 This is the OTP presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans. Farm Bureau Health Plans celebrating 76 years of providing Tennesseans with high quality health coverage at affordable prices. Visit FBHP.com today to learn more about their history in Tennessee and to get a quote. That's FBHP.com. Joined by the dynamic duo from Titans Radio, Rhett, Brian and Coach Dave McGinnis. They are in the Snickers Hot Seat. So we have that excited, yes, glad to have you here. We couldn't put the jar on the table because it was too distracting, I'm told. So we just have the Snickers right in front of us. It was a jar that was really big. It is large. And it's full of Snickers. It was like in an old mercantile store that you could get candy out of. Harden candy, you know, those kinds of things. Horror Hound Candy. Exactly. That's good stuff. So we're here, getting ready to go to Tampa, two straight weeks in Florida, still forecast for like nearly 90 degrees on Sunday. Record tying or setting highs. The last one I saw was partly sunny and 88 with about a 25% chance of showers. Even for Tampa, that's really warm for early on. They said record setting. I'm like, that got my attention. Yeah. Okay. Anything you do for that, if you're Mike Vrable and the staff, because you haven't been in that kind of heat in some time. They start hydrating. They've been start, you know, a little extra hydration all week leading up into that. And then you can't simulate the heat when you're out here at practice. So the hydration is the biggest thing. And then I'm sure that they will have a little extra load of IV packs. Okay. I want to talk to you about the quarterback change from a head coach's perspective, Dave McGinnis, because you have sat in that chair before. Because Mike Vrable went to consider making a change, taking his 35-year-old veteran, Ryan Tannehill, and moving him to number two and going ahead and moving Will Levis to number one, sitting in that chair, what are all the things you consider? Well, first of all, you involve your decision makers. You involve the offensive coordinator. You involve your general manager. And you get everybody's thought process on it. But he himself had an idea of what he wanted to do to begin with, but you want to be sure to cover all bases. And he's thinking about not only right now, because Ryan Tannehill's not completely healthy right now, right now anyway. And Will Levis has already started two football games, but thinking beyond that as to when Ryan Tannehill is healthy, thinking about also the development of Will Levis. Because he wasn't going to develop. His development wasn't going to accelerate any continuing to play on the practice squad or on the show team. This wasn't going to. It doesn't happen. Now, he's got two full games, and so he made the decision. Anytime you're a head coach, the only decisions you make, Mike, are the ones you feel like are best for your football team in the present and going forward. What had Mike Vrable seen in the two starts that convinced him that those of us on the outside wouldn't know or wouldn't consider? The way he operated the offense, it wasn't too big for him. We commented when we were doing the ball games. He was making checks at the line of scrimmage, and he was in two pretty good environments. One at home and also one away in Pittsburgh as to where the crowd was a factor. The crowd was a factor and also the moment. But the moment was not too big for him just operating the game. There are going to be things fundamentally he's going to have to clean up as he continues his progress throughout the rest of this season. He made some throws that he shouldn't make. He made some throws that weren't intercepted. I'm talking about against Pittsburgh, especially against Cover Two, middle of the field open, split safeties where the corners carry the rail. They don't do that in college football. They carry the rail here if nothing is in front of them. And so he's learning. He's learning. But the experience of running the football team in a live game, not too big for him. Sometimes on the TV show on Tuesday nights, the Mike Vrable TV show, he doesn't always like the questions I ask him. He's not elated. You can tell by how he answers sometimes. He'll never be mad at you. Well, I don't know that he was mad, but but but I ask him the question about competitive advantage and making this announcement. And maybe I didn't put it the right way. That's probably a strong possibility. I didn't put it the right way. But he started his press conference on Tuesday, making the announcement that will of us is the quarterback at other times in other places. We have seen coaches not make announcements. When Jeff Fisher promoted Vince Young to the starters role before the Dallas game in 2006, he did not say a word. He he made clear he wanted it kept a secret. Technology