 It's been grueling. It's been tough. The grind has been real. It's been 12 weeks of facing some of the NFL's best teams. And now, the Titans finally have a chance to reset and prepare to finish strong. Dave McGinnis and Jim Wyatt are here to talk about everything. You don't want to miss this round table edition of Titans All Access as it starts now. We welcome you to Titans All Access. I'm Mike Keith joined by not just Amy Wells, but Titans Radio's Dave McGinnis and TennesseeTitans.com Senior writer, editor Jim Wyatt. Welcome to everyone. We're so glad to have you during the bye week for a special round table. Are you ready to kind of get this thing going, Amy? Oh, yeah. There's so much to talk about with the Tennessee Titans. And I think we have the best people in the business to really break it all down. All right. This segment of the program is sponsored by our friends at Duncan as we talk ball with our group. First question, Amy, you get the first crack. Most impressive part of the Titans offense through 12 games. I think it's what they've been able to do and how much they've been able to do with so many changes. The Tennessee Titans offense lost most of their starters. The big name people that we were talking about in training camp and in the off season. Julio Jones, AJ Brown, Derek Henry, just to name a few in this Titans offense has continued to rise. Continue to see performances by players that we never thought would be main stars on this Titans team. People that we thought would be supporting cast. And they've stepped into these roles in a big way. We've seen so many different starters on the football field. And I think that's been very impressive the way that they've been able to rise and overcome the adversity. Jim White, did she take yours? No, but I'm going to piggyback off of hers. And I think it's the ability to run the football no matter who's running back. And we all saw what Derek Henry did at the start of the season. 937 yards through late game. But just this past week, you see Dantro Hilliard, Dante Foreman both go for over 100 yards. We've seen some different pieces as Amy said in the offensive line. And then the other guys step out with other guys going down with the injuries. And they've continued to be around the ball number five in the league in rushing offense. So I'm impressed by that. All right. Most impressive part of the defense through 12 games. Coach Mack, you lead off this segment. I think it's been the ability to get a Foreman rush when we have all our guys. That changed this defense from a defense that was really scrambling to try to figure out how to get off of the field to a defense that was really getting people on the ground. And that's extremely important. The ability to rush with four people when we had our good people healthy and then the people that added in. Now, once you start losing some of that and we saw it again this last week, it's hard when you only have a limited number of those people across the front. But when we can get those people back, that ability to rush with four and cover with seven, that's what's impressed me. I think it's that they already have 29 sacks to this point in the season for reference. They only had 19 in 2020. So the amount of pressure they're able to get, guys like Harold Landry with 10 sacks already this year, Jeffrey Simmons with seven and a half already this year. There are guys who are consistently getting to opposing teams quarterbacks. And I think that's a huge improvement and a very welcome surprise. Most impressive part of the defense to me is the reemergence of Kevin Byrd. What a year this guy's had so far. 64 tackles, five interceptions. He's caused a fumble. He's got a quarterback sack. He scored the first two touchdowns of his career. Jim, the Titans needed him to be a big play guy again in this defense. And the mayor of Murphysburg is doing it. Yeah, and he vowed to do it. I mean, that's one thing I remember about the end of last season. He took it so hard on himself when like kind of a season in the Zoom call, vowed to be better, vowed to work more, vowed to be a better player. He's done exactly that. I mean, he has been a consistent performer for this team. His leadership has been great. Okay, so those have been the most impressive parts of the offense and defense through 12 games. When we return, the biggest surprises so far as our roundtable discussion during the buy continues on Titans All Access. We welcome you back to the Bet MGM Studio, our roundtable discussion during the Titans buy. Jim Wyatt, Dave McGinnis, Amy Wells, and me, Mike Keith. And Jim Wyatt is the leadoff here as we talk about the biggest surprise for the Titans offense through 12 games. Well, I have to say it. I don't mean to go negative here. I guess the turnovers by Ryan Tannehill. And this is the only time I'll go negative here. Seven interceptions in 16 games last year. Only six and 10 stars the previous year. This is not all on Ryan Tannehill. Obviously, we know the injury situations with this team. AJ Brown being out, who little Jones being out, Mark Johnson being out, young guys stepping in. But it's been uncharacteristic some of the mistakes that he has made. And obviously, if his team is going to get its footing back in the second half of season, that's going to have to be better. Coach Mack? It's being able to switch from a singular running back to a running back by committee. That's not as easy as it sounds. And it's not as easy as it sounds for this reason. When you're game planning and you understand your singular back and what it can do, and