Tennessean's Nick Suss Joins The Show!

Tennessean's Nick Suss hops on with Wex and AC to continue their tour around the AFC South and give insight on what to expect in Nashville with Cam Ward and the Tennessee Titans as they break camp with the worst odds to win the division. Could they go from worst to first? Is Brian Callahan out of a job after two seasons? Who is in line to win the AFC South?  

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Day, Adam Westler and Adam Planton here with you on
the program, and our AFC South tour continues technically wraps
up today. We've already spoken Colts, We've already spoken Jaguars.
An out, time to speak Titans football with Nick sus
joining US Titans beat writer for the Tennessee and Nick,
if you don't mind, I'm gonna come in guns blazing

(00:28):
Tennessee and had their predictions posted earlier this week yours
and four other colleagues over there at your newspaper, and
four of the five, including yourself at the Texans claiming
the AFC South Nick Gray, what's up with him?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Man?

Speaker 1 (00:43):
How in the heck are the Jaguars going to win
this division?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
I think that's a sneaky good Jaguars team. I think
I have them in second, but obviously that's not my pick.
I'm not going to speak for anybody else, but I
will say this, I think that the gap between two
three right now feels a little bit larger to me
than the gap between one and two. That does not
mean anything. I am one human being with a voice.

(01:10):
I'm not going to proclaim that I am a superstar
prognosticator or anything. I'm probably worse than average at betting
games against the spread, but I would say, look, the
Texans are the team to beat in the division, and
the Texans are clearly the team with the best reservoir
of talent in the division. But Jacksonville's got three or
four playmakers who I would trust to make plays in

(01:31):
one on one matchups in close games, and that's usually
my tiebreaker for a good team. I don't think the
Colts have that right now. I don't think the Titans
have that right now. Jacksonville having that gives me a
little bit of pause of just saying one hundred percent Texans.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
I guess, yeah, how much water is in the reservoir
of talent there in Nashville with the Tennessee Titans as
they move into year one with new management personnel wise
with Barganzi and obviously moving forward with coach Callahan. Obviously
we also know they have a number one pick.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, it's an interesting situation, right. I think that the
team was probably more top end talented this time last
year than they are heading into this season, and we
all saw how that went three and fourteen record, But
there were guys on this team, Ernest Jones and DeAndre
Hopkins and some players that look, that's top end talent,
that's star talent that they had that they don't have

(02:22):
this year. I think the roster is probably a little
bit healthier. I think the roster is trending younger, which
is something that this team really wants to emphasize. They
are going to lean heavily on the draft picks this year.
They're going to play a lot of young players, and
they're going to trust those guys to get better as
the year goes on. So if you're talking about present
tense talent reservoir among the bottom of the league, and

(02:45):
there's no disguising that, and I don't think the team
would hide that. But I do think that the goal
for the Titans, as they've stated and as anyone can
healthily observe, is you've got a rookie quarterback, you've got
two offensive linemen you've picked in the first rounds, and
last year and the year before that, you have three
young pass catchers that you drafted in the fourth round.

(03:06):
This year, you got a second round edge rusher and
a second round defensive tackle, and a fourth round linebacker
and a fourth round cornerback and you got all these
things to say. Okay, there's your young core. Let's go
see if these guys can develop into something two years
down the line. Men, you're talking about a team that
maybe has a healthy roster, but you're still twenty twenty six,
twenty twenty seven, twenty twenty eight before we're talking about that.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
I'm talking to Titans beat writer Nick Suss of the
Tennessee and about the Tennessee Titans, and let's talk about
that rookie quarterback. What's the first thing I guess that
stood out to you that you saw this offseason, this
training camp and into you know, a few days left
now until he makes his debut in Week one. Maybe
that stood out to you. And kind of a second part,
how much are those two veteran receivers that are going

(03:51):
to be in that locker room with him going to
help him out in this maiden voyage.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, the first thing that stood out washing Cam back
in April or or whenever it was that they had
rookie camp. This dude truly does not change his demeanor.
Good past, bad past. Somebody's yappin in his face, somebody's
chirping at him, somebody's teaching him. He is steady. He
is a steadying presence, and compared against Will Levis so

(04:19):
I am not denigrating it anyway, but Will was a
very up and down player. He's an emotional player. And
so the Titans have corrected or over corrected or course
corrected or whatever you want to call, and found a
more traditionally doesn't get too high, doesn't get too low
quarterback who also is deeply unafraid to throw balls into
tight windows, kind of like Will was. So it's an

(04:42):
interesting dichotomy there. You talk about Ridley, you talk about Lockett.
I think that the best indicator of what the Titans
feel about those relationships. Up until this season, the Titans'
locker room for the lengthy past had been divided by
position groups. The receivers were all together, the running backs
were all together, et cetera. This year it was all

(05:02):
shuffled to try and create more communication among the entire team.
Cam's in the middle of the locker room, directly to
his right, his center, Lloyd Cushionberry directly who has left
Dalvin Ridley. It is a situation where the Titans want
those guys to be in communication, They want them to
be near each other. They want them to have a
close relationship, and it's worked. Ridley and Cam are very close.