wise, 17 years ago is like a century ago. I get I get that part of it. But from Mike's perspective, you having been a head coach, why do you think it was important that even if competitive advantage by not saying maybe could have helped, why was it important to go ahead and put it out there for everybody that will levitates the court? Well, first of all, for your locker room and for so that you get it out there. So you know exactly where you're headed. And the team likes to know to they like to know. So you do that. Also, Mike will have us already has two games on tape. He's got two games on tape. So the competitive advantage really the only time a competitive advantage wouldn't be there is if he hadn't played yet. So these already got two games on tape. So that is minuscule at best. So a dumb question. No, what a dumb question. I'm just giving you a good answer. You're giving me a better answer that it was a question. I doubt it. Right. You've been in the locker room this week, your sense of the reaction to the news that will let us is the quarterback for the Titans. It's been good and it's been healthy to Max Point. There's an energy there that they're feeding off of. Just take an example, Kyle Phillips, seven catches for 92 yards in his last two games, had a couple of explosive plays, catches of 20 yards plus and back to back plays on one drive in Pittsburgh. And that's kind of reinvigorated and re jump started his process in this. And you're like, that's the guy that we saw them draft from UCLA in the fifth round. And now he's starting to, you know, so the trust that's building between not only the receivers on offense and the offensive line of this, but when you see the reactions from a Jeffrey Simmons and an ardent key on the sidelines in the Atlanta game a little while back, you know, I told you, I told you, look at that guy, that's Will Levis. That's the stuff that is starting to bloom and blossom. And not that they were derailed or anything. It's just there's there's new oxygen in this thing. So that's what the locker room expected to happen. But they like to hear it from the head coach, right? They like to hear, I mean, you can, you can make all the assumptions that you want in the locker room. But when the head coach comes out and makes a definitive statement, then here you go. Then all that other stuff is behind you and you're moving forward. So all of the speculation and you've been working with the media and with media companies now for seven years. So you understand the other side of the street now from your 31 years as a coach in the league, you understand people are going to talk about the quarterback situation. Well, sure. I mean, you could you can sit and say, well, it's only one of 22 positions. No, it's not. It's not quarterback. Sure. And while everybody involved knows it's the quarterback thing and that it's different, the media and the fan base and everybody else is going to naturally talk about it because they're so interested in it. By doing this, he's just taken all of the speculation out of this, which makes it easier for everybody involved. Absolutely, it does. I mean, and really, if you were listening, which I know you do and I know that does and I know the OT people probably listen. He told us the week before what he was going to do just by Friday, just how he couched it, how he said it. You know, and I'm sitting there listening to it as a former head coach going, OK, but he did it the right way and he did it the right way. As far as we go back to the beginning of this conversation involving the decision makers and then letting the principles know first. Now, he talked, he talked to the quarterbacks first. He talked to them first on Monday. Yeah, and then go to a team meeting and not any long expose talking to him. Here's my decision. Here's what we're doing. Let's go to work on Tampa. Is that a hard decision for a head coach to make in terms of knowing all these steps have to be considered and checked off when you make this change? Not if you're being honest, not if you've always been, which he has always been honest with his locker room. I mean, being a former player and a very successful former player, he knows the value of honesty coming from the head coach. So you're honest with your locker room that any of these decisions, they may not be easy and everybody may not agree with it. But as long as you're honest with it in your approach, they accept it. Felt like players, Rhett, were very careful to make sure that they that they were as positive as they could be about Ryan Tannehill because they have so much respect for him. Well, sure. And some of those, because of roster turnover, have only been around Ryan Tannehill in the last six months. But for those who have been here longer than that, 100 percent, because Ryan Tannehill was brought in here in a similar