you've got two and a half years of knowing what this guy likes and what he does best and how to formulate a game plan individually against the opponents with what he likes to do. Now, with him gone, you're trying to find out not only what you can do structurally, but you need to find out what the strengths are of the core of running backs now that you're trying to run the ball with. Being able to make that switch, that's hard to do in the middle of the season and especially when you're in a playoff push. That's impressed me. My biggest surprise about the offense is David Quessenberry. Starting 12 games at right tackle playing. Well, we know he's a great story. We know he had a four-year battle with cancer. We know he battled his way off the practice squad. We know he started the end of last year at left tackle, which was certainly not his natural position. But at the age of 31, he is the titan. Starting right tackle has played all 12 games and has done a fantastic job overall. For me, David Quessenberry, I think he'd be the starter in the offseason. He has emerged as the most solid, consistent piece at least to this point for the titans. All right. Biggest surprise about the titans defense through 12 games? Coach Dave McGinnis. The biggest surprise to me was that improvement in third down defense. And that goes with the last segment of what I said about a four man rush. Anytime you can win first and second down and you can take all of the angst of your defense on third down, it's a huge plus. But to do that, you have to be able to win first and second down. And to win first and second down, you have to be able to deploy yourselves to put the offense in conflict first and second down. We've done that. And then our third down defense has gotten markedly better. Now, it goes off of what I said in the first segment about being able to rush with four. We need to be able to get back to that because all three of those elements cascade off of that. For me, it's that the titans defense has become one of the strengths of this titans team. In 2020, that was not the case. And you could tell it really bugged not only the guys on defense, but Mike Vrable. And he really put a concerted effort into changing this defense and really getting them back on track. And they've become a powerhouse. They are the game records for this titans team. They're making plays. They're generating points. They're doing all the things that you need a defense to do to play complementary football and win football games. So I think that that has been surprising not only that they're better and they have improved but that they make such an impact every single Sunday. When we come back, the player on offense or defense who has impressed you most through the first 12 games, this will be interesting. Stay with us for more Titans All Access. This segment of the Titans Roundtable on Titans All Access is presented by Nissan, the official auto partner of the Tennessee Titans. Amy Wells is going to lead it off here as we talk about the player on offense who has impressed you the most through the first 12 games. It's Nick Westbrook Akina. He is someone who, even throughout training camp, we thought would be a solid supporting cast player. That's kind of what I expected out of him anyway. To see the way that he has stepped up when his number is called, he's got 25 catches for 297 yards and three touchdowns so far this season. He showed up in a big way and at times when the team really needs someone to make a play. So for him to step beyond being a supporting cast member and to be a star player on this offense, very impressive by him. I'm going to Derek Henry just because he's still on this football team even though he's on injured reserve. The start he got off to, he was at an MVP pace. He was going to lead this league in rushing again. Hopefully we get him back in a Titans uniform again this season, but I just think the start that he got this team off to is really going to put this team in a position to win the AFC South. Ben Jones. Ben Jones has been a solidifying factor in the middle of that offensive line. In previous segments, we've talked about the offensive line juggling people. Cuisinbury is another nice story, but Ben Jones is the rock of that offensive line. He has had different people on the left and the right side of him and also on the edges. The center in the National Football League is so important, especially if you're running check with me if you're identifying fronts, all of those things. The other thing is, is he's been available and availability on this football team has been at a premium this year. That's been extremely important. My vote goes for Ben Jones because I can say this and I think Ben Jones won't mind that I say this. He's not completely healthy. He has been playing through some things and has been playing very well. Ben Jones is my guy. Dave McGinnis, the defensive player who has impressed you the most during the first 12. Jeffrey Simmons. Jeffrey Simmons has been everything that we thought and more. And he said, you know, he talked about, you know, Kevin Byrd declaring coming into a season that he was going to make a difference. Well, Jeffrey Simmons did the same thing. I mean, this guy has done it all and more and plus he's been available too. Jeffrey Simmons to me by far is the dude I'm looking at and we need him to continue that for the rest of the season. I'm actually looking at the defense and obviously Kevin Byrd is a player that would be easy to mention in this. I'm going to go Christian Fulton and here's why. Vastly improved