Titans Tonight with Keith Bulluck: Denver Preview

Titans Tonight with Keith Bulluck: Denver Preview

[Music] This is Pinnacle Financial Partners Titans Tonight with Keith Bulock. Welcome to the 2025 season. The regular season is upon us, fellas. I’m Amy Wells. Of course, Keith Bulock is here. He’s always here. And Rhett Bryan is here in studio with us once again. Guys, I’m so excited to have the band together. It is week one of the regular NFL season and this is going to be just such a great time. I’m so excited to get started. Keith is my I guess my question to you is are you as excited as I am because you’re you seem very cool right now. I’m very cool. You know, because like the way that our show is set up, it’s it it would be different if it was like how you guys do the pregame show for me. like so as a as a player like um when former player it’s been almost always it’s been over a decade now but that being said you know you kind of pace yourself you pace your mood through the week and I guess I still have that um you know uncertainty cuz um the first first um game of the season um as a former player and then now being on this side you know on the outside looking in I still have that uncertainty that I would have as a player you know I would definitely have the confidence in myself and the confidence in my team, but at the end of the day, you never know until you get out there. So, this is where um a little my cool comes from. And I’m just kind of naturally cool, you know. All right, Keith looks too cool. Rep. Brian, are you as excited as I am? I need someone to match my enthusiasm here. You guys are in it. You guys are in it. Definitely definitely that excited because and that explains a lot with with Keith in terms of his approach because the the unknown though the unknown as a player before you come out of that tunnel it’s huge because yeah you’ve been preparing for these guys or whatever but you know you haven’t done it in a live bullet situation you’ve done it as much as you can simulate in practice joint practices uh preseason games whatever but coach Mack always says that you can’t m manufure acture experience. But yes, I am super excited. Um, and it’s a little it’s a little intimidating thinking about what the Titans are rolling into with the opponent in the Denver Broncos cuz there’s a lot to digest in this. Love that. I have a question for you, Amy. been at this for a long time going. How do you feel um about the Titans going into this atmosphere? Mild high. Um first game of the season, Fox uh 3 p.m. It’s a big game. U so I definitely since I definitely understand your excitement, but how what are you most excited to see and what are you most forward look to look for on Sunday? I’m the most excited about seeing this team in an actual real live four four keeps four real game on a Sunday. That’s what I’m looking forward to. We have watched this team evolve so much in the last eight months. So many different things have happened for this team. the whether it be personnel changes, whether it be staffing changes, whether it be roster changes, all of these things have have just been evolving and changing and just I it feels like we’ve gone through every single step of an offseason process that a team can really go through through an offseason process. If something’s going to change, it has changed for this team. However, they have the benefit of being in a in a system with a coaching staff that did not change. So, while there’s so much new around this team, the actual core of what they are is remaining the same. There’s a foundation there. And so, it feels like it’s the perfect storm that now just needs an opponent. This this group that has changed and grown and evolved. so much through the off season now needs the test of going up against a real live opponent in a game that matters and really seeing what they have to work with. So that’s what I’m looking forward to the most and I think that’s probably why my excitement level is about a 15 right now because I’m ready to see really what this team has. We’ve seen it in practice, we’ve seen it in joint practices, we’ve seen it in preseason games, but none of that stuff really matters. What actually matters is what happens at Mile High Stadium. And that’s what I’m excited to see. And it’s the first show of the season, so more excitement. There it is. And I’m well rested. And so I’m very excited. The things I’m watching, there’s five things I’m excited to see. I want to see Cam Ward come out of that tunnel, command the offense, and work within what he’s comfortable doing. And I’m know Brian Callahan and Nick Holtz, those guys have been working on that. That’s the first thing because that’s the main story. But to go with that, this new look offensive line looks like Lord Cushenberry is going to be ready to go and as the center and his communicator there and then what they’ve done left to right on this offensive line to see how that holds up against a stout defense, a Denver defense that is highly ranked, uh, very successful in pressure quarterback rate, number one in sacks was 63, uh, that they got last year. That’s the second thing. The third would be I want to see Tony Pard in this run game. I want to see him because he looks like he’s been