 Welcome to the OTP presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans. Look to the folks at Farm Bureau Health Plans when you need someone who understands the X's and O's of health care coverage. They've been protecting Tennessee since 1947. The gang is all back together again. Hello, Amy Wells. Hey, Mike Keith, how are you? It is so good to see you and it is so good to see Titans Radio's Coach Dave McGannis. Hi, Mike Keith. Amy Wells. Coach, how you been holding up? I've been great. I've been good. Went out and had about a six-mile run this morning. I'm ready. Did you really? Oh, yeah. I mean, look, I'm social distancing. There's not much to do here. All right. There it's good. Jim Wyatt, TennesseeTitans.com, senior writer, editor. Are you back from your run? Have you already done your run today? I did a run yesterday, so I may have a run scheduled for tomorrow at some point, but hope everyone's doing well. It's good to see everybody. Mike, are you running? Me? Yeah. I don't run. No, I can't run. I'm not able to run anymore unless someone's chasing me, then I can get away. Ride a bike. That's how I train. I ride a bike. Yep. Let me ask you, Jim Wyatt, a question because at TennesseeTitans.com today you released the Tuesday Mailbag, and I read every Mailbag. I read everything you do. You know that I'm your biggest fan. My question though about the Mailbag is, is the most popular question you're getting right now about Jedevian Clowney, or is it about the backup quarterbacks, or is it about something else as it seems you get questions about Clowney and the backup quarterback in every Mailbag? That is true, and I have to say a lot of times because it's just too redundant, I can't use all the Jedevian Clowney questions. So that is the most popular question in the Mailbag. I mean, if I get one or two a week, I get 10 to 12, so I just can't use them all and they continue to come in. It's interesting. I think if I had to take a poll, I would say 80% of people want Clowney. But there's a group out there, 10, 20%, that say, hey, we were okay with Adam. We're tired of this. This is dragging on too long. Let's focus on somebody else. But until he finds a home, that question is going to continue to come. I'm certainly prepared for that, and I'll be curious to see what he does. It's a two-way street with him. It's not as simple as just going out and signing him. He's got to want to be there. We saw what happened with him in Cleveland. Not that that's done yet, but he's made it pretty clear that it's not necessarily what he wants to do. So I think there's a good fit in Tennessee. I think the Titans feel like there's a good fit with Clowney, but it's got to make sense for your team and for your salary. Coach Mack, it's June. And I know the people who write to Jim and the people who talk to Amy and the people who visit with me on different radio shows and TV shows throughout the state, they're like, why has Clowney not signed and it's June? Can you give me, with your background, can you give me a good explanation of why you think he's taking so long to make a decision? First of all, it's money. I mean, it's clearly money. And then he wants a fit. And plus he's got an injury that he is rehabbing. And the doctors have not been able that the various teams that are interested in him have not been able to bring him in and give him their own physical and look at it. And the other thing is due to the pandemic, Mike, we're in a very, very unusual situation right now. This is a veteran player that you can't be at your facility anyway. Now, the time is getting closer as to when you're going to be able to get players back into the facility. But right now he's really not missing anything other than being signed with the team and joining virtual meetings. And so he's in a very unusual situation. But if the number one aspect of all of it is money, I think, coinciding with fit and plus with a physical by a team physician that's able to give it to him. So you think this could drag on into next month? It absolutely could. And to me, say you talk about David and Clowney coming to the Titans. This is a perfect setup for him, even in this scenario, because he knows the defense and he knows the head coach. That is really, really big. Because when free agents, especially veteran free agents, are trying to find their next fit, they want some place that there is some familiarity. He's got familiarity on two fronts. Scheme, head coach. There have been virtual opportunities for media members to talk with current Titans, which I think has really been outstanding. And people have really enjoyed reading all of those things. I want to touch on a couple of them. And Amy Wells, I want to start with you. Taylor LeWon, in his session, made a comment to the media about leadership role, the team being disappointed with him and not taking a leadership role in his opinion, and that he plans to do more in that regard. That has been something that the media everywhere has picked up on and run with. The question about Taylor LeWon, and does he take more of a leadership role, and why is that a big deal? So my question for you is, why has everybody latched onto that so much? I think that it's because what we've all been waiting for is for Taylor LeWon to