corner. And I know he's missed some time with injury, but I think he's a key player down the stretch because in the early part of the year, he looked like a shut down corner. His improvement from year one to year two, vast, excited to see more of him coming up during the rest of the year. I think he could be a centerpiece for this defense going forward. Coach, it's hard to find shut down corners. Well, a shut down corner, I mean, it's easy to say it's extremely difficult to do. I coached for 31 years in this league. I had one, Anis Williams, and he's a Hall of Famer. And so that's usually what those guys are. And Christian Fulton, I agree with you a lot on this, Mike. You can tell the difference when we first got to training camp and just watched him come out on the field. He looked different physically. So he put in that type of work and then he was really having a nice, nice year. And like a lot of our other good players, unfortunately they've been missed some time, but I agree with you 100% on that. Good to have him back. Great to have him back. Players to watch offensively and defensively over the final five weeks of the regular season and hopefully into the post-season, that's what we'll talk about next on this Roundtable edition of Titans All Access. Welcome back to the Bet MGM Studio, Titans All Access Roundtable Edition during the buy. Jim Wyatt, Dave McGinnis, Amy Wells, and me, Mike Keith. Player to watch on offense during the final five weeks of the regular season and hopefully into the post-season. Jim Wyatt, you take the lead here. I'm going back to Ryan Tannehill. You know, I talked earlier about some of his turnovers, uncharacteristic turnovers, have been a little bit surprising. He's a good quarterback. I think we all know that. He's proven that during the course of his career. I think once he starts getting some of his pieces back, A.J. Brown, Julio Jones, some guys start to get healthy. I think Ryan Tannehill is going to take off. He's going to play like a Ryan Tannehill that we've come to know here over the last couple of years. So I'm looking for a strong finish from Ryan Tannehill. He's a guy that we're obviously all going to be watching. I have Ryan Tannehill as well because of his mindset and his mentality going into these last five games. But because Jim Wyatt took mine, I'm also going to say Dante Forman. Because I think that as he continues to get comfortable in this system, we've seen him already have a 100-yard-plus rushing game. I think that as he continues to get comfortable, learn more about this offensive line, get more in sync with Ryan Tannehill, all those things that happen in training camp and OTAs and those times that he just didn't have with this Titans team. As he gets in the groove a little bit more, I think we're going to see more and more of those big plays and hopefully we're going to see him break away for even more of those big yardage moments that we all love so much. Talking about big yardage, I'm going to give you a two-headed monster. We need A.J. Brown, Julio Jones, to show up the last part of this season. That's going to be a major, major for this football team because what we're lacking right now offensively and it's through nobody's fault is the explosive plays. You start talking about Forman in the run game. We talked about the run game starting to coalesce a little bit and come together. Ryan Tannehill is going to be on track. To be on track though, we need more explosive plays down the field. Those two guys can provide it for us. That's who I'm looking for. All right. Player on defense to watch in the final five games. Dave McGinnis, you go first. I'm going to go with Denico Autry and Denico Autry for this reason. People have a lot of film on us right now and they're going to zero in on Jeffrey Simmons and they're going to find ways to get hats on whoever's playing at the second level. Denico Autry is a major disruptor and major disruptors are usually what you can count on towards the end of the season and he has been very, very consistent. Jim said it. He doesn't have the numbers but Denico Autry to me, he's a linchpin for this going forward. I say Jeffrey Simmons because I don't think all that tape that's floating around on Jeffrey Simmons matters all that much. I think that even though teams know what to expect from him and know what he's able to do, the man is a monster. He's a machine and with teams knowing what he's capable of, he's still able to have seven and a half sacks and 34 tackles so far this season and he's taken these last two losses that the Titans have had a little personal. He's mad. He expects more from himself. He expects more from the defense and he said it all the way back in the beginning of the season. I'm the leader of this group of guys and I expect us to play at a certain standard. It seems to me he hasn't seen that standard in the last two weeks and he's got a whole week to just sit and get angry about it and stew. I think that Jeffrey Simmons is going to be a beast in these last five weeks. I'm going back to Kristen Fulton because as you mentioned earlier, I mean he's shown so much improvement during the course of the season. Had that little spell there where he was out. Kind of got himself back in a position where he's feeling good again. I think now the next step for him is to make some of these game-changing plays like Kevin Byers have done at safety. So I look for Fulton to have a couple of picks, make some plays and it's going to help change games here down the stretch. Mine is safety of Monty Hooker and the reason is Monty Hooker