 Welcome to the official Titans podcast presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans. Don't get sacked by the high cost of health care. Make Farm Bureau Health Plans your first line of protection. They've been protecting Tennessee since 1947. We're glad you're with us for the OTP. Amy Wells is here as usual. Hey Mike, how's it going? It is great and we are so thrilled to have a special guest with us, Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill. Welcome to the OTP. Hey guys, thanks for having me. Excited to be here. And we're also excited to have Titan season ticket members with us. A live audience again for the OTP. It seems to be a common theme in this off season. Many of you have submitted your questions for Ryan beforehand. I got a whole list of them right here. But you can submit your questions while the OTP goes on. Amy Wells, tell them how they can do it. Use hashtag OTPQ, hashtag OTPQ. I'll see your questions and I will ask Ryan Tannehill. All right, good stuff. Ryan, how are the virtual workouts going so far for you and the Tennessee Titans? They've been good. You know, obviously coming in, didn't really know what to expect, how things are going to go. Just had some discussions with Arthur beforehand. Like, you know, just kind of trying to figure out how this thing was going to go and best way to go about it. And I feel like guys have been really engaged and done a great job of getting the most we can out of these meetings. You know, it's honestly, it's not a whole lot different than being in a meeting room together. You know, we're communicating, guys are speaking up, questions are being asked. And just really trying to grow together and grow on the same page. You know, we're making some changes on some things different than we did last year. And guys are really on top of it. You know, we will change things up. We have quizzes that we'll play, you know, a couple of times a week. Arthur would get on the whiteboard. We have video, we have PowerPoint. I mean, we kind of have all the tools that we need in a normal meeting room. And we switch things up where it's fresh. And you're not just sitting there staring at the same screen the whole time. And, you know, I've really been proud of the guys and the way that they've engaged it and really embraced it because this is the situation that we're in. We didn't really want to be in this situation. But, you know, sometimes in life, you know, you have adversity come your way. And it's not about the adversity hits you. It's about what you do with it once it's here. So really proud of our guys and the way we're handling it so far. How much are you able to build chemistry and camaraderie with your teammates, even though you're not able to physically be on the field, you're still able to start to dig into the mental aspect of this game a little bit, right? Yeah, of course. You know, obviously, it's that's what I miss most about not being together is the locker room and just being around each other, having fun together, you know, building that, building that team, building camaraderie, like you said. But, yeah, we're still able to, we have some downtime on there. We'll chat and give each other a hard time and kind of rib on each other a little bit. So we're building that. And then, you know, like I said, virtually, we're detailing things up, you know, to a level that we never got to last year and then get on more on the same page. And just hearing the receivers, you know, talk back on our, you know, regurgitate back basically what we went over the day before or questions that are thrown at them. It's been really cool to just to see how those guys are growing. And we're all just, you know, getting more and more on the same page. Now, here's an X factor for you that you normally don't have to deal with. You have small kids who are in the same house as you while you're trying to learn a football playbook. How does their presence impact your ability to really focus in on what we need to be doing? Yeah, it can be tough. You know, thankfully, our our meeting time kind of overlaps with their nap time a little bit. So, you know, I kind of lock myself in a guest bedroom and really separate myself from them. My wife does a great job of kind of keeping them away. There's been a few times whenever, you know, there's an escapee kid and they come barging in or trying to distract me from the outside. But it's it's all good, you know, I think that's the one thing that the guys have done a really good job from in general, is being able to focus in and kind of eliminate the outside distractions and how we're handling it, where you're not getting all types of outside noise and background noise and things like that. So it's really been professional and we're getting a lot of... You mentioned in an interview that you've been throwing some with Titans tight end, Jonu Smith. How has that been going? Oh, it's been great. You know, I'm thankful to have Jonu down here with me in South Florida. Like I said, I wish I was with all the guys up getting ready for some LTAs. But having Jonu down here, you know, been working for a couple of months now, you know, just just throwing, just seeing him and having a familiar face, a familiar body and getting more on the same page with