situation. He was the backup to Marcus Mariota and week seven or whatever it was in Denver. He comes in in the third quarter and things start to take off of it. The man won 39 games as a starting quarterback in the NFL. You can't ignore that. So, yeah, giving credence to that as what he did as a contributor to this and putting wins in the column. Yeah, absolutely. I would think they would be careful because there's there's a respect level there. And this is not easy news for Ryan Tannehill at all. But the professional manner in which he's handled it so far and to hear Will Levitt say, hey, he's he's taken me kind of under his wing. I mean, the whole thing with practice on Tuesday, when they started with the ones out there, he said, hey, guy, this this is your. Well, and that was just even just running the drills because I was watching just the individual drills when they came out and did it. And Levis has deferred for six months to Ryan Tannehill. And so that was the way it was going to start. And Tannehill had to make the point to him. No, it's your show now. You're the guy you you run lead in all of the individual drills. And I mean, that's a that's a mental switch that gets flipped for a young player, too, isn't it? Well, but Ryan Tannehill deserves nothing but respect. Sure, because this guy is a pro's pro. He has been ever since he's been here, came in here as an 80 plus game starter. Said I'll be the backup and then only was called in to do it. But this guy deserves nothing but respect. And I've gotten huge respect for him, just as a former coach, seeing how he has handled this because he's been a very successful veteran. And this is these these are never easy decisions. But as it goes back to the honest communication with those players, but also if you make any decisions and you involve people that are intrinsically good people that understand that it may not like it, but they understand it and then do whatever is good for the team. Ryan Tannehill deserves nothing but respect. The thing that I admire most about Ryan Tannehill is his toughness. I think that's the most underrated fact about him, Brett. I that's the first thing really that comes to mind when I think of Ryan Tannehill. That man over the years and his time here, he had taken some shots and got up and made things happen and distributed the ball down the field, sometimes with his legs. The toughness in my mind will never be questioned. And he's in an interesting position as a backup because he's really only done this for six games in his entire career. The first. I mean, this is totally new for him because he came here as the backup, spent five games as the backup, took over in the sixth game, became the starter in the seventh game in 2019. So only time he's been a backup, he was a starter right away when he went to Miami. So how much of an adjustment for him, football wise and quarterback wise is this coach? He won't prepare any different. He won't prepare any different. He's been at it too long. He will not prepare any differently. And let me just say from a coaching aspect of it, how confident, how much confidence have you got now when you've got just like we had when he was the backup here to begin with? You know, if he goes in, he's going to be ready. So but he won't prepare any different, any different. Other than, as you said, acquiescing, that's saying, hey, well, this is yours, but I'm here, but he won't prepare any differently. And the other part of it, too, is gets a chance to continue to get healthy because I mean, we forget that the high ankle sprain was less than four weeks ago as we do this OTP right now. Well, let's let's take a while. Let's also not forget the tightrope surgery, which is not a minor thing. I mean, we went through all of that and getting the particulars on what type of surgery that is. So, yes, he's not completely healthy now. But he's working towards it and he'll he'll work to get healthy. The guys are professional. All right, need to tell you about our friends at Duncan, as I hold up my Duncan cup right now, it's always game on with Duncan. So grab a coffee and kick off the action, whether that's drinking a cup of coffee on your way to the game or one to go before watching the game at home. Duncan is always there to help you get your game on, just like the pros. We need to be at our best come game time, which is why Duncan is the most important part of your game day ritual because it's always the best call for football America runs on Duncan. And you might you might do Duncan iced in Tampa this week. That's going to be cool again here. Yeah, cooler, little, little cold front coming in. Hopefully there's some rain involved. We desperately need that. But yeah, it'll dip back down into the 60s, I think, for highs over the weekend. You're all just read, Brian. Hello. That's why I'm wearing my long sleeve, Mike