grow up and really take on that leadership position. As they left tackle traditionally, that's a leadership role. That's a guy that's a solid part of the foundation of any football team, and especially the offense. With Taylor, we've seen a lot of different phases of his growth. We saw him come in as a kid, kind of the goofy, funny Taylor that you never really knew what he was gonna say, great for a sound bite. And we kind of saw Taylor as a dad and what that has looked like, and grew up a little bit. And then we have the setback with the suspension. So I think now everybody's waiting to see what is Taylor LeWon to look like as this guy who's being paid a lot of money? He knows the system, he knows what he needs to do. Can he put all those pieces together and really step into that role that he's very capable of doing? I mean, he's a guy that a lot of people look to and respect and he has the personality for it. And frankly, he's got the play to kind of back up the things that he's saying. It's just can he put all those pieces together? And so many people in Nashville, in the media, love Taylor LeWon. He is a big part of this football team. Is he able to translate that to the leadership and the adulthood that he kind of needs to have right now? And I think that's why everybody is rallying behind him. Everyone wants him to be a Titan for a long time and to take the next step in his growth with this team. Coach Mack, what's your take on that? He's one of the best left tackles in the league. I mean, without a doubt, he is so physically gifted and he was coming out. I remember vetting Taylor when he was coming out. His physical gifts as far as a left tackle in the national football league are exactly what you want. And plus, I mean, he went through a maturation process as we all do, but especially players do. And you've seen that, you've been with him the whole time that he's been here. You and Amy have and Jim, you've seen him go through those maturation steps. Amy did a very nice job of delineating those. Taylor LeWon is one of the best left tackles in the national football league. And I think last year's suspension really woke him up to the fact that he's got a great chance. The Titans have already shown their faith in him by the contract that they awarded him with. And he earned that contract because he is that type of player. But once an organization rewards you with that type of contract, you have an obligation as a player to not only live up to the contract money-wise, but also it encompasses a much more. How many times have you guys heard me say, it's much more to being a professional than just getting paid. And you can see a difference in Taylor LeWon. And to me, that's exactly who I would want as my left tackle. And this offensive line, Mike, from the sixth game on last year, was one of the premier offensive lines in the league. I've done a lot of radio shows. I've done podcasts. I just did Moving the Chains on SiriusXM NFL Radio. And they asked me about this offensive line specifically and started spouting some numbers. And I said, wait a minute, you've got to distinctly separate the offensive line from the first six weeks of last year to the last 12 to 13 weeks. It was entirely different. And Taylor LeWon is a huge part of that. Couple with Roger Saffold on the left side, you've got two of the most gifted players in the national football league playing side by side. And to me, I believe everything he says because I've been with a lot of players during my career, I've seen them mature and grow up. I have seen that in him in my time here with the Titans. Jim Wyatt, your most striking comment from cornerback Adory Jackson's session with the medium. Yeah, I'm away on Taylor one more time real quick. Okay, good. For Adory, but I do remember when Taylor LeWon was named a captain the first time around. And I went to him and was working on a story about that game program story, which is kind of a bigger profile piece I do. And he was very uncomfortable answering questions about being a leader because I think the reality is, he didn't see himself as a leader. And I thought the most telling thing from his Zoom call was when he said that coaches should be pissed that he hasn't stepped up and been more of a leader to this point. And the truth is he should have been more of a leader up until this point. And like Amy said at the start, this is what people wanted to hear. This guy is a first round pick, starting left tackle, just got a second contract a couple of years ago. He's been a three Pro Bowls. He needs to step up and assert himself. I think some people, the reaction to the story from some people was great. I'm glad to see him mature, glad to see him get to this point. The other part was, haven't we heard this before? I mean, Taylor LeWon has been the first guy to step up after games and hold himself accountable for penalties and saying he's gonna do this, saying he's gonna do that. And the reality is he hasn't really followed through a lot of times. So people want to see him finally get to the point where his actions are speaking as loud as his words. And now we can only see what happens from here. But I think it's a positive sign that he is at least looking himself in the mirror and realizing I've got to do