Jonu has been really good. You know, I think he's a he's a dynamic weapon. He showed it last year. I think his progression as the year went on and just his athleticism really got to got to shine as the year went on and look forward for more of that this year. All right. So we're going to get to questions from Titans fans and from season ticket members who are with us live. If you want to tweet a question in for Ryan Tannehill, do it right now. Hashtag OTPQ. But I've got one question I've been dying to ask you because, you know, we played against you numerous times and you always played well against us. Unfortunately, knowing your story back at Texas A&M that you didn't win the quarterback job initially and you moved to wide receiver and had success at the position. But the story is you didn't really play wide receiver full time. You were still in the quarterback meetings. I've just always been dying to ask you how did that work? Yeah. So going in, I registered in my first year at A&M. I registered freshman year. We had a guy named Steve McGee. He was going into his senior year. He had been starting for three and a half years. So I was going to be a backup. And, you know, we weren't really deep at the receiver position at that time. And coach Sherman, Mike Sherman came over to me. He was like, hey, you know, would you be interested in playing receiver? I said, well, I'm a quarterback and I want to play quarterback. But if you'll allow me to stay in quarterback meetings and at the end of the day, I want to play quarterback. So prepare to play quarterback. You know, I'll play receiver as well. So, you know, a couple of days later, I think my first day, I caught a couple touchdowns in practice. And I think three days later, I was one of our starting wide receivers. So it was a crazy, fast transition and kind of got stuck out there for a few years. But the whole time was my eyes were on the end goal of playing quarterback and being in a position that I really wanted to be in. So, yeah, I stayed in QB meetings and individual drills in practice. The whole time I was doing quarterback things. I wasn't ever doing receiver drills in practice. And then, you know, finally got my opportunity, my junior year. And, you know, try not to look back. So Mike got to ask you about college. So I want to ask you about your rookie year with the Dolphins because there was a tiny little show being filmed called Pardinox and you found yourself as a rookie being one of the main characters featured in this show. What was that experience like for you? Just trying to get your feet on the ground in the NFL. And oh, by the way, this huge HBO show is happening. Yeah, it was crazy. You know, honestly, I was just trying to keep my head above water at the time. Trying to learn as much as I could and grow as much as I could. Obviously had a lot to learn and still do. But yeah, I didn't know a whole lot at the time and I was just trying to do my best each and every day to go out and play the best football I could. And yeah, like you said, on top of that was a show. So there's some funny moments from that show. I think one of the people probably remember is I didn't know the divisions and who was in divisions. Or Matt Moore had asked me, I think, you know, who's in our division. I knew that one, but I didn't know anything past that. And I think that was probably a moment where I realized, well, crap, I got somewhere to learn, you know, at least figure out these divisions. But yeah, it was a fun time. You know, I think looking back at it, I haven't gone back and watched it, but looking back at it, I probably wish I would have had a little more fun with it. You know, I felt like it was more of an annoyance at the time, just that there was cameras always around, always having microphones in the meeting rooms and always around. So you never felt like that you could really just, you know, be yourself. And then I think that people were watching, probably overthought a little too much at the time, but, you know, it was a learning experience. And there's some funny moments for sure. How long had you been married when that happened, when hard knocks happened? So I got married in January after my senior season before the draft. So playing the bowl game, whatever date that was, you know, end of December, early January, I fly down to Florida to IMG in Bradenson. And I'm going to get like, I think like three or four days of training in before I fly to my wedding. We got married destination in Mexico. So I was going to get like a three or four days of training in, fly to Mexico for three days, have a destination wedding, then fly back and start training again. And I was planning on playing in the senior bowl. Well, in the process, like my second day of throwing, I break my foot, pulling out, just doing QB drills, nothing crazy. I'm rolling out to my left, I turn my shoulders and you know, it's my fifth metatarsal breaks in my foot. So here I'm, you know, I'm freaking out, call my wife, like, Hey, just broke my foot. You know, I don't know what's going to happen now, but we got to figure this out. So end up going back to college station, see a doctor there is like, Yeah, you definitely need surgery. So schedule my surgery for the day after my wedding. So I fly to