Tennessean's Nick Suss Joins The Show!

The Tennessean's Nick Suss hops on with Wex and AC to discuss the outlook of Sunday's contest against the Houston Texans. Does this Tennessee Titans roster look like a 1-15 squad? 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Fat Texans Titans here momentarily. Injury report for the Texans
released and not very unexpected about what is seen there,
most of which I'd mentioned to you earlier, the expectations
what I figured we would see. There was no practice
today for CJ. Stroud or Jalen Peatrie, both still in
the concussion protocol. Dalton Schultz was there but did not practice.

(00:27):
Kimie Fairbairn was not there and obviously did not practice,
and both Harris and Bryant and Denico Autrey were also
d NP's today. Handful of others limited. Davis Mills is
listed on the injury report because of a left elbow
injury his non throwing elbow. He practiced in full and
is in line to start again this weekend. To that end,

(00:48):
Titans Texans Round two coming up this weekend. Last time
in Houston, there were zero points scored by one of
the two teams. It's the team with one win. Nick
Suss of the Tennessee and joins us now is he
did prior to the season, So talk about the NFL,
the AFC South and this matchup. Nick, we appreciate you
joining us again. The last time you were with us,

(01:09):
the head coach of the Titans was Brian Callahan is
not Brian Callahan any longer. And I'm sure you're aware,
and a lot of people have pointed out how many
number one picks or first year starting quarterbacks here in
the last couple of seasons from that first round they're
seeing their head coach moved on from almost immediately. What
is the future looking like for both cam Ward based

(01:32):
on how he started and where you think they're headed
from a head coaching decision this offseason.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, I mean, the one thing we can say that
we know with the utmost certainty is that bad teams
fire people, and the Titans are not very good right now.
Dare I say they're worse than they were last year
when they earned the number one pick. How much that
belongs to the coach, how much along of that belongs
to the players, how much of that belongs to the
roster that's been assembled.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
We can gripe, we can pick through it.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
But to your question about cam it's going to be
really hard to make a career judgment on him until
we see him play six, seven, eight games under the
next coach, which is obviously daunting for him to have
to learn what will amount to, I believe, his fifth
offensive coordinator in five years, dating back to college. He
had a different one is two years at Washington State,

(02:22):
and then he had a new one at Miami, new
one with the Titans, and I'll have somebody new next year.
That's a lot of adaptation. It's something Will Lewis had
to go through through his five years of college and
pro and obviously that did not work out for him
with the Titans. So you're daunted with that. Obviously, Cam's
got a lot of potential, a lot of talent that
people are betting on, so you still want to see

(02:43):
it with a scheme that maybe takes advantage of his
unique skill set a little bit more. But he's also
got to be willing to adapt a little bit more
than he has as a pro. As for where the
Titans are leaning, as for what they're going to look for,
the only indications we've gotten on the record from the
team boiled down to they want a guy who has
high leadership qualities and they want a guy who is

(03:06):
going to be willing and capable of working well with
the general manager to devise the roster. So what does
that point towards? I think most people expect the Titans
are going to lean experience. I think the Titans are
going to lean somebody who has done the job before.
Whether as an offensive minded head coach or a defensive
minded head coach, they don't seem to matter very much
at this point. I think they are probably going to

(03:30):
lean somebody who has at least some familiarity or connection
with the Green Bay, Kansas City, etc.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
Etc.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Model that both the president and general manager come through.
Whether that means obvious higher direct from Kansas City, or
whether that just means cursory connection through people they've met.
It's a lot of different directions to go. Short answer,
they got a lot of people that they're going to interview.
Picking a favor right now would be a fool's game,

(04:00):
but it's obviously crucial. Used that number one pick on
cam Ward and people wouldn't be shocked if they stockpile
an arsenal of talent this year. If they get the
number one pick again and can trade back and kind
of prey on other teams that need quarterbacks, that's.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
A good place to be.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
And if you'll mail the higher that's how it's uston
rebuilt so quickly, so not too difficult to point to
that within the division.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, Nick, a little bit difficult to pinpoint a name,
So you can get back to me when it's Matt
Nagy the new head coach as the Tennessee Titans move forward,
if in fact that proves to be correct a couple
of months from now. But from an organizational standpoint, I
would imagine you're aware of what most people outside of
Nashville that cover the NFL or our fans of the
other teams in the NFL think of what's happened there

(04:44):
over the last several years. From an ownership and decision
making standpoint, is it viewed similarly, very poorly from those
closer to the team, that either they just don't know
what they're doing, or they're run very poorly, or anything
along those lines.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yeah. I mean, you have your factions, and there are
verbel loyalists, and there are people who think that it
was the right decision to move off of him, and
there are people who will point, probably very correctly to
the fact that there was only one player left on
the roster who was drafted by the Titans in twenty twenty,
twenty twenty one or twenty twenty two. One total player