Keith collection. What is it says Titan's radio? It does say Titans radio. And you gave it to me. Well, I did. What else would I told you on? I told you on Titans, all access. I had a long sleeve for you, so I provided. Here it is. Coach, coach likes to make reference to the Titans radio gear everywhere he goes now. So it's people make reference to it. Ask me where I got it. And I say, Mike Keith and they say, can I have one? I said, go ask Mike. Well, I appreciate you. The minute that he told me about this and said, hey, can you give this to me? And by the way, I got all of his in black. I'm like, that's a home run. So solid. So solid. That's perfect. Well, that was the idea. Um, staying with quarterbacks for a second. Yeah. How does Malik Willis handle this? Or I should say, better question for you is, how do the coaches handle this with Malik? Continue to train him, continue to train him. Malik Willis has had his chances in some ball games. And so they can just continue to train him. And he's Malik Willis came from a point coming out of Liberty, where he was he was way behind the curve as far as developing as a quarterback. And so, you know, he wants to play, too. He's a competitor, but he's got to continue to work. That's how he handles it. And that's not a knock on Hugh Freese's system. No, Hugh Freese is trying to win ball games. Sure. He's trying to win ball games at Liberty, which he did, which is why he got another job. So, I mean, it wasn't his job to develop a quarterback for the National Football League. His job was to win games for Liberty University. Tampa is a confounding team, right? They started three in one. They played great football to begin. They've lost their last four since their buy. So they, too, are three in five. What jumps out to you about Tampa for this weekend? Similarities between the Titans and the Buccaneers, starting with the identical record and looking at the way the Titans have lost their games on the road, except for the Cleveland game. They've been in it towards the end. That'd be saw at Thursday night in Pittsburgh, right? And so, you know, you look at two of their last three games. They were in it against the Falcons. They were certainly in it and leading in Houston last week before CJ Stroud did incredible things and hits Tank Dell in the back of the end zone for a go-ahead score. 39-37. The other part of it is you can get lost in the numbers by looking at giveaway takeaway and turnovers. They're plus eight, but a bulk of those came during that three-in-one stretch to begin and not as many in the last four losses for them. But the weapons are there and it's not. The other thing that stands out is Baker Mayfield is not turning it over and getting it away. Only four interceptions. He's not sacked very often because they have a great offensive line. And then the weapons he's cut to throw to. Oh, wow. Has Baker Mayfield remade his career? Well, to me, Baker Mayfield's always been a dealer. He's played at different places, but he's absorbed different types of offenses. Now he moved around to kind of stay with the same offense he'd been with. But this guy's a dealer. I think he's very, very undervalued as far as a starting quarterback in this league. He knows how to distribute the football and he's a competitor. And the guy also, he's accurate, but he's also a runner too. So I've always been a Baker Mayfield fan because the fact some guys, you know, if a quarterback plays quarterback robotically, that's different when you're looking at him defensively other than a guy that's a dealer. This guy's a dealer. And he's taking better care of the football, which is what everybody wanted to see. Sure. He's staying more on schedule with everything he does, running the offense the way they want it. And so I just wonder if we're not seeing a guy sort of remake his, I mean, this is a number one overall pick in the draft. Well, yes. First walk on to ever win the Heisman Trophy. I mean, he's got some accolades. Well, he absolutely does. And the other thing is, and you talk about remake, he's gaining experience. He's gained experience from a lot of things and experience in this league, especially at that position, you can't manufacture it. So he's learned too. So I threw this stat, I'm gonna throw the stat out. I threw it Keith Bullock on Titans tonight, Wednesday night on Titans Radio. Baker Mayfield has thrown four interceptions. All four have come in circumstances, Coach Mack, where he was not blitzed. He's been sacked 13 times. 