Mexico with the broken foot on crutches, get married in Mexico. You know, I'm like trying to limp down the aisle, no crutches, you know, on a broken foot. My wife's pushing me back to our room in a wheelchair, you know, after the reception, probably not, not what she had envisioned when she pictured her wedding night, you know, as a girl. But, but yes, we get married with a broken foot and then go back, have surgery the next day and then, you know, started the rehab process. But yeah, I was kind of a crazy couple weeks there of figuring out what's going to happen and getting married and then surgery. And not how my wife probably saw the beginning of her marriage going. That's an eventful first year of marriage with that between dad and hard knocks and being a rookie starting quarterback in the NFL. That's amazing. Well, okay. So Amy and I've asked enough questions. Are you ready to take some questions from Titans fans? Let's do it. All right. I'm going to jump in first. Brandon from Nashville submitted this at TennesseeTitans.com slash OTPQ. Brandon wants to know, what has been the most pleasant surprise since you became a member of the Titans, Ryan? Most pleasant surprise. Man, there's been so many good things, you know, since I joined the organization. The team is just really, really good. You know, I think that's one thing that you never know what kind of team you're walking into a kind of organization and, you know, the leadership from the top down coach variable down to the coaching staff. And then just a locker room full of great guys. You know, I think that makes the biggest difference on your day to day. You know, like, do you enjoy work? Is it miserable? Do you like the guys you're spending, you know, 12 hours within a day? And I do. I really love the team. I love the guys that we have. We have good people who are also good football players and want to win. And when you kind of combine those things together, it's something special. So I think that's one thing I've been really thankful for. And then on top of that, you know, Tennessee's been nice. You know, people in Nashville have been great. I get that Southern hospitality to it. Something I'm more familiar with from back in Texas growing up. It's got more of that Southern feel. So, you know, that's been kind of nice to get back to. Okay. We'll get to some from hashtag OTPQs live from season ticket members in a minute. I've got another good one. This is from Nashville. And I love this question. Over the course of a season, Ryan, how much evolution is there in play calling? Is there massive change from week to week, depending on the team? Or is it pretty consistent with minor tweaks? I think it depends what system you're in. You know, I think I've been in systems where, you know, every week is a ton of new material, a ton of new calls. Then I've been in systems where it's minor tweaks and you're kind of creating plays, few plays, game plan plays or tweaks in the game plan. So it can really be on both ends of the spectrum. It depends, you know, what your system is, what your coordinator likes. But I will say that, you know, Arthur's kind of the guy who we believe in what we do and we just want to do it better and better each week. And obviously we're making changes. We still have game plan plays and things we try to take advantage of. But, you know, when you're able to really focus in on details and get better and better at the techniques you're using and kind of overlap that with similar plays throughout the year, you really see a lot more growth. And, you know, that's what we've been doing. Here's one from Alan from Jackson, Tennessee. He says, what is one area in particular that you're hoping to improve in this upcoming season? Being a competitor, you go back and you look at, you know, where can we be better? And there's so many areas, so many details that throughout the course of the season where we had opportunities that we missed, you know, little things, footwork, timing, accuracy, just being able to anticipate getting through the progression a little faster. I think, you know, as the year went on, I felt myself doing those things better and better, just being more and more familiar with the offense and just getting the reps kind of banked up. And so, you know, going back to second year in the offense, I'm really excited to kind of, you know, pick up where we left off last year and work on just getting more detailed and better and better. Here's another one from Victor in Tennessee. He says, what is it about the Titan system that led you to have the success that you've had with this organization? A couple things, right? It's the guys around me, obviously, are incredible playing, playing really good football. You know, when you're not getting sacked, you're not getting hit, it's a lot easier to play the quarterback position. You had guys on the outside getting open and making plays, and obviously, Derrick behind me who was toting the rock and leading the league and rushing. So, you kind of combine all those things and it all works together, right? We say it all the time in the meeting room that it takes all 11, whether it's in the run game or the pass game. You know, Derrick's going to get the credit in the run game, but we had guys, receivers, blocking 