
Speaker 1: of were talking about, the more and more reps they got,
Speaker 1: the better off they were and the more productive they were.
Speaker 1: So we're excited there and hopefully we can kind of
Speaker 1: keep them on that track and continue to keep on
Speaker 1: that trajectory. What do you hope Kyle Phillips can be
Speaker 1: in the offense? Yeah, Kyle early on definitely showed us
Speaker 1: that he was a guy who go and you know,
Speaker 1: get open. He made some really big plays in that
Speaker 1: in that Giant's game, you think about the two minutes
Speaker 1: drive at the end of the game, had a big
Speaker 1: catch to put us in a position to keep the
Speaker 1: field goal. Um, you know, he's a tough matchup inside
Speaker 1: and a lot of times, you know, when you said that,
Speaker 1: my eyes kind of lit up because you sit here
Speaker 1: and you talk about trailing, and you talk about Jig
Speaker 1: and then all these guys, but Kyle's right up there
Speaker 1: with him. Um. You know, he's a guy that that
Speaker 1: earned our trust early on. UM and you know, hopefully
Speaker 1: we can get him out on the grass a little
Speaker 1: bit more and see what he can do. But he's
Speaker 1: got a unique skill set for us a lot of
Speaker 1: young guys. But there's also the potential for some veteran
Speaker 1: leadership in certain places. How big of a contributing factor
Speaker 1: could free agency be in getting some of those veterans
Speaker 1: into some places where, of course you want them to
Speaker 1: perform on the field, but also helping some of these
Speaker 1: younger guys kind of learn the way and stay on
Speaker 1: the path you want them to go down. Sure. Sure,
Speaker 1: you know obviously being able to bring some new guys
Speaker 1: in to do that, but we've gotten a lot of
Speaker 1: good guys in the building already. Uh. You know that
Speaker 1: that are good examples for for you know, those younger
Speaker 1: players obviously. UM. So you're always looking to kind of
Speaker 1: infuse talent and making sure that if you're bringing someone
Speaker 1: into the building, you want them to be the right
Speaker 1: right type of person. Um and having guys working on
Speaker 1: different staffs that that may have had some experience with
Speaker 1: some different players and things on those lines. All the
Speaker 1: information you can gather on him is you know, it
Speaker 1: only helps in that decision making. So yeah, we're going
Speaker 1: to continually look to bring guys in that that can
Speaker 1: not only help us on the field, but help us
Speaker 1: in the in the meeting rooms and show those younger
Speaker 1: guys what what it means to be a problem. Tim Kelly,
Speaker 1: A question we've never had a chance to ask you,
Speaker 1: and that is when you left Houston as offensive coordinator,
Speaker 1: why did you want to join the Titans staff? Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: obviously being familiar with with coach Frabel in his time
Speaker 1: in Houston, kind of knew what he stood for, UM,
Speaker 1: knew how he operated. UM and then having the ability
Speaker 1: to to spend a lot of time watching crossover film
Speaker 1: and just and obviously having Dennis and just knowing what
Speaker 1: what was important to this organization and what was important
Speaker 1: to his program was always something that that I felt
Speaker 1: like aligned with my beliefs, you know, being physical, being tough,
Speaker 1: being good situationally, all those different things were you know,
Speaker 1: w what made this uh move here? You know? Pretty easy.
Speaker 1: Let's ask you about Dennis Kelly, Well, we love your brother,
Speaker 1: and he played for us for five years and uh
Speaker 1: did an outstanding job whatever he was asked to do.
Speaker 1: But more than that, just a really good guy and
Speaker 1: and a total culture fit. Sure. I mean when they
Speaker 1: traded for him, people gasp because they were trading Dorial
Speaker 1: Green Beckham. And it turns out we got way better
Speaker 1: in the deal. Um, just just his We always wondered.
Speaker 1: We talked to him about the relationship with you. He said,
Speaker 1: Mom hopes that Hugh, when you play Houston, Houston scores
Speaker 1: eighty points, but we scored eighty one. He would say that.
Speaker 1: But he was always my mom's favorite anyways, Is that right? Yeah,
Speaker 1: when my dad was around, I think my dad would
Speaker 1: have said that we scored anyone and he scored eighty.