11 of the 13 sacks have come on situations where he has not been blitzed. What does that mean if you're Shane Bowen and you're putting together a game plan about Baker Mayfield? What do those numbers tell you? Well, veteran quarterbacks, which he is, if you blitz them, they can find out pretty quickly where the ball is going. If they're looking downfield because you're in man-to-man defense. So it's pretty easy to discern that. Now, veteran quarterbacks, what you try to do is pre-snap, bogey, different looks, and then give them different looks post-snap. And that's what that tells me is more people are playing coverage against him but not showing their hand early on. That's what that tells me. Will the Bucks knowing Todd Bowles the way you do? Yes, the answer's yes. They'll blitz. Coach. They're gonna blitz him coming off the bus. Off the bus. But they blitz nearly 40% of the time, which is third of the national football league. But this has nothing to do with the Titans coming in there. This is Todd Bowles. I've known Todd for a long time. Defensively, he will bring it. He'll bring five or more at the drop of a hat. He's like our old friend Greg Williams. He blitzes on mother and his grandmother. That's a great way to put it. Yes. I mean, some guys just will. I mean, the Buddy Ryan theory. It's in his nature. It's like that old Aesop's fable, why that scorpion stung the frog going across. Why'd you sting me? Because I was scorpion, that's what I do. He blitzes. He blitzes. Their defense starts with Vita Veja. And Vita Veja leads them in sacks with three and a half. That's a, I mean, what do the Titans do with Vita Veja? I mean. Can I say something about Vita Veja? Sure. He's as white as this table. Take a look at this table and that's Vita Veja eating up three gaps. So is that going to be Aaron five and zero? Well, with help. Because I mean, he outweighs Aaron Brueber by 70 pounds. He outweighs the world. The thing about him is, and I know you asked Rhett, so I'm going to answer the question. Okay. Cool. He's made most of his pressures playing a nose tackle, which means, and he's unique in the fact that he's a big man, but he's got lower leg flexibility where he can turn a corner. He's made most of his pressures playing right on the nose. And then they've got, if you want to comment on Vita Veja, I'd love to give you a chance since coach took it out of here. That's okay. He can take whatever he wants. Piggy backing off of that, because he's able to do that as a space heater up front, it allows the linebackers and Levante David and Devon White to go make plays. And in that second level, that's what they do. Levante David is about to become the all-time leading tackler in Tampa Bay Buccaneer history. May do it this, probably will do it this weekend. Well, he stayed healthy, and he's played his entire career there. This was a very, very good football player coming out when he came out, and he's only gotten better since he's been in the league. And then they've got some edge guys too. Shaq Barrett is good. Joe Tryon, Sharinka. Am I saying it right? Mm-hmm. I mean, out of Washington, it's a good edge rusher. So, I mean, they play a lot of base defense. They play a lot of guys in the box. They come with heat. The Titans have to find a way to get them blocked up, and the Titans are not healthy up front on offense. No, they're not. We've got to block them up. And then if they're bringing people, you're in man-to-man in the back end. So our receivers have got to get separation. We saw early on what happened against Atlanta when we got heat, and they were in man-to-man in the back end. DHOP wore them out. We've got people that need to win one-on-ones if they're going to bring heat. Who outside of DHOP needs a big game, Rhett? I think we need one from Kyle Phillips again. Chica Conquo would be good. And Nick Westbrook, Akina, who has been reliable. That's about all we got. No, that's, well, that's covering them. I was thinking Chig really stands out to me because that's an area where you could have a big matchup advantage for what they do. Sure, sure. It's about getting open on time. The thing that you know about Will Levis, he can get it there. Oh, yeah. And he can get it there without having to step into it. We saw some throws against Pittsburgh that, I mean, you're talking about a game that we did not win, but I'm standing there looking at him in the cylinder, a tight cylinder, and throwing it from the elbow to the wrist about 15, 17 yards downfield in a tight area between the hashes, and I'm going, whoa, so just get open. All right, speaking of, whoa, Seat Geek is now the official ticketing partner of the Tennessee Titans. If you haven't heard the name yet, get used to it because you'll be hearing it a lot more this season. Whether you're buying or selling tickets to Titans games or any other live event in Nashville, Seat Geek is the place to do it. Seat Geek, the new official ticketing partner of the Tennessee Titans. We're Titans fans. Can fans? It's actually so Titans fans. So Titans fans. Yeah. You were close. You're so close. Don't let the goal on track. No, you did. You did okay, but nobody does it like Amy Wells. It's true. That's true. She is