40 yards down the field, Corey, you know, hustling to get backside cutoffs, AJ, same thing, you know, it all works together. And the offensive line off, obviously, is where it all starts in the run game or pass game. So, when people look at it, you know, they kind of look at the numbers or the stats of the skill position players, but it really takes all 11, it all works together, and we put a lot of thought and a lot of intentionality into pointing out like little things that make the whole thing go, whether it's, you know, receivers blocking the run game or a back picking up a blitzer in the pass game. You know, it's crucial that we all do the little things that are in our job requirements because it all works together and it makes the whole team better. This is the OTP presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans. When it comes to your health care coverage, you should be the one to make the call. So, call Farm Bureau Health Plans. They've been protecting Tennessee and since 1947. Do we have any OTP queues yet? I do have an OTP queue. This one is from Carrie and she asks, what game are you most looking forward to this season? Honestly, I'm just going to say Denver because that's where we start the schedule. That's where we kick things off. It's a Monday night game. I don't even know who we play after that. So, excited for Denver. I think obviously a game that we didn't play our best last year and got to give them credit. You know, they beat us fair and square, but you know, not scoring a point really leaves a bad taste in your mouth. So, you know, looking forward to kicking the year off right first game of the year. You got another one, Amy, or you want me to jump back in? Oh, I've got one more. This is Bobby B. And he asks, what your favorite food or recipe is? He's running out of quarantine meal ideas. Oh, man. This is probably a better question for my wife who does 99.9% of the cooking in our house. You know, I'll put some food on the grill or try to help out where I can. But I'm more of like a dish cleaner or assistant to like hand me this. Okay, here you go. You know what I mean? But my favorite food, we've been eating a lot of fish tacos, honestly. I mean, I'm still in South Florida and I try to go fishing as much as I can. So, whenever we have fresh fish, I love fish tacos. And my wife does a great job. She, you know, dices up all the toppings to put on top and I usually grill the fish and have some fresh fish tacos. So, there's really not a lot better than that. I'm going to throw in this question from Matt in Rockland, California. Amy, what advice, Ryan, would you offer to someone like Andy Dalton or Cam Newton who are likely to be in the same situation that you were in last year going from starter to backup on a new team? Yeah, it's a tough position, honestly. You know, it was a lot of hard times, a lot of hard, you know, conversations and moments, you know, that happened throughout that whole process. But just stay true to yourself, stay true to what you believe in and the pillars that kind of make you who you are. You know, try to do the best you can with the situations you're in. You know, whenever, you know, I was backing up, I was trying to do the best possible job I could at prepping the defense and preparing myself to go in if called upon. As long as you do that, no matter really what position you're in in life, you know, whether you're in the position you want to be in or like you said, when I was a backup, that's not the position I wanted to be in, but as long as you do the best possible job you can of what you're given, then you have nothing to look back and regret. Good question from Matt in Rockland, California. This one's from John and Brett Wood. It seems like some of the best quarterbacks are not necessarily the fastest runners or the ones with the biggest arms, but they seem to have the skills to quickly analyze defenses which leads to great anticipation and decision-making. What do quarterbacks do during the offseason to help them develop and enhance those mental skills? Yeah, I think obviously quick decision-making is huge. You know, I think sometimes you don't even realize how many decisions you're making at the line of scrimmage with, you know, cans and checks and audibles you have at the line of scrimmage along with, you know, your post-naps enough of where the ball's going to go. But I think watching tape is where it all starts, you know, mentally going through plays. Okay, this is the play call. Turn on tape. Okay, this is the defense. This is what I anticipate happening. Whether it's plays that we had last year, or, you know, you're watching another team and, you know, it's watching a defense and what you kind of see out of defense. So the tape actually allows you to kind of mentally place yourself in the situation and go through it mentally, even if you're not, you know, with the team. Owen has a question he's asking from Knoxville. Chance, what was your favorite play last year? Oh my gosh, my favorite play. We had so many cool plays, you know. Man, probably one of my favorites was the long touchdown to AJ and Oakland. Play that we kind of talked about earlier in the week, made a slight adjustment on it and end up coming up big. You know, AJ ran a great route and