had four picks last year and early in the season, before he got dinged up, Monty Hooker was all over the place. He's kind of been working his way back in. I think there are big plays in number 37 the rest of the way to sort of piggyback off of what Kevin Byer has been able to do. As you look for guys who can take that step forward down the stretch, to me, Monty Hooker at safety is a guy who can certainly do that. When we come back, keys to the rest of the season, each person has one. We'll see what they are when Titan's All Access continues. The keys segment on Titan's All Access is presented by our friends at VisitMyrtleBeach.com. It's pretty self-explanatory. Visit Myrtle Beach. Go to this website and find all the great deals, the places to stay, the things to do and the place we ought to be this weekend for the buy week. VisitMyrtleBeach.com So it's time now for each member of our panel, Jim White, Coach Dave McGinnis, and Amy Wells to provide a key to the rest of the season. Coach Dave McGinnis of Titan's Radio, you are first. You've got to get back into the plus turnover margin world. You've got to get back to that. It's incredibly important. It's been an issue. We know it's been an issue and we're always honest. This team, you've got to get takeaways. We defensively have to take the ball away from our opponent. We need to get back to the plus turnover margin world. This team has got to get healthy and it's got to stay healthy. We're in the position we're in now coming in with the two-game losing streak in the buy week because of all these injuries, 17 guys on the injured reserve. I think that's the key of the season. This team's the only way to go as far as injuries and the health of the key players can take them. The Titans need to score in the red zone. They're doing a good job of moving the ball and getting into that scoring area. They are not scoring once they get there. And that's something that really is impacting this Titans team. Just having field goals isn't enough. You've got to score touchdowns. When you're in the position to score, you've got to take advantage of it. You've got to cut out the middle mistakes. You know, the penalties in the New England game early in the contest on special teams were killers. For the Titans, get back to playing smarter. And some of that is due to the fact that you're playing guys who are inexperienced. Got it. But to win down the stretch, I think that's a big key for the Titans and certainly something they're capable of doing. The bottom line though, Dave McGinnis, is the season really starts now. The first 12 games, you're 8-4. You have a two-game lead in the division. Here you are. If you play well from here on out, it can be very special. To this point in the season, everybody is positioning. And the Titans have done enough early in the year to position themselves. Have they done enough to be able to sit in a position where they can't be caught? No. So this is a new season. It does start now to Jim's point about getting people back. That's going to be huge. But all of these points that we've brought up, believe me, Mike Vravel and his staff this week in the off date, that's what they're going over. And then they will very specifically go over, not only as a group with this football team, but individually. They will individually. And that's what you do after you individually go and you have nameless, rankless debriefings individually after the open date. During the open date, you do it and then you have to have honest, honest discussions with each individual player saying, here's what you have to do. Here's what you must do. And here's what you have to eliminate. That's going to go on this week. Yeah, Mike Vravel said it on his radio show, truth telling. We're going to spend some time with the truth, Jim. Yeah. And sometimes the truth hurts, but that's how you get better. And I think that's what this team will do, evaluate itself. Usually sometimes in the bi-week, you do some self-scouting. The bi-week comes late this year. You've got a bigger body of work to look over what's gone right, what's gone wrong. And you've got time to get it fixed. This team's in a good spot with five games left. Now, again, just need to get healthy, play better football. Make a run. Make a run. It's about that time. This is when the football starts to get exciting. This is when every game in the NFL really matters as a Titans fan. This is a great time to be watching football because there's a lot of games out in the world to watch. I mean, even on an open date, there's a lot of games that matter to Tennessee Titans fans. So there's lots of football to watch. And then the Titans have an opportunity to do something really cool and control their destiny a little bit. If you want to know what's going on with the Tennessee Titans, you need to go to TennesseeTitans.com and read every article by Jim Wyatt every single day. He generally has like nine or 10 a day. There's a lot of them. It's amazing. And if you want really interesting insight on the team, it's our all-new podcast, the Titans' Amy Coach Mack podcast with top guests, great analysis, and generally arguments between Amy and Coach Mack. We've had them offset, you know, during the course of the program. You can also follow us at the OTP, the official Titans podcast. We're out twice a week with Game Week programming for the rest of the season with that. Lots of ways to follow the Titans, including from here in the Bed MGM studio with Titans All Access. For Jim, Coach, and Amy, I'm Mike. Thanks for joining us, and we'll see you next time.