 On this week's edition of Titans All Access, it's time to get the regular season started and that Titans have added some well-known talents in recent days. General Manager John Robinson is by to add perspective on building the 2020 Titans. Who is this week's Nissan Insider? It has to be quarterback Ryan Tannehill. Coach Dave McGinnis takes us beneath the surface to show the challenges posed by the Denver Broncos. When we get a special look at kickoff week in the music city, Mike Brable has the team loaded and ready for the regular season. So Titans All Access starts now. The monster, Derek Henry. It's kickoff week and welcome to Titans All Access. With Amy Wells, I'm Mike Heath who says woohoo. Woohoo indeed. We're going to play football this week at Denver Monday Night Football set to kick off at 9.20 central time from Empower Field at Mile High. Excited about that? Titans fans also excited this week with some roster news, most notably the signing of DeDevian Clowney to play outside linebacker for the Titans. Now Mike Keith, you've been here for a minute. How does this rank in terms of free agent acquisitions for this Tennessee Titans team? It's already top five in terms of its impact because this guy was College All American number one high school recruit, number one draft pick in the NFL. People have known DeDevian Clowney's name for a long, long time in this part of the country back to his sophomore year of high school. So he's a huge name and from that standpoint, it has to be top five by how he plays will determine where it eventually ranks. So it stands to reason that fans would be somewhat excited about this acquisition? Well, absolutely. And when you just take a look at the guy, you understand that he's six five, two fifty five, ran four, five, three at the combine back in 2014. He's powerful. He plays the run. He plays the pass. I mean, he's a special player to watch. Absolutely. And just having the notoriety and the anticipation of seeing where he was going to go only builds to the excitement surrounding this Titan's team. The Titans general manager is John Robinson. And thank goodness he is a part of Titans All Access every single week. And John, got to start you with the obvious question about DeDevian Clowney. Mike Vrabel worked with him for four seasons when both were part of the Houston Texans. In your decision to pursue Clowney, how much of a factor was Vrabel's familiarity with his game? Yeah, I mean, I think anytime that we're looking at players and determining whether we want to add them to our football team, certainly if a player has some familiarity with a coach and in this situation, our head coach, that certainly bodes well in their favor. They know each other. They know the strengths and weaknesses, the coach of the player and the player of the coach. And it makes the decision process, you know, a little bit easier for us. Did you say that Clowney's versatility is one of his strong suits when it comes to what he's able to do? Yeah, I think that's, you know, that's what Mike did with him. And down in Houston, he moved him around a little bit. You know, he would line up at defensive end. He would line up sometimes inside on the guard. Sometimes he would try to knock one of those linemen out of the way and they would loop another defensive lineman behind him. So a lot of different ways. He's long. He's strong. He's an explosive player. He's a disruptive player. So we'll try to just mix him in with those guys in the front sub and then try to create matchups that give us the most advantageous situation. Any time is a good time to add a good football player. No doubt about it. But this defense, Amy and I have been watching practice and we've seen things come together. The defense seems to be getting more cohesive sort of week by week. What has jumped out to you about the defense's performance as we head toward the Denver game next Monday? Yeah, I think that that cohesion that you that you're alluding to is a direct impact from it from the communication that I hear on the field. There's so much that goes on after that call comes in from the sideline, you know, formation that you've got to adjust to. There's a motion. There's a check. There's a call that you're going to play a technique a certain way. Our guys have really got the chatter going out there during training camp think we're seeing the benefits of that communication so far. You added four time Pro Bowl or Stephen Gaskowski, which was one of the biggest free agent names on the market. What was the key to landing him? Well, I mean, Steve's made a lot of big kicks in this league. You know, as you alluded to, he's been he's been to Pro Bowls. He's kicked in pressure situations. He's clicked, kicked in inclement weather. But I think the familiarity that he said he had with Mike and then with me and he knows the type of program that we're trying to run here in Tennessee. I mean, it's something that he wanted to be a part of. Let's talk about Ryan Tannehill. He's going to join us later for the Nissan Insider on Titans All Access. Is it possible that Ryan Tannehill has looked even more comfortable to you in this offense in 2020 already than he did even in his outstanding 2019? Well, I don't think we want any of our players to ever be comfortable, but he certainly is confident. You know, I think he's confident and Arthur and their relationship. He's confident in the players around them. He's confident in the system and the terminology. He's taken on even more leadership voted a captain this week, which is a testament