Turron Davenport 0:00

This is actually for both of you as far as the the process of building around Cam Ward, like how well do you guys feel you've built around him and put him in a situation where he can be successful?

Mike Borgonzi 0:11

Um Yeah, I mean that that's the goal. Um when you have a young quarterback, you're trying to build around him, and you know, we've obviously added some some weapons for him. Um you know, fruit free agency in the draft. Um and we feel good about the skill guys that we have and and uh you know continuing to uh invest in the offensive line is is gonna be a big thing too. But uh but we feel good at this point.

Robert Saleh 0:36

Yeah, just to just to echo it, uh definitely feel good and not to not to leave out the guys who were here a year ago with uh with Helm and uh DK and Alec. You know, those guys are gonna come uh hopefully continue to build and and grow into their second year. And so uh we've got a good foundation and now it's just just a matter of working and developing these guys.

Buck Reising 0:56

Robert, you got a lot of experience on your coaching stuff, obviously. Was there much of a self-scout in the offseason heading into training camp from the coaching standpoint, kind of what guys liked, didn't like, what you liked, didn't like?

Robert Saleh 1:06

Yeah, you're um constant communication with all the uh whether it's David with the uh quarterback or uh defensively and just the things that look good and just the uh the overall structure of what we're trying to accomplish. Um and we'll self-scout again going through training camp. So you're you're always evaluating, you're always trying to look inward, you're you're always trying to break things down and uh uh looking forward to this training camp and all the different work we're gonna get, not only with ourselves, but along with uh San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago. Um those will be really good uh evaluations for us also.

