Deep Dive: Dennard Wilson’s History & How Good Can Titans Secondary Be in 2024? | MCA Titans Podcast

Deep Dive: Dennard Wilson’s History & How Good Can Titans Secondary Be in 2024? | MCA Titans Podcast

how good can this Tennessee Titans secondary be under new defensive coordinator dinard Wilson we’re going to take a look at dinard Wilson’s history as a secondary coach and defensive pass game coordinator as well as the obvious players on the Titans roster and then sort of compare that to the rest of the NFL to find out how good can this Titan secondary be this is the Music City audible let’s get to it oh welcome everyone to another episode of the Music City audible podcast presented by broadway sports media in partnership with 440 Sports I’m Justin Graver with me as always Justin melow and Justin has been a while I think the people were maybe expecting an episode last week cuz I said on the last one which was over a week ago now I said later this week we’re going to get to this and it’s just like life’s been really busy for both of us but how is it going my friend well hold on you said it’s over we give us some PR oh yeah it’s been seven days I think since the last one so I we’re recording this so been about seven or eight days that’s a long time for us so we apologize to the listeners the viewers but it is a slow time of year had a week off uh you did a solo pod you you knocked it out of the park by the way thank you uh it’s been watched by a ton of people in fact there’s one guy I want to call out uh one commenter I don’t remember his name I think you know exactly where I’m going with this and I’m pissed off I wish I wrote down his name so I can call him out maybe you’ll look it up the guy commented on the YouTube video we really appreciate your comment by the way Graver does I don’t as much even though I do um he left a comment saying I love you guys is a Duo but that solo pod Just Hits different it was at only loyalty matters and if you’re watching on YouTube now you see that on the screen what a what a what a cliche name because there’s no loyalty he’s showing to Justin Melo here co-host of the music C what loyalty what loyalty he’s only loyal to Justin braver I was ticked about it man I was like wow and you know what all kidding aside uh you you you killed it you did a great job but I could never imagine doing a solo pod like every day every other day I can’t like did you be honest and and feel free did you enjoy it like did you really really I can’t imagine doing solo all the time I couldn’t imagine I wouldn’t do it I agree I mean it was nice not to be interrupted or cut off as I was making a point every time just giving you [ __ ] um no it was fine it was fine it sucked cuz I had to like know everything usually I can like halfway know stuff and then just toss it to you and then you’ll fill in the gaps but so I guess it was good for me to be fully educated but yeah look we are I don’t know if you guys watching or listening we appreciate everyone who downloads this as an audio podcast of course we really appreciate the listeners but we appreciate even more the YouTube followers and continue to comment on the on the videos because we like to engage with you guys we like to get in there and respond and we even like to base entire episodes of the show off of our YouTube comments cuz today’s episode diving into how good can the secondary be or as Spencer Smith 9367 put it where the secondary might rank because he said I can’t fathom actually having an Elite secondary but with the dudes we have it could be real this year I agree Spencer Smith the Titans could have an elite secondary this year and that’s what we’re diving into on this podcast so we just want to encourage everyone again continue commenting on the video it’s the best way to help us grow this channel if you have friends who are Titans fans and you listen to this send them the video send us what send them what we’re doing here so that you can talk to your friends about oh did you hear what Justin and Justin said do you agree are those two guys idiots or what or maybe that’s not what you’ll say but what just no I was going to say um 40 comments on the last video I think that’s the most we’ve ever had maybe or it’s up there so it’s up there it’s certainly up there so uh as much as we you know graver’s been talking to you guys asking you for the comments you are coming through we’re very very pleased with what you guys are doing 40 comments on the last video that’s outstanding if this one surpasses it we’ll be blown away we’d be thrilled but 40 comments man appreciate all of you f except the loyal Titans guy I didn’t like his comment but the other 39 were and shout out to all our International listeners I didn’t realize our show had such a big Global profile but we got guys I mean Canada’s basically I mean you’re in the continent at least I’m talking about over this across the pond we got guy people listening from England from Germany just shouting out where they’re from in the comments I love that actually so if you are not a us or Canadian listener tell us where you’re from I love seeing how how big the show is growing and I will respond in your language I will find a way to respond I mean we had a Brazilian guy I think comment recently and I don’t know if you know this but Brazilians they speak Portuguese and I’m Portuguese so I don’t have to go look that up I just responded to him it was thank you in Portuguese but everyone probably knows but the point is uh I think there was a German guy commented I I talked about the Euro Cup with him which is