0:10

This is the OTP presented by Far

0:12

Bureau Health Plans. Healthcare coverage

0:14

from Far Bureau Health Plans is like an extra set

0:17

of pads when you need them the most. They've been protecting

0:19

Tennessee and since nineteen forty seven.

0:22

From Tampa, Florida with Amy Wells. I'm

0:24

Mike Keith. First day

0:26

of joint practices between the Titans

0:28

and the Buccaneers in the books, Amy

0:31

Wells. First note of the day. Hot.

0:34

It was so hot, and

0:37

I actually felt like we were kind of fortunate

0:39

because Nashville has had a pretty hot

0:41

summer anyway, so we are kind of used

0:43

to being hot and muggy and sticky.

0:46

Florida takes it to a whole new level. Though,

0:49

this was, I mean something special. Didn't

0:51

you say it was a record setting heat today? Well,

0:53

the practice was this morning. As we record

0:55

this in the afternoon, the temperature is a

0:58

record high for this date at

1:00

ninety six degrees, breaking a one

1:02

hundred five year old record. But

1:05

ninety six degrees is one thing the feels

1:08

like is one hundred and nine.

1:10

This morning, as we approached noon,

1:13

the temperature was close to ninety and the

1:15

fields like was one hundred and two, but I didn't think

1:17

either team showed many ill

1:19

effects from the heat. One wonders

1:22

if there will be carry over into tomorrow

1:24

because of that, however, right, And I think

1:26

that that's where the summer that Nashville

1:28

has had really kind of helped the Titans,

1:31

because I know that the Bucks have

1:33

typically been holding their practices around

1:35

eight or eight thirty. Pushed it back an

1:37

hour for these two joint

1:40

practices. Not really sure why,

1:42

but there were some rumblings that maybe

1:44

the weather will be an impact. But because

1:46

the Titans have been in a hot

1:48

summer anyway, this team was pretty used

1:51

to the weather. It didn't seem like a factor.

1:53

Well, and let's face it, two September

1:55

twelve against Arizona and September

1:57

twenty six against Indianapolis.

2:00

It's going to be hot in Nashville. Yeah, we do

2:02

hot things like it gets

2:04

hot in Nashville, Tennessee. People don't think about

2:06

that, but it gets toasty, and we've played some hot

2:08

games. So good experience for the team. Good

2:11

for them to be able to get this work in in

2:13

these conditions. But it didn't seem

2:15

to be stopping them. It was still a solid practice,

2:17

all right. No, Julio Jones or A J. Brown

2:20

at wide receiver, kicker, Tucker

2:22

McCann is out, safety Matthias

2:24

Farley, safety, Dane Crookshank

2:26

out, Darrnton Evans out,

2:29

Ben Jones out, Deniko

2:31

Autry, and Jeff Swain also out.

2:33

So some of the names that

2:35

you thought would not do much did

2:38

not do much today and still a

2:40

lot of good work. Impressive

2:43

to see what the Titans were able to do

2:46

against the Bucks, and and the Bucks were impressive

2:48

to It looked like two

2:51

really good teams squaring off,

2:53

much like two years ago when

2:55

the Patriots came into practice against the

2:57

type absolutely and we've

2:59

talked about wanting to go against good

3:01

competition in the preseason

3:04

to really kind of get a benchmark of where

3:06

you measure up to the reigning

3:08

world champions, so you

3:10

want to kind of see where that is. And the Titans

3:13

one hundred percent held their own. It looked

3:15

like a very competitive, really

3:17

high intensity camp practice.

3:19

It was great and the

3:21

Tennessee Titans should feel good about the work that they

3:24

did today. Dane Crookshank,

3:26

of course, is one of the safeties that was

3:28

out, and I mentioned Matthias Farley as well.

3:30

So the Titans have brought in three new safeties.

3:34

Clayton Gathers, who played for the Colts.

