 We welcome you to another edition of the official Titans podcast. This indeed is the OTP. My name is Mike Keith and Amy Wells is alongside virtually. Hello Mike. Hi Mike, how are you? I'm doing well thank you and we are thrilled to be joined by the head football coach of your Tennessee Titans, Mike Vrable. Coach, it is so good to see you after several weeks. I miss you Mike, I miss you Amy. Good to see you coach. Now where are you coach? Is that your office? This is the basement. So we have areas that we have to go to that we're forced to be in and I was tearing Jen's office apart so she sent me down here and Carter and Tyler and Jackson and Jen all had their own areas. Is this where you plan to be during the draft? This is, yep. This is where they're going to set it up and you know Ross and everybody in IT is going to get that going here after they finish up at Johns and kind of use his as a trial run to see what we'll need and this is what we'll have, got some TVs and have some computers and some surfaces and we'll do it that way. Now coach with so many people in the house, how in the world are you getting anything done right now? It's been good. Tyler's got a routine and he's meeting with his offensive line group at eight o'clock in the morning and then they work out and Carter's graduating and Father Ryan and just has to log on at eight and have his stuff turned into 11.59 so I think he's getting ready for college and we trust him to do it and he's been doing a pretty good job of it so you know I'm proud of everybody that we've done a good job and and really remain respectful to everybody and what they're trying to do. So you've developed a routine? Yeah and that's the thing we found that John and I have found talking to these draft guys on FaceTime or Zoom is that you know the same routine that we would have been getting up and turn the garage into a workout room and so we got stuff out there and trying to get up and work out and get our day started just like we would at the facility, check in with the defensive staff, check in with with Arthur and the offensive staff and to make sure that that stretch and awk and crow and everybody are doing well. This is the first time that the official Titans podcast has ever had an audience. We say welcome to Titans season ticket members who are joining us for this edition of the OTP with Coach Vrabel. Amy this is pretty exciting. It's so fun and Mike I think that what we could do is we could ramp up the level of excitement that's happening right now. Why don't we have the people who are watching sending questions while we're doing this? Oh great. We have that technology here in 2020. So why doesn't everybody use hashtag OTPQ and tweet us your questions live and we will ask them of Mike Vrabel utilizing technology. Repeat that one more time. Hashtag OTPQ. All of the questions on this edition of the OTP for the head coach have been sent in prior via TennesseeTitans.com slash OTPQs. These are all fan questions and so we're going to get, there it is, hashtag OTPQ. So if you want to add to our list of questions you can do it right now as we're doing this edition of the official Titans podcast. How do you think the lack of face to face contact? How will it affect the draft night process for you, John, and Ryan Cowden, your coaches, everybody associated? I don't think it will affect us in one way to find the best players for our football team and for this city. I think it will be unique but I don't think it will affect the players that we bring in. We sit there and, you know, I could get John on my laptop and I could talk to him about face time. I'm right now while we're talking. We just got done talking to players through face time. So we'll do the same thing on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Tyler from Hawaii asks, when you're evaluating a draft prospect, how significant is the level of competition and considering how draftable a player is? Which holds more weight, traits or production? I think that, you know, you always want to watch the tape You know, it's very critical to me to watch them against good competition. But then into the end of the day, you understand that there are a ton of players that come from smaller schools that weren't in a Power Five conference, let's say. And so then you have to go and do a little bit more digging, potentially work them out, potentially see them move around and then try to have a vision for what that player may be on your football team. Gary in Clarksville would like to know in a perfect world, how many touches would Derek Henry get in a game? As many as we need to win. That's really, that's the, that's the whole objective. And, you know, we believe that you have to be able to run a football. You have to be able to play great defense, you know, but we're continuing to improve and we're throwing the ball effectively, you know, and protect a quarterback. But, you know, Derek is such a large part of what we do and in our style and then which we play with. So it's important that he continues to do that not only early in the season, but late in the season when you've seen him have a lot of personal success and also a lot of success for our team. Larry from Nashville says going into the first night of the draft, how set is your complete draft board ranking? Is there a lot of fluctuation after that first night based on who or