Did Cam Ward Prove He’s Ready for the Broncos? | Titans-Vikings Preseason Week 3 Recap

Did Cam Ward Prove He’s Ready for the Broncos? | Titans-Vikings Preseason Week 3 Recap

The Titans wrapped up their preeason with a win over the Minnesota Vikings. Cam Ward’s first time playing for real in Nissan Stadium. How did he look? How did his overall preseason look? We’re going to talk about if Cam Ward is ready for the Denver Broncos. Plus, Van Jefferson with a huge bounceback performance and a lot of bubble guys stepped up. Some did not. We’re going to go through it all. This is the Music City Audible. Let’s get to it. Ah, welcome everyone to another episode of the Music City Audible podcast presented by Sinkers Beverages, the premier wine, spirits, and beer store in East Nashville in partnership with 440 Sports. I’m Justin Graver. With me as always, Justin Melo. Justin, the Titans won again. Twoame win streak. Just kidding. How’s it going? I’m doing well. Doing well. That was fun to watch the Titans on Friday night. It was a lot of fun to watch Cam Ward. Look, preseason finale. We all know a lot of those roster decisions have pretty much already been made. Like especially those last like seven, eight minutes of that game. I think both teams would have just accepted. Can we just fast forward to the end right now? Uh but certainly, you know, a couple spots up for grabs. Last opportunity for you to make a good impression. Final time some of these guys will wear that uniform and these guys are human beings that’ll wear on them, right? Like there’s a realization that comes with that final whistle when you’re a roster bubble guy. But uh it was an exciting game for the most part. Again, I I really enjoyed watching Cam Ward. The bounce back from Van Jefferson if nothing gave us, you know, certainly gave us something to talk about and I’m excited to go through it all with you today. Yeah, definitely the highlight play of the game. There was Van Jefferson, but we’ll get to that in a second. We’re going to start with Cam Ward’s performance as we always do on the unofficial Cam Ward channel here. Uh Cam Ward played two drives. On the first drive, he attempted one pass. It was sort of a swing pass to Tyler Lockett that Lockett couldn’t haul in. If he had hauled it in, he was probably going to get tackled almost immediately anyway. And then on that first third down, Dan Moore gets beat with an inside move. Cam Ward does a nice job recognizing it, getting outside the pocket, but there’s just nothing open downfield. He might have had, I think it was Shimmer DK coming on a crosser on the opposite side of the field, but there was simply no way to get that ball there and no chance for Camar to throw it with the pressure. So, he made a smart decision. Sort of just took it to the sideline looking for something. Nobody there. Runs out of bounds. picks up one yard, but not the best opening drive, not the greatest start. You know, you get another good first down run for four yards. And that’s been a theme of this preseason so far is I think every game the Titans have opened with a handoff on their first offensive play. And it’s been a successful handoff, but then something else happens on second down or third down and the Titans are unable drive again to really get anything going. That has been a bit of a theme. Um, I just wanted to quickly just like air some frustration about the Tyler Lockett play. It’s like is this better not be a play that’s in the this better be vanilla preseason thing because I do not need to see Tyler Lockett being the recipient of any screens of any swing passes of any of this easy access short at the line of scrimmage stuff where you’re asking Tyler Lockett to go make somebody miss and pick up yards after catch. This is Tyler Lockett. The guy who more than anyone else in the NFL wants to catch the ball and drop to the turf. That’s like what he’s famous for. I can’t imagine how these install conversations go where it’s like and and Tyler, you’re going to be in this position here where you’re catching the swing pass. Hopefully, you can make this first defender miss and pick up some yards after catch. He they ran a screen pass for him in the first preseason game. They run a swing pass for him in this game. Like if that’s Shimmer ADK, if that’s basically anyone else on the roster. Anyone else? Yeah, literally. I’m I’m okay with it. But why are we doing this with Tyler Lockett? Someone explain it to me. I’m going to, you know, I’m hoping that’s just preseason vanilla BS, right? Like maybe you don’t want to show Shimmer DK on that play or you don’t want to show even Alec Manor who’s pretty shifty for his size and space. I mean, we saw it in that second preseason game where he took the first completion for 35 yards, right? Like look what Van Jefferson did last night. Bryce Oliver, Calvin Ridley, I think literally James Proche has got some speed. That’s why he’s a special teams guy. Like literally all of them I think are better in that situation than Tyler Lockett is. So anyway, that’s not like that’s really neither here nor there. I just wanted to air some frustration there. Um Titans defense gives up a field goal on the ensuing possession. We’ll get to the Titans defense because basically every starter except for Legarius Sneed was out there playing. Um, and then the Titans get the ball back after that. And this is where just a really nice orchestration by Brian Callahan calling the plays by the offensive line up front, moving bodies. Granted, backup bodies, but still moving bodies. The Titans offensive line had three backups in themselves. So, it’s