3:36

You may remember him. He's a sixth year man

3:38

out of Central Florida. He opted

3:40

out of twenty twenty after five years

3:42

in Indianapolis. Bradley McDougall,

3:45

who's a little bit older, he's almost thirty one,

3:48

has spent a great deal of

3:50

his time in the league in Seattle.

3:52

If I'm not mistaken, if I have everything squared

3:55

away, he is in. And then they also brought

3:57

in Jamal Carter, a fourth year man out

3:59

of Miami, Florid Artists. So getting

4:01

some work, you know, with the second and

4:03

third groups. Is the Titans are not very deep

4:05

at safety. But the secondary

4:08

was a primary focus of what we watched

4:10

today, Amy because we wanted

4:12

to see Tom Brady, Rob

4:15

Gronkowski, Mike Evans,

4:17

Chris Godwin, and the list

4:19

goes on and on of the Buccaneers

4:22

passing attack go at the Titans

4:25

secondary. And I thought overall,

4:27

the secondary for the Titans had a pretty

4:30

good day. It is very apparent

4:32

that the secondary was a point of

4:34

emphasis in the offseason. They look

4:36

so different than they did a year ago

4:39

at this time and the speed

4:41

is what really sticks out. I

4:43

mean, we watched Caleb Farley

4:46

was able to just come out of nowhere

4:48

sometimes he is so fast,

4:51

and there are a couple different

4:53

players. Jack Rabbit is another one who's

4:55

just fast and he always seems

4:57

to be right where the ball is. So

5:00

to see some of these new editions really

5:02

kind of showing up as advertised

5:04

in doing what the Titans

5:06

really need them to do, which is be fast

5:09

and be where the ball is. Awesome.

5:11

Christian Fulton had plays today. Monty

5:14

Hooker had another interception. He made a couple

5:16

plays today, which is what he has continued

5:19

to do. You mentioned Jack Rabbit.

5:21

Jenkins had an interception that he returned

5:24

for a touchdown on a tip ball was

5:27

intended for Gronkowski. Let's

5:29

go back to Caleb Parley for a second biggest

5:32

work that he's had in

5:34

training camp. Great situation.

5:37

He lost a couple, he lost one badly,

5:40

but he won a couple, including

5:42

one with Mike Evans. And if you'll remember

5:45

two years ago game in Nashville,

5:47

Mike Evans had one hundred and ninety eight yards

5:49

receiving against the Titans through the third

5:51

quarter. Mike Evans

5:54

seven straight years to begin his career

5:56

with over a thousand yards receiving. He's

5:58

big, he's fast, he's talented, and

6:01

Farley stayed with him and beat him

6:03

to knock a ball down. You

6:06

see the potential of Farley. You see

6:08

the confidence gaining in

6:10

Farley all the time. And

6:13

I think this has really come at the right

6:15

time for him, this work, after

6:18

coming off the back surgery, starting camp

6:20

on NFI, I think we see

6:22

what he's all about. And this is what Mike

6:24

Vrabel was alluding to a week ago when

6:26

he said we're giving him more. We're giving him

6:29

a little bit more every day, and

6:31

this is kind of the next step,

6:34

is him not just reading the playbook,

6:36

understanding that, understanding some of

6:38

the intricacies of the position that

6:40

he hasn't played for that long. Now

6:44

he's to the point where it's all right, let's see what you

6:46

can do when things are kind

6:48

of rocking and rolling, you know, when you've got to make

6:50

plays when your number is

6:52

called. And I think that showing

6:55

that he's able to do that even he think as

6:57

a rookie and he's only been

7:00

ac for a little while, so yeah,

7:02

I mean, he still is a tremendous about to

7:04

learn and he is by no means perfect

7:06

and the savior of all things. But

7:09

I think he's going to be a quality player once

7:11

he gets himself up to speed. And we saw the

7:13

next step today. I think we did too. And I think

7:15

we saw the next step for Elijah Bolden. He

7:17

had an interception, he made

7:19

several interesting plays in

7:22

the slot. I think he's going to

7:24

start to push now. For

7:26

what we thought when they got him in the third

7:28

round and what was surprising that he

7:30

was there is to get this defensive

7:33

back who really fits an NFL

7:35

nickel perfectly. We

7:38

saw plays out of him today

7:41

that make you say, hmm, I

7:43

certainly get what he's

7:45

all about. He grabbed a lot of attention.