better. And this team needs him to be better because with no Logan Ryan and with no Drew O'Casey and with no Delaney Walker and no Western Woodard, this is a team that needs guys to step up and be leaders. Now it's his time to do it, head into year seven. As far as Dory goes, Dory is not a guy that's going to rock the boat. He's a happy guy. He's happy to be here. You know, I thought he showed a lot of, you know, very genuine in him speaking about how thankful he is that the Titans believed in him enough to get the fifth year option. I guess the biggest theme that people tried to pull out of that call was whether or not he's going to be playing in the slot, something he didn't give an answer to. But I think, and I heard Mike, you talk about this on the radio at 104.5 this week. I think it's going to be a situation where it's not just a Dory. It's going to be a number of guys that are going to work in that slot because these same questions came to Kristen Fulton the night he was drafted. And it's going to be interesting to see when practice starts just how some of this plays out. Amy, I want to get your thoughts on what a Dory Jackson had to say. What jumped out from the transcript? Well, I was surprised at how well he answered the question about him receiving the fifth year option and Cory gave us not. I think that he was very complimentary of Cory. I think that that's a tough question to answer. And he kind of said, we do the same thing. We play 100%. It's all gas, no breaks. And I think that that's something that we can expect to see going forward from both of those guys. But I thought I was struck by how gracefully he handled the question that is not an easy one to answer. And I was impressed by him. He sounded like a grownup. And I think that's good. All right, Jim had a great piece at TennesseeTitans.com about Kamalae Correa and the fact that he has done some boxing training to work on some skills to get ready for 2020. Dave McGinnis, two part question. Where does that boxing training help him at Outside Linebacker? And the second part of the question is, where did he improve the most during the second half of the year that gives him a chance to be an even bigger factor in this defense in 2020? You know, I've had a lot of players during my career, Mike, that during the off season, you know, sometimes to implement their training would go into the martial arts. And especially the defensive lineman with the hand-to-hand combat element of it. The boxing is an element of that. The boxing is excellent conditioning, first of all, if anybody's ever done that in any of their exercise regime, you know what great conditioning it is. But for a defensive lineman, it also ties in and synchronizes the top half of your body to the lower half with the footwork, with the ability to transfer your weight, with the ability to bring power with your hands. And so you could see, you know, where that could work into an off season regimen. I mean, I can understand that. You know, why was he so successful? Look, he was brought in here because he had really, really deep knowledge of what this defensive system was. And with as multiple as this defensive front is, especially at the outside linebacker spot, you need to have an understanding and a knowledge of how to be able to adjust and to move within the cause of this defense. And then he's always been, ever since he has come out of college, he's always been a very consistent player, not a flashy player, but a very, very consistent player. He had his best year statistic-wise of his career last year. He needs to continue to be that guy. They need to him to be healthy and they need his consistency there. And that's what allowed him to have the year that he had last year. They need that from him this year too. Jim, are people right or wrong in discussing the outside linebacker position as the current Titans position of most concern? Well, I think those people are fair to question that. And I think they could be proven wrong in time. But right now, as you look at the group, Correa obviously ended well. Coach Mack just talked about, and I think he has a chance to take the next step. Harold Landry showed a lot of promise last year, nine sacks, but let's be honest. I mean, he kind of fizzled out at the end, wasn't nearly as productive. He's got another step in gear. He needs to hit the team's banking on a guy like Vic Beasley signed from the Falcons, who's had some really good years, but really need him to have a resurgence in his career himself. And behind that, guys with potential, whether it's Roberson, whether it's De'Andre Walker, who's kind of a forgotten man at this point. This team has some potential and has a chance to be good there. But I think it's fair to question because a lot of those guys do arrive with some added question marks, and they're gonna have to prove it for this team to be really successful. But I also think that there are other positions, especially on the defensive side of the ball that deserve to be looked at as well. I think that you can always use more people in the secondary, you can always use more depth there. The inside linebackers are a rather young group, and you could use a couple more of those guys as well. I think that there are a lot of areas on the