 This is the OTP presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans, plan on paying less for the coverage you need with Farm Bureau Health Plans. Get a quote today at FBHP.com. I'm Mike Keith. This is so much fun to be joined by my fellow play-by-play announcers from the AFC South, Frank Frangy, Jacksonville Jaguars. How are you? I'm well. Thank you for doing this. I love doing this. I look forward to it. Matt Taylor. How we doing? And the champ, he's here, the champ is here, Mark Vandermeer, Houston Texans, congratulations on being the AFC South champion. Thank you, Mike. And thanks for doing this. This is a wonderful thing that we all do. And who would have thunk it, huh, that I'd be sitting here with the title in hand. Frank, I wrestled it away from you. Yes, you did. Personally. We didn't have a good last month. We handed it over the last month, I think. We have so much to do with the wins and losses, don't we? Yeah. But that doesn't mean we can't claim them. I can tell you this. I sounded much better this year. I don't know what it was. People were complimenting me. Great job. You know, last year we got blown out in some game and I thought I did a pretty good broadcast, but it doesn't matter. I get it. This is what it's about and it's wonderful. Winning and losing is so underrated towards the perception of your performance. No question. No question. It's crazy how that factors in for people. We've all had good games or good wins where we feel like, I can't speak for you guys, but I would imagine this be the case where you feel like I could have done a better job that day. Oh, yeah. You know, I could have done, certain calls could have nailed those better. And then you have blowouts where I thought, man, or not blowouts, but just losses where I thought that was a really good broadcast. I mean, we hit on all the points, the calls were clean, everything was good, but you want your team to win. That's why we are voices of the team because we want to ride those highs and preferably not the lows, but it makes the highs that much more appealing. And Mike's point is right. If we're winning, they love us and if we're losing, it's the worst broadcast they ever heard. I mean, there's a lot to that. Well, we do the thing where they put a GoPro in our booth and do like a call of the game dealio, which is kind of, I don't know what I think of it, but they do it. It's sponsored. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, good. So we're right. It's sponsored. And for the people listening, that's a big deal to what we do. Anytime you say something is sponsored, you have Mark Vanderbeer's reaction, which is good. Yeah. But that means job security. Yeah. That means you got to have one every Tuesday. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So you win. Right. And it's like, there's a touchdown pass and it's exciting and whatever. And you know, you see the comments, oh, it's so fun and we really enjoy it. You lose. Yeah. Why are you posting this? Yeah. Yes. Why are you celebrating mediocre? Yeah. That's the whole thing. I think ours only goes out, that part only goes out kind of like when we win. Oh, nice. Good for you. But the beauty of the GoPro's is fantastic because it's not like these booths have a GoPro spot. Right. So some go here. So while they go up here. Oh, I know. And it was perfect because then it had a great shot of my bald spot. So maybe we can move it down just a hair. Yeah. It's a little bit. We have a ball with that as well. So you were going to say, Matthew? Well, I was just going to agree that when you win, I mean, you guys experienced this too. When you win, Monday is so much easier. Talking to the coach, getting coffee, the water cooler in the break room, that's the joy of it is you come back on Monday and everything's a little bit smoother. People are more inclined to give you more. So the Monday show, the coach's show is a better show following a win as well. Oh, no question. I think one thing though that we go through being around on Mondays is that win or lose, they jump into next week so fast because they have to. It's like a two hour window. Yeah. You think about what they're going through as coaches, especially players, maybe a little bit different, but as coaches, they got to win or lose. They got to move into next week. It's over. Just shove it aside. Yeah. Move into next week. But they do like talking about the wins more. And you know, we all know how to ask the questions. And I think these are important questions. You know, what did you do well that you can carry forward? What do you need to improve upon? There are ways to handle it because I know you guys get peppered with this. Are the things you can't say? Right? Are your questions handed to you? Are they scripted for you? No one has ever said anything to me about anything. But you know, and I think we're all similar in this way. My whole career, I've been the voice of a team, you know, and I've always known how to handle those things. Right. And when you're doing basketball, I mean, I did a three and 23 basketball team once and once upon a time. You know, you learn how to ask the creative questions in that environment. When your team is losing, I say this to everybody, too. In our digital, social, every department that does team-related content. When you lose, you will get better at your craft. No, yeah. That will improve you even more than winning. And my situation marks a little different. You guys work for the teams. I don't work for the team. So I come in for the game. But you kind of do. Well, I do. Well, I do. But I don't. But so, but to your point, I think people understand that what I'm on every afternoon, I work for the team. Yeah. So I'm not going to ask the hard-hitting, how in the world could you have blitzed in that situation? Sure. Who does that? Yeah. My rebuttal is this. Who does ask those questions? Right. I'm thinking, hey, Mr. Talk Radio Guy, go to the press conference. Yeah. Right. You've got access to these people, to the head coach. You could ask them yourself the tough question. But you know, most of these guys don't have the guts to show up at the presser and ask those questions that they're throwing out to their audience rhetorically on the air. They'll play the fluff soundbite from the day before and then rip it for three hours on Monday. And rip it. Go to the press conference. Questions you always have to ask. I don't know if you guys, do you do a post-game interview immediately after with the coach? No, I don't. I don't. Next day. No. I do. It's next day. So I would, you