an impressive performance, I would say. And the Titans lead an a 13play 90ard drive and finish it off in the end zone. And Cam Ward looked great on this drive. Like I don’t have hardly any complaints with how this drive went. I mean, maybe somebody will say that he should have stepped into the first throw of the drive, a nice whipped laser crossing route to the to the sideline to Van Jefferson. Um, he sort of side steps instead of steps into it. But if he’s going to make a throw like that, I don’t need, look, I don’t need him to step forward if he’s going to make throws like that. I had someone text me right after that throw and say the amount of velocity he generates from that platform is kind of wild. Like I I got no comp like that throw was my second favorite one of the entire preseason. Like the favorite was the one that Van Jefferson dropped obviously, right? Cuz that was But I’m I’m not going to lie to you. I thought this one was right there. Like I was so dude that is on his own goal line. He is standing on his goal line when he releases that ball right as you said that drive started about the 10. you know, he’s got a see a couple step drop there. He’s essentially on his goal line. There’s pressure coming. Okay. The confidence to just make that throw. That throw goes from the goal line without stepping into it, as you said, to what I think it was like the 27 yardd line, 26 yard line where it was caught. It was beyond the 25 yard line, a little short of the 30. But I I I was am I the only one? Like I was blown away by that. That throw made me go, “This guy’s going to be good.” Like that’s one of those maybe you overreact too slightly. You’re like this guy can make that throw. Holy crap. Like that that was a holy crap 10 out of 10 throw for me. And watching it live I almost like had a moment where I was like get rid of the ball because you have the guy coming around his right tackle Cam Ward’s right side left side of the defense and he you know he takes that snap and he starts sort of drifting a little to his left. But I think there’s a difference, Justin, between a quarterback drifting unnecessarily or aimlessly in the pocket and a quarterback who is sliding away from pressure instinctively, which you see Cam Ward do a lot. He he slides in the pocket to open lanes for him to throw the ball or to navigate away from where he feels the pressure is about to come from. And then he throws the ball almost at the last second. And I’ve talked about this multiple times, how he just has this innate ability to understand how long he has to get rid of the ball. And again, I think there will be a moment in the regular season where he gets absolutely lit up because he’s holding it too long and he and the one time he doesn’t sense it, but he does have such a good feel for spatial awareness and for for what’s happening in the pocket around him that I I trust him to get rid of the ball when he needs to. And that was a great example of it. Then Titans start running the ball down the throat of the Minnesota Vikings. Kell Mullings rips off a 17-yard run. One of the nicest runs of the preseason for him. And then a 5-yard run. Cam Ward hits Elica Manor on a short pass that goes for 13 yards. That was another nice, you know, quick top drop, get the ball out. Good decision, good accurate ball. And then Cam Ward only threw one more pass on this drive. There was a third down pass over the middle that didn’t count um because of a defensive holding penalty gave them an automatic first down. Next play Cam Ward hits Alec Iron Maner just in front of the goal line. I jumped off the couch in this moment. Justin, when I when I manner caught that ball at like the three yd line, I jumped up and I was like, “This is it. This is going to be it. My Cam War touchdown. We’re going to get it.” I am Maner stretches for the goal line. Justin, it was like the Super Bowl all over again. Comes up half a yard short. I think you were just as sad about it, too. probably is a Super Bowl. But that was, you know, that was a really, that was an even quicker decision if I’m recalling correctly. Like he got that ball out so quickly. Great decision. Tackled at the goal line. Unfortunately, we didn’t get our touchdown. Not the end of the world to me. They punch it in for a touchdown shortly thereafter. I knew right there that would be the end of Cam Ward’s night. I mean, you said 13. I thought it was a 14play drive. Maybe the penalty is where Yeah, it says 13 play drive in the ESPN playbyplay here. There you go. 13 play like 90 yard drive. Like that’s the second long touchdown drive he had orchestrated. There was the one against the Falcons that was more of the same. I think I’ll put a bow on it by saying this. Like no, Cam Moore didn’t throw a touchdown in the preseason. He also didn’t turn the football over. He played with I thought he played so well throughout this preseason. I think he inspired a ton of confidence in himself. The coaching staff has to feel so good. He protected the ball. He looked accurate. He made great decisions. He navigated the pocket. There was a little bit of creating off scripts with that 35 yards to Alec Manor. There was in my opinion two in in in very little playing time. Two 10 out of 10 throws the drop to Van Jefferson. This one that he completed that we’re talking I called this one a frozen rope. Like that was just on a line. It was beautiful. Like for me the the accuracy, the ball placement, everything about what Cam Ward did in the preseason. There is such little to nitpick, right? Like there was the wouldbe interception against the Bucks. Yeah, I