 And we're under way, it's Tennessee. On this edition of Titans All Access, there's no time to waste. It's time to move on to Monday night football and the Buffalo Bills. General manager John Robinson tells us what needs to happen if the Titans are going to return to Nashville with a W plus from an extension to an interception. Safety of money hooker is off to a hot start. He'll talk about establishing his role on the Titans D and one Titans legend gets inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. All of that and plenty more right now on Titans All Access. Derrick Hinton! Jones dropping under pressure, steps up, hit again! Was that you that missed that sack? Who missed that sack? That you that had missed that sack? That was a bud that missed that sack. You said you had that sack wrapped up. He got him, he flushed him out. But he said he had around the legs. I said ball! Sack T.F.A. and 4-5. That was my first trip sack ever. Poof! Poof! Hey, bro, don't look at me like that again, bro. I ain't got some paper in my mouth, bro. I forgot I was marked up. I swear I forgot I was marked up. Yeah! This is the energy I ever gained. In fact, they'll understand. No, you ain't got no sauce. Come on, D! D got the worst breath on the team. Him and Tari. So when I talk to you, they do like this, they, yeah. My girl do T-whiting. Client tail, man. I'm taking my girl as a client tail. Tana Hill. As time throws. Left side, Hillier at the 10. Hillier at the five. Hillier in the end zone! Tana Hill found him! Touchdown! Welcome to Titans All Access and the Bet MGM Studio with Amy Wells. I'm Mike Keith. Pleased to be joined to open this program by General Manager John Robinson. And we're talking ball, presented by Duncan. Titans preparing for Monday night football with the Buffalo Bills. So John, a little extra time coming off game one. Time for more practice, more meetings. What's the team really been working on since your season opening game with the Giants? Well, I think improvement, Mike. I mean, there were certainly some things that we did well in that game. But also, you know, we've said before, it comes down to five or six plays that when you don't execute them properly, you know, the outcome usually doesn't bode in your favor. So really identifying those guys, working through practice, in meetings, stressing the points. So when those present themselves again, we can execute them properly. What was your impression of the Titans rookies in the season opener? Well, I thought we got production out of several of those guys, really in all three phases, offensively, defensively, and in the kicking game. There were certainly some positive plays that all of them made, but also some teachable moments like any young player that we can coach up and hopefully improve on. Let's talk about Buffalo, your opponent this coming Monday night. What impressed you about their opening win over the Rams on September the 8th? Yeah, really impressive in all three phases of the game, offensively, defensively, and in the kicking game, you know, Josh Allen, everybody knows who he is. He's got a lot of playmakers in digs, knocks, McKenzie. Davis made some plays for him down the field. I thought the line did a good job protecting for him. And then their defense, it was really attacking up front, you know, with Von Miller, DeKwan Jones showed up on the inside, Phillips on the inside, Ed Oliver, they got two great safeties in Poyer and Micahide. Both of those linebackers were running fast and getting to the ball, Edmunds and Milano. So, you know, really complimentary, offensively, defensively, and special teams, and they played well. Does it help you prepare that you've seen the Buffalo Bills the last four seasons in a row? Yeah, it feels like they're in our division. But, you know, from an X's and O's standpoint, you know, coaches always kind of tweak a little something here or do a little something different there. But from a player standpoint and a, you know, personnel standpoint, you at least kind of have an idea of the skill sets of the guys that you're going to go against this player. He kind of, I remember when he did this or, you know, he did that and I thought I could take advantage of it. So, knowing the, you know, the skill sets of the player certainly is beneficial when you've got, you know, some consistency playing against an opponent every single year. John, what do the Titans have to do well Monday night to win at Buffalo? Well, I think improve on the things that, you know, we talked about earlier in the show and get better at those. I mean, it's a raucous environment up there. We know that we're going to have to handle all of the distractions with playing in Buffalo that comes with that. But offensively, we've got to establish a run game. You know, we've got to protect Ryan. Guys got to get open quick because we know that rush is coming. And defensively, we know the problems that Josh poses as a runner and as a thrower. So we've got to be disciplined in our rush lanes because he can escape at any moment and take off running. There's a lot of playmakers downfield. We've got to be sticking our coverage and we've got to be really sure attackers. Now we've got to ask you, we saw Manny Hooker make some big plays in last Sunday's game. What led you to extend his contract last week? Well, I mean, Manny has came in and improved every single year. It started on special teams. He was a personal protector on the punt team. He carved out more of a role defensively. He was a sub-starter for us defensively. He showed up. He made plays. He works hard. He's smart. He's intelligent. Those are the types of players that you want to commit to when they come in and they do it the right way. They grow in our program and happy for his family and excited for us that he's going to be around here for several years. John, thanks for the time. As always, we appreciate it. Thank you guys. Talk at Bowl with John Robinson presented by Duncan Amy Wells probably