ready from day one and he can just pick right up where he left off. Um the the fourth thing is Dinard Wilson’s defense and seeing what they look like with some of these new pieces involved in this. And fifth and final, it’s a new regime what the special teams face. John Bones Fossil has come in one of the best in in the league to do this. And they’ve had some wholesale changes. They have a new punter and Johnny Hecker. They have a new kicker and Joey Sly who’s got a cannon for a leg. And then Chim Ray DK, the rookie, is going to be the primary return guy. Bryce Oliver’s one of the main gunners in this. I want to see how all of that now operationally is under a a sensei, if you will, of that phase of the game. Yeah. Um, you know what? When I my last year in the NFL was with the New York Giants and Bones was the special teams coach for us there. And look, I know he brings energy. He brings comm he commands the room in the men that he’s in front of and he gets the most out of them. So, that’s definitely one of the things I’m looking forward to. Um, you know, because that was one of the things that could have helped this Titans team a lot last year. um the offensive line definitely, you know, because at the end of the day, I think we’ve seen that Cam, in my opinion, is going to be able there to go out there and command the um the offense, but we’ll see with that first drive because of that crowd. I’m looking forward to him being able to settle that crowd down, you know, go down, put a couple put a couple of first downs together, whether they score or not, get comfortable out there. But that old line, you know, really showed the m the maturation that everyone feels that they should have at this point and that we feel they do have at this point. Keith, a couple things. Obviously, he’s not seen this before, right, at this level, right? So, how he reacts to the moment, which I think the moment will not be bigger than him. He doesn’t seem to be made that way, but he’s going to see some stuff. Um, this defensive front, second most quarterback pressures in the league last year when just bringing four. And then they’ve got a host of other guys in that thing in all three levels. Uh, Vance Joseph is a very seasoned tenur coordinator and he’s got this thing working right and they’ve added some pieces in free agency. So, he’s going to see a lot of looks that he has not seen yet because he didn’t even play in all of the snaps and reps in the preseason games. And that is nowhere near a simulation of what he’s going to see on Sunday. Absolutely. And no, in the preseason, no um defensive coordinator is going to unleash their total package. So, defensively for the Titans like you, I’m looking to see, you know, what Dinard does in his second year with this defensive scheme. you know, are they going to be able to get pressure, get Bo Knicks, you know, to get the ball out of his hand? Are they going to be able to contain Bo Knicks going into his second year who’s a mobile quarterback? He’s only in his second year, but he’s 26 years old. He’s played a lot of football. He’s an older quarterback. And then also to what you said, Cam Ward hasn’t seen anything like he’s going to see this Sunday. So all what’s going to have to help him, you mentioned Tony Tony Pard, we mentioned the O line, but the coaching scheme that Callahan puts together for him, you know, short is it going to be short passes to get the ball out? They’re going to mix play action. You know, you get into trouble when you get those five and seven step drops. So on hopefully in early downs, we see, you know, the Titans playing in front of the sticks instead of behind the sticks as we’ve seen in years past. We’ve got to talk about the cam word of it all a little bit because as a guy that’s going into an environment that he has not seen before. Obviously, he played some preseason games. He played in big games in college, but the NFL is a whole different animal. And especially in a place like Mile High where it’s loud, those fans are very engaged in the game. It’s it’s going to be a lot. How important not only is it for Cam to have composure and be able to handle the moment, but for him to be surrounded by veteran leaders who can help him understand how to process what’s going on. Um, it’s very important. He, like we’ve been saying, he hasn’t been in this situation. So, um, to have a Cushingberry there, to have, you know, a Calvin Ridley, to have a Tony Pard, to have other veterans, uh, on the defense that that they can even talk to him before he goes out there because, um, he’s going to need it. He’s going to play his game. There’s going to be some bumps in the road. There’s going to be some adversity on Sunday. Um, but he’s going to need people to be in his ear to help him overcome because at the end of the day, you don’t want to get in a situation where he’s pressing, where he feels like he has to do it. He has to make all the plays. Look, it’s one of 17. You know, you get to come back and look at the film and get better. So, you hope for Cam that he makes all the plays that he needs to make and plays within the offense that’s called for him. Look, all the greats, when you think about it, it was a whole team effort when they started out. Tom Brady wasn’t Tom Brady when he first started out. He had a great defense, great special teams. Then he had a bunch of pieces on offense that were veteran pieces, people that played a lot of football that helped the team get to where they needed to go. And um I remember that year we went up there and uh started that run that they went on and they were had w lost like four in a row and ended up setting the NFL record. What whatever it was, who cares? Yeah, that started the dynasty. