Titans Safety Amani Hooker glows about free agent additions

Titans Safety Amani Hooker glows about free agent additions

[Music] welcome into adz sports prime time on this Monday night we’re happy to have you in on July 8th for this episode of The Prime Time program lovely to see you all lovely to have you all hopefully you can hear me a little clearer than you could yesterday we had some technical difficulties to work through but the show must go on and so we too shall Soldier on your safety position is still incomplete but the one that you have is pretty happy about the free agents that you’ve added and so we will talk about that together ammani hooker giving some comments to the team website to that effect we will also talk about the upgrades in total not just personnel-wise but coaching and see who is the more important ad the more impactful ad that the Titans have made to that secondary group we will uh work our way through that and then we will get to INE case you missed it uh with Robert walber hasn’t done one of these in at least a month and a half so I’m sure it will be high quality High effort high energy and fully clothed I’m sure all of those things will come to fruition by the time we get to the end of the show but as is the custom before we get to the end of the show we have to start the show before we start the show you got to share the show on Facebook YouTube Twitter and on Twitch if you’re hanging out on Twitter please retweet it in the bottom right hand corner of your screen if you’re on Facebook live you can share share now to public that is in the bottom left and if you view Us on YouTube or twitch please subscribe to the channel and while you’re there throw a like on the video we are always grateful to you when you do all of those things for us and with that being said we can go ahead and get it rolling welcome into a toz sports prime time from the Zen Sports Studios I’m your host Buck Rising I’m proud as always to be presented to you by by the wonderful people at Two Rivers Ford the South’s most trusted Ford dealer Two Rivers Ford in Mount Juliet or online at Two Rivers for.com for more information true M Fitness in The Gulch where your first workout is Free as a middle Tennessee resident no workout ever recycled or repeated just go to the fine folks at trumav and they will put you in position to succeed of course Zen Sports Studios means the Zen Sports app is the only place that you need to go to wager on all your favorite major sports download the app plug in the promo code at ozt TN and unlock all the great odds boosts and promo bets that Zen Sports has to offer so ammani hooker uh gave some comments to the team’s website and it’s uh it’s from back in the offseason program Jim Wyatt does this well does this smartly asks a bunch bunch of questions uh throughout the course of the press conf conferences and basically Banks them for articles that he can release throughout the course of the Dead period which is what we are smack dab in the middle of we still have uh more than two weeks before the Titans officially report for training camps so there will be no new news in between then but in terms of new there is a lot of newness all around safety and Monty hooker and that is where the Jim Wyatt article comes from so understanding that the Titans did a lot of upgrading of their secondary it’s not just uh it’s not just the Personnel that they have upgraded it is also or at least that they have changed out they have definitely upgraded the Personnel whether they have upgraded the coaching staff or not remains to be seen though I know Titans fans are optimistic about Brian Callahan and more specifically optimistic about defensive coordinator dard Wilson so Amman hooker has a new head coach for the first time in his pro career he’s got a new defense coordinator I want to say for the first time in his pro career Shane Bowen uh I’m trying to think was Dean peas here when they drafted ammani hooker yes I believe so uh because ammani hooker was part of that 2019 draft class though I guess yeah Dean peas was on that coaching staff so he has had some turnover with his defensive coordinator and this year again he has a new safeties coach so looking at the Titans and all the work that they’ve done around around not just their roster in general but around Amman hooker it’s a lot of newness heading into the six season uh and he gave some some pretty interesting quotes that I think the audience is going to enjoy uh especially talking about this secondary first we’ll start with your two rivers Ford take because Amman hooker is of course a safety but the upgrades that they have made to date it’s not it’s not completely done that they uh that they can’t add safety help additional safety help but so far it’s just been strictly at corner given the Titans signing and trade Acquisitions at The Corner Spot which Titans quarterback will have the better season chobia wer or larius Sneed we’ll talk about it together on Facebook YouTube Twitter and twitch it’s your Two Rivers Ford take as always it’s presented by Two Rivers Ford the South’s most trusted Ford dealer go to Two Rivers Ford in Mount Juliet or online at Two Rivers for.com get that quality American made Ford