defensive side of the ball, just overall, where you could use more people. And that gives some of these young guys a chance to really step up and add some of that depth and show what they can do. There are spots to be earned on this roster, especially on the defensive side of the ball. And so if you're a young kid right now, you should be licking your chops because this could be good. What do you think, Coach? Well, I think early on because of what we are experiencing throughout the league, your young players now, they're gonna be behind the eight ball a little bit because this is very valuable time, boots on the ground that they are missing right now. And we're talking about young draftees or young free agents that are a part of your club right now, but have never, ever even been to your facility. This is the time of year, all of you guys have been involved in this long enough to know as a coach, this is the time that I've really valued because you're gonna change your roster 27 to 32% of the time every year in the National Football League, just because of the way it's set up now with the Southern Captain Free Agency. But you're trying to form the nucleus and be able to blend a team every year. This is an important time for that. So young players, we talk about all the time about how far Rashawn Evans was behind because he missed training camp or he missed OTAs or how far Nate Davis was behind because he missed OTAs and he missed training camp. Well, all of these rookies are missing everything right now. They haven't missed training camp yet, but they've missed these OTAs this off season. So I think we need to temper a little bit as far as saying, well, a rookie is gonna step in and do this immediately. That's not the way it works in the National Football League. Now, every roster and every team is in the same situation. So those coaching staffs and those organizations that are the most innovative and have done the best job with their virtual meetings and being able to coalesce everybody together, they're the ones that are gonna be ahead of the curve when everybody comes back together with boots on the ground. Owners had a meeting last week about rules and there were some new rules adopted. The bigger stories came from rules that were not adopted, things that were thrown out there. The one was with the lack of success of the onside kick in the last two years, it was proposed that you would have a chance to go for it on 4th and 15 from your own 25 if you picked up the first down, you would keep the football. That was table. I'm gonna give all three of you a crack, but Jim Wyatt, you get to go first. Did you like the idea of the fourth and 15, make it, take it in place of the onside kick? And do you think it has life at some point in 2021 or beyond? Well, I'm torn on whether I like this rule or not because from a fan perspective, sure, it's exciting. You're gonna keep fans engaged the very end knowing there's a possibility that you could convert a couple of 4th and 15s, keep getting the ball back, make a great comeback and people be talking about it on Monday, but from a, I guess, from a more of a purist standpoint, I'd hate to see a team that has outperformed the other team the entire game and then all of a sudden lose at the end because of just a flurry of events that really changed to the way 55, the 55 or 57 minutes were played up into that point. So I personally, even though the onside kick is such a low percentage play, almost hate to see it replaced with a more gimmicky way to end the game. With all that said, I think at some point, it's going to be replaced and maybe that's an alternative to take it away. It seems a little game show-esque, doesn't it? Like I've been watching all of these game shows because I have some free time and they're all reboots of old game shows, but like with one little thing changed. Like I've been watching Deal or No Deal and now you can negotiate with the banker one time and that creates high drama one time. Like this seems kind of like negotiating with the banker to me. Like you get high drama at a pivotal moment, but that's kind of it. And it just dies right back off. So I can see why as a fan, that would be kind of exciting and you can use your one lifeline if you need to, but like overall, it doesn't fit in with the rest of the game. So I say that the Tennessee Titans find a magical onside kick-kicker. I don't care if you can make field goals. If you can do onside kicks, like that's really all I want. And he's our guy and we just onside kick our way to the Super Bowl. That's where I'm at right now. You got to follow that coach. That's why I miss Amy Wells so much. She wants a roster spot for an onside kicker, dude. And a game show. She doesn't want it to be Deal or No Deal. And that is beautiful. Look, I don't hate it. I don't like it in its form. I don't think they've talked about it enough. Time to run time down. I mean, that's number one. I mean, that's huge to me. The other thing that to me is very, very important is, is they've tried to set some parameters when you can use it, when you can not use it. This thing really had no chance ever to get to the table might for one simple reason, because they knee jerk and got froggy so quick on this pass interference thing last