Speaker 1: We welcome you to another edition of the Official Titans Podcast.
Speaker 1: My name is Mike Keith. Amy Wells is here as usual.
Speaker 1: Hello Mike, Hello Amy, how are you? I'm fine? Thank you,
Speaker 1: Kate McGinness, thank you, Coach, Yes, sir, and here is
Speaker 1: the great Jim Wyatt. I appreciate the intro. Not worthy,
Speaker 1: but I'm here and I appreciate it. Titans Online dot
Speaker 1: Com Senior writer Editor. We're excited about this edition of
Speaker 1: the OTP because we're excited about all of them, but
Speaker 1: we're especially excited because your questions through the otpques, which
Speaker 1: have been compiled by Amy Wells. Tell people Amy how
Speaker 1: they submit OTP cues that we like to answer during
Speaker 1: the Official Titans Podcast. Titans Online dot Com slash o
Speaker 1: tp Q. I go in. There's a form, I gather
Speaker 1: all of the questions and then I asked them to you. Fine, gentlemen,
Speaker 1: this is how this works. Let him roll, all right,
Speaker 1: We're going to start at the very beginning, and Jim,
Speaker 1: this one's directed at you, but everyone feel free to
Speaker 1: chime in. Mike, Oh sorry, sorry, Howard, this is from
Speaker 1: Howard in California. I got ahead of myself. Howard asks
Speaker 1: Mike Vrabel is taking on an additional role in the
Speaker 1: defense next season. How difficult is it for a head
Speaker 1: coach to be involved in game day play calling while
Speaker 1: still attempting to manage the game. How much of a
Speaker 1: distraction is that at critical moments within a game. Well,
Speaker 1: and I'm only defer to coach Mike. I'm gonna let
Speaker 1: him jump in on this early because he knows that
Speaker 1: a lot better than I do. I would think that
Speaker 1: a lot of the work will be done during the
Speaker 1: course of the week that would make it easier on
Speaker 1: game day for him. You know, we watch him. You
Speaker 1: know we're on the few, the select few that get
Speaker 1: to watch practice and know how involved Mike Vrabel has
Speaker 1: been in this defense ever since he's been here. I
Speaker 1: noticed him coaching guys up, making sure guys are on
Speaker 1: the right position. If something's not done right, do it
Speaker 1: this way. And then I'll watch games on Sunday and
Speaker 1: see some of the things that Mike Vrabel has taught
Speaker 1: during the course of week, see how it's executed, and thinking, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is something Vabel taught, and I think he'll continue.
Speaker 1: It will just be a continuation of what he has done.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to take away from anything Dan Piece
Speaker 1: has done, because this kind of been his show, but
Speaker 1: Mike Vrabel has been very much involved all the way through.
Speaker 1: This is gonna be different for him, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: let coach Mike kind of explain that part of it.
Speaker 1: He can so much better than I can. Well, I've
Speaker 1: done this, I mean, I've done this, but your perspective,
Speaker 1: we have watched Mike Vrabel in practice, and he's involved
Speaker 1: in much more than the defense. I mean, we watched
Speaker 1: him do a lot of things hands on with offensive players,
Speaker 1: with defensive players, And to your point about during game day,
Speaker 1: you know, Mike Vrabel is not one of those head
Speaker 1: coaches that stands on the sideline without a headset on.
Speaker 1: He is. He is very involved in what's going on.
Speaker 1: And you talked about the hands on teaching out here.
Speaker 1: He's also involved in the hands on implementation of game
Speaker 1: plans during the week. I mean, I haven't set in
Speaker 1: any of those meetings, but I know that I know
Speaker 1: that just by talking to him, I know that just
Speaker 1: by watching him, this won't be this won't be an
Speaker 1: extra burden what he will do. I think if you
Speaker 1: know he brought Jim he you know, brought Jim Haslet
Speaker 1: in here. The one thing you cannot manufacture in this
Speaker 1: business is experience. You can't manufacture experience. Has has done everything,
Speaker 1: has has gone through the progression in this league too.
Speaker 1: He's been he's been a position coach, he's been a coordinator,
Speaker 1: he's been a head coach. You know, I've been in
Speaker 1: the league. You know, you know has came up through.
Speaker 1: I've done a lot of things with Jim Haslett. He
Speaker 1: added a lot of experience to his staff, you know,
Speaker 1: which you've got to have. So he's got plenty of help.
Speaker 1: But he's also look these last two years, even with
Speaker 1: danps here, believe me, he's had a lot of hands
Speaker 1: on to do with this. So his hands on ability
Speaker 1: and his hands on involvement will not change now. It
Speaker 1: will be, it will remain to be seen, and he
Speaker 1: may share this with us, he may not. As far
Speaker 1: as to who on game day is actually calling it
Speaker 1: play by play by play, We'll see how that works out.
Speaker 1: But this is not too big for Mike ver able
Speaker 1: to handle. I promise you I've done it now. Mack.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Jim Haslet and Michael Hayes from Guntersville Alabama
Speaker 1: knows that you know every person in the National Football
Speaker 1: League pretty much. So he said, what do you know
Speaker 1: about Jim Haslett? Do you know him personally? Absolutely? I
Speaker 1: know him personally. You know when he when he came
Speaker 1: into the league. You know when we when the when
Speaker 1: the combine first started. You know now that they have
Speaker 1: they have so many of the extra quarterbacks they'll bring
Speaker 1: in to throw routes, you know, to the individual to
Speaker 1: individual drills. But we never did that. We we as
Speaker 1: assistant coaches would throw the drills. You know, That's why
Speaker 1: my arm's gone right now. But has It myself? John Fox,
Speaker 1: I mean a lot of us used to work and
Speaker 1: throw those drills together. I mean I've known has You know,
Speaker 1: I knew has as a player when he was in
Speaker 1: the league. You know, had a very good career at Buffalo,
Speaker 1: you know, a very good career. Has Uh Who's Jim
Speaker 1: has It myself? Gary Kubiak and John Fox all interviewed
Speaker 1: for the New Orleans Saints head job at the same time.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's been a coordinator when I was a coordinator.
Speaker 1: I know, I know has very very well excellent football coach.
Speaker 1: Really really gets the game from all different levels. He's
Speaker 1: a lot like Mike Vrabel and the fact that he
Speaker 1: came up as a player, you know, and as as
Speaker 1: a significant player in this league. I know has very
Speaker 1: well he's getting, you know what, and Raves knows him too.
Speaker 1: And what he's getting is he's getting an experienced football
Speaker 1: coach that has seen it from a lot of different angles.
Speaker 1: But as far as do I know Jim Haslett personally,
Speaker 1: absolutely yes, I do. And it's a big thumbs up
Speaker 1: to me on this higher Now mack Is we're talking
Speaker 1: about coaches. I want to stick with you for just
Speaker 1: a second because Jerry from Saint Louis asks, how does
Speaker 1: the addition of secondary coach Anthony Midget improve this Titan secondary.
Speaker 1: It feels like for years the Titans have been giving
Speaker 1: up quite a few passing yards. Yeah, passing yards again,
Speaker 1: Jerry from Saint Louis, Passing yards means Z roll. Passing
Speaker 1: yards means Z role. You know, touchdowns mean everything this defense.