think you’d like to have that one back. But it was a great play by the defender as we went through it and Drew Batty went through it as well on his breakdown. And and something messed up with the route concept cuz Chica Conquo was like five yards too deep. Yeah. Or he gets too Was it too much depth? I can’t too much depth. He needed to pull the corner to the flat and he’s like 12 yards downfield. Right. Right. He gets too much depth. Correct. So, but for me, such little nitpicking honestly about Cam Warden this preseason. I feel great about putting a bow on what he did in these three games. Yeah, the final numbers don’t look they don’t pop, you know, especially when you got guys like Jackson Dart who’s been throwing it 25, 35 times a game in preseason and all the rookies get compared to each other because that’s the way it is. And Jackson Dart’s throwing touchdowns and everyone’s like, “Oh, Jackson Dart, is this guy going to be something?” And it’s like nobody remembers the fact that they are calling a extremely simplified offense for him in New York where it’s just all screens, quick one, one read throws and then go balls. He’s playing against second and third string guys. Nobody’s game planning for him. Like let’s just calm down on the Jackson Dart love fest for a second. But Cale Moore’s final preseason statline, 10 of 19 passing. That’s 52.6% completion. 145 yards at 7.6. 6 yards per attempt, no touchdowns, no interceptions, a quarterback rating of 77.7, which isn’t amazing. Um, and uh, one turnover worthy play that you just talked about. No big time throws according to PFF, which doesn’t make sense to me because I would count at least two, the ones you described at least. Um, 10 of 19 though, like you’d ideally you’d like to see that completion percentage number be higher, but this is pretty small sample size. You know, that’s comes out to just over six attempts per game. which is not very many. Um he was three of four in this game and you had the drop in there. You had a couple of plays that you know the screen that got blown up uh that third down play last week. DK could have caught that one third down that was perfectly placed away from the defender. So there were a couple a couple balls that hit receivers in the hands. It wasn’t just the Van Jefferson one that we spotlighted. And Van Jefferson had a drop in the first game, too. So yeah, the the numbers could be better than they are. But I think something Brian Callahan said stuck out to me in the postgame press conference last night. He’s going to be able to make the big plays. You know, that’s what he does. And he’s going to be able to move around more when I don’t have the governor on them to don’t take any hits. Now I’m thinking, okay, this is why we’re running the ball. We’re attempting three passes on a on a 13play drive. Only three of those plays are passes. Of course, one was sacked, too. He did take a sack, so that’s a fourth pass that you called. There was a holding penalty that was on a pass, so that’s a fifth pass that you called. Five out of 14 though was still just over a third of the plays. You’re you’re running the ball the rest of the time. I even said jokingly in our group chat like if you’re going to run it on 70% of your plays draft Abdul Carter number one overall like what the heck we all came here to watch Cam Ward. I didn’t that was a joke obviously. Callahan even said in the press conference after like he opened his press conference with I think first and foremost I think it’s it’s thank our fans for showing up today. I thought that was a you know pretty good showing for a Friday night preseason game. It was good energy in a stadium. That was pretty cool to see. Um, I know everyone wants to come see Cam play, so that’s that’s a good thing. But it’s like, yeah, then let us see Cam Ward. But then he says this in the postgame that there has been a governor on him to avoid him from taking too many hits that they have, you know, been calling these like one step, three-step drop, get the ball out type stuff. The swing pass to Tyler Lockett. Like all this stuff is not the offense that the Titans are going to run because there’s been a governor on it. that blew my mind and made me excited for week one all over again. And you know, the fact that he’s got decent numbers with a governor on um just exciting and it makes me wonder what the Titans offense is actually going to look like because it makes me think what we just saw for three weeks is not really the real thing. No, I mean it usually isn’t, right? Like everything he said, I always say I love hearing Brian Callahan talk because I’m like, “Yes, that makes sense. Yes, that makes sense.” Everything he says. So, uh, yeah, you don’t he’s a number one overall pick. Like, you don’t you don’t want him to get hit. You don’t want to show too much. And, you know, when you’re a team that’s kind of, I don’t want to say back against the wall, but you’re coming off a three- win season, no one has expectations for you. I think you try to find every advantage you can. And if you can shock the Denver Broncos with what your offense looks like. I mean, maybe that tips the scale just a little bit because everyone thinks they’re going to get blown out in week one, at least nationally. That’s been the word. I think it’s got the biggest spread pretty much of any week one game. So, uh, if you can, you know, hide as much as you can, surprise them as much as you can. And if Cam Ward comes out and just balls out in that game, uh, because no one knows what it’s going to look like, then you’re going to come out of there maybe