Speaker 1: But no, it was always it was always, uh, it
Speaker 1: was always really neat to be able just to see
Speaker 1: how much how much success he had had. Um that
Speaker 1: time we were able to spend on the field pregame
Speaker 1: and and you know, not a whole lot of people
Speaker 1: get to do that, and it was it was always
Speaker 1: really really unique. Um. Then even this year, being able
Speaker 1: to do it a couple of times. You know, when
Speaker 1: he was up in Indie. Um, it's just uh, you know,
Speaker 1: just speaks the type of person he is, the type
Speaker 1: of worker he is. UM. And it was it was
Speaker 1: just always really good to be able to come and
Speaker 1: see him and see how far he's come, and and
Speaker 1: and for me to tell him I'm proud you know
Speaker 1: of him, that I am, and that he's been able
Speaker 1: to accomplish all, you know, everything that he's accomplished. What
Speaker 1: a career. Yeah, he's he's he's trunks and years together. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I made a couple of bucks. That's that's a good thing.
Speaker 1: All right. Let's end it with this, Tim Kelly. So
Speaker 1: many people in coaching say their second time around, they
Speaker 1: are so much better. And it's not that they weren't
Speaker 1: good their first time around. I mean, you've you put
Speaker 1: up plenty of numbers against us. We know who you are.
Speaker 1: We did the figure you coached six games against us.
Speaker 1: One was a game where you didn't play your starters,
Speaker 1: and another was a throwaway game too, because we turned
Speaker 1: the ball over five times and you just shut it
Speaker 1: down and won the game because you just didn't turn
Speaker 1: it over. But the other four games you average three
Speaker 1: ninety nine against US, and thirty one point. So we
Speaker 1: know who you are. We know who you are, but
Speaker 1: it was always fun to play against you. Guys. We
Speaker 1: we made sure that we don't want to that anyway. Thanks. Hey,
Speaker 1: we know what you did. But where do you feel
Speaker 1: you will be better as an offensive coordinator doing it
Speaker 1: for a second time? Yeah? Um, you know I was.
Speaker 1: I was talking to my wife about this just a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago. Uh. More confident, more steadfast, I
Speaker 1: guess if you will in your beliefs and how you
Speaker 1: want things done. Um. And understanding that you know your
Speaker 1: values in terms of your philosophy. Is your philosophy for
Speaker 1: a reason? Um? And making sure that that you're getting
Speaker 1: buy in from from the people that that you're working with.
Speaker 1: And um, and you know I would say, you know,
Speaker 1: I've got a clear vision as to what I you know,
Speaker 1: what we want to seem to look like. Uh. And
Speaker 1: and and not wavering from that and going in and
Speaker 1: being steadfast in it. Um and and and making sure
Speaker 1: that we're getting every coach, every player to buy in
Speaker 1: and make sure that again when when when these games
Speaker 1: start to count, however many months way it is from
Speaker 1: now that we're out there and we're more input points
Speaker 1: on the board. Well, we expect three hundred ninety nine
Speaker 1: yards and thirty one points a game. Ever, every game,
Speaker 1: every game is what we listen. Tim, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for the time, excited about you, Excited about this
Speaker 1: staff that you guys have put together, which is really outstanding,
Speaker 1: and looking forward to the Titans offense in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. Well, thank you for Tim Kelly, a
Speaker 1: very very smart guy. Do you do you have an
Speaker 1: expectation from what you saw of his offenses in Houston
Speaker 1: Mac to how the Titans might look a little different offensively?
Speaker 1: They're going to be different. Okay, it will be, I
Speaker 1: mean from you guys visit with him. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: got definitive ideas. He's also got definitive ideas of things
Speaker 1: that he did at Houston that he won't do now,
Speaker 1: you know, and that, and so to me, I think
Speaker 1: it's gonna be There's gonna be a lot to this,
Speaker 1: and I think it will be something that we will
Speaker 1: watch as because we're always at the OTAs we're practices
Speaker 1: every day, we will kind of watch it evolve. But
Speaker 1: it will be different. But to come out right now
Speaker 1: and say and he didn't say it. You know he
Speaker 1: won't because but this is a smart guys. I Mike Devlin,
Speaker 1: who played for me as a center at Arizona, worked
Speaker 1: with them as an offensive line coach for years at Houston.
Speaker 1: You know, I hired him at for his first job
Speaker 1: there at the Cardinals when he quit playing for US.