Speaker 1: This defensive secretary carry Colms did a great job with
Speaker 1: this secondary. It was it was a very first of
Speaker 1: all to watch them work and I think to really
Speaker 1: appreciate what this secondary does and what the secondary did
Speaker 1: with this defense, to watch them grow and to watch
Speaker 1: them practice, and a lot of the things that they
Speaker 1: were doing defensively, a lot of it, you know, and
Speaker 1: a lot of the problems that they gave opposing quarterbacks
Speaker 1: during the course of two seasons stem from the fact
Speaker 1: that they were so synchronized so well because of the
Speaker 1: work that they put in and how intricate and detail
Speaker 1: they were as disguising coverages being able to work things.
Speaker 1: And then plus what he did, what carry did, he
Speaker 1: was able to come in as a as a new coach,
Speaker 1: you know, the National and the National Football League and
Speaker 1: very much and very much improved techniques. But they also
Speaker 1: trusted him. They trusted him, you know, because of his
Speaker 1: energy and because of what he put into it. And
Speaker 1: he had a lot of different guys from a lot
Speaker 1: of different avenues at a lot of different points in
Speaker 1: their career that he assembled very very This was a
Speaker 1: very very good secondary. The last thing that you need
Speaker 1: to worry about. There's a lot of things in life
Speaker 1: to worry about. With football, yards are the last thing
Speaker 1: you worry about defensively, Jim, I want to switch over
Speaker 1: to you and talk a little bit about offense, because
Speaker 1: we got a lot of questions about the offensive side
Speaker 1: of the ball as well, and this one comes from
Speaker 1: Ryan in Alabama. He says, do you think that John U.
Speaker 1: Smith and Corey Davis will get used, will be used,
Speaker 1: excuse me in our offense more this upcoming season. I
Speaker 1: really like both of their games, that would love to
Speaker 1: see more of a role for them, I would think so.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think both those guys have continued to
Speaker 1: progress during the course of their career. We've seen it
Speaker 1: from John U. Smith. The more opportunities he gets, the
Speaker 1: more he takes advantage of them. So I continue to
Speaker 1: see I see continued improve it for him. I think
Speaker 1: with Corey Davis, you know he's gonna do what is
Speaker 1: asked of him to do. And A J. Brown obviously
Speaker 1: coming off a tremendous rookie season, I expect to see
Speaker 1: that to continue as well. And you know Davis a
Speaker 1: great blocker. You know, certainly when given opportunities, he has
Speaker 1: made a lot of plays for this team. I think
Speaker 1: that's what's I think you've got to be so optimistic
Speaker 1: about as you look forward to next season with this offense,
Speaker 1: you got A J. Brown heading the second year should
Speaker 1: be that much more improved. Corey Davis as a pro
Speaker 1: with this point does all the dirty work. Adam Humphreys
Speaker 1: another year in the system as long as than keep
Speaker 1: him healthy. I mean, you've got a good threesome at
Speaker 1: receiver right there. And we'll have to see what happens
Speaker 1: with ty J. Sharp and free agency and see you
Speaker 1: know who maybe who else is competing on the back end.
Speaker 1: But I like the weapons on this team, and uh,
Speaker 1: I think both those guys going to get a lot
Speaker 1: of opportunities moving forward. The thing to keep in mind, please,
Speaker 1: is that you have one football per play. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: that's I mean, you have one football per play, and
Speaker 1: we've got you've got a lot of weapons, so you know,
Speaker 1: and and I get this question also just out you
Speaker 1: know about Corey Davis is a is a good player,
Speaker 1: and Corey Davis is is a big part of this offense.
Speaker 1: You know. But to say, well, they be used more,
Speaker 1: I mean that they're used in conjunction with what the
Speaker 1: game plan is. But as I said, one ball per
Speaker 1: play till the XFL throws in three or four, then
Speaker 1: we'll adjust. And a lot of times that ball is
Speaker 1: going to the running back too, so that limits, like
Speaker 1: I get, you know, continue to get will Ryan Tannehill,
Speaker 1: you know he didn't play very on the post in
Speaker 1: the postseason. Is passing over more goodwood because he's through
Speaker 1: the ball, you know, fourteen times in the first game,
Speaker 1: in fifteen times second game. Because this team's relying on
Speaker 1: the running game and that impacts the targets that the
Speaker 1: receivers are getting. It's not that the receivers had an
Speaker 1: off day on some of those days. It's just the
Speaker 1: game plan caller for you to run the football and
Speaker 1: that that's gonna impact, you know, targets and catches. Let
Speaker 1: me take you into you know, you talk about game plan,
Speaker 1: and that's a good when you're game planning as a
Speaker 1: coach on offense or defense. I promise you the first
Speaker 1: thing that you do not do when you go into
Speaker 1: a game plan is how many yards can we get
Speaker 1: this guy this game? How many yards can we get
Speaker 1: this guy this game? That's you go into it, and
Speaker 1: how can we win this game this week. That's what
Speaker 1: good game play is. That's what you saw this football
Speaker 1: team do last year, a really good job of winning
Speaker 1: games week to week that they had to win, especially
Speaker 1: down the stretch, regardless of where the football went. Now, Jim,
Speaker 1: you brought up Bryan Tannehill. So we have to do
Speaker 1: this combined question from a variety of ot people who
Speaker 1: just threw out some names as quarterback possibilities for the
Speaker 1: Tennessee Titans. So Steve from Manhattan, Kansas, Luke from Nashville, Tennessee,
Speaker 1: they both threw out some names. If Tannehill isn't the option,
Speaker 1: would Teddy Bridgewater be a good option to pursue. What
Speaker 1: about Blake Bortle's what about Tom Brady? What about Philip Rivers?
Speaker 1: We've got a running list here. So let's just for
Speaker 1: this point in the OTP, let's talk about the quarterback.
Speaker 1: Do you think that there's an option at free agency?
Speaker 1: Do you think that there's an option at draft? Do
Speaker 1: you think that there's an option of signing Ryan Tannehill.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about it now. I think all those are options.
Speaker 1: I think the noble one is Ryan Tannehill. I continue
Speaker 1: to get questions about Tom Brady and my mail bag,
Speaker 1: and my answer has always been the same one. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to disrespect Ryan Tannehill by talking about some
Speaker 1: of these other guys based on what he did in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen and two. I always say I like my
Speaker 1: job too much than to put myself in a position
Speaker 1: where I'm accused of tampering by talking about a quarterback
Speaker 1: that's on somebody else's roster. At this point, I always think,
Speaker 1: what would the general manager safe He's listening to this
Speaker 1: and hearing me talking about guys who are employed by
Speaker 1: other teams right now. So I'll talk about Tanney Hill now,
Speaker 1: but I'm not in a position where I feel comfortable
Speaker 1: talking about anybody else but him until something's resolved. There.
Speaker 1: There's plenty of time to talk about everybody. And Jim's right,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the you know right now, right now
Speaker 1: that you know, the focus is and the conversations are,
Speaker 1: how can we make this football team better for next year?
Speaker 1: That's what That's what everything is focused on, and that's
Speaker 1: that's what John Robinson and Mike Vrabel and everybody that's
Speaker 1: involved in a decision making position is involved with right now.
Speaker 1: And just throwing out random names. I mean, it might
Speaker 1: make for good clicks, but it's that's not what they're
Speaker 1: doing right now. I think it needs to be pointed out.