Russell Ries 1:50

Good morning, afternoon, or evening to you wherever you're listening from. It's Saturday, August 1st. My name is Russell Ries, and you are listening to the Nashville Sports Report. We started today's show with a clip from the Titans Introductory Training Camp Press Conference featuring GM Mike Borganzi and head coach Robert Sala. There will be plenty more on the Titans today as we're going to do a complete overview of everything that has happened since last season. Catch you up as we head into training camp. But first, a little bit of other Nashville sports news. Nashville SC lost last weekend to Orlando, 1-0. They were again shorthanded with a few people being out and fought valiantly, in my opinion, at least. It was too bad they couldn't come away with a draw. They head again to DC tonight for a 6-30 match against DC United. The Nashville Sounds are at home facing Charlotte currently. They are 54 and 45 and 4.5 games back of the Memphis Redbirds. On Tuesday, they head to Memphis for a six-game series that could put them right back in the thick of things. Alright, on now to our season review, preview, cliff notes, whatever you want to call it. We're gonna get you up to speed on the Titans and where things stand with them. Previously on the Tennessee Titans. They finished last season at 3-14. That would be tied for the worst record in the league. Unfortunately, due to tiebreakers, they ended up with the fourth overall pick instead of the first overall pick. Head coach Brian Callahan was fired after week six, and Mike McCoy replaced him as the interim coach to see out the season. First order of business for the Titans this offseason was to get a new head coach and coaching staff in place. GM Bike Bragonzi eventually settled on Robert Salah, who we heard in the clip at the start of the show. Coach Sala is a defensive-minded head coach. He was recently the head coach of the New York Jets two seasons ago, went back to the 49ers where he was the defensive coordinator for them last year. He is known for a defensive scheme that is a heavy rotation along the front line. They rarely blitz, they like to use four players to get after the quarterback, usually have the secondary and a zone coverage, like a cover three or quarters. This whole thing he preaches is fast and violent. He wants to keep guys coming in in waves, he wants to get after the quarterback, and he has said that he will be calling the defense on game days this year, which is not something he previously did as the head coach of the Jets in his last head coaching tenure. Coach Sala was able to bring in Brian Dable, former head coach of the New York Giants as his offensive coordinator. Dable was fired last year by the Giants. He was previously, before that, the offensive coordinator of the Bills. He is known primarily for having developed young quarterbacks, specifically Josh Allen with the Bills, who is now a perennial MVP candidate. And when Dable was the head coach of the Giants last offs, he wanted to draft Cam Ward, current quarterback of the Titans, and he now gets to work with him here. It seems like that was one of the big draws for Dable coming in. On the defensive side, Salah has tapped his longtime mentor Gus Bradley to be the defensive coordinator. Bradley first hired Sala in Seattle when he was the defensive coordinator. Then when he became the head coach of Jacksonville, he brought Sala in there as well. Bradley will be another mind who knows the system and can implement it with the team moving forward. Finally, special teams coordinator John Bones Fossil was retained from the previous staff. He was hired at the beginning of last season and immediately turned around a woeful special teams unit and produced an all-pro returner in Chim DK. Also, this offseason, the Titans completely rebranded their look. They are moving to what they call the Titans blue as the primary color. It's an homage to the old Oilers uniforms, the Columbia blue that they had. They also updated their logo, removing the flames from the famous Flaming Thumbtack logo, removing some of the shading as well, and changing the colors to their new color scheme. That new logo will appear on new white helmets, which are replacing the old navy helmets the Titans had. Additionally, they've created some other secondary logos, fonts, and watermarks that will be a part of the branding as well. I'll include a link to the Titans branding page that they've released with this rebrand down in the description so you can take a look at all that. But that is not all the Titans uniform news that's happening. As members of the AFC South, the Titans are in one of the two divisions that are going to get what are known as Rivalry Series jerseys this year from Nike. The Rivalry Series jerseys are community-inspired designs, and they will be released sometime later this month. There is a report out that it will be August 25th, but I have not been able to confirm that. There is also a leak that suggests the Titans Rivalry Series uniforms will feature the old Navy blue that was used in past Titans jerseys with a Navy blue helmet and Music City written across the front of the jersey. I've included a link in the description below to that leak. And uh I also recommend if you want to learn more, checking out the Music City Audible Podcast. They did a great rundown of the Uniform Concept about a week or so ago. I'll include a link for that down in the description as well. There's plenty of new players coming to the team with uh Sala and Dable taking over the offense and defense respectively. On the free agency side, uh there are many former Robert Sala players who have come over D-line. We've got Jermaine Johnson II, who was traded from the New York Jets for Tavandre Sweat, farewell meatloaf. John Franklin Myers, who formerly played for Sala with the Jets, signed as a free agent. Solomon Thomas, Jacob Martin, Jordan Elliott, other defensive linemen who have previously played with Sala, now on the Titans. Additionally, safety Tony Adams was signed, and on offense, running back Michael Carter and swing tackle Austin Deculus have also joined the team, having previously worked with Sala. Former Dayball players include wide receiver Wandale Robinson, tight end Daniel Bellinger, both formerly of the Giants, center Austin Schlottman, cornerback Cordell Flott, also both of the Giants, and quarterback Mitch Trubisky, who played under Dayball in Buffalo. Additionally, the Titans signed Tullahoma Native and former UT Vall cornerback Alante Taylor as a free agent who had previously been with the Saints. On the draft side, Titans added many new faces, starting with number four overall pick, Carnell Tate, a wide receiver out of