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Unbelievable. I pulled out. It’s interesting that you say that. I mean, Tom Brady wasn’t Tom Brady the first time he played. Pton Manning wasn’t Pton Manning the first time he played. I found an interesting little little tidbit in the uh Titans media release put on by the the Titans PR team and they said that Cam Ward could join Caleb Williams as the NFL’s only rookie quarterback drafted number one overall to win a week one debut since David Carr did so for the Houston Texans in 2002. You think about quarterbacks that were taken at number one overall and it’s always this is the savior of the program. This is going to change everything in our world forever. And the amount of pressure that they’re under. This stat tells me it’s been 24 years, 23 years I guess since an overall number one pick who was a quarterback won the first game of the season, right? Like that’s crazy. I’m sorry, but I saw Caleb Williams first game of the season last year. Here it goes. Here it goes. Cammy Cam goes out there and plays better than Caleb Williams did the first game of the season. It was very pedestrian. But that was uh you know, look, we’re not going back to last year, but the Titans gave them that game. Well, but still, I mean, it’s hard to do, I guess, is what I’m saying. No, 10,000%. You know, I always got Jo every minute of every day for Here’s the other part. Keith Bulock w saw David Carr his rookie year and there’s the cautionary tale that man got that but I think he was sacked I don’t know like 72 times. I mean he day no that season uh probably several that day but he ended up it really altered his career. He was gunshy by the time he got into being a veteran in this cuz he was so battered that first year. I got 19 career sacks and I think about seven of them are against David Car. There it is. See there it is. What? This is taking a different turn than what I thought. What I’m trying to say is it’s hard to be a rookie quarterback in your first game in the end of Fel. 1,00%. You guys went down more of a a personal path than I We saw we saw the lane and we took it. We did and and it’s history because it happened. Yeah. But yeah. Um but it does speak to how rare that is. And I think the other part, and you can correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it helps, you mentioned the veterans around him. I believe it helps that he has come in and already somewhat submitted himself as a leader. He was elected a captain last week as a rookie. Yeah. Not everybody gets that. And I know it’s understand it’s quarterback position, but he already has the trust and respect from the veterans in that locker room and everyone else because that I I think that’s a great place to start going into battle for the first time. Yeah, for sure. And I think since, you know, he got drafted, he came in with uh, you know, with a mindset to become a pro, learn how to become a pro, learn how the the pro game is played, and then outside of that, all right, how do I become a pro playing the game of football at practice, the different approach? And, you know, his teammates see that. You watch that. If you’re the number one pick overall, someone is always watching you. even if you’re not the number one pick overall, someone is always watching you. So, um, for him to carry himself like that since April all the way throughout to the end of middle of August to where he was, uh, nominated one of the captains says a lot for the number one pick overall. And you don’t hear a lot from him. You know, you don’t hear a lot from the national media about him and what he’s doing or what the Titans is doing. So, I feel like he’s just on a steady, gradual pace right now to have success. His approach is much the same, too. You don’t hear a lot from him. Now, he’ll go talk trash out there. Yeah, for sure. But, uh, it’s a very ymanlike approach to it. Like, he just goes in and does the work. I mean, it’s documented this off seasonason getting here 5:00 in the morning and he he had he had the that’s the line that stood out to me this offseason. He said, “My dad woke up and got up left out of the house 4:30, 5:’lock every day to a job he hated. If I can’t come in here at 5:00 a.m. to a job I really like, what am I doing? Yeah, that tell me a lot about how he’s built. And you only get you only become a good player by putting in the time, you know, learning your playbook. Um, that’s one of the things I was sitting here uh thinking about. I didn’t start uh my rookie year, but we played up in Buffalo and Greg Favors, he actually was uh getting an IV coming out of halftime. So, I started the second half of that game and um I made two tackles in three plays because I knew where to be. I knew what to do. It was like very ba it was the base defense