with an upset win, and you’d feel really, really good about that. Yeah, Denver eight-point favorites as we sit here right now. We know crazy things happen in week one. Week one always a liar. And I’m not going to we’re not going to preview week one right now, but that might be a game where you don’t want him to pass the ball a lot because they might have the best secondary in the NFL and one of the best pass rushes, too. So anyway, we’ll see. Uh lots lots to discuss before we get to Denver. But um other things happening in this game, Justin, we need to talk about. Real quick though, let’s first remind everyone that August 31st is fast fast approaching. It is August 23rd today. That means August 31st is just over a week away. And if you wait beyond August 31st, you will never have a chance to get the 2025 edition re-release special edition of Titans of the South, written by our very own Justin Melo. That comes with free shipping, by the way. Titans of the South.com. $25 includes shipping and it comes with a free gift, an illustrated player trading card of the Titans rookie quarterback. This This is an object that in 10 years from now, you’re going to be so thankful you bought it. When Cam Ward in 15 years is getting fitted for his gold jacket, you’re going to be extremely thankful that you bought this book when you could, when you had the chance, because it’s the resale market. Justin, what the what do you think the resale market on this book’s going to be in 10 years? Um, titansofthesouth.com. Go get your copy. You have until August 31st. Once that deadline passes, you can still order the original version of the book wherever you get books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, whatever. But you cannot get this special edition past August 31st. Also, Justin, I believe uh people have been receiving some shipping confirmation emails. The sh the book should be shipping out early next week is what I understand. Is that right? I’ve got an update for you. I was so glad to see you guys dropping comments on the last video saying, “I just got my shipping. I got my order confirmation. Titans of the South. The publisher has been reaching out to you guys one by everyone who’s purchased it one by one. Been a lot of emails going out to just reconfirm your shipping address. You know, some of you ordered it two months ago, a month and a half ago. It was a pre-order. Don’t want to ship it to the wrong address. In fact, we’ve actually had a handful, two handfuls of people that said, “Oh, I actually moved since I placed the order.” So, that’s why we’re doing that. Starting this Monday, books are going out, guaranteed shipping this Monday. Now, this is we’re a mom and pop operation, small publisher umbrella that I’m under. It’s going to take about and we’ve sold hundreds hundreds hundreds hundreds of copies of 2025 version. It’s going to take about a week to get them all out, but starting this Monday, hopefully you’re one of the lucky ones that’s the first or the second to get their book shipped to you. But every day, we’re shipping about 150 copies starting this Monday. So, give it about a week for yours to get out. But because you’ve been getting those emails confirming your shipping, we are closer than we’ve ever been. As Graver said, August 31st, the last day to get in your copy. After that, of course, the orders the shipping will start trickling out still to you. So, if you’re late on it, yours might not go out this Monday, obviously, but you will get it. Uh, you know, hopefully the 31st is the last day that we’re actually shipping out. So, once you see that Player Illustrated trading card, Graver, like I I like I I I don’t care if I’m hyping it up. Like, come in the comments. Tell me if I was wrong. Tell me I have the Graver. You’ve seen it. You thought it was a real photo. Like, the artist knocked this out of the park. This trading card illustration is gorgeous. 10 out of 10 in my opinion. I can’t wait for you guys to see it. I really can’t. Yeah. So, get your copy. Titansofthesouth.com. And uh thanks to everyone who’s helping push us towards our goal here because it’s as a channel, you know, we have 50 as I record this, we have 4563 subscribers and we’re trying to get to 4750 by the end of week 1. That’s not that far away. So, we need you guys to mash that subscribe button, like the video, drop a comment below. And if whenever you receive your Titans of the South book, whether that’s Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, whatever, come into the that day’s episode and drop it in the comments. I just got my book. We want to see your reactions when you receive it. So, uh, let’s continue forward. Justin, also check out sinkersbeverages.com to join the in crowd for free and exclusive perks. Thanks to Sinkerbeverages for supporting the channel. Let’s talk about Van Jefferson. Van Jefferson, huge bounceback game. I mean, statistically an insane game, I think, for a preseason game for a guy who I don’t think he played in the second half. Three catches, 102 yards, and a touchdown, including a 65yd touchdown from Brandon Allen on a play where I was fairly impressed with Brandon Allen because it felt like he didn’t see a pre-nap blitz, but as soon as he snapped the ball, he realized this guy’s blitzing me off the edge hot. He throws the hot to Van Jefferson who makes the defender like trip over his shoelaces or the the turf monster got him or something. I don’t know. This defender almost falls down. It’s like a when you’re playing Madden and like they complete a pass outside and you’re just like switch player tackle, switch