going on right now like we’re having a blast I I know a lot about soccer so all you Europeans you want to comment out there let’s talk some footy let’s do it and Germany with the 5-1 biggest win of the Euro so far I know what’s going on in soccer all right let’s get into this episode and before I do I want to tell everyone episode is brought to you by sinkers beverages in East Nashville and Bluegrass beverages in Hendersonville sinkers beverages is the Premier wine spirits and beer store in East Nashville serving the community since 1985 their knowledgeable staff is proud to help you with large parties themed events or finding something unique for a special occasion so from birthday parties to Milestone celebrations to Everyday moments sinkers can help with the right drink for every occasion and if you head to sinkers beverages.com or you check the link in this podcast description you can join The In Crowd In Crowd members get access to allocated wines and spirits exclusive events Early Access to Barrel releases and more and again shout out to all of our YouTube listeners and our YouTube Watchers if you are watching on YouTube make sure you subscribe to the musicity audible Channel give this video a thumbs up like and turn on alerts so you get a notification every time we drop a new video cuz when we accidentally take a week off like we just did you’re not going to know when the next one’s coming you get those alerts on bang you know Music City audible new video has dropped you can go check it out all right Justin enough banter we are 8 minutes into the episode and we have not talked about cornerbacks or secondaries yet so let’s do that and I’m going to start off this discussion I’m going to let dinard Wilson start this off for us with a quote from his the last press conf last time he spoke to the media he talked about how these Corners are going to play especially when it comes to press coverage take a listen um for me I believe press are less like I want them to line up and I want them to be in front of receivers and challenge challenge the receivers ultimately in this game if you get free access it’s easy for this quarterback the quarterbacks to complete balls so what I do is I want to I want to uh create hesitation at the line of scrimmage and make them earn it the hard way make them make them earn it throw the 50-50 ball but everything else we’re going to challenge how how do you approach that do you leave it open to them to do it or it’s you tell them from day from day one it’s we press everything now I hit on this a little bit when I was doing updates from you know what we learned about Ti from Titans mandatory mini camp so I did talk about this in the last pod if you missed it but man is it refreshing to know that the Titans cornerbacks are going to be physical and aggressive and try to disrupt these routes at the line of scrimmage as opposed to whatever the heck we saw under the last multiple regimes where they said it was basically up to the cornerback to decide if he wanted to press or play off or what how he wanted to attack the receiver and how many times did Titans fans complaining about oh it’s third and 10 and our Corners are playing 20 yards off the line of scrimmage or it’s third and four and they’re playing 10 yards off the line like get up there and jam a guy well now the Titans are going to do that so before we dive into dard Wilson’s history just your thoughts on how that could change everything for this past defense well I think the most important thing is Personnel to be honest with you know I don’t doubt that maybe that was a point and a point of emphasis for the Mike Rabel Shane Bowen defense maybe they didn’t believe in that I don’t I can’t say with certainty but maybe they did it I know when dick labau was here for example I’m going way back but Personnel was so bad if I recall correct me it wouldn’t if I recall correctly excuse me it wouldn’t shock me if they felt they couldn’t press even if they wanted to right like they they had guys out there that didn’t belong out there the Mike Rael Shane bow and defense you know when they had the Malcolm Butlers the adori Jackson the Logan Ryan Personnel was pretty good this past year I didn’t like it okay Christian Fulton Sean Murphy bunting clear upgrades with lerus sne and Cheeto aier coming in the key for me when you ask me that question the point is now you’ve got guys that can press in my opinion so if you want to play that style you marry the scheme to the skill set right that’s when a beautiful marriage happens right you don’t need counseling you don’t need none of that BS that’s when it’s going the way it’s supposed to go right a guy like larius need one of the Premier press Corners in the league we know that a guy like Roger mccre short short armed but super Scrappy super competitive wants to get in your face never backs down from a challenge right and I think Cheeto auu on the other side is a good fit for that as well so marrying personel scheme I think that was a big thing that Rand carthon wanted to achieve this offseason and he did that by giving dard Wilson the type of Corners that he wants to play in his defense yeah it’s interesting you mention that because PFF released a basically a new metric at least a metric I had never heard of before so maybe it’s been around but I think it’s a new metric today um Monday called physicality rating percent wait what is it called it’s called um physicality rate it’s a new metric that PFF has come out with called physicality rate which basically measures how what percentage of times or how