(05:26):
They talk very highly of each other. They have a
good rhythm, a good rapport, to a point that this
week on the podium, Cam was kind of incredulous at
the idea of reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year
Pat Surtan being able to slow down Ridley in Week
one this week, which we'll see. But there is a
confidence there, there is a rapport there, and I do
think that, man, we spent so much time in pre

(05:49):
season and training camp last year talking about Ken cam
Ward developed that deep ball or sorry, Ken will Levis
developed that deep ball with Ridley? Is it going to work?
Is it going to work? That conversation hasn't been there
this year. Those two look like they're in lockstep, and
that at the very least is something that Cam has
going for him to start his career.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
You mentioned the Titans record a year ago, grabbing just
three wins. One of them was against these Houston Texans,
obviously with will Levis out there in that game, though
with most of the other recent ones the last couple
of years, the Texans defensive front has absolutely had their
way with the Titans offensive line. They have clearly focused
in on fixing that offensive line each of the last

(06:28):
two off seasons and could go back one more with Skeronsky.
But do you believe that those five guys slated to
be out there, including the additions of Zeitler and more,
that they have corrected it, that this group has a
chance to be not just serviceable, but even better than that.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
I don't want to get ahead of ourselves. My joke
this entire offseason has been this is a quest for mediocrity. Obviously,
the goal.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
Is a great T shirt practice, it's.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
It's it's not the end goal. But when you've been
thirty second for so long, getting the sixteenth is a
gigantic boost. The gap between thirteen thirty two and sixteen
is much much bigger than the gap between sixteen and one.
If you can get to league average, which that's the
goal of put Dan Moore at left tackle and get
Latham back to the right side of his natural position.
And I hope that Skeronsky in year three can be

(07:17):
that Pro Bowl caliber player you draft them to be,
And hope that Cushionberry can stay healthy this year, and
hope that Zeitler can be that steadying presence you brought
him in for. That's a pretty steady five. I mean,
Dan Moore is still a bit of a question mark.
He it's hard to read the sack totals. Last year
he led the league in sacks allowed, but his quarterbacks
were justin Fields and Russell Wilson two known scramblers that

(07:39):
kind of skew that data. And I think Latham was
either second or third in sacks allowed. But will Levis
famously holds onto the ball for so long, and it's
all the stuff that stats lies. Stat's tell the truth,
that's tell you what you need to see all that stuff.
I'd say that the tackle position still got to see it,
and this week we're going to see it. Nick Bonato
and Jonathan Cooper are every bit the superstars that they

(08:02):
are paid to be out on the perimeter in Denver.
But the interior Zeitler, Cushionberry, and Scroansky. I think that's
a really, really solid three. I think that Skeronsky has
a chance to be the titans best player regardless of
position this year. He's looked really good throughout training camp.
Cushion Berry for a guy who tore his achilles in November.
Is looking great. He's not even on the injury report

(08:22):
heading into Week one, and Leeitler has been in this
league for a long time for a reason. So I
think that on the interior, at the very least, I
feel pretty confident. On the perimeter, let's call it TBD,
but cautiously optimistic if you're a Titan.

Speaker 3 (08:35):
Said so, we've been talking about how you know, the
Texans with the question marks on their offensive line, it's
probably not the best matchup to be going up against
the Rams in Week one, but you have to play
what your schedule says, and in that vein how much
And I know cam Ward has talked about this is
the Broncos defense, you know, gonna be something that you're

(08:56):
concerned about in his first game as a rookie quarterback, you.

Speaker 2 (08:59):
Get about it. I mean, that's a really good defense.
Pat Sartain and Nick Botino and Zach Allen and all
of these players are Pro Bowl talents and all Pro
talents for a reason. There's a lot of good stuff there.
And Vance Joseph is a wily play caller. I think
I was looking at this the other day between head
coach offensive coordinator defensive coordinator. The Titans have three combined

(09:21):
years of experience and the Broncos have thirty. Between Sean
Payton and Joe Lombardi and Vance Joseph there's a lot
of experience to throw stuff at camboard. So you got
to be concerned. Is defense ranked number one in the
NFL and a lot of stats last year, But you
also have to acknowledge defense is such a volatile thing.
Secondary play, more than anything else, is volatile. You can

(09:44):
best in the league as a cornerback and passer rating
allowed one year and then dip into the hundreds the
next year. It's one good play's going to skew you,
one bad play is going to skew you. So I
would say I am very very skeptical that the Titans
will have a lot of big plays. I'm very very
skeptical that the Titans will put up a lot of points.
But I would not be shocked if the Titans have

(10:04):
two or three sustained drives. Tony Pollard running the ball,
grinding it, eight play drive, nine play drive. Cam Mood
takes what the defense gives him and you kind of
see the structure, the bones of what the Titans want
the offense to be. Now, that's not going to be enough.
I'm not picking the Titans to win by any stretch,
but I do think that even against this top defense,

(10:25):
the way the Titans offense is organized, you're probably going
to see some incremental ball control type success to kind
of flash what the team wants to be.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
Well, wait and see Sunday afternoon, they will get it on,
just like the Texans and the Rams to open up
their season. Nick. We certainly appreciate the time covering the
Titans for the Tennessee and hope to catch up with
you again over the course of the season.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah, anytime, boys, you got it.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
Nix to us covering the Titans. We have made it
around the AFC South. That is your AFC South tour
here on the

Speaker 2 (10:56):
A team, the AD It's Talk seven ninety