Speaker 1: To take Jem's point a step further, players are under
Speaker 1: contract until the next fiscal year starts on March the eighteenth,
Speaker 1: and there is a legal tampering period. I think it's
Speaker 1: March the sixteenth through the eighteenth where free agents have
Speaker 1: a chance to do that. Now, Philip rivers situation is
Speaker 1: a little different because he and the Chargers have announced
Speaker 1: that he will not be back even though he's under contract,
Speaker 1: so that's maybe a little bit of a different one.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you what I told my mother at
Speaker 1: dinner the other night. Okay, where are you guys eating?
Speaker 1: We were eating the Connors, which is always good, Connor
Speaker 1: Steakhouse at Cool Springs. Love the Connors. But I said,
Speaker 1: with John Robinson, anything is possible. We've seen it. We've
Speaker 1: seen him go, you know, We've seen him go shopping everywhere.
Speaker 1: We've seen him go shopping at Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, you know,
Speaker 1: go to the fanciest stores. We've seen him shop flea markets.
Speaker 1: We've seen him shop online. We've seen him shop the
Speaker 1: discount stores. We've seen him shop everything in between. He's
Speaker 1: gonna look at every single option that's best for the
Speaker 1: football team. And when people ask me at church, when
Speaker 1: my mama asked me, when anybody asked me, that's what
Speaker 1: I say to them right now is I'm not getting
Speaker 1: into specifics. I don't know who's who, But Jim, I
Speaker 1: think that's what in four years of covering this man,
Speaker 1: I think that's what we've learned, is that John Robinson
Speaker 1: is gonna look at every option. We don't know what
Speaker 1: he thinks, We don't know what his conversations with Anna
Speaker 1: Hills agent has been, like Tannehill has a new agent,
Speaker 1: who knows. But I think the unpredictability of John Robinson
Speaker 1: is one of his strengths as he goes to maneuver. However,
Speaker 1: we don't know anything except what his past history is,
Speaker 1: and that is that he's going to look at everything. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's taking the market into consideration. Sure, we've mentioned
Speaker 1: some of the quarterbacks who could become available and there
Speaker 1: it's a pretty long list quarterback and that's going to
Speaker 1: influence what guys are gonna make or what their value
Speaker 1: is across the league. And again, as you stated, we
Speaker 1: don't know what talks alike with Ryan Tannehill or Derrick
Speaker 1: Henry or some of these other agents. Vin Marino and
Speaker 1: John Robinson worked through that on a daily basis, But
Speaker 1: we also all know their different avenues where you can
Speaker 1: keep players using tags, those are costly and they can
Speaker 1: impact what you are able to do in other areas,
Speaker 1: and free as you don't want to handcuffed yourself by
Speaker 1: signing a guy or two and you lose everybody else
Speaker 1: along the way. So there's a lot of things that
Speaker 1: you have to consider as you make these decisions. And
Speaker 1: we're still several weeks away before you really have to
Speaker 1: make some hard decisions and free agency starts. Now, you
Speaker 1: guys reference something that Chad from Mount Juliet actually asked about, So,
Speaker 1: just for clarification's sake, to talk about all of the
Speaker 1: tools that John Robinson has at his disposal, he says,
Speaker 1: could y'all explain the difference between the franchise tag and
Speaker 1: the transition tag? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
Speaker 1: You want me to take that? Yes, I had put
Speaker 1: something together just as sort of a something that I
Speaker 1: would know so that I would understand. Okay, we're in
Speaker 1: the last year of the collective Bargaining Agreement between the
Speaker 1: players and the owners. Because this is the last capped
Speaker 1: year of that CBA, teams have a right to use
Speaker 1: both tags, the franchise tag in the transition tag. In
Speaker 1: a normal year, teams can only use one of those,
Speaker 1: but because it's the last cap to year, both tags
Speaker 1: are available. The franchise tag can be used on one player.
Speaker 1: That means that player is going to be designated a
Speaker 1: salary that is the average of the top five players
Speaker 1: at his position over a five year period, or one
Speaker 1: hundred twenty percent of what he made the last year,
Speaker 1: whichever is higher. So if one hundred and twenty percent
Speaker 1: of his salary from the year before is higher than
Speaker 1: the top five average, then he gets that hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty percent. All that money counts against the cap. Okay,
Speaker 1: So if so and so gets a twenty million dollar
Speaker 1: franchise tag, that's twenty million. That's a bite out of
Speaker 1: the cap right away, and that's why it's a disadvantage
Speaker 1: to the teams. There are two types of franchise tags.
Speaker 1: There's the non exclusive and that allows the player to
Speaker 1: negotiate with other teams his current team can match if
Speaker 1: they choose not to. That team is entitled to two
Speaker 1: first round picks okay from the other team. From the
Speaker 1: other team, so that's the non exclusive. The exclusive tag,
Speaker 1: which is rarely used, does allow does not allow a
Speaker 1: player to negotiate with other teams. He's tagged, all right,
Speaker 1: so that's franchise. The transition tag can be used on
Speaker 1: one player per team this year, pledging a player the
Speaker 1: average salary of the top ten players at his position.
Speaker 1: The transition tag allows a player to negotiate with other teams.
Speaker 1: His team can match, his current team can match, but
Speaker 1: if they don't, his current team gets nothing, all right.
Speaker 1: The tag window starts on February twenty fifth and runs
Speaker 1: through March tenth, so if you're going to tag a player,
Speaker 1: you have to do it in that February twenty fifth
Speaker 1: to March tenth window. The league normally announces the official
Speaker 1: tag values at each position around March first. Here are
Speaker 1: the estimates for quarterback and running back that I've seen,
Speaker 1: and I'm just throwing these out based on different things
Speaker 1: i've read, but I think they're gonna be pretty close.
Speaker 1: The quarterback transition tag number is going to be about
Speaker 1: twenty seven million dollars. That's twenty seven million in salary
Speaker 1: for twenty twenty. The transition for quarterbacks is going to
Speaker 1: be about twenty five million. For running back, the franchise
Speaker 1: tag number is going to be at ten point four million.
Speaker 1: The transition is going to be about eight point six million.
Speaker 1: Teams can use the tag. So let's say that Team
Speaker 1: X tags their quarterback. They have until July the fifteenth
Speaker 1: to negotiate a new deal, so they could go ahead
Speaker 1: and slap the tag on their quarterback and can hold
Speaker 1: him in place basically, and then they have until July
Speaker 1: fifteenth to make a new deal. If they don't buy
Speaker 1: July fifteenth, then he's playing the year under whatever tag
Speaker 1: they have applied. So it's franchise transition. And that's and
Speaker 1: that's how it works. And at this point, with no
Speaker 1: new CBA in place, and that could change, each team
Speaker 1: can use both of those this year when in a
Speaker 1: normal year they can they have to pick one. Let
Speaker 1: me add one caveat to all that for those things,
Speaker 1: to all of that, that was a wonderful explanation. No,
Speaker 1: it's perfect, and that was beautiful. That's perfect For all
Speaker 1: of that stuff to happen. The player has to sign
Speaker 1: the tag. They have to sign it because that the
Speaker 1: tag can still be put on a player and they
Speaker 1: can refuse to sign it. That is also that is
Speaker 1: also in play. Tags can be withdrawn. Absolutely, that's that's
Speaker 1: a part of it too. And with the new CBA,
Speaker 1: this is a question I don't know the answer too,
Speaker 1: and you guys might let's say this team wants to
Speaker 1: use to TAG two years in a row without without
Speaker 1: a CBA in place, Do we know whether that's going
Speaker 1: to be I think rules would theoretically apply right now
Speaker 1: based on what's in place. I mean, everybody is going
Speaker 1: with the theory that you're that you're that you've got
Speaker 1: to think about the rules that are in place now.