which positions you took? Well, I mean, I don't want to speak for John because him and I communicate about the draft and about players, but, but ultimately, um, I would just say that the board's not going to change based on who got picked. I mean, you're always going to have dilemmas and discussions about players that are rated at the same level, but different positions and so which position wins out. There may be another position may win out based on need or based on, um, what's what we value more, but, but that's not going to change and move guys around. Allen from Clarkville asks, are there any plans to change the defensive scheme or will the defensive scheme mainly stay the same this season? Well, I think every year, offensively in all three phases, defensively and special teams, you know, we're always trying to to enhance the things that we did well and improve and fix the things that we didn't do very well. And so there'll be a lot of carryover. There'll be, there'll be things that we change and there'll be things that, you know, we, we continue to try to implement to help our players. I think, um, going into our third year, I think it's going to be important that we still are trying to do things, um, creatively, that some of these players that have been with us for two years. And when I was thinking in the off season about the message, I didn't know what it was going to be, but I knew that we needed to do things a little bit differently or a little bit more creatively to keep the guys, Kevin Byard, Kenny Baccaro, um, guys that have been with us, uh, Ben Jones, Taylor, all these guys that have been with us for a couple of years, keep them stimulated. Well, little did I know that it could potentially involve a virtual off season program. I don't know if I, I thought that one up. This is a good one, coach. This is from Thane. He's 11 years old and he's in Flora, Illinois. And he says, coach, with the draft, do you draft by position need or best play? You always have to find, um, you know, I think for the head coach, I try to look at what pieces we filled in the off season through free agency. And you're certainly going to have to take care of some needs throughout the draft. And then there's also times where you look up and you say, well, you just can't pass on this guy. He's the best player. So there's a combination of both. Um, because you have to fill out a roster. You know, I mean, you have to make sure that, that you have, you know, positions taken care of or, or backups or special teams, players or rotational players. Coach, here's a question from hashtag OTP Q. It says, my son wants to know if coach brable wrote the hog Molly's books. He absolutely loves them. Of course I wrote them. I, um, I wrote and I did the, the illustration, um, for the book. No, we have a great staff. Um, and it's a collaborative effort. Um, we do have one illustrator who I think got this thing going because he's amazing, uh, with, with the color, uh, the characters. And I think that that's really what, what got this thing going and really grabbed the, the kid's attention was, was just the illustration. And then, you know, the story lines continue to evolve. Tell everybody what the hog Molly's book is, is all about and what it relates to with your foundation. So the second and seven foundation just celebrated 20 years. Wow. It's a literacy foundation. Uh, we promote literacy, uh, not only in and around central Ohio, but, but throughout the state of Ohio. And then it's begin to branch out to different areas when, when players or coaches leave and move on, we'll send them books and they can go and, and read the second graders and pass out books. Uh, and try to just explain the importance of, of not only reading, but being able to comprehend, uh, what you read to be able to, to do your job, whether that's to, to play a sport, um, or anything that you would choose to do. Now here's a question from Brandon and Collier bill. He says the Titans roster is clearly going to be a younger team, mirror mirroring, excuse me, a trend scene in all major sports. What are your thoughts about this developing trend of teams being younger? It's, it's not, I always try to explain to the players and, and I learned this as a player that the business of football is not about necessarily the paycheck that you, that you pay somebody. It's about the organization trying to get younger, better, cheaper players. And it's the veterans players job to not let that happen. And it's a great dynamic and it was basically what I lived as a player. You know, I would watch every draft and watched every single draft. So it was back when it was on two days. It was Saturday and Sunday. And I would sit down there and I would watch the draft in the off season because I wanted to know who, you know, Bill Belichick was going to draft to try to take my spot. And I held them off for as long as I could. And then eventually, um, you know, they moved on and they made a decision. So it's about, you know, guys being able to do their job effectively, you know, continuing to do that at a high level, regardless of age. That's, that's all we're looking for is guys that care about the team. Whether that be a 20 year old player coming out of the draft or, you know, a 34 year old player, we just want everybody to do their job effectively. Cohen is sending us this question from Lawrence Berg. Who