and I knew my assignment. So, um, you know, the more time you can put in, and I put a lot of time in because I had seasoned vets, and, you know, I’m in the room watching film with Blaine and Eddie Robinson, Greg Favors, Marcus Robinson, all those guys that um, you know, helped me become successful throughout my career. And fast forward to Christmas night of 2000, the Titans are in a prime time game against the Dallas Cowboys. Troy Aman never plays again. This is at the end of his deal. Anthony Wright’s the quarterback 053 Mr. Monday night has a pick six in his rookie year and that’s where you started to really see. Okay, bullies coming. Bully’s coming. Let’s show you guys. It is so good to be back. It is. You guys got me excited in that first segment. This is what we need. By the end of this show, Keith Bulock is going to match my enthusiasm level. You guys just mark my words. There is a lot to talk about because the Titans are getting ready to take on the Denver Broncos on the road in Denver. Kickoff for that time it is for that game is what? 3:05 Central time. 3:05 Central. 3:05 Central time. So set your calendars. Titans countdown begins at two central. It sure does. So set your radio, set your timer because it’s a little bit different time, but 3:05 kickoff. Guys, this roster, I want to talk about the Titans roster a little bit because it is very, very different from what we saw in 2024. And a lot of that is due to the fact that the Titans addressed a lot of needs that they had throughout the offseason, which is what you hope will happen. Um Rhett, I’m going to start with you. Is there an area of the roster, a position group maybe that you feel has improved the most from January to now? Well, I I think and certainly the hope is is it’s the offensive line. Mhm. Um, you bring in Dan Moore who was I think he started every game in Pittsburgh except for two. Uh, he’s in his prime at 26 years old. And by doing that, you end up getting a two for one deal and you’re able to move JC Laam who has uh retransformed his body uh with the strength and conditioning staff here and move to his more natural position at right tackle. Lloyd Kushenberry, we lost him last year with an Achilles. Hopefully he’s back and ready to roll for this thing and all indications are he is. You bring in a veteran in Kevin Zitler who’s 35. You just plug and play and Peter Scaransky appears to be getting better every time he puts on the pads. I would say that. Um but when we’re talking about like the first unofficial depth chart in this, there’s a few things that stand out. Uh if I can just one off for a second, Elica Manor is listed as one of the starters with the three wides. It’s Calvin Ridley. It’s Tyler Lockett. It’s Elkaya Manor. I love it. Um, and looking in the defense, um, obviously Ardan Key is one of the outside linebacker pass rushers, Draymond Jones, the other. Olaf Femi Olawio is in the second level of that. Now, he’ll come in and rotate for sure, but Dorian Musi, who they just picked up at inside linebacker, is immediately the the sub behind Cody Barton in this. and um you know Xavier Woods, Legarius Sneed, uh Ammani Hooker, Quandre Diggs, uh anyway, just looking at those things and then we talked about it in the first segment and it was revealed by John Bones Fossil earlier this week. Chim Ray DK, the rookie from Florida, is the kickoff and punt return guy, primary Bryce Oliver as a backup kickoff return guy and a gunner. Chim has a lot of experience and college in those roles and he’s so flipping fast that he’s so ran in the four threes at the combine. So crazy like a gazelle. But just looking at those things but I would say if we’re talking about something that is looks different it’s the offensive line. Are there any question marks Keith that you need to have answered in week one? Yeah, I would say it’s question marks all around the board, you know, for everybody because um there aren’t live bullets flying in the preseason as Red said earlier. So, you know, I kind of one of those that like I said, I’m not in it every day. So, I definitely look at it from the outside looking in. And I love getting around you guys, especially this time of the year because I just learn so much from Rhett right now. Um and I get up to speed as we go. It’s the first time anyone’s ever said that, by the way. Thank you for the endorsement. No, listen. You know, so for me, I’m getting up to speed and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone play. You know, I’m definitely looking forward to see the Jarius Sneed out there. I’m looking forward to see Jarvis Brownley, excuse me, Junior in his second year. Trandre Sweat in his second year. Obviously, um Rhett just broke down the offensive line, but then Tony Pard, you know, um you he’s really the lone feature back right now with um uh who uh who’s the um that’s hurt right now? Taj Spears is on IR. Yeah, with Taj Spears on IR. Julius Chestnut, he’s played some and Khel Mullings, he’s played a little bit and showed to be well in the preseason, but we know Tony Pard is going to be the workhorse. So, I want to see how they’re going to hold it down on defense. See if they’re going to be able to get after the quarterback. I think that’s very important. Um, you guys have me very