Speaker 1: But I think there's some understanding that some of these
Speaker 1: things are going to change, So so teams are having
Speaker 1: to look at it as we've got to go with
Speaker 1: what we know right now, because we have no choice
Speaker 1: to know what's going to happen in the future. And
Speaker 1: that's why the player's decision about whether or not they
Speaker 1: are going to accept the offer and potentially put some
Speaker 1: caveats of the new CBA into the twenty twenty season,
Speaker 1: you know, that's all up in the air right now,
Speaker 1: all right. Susan from Franklin, She said, I think that
Speaker 1: chemistry on this team is a big part of our
Speaker 1: success last year. That being said, how will we resign
Speaker 1: all of our free agents and still have enough money
Speaker 1: to sign our draft picks. Jim, Well, I don't know
Speaker 1: when this team is not going to sign all the
Speaker 1: free agents. I think you know, between unrestricted, restricted, exclusive,
Speaker 1: right free agent, I think it equals twenty two. Now
Speaker 1: I expect half of those guys back. I mean, maybe
Speaker 1: not even that number. And every year across the league,
Speaker 1: I mean there're at least a twenty twenty five percent
Speaker 1: turnover every season between new free agents and draft pick.
Speaker 1: So chemistry from one season to the next. I think
Speaker 1: you're able to keep some of it in place because
Speaker 1: as long as you have your core guys bike but
Speaker 1: it's I think every year it's kind of a new year,
Speaker 1: and you've got to got to build that during the
Speaker 1: course of the off season and that you know, during
Speaker 1: the course of the season. Now I'm gonna build on Jim.
Speaker 1: And regardless of whether you have free agents or not,
Speaker 1: and the number of the percentage Jim is higher than
Speaker 1: twenty five percent, it's it's it's a little over thirty
Speaker 1: percent every year, regardless of how many free agents you have.
Speaker 1: That's the one thing that is a is a constant
Speaker 1: in the National Football League since since the free agency
Speaker 1: and you know, came in. The free agency and the
Speaker 1: salary cap have made this a constant. It's about a
Speaker 1: thirty percent flip every year. So you're never going to
Speaker 1: have the same team year to year to year. That
Speaker 1: ended when free agency and the salary cap came in. Now, Mac,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stick with you because Richard and Virginia asks,
Speaker 1: is there a scenario where we have enough cap space
Speaker 1: to sign Ryan, Tannehill, Derrick Henry and Logan Ryan. Sure
Speaker 1: you do, I mean you do. I mean you can.
Speaker 1: You can maneuver. You can maneuver the cap. Vin Marino
Speaker 1: is one of the best thing. I mean, these guys. Look,
Speaker 1: I've worked a cap before. I mean, I've cleared a cap.
Speaker 1: I mean, just you know, because that's what I did.
Speaker 1: You know, when I was a head coach and when
Speaker 1: I was a coordinator and an assistant head coach was
Speaker 1: involved in these types of things. There are different the
Speaker 1: cap is. I mean, there's a there's there used to
Speaker 1: not be a floor to the cap that you had
Speaker 1: to spend too. There was only a ceiling. Now that
Speaker 1: once they put a floor in, and the floor is
Speaker 1: going to change too as far as how much you
Speaker 1: know what they call cash over cap that you absolutely
Speaker 1: have to spend per year. But there are a lot
Speaker 1: of ways that you can maneuver a cap as to
Speaker 1: where you can move money. You know, one place and
Speaker 1: another and and the biggest thing is is even with
Speaker 1: players on your team, you can renegotiate and give them
Speaker 1: a chunk of their money and make it a signing
Speaker 1: bonus where you can pro rate it out. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of things that you can do with a cap.
Speaker 1: So it's not just we have this pile of money,
Speaker 1: we have this many players. And once you reach zero,
Speaker 1: you read zero. You hardly ever reach zero in essence.
Speaker 1: Now Tony from New Zealand says, first off, I love
Speaker 1: listening to the show. It's the best way to get
Speaker 1: Titans news on the other side of the world. New
Speaker 1: Zealand is rather far away. Guys. My question for you
Speaker 1: is at what stage can John Robinson begin negotiations with
Speaker 1: the Titans pending free agents They've already started, yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean right now. Yeah, I think it probably got a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of lines of communication that are
Speaker 1: being worked, you know as we speak and at and
Speaker 1: a lot of times these things don't get finalized until
Speaker 1: you get closer to a deadline. And I know it
Speaker 1: used to be, you know, you'd have the combine and
Speaker 1: then the combine would end on maybe a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday,
Speaker 1: and free agency would start that Wednesday. I mean, so
Speaker 1: a lot of times the negotiations were fast and furious
Speaker 1: in Indianapolis because you had to make decisions. This year,
Speaker 1: we've got the combine and you still got a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks left until free agency start. So, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: there's potential something could happen with guys here before the
Speaker 1: Combine even starts later this month. But I still expect
Speaker 1: a lot of things will start to take, you know,
Speaker 1: start to happen once you get closer that deadline in
Speaker 1: the middle of March. But it's already started because to
Speaker 1: that point when we were discussing earlier, the Titans players
Speaker 1: are still under contract with the Titans until the start
Speaker 1: of the fiscal year March the eighteenth. So yes, you
Speaker 1: can have those conversations, Jim. I think they'll probably sign.
Speaker 1: I mean, we'll probably have some news in the next
Speaker 1: two to three weeks of some guys going ahead and
Speaker 1: making deal. Yeah, I think so too, and some of them,
Speaker 1: mean who that is I don't know, but that that
Speaker 1: happens with every team. But I think the you know,
Speaker 1: the longer goes. You know, the players obviously are curious
Speaker 1: about the market and curious to see what they might
Speaker 1: get at other places. Some of them obviously might not
Speaker 1: have a choice because of the tag that we have
Speaker 1: talked about that could be applied. But I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: surprised if we have some deals happened here in the
Speaker 1: next couple of weeks. And coach, sometimes the teams want
Speaker 1: players to go test the market. No, absolutely, and that's
Speaker 1: part of the negotiation, you know, depending on where and
Speaker 1: where the player is, depending on what the market is.
Speaker 1: As you said, Mike, is is very you know, sometimes
Speaker 1: that's part of the negotiation. And and you will say
Speaker 1: that to go test it. You will say that to
Speaker 1: the players representative, go test it, and then you know,
Speaker 1: let's see if you've if you've reached you know, an impass.
Speaker 1: And I'm not talking about a hard impass. I'm just
Speaker 1: talking about if you want to talk in generalities. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: that's part of the negotiating process. But that's also why
Speaker 1: to both of your points, why the league has changed
Speaker 1: their calendar. That's a big reason because the league sets
Speaker 1: their calendar and they they found out, you know, throughout
Speaker 1: the years. And Jim just brought up the fact that,
Speaker 1: you know, we used to be scrambling I mean quite
Speaker 1: a bit, you know, and so all of this, all
Speaker 1: of this thing takes place. It's I mean and for
Speaker 1: our listeners, and our listeners get great information from the
Speaker 1: OTP here because this is they You need to understand
Speaker 1: that it's not just a real hard and fast Okay,
Speaker 1: this is how much money we have, and let's sign
Speaker 1: everybody right now. There's a whole lot too right now,
Speaker 1: having a lot of being able to keep your powder dry,
Speaker 1: keep everything close to your chest with what you're doing.