7:48

Yeah, And he's been fun to watch through camp.

7:50

It's been fun to watch him learn

7:53

and continue to work on some

7:55

of the more finite details of what

7:57

he's being asked to do and really understand

7:59

his position and how he can be successful.

8:02

I feel like from day one of camp too, now

8:05

he looks like he's made tremendous improvement.

8:08

And I mean I am not an evaluator of talent.

8:10

I'm just a person who's been watching him and I

8:12

can even see some marked improvement.

8:15

Yeah, Elijah Molden did a good job today.

8:18

Listen. The Buccaneers had some plays

8:20

on offense. The Titans got beat

8:23

deep a couple of times. You

8:25

know, there would have been plays that Brady

8:27

would have made at different points, or receivers

8:29

made some good moves. I mean, it's Tom Brady,

8:31

I know. I just think that,

8:34

and I say that to kind of put it in context.

8:37

The Titans secondary had answers

8:39

at different points, and unlike

8:42

two years ago when Brady cut him

8:44

up in seven on sevens

8:46

and one on ones when he was in with the

8:49

Patriots and he did

8:51

not have as good a cast of characters

8:53

around him as he did today,

8:57

it was impressive to see them make his

8:59

many plays as they did in my opinion, And

9:01

so I think there's a

9:03

good feeling that you can have from that. And that

9:06

was without a pass rush. Right. So the

9:08

thing to watch tomorrow is can

9:10

they continue it into the second day.

9:12

That's going to be the telltale sign

9:15

because both of these teams have tape

9:17

and they are both going to be watching it, evaluating,

9:19

correcting things, and then coming back together

9:22

tomorrow to do it all over again.

9:24

So that's going to be the real sign. Linebacker

9:26

Monty Rice suffered the only

9:29

main injury we saw. It looked like it was a foot

9:31

or an ankle that he twisted

9:34

when backpeddling. Don't

9:36

know much about that. The rookie linebacker

9:38

has been doing a good job and so hopefully

9:41

that's not too serious. Good

9:43

day for the secondary. Again, we

9:45

watched a lot of defense what I did see out

9:47

of offense, though I watched the wide receivers

9:49

a good bit. Nick Westbrook a Kena

9:52

really made some plays. Chester

9:55

Rogers continues to make

9:57

plays. This guy wants a job,

10:00

and Marcus Johnson continues to be

10:02

a steady guy. You

10:04

know. Josh Reynolds did a few things

10:06

and it's good to see him continuing

10:08

to work back into you know,

10:11

really all of the you

10:13

know, all of the rotations. Again,

10:15

the top two guys out, so some

10:17

of the guys down the line getting more chances.

10:20

Westbrook, aken Or Rogers and Johnson

10:22

the three that jumped out to me, right, and we

10:24

kind of knew that this was a possibility

10:27

that they would be the guys that would be getting

10:29

the lion's share of the work. And

10:31

so again tomorrow

10:34

is going to be the big day to see

10:36

how the defense adjusts to some of the things

10:38

they're able to do, and are these receivers

10:40

able to take the notes and

10:43

still be successful. Tomorrow I think tomorrow

10:45

I'm going to focus on offense. Mike, Yeah,

10:47

I think that's the right thing. I want to watch the

10:50

receivers. I want to watch some

10:52

of the offensive linemen because some

10:54

of the guys who will not be

10:56

starting are going to be getting more chances

11:00

some of the one on one drills. I

11:03

want. Yeah, I want to see offense. I'm going to turn a

11:05

little bit more that way. Speaking of that, So

11:08

after practice, I was standing

11:10

around while you were doing actual

11:12

work, and was very usual.