excited about the um punt returner, kick returner, chimmer DK out of Florida. So, I’m looking forward to everything. I think my excitement comes um as kickoff, as we get closer to kickoff. How long does it take for you in your mind, having done this a time or two, how long does it take for you to determine whether there has been marked improvement? Because we all know that the first game of an NFL season is a little fake is not the word, but it’s a first time for a lot of things. That’s not necessarily the way that it’s going to be for the entire season. So, how long do you typically give it before you determine whether there’s like a problem here or this has been fixed? Oh, look, I have to put it like this. I’ve been on a team that went uh we started 10 and0. I’ve been on a team that started 0 and6. I’ve been, you know what I’m saying? So, it’s tough to tell. You know, even when you’re when you’re 0 and4, it’s like, man, and then you watch the film, it’s like, oh man, if we do this, like, if you’re close, you’re close. Like there are some teams like I remember we went out to San Diego one year um and got our teeth kicked in maybe in like 0405 or something like that like Leenian Tomlinson had four touchdowns in the first half. That’s the year he set the record. But like so you know that team it didn’t I think we ended up 5 and 11 or 4 and 12 but then I started off 0 and six and then we’re making a late run in December you know so it it’s really hard to tell especially if um you have some pieces but I think um those years in um 04 and 05 I could tell that like we just didn’t have the pieces to compete. You know sometimes it just is what it is. you get hit with the salary cap, you have to rebuild, you have to put players in spots. So, we definitely had guys that that would that didn’t need to be starting, but it just was what it was. I’m thinking of that I’m laughing because I’m thinking of that San Diego game and I remember we had a linebacker, a young rookie linebacker in with me and um you know, I make the call, we’re lining up and he’s like, “What do I do on this play?” And Leanian Thomasson is like I’m like and they’re like set hut and here comes Leanian Thomasson. So like uh yeah I mean and I can’t be mad at him because obviously if he’s a rookie that’s who they had to put in cuz the NFL is not like college. They’re not you know they’re going to put in the guys that they feel should be in there and look I guess in that situation he had to be in there. But hearing you talk about that journey right there it’s a lot like where the Titans are now. Yeah, you’ve been a part of a team that started from the scrap heap and built up and had the third overall pick and took Vince Young out of Texas who came off of one of the the grandest Rose Bowls you’ll ever see in your life. One of the greatest college football games uh and especially a bowl game and then adding guys like Chris Hope and Kevin Mai and David Thornton and all of these guys to bolster some things to get to that point where you got to the 10 and0 start year and you were building something important. I think there’s a lot of correlations now with this Titans team and your experience back then. Yeah. And you know, I say it and people are going to think about the the whole product, but Cam Ward reminds me of Vince Young when he came in, not necessarily the way that he plays, but his whole approach to it. You know what I mean? Vy just came off of damn near winning the Heisman, won the national championship. He was very quiet. He was very humble. He was about his business. is Billy Volic was ahead of him. So, he didn’t come in like anointed the starter. So, he had to wait behind. He had to learn. He had to earn. And then when he got out there, uh his rookie year, he did what he did. Um but that’s kind of what, you know, magnified us um and gave us that that jump. I don’t remember what we started that year, but um whatever it was, I know Carrie Collins was the starter, but then once Vy came in, it was like, man, let’s go. and he just did what he knew to do what he learned from from college. Amy, there were some electric moments that year. Uh I I if we’re given superlatives, I always say Chris Johnson may be the most electric but a a good second is Vince Young in that rookie year because I think of a couple different things uh in Houston against the Texans and it is a walk-off shot at the end of the game. He runs right 39 yd touchdown and he’s from Houston. Oh his first NFL game. The place went bananas. First NFL at the crib and you walk off like for 40. That’s awesome. And then later in the season, it’s a home game against the New York Giants and Eli Manning. These guys are trailing 21 to nothing in the fourth quarter. Pac-Man Jones has had a fant maybe his best game as a Titan. He’s picked off him on the sideline. And he had a great return, punt return. He was balling. And bless his heart, Matias Kiwanuka is a fellow rookie and he misses on a sack and lets up on Vy. And Vy, they come back and win that ball game. And it was it was a prime time game. Brandon Jacobs is their running. The place went wild. Yo, y’all talk about Derek Henry. I hear you. But Brandon Jacobs, man, he’s one of the biggest running backs I’ve ever seen. Um, but to that to