Speaker 1: You know, when I first started in this league, Bill
Speaker 1: Tobin had a big sign in his personnel room and
Speaker 1: the only thing it said was loose lips sink ships.
Speaker 1: So don't talk right now. You don't talk right now
Speaker 1: outside of what's going on. That's the way. But there's
Speaker 1: a lot of conversation going on right now. I guarantee it,
Speaker 1: all right, Mac, let's talk about some players on the
Speaker 1: defensive side of the ball. Sean from Bluemont, Virginia says,
Speaker 1: what do you think DeAndre Walker's impact could be next
Speaker 1: year after being out history. Sean, I like that. I
Speaker 1: like that question, thank you very much, because I think
Speaker 1: this is one of the or gotten players. And you know,
Speaker 1: he was on he was put on. I remember, you know,
Speaker 1: when when Mike Keith and I were doing the draft
Speaker 1: this year and we got down to that point and
Speaker 1: we were both looking and and he asked me during
Speaker 1: the who is here now at this point you know
Speaker 1: that we could use and this was one of the
Speaker 1: guys that we had had pinpointed because of you know,
Speaker 1: he's not a and I think at the time Mike
Speaker 1: is what I said was, this is not a player
Speaker 1: that's that's got great height, but he plays long. He
Speaker 1: plays long, he's got you know, and and I really
Speaker 1: liked the way that I liked the way he played,
Speaker 1: and I thought that he would really fit into what
Speaker 1: Mike Varabel wanted to do because he's a he's a
Speaker 1: high energy player. He's a player that they used in
Speaker 1: a lot of different positions, you know, once they put
Speaker 1: him on IR And as you said, I'm one of
Speaker 1: the fortunate ones with the other three of you that
Speaker 1: get to watch practice every day. You could watch him
Speaker 1: work Uh, you know, I talked to him. I talked
Speaker 1: to him several times this year, just coming off from
Speaker 1: his workout when I would be standing watching, you know,
Speaker 1: and you know, said, you know, how's it going? How
Speaker 1: you I mean this guy I was. I was excited
Speaker 1: about him last year, you know when we and right
Speaker 1: before he got hurt, if you'll remember, we had one
Speaker 1: the op. Yeah, and I said, this guy is coming
Speaker 1: on because he's you could just see him, you know,
Speaker 1: start to work into what he is and and I'm
Speaker 1: I'm excited for him. I'm excited for the club to
Speaker 1: see what he can do. But I think he'll be
Speaker 1: a help. Well. Corey from Ottawa, Canada kind of has
Speaker 1: a follow up question to that. He's I love listening
Speaker 1: to the show. It's hard to get Titans content up
Speaker 1: here in Ottawa. Question for the group, where is our
Speaker 1: linebacker opposite Harold Landry going to come from? Will it
Speaker 1: be from the draft or free agency? Or could it
Speaker 1: be someone like DeAndre Walker group. I think it's to
Speaker 1: be a combination of a lot of guys. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, we've got Corea, who obviously depends on what
Speaker 1: happens to him in free agency. He into the season
Speaker 1: really well. But uh, you know, then you got Joe
Speaker 1: andre I think the draft him. I look at the
Speaker 1: team needs and where it needs to make strides in
Speaker 1: two twenty, and I think edge rushers one of them.
Speaker 1: I think you need more of a consistent pressure coming
Speaker 1: from the outside. And you know, and I look at
Speaker 1: this year's draft class, that is one of the areas
Speaker 1: I think I suspect the team would be looking at.
Speaker 1: But I think it's gonna be a combination of a
Speaker 1: lot of guys. Cameron Wakes another interesting name too, to
Speaker 1: see if at age thirty eight, he wants to make
Speaker 1: another run at it. And there are a bunch of
Speaker 1: guys in free agency that are really intriguing. If you
Speaker 1: decide to a lot some of your resources in that area,
Speaker 1: it means you're going to take resources away from another
Speaker 1: area because you think that this might make you better.
Speaker 1: Kansas City did that with Frank Clark. They let Justin
Speaker 1: Houston walk and they went and traded for Frank Clark
Speaker 1: and then gave him a contract and he played really,
Speaker 1: really excellent fundamental football for them. Well that's one hundred
Speaker 1: percent correct. And those are all the avenues that you
Speaker 1: have and when you start to look at the list
Speaker 1: of free agents because you mentioned that, Mike, there are
Speaker 1: guys now some of those as we'll be off the
Speaker 1: market because that is that that's a valuable piece, you know,
Speaker 1: to any defense, because you know, basically this game is now,
Speaker 1: you know, move the football, and if you're moving the
Speaker 1: football through the air, the biggest, the biggest piece defensively
Speaker 1: is go get the guy that's moving it through the air.
Speaker 1: And so that's gonna be that's gonna be a part
Speaker 1: of it. And it's not just about sacks. It's about
Speaker 1: being able to put you know, consistent pressure into and
Speaker 1: and and then to be able to walk people down
Speaker 1: when they do get off schedule. So all of these things.
Speaker 1: But they've got they're going to pursue all of these avenues.
Speaker 1: I've started, I've got a notebook over here. I've started
Speaker 1: the draft and I started with you know, with that position.
Speaker 1: There there are guys there. Now, there there's separations like
Speaker 1: they're always are there levels, But that's that's part of
Speaker 1: being an evaluator, in which John Robinson and his group
Speaker 1: have proven that they're really good at evaluating those guys.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not necessarily the top guys sometimes that
Speaker 1: make your draft. Some of the times, it's those guys
Speaker 1: that you find that have a piece and a and
Speaker 1: a function that fits what you are going to do
Speaker 1: and you're able to identify that. Robertson's another guy you know,
Speaker 1: who ended strong, who ended really well, and I'm curiously
Speaker 1: what he looks like you're too, And that, to my point,
Speaker 1: is one of those guys that they identified. They they
Speaker 1: you know, Mike Vrabel, They went and worked him out,
Speaker 1: you know, down there at sam Houston State to watch him.
Speaker 1: He brought him in for a pre draft, brought him
Speaker 1: in for the pre draft though. That's that's what talent
Speaker 1: acquisition is about, is is digging and identifying and then
Speaker 1: being able to slot it. All right. Cole from McAllen,
Speaker 1: Texas asks guys, what can the Titans do to start
Speaker 1: the season stronger in twenty twenty? Coach Mac, you seem
Speaker 1: excited about McAllen Texas. You start us off. I love McCallen, Texas.