player, tackle, switch player, tackle. It’s like somebody switch player and tackled before uh he could actually make the tackle. Van Jefferson makes this guy miss and just sprints down the sideline. I’m like, “Holy cow, I did not know Van Jefferson had those kind of jets. takes it all the way to the house. What a play. Remember he ran like a 4-39 at the combine. I thought he was way removed from that. But uh no, the speed impressed me. And look, what else can you say about Van Jefferson other than good for him in all honesty like we dogged on him a lot. I get it. But you know, human being that drop I’m sure bothered him. Social media destroyed him. No way he didn’t see it, right? Even Brian Callahan said it like, “Oh, he got beat up pretty bad online for the drop last week.” Um, you know, first the catch, the frozen rope from Cam Ward, I thought great hauling that in. You know, not an easy catch in my opinion. Good that he hauled that in. That 65 yard touchdown. Maybe a little bit of luck with the corner, you know, kind of losing his feet, but honestly, like if you watch it suddenly, he like fakes a move I guess inside and then breaks back outside. Like that probably played a role in the corner, losing his footing and then just outruns everyone to the end zone. Like, beautiful play for Van Jefferson. Good for him. I I do think he’s going to make this roster of course and he was hitting the jugs after that drop. Like he put in the work. He took accountability when he spoke at practice. Good for him to see him come up with this big performance. And he reportedly had a really good week of practice. Even Brian Callahan said in the in the postgame press conference, I didn’t know he had that kind of speed. Like his head coach was shocked at how fast he ran uh down the sideline on that play. And I don’t care if it was against backups or whoever because a lot of times these random guys who are backups are even getting a shot to play because they have incredible speed and they aren’t good at anything else. They don’t have good technique or they don’t, you know, they don’t they don’t make plays, but they have the speed. They’re more athletes than football players and nobody was close to catching Van Jefferson on this play. So, that is incredibly incredibly impressive and um he’s definitely making this team. I will say I’m just going to borrow a joke from Zack Lions here real quick. Uh it is a shame that Titans fans cut him last week because I mean he could have had such a good season. He could have had such a big game here this 65 yard touchdown. Yeah. That never happened because Titans fans including myself cut him after the last preseason game. Well, it’s nice to see the coaching staff is smarter than us and they see a lot more than we see and Van Jefferson is definitely making the team and honestly if he can make plays like this and he stops dropping the ball like he should play he should play a decent amount. you should play more than the rookies who are still making their fair share of mistakes here. I do think like when we talk about the rookies which we’re not doing yet, but I am Manor is impressed me a lot more than DK as a wide receiver. DK does look like a good special teams player. Um that was an aside, but yeah, Van Jefferson’s going to make the team. He’s going to play a decent amount at least in the early part of the year as the rookies are acclimating. And that’s okay. I mean, if he got speed like this and can make plays like this. Yeah. I mean, you played. We’ll see. Yeah. I’m going to run through a little bit of rapid fire, if you don’t mind, on some of the other stuff that we want to touch on a little quicker than we we went through. Cam Ward and Van Jefferson, the linebacker battle. Uh Cedric Ray gets a start for the second straight week. Thought he looked good again. You know, five tackles. I think the thing that sticks out to me is he’s playing with a lot of confidence. I think you see that, too. Like, he’s triggering downhill with violence, quickness, aggression. He’s being physical. You just see that he’s enjoying it right now. like he’s playing football at a high level and he’s having fun and I you know no doubt last year the injury rookie year wiped out for the most part took a bit of a toll on him and and that’s not fun you know so good for him he looks like he’s playing with a lot of fun I don’t know who’s going to win this like James Williams then comes in and has an interception on a tipped ball like this is good verse good right now and that’s a good problem to have for the Titans a lot of fun I don’t know who’s going to start week one I’ll say this I don’t know like do you this is not a battle a right guard. Do you even need to name a starter? I don’t know that they will cuz at linebacker personnel packages like they’re probably both going to play. They’re going to mix it up now. One of them is going to take the first snap next to Cody Barton in week one and one of them is going to play the majority of snaps in base defense. That could be the guy that we anoint as the winner of this competition forever. For so long we thought that was definitely going to be James Williams. Like now I’m not so sure. Like Gray’s playing really well and they’ve been like they’ve been complimentary of him. Like I don’t have a whole lot to say about it because it’s a good problem to have and I don’t know that we’re going to get an answer until that first defensive snap in Denver. But love the way both of them are playing right now. I think you got to play each guy to his strengths because even like on the first third down of the game for