Speaker 1: And you know, I've talked a dev just about you know,
Speaker 1: he's he just he says, makes one of the smarter
Speaker 1: dudes I've ever been around, and gets football. And you
Speaker 1: know it's you know, some people are good at football,
Speaker 1: but people that are good at real football, there's a
Speaker 1: little bit of a separation. I'm excited to see what
Speaker 1: he's gonna do. Interesting to see what they're gonna get
Speaker 1: for him on offense too, is I think, undoubtedly read
Speaker 1: they're gonna be more moves on the offensive side of
Speaker 1: the ball in free agency and the draft than on
Speaker 1: defense when you consider the offensive line to begin with,
Speaker 1: We've talked about tight ends, and I think wide receiver
Speaker 1: is also in that conversation for sure. Now the difference
Speaker 1: now is this wide receiver draft is different. There are
Speaker 1: not big, monster pass catching weapons at the top of
Speaker 1: this draft. But what there is is a lot of
Speaker 1: value in the mental rounds. Mac. Yeah, this wide receiver
Speaker 1: draft is a little bit different. Different is a is
Speaker 1: a really good word, because you know, for several years
Speaker 1: prior we've had some really big dudes that are legitimate,
Speaker 1: legitimate dudes. You know, you can start just start naming them.
Speaker 1: This year, the best probably wide receiver now when you
Speaker 1: start looking at the first big wide receiver you see
Speaker 1: is a Quentin Johnson kid from TCU, and he's six four,
Speaker 1: two hundred and fifteen pounds, but there are elements to
Speaker 1: his game that definitely need to be refined before he's
Speaker 1: a dude that's going to come in and be the
Speaker 1: number one jump right off the start. The best receiver
Speaker 1: in this draft, in my humble opinion, is Jordan Addison
Speaker 1: from USC. You're talking about six ft one hundred ninety
Speaker 1: pound guy, played it pit and went to sc and
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. You have a lot of these
Speaker 1: slighter receivers now because of what we've talked about earlier,
Speaker 1: the way it's spread out, that have been able to
Speaker 1: thrive in the National Football League. You know. I mean
Speaker 1: there's another one that we've seen a lot of just
Speaker 1: because of where we are is Jalen Hyatt from Tennessee.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's one of the fastest guys in the
Speaker 1: you know, you know, is he a big guy? No?
Speaker 1: Is he you know, is he a thick guy. No,
Speaker 1: he's a fast guy. You know, not a real big
Speaker 1: route tree and stuff. But he's going to be valuable,
Speaker 1: you know, in this draft. So I agree. But there
Speaker 1: as you start moving down into the draft and you
Speaker 1: start seeing it. One of my favorite guys is Jaden
Speaker 1: Reid from Michigan State that was at the Senior Bowl.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think this is a legitimate guy somewhere
Speaker 1: down around the third round that somebody's gonna say, this
Speaker 1: is our slot receiver and we're gonna go with this.
Speaker 1: There's a name that you're gonna hear this week in
Speaker 1: this wide receiver group that is one of the bigger
Speaker 1: receivers here at the Combine from the University of Florida.
Speaker 1: Justin Shorter ironic not shorter. He should measure around six
Speaker 1: to four in height, and so it's going to be
Speaker 1: interesting to see what his measurables are in these drills
Speaker 1: and things because he's considered to be a you know,
Speaker 1: probably a Day three prospect. But could improve his stock
Speaker 1: because people are looking for that bigger receiving. Who I
Speaker 1: thought you were going to say, Cedric Tillman from Tennessee,
Speaker 1: who was also a bit was hurt all year. Ye
Speaker 1: got hurt early in the season and was never really
Speaker 1: able to get it back. He's got good size. He
Speaker 1: should come in six two, six three. He's got good size.
Speaker 1: I think back to the thing that you said earlier
Speaker 1: in the OTP coach the medical. What's what's his medical
Speaker 1: gonna look like? Overall? Because in twenty twenty one, in
Speaker 1: the second half of that season, he exploded. He went
Speaker 1: from zero to sixty and three point two seconds after
Speaker 1: not having done virtually anything in his career at Tennessee,
Speaker 1: and he founded He became a combat catcher. He was
Speaker 1: a deep thread, he was a route runner. He was
Speaker 1: the guy you threw too on the tunnel screen and
Speaker 1: he could take it to the house. It's like, where
Speaker 1: did this guy come from? He just kept working and
Speaker 1: he had good coaching at Tennessee. He was in a
Speaker 1: good system. And he comes back for twenty twenty two
Speaker 1: and then it's a disappointment. Yeah, well, I've got Cedric
Speaker 1: Tillman right here, right in the top the middle of
Speaker 1: the third round. You know that's a second day guy
Speaker 1: just right now now, because guess what he's got. He's
Speaker 1: got it on tape. He's got it on tape. And
Speaker 1: you spoke the truth here when you say it's gonna
Speaker 1: be the medical, it will be the medical. But on tape.