Speaker 1: I've done high school clinic in McAllen, Texas. Just for
Speaker 1: the record, where is McCallan, Texas? Right down there on
Speaker 1: the tip ah Corpus Corpus CHRISTI Okay, yeah. So anyway,
Speaker 1: the thing, the thing that that the question was what
Speaker 1: do you do to start? I mean, look, there's a
Speaker 1: long way for we don't even know who we're gonna
Speaker 1: play start with, right, Okay, So I mean you don't
Speaker 1: even know who who you play, So all of that
Speaker 1: stuff starts now with the talent acquisition. Then it goes
Speaker 1: through OTAs, then it goes through you know, once you
Speaker 1: to once you find out who that who that opponent is,
Speaker 1: you know, then then then you start to work towards
Speaker 1: beating that opponent because as we all know and our
Speaker 1: listeners on the OTP know also, the National Football League
Speaker 1: is really a collection of one week seasons. It's a
Speaker 1: collection of one week seasons. And so you do everything
Speaker 1: that you can to put together a group looking at
Speaker 1: the big picture before you even know who you're going
Speaker 1: to play, and then you start to focus on once
Speaker 1: we know who it's going to be. So that's my
Speaker 1: best answer after thirty four years of doing this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's a team game. But obviously, you know you
Speaker 1: gotta have good quarterback play from the beginning. I mean
Speaker 1: last year, I look at the start, I mean obviously
Speaker 1: the game in Cleveland was a was a beauty. But uh,
Speaker 1: you know, you score seven points at Jacksonville. You know,
Speaker 1: you get shut out against Denver, you score seven points
Speaker 1: against Buffalo, And this offense was sputter early last season,
Speaker 1: and then in Week seven when the quarterback change was made,
Speaker 1: the offense kind of took off. So it's a combination
Speaker 1: of the offensive coordinator the quarterback, but the entire offense
Speaker 1: got played better, and I think quarterback play was shaky
Speaker 1: at the beginning of this season. Look, last year's start
Speaker 1: was really good. I mean, how excited worldly after that
Speaker 1: started at Cleveland, after everything that had been made of Cleveland.
Speaker 1: I mean, so it's not how you start, it's how
Speaker 1: you play week to week till week that is so
Speaker 1: important because you talk about it. See this we just
Speaker 1: came off to me one of the one of the
Speaker 1: best runs that I've ever seen a teammate in the
Speaker 1: National Football League. But it was a run at the
Speaker 1: end of the season. So you can't differentiate between start, middle,
Speaker 1: and end. It all has to fit together. And as
Speaker 1: I said, again, it's a collection of one week seasons,
Speaker 1: but it would be good to not start too and
Speaker 1: four that's well normally worked it worked out good this
Speaker 1: should I would not want to draw to that stack again.
Speaker 1: We've done it twice. We're two of we're two of
Speaker 1: the only four teams in league history to start two
Speaker 1: and four and make an AFC Championship. Would prefer to
Speaker 1: do it, you know? For one? Yeah, that would be good,
Speaker 1: And that's to your point, is right? We would We
Speaker 1: would prefer that, all right. David from the United Kingdom
Speaker 1: has an interesting question. He said coach Mac had to
Speaker 1: have had a team that he cheered for when he
Speaker 1: first started following football. Then as he moved jobs, his
Speaker 1: allegiance had to change. Do you still have a sore
Speaker 1: spot for a particular team or do you just move
Speaker 1: on and forget? Is that sore spot or sweet spot?
Speaker 1: Soft spot? Soft spot? Is that I say this? I
Speaker 1: went to when when I when I was when I
Speaker 1: was a junior and a senior in high school, I
Speaker 1: worked at a summer camp down in the hill country
Speaker 1: down around Kerville, and I I went to the Houston
Speaker 1: Oilers training camp at Shriner Institute for two summers. Charlie
Speaker 1: Toler that I loved the Houston Oilers idem It's amazing,
Speaker 1: you know, because you know I went, you know, I
Speaker 1: went there, and of course everybody, a lot of people,
Speaker 1: everybody in Texas, you know, was a Cowboy fan, you know,
Speaker 1: the whole Tom Landry thing. And then I went to TCU,
Speaker 1: so I was right there going across. But my first
Speaker 1: training camps that I ever went to as a high
Speaker 1: school junior and senior was the Houston Oilers at Shriner
Speaker 1: Institute in Kerrville, Texas. It was outstanding. So here I
Speaker 1: am sitting here right now. Wow, well there you go.
Speaker 1: Isn't that crazy? But we do get asked that question
Speaker 1: a lot about as. Yeah, I loved the Bills. I
Speaker 1: loved Oj. Uh. You know, that's my first memories of
Speaker 1: watching Football's a year when he went for two thousand
Speaker 1: and three and I was, I was, you know, six
Speaker 1: years old, and uh, I still remember that. And I
Speaker 1: love the Bills, you know from UH from those days
Speaker 1: with Joe Fergus the quarterback and OJ Simpson you know,
Speaker 1: Miami had to arm electric company. Yeah, and I remember,
Speaker 1: you know, back when Monday Night football you show halftime highlights,
Speaker 1: that'd be the only time you can watch the Bills,
Speaker 1: not like it was when UH with Sports Center around.
Speaker 1: So I was a Bills fan all the way through
Speaker 1: those days when Jim Kelly was a quarterback. I actually
Speaker 1: drove to Atlanta and bought a single Super Bowl ticket
Speaker 1: and went by myself the year they lost the fourth
Speaker 1: Super Bowl in a row, and uh you know, had
Speaker 1: a Buffalo Bills beach tower that I hung out my
Speaker 1: college dorm window the year that they won one game,
Speaker 1: they beat the Cowboys, and I hung that outside my window.
Speaker 1: But it's different when you start to work for a team,
Speaker 1: all that allegiance goes out the window. I think I
Speaker 1: probably still have a soft spot for the Bills, but
Speaker 1: uh not, it's not like it used to be. Did
Speaker 1: you have a team you chaired for my Damas Cowboys? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it largely Bills beat the Cowboys in nineteen eighty five,
Speaker 1: the only win of the years not in that Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: though you went to and I hosted a great party
Speaker 1: that night. Another reason I followed the Dallas Cowboys was
Speaker 1: because of dd Lewis. Dd Lewis is from Knoxville and
Speaker 1: he grew up in my family's neighborhood in North Knoxville
Speaker 1: and went to my dad and mom's high school, and
Speaker 1: they became Cowboy fans because of him and another guy
Speaker 1: named Ryan Widby, who was a football and basketball player
Speaker 1: at the University of Tennessee, who was a Cowboys punter,
Speaker 1: and so yeah, I was Cowboy fan. And don't tell
Speaker 1: I'm I'm glad I never had to say that in
Speaker 1: front of mister Adams case. I don't think mister Adams
Speaker 1: would have liked that very much. See, when I got
Speaker 1: hired here, I told mister Adams that story that I
Speaker 1: just told right now, and he looked at me, and
Speaker 1: I like that. I was pretty good from that. Well,
Speaker 1: that was one of the challenges for us. And I've
Speaker 1: said this on a few occasions. I didn't know any
Speaker 1: Whitler's fan, did you, Jim? I mean? And so we
Speaker 1: brought this team here that nobody really knew that much
Speaker 1: about they. There weren't a lot of players because when
Speaker 1: we tried to hire our first color analyst for Titans Radio,
Speaker 1: we said, okay, the the ultimate would be to hire
Speaker 1: a former Tennessee vall who played for the Houston Oilers.
Speaker 1: That would be a great move. There weren't any the oiler.
Speaker 1: The only Oiler that that played at Tennessee was a
Speaker 1: linebacker named Steve Kiner, who was kind of out there
Speaker 1: a little bit um, so we said, really good player.
Speaker 1: I'm not really good player, a little bit of a
Speaker 1: little bit of a different character. But he didn't live
Speaker 1: here anyway. But then we said, okay, well, how about
Speaker 1: a former Vanderbilt commodore who played for the Houston Oilers.
Speaker 1: That would make sense. There weren't any There was like
Speaker 1: a putter and he was like from the early sixties
Speaker 1: ors you know. There there wasn't anybody. So we said, okay,
Speaker 1: well how about somebody who played for any state school
Speaker 1: who played for the Oilers Memphis or TSU or whomever.