to him, but that confidence, you see it every day at practice. Finally, the Titans are getting ready to take on the Denver Broncos on Monday night football. And how much has their roster changed in the last 11 months since the team last went to Denver? Yeah, I think, you know, it starts with the quarterback. Drew Lock stepped in there for the last five games. He went four and one as a starter. He was undefeated at home. Had a big win on the road at Houston late in the season. It starts with him, you know, once they handed the range to him, they added Melvin Gordon, the couple with Lindsey there in the backfield. That's a pretty good tandem of running backs in the draft. They added a couple of really explosive playmakers in Judy and Hamler at the receiver positions. So there's a lot of weapons on the offensive side of the football. Bradley Chubb will be back. They added Jarrell, who we know, they re-signed Shelby Harris. So that front is a pretty imposing front. Then they picked up AJ Buye via trade. And now he's paired with Kareem Jackson and Simmons. They're at safety, one of the better safety tandems in the NFL. So a lot of explosiveness on offense, a lot of firepower on defense. And we'll certainly have to bring our A game on Monday. Exciting to play Monday Night Football to open the season. First time the Titans have ever done it, John. Opening the season on Monday Night Football. We're looking forward to seeing you and the Titans at Empower Field at Mile High Monday Night. Thanks, Mike. Tighten up. All right. When we come back, it's time to go beneath the surface. Coach Dave McGinnis shows us more about the Denver Broncos, in particular about their running game. Stay tuned. Coach Dave McGinnis is Titans Radio's Game Day analyst. He is also a spokesperson for Farm Bureau Health Plans, one of the Titans' great team partners. And he is part of their bobblehead campaign now. I understand this Coach Mack bobblehead is going to be auctioned off for charity in the coming weeks. We'll certainly have more information through all our Titans' media channels about how we're going to do it. Amy Wells, quick evaluation of this bobblehead. I think it's absolutely incredible. It's one of the most accurate bobbleheads I've ever seen. It really captures all of Coach Mack's best features. He is bobblehead-able, as you say. He is bobblehead-able, and that is the biggest compliment I can give someone. It's very special that you say that. He's also excellent at breaking down opponent game tape. What they do and what they might do is he goes beneath the surface now. This is Coach Mack. Welcome to Beneath the Surface, powered by Microsoft. Today, we are going to look at some various run schemes of the Denver Broncos for Monday night's game against the Tennessee Titans. What we want to look at today is the run game, because the passing game John Elway has added a lot of weapons for young quarterback Drew Locke. But let's take a look at the run game, and some of the schemes that the Titans will face on Monday night football. First play we're going to see from the Texans here. This is 12 personnel. You can see the heavy tight ends to the defensive right. Tight end is going to come across in motion, and now then come back when the ball is snapped behind the line of scrimmage. They've added a ghost reverse to this play, and then Lindsey is able to read across the line of scrimmage with his cut. He can either just keep it frontside or he can cut back where the tight end has come across and made what we call a crunch block on the end man on the line of scrimmage. The next play we're looking at is 12 personnel, but now the second tight end is in the backfield as a full back, still the same type of block, but now it comes off of a read action type of look with Freeman getting the ball, but the quarterback still having the read option type of look when you see him place the ball in his stomach, and then he's reading the second level defense, whether to hand it off or to pull it and throw it. This next play is getting 12 personnel. You can see it's heavy to the defense's left side. The tight ends are over here on this side. The back is offset. This now is what we call a draw G. The draw G starts with the guard or the backside guard pulling the left guard from the offensive viewpoint pull, and now this is a pin and pull play. They're pinning everybody down on the side of the line of scrimmage, and then they're pulling the backside guard. Again, this is 12 personnel, 83's the second tight end. He is in the backfield now. Same type of crunch look, but now it's coming from the back is in a dot look. Watch number 83 come across, block the element on the end of the line of scrimmage, and again, Lindsey is now gonna read and see which hole opens up and which linebackers I discipline they have fooled. The last play is 11 personnel. Now they're gonna bring a wide out end and insert between the tackle and the tight end to create another gap. This is another nice innovation that Denver has done with their run game. This creates a dilemma for the second and third level defenders for their gap responsibilities. This insert between the tackle and the tight end is another element to this run game that the Tennessee Titans are going to have to be well aware of and be very disciplined to play. When Titans All Access returns, it's time for the Nissan Insider. Order back, Ryan Tannehill is standing by with Mike Keith, so stay tuned. Welcome back to Titans All Access. Mike Keith, I think it's time for a little Nissan Insider. A little