Ohio State. Tate is expected to be an immediate starter and impact player. And if you've listened at all to this podcast, you know that I am very excited about his presence on the roster. Additionally, the Titans traded into the back end of the first round to select Auburn defensive end and sometimes defensive tackle, Keldrick Falk. Falk is a really tall young guy. He will be able to play all over the defensive line, which is something that Salah likes with his defensive linemen, that versatility. Have him inside and outside, depending on the situation. In the second round, the Titans traded up again to go after Anthony Hill Jr., a linebacker from Texas. He is expected to push former defensive captain Cody Barton for his starting spot sometime this season. Sala has been known for his work with linebackers previously and his various stops, particularly Fred Warner of the 49ers, who became a perennial all-pro working with him. And I think a lot of people are excited to see what Salah can do with players like Anthony Hill Jr. and Cedric Gray, who we'll get to a little bit later on. Some later picks in the draft this year include guard Fernando Carmona out of Arkansas, running back Nick Singleton from Penn State, Jackie Marshall, a defensive tackle out of Baylor, Pat Coogan, the center of the national champion Indiana Hoosers. Still a weird thing to say. And Jaron Kanak, a former quarterback, turned linebacker, finally turned tight end out of Oklahoma. Heading into this training camp, the offense is looking pretty interesting and completely different. Here is a rundown of the various positions and some of the featured players at those positions, starting with quarterback. Currently there are four quarterbacks on the roster. I expect the Titans to end training camp with only two. But as it stands, Hendon Hooker, former UT Vol, is uh number four on the depth chart and not expected to make the roster. Another player who probably will not be on the roster at the end of training camp is Will Levis, the former second round pick out of Kentucky. I think most people assume he will likely be traded sometime during training camp once a team or two become needy and want a backup. Levis, despite all his meme tastic abilities and propensity for throwing away the ball at the worst times possible, has a heck of an arm and will probably be appealing to somebody as a potential backup. Speaking of backups, the Titans brought in Mitch Trubisky, who I mentioned previously played under Dayball for one year in Buffalo. He signed a two-year deal to be Cam Ward's backup. He will be able to help implement the system and teach Ward some of the finer points of being in the league that he didn't necessarily get from anyone on the roster last year. Which brings us to Cam Ward, last year's number one overall pick. And if we're honest, the success or failure of the Titans this year will largely hinge on Cam Ward's growth. I think a lot of analytics people would say that he had a terrible rookie season, but people who actually watched the Titans last year tend to disagree. The Titans ended up playing the toughest strength of schedule out of all teams in the NFL. Cam faced eight of the top ten defenses, including facing the number one defense, the Houston Texans, twice. I believe everyone would agree that he grew into the role as the year went on, looked better in the second half of the season than he did in the first. And given his career uh going from incarnate ward to Washington to Miami and now the pros, Cam has shown that he has the ability to grow. He's always lurking to get better. And I have full faith that we will see a much improved and much more comfortable Cam Ward heading into year two. One thing that could make his life a little less comfortable, and something that I would say is probably the biggest question mark on the offense this year, is the offensive line in front of Cam. The left side of the line, the left tackle Dan Moore, and left guard Peter Skaronsky should be okay. Skarnsky, in fact, is more than okay, but I think after being somewhat ridiculed being signed last offseason, Dan Moore has shown that while he might not be an elite left tackle, he can get the job done, and sometimes that's all you need. On the right tackle position, JC Latham has been fairly good if he can stay healthy, which is a major if right now. But the real question marks on this unit are the center and right guard. It's center, the starter appears to be Austin Schlopman. The man mentioned previously, came over after spending two years under Dable in New York. Positive is that he knows the system. However, this is his ninth year in the NFL and he has never been a starter before. I wonder if that will matter if he will be able to maintain the longevity of a 17-game season, having never played that many before. Hopefully Schlottman is the answer because sixth-round rookie Pat Coogan is the backup, and while Pat seems like he may have a good future in the league, you don't get drafted in the sixth round for nothing. So there's probably some work there to be done for Pat. Best of luck to him. The right guard position looks to be a battle between Cordell Volson and Jackson Slater. Volson is a fifth-year player who's formerly been with the Bengals, who are not exactly known for their great offensive line play. And Slater is a second year player who the Titans drafted in the fifth round last year, who has yet to play a snap in fell. So between the center and the right guard, there could be some serious weaknesses on the line. The Titans really need somebody to win that right guard position as quickly as possible so that the five starting offensive linemen can begin to develop as a unit and really start to gel. It's going to be crucial to the success of the team and to keeping Cam Ward upright and healthy. Moving on to the running backs, Titans will definitely at least be keeping three running backs, possibly a fourth remains to be seen. But the three that seem like locks at this point are returning lead running back Tony Pollard. Pollard's been very consistent, broke a thousand yards for the last two or three cis seasons. Uh he's a Memphis native, just a good running back who had the misfortune of following Derrick Henry as the primary back. So while he's consistent and had the same kind of flash as Derek, he is also in the last year of his contract and likely won't be back next year. Also on his last year of his contract is Tajay Spears, the Titans change of pace back. Tajay has had a litany of injuries throughout the year, and it seems most likely that he will not be returning to the team after this contract ends. Third running back, who I suspect will be a lock to make the roster, is