Minnesota here, they complete a pass sort of uh like in that hook area, zone, coverage area that that that was Cedric Gray’s zone and he didn’t he didn’t get there and he didn’t get there in time. He made the tackle on the catch, but he didn’t get there. He was late in coverage. Wasn’t where he was supposed to be in coverage. That’s a big third down play. I think Cedric Gray’s strength is downhill thumping and he’s still figuring out how to play in space on third downs. James Williams is pretty good downhill thumping, but really good playing in space on third downs. I don’t know, I don’t want to say really good, but like a lot better than Cedric Gray anyway in terms of like he feels like a natural coverage backer because he has a background as a safety. Why not play him that way? And I think that that’s how you’re going to play them. I think Cedric Gray was on the field for that first third down because they’re like, “All right, let’s see what you got. This is a test. This is part of the competition.” But in a real game situation, you run Cedric Gray out there for first down. If it’s second and short, maybe you keep Cedric Gray out there. If if this other team has a tendency of, you know, they pass the ball on 70% of second and eights, then you throw James Williams out there. Like, you know, you figure out what you’re expecting the other team to do and you put the linebacker out there that gives you the best uh, you know, the best look against that potential offensive play. And then throughout the season, you know, somebody’s going to get hurt at some point and you feel pretty good about somebody, one of these two guys having to play the whole game because they’ve both been fairly impressive. They’re not amazing on every snap, but I think we were really worried going into this season that linebacker, especially linebacker 2, was going to be like the weakest spot on the Titans defense. And I don’t feel that way anymore at all. I mean, obviously, we know edge rusher is a huge weak link. Um, but the the inside linebacker spot I almost feel good about g given the way that James Williams and Cedric Gray have played and we are pretty confident in Cody Barton. So, I think that’s how they’re going to use them. They’re going to put James Williams in passing situations and Cedric Gray in obvious run situations and uh we’ll see, you know, if that if those roles change or develop throughout the course of the season, but that’s how I think you’ll see it in Denver week one. I think we all feel a lot better about that spot than we did two months ago. So, of course, they still got to prove it in the regular season and they’re young. They’re inexperienced. I think coverage is a bit of a question, especially for Gray. So, we’ll see. But I do feel pretty good about that spot right now. Talk a little Xavier Restrepo for the first time, I believe, played in the second quarter of this game. Had had not done that, at least on offense, of course, in the first two preseason games. One catch for eight yards, you know, had a ball. That was a nice catch. It was It was combat catch that was a ball thrown in harm’s way. And the first throw that was to him, I will just defend him. He runs a like an out route. He creates separation and he’s open. And the throw is so late and behind him that it allows the defensive back to come in and break it up. But the the second throw to him, the catch that he made, that was like it looked like it was going to be intercepted. And Restrepo comes back to the ball, fights through contact to make the grab. It was an impressive play. Now that said, I think we all see the writing on the wall for Xavier Resto. One catch for eight yards still probably. I don’t think I mean I don’t know how much he could have done but not enough I think to change the way that this is going. I do think he’s going to be Yeah, you’re going to say it. He’s going to be a practice squad guy. I think so. I don’t think people are so afraid of him getting claimed. I can’t imagine that he gets I mean he could have negotiated with 32 teams when he was an undrafted free agency. Like why didn’t someone draft him in the seventh round, right? Like I I think he’s probably a practice squad guy. I don’t think the Titans got a fear losing him quickly on the running back battle. Uh you know, death taxes Julius Chestnut running the ball well in the preseason. I mean, that hurdle was phenomenal. Thought he looked good. I think he’s fairly safe, especially with I I thought he wasn’t safe two months, a month ago even when, you know, I was doing my 53man roster projections and Taj Spears was healthy. I had Khal Mollies in that RB3 role. Either they’re keeping four on the 53 or Taj is going to IR and not counting. Those are the only two outcomes in my opinion. I think Chestnut is safe. I think, you know, Mollings I thought looked pretty good running the ball as well. Had an ankle injury, but Brian Callahan said it’s not serious. Um, you know, I like I think Jordan Mims and Jamar Jefferson are damn good are damn good. They’re NFL caliber running backs. They both like there was one I think it was Jefferson had a nice run in the second half. Then he caught like a swing ball on the next snap. Just caught it in stride. So beautiful. Picked up another first down after like a 15 yard run. Like both these guys are NFL caliber running backs. Don’t think they’re keeping either of them unfortunately. But I think like I would love to get both on the practice squad to be honest with you. both, not even just one. But I think this is probably going to be fairly cut and dry. The only question