often a cornerback is getting physical and pressing a wide receiver and this just came out they released the top 10 most physical cornerbacks on Monday lerus sne number four with a physicality rate of 33.0% now in my mind and look I’m going to throw a lot of PFF numbers at you guys today we’re we can just get this disclaimer out of the way right off the bat PFF grain of Sal we know we know the whole we know the whole deal with PFF it’s still a good way to get a snapshot of performance right so yeah sometimes it’s a good snapshot of performance other times they rank Aaron Brewer ahead of Lloyd cushenberry in their positional rankings even even though like the description of each guy like doesn’t match that when they did uh free agent centers yes Lloyd cushenberry was well above Aaron Brewer and and I mean Apple in or like one plus one’s too right one of them got four years 50 million the other got 321 in free agency so definitely a market-based thing I saw your titanized article on that today so check out Titan siiz new editor Justin mow okay anyway so physicality rate what is physicality rate like let’s be real physicality rate is that a real metric that we’re going to use now but regardless lerus sne been one of the most physical Corners in the NFL whether you use pff’s physicality rate or not like it’s just a fact he is always in the guys’s Grill so never played under jard Wilson but clear stylistic mashing there and I think that you’re going to see the same thing from chido uer from Roger mccre Heck if Trey Avery or Eric geror or Jarvis brownley Jr if those guys have to play snaps at some point in the year you’re going to see it from them too it’s not just going to be the top three guys because they’re physical like Jarvis brownley Jr in college was the same kind of guy Trey Avery Eric geror I mean we’ve seen some physicality from those guys too even if they weren’t necessarily coached to be Eric guor especially I mean he was coming up making brutal like hardcore tackles in the preseason and stuff now granted that’s different from jamming a receiver but he’s he can tell he’s got that physicality in him so I think as far as players and coaches go like what the defensive coordinator wants to do and the Personnel that he has to execute that Vision perfect match so great job team building on that side of things and while we’re talking about dard Wilson I do want to talk about his history so if you guys listen to the how good can Titans offensive line be episode where we did our Deep dive on Bill Callahan’s history we looked at his previous stops and how good the offensive line was under Bill Callahan there is a caveat here we’re going to try to do something similar but we have to be we have to acknowledge that dard Wilson was never a defensive coordinator if you’re looking specifically at offensive line and offensive line rankings with the greatest offensive line coach of all time I think there’s a clearer path of correlation there whereas with dard Wilson it’s like he wasn’t a defensive coordinator he did have a role as a p defensive pass game coordinator at in some stops but not every time like 2021 he was with Philadelphia he was just the defensive backs coach 2022 still with Philadelphia he was promoted to defensive pass game coordinator and defensive backs coach but he’s never been the defensive coordinator and we’ve seen a lot of people you know when dard Wilson was hired it’s like oh Patrick Queen would be a great fit with the Titans because he played for dard Wilson it’s like you guys know dard Wilson wasn’t the defensive coordinator in Baltimore right like does everyone know that like just want to make sure that we are putting that caveat out there it’s not exactly the same as looking at offensive line rankings with the offensive line coach but still what I’m going to look at here is PFF coverage grade rank ring under dinard Wilson for his last three stop last three years last four years last three stops specifically so here it is 2023 Baltimore Ravens he was the defensive backs coach he was not the defensive coordinator or the defensive pass game coordinator just the defensive backs coach Baltimore finished with the second best coverage grade as a defense that season 93.0 according to pff’s grade 93.0 that is very very high Baltimore also finished with the number two overall def defense by PFF grade at 89.8 now graded dard Wilson was not the defensive coordinator so that doesn’t necessarily mean a lot but they were a very very good defense they had very good personnel and they were very well coached and well coordinated and that’s how you end up as the number two coverage graded team in PFF La uh the season before that 2022 he was with Philadelphia he was the defensive pass game coordinator that year and the defensive backs coach Philadelphia finished fifth overall in coverage grade ranking by PFF with a coverage grade of 89.1 remember 90 is Elite anything above 70 is good but you’re creeping up towards 90 and over 90 you are Elite so Philadelphia in 2022 fifth overall in 2021 with Philadelphia before he was the P game coordinator he was just the defensive backs coach Philadelphia was 13th with a coverage grade of 69.8 remember what I just said anything above 70 typically is considered good just about 70 but it gets worse the further back in time we go from there if you go to 2020 he was with the New York Jets as the passing defensive pass game coordinator and defensive backs coach for two years 2019 to 2020 those two years we may want to throw out of this sample because they are not good 2021 or sorry 