vehicle and award-winning customer service that you have come to know from Two Rivers Ford for over 40 years being in business in Middle Tennessee the South’s most trusted Ford dealer and the best new and certified pre-owned vehicles are all available to you at Two Rivers for in Mount Juliet or online at two rivers.com head there for more information so it seems like it should be a pretty easy answer who will have the better season between lerus Sneed and chobia wer I think that uh I think that when you look at Sneed who was an allpro snub last year leria Sneed should have been an allpro corner and I have his statistics uh to go through courtesy of Pro Football Focus kind of giving you an idea of just how good this player was for the Kansas City Chiefs last year leria Sneed who comes over via trade uh to the Tennessee Titans to immediately fortify their secondary who was drafted in the co season as a fourth round pick out of latch and who has gone on to be a two-time defending Super Bowl champion with the Kansas City Chiefs now he is getting a lot of the defensive burden placed on him to try and help write the ship here in Tennessee last year he was truly excellent he appeared in each of the uh the Kansas City excuse me the Kansas City Chiefs games that they played in with them going 21 weeks uh 21 weeks with the wild card with the divisional playoff game with the conference Championship in the Super Bowl leria Sneed was a part of their campaign available in each and every game that they played save the week 10 by that the Kansas City Chiefs obviously had between Philadelphia and Miami Sneed was available to play in each and every game now we know that his situation has been managed but still he was excellent he had not just uh great a great year as a cover corner but he was also very effective as a tackler he was uh useful in Steve spagnolo’s defense in helping to generate additional pressures when necessary but for the most part he was their guy that you could leave alone on an island and he would take care of business um so to say to put him up against chobia Wu who’s coming off as a solid year for the Cincinnati Bengals but not the kind of All Pro Caliber year that we’re talking about with leria Sneed I feel like the audience I feel like you guys might hear the question and say well that’s absolutely stupid how would Sneed uh how would aier outperform Sneed if Sneed is clearly and obviously or has been in his career clearly and obviously the better player B French says is Sneed the number one cornerback well that’s the discussion that we’re having and here’s why I think uh here’s why I think that it’s worth having the discussion anyway even as I acknowledge that Sneed has been the better player throughout the course of his career it is really really difficult to play corner at a consistently high level not just because the position itself is the most difficult I believe in the NFL quarterback is obviously more important quarterback comes with a degree of difficulty that really you cannot measure against against the other positions but if you remove cornerback from the conversation I would argue that the second hardest play or position to play in football is uh is cornerback Chris Young says did uh woozy is that what you’re calling wooy get benched last year middle of the Season no he didn’t get benched um he missed a little time due to injury they did not give uh him a three-year uh deal with all kinds of guaranteed money because because or after he got benched that’s incorrect um so I think you’re misinformed on those numbers but yes I would answer the question by saying sne should be the number one quarterback if everything goes to plan but rarely do those things carry over as consistently as you’d like them to year-over-year so I do think that there’s room for some discussion now will leria Sneed ultimately end up being the better player I would imagine so but for ammani hooker he’s just happy to have them all uh have that level of improvement around him at on all sides including aier including leria Sneed to pair with Roger mccre who is a solid uh we’ll see if he can be an above average nickel Corner this is ammani hooker during the offseason program speaking with assembled media is this defense so far in the early stages from what you guys have run over the last four or five years um I would just say you know a lot more you know aggressive um that’s kind of what the theme was coming in before we even got uh coach denar here um and so far you know that’s what it’s been it’s been aggressive but also you know there’s times when you can be aggressive and times when not to and you know our coaches are doing a good job of of teaching that how do you like you talk about yeah um I mean just watching him you know what they did at the Ravens this past year um they were they were very successful as a defense um especially in the back end um my good friends of Gino Stone who I played with um he talked and raved about you know his experience with dinard this past year so um so far has been amazing what do you think about the group of receivers has been assembled here and maybe how much should that help the defense U as compet we got you know guys that are professionals been