for me is whether Taj Spears is on 53 or IR. But either way, it changes nothing because I I’ve got Chestnut and Mollings as the other uh two no matter what happens there. Yeah. And I like Mims and and Jefferson, too. And I think you definitely get at least one of them on the practice squad because you already have an injury to Taj Spears. Khal Mullings had like a sort of injury scare. Somebody’s going to get hurt at some point. You’re going to call one of these guys up. So yeah, maybe they try to get both on the practice squad. Maybe they only get one. Um, I definitely think that’s something that we’ll see. A couple more shoutouts. Bryce Oliver, I mean, Titans fans on Twitter in the first half were like fed up with every possible idea of a screenplay. Like, stop calling screen plays. As if, like, as if every team in the league doesn’t call a handful of screen plays a game. They call one to Bryce Oliver. He goes, he hurdles a guy on the sideline and while he’s midair hurdling one defender, he’s stiff arming another defender. the Titans sideline was like losing their minds watching Bryce Oliver make this play. Um he made another contested catch over the middle of the field. Bryce Oliver is a dude. He’s going to get his fair share of snaps. I think he’s going to make his fair share of plays this year. Another shout out goes to James Lynch. You mentioned James Williams interception. Obviously James Lynch was the guy there um putting pressure on the quarterback on Brett Ripen. Uh, but uh, by the way, I was watching the Cowboys documentary, the Jerry Jones documentary last night and uh, in the second episode they’re playing the Washington team and Mark Ripen is playing quarterback and I, you know, nudged Jessica and I was like, Jessica, look, that’s Mark Ripen. The Titans played his son tonight. How crazy is that? Um, anyway, she loves that. I’m sure she was. Yeah, she was like, cool. I don’t care. Um, so anyway, good job by James Lynch there. And then I really want to talk about the backup lineman on the offensive line really quick because obviously Cory Leven’s been playing for Lloyd Cushenberry, but Kevin Zitler didn’t play in this game. JC Laam didn’t play in this game. Dan Moore and Peter Scaransky did. They started alongside Cory Leven, uh Blake Hance at right guard, and Ooli Udo at right tackle. And they were okay. I mean, granted, they’re playing against a backup defensive line, but I didn’t see any issues. In fact, the one pressure that was given up quickly was by Dan Moore on that first drive. And then there was a sack that they gave up towards the end of that second drive, but I didn’t really feel like it was any one player’s fault. It felt like the pocket just sort of collapsed. Ward tried to step up correctly and then the interior pressure got to him. Um it was only a three-yard loss, I think. So if you’re going to take a sack, a three- yard loss kind of sack is the way to go. But interesting to see that. It does definitely feel like that’s the Titans are telling us who their key backups on the O line are with this the way they rolled these guys out. Leaven is your backup center. Blake Hance is your backup guard at either spot and Ooludo is your first tackle off the bench at either spot. You know, those eight guys are making the roster and then it’s a competition for the rest. You know, Jackson Slater is making the roster. That might be that might be it. It might be those nine guys. If you keep a tenth, who is it? Jaylen Duncan, John Ajuku was the was the extra O line off the bench when they on that fourth and one play where Julius Chestnut hurdled a guy. Um John Ajuku was the first guy to come in there. So, is he a 10th offensive lineman you keep? Is he someone you try to get on the practice squad and maybe he’s like a practice squad elevation for the first two or three weeks? Like, it’s interesting that I think Jaylen Duncan is probably not on this roster come September 7th. East Freeze actually reported that the Titans might be able to trade him and that would be a win, a huge win. If they can, if the guy they’re going to cut, if they can net some draft capital for him, then by all means, please. Anyway, I don’t have any other notes, so if you want to respond to that and give any last takeaways, we can get out of here. Yeah, I think AliO, I mean, I’ve been surprised by his sort of rise up the depth chart will ascent. It does seem like he is the third tackle right now. Uh Blake Hance is safe. I I’ve been saying since they signed him, he plays like four positions. He plays tackle, too. So, they love that. Uh I think Johnoku does make the roster. I mean, maybe they can get him on the practice squad and elevate him as you said, but they really value that skill set as the six when they I think in the first quarter when they went to six jumbo lineman, they brought him in like they really use him as walking tight end almost, right? Like so I think he probably makes the team one way or another. Duncan seems like the odd man out. Maybe Andrew Rupsich I I think doesn’t make it either. Uh, but they’ve got good depth on the OLA. I I’ve been telling my buddy Lomus over at Titans size like he we were talking about waiver claims like I don’t think they claim an offensive lineman. I really don’t like the depth that they have here. So, uh, and they got Brendan they got Brennan Krenshaw Dixon who they like too. And the this is the last thing I’ll say on it. Sorry, I know we’re running long, but um, they if they keep four running backs now, they have to because Taj Spears is injured. Maybe it’s only three on the active roster and you get away