2020 with the New York Jets they were 30th out of 32 in coverage grade 33.3 grade that is about as bad as it gets that is extraordinarily bad I am shocked that there were two teams with a lower coverage grade than that and if you go back all the way to 2019 his first year with New York his first year as a defensive pass game coordinator in New York sorry he was in New York before that just as the defensive backs coach for two seasons then 2019 promoted defensive pass game coordinator and defensive backs coach in that season they ranked 15th in coverage grade with a pretty good grade of 72.2 so a better overall year for the entire NFL in terms of coverage grade but the point is he’s been with New York the Personnel was obviously different than what it was with Philadelphia than what it was in Baltimore but through three different stops over five years he’s been top 15 four out of five times he’s been top five twice so there’s that’s a pretty good track record and if you look at the Personnel like in New York versus Philadelphia versus Baltimore where Baltimore second best Philadelphia fifth best New York 15th best obviously we know the Personnel in Baltimore is a little bit better than the Personnel in Philly during those two years which they still had good Corners in Philly those two years but getting up there in age and then the secondary kind of fell off last year after dard Wilson left which is also interesting to note Zack Lions wrote about that after the hire was announced that dard Wilson every time he’s left a team their defensive like the passing stats they allow and everything their coverage takes a major nose dive so that’s another element to this I’m pissed you said that because you’ve been talking for so long was the one point I wanted to make I’m kidding because uh I wanted two things I want want to point out about 2022 you didn’t take all of it he took one of it um that was his final year in Philly uh best secondary in the league in the E 179.1 passing yards allowed per game literally the best ranked secondary in the league in passing yards per game metric uh how about how about we flip it around the Ravens that year he’s not there obviously in 2022 right and now look the D coordinator there that just got the head coaching job in Seattle probably deserves a ton of credit more credit potentially but just something to point out he’s not in Baltimore that year because he’s in Philly and where the Ravens ranked eighth most passing yards allowed uh per game at 232.103 no middle I got it up here now officially uh sixth best yeah uh with dard Wilson exactly and yeah so you mentioned it the sixth fewest yards per game allow second best coverage grade by PFF in Baltimore last year and you know you talk about the caveats and everything and like how good can the Titan secondary be dard Wilson has never been a defensive coordinator before he’s been a defensive pass game coordinator and defensive backs coach so we are projecting a little bit here because we don’t exactly know what a scheme is going to look like but we do know you know what the clip I played earlier he’s going to you know these guys are going to press they’re going to be aggressive they’re going to try to force turnovers as much as possible possible so I think that we’re going to see that now let’s talk about so that’s the coach coach A+ higher in terms of what you hope he can be for as if you’re going to hire someone who’s never been a defensive coordinator before this is the type of guy you hire because he’s shown that he can do it at that level right below defensive coordinator as a defensive pass game coordinator which is half the job so we’re projecting a little bit there but then you talk about the players that he added Leger yeah can you give me one second I’m sorry I’m putting my hand up instead of interrupting uh because talked about the secondary uh him being a secondary coach and you talked about him being a first year defensive coordinator I do think it’s worth me putting my hand up to say he’s got some good support in that room right they held on to Chris Harris as a passing game coordinator cornerbacks coach we all think very highly of Chris Harris or you know we we have and we still should even though last year didn’t go to plan because it’s Personnel in my opinion and then they bring in Steve Jackson as a secondary coach right what is it his his second or third stint with the team or third if you count playing because he played for the franchise for a long time and then coached in 2016 2017 went on with the Jets by the way with dard Wilson for a bit then was in Cincinnati with Brian Callahan was recently in Atlanta did a really good job in Atlanta this year with Arthur Smith and turning that defense around AJ Terrell at corner so uh yes he’s a firsttime DC I share that concern questions with you but I really like that he’s got Chris Harris and Steve Jackson in that room to serve in the roles that he once served in and was successful right and I think that that’s definitely important um because again yeah it’s his first time so to be around people who have seen it who have done it before obviously is a huge deal and that’s definitely something that’s going to help him but another thing that’s going to help him is the players that the Titans acquired because not only were we were I don’t know how to feel now looking back necessarily speaking about the Titans coaching staff that was here before like everyone loved them at the time but you look back and kind of wonder how much better things could have been what maybe not at yeah I