Nissan Insider and only fitting that it's the quarterback, Ryan Tannehill. Well, that sounds good, yeah. It does sound good, and it sounded good when the Titans chose to re-sign him in March because not only is Tannehill an outstanding quarterback, but he gives the Titans a unit that kind of knows each other pretty well, entering Monday nights opener. Now we welcome Titans Pro Bowl quarterback, Ryan Tannehill. Ryan, how are you? I'm great, how are you? I'm doing fantastic because we got football, right? This team returns virtually everybody on offense. Have you ever been part of a football team that returned this many guys on your side of the ball? In the NFL, in college, in high school, anywhere? Yeah, probably not. Maybe one year in college, but I'm not even sure. I haven't thought about that too much yet. It's been great having our guys back, just having the familiarity with not only the personnel, but with the offense and the steps we've been able to take throughout the off season, even though it looked a little bit different. Diving into the details a little bit deeper than we ever got to last year, just because we're not starting at square one with guys just learning the offense. We have guys who kind of have that foundation and have been around. Now we can really dial in some details that we weren't able to get to. It's the same thing with Arthur Smith, the offensive coordinator, and the offensive coaching staff. They're all back too, Ryan. Yeah, it's huge. Just having that consistency allows us to just continue to push each other. We all know each other well at this point. We know how do we function together? How do we push each other each and every day? And I just have to keep the foot on the gas and keep going. Explain to the folks who are watching right now how it works for you in terms of the coaches that you work with specifically in practice on not only what you're doing as the quarterback, but also running the offense. Who else involved? Yeah, so we have Pat O'Hare, our quarterback's coach, Arthur Smith, you know, Coach Vable's very involved, not only in the offense, but even special teams. He's all the way around. So, you know, those are the main guys that I deal with. Of course, I deal with really every coach on the offense and we're talking through a tight ends route. I'll talk to Todd Downing. It's something with the backs, Tony Dews. It's something, the old line, Keith Carter, you know, it's, you end up speaking in and working with all the coaches from every position group, you know, throughout a week of practice. What's the specific area in the passing game that you feel like the Titans can make a jump from 2019 to 2020? You know, we did some good things last year, but I feel like we left a lot on the table, you know, some big opportunities we have in front of us this year to take a next step. And, you know, one of those is third down. You know, I think we can be better on third down. I think we got better as the year went on, but keep the foot on the gas, you know, keep the intensity up, you know, starting now through the end of the season. How much is a healthy Adam Humphreys a key to that third down improvement? Adam's huge, you know, he's a talented guy. He's played a lot of football. I really understand what we're trying to do has a knack for finding open spots, whether in man or zone. So we feel really good about what Adam brings to the table and excited to have him back. And John O's Smith, a guy that you had a chance to work with in South Florida, have you been able to carry over some of that summertime work to August? Yeah, of course, you know, it was great. We got a lot of good work in down in South Florida. And right now we're just pushing forward, you know, every day is a new day. So like I said, trying to make the most of it, every opportunity we have to get a rep, whether it's RVAs, routes versus air, or one-on-ones with the DPs and linebackers, or seven on our team, you know, it all looks a little bit different, but take advantage of every rep, every opportunity that we get and learn from it, whether you complete it for touchdown or you don't, you miss it. You know, there's always something you can take from, from every rep and learn from it. And if you're able to stack that up throughout the season, throughout training camp, then you're gonna constantly be getting better. You had a chance to see Darrington Evans before we did. And obviously you're working with him in the practice field, the third round pick out of Appalachian State, who's a running back, but has excellent hands. It feels like he is one of these guys that's already blending in. And while I'm sure he's having struggles, it's not overwhelming him. What have you thought of Darrington Evans so far? Yeah, mentally, he's been on top of it since the first time it worked with him. You know, I was really impressed. I was on the mental game from the first time we threw. You know, you came out to throw in South Florida and I was calling out routes to him and calling out plays and he knew exactly where to line up and what route he had. So definitely impressed from day one. Now he's getting into full speed, you know, with team, there's a little more to it at this point, but he's working really hard and, you know, excited to have him. We're excited every time we get a chance to watch AJ Brown play. This is a guy, we were told last year during camp, don't get too excited, don't put too much pressure, and then he goes out and has a great year. Is the quarterback just as excited about number 11? Yeah, I'm