year. This competition committee now, they're not jumping on top of anything. This will be tabled. This will be talked through. It hasn't been talked about enough. They need to bring Amy to the competition, committee meetings, at the owners meetings to talk about Deal or No Deal. I'm there anyway, happy to contribute, happy to. I think bottom line coaches, it has to be a time down. There's no way it can be an untimed down because that's way too much of an unfair advantage to the team with the ball. Absolutely. Peter King had something in his column. It was exactly what I thought. You're down two, three seconds to go, complete a 60 yard pass on an untimed down and then you kick a field goal and win the game. Yeah, I mean, you just can't do that. It has to be a time down. And when they first started it out, Mike, it was an untimed down like an extra point. Right. So they've got, this thing was tabled for all the reasons that we've talked about. And they'll talk about it again. I mean, this is an alliance thing. If this thing ever passes, I mean, it'll be in a different form. All right, so I want to ask about the sky judge thing. And so, and coach, you're going to have to help me because I'd love to help you. The concept that was out there is there would be an extra official in the booth and he would essentially be at like a second referee as I understood it. And they voted this down. They said, we're not going to do this, but we are going to experiment with it some in the preseason. Explain the concept and what you expect to see in the preseason and do you like it? I like the fact that they're going to experiment with it because here's my take on it. All right, what they want to do right now, they want to be able to get it right on the field. This is another conduit to New York because I can see during the process of this while they are testing it out, Mike, that they can, you know, where it started right now is that only you can initiate help from the official on the field asking the sky judge, what do you see? Okay, this is going to morph into when they're testing it out into the sky judge saying, hey, you might want to check this. It's also going to be River on from New York calling the sky judge saying, here's what we see here, call down and say something. They're trying to get the lines of communications. I think figured out, I like the fact that they are going to try to experiment with it. It won't be in its same form that they experiment with it, but I like the concept. I do like the concept. And of course, it all goes to how quickly it is able to be administered on game day. If it's going to be clunky, if it's going to be fragmented, it's not going to work. If they can get a smooth operation, it'll be different from what they're originally proposing, but I like the concept, Mike. Jim White. I'm with coach Mike. Second, what he said is the most important thing is just to get it right and to have an opportunity to get it right is important to me just as long as it is not another long drawn out process. What about you, Amy Wells? What do you think about sky judge? Well, first and foremost, we've got to change the name because that is just terrible. We cannot refer to this guy judge the whole time. I feel like they need a space suit or something crazy. But I do like the idea of having an extra set of eyes on a play from a different perspective that's not all the way in New York City. Having someone on site, I think, is valuable as long as, like everyone else said, as long as they can do it in a way that is not clunky, that makes sense, that is understandable, but for the love of God, we cannot call it. Do you have a suggestion? Anything else. I mean, let's just call him Stan and he can be Stan upstairs. And no matter what his actual name is, it's just, let's just go to Stan and see what he's. Oh, wow. So like, it used to be a gem, we'll remember this too. Remember when it was Tammy, the timeless teller? That was one of the banks referred to their ATM as Tammy. So this would be Stan. I like that. Let's take it to Stan, see what he thinks. That's good stuff. You've been listening to the official Titans podcast, the OTP presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans. Don't get sacked by the high cost of healthcare. Make Farm Bureau Health Plans your first line of protection. They've been protecting Tennessee and since 1947. Well, Amy Wells, you have been energetic, enthusiastic and opinionated. Thank you for your contribution as usual. Full of coffee and haven't talked to anybody in about two weeks, this is great. We could never tell. Coach Dave McGinnis, love being with you again, missing you so much, can't wait till we're back together. Guys, it's been wonderful. All right, let's get back together soon. See you guys. All right, Jim Wyatt, great job at TennesseeTitans.com. Keep up the good work and we look forward to reading everything that you have. Weeks keep flying by, now the months are flying by. It's June, we have training camp is a month away if everything goes off on schedule and looking forward to it. So it's good to see everybody. All right, for Jim Wyatt, for Amy Wells and Dave McGinnis, I'm Mike Keith. Thanks for joining us for this edition of the OTP presented by Farm Bureau Health Plan.