think people have gotten too carried away with how terrible they were it’s just like I don’t know yeah trust me well the the point I’m trying to make is not only did they change an upgrade maybe hopefully the coaching staff the personnel has been vastly vastly upgraded by bringing in yeah but bringing in lerus sne and chido azier you vastly improve the the talent that the coaching staff has to work with and the like we mentioned this is a perfect match between style of the coaching style and the play style and just talking about these players like where do you think when we’re let’s project ourselves let’s let’s time travel to June 2025 really quick where are national football people ranking the trio of lerus Sneed choer Roger mccre against the context of the larger NFL are they top five are they top 10 are they middle of the pack where where do you think they end up I think he’d be disappointed if they’re not top 10 certainly right maybe even a little higher like you look at you know teams like teams like the Jets you know I think of like the sauce Gardener you know DJ Reed Duo is really good Miami they’re a little old what do they got Jaylen Ramsey and like it just you know I’d be disappointed I think if they’re not top 10 right I think that’s how you’ve got to feel if you’re if you’re talking about June 2025 I agree with that um I think top 10 is probably the range of acceptable that you’re okay with and if you it’s worse than top 10 then you’re probably not that okay with it but I think they could be even higher than that if we’re talking about look I tried to sort this by coverage grade on PFF and to be honest it’s like it’s all over the map like lerus need 41st highest coverage grade player it’s like you’re you’re not going to tell me lerus need is the 41st best cornerback in the NFL when there’s only 32 teams so I’m not really using that stat um but a stat that I will use is passer rating allowed into their coverage um and leria Sneed last season ranked sixth in passer rating allowed into his coverage just 66.0 one of the best in the league obviously um it’s hard to say it’s hard to like top too positively about Cheeto Auer because last year it was a very down year for him coming off he was it was one year remov from an ACL injury which we’ve seen how players can come back from that Roger mccu though 32nd in the NFL in passer rating allowed last year 87. passer rating allow so you got two guys who are in the top 32 of cornerbacks in terms of passer rating allowed and then chido AER who you hope can get back to a previous form so Cheeto aier tougher to evaluate because of that year coming off injury so it’s harder to say you know I’m not going to use his pass rating allow last year to try to say how good this Titan secondary can be I do think there are weak points when we talk about the Titan secondary and one of those is injury concerns and we’ll get to that in a little bit as we talk about depth but before we before we do to finish this conversation look you got two guys top 32 passer rating allowed you got Cheto U who you expect to be a lot better in his second year move from the ACL and you got a defensive you got a defensive coordinator who has been a secondary coach and a defensive Bas game coordinator of top five units so you say top 10 there’s no reason this team couldn’t this group couldn’t be top five there’s no reason this group couldn’t be the best in the NFL I think the one thing right now that would stop them from being the best in the NFL is the G glaring hole at safety if they fill that glaring hole with Justin Simmons who is a All Pro level safety then you’re talking sky the limit for this defense if that is Elijah molden and a hodge podge of other guys coming in and filling rotational spots then you’re probably closer to that top 10 right on the the Ed Edge of top 10 status would you agree with that I do and I want to get into that in a second like you said when I look at quarterback rankings though you’re right like some of this is off the top of my head I’ll be honest but in terms of teams that are can match them as you know the New York Jets come to mind like I said s gter DJ Reid Michael Carter you know they were all really good last year an underr I’m gonna throw an underrated one at you that I think is not getting enough hype uh I mean other conference we’ll see them in week one though the Chicago Bears okay like uh Jaylen Johnson’s one of the better better ones in the league Tyreek Stevenson was outstanding last year I don’t know if people realize how good Tyreek Stevenson was as a rookie and then the nickel Corner KY Gordon is pretty pretty good as well then they got Jaquan briser at safety and they added Kevin Berard I mean say what you will about you know this eight version of Kevin Bard but uh if the other four guys are as good as they are in tan be then I think Bard will probably fit in just fine right and then the Jets I talked about corner but the trio there with the Jets is outstanding as well uh yes I think the one push back and I haven’t pushed back I said top 10 only because I like to leave a little wiggle room to be honest it’s not because I don’t think this room can be top five and it’s not about me like protecting myself or anything like that it’s I know how hard it is to be top five right if they’re seventh or eighth that’s still great nothing wrong with that you can win a Super Bowl if you’re the seventh best secondary in the NFL so that’s why I say top 10 I fully believe they can be even higher than that the one push back you kind of alluded to it quickly is the