do you think can step up and be big leaders in the locker room in 2020? Well, it's not who I think it's, it's who develops into those roles. I mean, I think that we have, you know, really some, some, some great leaders. I'm excited to see Ryan continue to lead our football team. I'm excited to see Derek continue. What I thought was his biggest improvement was in leadership. I'm excited to see that continue whenever we can get back. And I know that these guys are staying in contact with each other. That's what teammates do. Ben Jones is always a great leader. You know, defensively, Kevin Byrd and Kenny, you know, where Sean is going to continue, you know, Dayquan, these guys and it's going to, you know, leadership evolves as players come back and they see guys that are willing to put the team in front of their own personal needs. And hopefully in some sort of way, everybody can lead. Want to do a hashtag OTP Q, Amy, you got one you like, or you want me to do another one? No, I'll tell you what, these are flooding in coach. The people want to talk to you. They're bored, Amy. Quarantine 2020. The board. Well, here's Dylan from hashtag OTP Q. He says it hasn't felt like this to be a Titans fan in years. You came into a team that has been through some things. How have you been able to come into this program and make such a dramatic turnaround? Well, I don't look at it like that. I look at my job is to try to lead a championship organization on the field. In unity with, with John and the personnel staff. My first job is to hire great coaches who. Teach develop and inspire the players at their position. To do their job and to do it better than what they did before and try to. To lead lead a coaching staff and lead the players and help John evaluate players that are going to come on to our team. So I enjoy every day. I miss the interaction with the coaches and getting into different meetings. And then I'll certainly miss. If we would start virtually. The seeing the players when the off season program would start. That that's what I enjoyed the most. You mentioned those relationships and here's another question from hashtag OTP Q. Eric asks how much of an advantage is the great relationship that you have with John Robinson? How much of an advantage is that going to give the team given that this year's draft is so unique? And I think we're very conscious of the types of people and players that we bring onto the team. I understand that we I have a great responsibility to bring guys in that. Either exhibit the qualities that we want in our culture or ones that we feel like can quickly adapt to those qualities. I don't want veteran players. I don't want guys on our team to look at me and say, you know, why the heck is this guy here coach? Like this guy isn't one of us. I think about that a lot. You know, my parents from Houston has this question. I understand football is a business, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around the Jarell Casey trade. Can you give us fans a little more perspective on the trade? You know, we're just trying to do what's best for the football team and. You know, Jarell was an amazing player. The two years that I was here, he was, he was great for our football team. And there's tough decisions that you have to make every year and. You know, we've talked about with all decisions, whether it's on field decisions or decisions about practice or personnel, you know, we're trying to make them with the best interest to the football team in mind. And that that's really what it came down to. Matt from Wadsworth, Ohio. Back home. Yeah, he's from back home. What have you been binge watching during quarantine? Tape, you know, tape. You know what I mean? I will get Ozark. I finished Ozark fell into the trap of the Tiger King. Unfortunately, they'll ever, you know, the kids were watching it, Jen was watching it. And it almost got it was like back when I used to watch Jerry Springer when you thought that the next episode couldn't be any more ridiculous than the one before. That's what I felt like I was watching. I've got one from Cason, who's 11 years old and he's in Thompson Station. He's very knowledgeable. I know him says my favorite player is Ryan Tannehill and I'm super happy. He'll be our quarterback for a long time. I was wondering who your favorite player was when you were a kid? Great question. I was a Cleveland Browns fan because we live near Cleveland. So I loved Bernie Kosar. And I learned to throw sidearm because of Bernie, but I was also a Dallas Cowboy fan. And so I love Tony Dorsett could remember that 99 yard touchdown run and watching him play for the Dallas Cowboys. This one is from Taylor. And he says, do you believe that you have an advantage over other teams offenses because we have brought back so many people on the offensive side of the ball? I don't think that gives us an advantage, but I think that, you know, the familiarity is going to be critical this year. You know, having the unknown of when we could be back in the building or when we could have our players, you know, we're still going to be able to do a lot of work remotely and through, you know, video conferencing, whenever that may happen. But we're going to do things differently. And I know that we've talked to Arthur and I've talked to him and the staff and, you know, we're planning on fixing some things that we need