in the league and made plays for know their respective team that teams that they’ve been on um it’s because just going to help us out um we got Tyler Boyd Calvin um dehop and then tayin out there I mean those are some tough receivers to line up against um day in and day out something different having a a secondary guy as defensive coordinator a little different for you on how much you forward to maybe what his exper yeah um I’m looking forward to the knowledge that he has of the game um he played the game um he has experience of coaching and playing same with uh coach Harris and Coach Jackson um I got three guys that played you know professional football in the same similar position I was in at a high level and now they’re able to coach it which makes a lot of guys in the room feel good about what they’re saying you stepped up a lot as a leader of the defense last year how do you describe the level of ownership you take as everyone’s kind of learning and moving through here yeah I mean it’s all about accountability um with me as well I mean this is all new for me it’s new new style new defense new scheme so you know just like everyone else is learning you know I’m I’m doing the same thing but my job is to make sure that everyone you know learns at a a progressive level and now we’re doing it together as a unit you look back at your 2023 what you like maybe what some years you think you got to improve on um I think impr proven on just having ball disruption getting my hands on the ball whether that’s interceptions pass breakups Force fumbles um but overall just you know being the best overall safety I can be um I know I have a long road to get there and I know that my capabilities are are there and I just have to you know improve this offseason and help my guys around me and they’ll help me have you heard from KB about the week one match up already I haven’t heard from KB I saw his tweet but I mean he already knows we probably right when he saw it we probably thinking the same thing so I didn’t nothing needs to be said in terms of the secondary as a whole what do you think about the additions with the two corners and just overall how that makes that whole entire back we got two dogs we got Cheeto and sne out there I can’t wait to go full speed with them with the pads on um but you know I’ve been watching them make plays for the other team against us and so I’m excited that they’re on our team now and it’s going to be really fun to be spin in back there you mentioned that uh that wed had the Green Dot Once Upon a Time you heard from you pretty quickly about uh your desire to have the Green Dot and ask him what you could do to get it uh what did he tell you about that how much would you like to have I mean whatever I can do to help the team win um I’m you I’m just a competitive guy you know I feel like when if I’m out there you know I’m I’m the quarterback of the defense even if I have the green DT or not I’m going to be communicating you know and leading the defense the best as I can so I mean if it happens it doesn’t I mean I’mma still be the same me so that’s ammani hooker speaking with assembled media uh a couple of weeks ago during the offseason program a toz sports prime time is presented by Trum M Fitness in the ulch get your first workout free as a middle Tennessee resident no workout ever recycled or repeated that is what truma Fitness offers you I can’t wait to get back to trumav I know worth has been out of town uh in a for a wedding in Italy so I haven’t made my personal training sessions in the last couple of weeks but this Friday I’m going to be back in the gym for arm Farm Friday you will enjoy the true M experience and like I said you get your first workout free as a middle Tennessee resident all you have to do is mention a Sports when you go to truma fitness.com for more information they’ll get you on the right track so that’s ammani hooker talking about how the additions of two Playmakers like Sneed and aier are going to help get this Titans defense back on track uh Jonathan Caverly says Austin got visibly mad when I asked that question LOL I don’t know why seems like oh I’m not sure what question uh he is specifically referencing I think I just saw a random comment decided to read it joh Ron bergundy style so forgive me Jonathan I’m I just put you up there out of context I’m not quite sure what that what that discussion is although uh you know I’m I I’m sure whatever Austin got visibly upset about oh if Farley can play safety um so let’s let’s stick let’s stick with with this Logic for now aier and uh a and lerus Sneed and Roger McCree are going to be your three starting Corners I think that when you look at Caleb Farley in his role Jarvis brownley Jr is probably going to be the fourth Corner in that rotation Caleb Farley’s skill set I mean I don’t think that I don’t know that there’s any reason he can’t and I don’t know that they’ve specific specifically asked him if uh asked him or asked the coaching staff if that’s on the table but it’s really not been discussed I haven’t heard anything like that so I I without more information unless Austin has asked the question and I’ve just missed it I don’t think there’s any plan to play him there uh at this