depth and and it’s the safety spot right I look at corner number one um if any of those three guys get hurt do you love what’s coming in behind them how ready Jarvis brownley gonna be do do you really rate Eric you know guar and Trey Avery that highly I don’t think most people do right and at safety I mean look it’s Elijah molden right starting opposite of manty hooker right now and you said it a hodge podge of other guys no let’s say who they are right it’s secondy year udfa special teams guy Matthew Jackson he’s probably the third best safety on the team right now that’s not that should that’s got be Elijah molden right like Elijah mold’s got to be the third best safety on the team and it’s ammani hooker starting opposite him we love ammani hooker when he’s healthy um can you imagine they don’t bring in someone and hooker gets hurt like it’s Elijah molden and and uh and and like Mike Brown is on this team too and shahem Carter both those guys have been like on again off they’ve probably gone through 30 transactions with the Titans over the last two years right I’m not even kidding right practice squad cut 53 cut back to practice squad I they got a udfa too out of Penn State Keat and Ellis like that’s who the that that’s who’s on the roster right now so it’s imperative that Elijah molden that they make him the third best safety on this roster and sort out what that room looks like that’s a fair point the push back I’ll give on that or I guess the counter argument the positive biased argument I will make to uh to that point is that last season in Baltimore Marlin Humphrey their starting cornerback missed seven games Marcus Williams their starting safety missed six games Gino Stone the backup safety who played for Marcus Williams largely an unknown Brandon Stevens do you know who that is right now I do because of the NFL draft but I’m nodding my head vigorously because if you think one of these guys is coming in that’s not what I’m saying that’s not what I’m saying but let me just for anyone who doesn’t know who Brandon Stevens is because I had never heard of him before Brandon Stevens is who filled in for Marlon Humphrey last year he was a safety coming out transition to boundary cornerback as a third-year player last year and logged 11 pass breakups only allowed an 80.6 passer rating only allowed two touchdowns he it’s going to be him and Marlon Humphrey sharing the field together coming up but the point is two key players from their secondary missed a lot of time 13 games combined and dard Wilson had these backups these depth pieces ready to come in and contribute without really missing a beat and I know that’s not the same thing and like every player is a different player and the Titans depth is who they are and they’re not and it maybe not as good as the Ravens death but the point is like we didn’t know how good Gino Stone was before he had to play a bunch last year we didn’t know how good Brandon Stevens was we didn’t know who Brandon Stevens was until he had to play for uh Marlon Humphrey last year so could you say the same thing about what if Jarvis brownley Jr is Absolut actually fine as a rookie if he gets pressed into action yeah you know that fan we’re big okay but this secondary came into the season I know they had injuries like you said but come on that room had Kyle Williams who’s the other who the who the other safety he’s making a million dollars a year Kyle Hamilton sorry that Kyle Hamilton I think I I combined their names who’s the other one Marcus Williams yes you’re talking about the guy he’s making a billion dollars a year he’s an unbelievable player you got they went into that year with Kyle Hamilton Marcus Williams fraking Gino Stone Marlin Humphrey I I don’t know I don’t that is the bias point of view I I think the depth they I know I’ll give you the the Stevens kid because he was he’s as unknown as Matthew Jackson was or or Eric arar is right now but no I I don’t see it the same way I agree Gino Stone was a good player coming out of Iowa I thought you know I I don’t see it I agree ultimately like the Titans depth is a concern and these guys are a little bit older and definitely more injury prone we know lerus s dealing with the knee we talk about Cho coming off the the ACL tear um and then the safety depth is what it is but I and so will one of these guys get pressed in action will Trey Avery Eric gor Jarvis brownley Jr will they have to play significant snaps this year his NFL history and odds say they will have to play some level of significant snaps at some point this year whether that’s a one game stretch a three game stretch an eight game stretch like those guys are going to be on the field a little bit just because that’s the nature of the NFL the injury rate is 100% so that’s going to happen at some point and that is the biggest question mark as to whether this team can finish with a top five secondary or if you want to look at it with PFF coverage grade which is I ranked dard Wilson’s history using if you want to look at it like can they have a top five grade for the most part they got to stay healthy or it’s going to be a big question whether or not they these backups because you mentioned how important the Personnel was to dard Wilson having success like the Personnel absolutely matters and you go out and pay all this money and for lerus need and for Cheeto uer to come in here only for them to like get hurt or not play obviously that’s a huge that’s going to be a big thing that you’re going to have to overcome and I don’t know that this Titan depth can overcome it so ultimately