know, and I'm going to ask if there's something involving the quarterback, if he throws four touchdown passes, if he throws four interceptions. If he gets hurt, there's going to be a quarterback question. Yeah, you have to do that. You know why? Because the fans are interested in the quarterback. That's right. It's a thing. Yeah. He would get so mad at me because he would say, you know, I would say, is Will Levis okay? Or is Ryan Tannehill, is he going to, you know, do we have a report on him yet after injury? Right. No, I get the same thing every time. And he, he finally, you know, sort of said to me at one point, he goes, why, you know I'm not going to answer that. Why do you ask? And I explained it to him. It's kind of the job. Yeah. Right. You know, it's not the hard hitting, crazy, whatever. It's just, you know, these are things that the fan base is going to want to know. So if we have to go through the dance of me asking and you're not answering, fine. That's okay. Yeah, if that's what you want to do, but just understand to do my job, and he totally got that. You got to ask the question. Right. He'll lob it in there. He totally understood. He was like, okay, I get it. You know, I get why you feel like you have to do that from the fans' perspective because that's who you do it for. And I think most of us, I'm pretty sure this case with you three guys right now, and I know it is with me, we have good coaches. Well, I mean, our guy to work with, Doug Peterson is fantastic. And I get the sense you and I've talked about D'Amico, and I know you're getting to know Shane Steichen. And so you're getting a new coach, Brian, but we're lucky there. It's not the old school guy as much. We've all had that guy probably, but it's not the old school guy as much that you go, okay, I'm going to ask this question. He's going to jump it in here. I don't think we, in today's day and age, certainly in our division, I don't think we have that. I think we have pretty good coaches. No. With Frank and now with Shane, I've never had a situation where I felt like I couldn't ask a question because it was kind of toeing the line in terms of the seriousness, the severity of it. They know that we have a job to do, and it's our name on the show, right? It's, you know, Colt's Roundtable Live with Matt Taylor. So there's an integrity aspect of it as well. There's a journalistic component to it, too, where you have to ask the questions to your point, Mike, that the fans want to know. And I think the guys that I've dealt with, Frank, Chris, now Shane, they've all been incredibly supportive of me doing my job. And I've never been called to the principal's office because as long as you're objective and as long as you're fair, they know you've got a job to do. I think with the tough questions, whether it's why did you go for it on fourth and one or something like that, or what is the health or whatever situation might present itself, you give them the opportunity to answer a question. And then you don't drive it home. Right. When I was at UMass, you know, Calipari was there the year before the play-by-play guy at the Calipari show pressed him on a suspended player and just kept saying, hey, these fans are all here for an answer. And I think you got to give them more. Like he said stuff like that. So that's how you got the job. Kind of. Sure. But I learned then and other times that, yeah, you have to just throw it out there, give them the chance to answer, but you don't press them. It's their show. That's the other thing people don't realize. It's the D'Amico Ryan show that we're doing. So we're not here to, you know, cook and showcase ourselves and our Mike Wallace, Jim Gray abilities. You're the guy back in the day because the Brady interviews are not are not the Jim Gray that we grew up with, right? Right. They're they're they're softball and it's nice. It's a good podcast, but I'm listening to Jim Gray. Now it's like, and we got Tommy here. And Tommy, what do you think of that? Back in the day, Jim Gray used to press people beyond belief. Yeah, I mean, he was like Sam Donaldson. Yeah, he was the Sam Donaldson of support. Sam Donaldson. People people listening right now have no idea. I might as well have mentioned. That's right. That's right. Marconi invented never mind. All right. So Mark Vandermeer, you're the champion. You get to lead. What do you want to throw out? This is what we did last year. Yeah, through that questions or topics. What do you want to know from the group or one member of the group or? All right. I want to know from Frank. Yeah, Frank Frangie. How are they going to bounce back? Because they flip the script. Yeah. They had a bad start in twenty two, great finish, great start in twenty three and a bad finish. Yeah. So what's the script going to be this year and how do they flip it? Here's what I flip it to a consistency. Yeah, yeah, I listen. The Jags haven't been very good for a lot of years. We all know that. I think they now have a pretty good team. I think I think we have a pretty good. So winning seasons. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, right. Well, to put it in perspective for you, since the turn of the century in the last 24 years, this French has that six winning seasons. OK, he's had two of them. All right. So so he's a pretty good coach. Wow. They've got a pretty good roster, Mark. I think, listen, we've all seen it when it starts going downhill, it starts going downhill. You lose, guys lose confidence. You get some guys injured. They had a bad five weeks. There's no getting around it. And the five weeks, they started eight and three. They were on top of the world. It looked like they were going to cruise to the division title. And then we kind of everything went wrong. I think they've got a pretty good team. They've got to get better at the line of scrimmage. When playing the Titans, trying to trying to get it just just after all the bad that happens, win that game and you win the division. And the Titans gutted them up front. Derek Henry still running, you know, and the Jax couldn't run and couldn't stop. And that has been their thing. So I think making the line of scrimmage, giving a long answer, short question. Radio guys, what we do. I think I think getting better at the line of scrimmage is the big thing. Getting the receivers healthy. They've got they're going to change. You know, they brought in Ryan Nielsen, a brand new defensive coordinator. I think they're going to change that they brought in a whole new staff defensively. So I think they're going to change what they do. But, Mark, they've