missed. Oh, she's missed. There's no doubt. Absolutely she's missed. But I mean, just when we read that spot, that's the only time. All right. So as we wrap up this edition of the OTP, the OTP people and everybody associated with the Titans want to congratulate all the winners at CMA awards the other night, but in particular, Coach Mack's close personal friend, Jelly Roll. Jelly Roll. He worked with Jelly Roll before professionally and have formed a tight bond with him. And he loves the Titans. The dude's a real dude. He really is. He's very interesting when we had the schedule released, the thing that we did down at Roberts. It was a lot of fun doing it, but you know, I got to spend a lot of time with him when Jeff Fish and I were, they asked us to be part of it. It was great. Jelly Roll and his story is very, very interesting. But he's a good dude. He's really a good dude. And he's doing some really good things now with the success he's had to help other people coming up. Yeah. Jelly Roll is my dude. Yeah. Well, he knew exactly who you were too, didn't he? Well, yeah. And he said a few words when I walked up that we can't say here, but it was great. But he was excited to see you. Yes, he was. Because he knew Coach Mack. Yes, he was. You have to see his acceptance is pretty great. 39 years old entertainer of the year. Yeah. And go look up his past because he'll tell you, it was something else. And to see him get to this place and you're right. The stuff he does in the community. I know every year, every holiday, he goes to that juvenile justice center. Yeah. And provides holiday meals for everyone involved. And he's involved in a huge toy drive right now in Nashville. He's something else. Yeah. I'll just say it on the O2B. Coach Mack's a Jelly Roll fan. Oh, there it is. Well, I mean, I have too. I've had a chance to do an event with him. Yes, you have. That was great. And he is, he is who he is. And much respect and much love to him for that because this a guy who doesn't act like he doesn't come from Antioch and didn't come from a tough background and didn't get in a lot of trouble. And yet he's trying to use the platform he has now to help people not make the same mistakes and to get another chance. And so I know we don't talk about other things than football much on the OTP, but we just wanted to mention him here because he is, he's a good one. He loves the Titans too. And we love him back. So congratulations Jelly Roll and to all the winners. That looked like a good time. Were you not there? I didn't go this year. I didn't go. I usually go out. I love the CMAs here. You get tired of the red carpet? No, do not get tired of the red carpet. And that is so way cool with Nashville. And people that talk to me about, they want to come watch the Titans play, but they always ask, can we come to the CMAs? Well, the funny thing, and Rhett can talk to this too, being local like me, the CMAs were always a big deal. But it was really just kind of local. And now it's like worldwide. All these people come. It's massive. Like go to the Academy Awards and such. I was looking at the people who were there, the famous people, and it's like, this is fantastic. I mean, and of course, you know, everybody involved in it's really cool, but the two MCs were absolutely fabulous. If you would have told me, Peyton Manning would have done that when I would have, when I met him 30 years ago, I would have never, You would have called me alone. I would have never believed that. He's really good by the way. He's fantastic. He's great. And Luke Bryan is, speaking of a really good guy. Who has stayed a really good guy through all the success. We met him early on when he used to come around 103KDF and he was first starting. Oh wow. Yeah, and he was just, he was a good dude. And like to talk sports and knew everything. And then I saw him later, probably three, four years later, after he had become Luke Bryan. Still the same guy. Still exactly the same guy. Well then that's when you know the character runs true. Yes. Which is why I think he's so good as a host and he's good on TV. Sure. He's fantastic on American Idol. Yeah. He's my cousin. Luke Bryan. Oh, that's right. Not really. Not really? Yeah, not really. You should go with that. You're the same name. Last name. Anyway. I do tell people that sometimes I'm like, really? Can I get tickets? No, he's not really my guy. This is the OTP. Thank you for being part of the Snickers hot seat. Let's hold them up. Snickers hot seat. You can hear it if you're listening to the audio version of the OTP. Go get a Snickers. It really satisfies. Thank you to Duncan. Thank you to Seat Geek and especially thank you to the Health Plans. Visit FBHP.com for more information on the company's history and to get a quote that's FBHP. For Coach Mack and Rhett Bryan, Mike Keith says thanks for joining us for the OTP.