point or to move positions I think if they’re I think he’s best suited for Corner as opposed to safety and if he ends up being the fifth corner on the roster and a special teams uh player primarily well then that’s because that’s the best place that Caleb Farley can help them uh Jonathan Caverly says that’s what I do on Madden well that’s probably why he got pissed nobody getes a [ __ ] about Matt and we’re talking about actual football I wish I wish that I could do away with the video game and fantasy football analysis in the middle of actual football discussion so if you mentioned that that’s probably why you got upset with you because you know what if you brought that my to my attention and said that’s what I do on Madden then I’d probably get upset with you too but ammani hooker is in an interesting situation because right now Elijah molden is the starting safety alongside him this is the time of year by the way now that the coaches and the front office Personnel will start to trickle back into the building this week after the July 4th holiday with still several weeks to go before the players actually uh actually get into to the uh get into the building here on the 23rd is when everybody will report it makes the most sense to continue to explore viable options at the safety position whether that ends up being Justin Simmons or an addition veteran safety to help but there’s no question that they are going to benefit from having Sneed and azier on the roster Max augsberger of Caleb Farley says he’s got the physical attributes you look for in a safety he’s a better athlete than molden well that’s not true anymore in fact he’s he’s said as much Caleb Farley uh and perhaps you missed this match and that’s okay if you did I understand why you would think that the former first round pick Caleb Farley who was renowned specifically for his athleticism um no longer being a better athlete than Elijah molden is something that he has put his own name on Caleb Farley when he’s talked about this because of the the state of his body his body has failed him significantly he said and I’m paraphrasing here so don’t quote me on this exactly but to some effect will I ever be the same kind of athlete that I was probably not that’s straight out of Caleb Farley’s mouth um so there’s a reason that Elijah molden is in the position that he’s in as opposed to Caleb Farley not just because of the health but because right now Elijah molden is the better player at the safety position if you tried to have the now I don’t know Farley I don’t think has ever practiced at safety so you know I don’t know that that couldn’t change or something like that but what I can tell you is that two coaching staffs have now not had it in their consideration to play this player at safety I’m not going to completely defer to them and set and take it off the table for for just that reason but I do think that it’s pretty telling that not just Mike vel’s coaching staff but also Brian Callahan’s coaching staff which is almost entirely turned over has looked at the situation and said yeah he’s probably best as a special teamer player special team player at most right now on a reserve Corner uh for the time being a toz sports prime time is made possible by the wonderful people atzen Sports download the app plug in the promo code at ozt TN get up to $100 on your no danger first wager baseball is still available for you to bet on but anytime you are in the sports calendar you can always bet on all your favorite major sports at zensports outcom plug in the promo code ATN terms and conditions do apply gambling problem call the Tennessee Red Line 1800 889 9789 must be 21 plus and in the state of Tennessee to bet so ammani hooker you know provided he stay healthy is a really good player uh at the safety position and when byard and ammani hooker were both healthy and and available together they were one of the best safety tandems in the league they haven’t found a viable Kevin byard replacement to date but right now that’s Elijah molden job to lose we’ll see if he plays himself out of it in training camp we’ll see if they don’t feel it necessary to continue to add but uh there’s no question that the safety Position will be help by having additional Corners better Corners there to play and Corners who are a capable and coached to play press coverage in ways that the Titans Corners just for the life of me I could not figure out why they continue to play off as of as they did uh so let us then move to the second topic of discussion this evening on Facebook YouTube Twitter and twitch if you are so inclined uh which Titans free agent benefits the secondary most so we asked you which player which corner that they’ve added will have the better season and I think that when you talk about free agent additions let’s almost let’s almost broaden it out let’s not make it just free agents let’s talk about Titans editions that will benefit the secondary most in the comment section it can be a player it can be a coach it can be whatever you wanted to be as long as it fits the category of helping the secondary most we will uh dive into that and you’ll hear from some of the people involved with your team on this uh live stream Randy Cherry says