Speaker 1: There weren't any because the majority of the people who
Speaker 1: played for the Houston Oilers, they got the majority of
Speaker 1: their players from the Southwest Conference. There were they they
Speaker 1: had signed over the years. Celbricado and the rest of
Speaker 1: that group stayed around the Southwest Conference. So that was
Speaker 1: one of our real challenges is there was no allegiance
Speaker 1: in this area because there had been virtually no tieans.
Speaker 1: We didn't see them much on TV. And that was
Speaker 1: part of getting you know, when the team came to
Speaker 1: Memphis and Vanderbilt, there were no built in fans to
Speaker 1: go run see them play. So we had to establish
Speaker 1: that identity long answer to your question, but it was.
Speaker 1: It was a really interesting thing for us because we
Speaker 1: there was there was no connect. It was like they
Speaker 1: were dropped in on us. I had no opinion on
Speaker 1: the Houston Oilers. I rooted for him some weeks, I
Speaker 1: rooted against him somewhere. You know, I didn't know anything
Speaker 1: about him, really. I knew Earl Campbell and Dan Pastorini,
Speaker 1: but you know, so in finding out more about their
Speaker 1: history and working for him this time, it's been really
Speaker 1: a lot of fun to see. And again, but you're
Speaker 1: a Texas guy. I'm a Texas guy. And again I'm
Speaker 1: probably one of the few that's been to their training
Speaker 1: camp in the Hill Country, I would imagine. And also
Speaker 1: then when they moved, they moved their training camp to
Speaker 1: sant Angelo, right and then, and sant Angelo is like
Speaker 1: eighty miles from where I grew up. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: I told mister told mister Adams all this when when
Speaker 1: he hired him, I did not tell him my story,
Speaker 1: and he liked it. He liked mine. Did you have, Mike,
Speaker 1: did you have one of those wool jackets with the
Speaker 1: plastic sleeves. Everybody used to wear a shirt had the
Speaker 1: Sears catalog. My brother and I had bunk beds and
Speaker 1: we had the Sears catalog, NFL kurt and sheets and
Speaker 1: comforters with all the NFL teams. That's really cute. Oh love, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's it's that's outstanding. But it seemed like the NFL.
Speaker 1: If you grew up in this area, it seemed like
Speaker 1: the NFL was in another planet. And so when we
Speaker 1: moved and when we got a team here, it was like,
Speaker 1: this is the coolest thing ever, because a lot of
Speaker 1: us were NFL, huge NFL fans and never thought we'd
Speaker 1: get to It's like hiring Jim Haslet here. That's still
Speaker 1: so cool to me because I've watched Jim Haslet since
Speaker 1: he played for Buffalo, and so to see him walking
Speaker 1: down the hall, You're like, that's Jim Haslet. How about
Speaker 1: that he used to coach the Saints. How about that
Speaker 1: even after twenty years, that's still exciting to me because
Speaker 1: I was a fan of the league way before I
Speaker 1: ever went to work for a team. Right, that was
Speaker 1: actually a really good answer. I'm pleasantly No, I'm pleasantly
Speaker 1: by that. Wow, thank you. Here's Bow from Big Stone Gap,
Speaker 1: Virginia and he asked home of Thomas Jones, former NFL
Speaker 1: running back yep, former Cardinal running back to coach mc drafting,
Speaker 1: you drafted Thomas Jones. How about that this world is
Speaker 1: getting smaller and smaller in here. I tell you what,
Speaker 1: what did you guys, especially Mike Keith think of the
Speaker 1: XFL kickoffs given that the XFL just became a real thing,
Speaker 1: we got our first weekend to experience all of that.
Speaker 1: Kind of liked what they did. Ninety one percent of
Speaker 1: their kickoffs were returned, as opposed to thirty six percent
Speaker 1: of NFL kickoffs. I want to see more. I want
Speaker 1: to see how teams scheme it, to see if they
Speaker 1: can break anybody loose because of the setup. I think
Speaker 1: it's safer, which is good. I think it's a way
Speaker 1: to potentially keep the kickoff in the game and have
Speaker 1: it be a football play instead of sixty four percent touchbacks.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I thought it was good. I thought I
Speaker 1: thought the XFL overall was pretty good. I watched almost
Speaker 1: an entire game on Saturday. I watched all four games.
Speaker 1: Did you really absolutely? I had one TV going watching
Speaker 1: them and had the other one going doing the draft,
Speaker 1: and we can't turn them off. But the first person
Speaker 1: I thought of all seriousness, which you know how serious
Speaker 1: go to Mike is all was Mike Keith on the kickoffs.
Speaker 1: I liked that kickoff. I did too. I liked that
Speaker 1: concept and it makes sense. And you started talking about
Speaker 1: if you'll notice, I mean because I started watching that
Speaker 1: for most all of every one of them, they tried
Speaker 1: to run a sideline. The returner went to the sideline
Speaker 1: to try to take away the numbers, to reduce the numbers.
Speaker 1: So I think to your point, what you will start
Speaker 1: seeing is you will start seeing some turns you know
Speaker 1: as to where they will try to But I like that.
Speaker 1: I like that part of it. I thought of you immediately.
Speaker 1: It's first I said, I hope, Mike. I knew you
Speaker 1: would be watching. It's a better football play than a
Speaker 1: touch and I agree with that one hundred percent, Mike.
Speaker 1: And again that's my complaint about the whole kickoff thing
Speaker 1: is I don't want to see guys line up and
Speaker 1: the kicker just kick it through the end zone. That's
Speaker 1: a waste of my time. But I thought of you
Speaker 1: immediately when that thing started. And the XFL stuff, nice
Speaker 1: job they did. They did a good the production of
Speaker 1: it was good. And here's the other thing that you
Speaker 1: can tell. I mean, you can tell money when you
Speaker 1: see money, it's got money behind it. You can tell
Speaker 1: just with the production. Well if that and they're not
Speaker 1: and Oliver Luck came out and said this, they're commissioner.
Speaker 1: They're not trying to be the NFL. They're not trying
Speaker 1: to compete with the NFL. They're not doing what they
Speaker 1: did the first time around with you know, some of
Speaker 1: the silliness and stuff like that, which I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: all for silly sometimes, but this looked like just good football.
Speaker 1: I enjoyed it. I'm going to be interested to see
Speaker 1: how the ratings keep up before we get to March madness.
Speaker 1: You know, that's their challenges. They've got to do well
Speaker 1: in February because when basketball starts to get serious and
Speaker 1: baseball starts coming around and then they have competition, can
Speaker 1: they get a niche established before that happens. But Week
Speaker 1: one I thought, I thought nice work, and on TV,
Speaker 1: I thought they did a great job. Yeah, and I
Speaker 1: flipped through. I can't say I'll watch games from beginning
Speaker 1: to end, but I probably watched good, you know, parts
Speaker 1: of at least I think three games and I was
Speaker 1: entertained too, And I like to kick off from a
Speaker 1: safety standpoint is much better. You don't have guys spreading
Speaker 1: down the field and you don't have those high impact collisions.
Speaker 1: I was surprised more people didn't go for two instead
Speaker 1: of going for one. A lot of the one point tries,
Speaker 1: you know, we're not successful. I think I'd go for
Speaker 1: two every time. I wouldn't go for two as well.