got to get better at the line of the line of scrimmage. It's still it's still a line of scrimmage sport as much. We love our quarterbacks and we love seeing the ball fly all over. The guy that's toughest at the line of scrimmage usually wins the game as good as Patrick Mahomes usually. Yeah, the chiefs are physical, man. They might have had the best defense in football and they're and they won because of that physicality. And so, yeah, that's what the Jax have to do better. And that's the hope is that if they get more, they've got the quarterback. He was up and down, but they got the quarterback. They've they've got a pretty good receiver room. The back end of the defense isn't bad. They got to get more physical. That's what I think they'd have to do. Sounds good to your question. All right, Matt Taylor. Oh, boy. What do you last year you threw out booth positions? I did. Yeah, which ended up being a great topic. I'm sure everyone who ever green click, click, click. Sorry, sabotage the podcast stuff. Yeah, you got to go inside baseball. Yeah, sure. But it was a good topic. There you go. Sorry even before Matt goes, let me just say about that topic. I can't tell many people asked me, said, did you guys did rain really fall on Matt when he was doing the broadcast? Because remember, you said the yes. And I said, well, you have to understand. You know how at Iowa, the opponents, they the the coach would, Farron's would paint the visiting locker room pink. Yeah, he didn't fry rich. Right, right, right. OK, well, we drenched the opposing broadcaster. That's it. I saw a picture on my phone. There's a bucket next to me just collecting water. It's all part of the psychological play. So we had a lot of fun. Week 17, 2019, I think it was, like a monsoon in the movie. Not that he remembers. Yeah, exactly. So what do you want me to throw it to somebody else? Anybody, just whatever. The ball's in my court. Just whatever you want to talk about. I'll throw it back to you, Mike. I mean, we talked yesterday about a new regime and passing of the torch from Ryan Tannehill to Will Levis. Let me ask you in this first off-season from one regime to the next, what does the ideal off-season look like for the Titans? Going into year one with Brian. It's literally the most interesting off-season this franchise has ever had. Because this franchise, and I told Frank this yesterday, this franchise had seven straight playoff teams as the Houston Oilers from 1987 to 1993. They were so not ready for the salary cap to come in in 1994, they had to take the Warren Moon teams apart. And so the Oilers then moving to Tennessee and becoming the Titans have always been behind the eight ball on the salary cap. Always. We've had moments where we've been a little in front of it, but it's like we've always been playing catch up. This year with $80 million or whatever it is, this is the first time ever we've been able to reset what we're gonna do with the salary cap. So you're making a Derek Henry decision about more than him, are you gonna pay a running back? Right. Are you gonna pay corners? Are you gonna pay wide, who are you gonna pay as you stack it going forward? If we have our guy at quarterback in Will Levis, which we hope we do, then you don't have to pay him for two more years. And so you can set this cap to when it's time to pay him, if you hope you have to, you can do it without breaking up the club. So not only does it turn with Brian Callahan coming in for Mike Vrable, it turns because the Titans are in a position where I think they're resetting their whole plan for the first time that we've ever seen. Sure. And it's gonna be absolutely fascinating to see what's done in free agency and then how that affects the draft. How do they play the seventh pick? They don't have a third round pick because they traded that three last year to go up and get Levis in round two. So do they try to back up and go get that? At seven, you may have a chance to back up because somebody may want the third or fourth quarterback. And we're hoping we don't need a quarterback. So there are a lot of things you're staking right here. And then Brian Callahan comes in, very different from Mike Vrable. I mean, way different. Unbelievable staff that he has brought in, especially his dad, to get Denard Wilson to run the defense and then to get his dad to run the offensive line is just crazy good. And so now we're sort of going to see, but the nice thing that these people have is they're not gonna have to take this thing all the way down to the studs. I mean, no offense Frank, but they showed in the last game of the season that they can still play. The culture's not broken. Yeah, right. Vrable didn't have a locker room problem and they're not gonna have to jettison a whole bunch of guys because they're troublemakers. Still, they've got a lot of work to do and it's gonna be so much fun to see them do this work. Great stuff. I got one. Let me go to quarterbacks. Because I think our division with quarterbacks is fascinating. We like our guy. He had a tough year last year. He played through an ankle, a knee, a shoulder, a concussion. He really did. It was a hard year. I still love it. Yeah, I think he's gonna be so good. But I love where we are. I told you guys this story last year when we did this. I caught a college game two years ago and we had the off week. So I had Ohio State, Maryland. And so I went to College Park, Maryland. Did the college game and I saw Stroud. And also saw Talia Tunga-Vialoa, the little two his little brother who was very good. Right. It's like a 38, 35 game. But I remember thinking, God, is that guy good? And I told you guys this, I thought, I thought he was better than Bryce Young. It's easy to say that now but we had this conversation. The way he saw the field, some of the throws he made, you don't make it the college level. So I wasn't shocked, Mark, that he turned out to be what he was. I'm not surprised. It sounds like it's easy to say now but I told you last year, I was not surprised that CJ Stroud became all that. So let's go around the room. You guys go around. I want you to go first because you got the guy. Did you think he would be that good? What's he like to deal with? Tell me about it. And I'm going to ask you about Anthony too. I do know a little bit. But let's start with you. Tell me all about CJ Stroud because he's a cool story and a great player. Well, I had no idea it'd be this good. All right, this good this early or maybe ever. I didn't know what to expect. You never know what these guys, right? I thought he'd be pretty