(05:20):
left from the three draft classes that theoretically should be
the core of your roster right now probably not going
to cut it. They haven't hit hit on a first
round pick who's become a superstar since twenty nineteen with
Jeffrey Simmons. You can't go that long without replenishing your
roster and expect to continue to compete at the high
levels of the NFL.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
A lot of people who are going to point.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
To John Robinson's drafting because of that, A lot of
people who are going to point to bad decisions made
by Ran Carthon, the successor as a general manager, who
went out and traded for Lagerius Sneed and signed Calvin
Ridley to a big contract and spent all this money
without really replenishing the ranks with younger players. You'll have
some blame thrown on Brian Callahan for not taking advantage

(06:03):
of the players that were given to him and for
not helping cam Ward establish himself quicker. You'll throw all
this blame, and then the primary concern, as you are mentioning,
is that people don't get much of a read on
what Amy Adams Drunk is as the controlling owner of
this team. She is hard to read. She does not
speak publicly, She does not come out and defend her decisions.

(06:24):
She did not hold a press conference about firing John
Robinson or Mike Rabel or Ran Carthon or Brian Callahan.
And so there's a little bit of mistrust within the
fan base of well, that's four major firings in four years.
How can we trust you're not just going to clean
house every time things go a little bit sour. So, yeah,
I mean, the general perception around the fan base, the

(06:45):
general perception around people within the organization, all of that
is there's been a lot of turnover for a reason.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
The team is not built very well.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
The team does not seem to be consistent with its
decision making. There's a lot to fix, and that's how
you end up winning what is it now, ten games
in the last three years.

Speaker 4 (07:05):
Yeah, lean times there in Nashville. We're talking to Nick
Suss of the Tennessee and here on Sports Talk seven
ninety and not to look back too much, but you know,
in light of what you just got done talking about,
and of course in light of what's going on in
New England this year, how do you think the tenure
of Mike Vrabel is looked back upon now, is it
almost like, why do we let that guy get out

(07:28):
the door? Or was he never given the tools to succeed.
I'm curious, in light of what he's now doing early
in his tenure in New England, what people in Tennessee
think about that.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
I mean, we don't have an hour to dissect every
single part of that question. I will say this much,
I think there is an overwhelming belief across the league,
not just from people here, not just from people in
New England, that had Rabel been given an extra year,
the team still would not have turned things around last year.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
I think the Titans, instead of being.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
A three and fourteen team last year under Brian Callahan,
maybe a five and eleven team, or five and twelve team,
maybe a six and eleven team, there's still not a
playoff team. Mike Rabel's success in New England is independent
of his success in Nashville, simply because the Titans have
such a poor roster. Those drafts from twenty twenty one

(08:26):
to twenty two that I alluded to, those were still
while Vrabel was the coach, and none of those players
seemed to pan out under him or after he left.
You look through some of the decisions that were made,
especially once Ran Carthon became the head of the general manager,
it's very clear there was not alignment between Rabel and Carthon.

(08:47):
Now we can go back a little bit further. Had
Vrabel been able to hand pick his general manager after
John Robinson was fired and get to pick his guy
instead of the team guy with Carthon, maybe we're talking
slightly different story, and it will obviously be clear versus
unclear how much of Rabel's guys are in charge in
New England versus the general manager in scouting staff and

(09:09):
Harrit's there, and we'll see three, four, five years down
the line if the bad drafts in Nashville were more
of a blip or if they really do have sustainability
problems under Rabels regime. There's obviously so so much to
wonder and worry about there. But you come out of
that twenty twenty three season, rabels last year in Nashville,

(09:32):
Derrick Henry's a free agent, Ryan Tannehill's a free agent.
Daniko Autry and as He's Al Shayir, who are now
in Houston obviously are free agents. A lot of the
core of that team that was so successful in twenty
twenty and twenty twenty one winning the division was either
already gone or on the way out the door, and
so they would have had to make the decision do

(09:52):
you re sign a bunch of players who are maybe
aging out of their prime and tried for one last go,
or do you try and start over and recreate this
gy albeit without Derrick Henry It would have been really tricky.
So to make any guarantees of oh, it's as simple
as Rabel's eight and two. Now that he's in New England,
they should have kept him way more nuanced of a conversation.

(10:15):
But there is no doubt that Rabel has been more
successful without the Titans than the Titans have been without.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Rabel brilliantly said and so well said that you've taken
us to the break, so we don't have to ask
you for a sad prediction about the Titans Texans game
this weekend.

Speaker 3 (10:30):
Nick, There you go.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
We got it anyway, and we agree. Appreciate the time
again as always, and look forward to catching up again
in the future.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
Yeah, appreciate y'all. You got it.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
Titans to drop to one and nine, breaking news right here,
on Sports Talk seven

Speaker 3 (10:45):
Ninety, the A on Sports Talk seven ninety