hooker will be better Roger McCreary will be our secret weapon I don’t know how a nickel Corner could necessarily be a secret weapon but I say that and then I remember Logan Ryan playing a good bit of a good bit of nickels slot uh and being a really effective player as a rusher that I did not anticipate in that season with Dean peas having one of the better one of the more viable pass rush options from your secondary come out of the slot and how much better that made the defense or how much more versatile that made the defense I guess you could consider that a bit of a sec a secret weapon if you had to put it that way but I don’t think that there’s nothing really secret about the way that they’re going to use Roger MC he’s definitely a physical hard noosed Corner who can Muck it up in there around the line of scrimmage who can get after the passer if need be who is solid in coverage and who is better suited inside than he is on the outside uh Chris Harris coming back for year two to coach defensive backs uh says Omar so not an addition but a retention for Omar he says is going to be the best ad uh Jonathan Caverly saysit still has to be Sneed I I agree that it probably has to be Sneed um although I’m willing to hear the argument for dard Wilson for exactly the reason that I just heard Amman Hooker talk all about how much better dard Wilson can make your secondary as a former secondary coach himself so but dard dard Wilson is probably I I mean you can’t have as good a defense under dard Wilson without lerus need so while I like the answer of dard Wilson I’m still going to say lerus sne as my answer do signing the trade and signing of sne move the needle for you this year I mean that seems to be a very large piece to this sitation yeah I mean it it helps us tremendously out from a coverage standpoint on the back end and you know if you guys know dard and what he wants to do I think the guys that we signed uh in Cheeto and um and LJ I think they both you know fit what he wants to do from a coverage standpoint and then having Roger here you know Roger played outside he’s played inside and so he fits um as well so it gives us you know a legitimate you know top three out of the gate and we’re going to continue to add guys we’re going to expect guys that were here last year to step up you know and earn those other spots but uh we were’re bringing in scheme fits for what we’re going to do defensively bringing in scheme fits for what we want to do defensively that’s Rand carthon immediately after lerus Sneed was introduced now you might you might be able to convince me that if tandre sweat works out that he will also help benefit the secondary the interior pass rush that him and Jeff will create how much that eases the burden across the line or how much that should ease the burden across the line I I might be willing to hear that argument depending on how to tandre sweat pans out to date he hasn’t panned out we we still await any level of impact that he’s able to have because he went basically the entire offseason without practicing so I I’m probably going to rule him out for the purposes of this conversation but I would be I would be willing to revisit that discussion later on in the season if he proves himself to be a viable player puka makes a good point and says do you get Sneed without dard Wilson because of course they did put together their staff and then traded with the Chiefs uh for larius Sneed I don’t know the answer to that question puka um I I’m willing to say yes that they do because it’s not like he had no trade clause to dictate his terms um as to where he got traded now ultimately he has to agree to the contract extension with Tennessee so I’m inclined to say that they could have gotten him with dard Wilson now we’ll never know the answer to that question because they had both Aubrey Calvin says no you don’t again I don’t know that he he doesn’t he doesn’t have any he doesn’t have any leverage as a player that they traded for to say no to a trade in that circumstance now again he didn’t have to agree to the contract extension and I know that he likes dard Wilson a lot but I I just I don’t think that you can definitively say that you don’t get lerus need without dard Wilson when the when the deal was a trade for a player that didn’t have a no trade clause in his contract and couldn’t control uh his landing spot couldn’t really control his landing spot the way that you know a free agent might for example um because I know there there are players who decided to play for dinard Wilson and lerus need is probably one of those two but I mean I assume they could have gotten him via trade without Berard Wilson as the defensive coordinator uh let’s see uh major key says I know this was your show your yesterday show uh he says so you think sweat will pan out I have no idea if dandre I mean will sweat pan out I I can’t even I can’t even begin to answer that question honestly God dud dude doesn’t practice to date no he it could be a completely different story by the time training camp gets here it could be a non-issue nonf factor and we could uh it could be a bunch of hand ringing and pearl clutching for nothing but I mean I don’t know you drafted a player in the second