Speaker 1: This is a guy that is playing NFL football now
Speaker 1: because he gets the ball in his hands and he's
Speaker 1: hard to tackle right one on one. But Mike, what
Speaker 1: this draft is rich in in the wide receiver position
Speaker 1: is as a coach, Mac would call him gidget gadget guys, small, speedy,
Speaker 1: track athlete, backgrounds, returnability, special teams value tire Scott in
Speaker 1: the third round. Yes, yeah, So maybe we see a
Speaker 1: run on receivers in the third round and then tell is,
Speaker 1: I think he's more valuable in this draft because a
Speaker 1: it's not a great receiver draft and B you said it,
Speaker 1: it's not a great big receiver draft. You're right. So
Speaker 1: if you're looking for that guy and he and he
Speaker 1: was going to be like a third rounder, maybe Cedric
Speaker 1: Tillman is a second rounder because he fits what you
Speaker 1: need in terms of that little more prototype cool side. Sure, right,
Speaker 1: now let me stop you. Let's stop talking about the
Speaker 1: draft for just a second and talk about the free
Speaker 1: agency part of this, because the Titans are certainly looking
Speaker 1: to retool their receiving corps, and it appears as though
Speaker 1: the free agent receivers potentially one of those guys could
Speaker 1: fit the Titans. Needs to be, you know, sort of
Speaker 1: that number two with trailing burkes and give you a
Speaker 1: little more explosion than what they were able to get
Speaker 1: out of Robert Woods. There's some of those guys, Ritt,
Speaker 1: there are. There was one release this week for the
Speaker 1: New York Giants, Kenny Kenny Golladay, just to start with.
Speaker 1: But if you look at all right I'm looking right now,
Speaker 1: as we said here in early March, Alan Lazard, free agent,
Speaker 1: Breshad Perriman, Byron Pringle. I mean, there's plenty of names
Speaker 1: through here. I think what Mike is saying rit is
Speaker 1: so true is they've got a for the Titans. They
Speaker 1: need a veteran presence there because your number one guy
Speaker 1: is still a young guy, right, but you also need
Speaker 1: someone that will not completely dismantle your cap right, and
Speaker 1: so that's gonna have to be a three way fit. Well,
Speaker 1: and that's The part of it is, I think with
Speaker 1: the free agent receivers that are out there, you're talking
Speaker 1: about somebody who might not be a massive cap hit,
Speaker 1: who can come in and take that role. I mean,
Speaker 1: if I don't think you're paying seventy two over four
Speaker 1: years for Christian Kirk, I guess it's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And Christian Kirk did a great job for Jacksonville. But
Speaker 1: I think you can find somebody who can fit a
Speaker 1: role and play effectively for your offense at a little
Speaker 1: bit lower end than that. Is it Juju Smith Schuster
Speaker 1: who's twenty six years old? There you go? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that to me that the whole free agency thing is
Speaker 1: so much a separate kettle of fish then what the
Speaker 1: draft is, and it's it's so important. And you said that,
Speaker 1: you know the reason Wilson went in there and they
Speaker 1: were able to get him because they had money, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they had they had money that they had to spend
Speaker 1: because there's a floor on the cap. There's a five
Speaker 1: year floor on the cap, a percentage wise of cash
Speaker 1: money that you have to spend. And so if you've
Speaker 1: got it, and you're right, I think what you're looking
Speaker 1: at is a second wave right guys, Right, Mike. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think that's what you're looking at here, which is
Speaker 1: they're going to have to do because those numbers there,
Speaker 1: you need them, and you need a little bit of
Speaker 1: a veteran presence just because of what we all know
Speaker 1: is I think Trailing Burke's will be a really, really
Speaker 1: good receiver. I think Red hit it earlier in the
Speaker 1: conversation with Daniel Jeremiah though. I think there may be
Speaker 1: a merge for the Titans of tight end and receiver.
Speaker 1: I think they may say see weapon at tight end
Speaker 1: as important as weapon at wide receiver, so that they
Speaker 1: may be looking for both. In that way, they could
Speaker 1: spend money or draft capital on both, and they you know,
Speaker 1: they they have a chance to get somebody who can
Speaker 1: go catch a pass and get down the field and
Speaker 1: be a matchup problem in you know each of these
Speaker 1: situations well. And the other thing is is that it
Speaker 1: goes back to what you first started talking about. Starting that,
Speaker 1: Tim Kelly, what's his offense going to exit? Well, but
Speaker 1: if there's anything we know about a mic Vrabel team
Speaker 1: just overall, one of the main things he's looking for
Speaker 1: is versatility in what you're able to contribute so especially
Speaker 1: on the offense, especially after the couple of years that
Speaker 1: the Titans have had where they need people to be
Speaker 1: able to contribute in multiple places because you just never
Speaker 1: know what's going to come down throughout the course of
Speaker 1: a season, and I think that there will be a
Speaker 1: premium put on guys who can contribute in multiple ways.