made a huge play. Man, there's so many cool plays. You think back to the year and it's really hard to pick one, but I think that's probably one of the longest touchdowns I've had in my career, so I'll say that one. I think that play was so great from our standpoint as fans watching it because it was obvious to stand there and throw that ball in that situation. You were going to get it. The man's coming down the middle. You're going to get hit. You know you've got to step into that throw. And yet you did it, made a great throw to AJ and it's a 91-yard touchdown. Is that the hardest part of the job? Knowing when you're going to get it, you're going to get hit like that and still finishing the execution? You know, honestly, I don't mind that as much. What sucks is whenever you know you're going to get hit and you've got nowhere to throw it. That's the hardest part. If you've got a guy open, then yeah, I'll stand there all day and let it rip. It's kind of the price to do in business, but yeah, the harder part is when you've got nowhere to throw it and you've got to take it to the chat. All right, we have any live ones from Titan Season Ticket members should hashtag OTPQ via Twitter? No, Mike Keith, everyone is carefully crafting their tweets. All right, so I'm going to do one from Josh in Brooklyn then. Where did that slick finger roll come from when you run it in for a touchdown? We love it. I don't know, it just kind of came to be as I was running the end zone. Hadn't thought about it beforehand, hadn't talked about it or anything, just kind of ran in the end zone and wanted to put a little flair on it. And I liked it, got a lot of good feedback, so kept it rolling. Look forward again this year. I'll keep it going. Yeah, the finger roll is always in style, always. Sure, it's a classic move. I've got a question from John in Tom's River, New Jersey. He said, did starting last year as the backup quarterback help you build a rapport with receivers like AJ Brown, who was also kind of running with the two throughout the season? You know, I got to work with some of those guys that ended up playing big for us. Khalif Rehm would be another guy who spent a lot of time with in the off season and in training camp. Darius Jennings, another guy that, you know, wasn't with the first people a whole lot, but ended up playing and making some big plays for us throughout the year. So our receiver group was so deep last year and that was really a blessing for us. And I think that time playing with those guys and getting a lot of reps with them, banked up throughout the off season, throughout training camp was huge for me. This is the OTP presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans. My next question comes from Troy in Livingston. He says, after you took over last year, the whole team seemed to come together as a fan. The biggest difference we noticed is that you were all having fun. Do you think that was as big a factor in the team's success last season as anything else? Yeah, I know when you're playing as a team and you're enjoying what you're doing that there's that synergistic compounding that happens. You start to play better than any one guy's playing and when you're playing together as a team. You know, I think that winning is fun and when you're having fun, that means you're usually winning games. So, you know, the more you can do that, obviously the better situation you're going to be in. All right, I've got one here from hashtag OTPQ and this is Rob. He asks, how does getting Adam Humphrey's back healthy next year impact the potential of the passing offense? Adam's so good. You know, he obviously does a great job for us, primarily in the slot. He's been doing it several years now. So, he has a great feel for, you know, working the inside, working between the numbers, just going back and watching tape that we've been watching, you know, through training camp and even throughout the season last year. So many big plays where his savviness really helped him get open and helped him make the play. So, yeah, having a veteran guy like Adam, who has a great feel for working between the numbers, really opens up, you know, a lot of things for us. And obviously, huge on third down, he made a couple, even in Kansas City, he's working on a bummed up ankle, but still was able to, you know, make a couple big third down plays for us. So, you know, getting him back healthy is going to be huge. Here's a question from Matt in Atoka, Tennessee. Where do you believe the Titans offense can improve the most in 2020? You know, one of our keys this year is just being more efficient, you know, in everything we do, whether it's a single route or, you know, where the ball goes in a concept. You know, being more efficient, getting the most we can out of each and every play. And with that comes consistency. You know, the more you can be consistent with every position that's on the field, you know, the better you're going to be. Caleb from Florence, Alabama. What's the biggest difference between playing in Nashville and playing in Miami? Practice is a little colder in Nashville. I'll say that, which I kind of like. I really enjoyed, you know, getting some seasons, right? And in Miami, it's beautiful. And obviously, it's awesome, but it's hot