good. And I thought I had high hopes for Bobby Sloak, the offensive coordinator. I thought they'd organize a good system. The quarterback could be successful enough. I thought they'd run the ball a lot better and he'd feed off that. First time I meet CJ Stroud, he said, all right, what's your name? He wanted it again. What do you do here? You know, he wanted to know. This is like D'Amico was when he was a rookie. He wanted to understand people in the organization who were around him and what everybody did because that's the kind of person he is in a professional environment. And Ohio State is a very professional environment and these college teams, they all have pro personnel departments now, so they're basically pro teams. So he comes in and he fits right in and you see the guy, he's very genuine. He and Will Anderson on draft night, that was real special and they bookended it with the NFL honors, winning offensive and defensive rookie of the year. Anyway, as CJ starts to play, we could see it and we talked about this week two against the Colts. We lost the game, but he throws for well over 300 and you're thinking, he's making a lot of throws. He can play. And then we beat the Jags down there in lopsided fashion and I thought, okay, this guy's good. And then we blow out the Steelers at home and I thought, okay, we've got our guy. And I didn't know where it was gonna go from there. We lost to Atlanta, but he played pretty well. We had a bad game against Carolina on the road. But I thought, I never worried about that. That was a hiccup. Then when we beat Tampa Bay, the way he did that, leading him downfield in 45-ish seconds and hitting it 10 seconds ago, he snapped the ball and hitting Tank Dell for the game winner, I thought, this is it. So all throughout the year, he kept getting better too. What do we always say? You gotta improve. No matter who you are, you gotta get better. He kept getting better. And then I thought, when he got the concussion, it was actually, I don't wanna call it blessing in disguise, but I think being off his feet, being out of the building for a week or two, just clearing his head. I hate to use that terminology, but just enabling his body to heal while his brain was getting better, his body's healing too. And then we had a fantastic finish, really, but lost to the Ravens. So I had no idea, Frank, but I like what I'm seeing. Yeah, and you should. Tell me, now, Anthony Richardson is a wonderful kid. He's got to stay on the field. Right? I mean, I think that would be the question. No doubt. Tell me about getting to know him a little bit and what are your expectations? Well, I have similar experiences as Mark. I mean, he just turned 21. He's 21 years old in May, and you talk about all the expectations, the face of a franchise. Now you're the marketing face of an NFL team, and you played 13 games coming out of college. And he was sensational in the first month of the season. You know, that first, that week two game that Mark alluded to, I mean, Anthony Richardson is, he's making people miss. I mean, he had four rushing touchdowns in the first four games of the season. Obviously it goes down a week five. If you look at the totality of the season, he played 173 snaps, which is about 15% of the overall offensive snaps for the season. So there's no question that when he comes back next year, he's gonna have to kinda retool his rookie season. But what I told Mark yesterday was, when you watched him in OTAs, when you watched him in spring, when you watched him in training camp, rarely did he not go to the right place with the football. I think that's the thing that surprised me the most with Anthony Richardson is that he's a much better passer. He's more accurate than I thought he would be. He's more calm in the pocket than I thought he would be. But the Colts don't want this past season and this experience with him getting banged up because he had the concussion. He had the ankle service a lot of time. He had like four injuries in four games. He only completed one game, 60 minutes full one time. That was the week four game, I think against the Rams. But what they don't wanna do to Anthony Richardson is curb his playing style. They don't wanna change what he does and what makes him special. But the Contrarians around town are saying, you gotta teach him to slide and you gotta protect him better. Well, let me jump in, Matt, because the play he was injured on that ended the season. That was nothing I was gonna work. It was an innocuous. Very much so. I mean, Harold Landry didn't hit him dirty. 100%. I mean, he just got tackled. He landed on the shoulder. He landed on the shoulder and that would worry me. Yeah. You know, because if he'd been hit or bent in an unusual way or, I mean, sometimes you see the injuries say, well, that's weird. That's why that happened. This was just a normal play. Right, and you don't wanna take anything away from his ability to be special because that's why you drafted him where you did. And I told Mark yesterday, I really think that based on everything you heard at the end of the draft last year, the comments and some of the innuendos, I really do think if the Colts were picking first overall last year, that Anthony Richardson was their guy because they think that he has the highest ceiling. He can do things that CJ Stroud couldn't do. Now, obviously, CJ Stroud is he's, he's CJ Stroud. He turned into a fantastic player and the Colts are gonna have to contend with that for the next decade or so. But I think what you're gonna see is from the Colts, I think you're gonna see Shane Stike and be a little bit more tactful, a little bit more, I don't know what the right word would be, a little bit more precise, I guess, in how you use Anthony Richardson, kind of like how the Ravens use Lamar Jackson. Give the ball to your best player when the field shrinks or when it's a third and short and you gotta have a moment, right? Inside the red zone when yards are hard to come by, that's when I think you're gonna see more of the design runs from Anthony Richardson, but it's really fun to think about the potential of Jonathan Taylor and Anthony Richardson in the same backfield because those two guys together last year because of Taylor Saga off the field and then Richardson's injury, those two guys played a combined two snaps together last year. Wow. Yeah, so virtually nothing. So there's a lot of excitement on what the box would look like against the run if you're playing the Colts. I mean, how do you defend Jonathan Taylor? How do you defend Anthony Richardson? Maybe you get