Speaker 1: To Mike's point, what we do know is there will
Speaker 1: be an OTP tomorrow. There will there will be an
Speaker 1: OTP on Thursday, and there will be an OTP on
Speaker 1: Friday and Saturday and Sunday every day this week and
Speaker 1: Monday as the NFL combine continues in Indianapolis. Will also
Speaker 1: tell you that one of our shows, the Great Jim White,
Speaker 1: is going to stop by and we're gonna do something
Speaker 1: very special with him. You know he does his mailbags. Yep,
Speaker 1: he does the Tuesday mailbag and the Saturday mailbag. Well,
Speaker 1: we love Jim and he does a great job, but
Speaker 1: we want to put him on the spot on the OTP.
Speaker 1: We don't want to give him five hours to plot
Speaker 1: what questions he's going to take and to plot his responses.
Speaker 1: Live mailbag from the ot people go to Tennessee Titans
Speaker 1: Dot com slash otpq otpq at submit your question for
Speaker 1: Jim White. Maybe you have a question about his visors,
Speaker 1: Maybe you have I mean, whatever you want to know.
Speaker 1: Why two pencils to me? Whatever you want to know.
Speaker 1: We're going to put the questions to Jim Wyatt on
Speaker 1: an OTP for this weekend. But we need your questions, yep,
Speaker 1: so ot people. The call is out questions for Jim
Speaker 1: Wyatt at Tennessee Titans dot com slash op. Here's what
Speaker 1: I want. I want somebody to call in and they
Speaker 1: get call in. Well, I want who are they going
Speaker 1: to type in? Yeah, type in, type in, type in
Speaker 1: a question in Spanish so that he has to answer Spanish. There.
Speaker 1: I love that. In the mailbags, I would agree with that.
Speaker 1: So here's what we felt that Jim Wyatt's mailbags were lacking.
Speaker 1: And that's a little danger. So we are yeah, we
Speaker 1: are adding a fun, just live component to this whole thing.
Speaker 1: And we know you all love Jim Watt and you should.
Speaker 1: You should love him. You should read every article he
Speaker 1: writes at Tennessee Titans dot com. And he's here and
Speaker 1: he's walking around in a Vanderbilt Advisor and he's asking
Speaker 1: questions and finding angles and giving the Titans fans his
Speaker 1: very best every single day. The amount of stuff that
Speaker 1: he produces is unreal. Frankly makes us terrible. We're often
Speaker 1: compared to me, like, why don't you do more like
Speaker 1: Jim Watt. It's like having a sibling. Wonderful. Yeah, but anyway,
Speaker 1: your questions Tennessee Titans dot com slash OTPQ. We need them, Yep,
Speaker 1: we want them because this won't if you don't submit
Speaker 1: any questions, we won't be able to harass Jim Wyatt
Speaker 1: in this fun and exciting way in Indianapolis where he
Speaker 1: will say, oh, I'm too busy, but oh, Jim, you're
Speaker 1: not the type of question that's it, thank you coach,
Speaker 1: type of question in Spanish, And then I want Mike
Speaker 1: Keith to read the question in Spanish to Jim, and
Speaker 1: I want him to answer it. This is getting better.
Speaker 1: It's getting better, but I know, I know the wheels
Speaker 1: are spending for the ot people. Hope you've enjoyed this
Speaker 1: podcast again. We're gonna bang them out all week. This
Speaker 1: is number two of what I think will be at
Speaker 1: least eight, maybe more. We may just stay and keep going,
Speaker 1: or we may keep doing them. We get back to town.
Speaker 1: There's a lot going on and we're excited about it.
Speaker 1: We know you are. Thanks to Ritt Brian, thanks to
Speaker 1: Dave McGinnis, thanks to Amy Wells, thanks to Farm Bureau
Speaker 1: Health Plans and Ashley Farrell. I'm Mike Keith. You're listening
Speaker 1: to the O. T. Pete. Welcome to the Big Show
Speaker 1: where the legends call. Everybody knows. It's our house. Fighting thoughts,
Speaker 1: tense making. Three. Greatness is be