as we try to close out this episode I think the Titans are going to have a really good secondary but I think it but I think it is contingent on staying healthy and so it’s always risky to just project that they will be good and I like that you went with top 10 to give yourself that little wiggle room that somebody misses six games or whatever happens happens um but I think with dard Wilson in here with the experienced positional coaches around him that you mentioned with the huge ug upgrade in talent that we’ve been through that we’ve been talking through this whole time like this could be one of the best secondaries in the NFL and if they get Justin Simmons again or even or even quandre Diggs like bring in a veteran safety who knows what he’s doing um then the sky’s the limit for this for this secondary and I’m really excited to see to finally like have is this the return Justin stop me if this is too cheesy or stupid my man catch no balls 2.0 oh dear lord I was never a big fan of that saying in general sounded kind of cheesy thought when they came does not roll off the tongue well it does not the mm NCB it was like that rolls off the tongue mncb try to say that five times fast it does not roll off the tongue at all mncb mncb mncb mncb mncb five times in your face still sounds it sounds better than my man catch no balls it just sounds terrible when you say the whole thing but I don’t think I did a good enough job expressing my excitement for the second because I usually try to Counterpoint you and I go 10 and I talk about safety and I disagreed with you that the Ravens depth I think was a lot better going into the year than the Titans was and I stand by that but uh I’m in love with this cornerback room the top three it’s outstanding uh it Rivals any top three in the NFL I I do think Barun again I said I love what’s in Chicago I love what the Jets got um mention the cowbo those you didn’t mention the Cowboys Cowboys are going to have a really good secondary again especially if they’re able to bring Stefan Gilmore back yeah Trayvon Diggs donon Bland still there so very good secondary the ners the Niners have a very good secondary javarus War dador Lenor um theung is healthy yeah uh the Seahawks after adding Devon Witherspoon last year and Tariq Wen the year before that standing great BR there is in a depth role um some really good set Mike McDonald’s the head coach now don’t forget yeah so that’s going to be a great defense and then uh the last one out thr out there that I think the Titans are going to compare to is the Browns with Martin Emerson Jr Denzel Ward uh Greg like those are those are that’s about what I expect from the Titans secondary is around that level of play I mean in terms of like where each player is in their career and how like good we think of them right now it’s pretty similar to that to that Browns room I think I think I’ll put a bow on this episode quickly as we get out of here to summarize uh in love with the corner back room please stay healthy uh please make a move at safety yes please we are dying to do an emergency pod I’ve never said that before more work yes I want more work because I want to talk about Justin Simmons or quandre digs or somebody becoming a Tennessee Titan so um yeah that’ll do it right anything else any last words was that your last words should I thank the sponsor and the viewers and get out of here thank the sponsor thank the viewer I’ll have two last words uh my 53 man roster projection is now up first one I’ve done post mini camp post OTAs perfect time to do it it’s on titanized as I mentioned I am the new uh leader whatever you want to call it of that website uh number two I’ve got got to give a shout out to Broadway right I’m too loyal I don’t know how to leave places I’ve got an amazing interview right now it’s an exclusive with jaquin Jackson rookie receiver for the Titans thought he said some amazing things in that interview very interesting on his relationship with tdj Spears uh dare I say something he said I gotta explain this reminded me of Isaiah Wilson I shouldn’t say reminded me of Isaiah Wilson because that’s gonna make it sound bad but I thought it was really interesting he mentioned that when he first got to Tennessee um how thankful he was to have Taj Spears in the city uh of Nashville and he said to me I couldn’t imagine if I didn’t have him here and he went as far I thought it was one of the most interesting things he said I couldn’t believe he said it to be honest but it was a good thing it was honest it was from the heart he said Taj told me when he first got here last year he went through moments of sadness because he was like I don’t know a single person here and I thought of how difficult that must be for a young kid and how lucky jquan is he said I have no idea what that feels like it’s the little things when I want to get away from football I call Taj and say let’s go play Top Golf I call Taj and say let’s go play laser tank I thought that was so real it was so from the heart and they do that and Taj didn’t have that person he could call when he got there last year okay and I think of how important it is to have that support system and I think of it’s crazy I I I’m sorry but maybe if Isaiah Wilson had someone to call and say let’s go play laser tag who knows maybe it would have worked out differently how important that is I know maybe he’s just an [ __ ] I don’t know I’m not saying right maybe or maybe there’s a serious mental health stigma there with it I don’t know right we’re way past it but the point is how important I think that