Michael Pitmay Jr. back on the franchise tag or you extend him so you have that reliable pass catcher, that fiscal wide receiver, but I think more so than anything within the passing game the Colts need some more pop on the outside, some more explosive plays, but long winded answer to your question. I think Anthony Richardson is so much more poised, mature beyond his years and just really exciting what he can do because you guys know within the Colts franchise it's been Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck in Jim Harbaugh. The Colts have never had anything close to a quarterback like Anthony Richardson and based on his skill set and what we're seeing now in the NFL, I think you have to have what he can do to a degree to win big in the NFL. Well, every quarterback's got to be able to move now, everyone, but to your point, which takes us to, I know you love your guy, Will Levis is physical, he's a bodybuilder, he's a big physical guy, he's athletic as heck. You really like him, tell us about Will Levis. The first time you and I talked about him, you had a little glow about you. Yeah, I liked him early on because in the rookie minicamp when we saw him throw, we've never had a guy with this arm. You're like, oh, okay. I mean, you'd see Tannehill throw and Tannehill has a good arm. You're like, oh, that's great. And Malik Willis has a good arm and you're like, okay, well, that's impressive. And then you see this and you're like, what was that? It's a howitzer. I mean, it's crazy good. To your point though about mobility, you know, what's funny about that is when we had the good offenses 2019 through 2021, Ryan Tannehill was running. Yeah. Wasn't 20 times a game, wasn't 10 times a game. It was always on third down. It was third down. Everybody. Or in the red zone, or in the red zone. I mean, in 2021, he rushed for seven touchdowns. That's a big number for a quarterback. Well, yeah, especially for a guy who was a receiver. He was a receiver his first two years. Yeah, yeah. But then in 2022 and 2023, he didn't run anymore. And so that aspect of it being out was a big deal. Some of it was due to an ankle. I'm not blaming him, but I agree. You've gotta have somebody who can move. Levis can move too. He's not a runner per se, but is he gonna be able to take off when it opens up on third and 10 and get your 15 yards? Yeah. Yeah. Because he's got good speed and he's athletic. Now, we don't need him trying to run over people because Levis's whole thing is his intensity is through the roof. And that's one thing they've had to try to reign in because at Kentucky, things would go wrong and he would kind of get down on himself. And they had to say, listen, this is the NFL friend. I mean, it's, you are gonna throw a bad ball. Play to play. I mean, you are, I mean, this is gonna happen. You gotta shake it off. And we saw in a couple of instances where he made a couple of bad plays of the Miami game on Monday night where he made a couple of bad plays and yet he came back and led the victory at the end, which getting the victory was great and doing it two touchdowns in the last four minutes. But to me, the bigger thing was the way that he flipped it around. And, you know, Pete Rose used to talk about a lot of the success in hitting for him was if you start over two or over three and you end up three for five, two for five or three for five, you come back and you put the earlier at bats out of the way. And I think that's a lot of what he's having to learn. He's super smart. I mean, crazy smart. And remember, he played for pro style kind of guys at not only Kentucky, but also at Penn State. He's an older guy. You know, he's not 21. He's 24. And so he's seen a couple of things. He's had a couple of bad things happen. And that actually helps. I think having the adversity, the adversity of the NFL is the toughest thing for any player, but at the quarterback position, it's like way up here. And how you overcome it, you said it. How do you bounce back from that? I'm curious about this with the Titans though, because to me, and I don't know how you guys feel, but I might have talked about this last year. As an announcer, I gauge certain things. This is one of my meters. My terror meter when that player is on the field. And I had it with Peyton Manning. I had it with Steve McNair back in the day with the Titans playing quarterback. Certain players, you know, terrify you when they're on the field. It's third and sixth. You're like, I know they're gonna get this. I'm talking offense here. And Derek Henry is maybe, maybe he's the only non-quarterback to fit this bill, although Jonathan Taylor comes close. Derek Henry in the backfield is frightening to me. At any down, and we talked about this last week, why even take him off the field on third down? I don't know. I'm not gonna wear him out, but just leave him on the field. He's frightening. The defense doesn't always do what the defense doesn't want. They don't wanna see Derek Henry ever. I always said that the Titans do everybody a favor by taking Derek Henry off the field. Yeah, it's like, okay, great, thank you. I know, you know, Spears can catch the ball, but listen, it should be a running down third and in five or less with Derek Henry. He can pick it up. Well, our problem was we weren't getting to third in five or less, well, that's right. That's what has crushed us the last two years is everybody would put 14 guys in the box on first down. And so you were lucky if you got back to the line of scrimmage or you gained a yard and then you're in a situation. And if it wasn't second and 12, if it was really second and nine, they might run him again. And it might be third and four, and then third and fours are down, you can do a lot of different things, especially when Tannehill was running. And so now, you know, that element is gone and you're in third and eight plus and he's not a receiver. No, no, you can't do that. And the other thing too is in Uly or at Alabama, they would have been crazy to spend a lot of time with him on pass protection. Right, yeah, that's right. So Derek's thing about pass protection, we all know he's a tough guy. Nobody's saying he's afraid to block anybody, but that's a feel thing. Yeah, understanding where people are going to be coming from. A lot of guys can't do it. Well, Tajie Spears can. Tajie Spears can sense, okay, the guy's going to be coming from my right or I need to step up here. He's got that. Derek was never trained in that way. He's also not a receiver who runs 10 routes. He basically runs a screen pass and then some sort of swing