to to close this up and to answer your question is if you have a quarterback that can make plays and you believe in, you see it in Joe Burrow, you see it in uh Patrick Mahomes, you see it in all these guys. So we saw it in Steve McNair, you know, we saw it at a point in time in Vince Young. So, look, if if your team can if your team has a quarterback or a player and they’ll bring everybody else together because then, you know, it just takes one game to to to get the team rolling. Is there a freedom in being a rookie quarterback in that like you’re almost kind of playing with like I don’t know any better. Let’s just ride. Yeah. If you’re winning, you know what I mean? Like look, Jaden Daniels, like we don’t we’re not in those film sessions after, so we don’t necessarily know how he graded out, right? But at the end of the day, he found Scary Terry was getting the job done. Um Brian Robinson, who they just traded, he ran well. Their defense made plays when they needed to make plays and then they started to believe in their quarterback. You know, they’re like, “Oh, we got Jaden. We got, you know, that’s just how it how it works.” So, you got to play within yourself. But sometimes you’re going to get out there and and and not see the safety roll down. But you know, you make a play that you’re not supposed to make and then they corrected in film and then Well, that’s kind of what happened with Patrick Mahomes. Like, do we remember 300 years ago? It feels like when he started playing, we all looked at this kid and we were like, “What the heck is he doing?” like it. It obviously was not what he was supposed to be doing, but it worked. And their offense was able to rally around that and create something that has been incredibly successful. But he was a young guy just doing what he could do in the moments that he needed to make a play. And so that’s the same point where an offense realizes their guy can make a play and they can rally around that and it grows into something bigger and successful. Yeah. So, well, Patrick Mahomes, you attribute it to his style of play. Aaron Rogers, you attribute it to his style of play. Tom Tom Brady, Ping Manning, these quarterbacks all had a specific style of play. Jaylen Herz has a specific style of play within that offense. So, they get to the point where, you know, their offense is like a tailored glove and they can do that off schedule stuff and their O line is in cohesiveness. they know, okay, we might have to hold it a little hold our blocks a little bit longer or however it works. But yeah, 1,00%. And enter Nick Holtz and Brian Callahan and what they’ve been crafting since they took him number one overall uh however many days ago that was back at the end of April. We were all different people back then, right? Feels like it was a long time ago, but you’re right. They’re in their second year working together. second year of Brian Callahan being a play caller and with a quarterback that he’s been excited about for so long that’s got to make an impact. Yeah. Um to piggy back off what Rhett started to say um I feel a lot of um offensive coordinators go wrong when they’re like this is my offense. We’re putting this offense in. You got to learn this offense. This is my offense. I’ve heard um Callahan said, “Yeah, we took things that he had success with in uh Miami and concepted him.” We asked him what he was comfortable with and like you said, Amy, they tailored the offense to the things he’s been comfortable with. And from the few preseason I did watch the preseason for his series and like I say, look, he he controlled, commanded, didn’t do too much, threw the ball out of bounds when the ball needed to be thrown out of bounds and um just seemed to have poise out there. So that’s what I expect to see. But now we’re going to see a full game. You know, like look, like we said, there’s going to be some adversity. There’s going to be some times when you’re behind the sticks. Are you going to try and force it in a window or are you going to make the safe throw, take eight yards and punt the ball and let the defense play? So, it’s a whole game. So, it’s going to be cool to see how all the coaches coach and how the players uh react to the coaching. All right, we are going to take another break here on Pinnacle Financial Partners Titans tonight. More on the other side. Pinnacle Financial Partners Titans Tonight with Keith Bulock returns. And fellas, I want to take this in a very different direction. So, buckle up. I need you guys to just ride with me a little bit here because here we are in 2025 and there’s a lot of things happening in the world and one of them is robots. Oh lord, where is this going? I know, right? I thought I I told you I need you to ride with me here. Let’s go. Quarterbacks are what we’re hearing about the most. But players overall are finding new ways to prepare for the NFL season. They are changing their workouts. They’re changing the medical things that they’re doing. They are changing their diets and the way that they sleep and the treatments that they get. Everything is new and changing. And one of the things that we’re seeing incorporated more and more is virtual reality, hence the robots. So, we know that this is something Cam Ward has been working