fifth-round pick, Nick Singleton out of Penn State. Singleton could end up being the future of the running back position for the Titans if he can lose this season. And on the fourth running back position, I think we're probably looking at a battle between Michael Carter, Julius Chestnut, and last year's seventh round pick, Khalil Mullins. Tight ends will probably also be keeping four on the roster. Their personnel packages with multiple tight ends are very in vogue right now, to sometimes three tight ends on the field at the same time. There are two that will be sort of the lead tight ends, I think sort of one A and one B, and that'll be Gunnar Helm, second-year pass catcher and blocker out of Texas, and Daniel Bellinger, who I previously mentioned followed Dayball from New York. Both these guys can catch, they can block, they can do pretty much everything you ask of a tight end. The other two tight end spots in my mind will probably be down to some combination of seventh round pick, Jaron Kanak, David Martin Robinson, and Kylan Granson. And most likely come down to who can contribute on special teams as well as playing tight end. The wide receiver group this year is probably the deepest wide receiver group the Titans have had since they came to Tennessee at the very least. And there are five who are sure to make the roster, starting with Carnell Tate, the number four overall draft pick, who was brought in to help Ward. Tate has massive hands, seems like he catches everything. There's already been tons of clips coming out of uh offseason training and an already training camp this week of Tate making spectacular catches. Very exciting. Looking forward to seeing what he can do. Wandell Robinson, who I mentioned, followed Dayball from New York, will be the primary slot receiver. Wandell is a very short 5'8, but he eclipsed over a thousand yards last year and will most likely be Cam Ward's safety blanket as the guy who knows where to be at Altums and understands the system very well. Calvin Ridley returns after restructuring his contract this offseason. Ridley entered last year as the number one option at receiver, but now he can be more of a third type of guy out on the boundary. He's a speed option on the outside, and he ended up missing most of last season with a broken leg. I'm sure Ridley would like to have a great year this year so he can parlay that into another contract somewhere else down the line. Fourth and fifth on the wide receiving group are two receivers who were selected last year in the fourth round, Chim DK and Elick Iomaner. DK, in addition to being a receiver, was an all-pro kick returner and will resume that role again this year. Iomanor ended up becoming the team's number one option by default last year after Ridley went out and a number of other injuries occurred. Iomanor is a physical specimen. He is a beast of a player, and if he can develop a little bit more, uh he will be much, much better than your average fifth wide receiver. All in all, the offense looks to be much, much better around Cam Ward this year than it was last year, and I think we should expect to see them somewhere in the middle of the pack, production-wise, by NFL standards. Defensively, I think we will see a big jump as well. The defensive line group is probably the strongest position group on the whole team, and they are led, of course, by all-pro Jeffrey Simmons. At this point, Simmons could be argued to be the best defensive tackle in the league. He signed an extension this offseason that briefly made him the highest paid defensive tackle in league history until last week when the Eagles beat that with an extension for their defensive tackle, Jalen Carter. Simmons is already coming off a career year, but now he has a better supporting cast around him than he has previously and seems destined to do even better things. Next to Simmons, at least part of the time, will be John Franklin Myers. Myers, as I previously mentioned, played for Robert Sala with the New York Jets. He was the top defensive tackle free agent this offseason and is probably one of the top ten defensive tackles in the league in his own right. Franklin Myers can also kick outside to be a defensive end on certain passing uh situations as well, giving him some of that versatility that Sala really values. Additionally, another former Jet is Jermaine Johnson II. He was acquired from the Jets this offseason in a trade for Devondre Sweat, a one-for-one straight up. Sweat, while a big, immovable object, doesn't really match what Sala is trying to do. Whereas Jermaine Johnson previously had his best year under Sala at the Jets. Keldrick Falk, the first round rookie draft pick, is another exciting player on the line. Similar to Franklin Myers, Falk can play on the inside or the outside. It'll be interesting to see where they use him and when. Lastly, last season's second round pick. Femi Oladejo, who was a recent convert from linebacker, is hoping to become another standout pass rusher for the Titans. He already looks the part. Sala called him a physical specimen the other day. And the Titans are hoping he can put it all together to become what he looks like. Additionally, the Titans brought in Jordan Elliott, Solomon Thomas, and Jacob Martin, who are three other experienced vets who have all played in Sala's system previously. All in all, the defensive line should be a strong point on the team. They should be able to set the tone for the defense and make life for all the players behind them a little bit easier, starting with the linebackers. While there will probably end up being five or six linebackers on the uh 53-man roster, I feel like there are three or four who really deserve highlighting, starting with Cedric Gray. This is Gray's going into his third season, but last year he really broke out with 160 total tackles, which was the fifth most in the NFL. Gray looks like shooting into Superstardom, and with the addition of Salah and Sala's history with linebackers, sky's the limit for Gray. Cody Barton was a captain last year as a middle linebacker, and he plays more of a coverage style than Gray does, but he will be pushed by Anthony Hill Jr., this year's second round pick, who's a very similar type of player, but perhaps a little bit more versatile and a little bit better at most of what needs to be done. Finally, James Williams Sr., a former seventh round pick out of Miami, is a converted safety who could also provide lots of help in the pass coverage in the middle of the field as a linebacker. Speaking of safeties, the Titans have at least three notable safeties. Longtime Titan Amani Hooker will be the starting strong safety, as he has been for at least four years now. He most