or whatever. And so from that standpoint, that's when it was third and seven or more, he had to come off the field. Well, let me tell you about you fearing Derek Henry. Let me give you a scenario. It's the last game of the year. Everybody says he's over the hill, although he's second in the league in rushing. No. He's not coming back. It's his last game ever. The whole city of Nashville is out. Every citizen of Nashville is at the game. Okay, that's the first game I've ever seen with eight million people at the game. And they're all Derek Henry fans. You could feel it. I'm telling you, when you're the play-by-play guy of the other team, where he's from. Yeah, yeah. And so he's from our, Mike, I could feel that. I know. I was nervous when I saw him come out and he's celebrating. I'm like. It was kind of a, you knew it was gonna be one of those days. I'm telling you, Matt, you felt it before the game started. Right. I didn't know if we were gonna lose or a bit of it. Derek Henry was gonna go nuts. You just had, did you have that feeling? It was a Kobe Bryant. It was. I mean, it's where it was. We got to be the other team. Where he's from. Unfortunately, you were the Washington General. Yeah, yeah. That's it. And I remember thinking, this is, I mean, that's how. But to your point about fearing, I agree that's a great description. Because here we go. And I think the first carrier to him, Mike. And your line wasn't very good. No. But they blocked like the greatest line of all time that day because they're blocking for Derek Henry. They're blocking for Derek Henry. And they know he had, you know, they know they understood what it was. And I really feel that that day. It was, I mean, for us as broadcasters, you love to do players like this because it's like, this is gonna be a Hall of Fame player. His five years. If you take from the Jacksonville game on the Thursday night, December 6th, 2018, through the end of last season, there have not been five other running backs, have a five years like he did in NFL history. And that does it. That puts you in. You're talking about Jim Brown. You're talking about OJ Simpson. You're talking about LaDanian Tomlinson, Adrian Peterson. I mean, to average over 100 yards rushing per game for over five years is crazy. The most 200 yard games in NFL history, a 2,000 yard season. 2,000 yard season, yeah. I mean, all of those things. He's one of the greatest ever, period. One of the greatest. And so you're sitting here and you're thinking, how blessed am I that I have gotten to call these plays? I mean, what a gift this is. And then in this moment, I mean, you understand, the Titans are at a different place. Derrick said a different place. I mentioned earlier, you're resetting your cap for the first time in your history and a Broadway with a lot of new people. Rancarthon didn't bring him in. Callaghan's never coached him. Chad Brinker, the president of football operations has no title. I mean, it's all. He plays running back and he's getting. And he plays running back, a position that sucks. Well, it does. It does. But it is a devalued position in terms of, it's the world we're in. It starts with the 7 on 7 with the high school kids. There's no Derrick Henry plays the 7 on 7. No, you're right. So it's there. So you're walking into Nissan Stadium that day and you're saying, this is going to be special. Because you hit it, Frank. There's no way that crowd should have been what it was that day. There's no way. But they knew it was like a bowl game. You could feel it. Well, it is a moment. It's an athlete has bonded with a city over an eight year period. And there's such respect for him. He's a Heisman Trophy winner. And he's a great dude. He's a great dude. That's the thing, too. And the other thing, too, at the trade deadline in 2018, when he was the Titan's third string running back because he was in a horrible slump, they couldn't find anybody that wanted to trade for it. Wow. And what is this? So this is 2018. So is DeMarco Murray still there? Yeah. Well, at this point, it's Dionne Lewis. OK. So Dionne Lewis is the first string running back. David Fluellen is getting snaps over Derrick Henry. It's crazy. At this point. Because Derrick is just he's in a slump. And LaFleur is the offensive coordinator. Yeah. And I mean, listen, they weren't making a mistake not playing him. Yeah. And they couldn't figure out how to get him going. Well, what does this guy do? He's this big star. He's the all-time leading rusher in high school history. He's a Heisman Trophy winner. He's Derrick Henry. He's on the Nissan commercials. Everybody knows Derrick Henry. And man, that dude's in the tank. And what does he do? He runs with the scout team. He goes to he does. He gets with the running back coach. Well, it gets with the running back coach and spends time. And he keeps working and working. They're like, you have to press the hold this way. We know you've never done it before. But you've got to learn this. And then that Thursday night game happens where he rushes for 238 in the 99-yard run and the four touchdowns. And stiff arms to half the city. Yeah. But I mean. Remember the straight arms? That's when the stiff arms all started. I'm not saying this. You might have stiff armed me. I'm not saying this to hurt you, I promise. But that night was such a revelation. You're like, this all just changed. And so then for five years, there's never there have been rare instances in the NFL history. There's never been anything like it. And then fast forward a little five years and a month and you come out for that game and you just know. You just know. Didn't know we were going to win. Had no idea if we could win the ball game. But it's like, today this is going to be special. And it was a it was a unique experience. If that's it. Yeah. It was a great send-off. Took the mic at the end of the game, thanked the crowd. I mean, you just. It looked like a send-off. It did. Felt like one too. And our fans in Houston, go get Derek Henry on all the talk right now live. Get Derek Henry. Or they might watch, say, Quam Barkley. You know how fans are. It's a free agency. It's like, let's get the most expensive car. But I get it because he'd be awesome. Let me tie it all back. I'm going to sabotage the podcast because this is only we care about this. But the press release, the Titans press release, you guys all read the press release. I scour the press release. I'm a big dork. I read it word for word. But Derek Henry and the Titans press release is the biggest beast of all time. And it changes every single week because