knew that in our next segment, it's the Nissan Insider. Amani Hooker, that's next on Titan's All Access. Jones, since Barclay in motion left, Jones looking, Jones throwing back shoulder. Intercepted, intercepted by the Titans. Amani Hooker stepped in front of Barclay. That deserves a hell yes. Welcome back to Titan's All Access, coming to you from the Bet MGM Studios. Last week, Titan Safety Amani Hooker received a contract extension, keeping him in the two-tone blue for years to come. And Mike Keith had the opportunity to sit down with him to talk about how he has become a leader on the Titans defense. You've had an interesting run up to year four. Rookie year, kind of learning, growing. Second year of the COVID year, 2020. You find a role on the team. You're certainly part of the defensive package. Last year, you become a starter. What's that been like? It's been awesome. I was just talking to my parents the other day about my journey and how I was saying, like when I was a rookie, watching Kevin and Adori and them come out, how they've been in the league for a while and established and have some years of starting under their belt. And I was like, one day I'm gonna be at that point and it's gonna take a while, it's gonna take time. I just gotta be patient. But if I could just learn from guys in front of me and older guys and just take as much as I can in. Has it been an experience almost like college at Iowa? Yeah, I mean, that's kind of what I refer to all the time. Like my freshman year wasn't a starter special team, kind of played a little bit on defense. And then sophomore year, started a couple of games. And then my third year, I wasn't started the whole year. And then I left. So it's kind of like that same kind of routine as it was in college as well. What's the most important thing that you've learned that you've been able to apply to get you to this point? Never being satisfied and always wanting to learn. Always being able to take information in, whether it's someone doing something negative I can learn from it, or a positive thing. And just slowing the game down and not making it as big as they make it seem. When you're younger, it seems like it's huge and all this. And then when you get here, you just kind of have to, I can play at this level. I can do the certain things that I've seen other guys do. Why do you and Kevin Byard bind together so well as the safeties? I think we both love ball. We both have a knowledge of the game. We both just compliment each other. We talk with each other all the time about what we want to disguise and what we want to do here. And then we both ballers. We both just make plays. We both just find a way to help a team win. You claim to be the best basketball player on the team. You've claimed that before. I mean, I haven't seen the rookies yet, but I'm going to hold that to me for now. But you and Kevin are like a backcourt in basketball. Complimenting one another in that way. Is that a good comparison? Yeah, it's like two-point guards out there. It's like, literally, we want to get guys lined up if we can. If someone makes a mistake, hopefully we can help them out and communicate and get guys lined up. And that is kind of how it is. Like a basketball, just making sure that we're not technically giving assists as passing the ball, but we're assisting by giving help to where it needs to be and assisting by helping guys out. What was your welcome to the NFL moment? I'd probably say it was Odell Beckham, the first game of the year. We had Nick Chubb, and then you had Miles Garrett. I'm watching them. It was crazy. It was pretty sweet. What's the goal for 2022? Super Bowl, honestly. I mean, that's personal for me. I mean, even though it's a team goal, but that's always been a personal goal. Hey, guys. Coach Mack here with this week's Beneath the Surface, powered by Microsoft Surface, beginning now. Today, we're going to look at three draft picks of the Tennessee Titans in their inaugural. National Football League game. And watch all three of these young players make considerable contributions to the game for the Tennessee Titans. This first one we're going to look at is Kyle Phillips. This is fourth and one. He's going to be back there as a punt returner. We got single press on the outside. We've set up a return. The punter hits a sky ball. Watch Phillips do a nice job of setting it up, gets a nice block on the right side. He sets up his return, comes up inside, moves outside. Then he comes back and gets to the sideline. This is a very good job. First of all, it's really good field awareness by him, understanding that the gunner coming down to his right is going to be taken to the outside. He sets it up, makes a move to the outside. Now, once he starts to the sideline, he uses his wall and breaks back to the inside, breaks two tackles on his own, very, very beneficial, when you can flip the field like this with your punt return team. This next play we're going to look at, down here on the bottom, you can see that you're in an offset stack with the receivers on your offensive right side. Now, watch the switch release. Ryan Tannehill makes this check. He does a reverse, inside zone, handoff for the play action. Watch the release, inside. Trelin Burks does a tremendous job of setting up the man that's trying to cover him. They are covering him in what we call a top hat type of a covering. So they're going to ban Joe, what's going on inside and outside. He makes this move, nice move to get away. Then this is a classic TRC or Transcontinental route. Big game, but all set up by a very good job by setting up the defender that's got a man-to-man from an off man position. Now let's look at Nicholas Petey Frear. We're watching our right tackle here. This is a really, really good job of giving his quarterback a lot of protection from the right side. He's going against Williams, who is a Premier Pass rusher in the National Football League, a very, very experienced vet. Watch Nicholas