really excited about AJ. You know, he's an extremely talented guy. A guy that brings a lot to the table. I love the mindset he's come in with this training camp, just pushing himself to become better every day. Yeah, really excited about what he's done so far for us and keeping the intensity level high and keep pushing forward. Those of us who are fortunate enough to get to watch practice are asked all the time about how does Derek Henry look? And I'm no expert, but he looks like Derek Henry. Is his outside of the fact that he's massive and that he's got great speed? Is his consistency in everything that he does really the key to his game? Yeah, it's huge. He's so big, strong, physical, and he has the speed to go with it. So we saw it last year, he wears on teams. The more games go on, the longer the season goes on, you know, he just keeps going. You know, he's a guy who's just consistent each and every week. You know, definitely brings a lot to the table for us. Brian, when you saw the schedule and you saw that you open at Denver, and that was your first chance to play for the Titans a year ago, did you think, man, this is gonna be a whole different experience going back where we were last October? You know, definitely a big opportunity for us being on Monday night and then being able to go on the road. And frankly, we didn't play well last year. They played well and we did not. So big opportunity for us to go out and start the season off on a good foot. If you're gonna have success against the Broncos, what will you have to do? Have to play our game, you know, be who we are, play our game and, you know, do it for four quarters. Mike, it's been really great to see Ryan Tannehill really become a leader of that offensive group. One of the Titans five captains this year. Yep. Joining Brett Kern, Derek Henry, Kevin Byard and Dayquan Jones. Absolutely. Good stuff. When we come back, we've got some good stuff. Three keys to beating the Broncos on Monday night. Stay tuned for that and more Titans All Access. Mike, as the Titans get ready to take on the Denver Broncos, let's talk about some of the keys to a Titans victory. Give me the first one. The first key is get off to a good start because this is actually the latest start in Titans history. A 920 central time kickoff is the latest that this ballclub has ever kicked the game off. So you're gonna have to wait around all day. It's a recipe for disaster, particularly with no fans playing in the high altitude. So instead, be crisp, be ready, come out firing and get this thing going, knowing that if you snooze, you lose for real. You crammed a lot into that first one. How about a second one? When the line of scrimmage, I think that's what it comes down to. Last year, Derek Henry rushed for only 28 yards against the Broncos. They were the only team to stop him on the other side of the ball. Titans cannot lose the line of scrimmage. They've gotta be able to run the ball and they've gotta be able to stop the run. All right, maybe one more. The other one is protect Ryan Tannehill. For as great as Tannehill was last season and for as good as the offense was with him in the lineup, he still got hit way too much. The Broncos love to bring pressure from everywhere. The Titans have got to protect Tannehill, not just for Monday night in Denver, but for the whole season. Absolutely, Mike, those are all great points. We're excited to take on the Broncos on Monday night football. We're gonna take a quick break here on Titans All Access, but when we come back, we're gonna show you some of the highlights from kickoff week. Stick around. Next week on Titans All Access, the Titans get ready for their home opener with Jacksonville and general manager, John Robinson, has a preview. Our Nissan Insider is none other than Titans tied in, John O'smith. Coach Dave McGinnis goes beneath the surface to look at one of the big moments from Monday night's game in Denver. And controlling owner, Amy Adams-Trunk, has put together an internship program that is one of the most unique in all of pro sports. All of that and more next week on Titans All Access. Kickoff week is here. The game is Monday night in Denver, but lots of activities leading up to it. How about some Titans happy hours? Yeah, people got a chance to get out, not just in Nashville, but all over middle Tennessee and get together in a socially distant way and share their excitement for kickoff week. Oh, absolutely. And we're spreading a lot of Titans things all around middle Tennessee. There's yard signs. We're encouraging people to wear their shirts and show their Titans pride. We are doing our happy hour tour with the Tennessee Titans. We got T-Rag and the cheerleaders with us and we're having a good time. Scale of one to 10, a 12, ready for some Titans football, some exotic smash mouth, bringing it back after a crazy year. It's time. I feel great about the season. Really excited about building off last year. This is going to be the best season and a long list of illustrious seasons for the Tennessee Titans. Titans go! We call that tightening up the town, lots more to come, gearing up for Monday night's game. And of course, it is a 920 central time start, the last game of kickoff weekend. We're actually going to be on the air on Titans radio with the Mike Vrables show. Coach Dave McGinnis and I taking your call, starting our coverage at sixth central. We hope you'll join us. Amy Wells will be there. I will be there. We hope that you will join us for Monday night's game and the next edition of Titans All Access.