there's another milestone. There's another accomplishment. So from that standpoint, I'm looking forward to not having to prepare on a weekly basis for Derek. I used to feel that way about the Colts release when Peyton Manning was playing. There's a whole book on Peyton Manning within the press release. And I'm thinking, I'm just going to say, ladies and gentlemen, it's Peyton Manning playing quarterback today. That's all you need to know. And that's ultimately what you end up doing. But the thing about the press release that I was so always just taken aback by when it comes to Derek Henry. Yes, the 2,000 yard seasons and all that. But the fourth quarter rushing, that always stood out to me, like the best fourth quarter rushing, running back in the last five years. More fourth quarter rushing yards than anybody. And by the way, I was the biggest Titans fan in the world that day. It's weird, like within our division, when you have to root for an AFC South team. Because I love you guys. Especially you rooting for us. Yeah, me rooting for the Titans is very weird. But I was like, go, Titans. You know what's funny about all of this? I didn't watch any. I didn't watch a minute of that game. Oh, really? Oh, because you were so Colts lost the day before. I understand. I was working. That was the whole clean out your locker day. So I was concerned. Oh, yeah, you were working. I didn't watch a minute of that game. I listened to you on my way to the complex. Oh, well, thank you. But that was it. I think it's nice. So you were the one. Good. It's good for the division that year prior, we had the Saturday Night Championship game with Jacksonville, Tennessee. And then the Colts and Texans play for not the division, but it turned out to be for the division. But it was for a playoff for it. It was cool. It's like Saturday Night AFC South showcase. I love it that they're doing that now. I think that is so smart. And I love the fact that our division hasn't been the marquee division, man. And we're headed there. Again, if Trevor's what I think he is. I think you're right. If CJ Strouds what it looks like he obviously is in two young quarterbacks. And the coaches, too. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think right now we are in a we are the golden age of this division. I really believe that. And that's really exciting for all of us. Here's the problem, though. Problem, I'll put that in air quotes or whatever. There hasn't been a Super Bowl winner, right? We've got to get a Super Bowl winner or two would be great out of this division because people talk about the really tough divisions in football. And you look at the AFC West, the Chiefs elevate the entire division, no matter how bad the other teams are or OK or whatever they are, right? They elevate the entire division. You look at the NFC East, well, the Eagles in recent years have elevated that division. I know the Cowboys have won a lot of regular season games lately, but I think with the AFC South, we were on a run for a while when it was still six teams going from each conference, where you'd get two in from the division annually. And it was flipping around a little bit. And Matt pointed this out yesterday, so I'm not putting salt in the wound. Colts have not won the division since 2014, right? Is that right? Yeah, it's good. Everybody else has won it twice, at least twice. Yeah, and the Texans have won it more than anybody since then. Yet the Texans are the only one in the division to not make it to the AFC championship game. The Jags have been, the Titans have been, the Colts went in 2014. So it's weird kind of, it's horrible for the Texans that they haven't been to an AFC championship game. The Titans, the Oilers were the last team to do it in 1979. So we have those things going that kind of keep the division down. Plus, if you look at NFC East and everybody's 500-ish, it's still attractive because they're huge markets and it's Dallas and New York and Klitz and Glamour and all that. Despite all, I agree with everything you said. I didn't realize those numbers to you just read them out. But we, what we have, it's still coaching quarterback. More than it's ever been. It's Belichick and Brady and it's Andy Reed Mahomes. That's who wins the championship. You can get to the game, in this day and age, you are not winning it in this day and age without that. Right. And we have four franchises now that might have that. That's the point. I can tell you, I think we got that. I think you got that, Mark. It looks like, I mean, we have four franchises now. Now, look, maybe the young quarterbacks don't turn out to be all that. Maybe Stroud has a sophomore slump and I'm wrong about Trevor and the two young guys don't. But I don't think so. And the point is, we now might have that. Collectively as a division, we haven't had four franchises on solid footing at those two spots. Right. But what I felt good about from our standpoint is when Brian Callahan comes in, initial press conference, he immediately starts talking about Will Levis as the guy. Yeah. And it's like, OK, now that's pretty good. Defender. Yeah, because he didn't draft him. Right. And he's had some pretty good quarterbacks around in his life. And he had a pretty good draft position right now. And so, yeah, I mean, if we wanted to take another one, we could right now. So for him to come in and say, yeah, we're building around this guy. And while at the combine, he makes the comment, we're going to get competition, veteran competition from Malik Willis. Leaving out Will Levis, like he's on a different level. It's like, oh, OK. And that's what you want, because, I mean, it's quarterback play. Dave McGinnis, who I work with, says, if you don't have a quarterback, you've got a highly paid rugby team. And today's football? It's it. I might steal that line. I mean, in today's football, that's really right. It's the hats and the have-nots. Yeah, look how important the backup quarterback is. This past year was the year of the backup. And the Colts almost win the division with Gardner-Minshew playing quarterback. Good quarterback, but come on. I mean, you almost did it. Not only made it, but with the result the next day, I always say the universe changes with certain things. Maybe if the Colts beat the Texans. Maybe the Jags, I don't know what happens. But you would have made the playoffs. One or two more throws gets you there with Gardner-Minshew. You won the game with Bethard, right? The Jags did. So the Jags won a game with CJ Bethard. A crucial game, the only win they had down the stretch. Backups are so