to, you know, be better at and trying to add some things where our players can probably, that could probably help some of our players. But, you know, everybody's going to be ready. There's going to be a training camp. So I don't look at anybody having an advantage. You know, other than just familiarity with each other. You want to go to Rockland, California. And this is from Matt. He says, you always mentioned that you want a roster filled with players who love football. But what if there's a football player who is incredibly talented, but he doesn't love the game. Would you add a player to your football team who sees football as just his job, not something that he loves? To be able to play this sport professionally, you have to love it because it hurts. It's painful. The time demands dealing with injuries and just the sacrifices that you have to make. It would be hard just to say, man, I'm just doing this just to pick up a paycheck. It would eventually show and other players who love it more would probably pass you up. Carlos in Jackson, Mississippi. Mike, is there a noticeable difference in wearing white jerseys versus dark jerseys in the summer months? You know me, Mike. You always talk about jerseys. And I don't know what we're wearing. I don't know what we're wearing. So I get to the locker room. But did you buy that when you were a player? You wanted to wear the white jerseys in September and October when it was hot? I don't think so. It kind of makes a little bit of a difference just from a temperature standpoint. But I don't think that it, you know, psychologically maybe it does. I do know that I love our white uniforms. You know, those are, those are, you know, I talk about that all the time. They're sweet. All right, Amy, hit us. Here's one from hashtag OTPQ sending your questions. Guys, we are really getting them answered right here on the OTP coach on a particularly egregious call by the refs. How hard is it to keep your cool on the sidelines? It's difficult, but I've tried to, you know, do a good job of vomiting in my mouth without anybody seeing it. It's, you know, we fumble or there's a bad call. They all make mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes. And officiating our game is difficult. And I understand that I want to try to teach our players the rules so they understand what the rules are and how they can use them to their advantage. And so I have to keep my composure so that our players see, you know, this is the guy that's leading our team. And, you know, he's going to go on to the next play and we're going to, we're going to deal with whatever happens. And we're going to try to find a way to win. Another one from hashtag OTPQ coach. What's the main thing that you're doing differently to prepare for this year's virtual draft? We're making sure that we're getting as much personal interaction with the players as we possibly can. And the skill set Amy is so similar between players at this level when you get to this point, when you get to the top, that it's about the fit. It's about us really liking the guy's fit for our football team and not necessarily a skill set. The skill sets are going to be similar. The guys that need to be long are going to be long and athletic and the ones that need to be fast are fast and the ones that need to be strong are strong. And it's about what's this guy going to look like? Do we want to coach this guy and we want to bring him on to our football team? I got one, Amy, that I like. Kyle from Wichita, Kansas. If you had to pick one player on this year's roster to quarantine with, who would it be and why? Who would it be and why? Probably somebody who would be the quietest. Though not Taylor. So he's out. Taylor's out. Probably somebody that doesn't use a whole lot of toilet paper. That would be Ben Jones would probably be out. Just a hunt. No. I love our team, Mike. You know, I do. I'm going to be sad because I know it's probably going to happen. We're not going to start this thing on time and I'm going to have to be able to find ways to visit with these guys through the video conferencing and also with their coaches. And that's going to be important. Because that's why you coach. You coach to help players and to make them better. You have to be around them and you enjoy the bond of this game, whether you're playing it or coaching it. Speaking of players, here's another question from hashtag OTPQ. What is it about AJ Brown that made him such a threat in the past game? Well, I think he's got a really good play strength. I think his play speed is very good. It's excellent. I think he's got strong hands. I think he's an instinctive player. I think he acts like a professional. I think that he is a serious person by nature, but the more comfortable that he got around us and his teammates, the more that that personality came out and allowed him to flourish. Matt from Bluefield, West Virginia. Just wanted to ask about Jeffrey Simmons and what you're looking to see from him in his second year. Do you expect him to take a massive leap forward this season? Well, what I expect is that Jeff continues to improve, to continue to be coachable, to work on the techniques and the fundamentals that it's going to allow him to see that improvement. Just be coachable just like he is, continue to work hard. He's another young player that is fun to coach because he can only