likely will be paired with Kevin Winston Jr., a third round pick out of Penn State last year, who's projected to be the starting free safety this year. And then Tony Adams, who previously played for Salah in New York, will come in as the third set uh the third safety when needed. On the outside, cornerbacks have improved uh on the starting front, but the depth is really hurting. In fact, if we have too many injuries at corner, it could get ugly pretty quick. The Titans brought in Cordell Flott, who played for Dayball in New York, signed him to a three-year deal to be a boundary corner. Additionally, Elante Taylor, I mentioned the Tullahoma native, signed as a free agent, also to a three-year deal, and will also play on the boundary or the outside. And Marcus Harris, last year's sixth round pick, will be the starting slot cornerback. This uh Harris pick continues a tradition of Mike Borgonzi finding starting level cornerbacks in the later rounds of the draft, as he was known to do in Kansas City as well. All in all, the defense who was middle of the pack last year should make a large jump, and I wouldn't be surprised, honestly, if we see them as a top ten defense by the end of the year. This is a very talented team, but injuries could get to them, a few key injuries to cornerback, maybe lose a safety, and the defense could struggle. But with a front seven that they have, particularly along the defensive line, I think that they will be able to mask some of those issues on the back end of the defense. And I think that we should be looking at a pretty exciting Titans defense. Sala has been known to get top five defenses within a couple of years of arriving at whatever team he's at. And I would expect by the end of next season at the very least that the Titans will be in that conversation. Hopefully this year they can get into the top ten. It will be exciting to see what happens. And we will soon, because the Titans kicked off training camp this week. They started fully healthy. They actually had two players who were on the physically unable to participate list or PUP list, uh JC Latham and Amani Hooker, but they have both since been reactivated and are on the team practicing. The Titans will have three preseason games this year. They will conduct joint practices with the teams they play in advance of those games. First, they will be out in California for joint practices with the 49ers before they play them on Thursday, August 13th at 8. Then the Seahawks will be coming to town. The defending Super Bowl champions will be conducting joint practices with the Titans in advance of their game Sunday, August 23rd at 7 p.m. And finally, the Bears will come to town for joint practices in advance of their game Sunday, August 29th at 5 p.m. I think oftentimes people tend to look at these preseason games as indicative of where things stand, but really, particularly with these joint practices, listen for reports coming out of those practices. That's where you're really gonna learn about what the team is doing and and how they're looking. They're not gonna give away too much, I don't think, against any of these teams, particularly in the games. But also the later games, the Bears game in particular, is the day before the roster cut down is due. So you probably won't see any starters in that game. Or if you do, you'll see them for like maybe a drive. So the real information about how the team is progressing, how they're looking, that's gonna come out of the practice reports when the Titans are playing these other teams and scrimmaging with them in advance of the preseason games. Speaking of games, this will be the final season at the current Nissan Stadium. The final game will be Sunday, January 3rd, 2027, against the Steelers. And the new Nissan Stadium is scheduled to open the following month, February 2027. Once it does, demolition of current Nissan Stadium will begin shortly after. Other season highlights include the home opener against Robert Sala's former team, the New York Jets. Then on week three, the Titans head up to New York to face Brian Dable's former team, the New York Giants. So both the head coach and offensive coordinator of the Titans could have revenge on the teams that fired them within the last two years pretty quickly. Other highlights include Titans facing Derrick Henry and the Ravens on the road in Baltimore in week four, their bi-week in week nine, and like I mentioned, the final game at Nissan Stadium, week 17 against the Steelers. Currently, the Titans have no nationally televised games on their schedule. However, if they outperform expectations, perhaps one of their later season games could be flexed into one of those spots. Finally, my expectations for the Titans this season. As I mentioned, I think they will improve dramatically on both sides of the ball. Particularly, I think the defense should be uh well above average for an NFL defense. At this point, I think that it is reasonable to expect the Titans to win at least seven games. I think seven to ten wins is probably the range they'll end up in. I referred to former guest Matthew Sullivan's aggregate simulations, and they also put the Titans at roughly 7.2 wins. That would be more than double their win total from last season or more than their win total from the past two seasons. So it would be a big jump in the right direction. I think if the Titans could end up on the high side of that 7-10 win range, they would be looking at potentially fighting for a playoff spot. They could fall short, but if they get 10 wins, that would have been good enough to get them in last season and I believe the season before as possibly the winners of the AFC South. I think Houston and Jacksonville will be pretty strong this year, particularly Houston. Their defense continues to be strong, and if CJ Stroud can figure out whatever's been ailing him, they could be an even more formidable opponent. But if the Titans can have nine or ten wins this season, they could be looking at sneaking in as a wild card. Either way, I think that they will position themselves well for next year to be fighting for a playoff spot as they enter into their new home stadium. All right. Well, that's the show for today. Uh, thank you for listening. I appreciate it. Looking forward to this Titan season. As always, we'd love to hear from you. We are on Twitter and Blue Sky at NSH Sports Report. There's also a link down below where you can contact us. If you want to come on, if you want to hear a certain conversation, whatever it might be, reach out, let us know. We'd love to have you on, love to talk to you. Yes, you, I mean you, come on and let's talk. Otherwise, hope you have a great weekend. Thanks for listening.