important. Yeah, I agree with Coach McGinnis. You've got to have one over the long stretch. But you also need a backup. That's why I'm very curious to know who the Colts backup is going to be this year, because Minshew's a free agent. And the playing style of Anthony Richardson. And look, the Texans had Case Keenum defeat the Titans in a must-have-it kind of game up there. God had to at least split in the games with Tennessee and Cleveland at the time. But you needed the division win. And with the playoff tiebreakers, those division wins are extremely important. To go back to Frank's point, that's the thing that I think I'm most encouraged by with the Colts. Talk about, you've got to have the coach, the play-caller, which Shane Stike is both. And the quarterback, I think Anthony Richardson learned a very valuable lesson as a young guy. And he said this at the end of the season. And I don't think it was him being cocky or over the top. He's like, if I'm healthy, I think we're in the playoffs. And I think that's more of an accurate statement than not, because of what we saw in terms of the first month of the season. So just like CJ Strahl dealing with the concussion, I think with him missing all of that time, it's a very valuable lesson for him. I'm very important to this franchise. And again, that's not him being cocky. We're going to go as far as I'm going to go in terms of my availability. That's huge for this team. But also, too, with the colts on the precipice of a playoff spot, with Shane Stike and as the play-caller, the offensive mastermind, with the backup quarterback and Gardner Menchew, whose playing style is completely different from that of Anthony Richardson, gives you hope that this guy has coached a lot of different styles, a lot of different quarterbacks. And he's had success no matter what style he has to deal with. What I'm excited about from the Titans perspective, to your point about the backup quarterback, we can afford one. Soak in the colts. Well, you did with Menchew. And that's a big deal, because Joshua Dobbs wanted to stay in Tennessee and was really trying to. And the Titans really wanted him to stay. Cleveland made him a $2 million guaranteed offer. And then they cut him. Well, they traded him. Oh, they traded him to Arizona. They traded him to Arizona. But the Titans very much would have loved $2 million is not exorbitant. The Titans were so tight against the cap, they could not afford to pay a guy $2 million guaranteed in hopes that he didn't play. Yeah, yeah. Expensive insurance. They couldn't afford. I mean, we've all been there at different times when we were young buying car insurance. We'd love to buy the best, but we can't afford it. So we buy just what we can afford to get by, so we're legal. And that's where the Titans were. This year, if they want to spend $2 million, $3 million guaranteed on a savvy backup quarterback, they can do it. And I'm thankful for that. I have one thing as we wrap here. What's the most? We're wrapping? Unless we don't. Wait a minute. Who's running this show? Yeah, we're not really. What's the one or two things that the Titans need to do? Give me two. Well, they've got to fix the offensive line, and they've got to add speed at wide receiver. Offensive line, speed at wide receiver. Devin Singletary is a free agent, so they got to address running back and the running game. They have to run the ball consistently. They get the best season ever out of Devin Singletary. That was his best year ever, over 900 yards. But he's a free agent. They got to figure out what they're doing, because you have to take, as great as CJ Stroud played, you have to take some heat off of them. You want to be balanced, especially in that system that they're running. Two things. As it relates to the Colts missing the playoffs last year, I think the two biggest things that held them back were, it's pretty easy. Big plays on offense, not enough. And too many big plays allowed on defense. They had 51 sacks last year, which was a franchise record. And they actually finished top five in the NFL in sacks on defense. But it's just the timeliness. They don't have that guy yet. You know what I'm saying? Like Joey Bosa, Nick Bosa, TJ Watt. Like the guy that, in the high leverage situation, games on the line, he's unblockable. The Colts don't have that guy yet. So they're still in search of that. Trying to figure out what they're going to do with Michael Pittman, Jr. But I think the biggest things are, stop the big plays on defense, which we saw on week 18 with Nico Collins. And not enough big plays on offense. I think some of that boils down to Gardner Minchu versus Anthony Richardson. Because the big plays were there at the beginning of the season with AR. But just trying to marry those two things together. And we're all talking about something the same thing about it. What for Jacksonville? Yeah, but I will tell you, for us, we have to get more physical. You saw it in that game. We have to get more physical. That's the thing on both lines of scrimmage. Now, look, I sound like I'm making excuses for them. But their offensive line was banged up all year. Devon Hamilton had a health issue. He was a fantastic two-gap nose guard two years ago. And then he had a health issue and was never himself. Foli Fadakasi didn't play very well. So the lines of the big people, I want a free agency draft. I want a bunch of poundage, because we need LBs. Because that's what the Jags need more physicality. It's like the opposite of everybody else. They want speed. Yeah, yeah. I think the Jags kind of have the periphery. They need physicality. And you've got to be able to run it. You've got to be able to stop the run. I sound like a coach, but that's what they want. They don't have a physicality problem when they play the Colts. Well, I hear you. You know what I mean? I do, but that's the big thing, I think, for them. All right, I've got to read this. SeatGeek is now the official ticketing partner of the Tennessee Titans, whether you're buying or selling tickets to Titans games, or any live event in Nashville. SeatGeek is the place to do it. SeatGeek, the new official ticketing partner of the Tennessee Titans, so Titans fans can fan. Mark Vandenbeer, the champ, Houston, Texas. Matt Taylor, Indianapolis Colts, Frank Frangy, Jacksonville Jaguars, Mike Keith, Tennessee Titans. This has been a blast. I loved it. Thank you, Mike. I love how we do it every day. Thanks for putting it together and the technology you bring to the world. And I hope we do this every year. I love this. Thanks for listening to the OTP.