11:15

I was watching Tom Brady on his

11:17

own practice, and

11:19

Tom Brady was spending post

11:22

practice time in ninety degree heat

11:25

working on rolling to his

11:28

left against his throwing hand. He's

11:30

a right handed passer, and it's much easier

11:32

to roll right, as you may have

11:35

guessed, than it

11:37

is to roll left when you're right handed quarterback.

11:40

And yet he is still at age

11:42

forty four, in the heat, standing

11:45

out there after practice working on

11:47

rolling to his left and making

11:49

sure he's getting his shoulders squared to

11:51

make the right throw. Fundamental

11:53

things fundamental things. Fundamental things

11:56

and the thought process.

11:58

I mean, now that he's not in New England,

12:00

I think I appreciate him more. Yeah,

12:03

because you know, we had to play

12:06

New England. We lost

12:08

to them fifty nine to nothing. He knocked us out

12:10

of the playoffs one year he was you

12:12

know, it was not much fun being

12:15

against Tom Brady

12:17

with the Patriots. But now that he's in the other conference

12:20

and you see him a different way, it's

12:22

almost like you have a chance to really appreciate

12:25

the work that he puts in to be

12:28

who he is, because much

12:30

like Peyton Manning, he is not the

12:32

most natural looking athlete,

12:35

right. Tom Brady was gangly when

12:37

he came into the league, and he has certainly

12:39

built himself into a different sort of

12:41

athlete. And yet he doesn't look like

12:44

a Patrick Mahomes. He doesn't look like a Ben

12:46

Roethlisburger. He you know, he doesn't look

12:48

like Josh Allen. And yet

12:51

he's the greatest quarterback of all time in terms

12:53

of Super Bowl wins. Absolutely, I

12:56

think I think you're right that I have

12:58

a new found respect for him

13:00

now that he is with a different team

13:02

and is still performing at a high level

13:04

and still able to do what he's able to do. I

13:07

mean, to be honest, I kind of thought he was a

13:09

fraud. And I mean I knew that the Super

13:11

Bowls and all that stuff, but it was him

13:13

and Belichick and they had all these great teams

13:15

and it just felt like, oh, the Patriots

13:17

can do everything, and he was just part of the

13:20

bigger Patriots whatever. And

13:22

now we're able to see that he's the real

13:24

deal. And you're right, being able to see the

13:26

way that he works up close, you

13:29

can't help but respect that. The thing is

13:31

too forty four years old. Yeah,

13:33

it's for an athlete, it's it's

13:36

ancient. But when you

13:38

get into your forties, no matter

13:40

whether you're an athlete or not, things start to break

13:42

down. Everything starts to creak

13:44

and pop a little bit. Well, there's no

13:46

question and for him to

13:49

continue, like Peyton Manning didn't

13:51

make it to forty in football. Peyton

13:53

Manning is still alive, I know. But the

13:55

point is, and Peyton would still

13:58

be playing if he could. But

14:00

for the majority of athletes, time

14:04

catches you for something

14:06

physical. You know, Peyton had the shoulder thing

14:08

and he just didn't have anything on the

14:11

ball anymore. When he threw it and still

14:13

won a super Bowl, which was a great achievement

14:15

for him. But to see Brady

14:18

at this age still

14:20

performing at this high level, and listen,

14:22

he doesn't have the gun he had seven to eight years

14:24

ago, which really makes what he's doing

14:27

even more impressive. It's

14:31

it's something else. I mean, you tip your cap

14:33

to somebody who can do this in this

14:35

way. Yeah, and I've heard he's just

14:37

a nice guy, which is also annoying

14:40

because I want him to not be a nice guy.

14:42

But like, genuinely, I've heard that

14:44

he is actually like a decent human. Yeah.

14:47

Yeah, but that's the whole. These

14:49

are the things I care about. My teeth, I care

14:51

about if you're kind and if you laugh at my jokes.