Petey Frear. Watch him put his left hand up to protect the inside first in case they get any kind of games. And then he does a nice job of kick sliding to the outside. Now let's watch Nicholas Petey Frear in the run game. His man is to the outside. He's going to climb to the second level and not only climb to the second level, he's climbing to the offset linebacker so that he cannot cross face and come across and be able to make a tackle on Derek Henry. Watch him move up. He knows the linebacker that he has to block, drives him clear past the fireball in the middle of the field. And then a great job of getting a big body on the linebacker and moving him completely out of the play. So he's a non-factor on this run by Derek Henry. Now speaking of rookies, this Tennessee Titans great may have secured his spot in the Hall of Fame back when he was a rookie. You wanna know more? Have I peaked your interest? Good, stick around. Welcome back to Titans All Access. Jevon Curse had one of the best performances of his career against the Buffalo Bills in a little game we like to refer to as the Music City Miracle Game. He had two sacks and two forced fumbles. And now he's getting some recognition. Jevon returned to Nashville to be inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. We were there to cover the whole thing. What's up guys? Just here in Nashville, Tennessee, getting inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame and stuff. You gonna have a little fun? Jevon Curse will always be one of my very favorites because I remember when he was drafted as the very first Titan. I remember the excitement of our fan base to get an SEC player, to get a guy who had the personality he did, the great Nick Bame, the freak, and then for him to go out and perform the way he did in his rookie year. This franchise had never had anybody like him and probably hasn't since. It's an honor. It's one of those things that I didn't think it was gonna happen to me. I mean, I think mainly because I'm not from Tennessee, but I put some work in here in Tennessee so I think it is well deserved. He gets what I'm saying. The man gets it, he gets it. This is the easy part. I put in all the work to do this, but I shouldn't. That is the truth. It's a pleasure, pleasure, pleasure, yeah. I wanna get on all the halls and all the walls, man. It's an honor to be here amongst these fellow Tennesseans because I'll call myself a Tennessean as well, okay? Still to come on Titan's All Access, we're going to break down the decision to keep Gontra Hilliard on this roster. That and so much more when Titan's All Access returns. Welcome back to Titan's All Access. It's time for the Hughes and Coleman decision of the week. Mike Keith, let's decide something here. Gontra Hilliard, what went into keeping him on this team and what went into making him the third down back? Why make him the third down back? So John Robinson has the Hughes and Coleman decision of the week because he chose to re-sign Gontra with the idea that he could be that change-up. And what's most impressive, Amy, last year when he was filling in for Derek Henry, he caught 19 passes for 87 yards. That's not great. Sunday against the Giants, three catches, 61 yards, two touchdowns. Give John Robinson the credit for seeing it. He knew Don Trell could play this role. Excellent decision by the GM. Now I had a chance to talk to Don Trell actually and he said that he knew he would have success at this level back when he was a kid. Check it out. When did you realize that you had the talent and the ability to make it not just in college but then at the next level in the pros? Like, as a kid, you know, like you see this on TV, like this motivation, like thinking like 19 years old, like then I go out there and play with grown men at that point, but at the end of the day, it's like you still got to, I ain't ready for that yet, but when I got my first offer, I think it was from Georgia Tech, ninth grade year, and I was like, hey, cool, like I actually can make this happen. And that's when I really started taking it serious. When you're taking it something like that seriously, the game of football, it's so much more than just what you do at practice, you know, it's far reaching. How did your life change when you made the commitment to football and making it a means to go to school and then to make a living as a professional? So it's a long, like a lot of the countless hours that goes, you got to put in, you know, things that nobody really sees. And even so there's still things that nobody sees that you have to go and deal with. You have to go put in a personal time studying, working on your craft and lifting weights or doing pushups at night. It's countless of things that happens that nobody actually sees. Good talk with Don Trell. Well, thank you. Love that Don Trell Hillier. When we come back, we've got your ticket to Monday night football in Buffalo. It's actually not a ticket itself for you. It's better than that. It's all the information you need to know. Everything you need to know. It's cheaper than a ticket. Time for your Titans All Access Game Ticket this week. It's to Monday night football. The Titans and the Bills in New York, in Western New York, in Orchard Park, New York. Now we talked about this earlier. The two teams are familiar with one another. They've played each other the last four years in a row. The series is tied two to two. The Titans have won the last two. We saw them on a Monday night. We've seen them on a Monday night before. We've also seen them on a Tuesday. We have, but we're going on Monday this time and will remind you that the game will kick off at 6.15 central time. Rhett Bryan and his partner, Amy Wells, will host Titans Countdown on your favorite Titans radio station, beginning at 5.75 minute pregame. And again, it's a 6.15 central kickoff. We hope you'll join us. For Amy Wells and our entire crew, Mike Keith says thanks for watching and we'll see you next time.