round who there were other defensive linemen who could probably have done as good if as good a job as tandre sweat could have even though I acknowledge he’s a highly talented player but you could have gotten a defensive lineman without the red flags that sweat has and they chose to trust their vetting proc process and take dandre sweat will he pan out I have no idea again the player doesn’t practice so I I I don’t know I don’t know I can’t answer that question definitively do I think he will pan out or not my my answer on him just in any facet is incomplete the the grade on him in any facet is incomplete because he has not he has not participated in but one rookie mini camp practice uh and that was damn near two months ago so we’ll see what kind of shape he comes back in we’ll see if we see him at all at the start of training camp uh Billy Sullivan says what is it holding him back from practicing all we know is it’s an injury that they decided to play it safe on I don’t know the nature of the injury I was not able to discern that or at least I have not yet been able to discern that and they were not willing to disclose that they don’t have to put out an injury report so um he is injured but the nature of the injury is is an unknown right now if we ever get the opportunity to talk to him again and at some point we will but whenever that is I’m sure that question will be a answered uh or I’m sure that question will be answered to an extent speaking of answering questions it is now Bert’s time to do the heavy lifting so we will pivot to in case you missed it we’ll see what he has brought us uh from the depths the dark depths of the internet for us to either laugh at or be made sad by we will do that right after I remind you that the prime time program is made possible by the wonderful people at the Ashton real estate group of Remax Advantage the official real estate agent of the Nashville Predators is Gary Ashton don’t sell without the Intel go to Gary aon.com for more information all right Bert what do you got what’s up stanky booty how are you I’m uh I could be better I could be doing anything but this shut up and do your segment uh July 4th over the weekend lots of fun I hope everyone out there was safe you didn’t uh as Buck has eloquently put someone losing their digits Jing yourself yes a man losing uh three of his fingers is a a hilarious joke bck but as you’ll you’ll see all of my fingers and digits are here I’d put my toes on camera but you have to uh subscribe to my only BS for that uh but my favorite thing over the weekend a lot of that only fan stuff going around these days on the football internet B you better be careful you got some stiff competition no pun intended talking about old BJ stoud or oh excuse me anyway uh uh July 4th hot dog eating contest uh plenty of things to do but my favorite to do it’s fireworks uh and you guys probably had a an incredible uh firework display at Nissan this weekend I wasn’t here I only saw pictures and videos from about a 100 thousand of you guys about it but I’ll do a little history lesson for you guys do you know who invented fireworks no the Chinese very Advanced people they did that years and years and years ago uh do you know what the largest fireworks explosion of all time is no California 2 2 when they accidentally set off 7,000 fireworks at one time W this is insane this is the best firework show ever you you know there was some dumbass like this is the finale it just started David did you not hear that woman in the background this the best fireworks show ever what RP to the podcast listeners oh my God yeah we we apologize I guess not in advance but retroactively to the podcast listeners because that was just blaring sound in your one second you’re getting a fun firework facts the next I don’t know what I’d do if that I I would probably be over stimulated and be like that if you watch the kids there they’re like running around like they don’t know what to do with their hands what are you going to do in that situation I’m I’m probably it looks like a mushroom cloud like I would run I would run I don’t someone someone definitely got fired for that 7,000 fireworks how much money did the city spend just for that blow their firework load in [ __ ] three minutes just all of it all of it uh it doesn’t get much better than that uh we bought some uh some Husker do some hooker don’ts Cattails all the good fireworks over the weekend so you shot off you actually shot off fireworks this weekend I did uh and we we’re safe we shot him out of a center block and they were held in place with rocks so nothing could go wrong until we came across the road uh shot them off in the front yard the wind blew it over towards my nephew uh the good thing is he’s a Helen so uh he probably deserved it it was fun to watch him run around like ah I don’t think he was burnt that badly do you know I didn’t even see a firework this year I was I was I had it was it’s a long story I had to I basically drove 500 miles on July 4th for reasons that are Beyond me and inexplicable but had to be done so I did not see a single solitary firework on the fourth of July this year well let me fix that a

Titans Safety Amani Hooker glows about free agent additions