14:53

That's really all I ang. It was very kind to his son

14:56

today as he was making him run. Well,

14:58

I mean, kids got to run a little

15:00

bit. It's good for them. Okay. So the thing we need

15:02

to wrap up with here is something very

15:04

important. So as

15:06

of today August eighteen, are Friends

15:09

at Duncan. Our

15:11

friends at Duncan are selling the

15:13

Tennessee Titans donut now through September.

15:16

First Titans fans can fuel up with Duncan's

15:18

Titans donut, which features vanilla

15:20

frosting Titans

15:23

iconic blue colored icing.

15:26

I'm down with icing anytime, and

15:30

the donut is absolutely outstanding.

15:32

Titans fans run on Duncan. Not

15:35

available through mobile order or delivery.

15:37

Duncan is a proud partner of the Tennessee Titans.

15:40

All right, get on your get up out

15:42

of your chair, get in your car, and go

15:44

get a donut. Well, let me explain what happened.

15:46

So we said, They said, well, you've promote

15:48

this, and of course if we're giving food,

15:50

yes, we'll do anything for food, We'll do it.

15:53

So they brought us yesterday

15:56

a thing of Titans donuts.

15:58

The Duncan people were kind enough to provide

16:00

us with those a day early, and we

16:03

had them on the team plane and

16:05

they were a massive hit. Mike Keith, have

16:07

you ever been on a team plane

16:10

full of hungry humans holding

16:12

a box of donuts? There you go, because

16:15

you're automatically the coolest person

16:17

on the plane. That's it is a very

16:19

nice feeling. I felt very important. But the

16:21

donuts are absolutely delicious. Thank you

16:23

to Duncan for sending them to us. Go get

16:25

one through September first, So just

16:28

a couple of weeks, get your duncan

16:30

Titans donut for the next

16:32

two weeks. Mmm, I'm going to yes,

16:36

don't do that. You can plan

16:39

on Farm Bureau Health plans for better coverage,

16:41

better rates, and better customer service. They've

16:43

been providing Tennesseeans with the home field

16:45

advantage for almost seventy five years. So,

16:48

as Amy mentioned, we're going to watch more offense

16:51

tomorrow, enjoyed defense

16:53

today. That heat is expected

16:55

to be back same practice

16:58

time in that late morning

17:01

window. But again, I

17:03

think as long as guys are staying hydrated

17:05

and healthy and not you know, cramping

17:07

or having to take a lot of extra

17:10

fluids in different ways, I think

17:12

it's good for the Titans to be out in this

17:14

kind of heat. Preparing the

17:17

game time temperature on Saturday

17:19

night, and again it is a six thirty

17:21

Central Time kick off, five thirty

17:23

airtime for Titans Countdown on Titans Radio.

17:26

It's supposed to be around ninety at that point.

17:29

The heat is not going to break down here

17:31

for quite some time. Man,

17:34

this heat, Mike, I went on a walk

17:36

and about died, just a walk, casual

17:38

stroll. Almost died. No, he did.

17:41

I was pretty smoking hot. It

17:43

was wild, so

17:45

bring it on Day two. Day two, Day two

17:48

coming up, and thank you for joining us

17:50

for the OTP. We'll have another one tomorrow

17:53

and maybe some otpques.

17:56

Yeah, sending your otpques. We'll get

17:58

him answered tomorrow. Yes, because

18:01

Dave McGinnis, I think, is going to join us. Coach

18:03

mac oh mac so go to

18:05

Tennessee Titans dot com

18:07

slash o t p q it

18:10

submit your question for coach Mack,

18:12

for Ashley Farrell and Amy Wells. I'm Mike Key. Thanks

18:15

for joining us from Tampa for the O t

18:17

he Welcome to the Big Show

18:20

where the legends go. Everybody

18:22

knows it's our house, fighting

18:25

Tennessee, making us to read

18:27

greatness is meant to be osw.

18:30

Hey we got sighting Bud

18:33

running through a VSE