with that. But if they keep four running backs and seven wide receivers, they’re going to have a tough time keeping 10 offensive line and that’s like an sort of an extra player at each one of those spots. Um the math is going to get tricky there. So we’ll see how it all shakes out. But any final thoughts on this game, Justin, or should we run through our upcoming schedule real quick here? Uh last thing I’ll say is that safety, you know, tough decision there. I’m going to run rapid fire here, but tough decision there. Can’t wait to see what they do. I thought Julius Wood got screwed out of that interception. You know, I think everyone thinks Mike Brown is the number five safety. I could get why you think he’s the favorite. He played a lot of special teams throughout his career in Tennessee and he’s good at it. Um, but I’m starting to think Julius Wood should get that fifth spot. I think he could play special teams, too. He’s got a bit more upside on defense. So, I think I think he’s also would be likely to get claimed to be honest with you. I do. I think Wood would get claimed if they cut him. And you got to factor that into the decision, too. Maybe I can cut Brown and get him on the practice squad, but I can’t do the same with Wood. So, really fascinated to see what they do at safety. Kendell Brooks, by the way, I mean, he had the pick six last week. He had he he he flashed to me in this game, too. He had one play where I think it was like a short throw to a running back or a tight end or somebody. And he drives on this pass from like 20 yards off the line of scrimmage and gets there right as the ball is arriving and lays lays the wood. Not the Julius wood, but lays the wood. And this catch goes for like a two- yard gain. And it was like when the ball was released, this player was wide open and it was just a really good recognition and really good drive on the ball. He he made a couple of good plays in this game as well. So, it’s a tough decision. I think Kendall Brooks is definitely a practice squad target though because, you know, all the injuries they had last year at safety, if somebody gets hurt this year, you feel okay. I mean, as a UDFA guy, as as good as you can feel about a UDFA, I think you feel okay. All right, Justin, that does it for this recap. Let’s quickly tell the people what we got going on Monday. We’ll we will be back to do our final 53man roster projection. I’m probably only going to have 48 guys on mine. I mean, we’ll see. I haven’t really looked at it too closely yet. Maybe I’ll get to 53, but I just like I feel dumb for projecting more than 53 or more than 48. I I feel dumb projecting a full 53 because I know that after Wednesday when the waiver claims process, like at least five guys are going to be waved and claimed. At least that’s what we expect to happen based on what Mike Bonzi said. based on the state of this roster. So, we’ll see. And then Tuesday, we are going to do a cut down day live stream, but we’re going to do it a little different, Justin, because we don’t want to sit around and wait all day for the final 53 to come out at like 6:00 p.m. Central time. We’re not going to stream that late. We’re going to go live around 1:00 p.m. Central Standard Time or Central Daylight Time. I shouldn’t say standard or daylight cuz I don’t know the difference. We’re going to go live around 1:00 p.m. Central time. and we’re going to be live for like 30 35 minutes. Maybe we’ll get some live roster news to react to. will will react to the players. You know, Monday morning, Tuesday morning, when everyone wakes up, there’s going to be uh cuts released, announced, like eight Titans have waved eight guy. Like, we’ll be able to react to a decent amount of news, but rather than like wait, rather than react right at the deadline or react to the initial 53 again, we know so many guys are going to be waved and claimed that we’d rather come back the next day after some of those new moves have processed and react to what we then have as a 53man roster going into the season. So that’s what’s coming up. Maybe we do it late enough that we should probably wait for the waiver claim on Wednesday maybe on Wednesday because they’re going to claim a bunch of guys. So it would be smart of us to get that into Wednesday’s episode. So we might be back a little later Wednesday, but it’ll be to your benefit cuz that info is going to be, you know, really important. And then Thursday, we probably will have a practice squad to react to. And so that’s probably what we’ll do on Thursday and we’ll see if that is the case or not. But anyway, that’s what’s coming up on the Music City Audible. Make sure you are subscribed to the channel, like this video, drop a comment below, and go to titans of the south.com, get a book, go to sinkersbeverages.com, join the incrowd, and we’ll see y’all on Monday. So until then, y’all stay safe out there and tighten up. Tighten up. A Broadway Sports Media production.

Justin Melo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Justin Graver⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ are back to recap the Tennessee Titans final preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings. How did Cam Ward look, and is he ready for Week 1 at Denver? Van Jefferson had a huge bounce back performance, and we run through some other notes from the game: stand-out players, bubble guys, and roster battles.

0:00 Preseason Week 3 Recap
1:37 Cam Ward Preseason Review
14:48 Titans of the South
22:15 Other Notes from the Game
34:59 Coming up on MCA
37:00 Wrap Up

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