get better. And there's a lot of things that he can improve on and he understands that. So he's got a great skill set. He's got a great demeanor. He's got a great heart and he loves his teammates. Coach Jaron from Dallas, Texas asks, do you think the Titans will ever do hard knocks? That's something that the league approaches certain teams with every year. I'm not in a position to answer that question because I don't think that we've been approached, at least not to my knowledge. After the first day of doing it in Houston, I don't think that it was a distraction one bit. I don't think it was. You didn't even notice that you had a microphone on, the cameras, and everybody involved with the NFL films was unbelievably professional. It was well produced. I think that there was more hype to it about anything than what actually transpired on the field or in meetings. All right, so here's one from Donovan in Los Angeles. What facial hairstyle will Coach Vrable be going with this year? I don't think we've made a decision on that. We're trying to keep the gray out right now is what we're trying to do. I got bad news on that, Coach. We found that shorter is better. I will say we did quarantine haircuts into how Jen cut everybody's hair. So if there's any nicks in there, we can blame her, but we did quarantine haircuts in the tub the other day. Coach, is there an advisory board on this? Do you have multiple opinions on the facial hair decision? No, just one, just me. All right, I have one more question from hashtag OTPQ. Coach, how often do you reach out to a college coach, you know, in order to get further details about a player you might have on your draft board? Yeah, all the time. You know, all the time those are great relationships and those are the teams and the coaching staffs that are preparing our players. That's our farm system. And those are great coaches. They're unbelievable coaches. They're great mentors for these players that are coming out of high school. So that's a great resource for us. And those guys are always willing to share opinions and thoughts and to be honest about a player's strength and weakness. And so, you know, those are coaches that have been with some guys for three or four years. And it's important that you try to reach out to get their opinion on certain players. Have you already figured out with your coaching staff and with Frank Perino and with everybody with whom you work? Of course, your strength and conditioning coach. Have you already figured out how the virtual offseason is going to work? Have you already made a plan for that as it was scheduled originally to start April 20th? Yeah, I mean, there's been, I mean, there's obviously planning, Mike, and there's things that have been, you know, talked about. You know, we're in the process now of getting those iPads out to those players and, you know, waiting on some more information from the league on when that may start and should start and what that's going to look like. There's some negotiations, I think, that are happening now with the league and the players association. So really, you know, we're waiting to see and get some direction from the league as to what that may look like. There's certainly things we're working through internally that we've discussed, that we've done, we've practiced runs, talking about security and things that are critical, you know, to our players and to our team. You're good, Amy? I'm good. That was fun. It was fun. Coach, you want to say something to the season ticket members who are with us for this edition of the OTP? I hope that everybody is staying safe and healthy and those of you that are in, you know, the medical field want to thank you for your service. I want to thank you for your commitment to the Titans, to our organization. I would ask that you try to recruit some friends to bring them down to join us at the stadium to watch our team, to support our team. And again, we're going to try to do more of these. We're going to try to make you guys as involved as we possibly can in our team and in our organization. Now, you think about, for example, our partner for over 20 years, St. Thomas and what the folks there are doing. I know they mean a lot to us as a partner. And certainly we know what they and other healthcare workers are doing at this time. I mean, unbelievable work and they deserve our thanks and applause at every turn. It's gutsy and it's very special and clearly, Coach, it's making a difference. I think it is. And hopefully that we can, we can continue to try to exhibit those same qualities that they have here in the last month, the resiliency and the determination to do their job. Coach, we appreciate the time. I know you've got to get to another interview as you're talking to guys and working throughout the day. You're scheduled tightly. So I know for the season ticket members and for everybody who enjoys the official Titans podcast, we appreciate you making time for us. Absolutely. Give a shout out here to Brian and Ashley for working behind the scenes. They are great. And we wouldn't be able to do what we do without them back there. He's talking about Brian Myers and Ashley Farrell and you're absolutely right. Thanks for making this happen. And thanks to all of you on behalf of the head coach of the Tennessee Titans, Mike Vrable and Amy Wells. Mike Keith reminds you this has been the OTP.