pretty much year-round. You know, you don't get any seasonal changes, you know, Christmas is 85 degrees, which is kind of cool. But then after a couple of years, you're like, man, I wish I, you know, had a cold Christmas. So, yeah, that's one thing, just cold practices is a little different as far as being in Miami. And just totally different cities, different vibes. And I think both cities are great, but, you know, I've enjoyed being in Tennessee. Here's a question from hashtag OTPQ. Alan would like to know, what was going through your mind when you were midair during your rushing touchdown into Jacksonville? From thinking of the right play is when I kind of ran and got hit in the back, jumped over a guy and scored. Yeah. Yeah, as I was in the air, I knew I was scoring, but I was probably thinking this is about to hurt as I hit the ground. You know, it's like, you're all in, you're all in, and then you're up in the air, you reach that moment where, all right, I'm scoring, and you look down and you're like, yeah, this is gonna hurt. And it did, yeah, knock the wind out of me and it hurt pretty bad, but you know, you got to get up and act like it doesn't hurt in that situation. It's pretty impressive. Kaden and Lebanon wants to know, what is the best way for me as a fan to learn what defense the other team is playing? Oh, great question. I don't even know where to tell you to start there. I don't know if there's like outside resources or like a football one-on-one. Generally, if you look at the safeties, that'll give you a starting point. You know, if it's a one-high or two-high defense, that's always a good starting point. But yeah, maybe you guys can, if you have any materials, you can pitch in on that question. I'm not quite sure. We have somebody, Dave McGinnis, on Titans Radio, the former Cardinals head coach who was a coach in the league for 30 years. He will be able to help us. All right, just a couple more before Ryan has to leave us. Alex from Nolansville and having a youngster, I think he'll appreciate this. My three-year-old daughter Charlotte would like to know who your favorite superhero is. She is a big fan, so help Charlotte out here. All right, Charlotte, great question. Favorite superhero? Honestly, I love the Avengers movies, so probably somebody from the Avengers movies. Captain America is always a good one. I mean, how can you go wrong? That's my favorite. How can you go wrong? Stand up guy, always fighting crime. Got a little mean streak in him, but it's always for the right reasons. Seems like it fits. Good outfit, too. All right, so do you have any more, Amy, or do you want me to finish? No, I think you should wrap it up, Mike. All right, so this one comes from Kingsville, Texas. You know Kingsville? Way down south. I mean, that's, if I'm thinking of the right spot, that's basically on the border between Texas and Mexico. Way down south. My son and our big-time Titans fans, and we love that you're back on the team. We are upset that analysts think the team will regress this year. What workouts have you been doing to prove these people wrong? I mean, I'm grinding every day. You know, it's a different situation because we're not together, but you know, we're all grinding and working separately physically, right? So we're all working out, running, conditioning, you know, getting together. I think Logan is up in Nashville, throwing with some of the guys. I'm down here, throwing with John New. It's a different situation, but you know, the grind hasn't stopped. The work hasn't stopped. We have to be a little bit more intentional with how we do it, but we're still getting ourselves ready, excited about the opportunity that's in front of us. The fact that you're on the official Titans podcast means that you are literally talking to Titans fans around the world, and season ticket members were able to join us for this program live. When you re-signed with the team, the response was so overwhelmingly positive. People were so excited. I would think that just probably fed into, you know, 10 months of really good things that had happened for you and your family, both personally and professionally, with the way you've been received and the fit that this seems to be all the way around. Yeah, we were really excited to come back. You know, I think I mentioned several times that you're kind of wrapped up where, you know, I really liked the organization. I loved the guys on the team and really wanted to be back if we could work it out. And I'm so thankful that things worked out and I'm able to come back. I'm excited about the opportunity that's in front of us and being able to go, you know, take another crack at this thing. Obviously got really close to our end goal last year, but I feel like we left a lot on the table and really excited to go, you know, find two things even more and, you know, come back, swing in again this year. Thank you so much for taking time with us and for the Titans fans via the official Titans podcast. Very kind of you, Ryan Tannehill. Yeah, thanks for having me, man. This was fun. Good job, Amy Wells. Good job, Mikey. The official Titans podcast presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans for Ryan Tannehill and Amy Wells. Mikey, thanks you for being with us for the OTP.