Speaker 1: Help you help your odds and uh so, I'm surprised
Speaker 1: more teams didn't do that. I'll be curious to see
Speaker 1: how that goes moving forward, all right, Marty from Scotland
Speaker 1: real quick was asking Marty from Scotland. Marty from Scotland
Speaker 1: the country like the country? Yeah, not like Scotland, Tennessee.
Speaker 1: Is that a place, ye, very close to Scotland the country.
Speaker 1: He asked you. Any of you have any Scottish connections
Speaker 1: in your family here Keith Scotland, Keith Glad, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're Scottish. Are you like Scottish Royalty? No? No, no, no,
Speaker 1: uh Keith. Scotland is well known for wool shepherds. Most
Speaker 1: of the most of the people there are shepherds. That
Speaker 1: seems about right. See, that is the only type of
Speaker 1: information that you could get on the OTP. I'm dying
Speaker 1: to go to Scotland to meet my you know, meet
Speaker 1: my ancestors, because that's a Jim's looking it up right now.
Speaker 1: That's one hundred percent a real thing. Yes, I talk
Speaker 1: about doing that, Mike, and that's a cool thing. And
Speaker 1: you need to do that because you know, I'm Irish
Speaker 1: and I went to you know, I went to Ireland
Speaker 1: to do that. That's a cool thing to do it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm very interested to do it. It's cool thing to do. Well,
Speaker 1: there you go, Marty us there on the OTP. We're talking.
Speaker 1: I'm talking to my guy Marty. There you go. All right,
Speaker 1: this is the last question. You guys are gonna think
Speaker 1: I made this up, but I really didn't. It came
Speaker 1: through the line Titans Online dot Com slash otpq Andy
Speaker 1: from Brentwood, Tennessee, says, I am suffering from some serious
Speaker 1: amy wells wonders withdrawals. What happened to it? What's brewing
Speaker 1: is a great segment, and it's awesome to hear from
Speaker 1: all of you. But AWW gave us an insightful and
Speaker 1: sometimes eerily dark look inside Amy's brain? Why not do
Speaker 1: both segments? Also, there's a caveat Amy is definitely not
Speaker 1: paying me to say this just so that she can
Speaker 1: get a solo segment. Again. The people want enough. Don't
Speaker 1: you think Amy Wells Wonders became What's Brewing? Well? Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you all are involved. Amy Wells Wonders was just me,
Speaker 1: But you're the one that came up with What's Brewing?
Speaker 1: I did, and I expanded it to the masses. But
Speaker 1: I mean so, I mean, isn't that the answer to
Speaker 1: the question is that you basically did away with Amy
Speaker 1: Wells Wonders when you came up with What's Brewing? I
Speaker 1: think so, But I think Andy wants more. You think so?
Speaker 1: I think Andy is asking why right now? Tell us, well,
Speaker 1: I'm wondering why you guys don't want to give me
Speaker 1: more time in this podcast. You're hosting the podcast today.
Speaker 1: I'm just giving the people what they want. What was
Speaker 1: my man's name from Brentwood? Andy? Andy? The consensus at
Speaker 1: this table right now, I just took a vote. Everybody
Speaker 1: loves Amy Wells Wonders. There it is. It came through.
Speaker 1: I am just I am just the conduit. I'm the
Speaker 1: one asking the questions of the OT people, and you
Speaker 1: guys get a great job. And if people want to
Speaker 1: ask their questions again, tell them. I mean, this is
Speaker 1: not the Jim White mailback. No, no, this is different.
Speaker 1: It's totally different. Jim, is there anything in here you
Speaker 1: would like to steal for this week's mailbag? A lot
Speaker 1: of great questions in there. There were good us, a
Speaker 1: lot of good ones. I really like the OT people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you too. I'm a big fan thet P. Well. I
Speaker 1: couldn't believe the response we got on the road trips
Speaker 1: during the playoffs. I was dumbfounded by how many people
Speaker 1: listen to the podcast and and just elated and how
Speaker 1: nice they were about it. I mean, it was really
Speaker 1: it was really heartwarming. Everyone has been exceptionally kind regarding
Speaker 1: the podcast. As we've kind of gotten this thing started
Speaker 1: and have continued to try new things and change it,
Speaker 1: people have been just so gracious. I want Jim Haslet
Speaker 1: on the podcast. I want to sit down and talk.
Speaker 1: I want to hear some stories from Jim Haslet. Has
Speaker 1: has got some Yeah, I'm sure he's a former linebackers.
Speaker 1: That's you start there. Yeah. I just hope he doesn't
Speaker 1: tell any concerning he and I both. He's a really
Speaker 1: good football coach though, And when Jim told me he's like, hey,
Speaker 1: I think it's Jim Haslet, I was like, seriously, I
Speaker 1: mean he's really this Jim Haslet I've always liked has
Speaker 1: a lot, you know, as as just a guy too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well he fits. The head coach is kind of mix, right,
Speaker 1: What more can you ask for? Again? Tell people how
Speaker 1: they can ask the questions. Titans Online dot Com slash
Speaker 1: otp Q. Keep them coming because we will do more
Speaker 1: of these. I think these shows are so fun. Jim
Speaker 1: Wyatt has done a great job at Titans online dot
Speaker 1: Com recently, You've written a lot of really good things.
Speaker 1: The thing comparing the leaders from twenty eighteen to twenty
Speaker 1: nineteen was fascinating. Yeah, and you can tell how big
Speaker 1: of a jump this team made in so many different
Speaker 1: categories compared to a year ago. A lot of them.
Speaker 1: You know, A J. Brown established himself, We talked about
Speaker 1: him earlier, Ryan Tannehill obviously, Derrick Henry, you know, great
Speaker 1: strides by this team in two thousand nineteen, and now
Speaker 1: got to figure out here, try to keep as many
Speaker 1: of these guys with the squad and have momentum going
Speaker 1: into camp. Jim Wyatt at Titans Online dot Com, Senior
Speaker 1: writer editor. How can you follow Jim Wyatt on various
Speaker 1: social media playform at j Wyatt Sports on Twitter and
Speaker 1: Instagram at Titans Amy, Amie and you were on one
Speaker 1: oh four five Coach Mac at what time? All the time,
Speaker 1: all the time. He's on twenty first set. I saw
Speaker 1: they're promoting a minigod sitting here on Twitter and night
Speaker 1: they're promoting them being on today. Yeah, I'm on, I'm on.
Speaker 1: I'm on officially, I'm on Monday's, Wednesdays and Thursdays, but
Speaker 1: I pop in a lot. I had dinner last night
Speaker 1: at the Southern. I had the person serving said, Coach Mike,
Speaker 1: really glad to have you here. I really enjoyed you
Speaker 1: and Mike Keith. I also enjoy the Titans podcast Wow Hey,
Speaker 1: better known as the OTP. The OTP which is good
Speaker 1: mention of the Southern in there too. I like how
Speaker 1: you work that is, that's a good spot. So Connors
Speaker 1: the Southern get props this week after Crystal. Last week
Speaker 1: Crystal got some love Crystal. Crystal was fired up about
Speaker 1: the mine. They were very excited. Um, I'm going to
Speaker 1: the Southern for dinner tonight. So that's another Southern mansion.
Speaker 1: I really am. That's good reservation. Well, good for you. Well,
Speaker 1: that's why we need to conclude this edition of the
Speaker 1: OTP so you can make it otherwise she would keep
Speaker 1: talking for Amy Wells, Jim Wyatt and coach Dave McGinnis.
Speaker 1: Mike Keith says, thanks for listening to this edition of
Speaker 1: the o tp Q