is for a rookie to have someone and most of them don’t have anyone half the time right but how jquan told me I have no idea I can’t imagine FF Taj here go read the entire interview that’s one very small quote and a very long interview that was very good he was so uh the Titans shout out to the Titans they gave me his time he was in the building when he called me uh they were so generous the Titans were with his time spent with me and it was so awesome go read the interview the reason I brought up the 53 man roster projection is because our next episode so we think I’m gonna tease it dueling 53 man roster projections but not between me and Justin draver he’s gonna be here to tost and the pot as always I’ll moderate he’ll moderate between me and Mike hearnen Mike heon’s gonna come on he’s got a 53 man roster out on poki.com I’ve got a 53 man roster out on titanized I I imagine we’ve got some differences it’s 53 guys you’re going to moderate we’ll go through position by position uh maybe he defends his selections I defend my selections and then this is the real catch if there’s no clear-cut winner you agree with me and Mike are gonna fight to the death and I don’t like my chances I’ve met Mike in real life I’ve gone for I fun fact I’ve met Mike in real life I’ve never met Graver in real life me and Mike have gone for beers in real life he’s actually I don’t know like approximately 7 fo8 he’s the tallest human being on plan 82 sorry 8ot I was a little he he’s okay he is 8 fo2 all getting aside we don’t need to exaggerate he’s like 6 no 69 69ine legitimately is he 69ine yeah that’s the non dumb answer yeah legitimately 69ine I am 56 no word of I’m not going to hide it when me and Mike embraced the cops thought he was abducting me like Nashville police came like it was it was a whole thing I had to bail him out like if it wasn’t for this beard no like he is so we’re not going to fight to the death I wouldn’t stand a chance but we are going to defend our 50 prman roster takes hopefully it will not require a fight to the death yeah and uh you’ll if you do fight it’s going to have to be over Zoom anyway so that’d be tough but um anyway yes we will link those two articles in this podcast description so you guys can check it out you don’t have to go anywhere you don’t have to search for it they’ll be right here and then when you brought that up you said I got to mention Broadway cuz I’m loyal it made me want to ask you who’s more loyal you or only loyalty matters the commenter who loves the duo but I hope you listen to this episode and I hope he runs it back I hope he says you know what that was so entertaining I hope he goes back sorry I hope he goes back on it’s what I meant to say that was so entertaining I hope he says I love the solo vids but the duo hits different you know just complete inverse of his original comment got to get back in my good Grace it’s the only way he can do it is if he leaves that comment on this video uh but looking forward to the next one me and Mike dueling 53 man roster projections perfect time of year for it I love that we released our articles around the same time uh going to be a lot of fun yeah so look for that early next week and if you turn on channel alerts if you’re subscribed to the channel if you give this video a like thumbs up subscribe to the channel and turn on channel alerts you’ll get a notification as soon as that video is out so thanks to everyone for watching on YouTube thank you if you’re watch if you’re listening on the podcast platform we really appreciate the support but what you should do is like at least open up YouTube and turn your sound off on your phone and then listen to the podcast on another device um if you prefer to listen to it or maybe open up YouTube on your computer and listen on your phone whatever it’s I’ll leave that to you to figure out but just give us the double download we really appreciate that and thanks again to sinkers beverages this episode is brought to you by sinkers beverages in East Nashville and Bluegrass beverages in Hendersonville as I mentioned before you can head to sinkers beverages.com to join The In Crowd and get exclusive access to allocated wines and spirits exclusive events Early Access to Barrel releases and more so that will do it sinkers beverage is also on Uber Eats if you’re too lazy or too busy to get out to the store you can have all the booze you need delivered right to your front door um all right until we are back with Mike heren hopefully uh yall stay safe out there we’ll see you then tighten up a broadway sports media production

Justin Melo and Justin Graver are back for a deep dive into Titans new defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson’s coaching history, and to answer the question: How good can the Titans secondary be in 2024?

0:00 Intro
5:58 Dennard Wilson’s history
20:00 Titans secondary personnel
25:49 Biggest concerns
34:08 Outro

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Read Justin Melo’s exclusive interview with rookie WR Jha’Quan Jackson:

Comfortable surroundings leading to offseason growth for Titans’ Jha’Quan Jackson

Read Justin Melo’s initial 53-man roster projection:
https://titansized.com/posts/titans-53-man-roster-projection-after-2024-minicamp-01j0a0946tex

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The Music City Audible is presented by Sinker’s Beverages in East Nashville and Bluegrass Beverages in Hendersonville. Join the Sinker’s Beverages In Crowd: https://sinkers.storebyweb.com/s/1000-1/register

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