with a little bit. We know that there are other quarterbacks in the league, specifically Jaden Daniels is someone we’ve talked about, um, who are using some virtual reality to help themselves prepare for games and train their eyes to see things and train their brains to respond to things. Bully, I wanted to talk to you about this specifically because I feel like this is something that you’re either going to think is awesome or you’re going to think is crazy town and I don’t think there’s going to be any sort of gray area. So, Keith Bulock, I specifically need to know, do you like virtual reality being used as a tool or do you think it’s a little too woohoo? Yeah, I mean, look, for the quarterback position, I think it’s great because um you can simulate, you know, reads, you can simulate timing, you can, you know, because if it’s virtual real, excuse me, if it’s virtual reality, I’m just assuming that, you know, whatever the pieces are that are moving, the objects are moving in real time. So, look, you you have that you take your drop and you get the ball off before, I guess, the red light goes off or however it goes and they can throw in different kind of cover twos or threes or zone blitzes. And obviously, you know, as a quarterback, you’re not going to feel the pressure of getting hit or whatever, but I feel how that translates to the field be uh your timing getting what do we always say quarterback? Get the ball out of your hand. So, if you know a look and you’re familiar with a look, oh, this is cover three, oh, this is cover two, or you know to watch the safety and you know what safety moves or however the team you’re playing against, obviously, it can be programmed. Um, it could definitely help. I always say that quarterback is one of the positions in football you can actually work on on your own. You know, you can go out and throw into buckets or throw through hoops. And with this, it’s almost, you know, the same thing. I don’t know how it does with accuracy or anything like that, but as far as reads and maybe just doing the motion, what are the things you absolutely cannot simulate getting hit? I guess. Yeah, you can’t you can’t simulate blitz. Yeah, you can’t simulate the blitz. Um, no, the pre feeling the pressure of the blitz, but I guess they could simulate, you know, you seeing someone coming off the edge or a corner acting like he’s coming, but the defensive line getting their hands up. Um, and you can’t simulate the game. It’s like a golf simulator, right? I don’t know if you’ve used the golf simulator, but you go hit off the golf simulator and you know, you might you might bounce it off the carpet, but still hit it 165 yards. That’s not a real golf, you know, hit. So, it’s going to have have its flaws, but for the most part, you can in a golf simulator, you can work on your swing. Yeah. Doing that and playing St. Andrews is two different things. 10,000. Right. Right. Right. Exactly. I find it fascinating because we were talking about this, Amy and I, before we started uh doing the show tonight and um there’s a couple of German engineers who created this VR headset in this software and this program for soccer first and then they ran into a trainer at LSU and Jaden Daniels in 2023 and quickly adapted to this uh to American football for use for the quarterback’s purposes. And so he started using it then. I didn’t even realize this and before I did a little digging. Uh Cognalize is the name of the company. I think it’s like a $2 million outfit that you do. But it has a one or two player mode. One player mode obviously you’re the QB and you can do whatever you want and simulate things. The two-player mode is where a teammate or a coach can alter calls, looks, reads, all those things, and control all the variables and see the same thing you’re seeing on the screen in this. What’s wild is you can go like a half a speed faster than real time all the way up to 1.75 times. And and so I think it it’s interesting that if you do enough mental reps on that, which clearly I think there’s some correlation with Jaden Daniel’s success last year, it actually slowed things down for him in real time, which is wild. And I don’t know that it completely did that, but I think it may have helped accelerate that. Yeah. I mean, it makes sense to me because you want to get the ball out of your hand as a quarterback, and even Cam Ward has a pretty quick release for a rookie. He’s not sitting there playing with the ball. He’s getting the ball out of his hand. So that cognitive thinking, that cognitive machine, now you’re out there in real life and you really know, you feel big Jeff or one of the corners coming off the edge. You got to get that thing out of your hand. So I think that is a real thing. You know, they use it for baseball simulation. I’ve seen that where they have the pitcher simulating the wind up and then the ball act, you know, you see the ball come out of the pitcher’s hand. So yeah, it’s that’s I think that works. Amy, I mean, we talk a lot about mental reps and just training your mind to go through what it is your job is, what it is you need to do. That seems like maybe the next step in just there’s visualizing it in your brain and then they’re seeing it in front of you and going through it. Yeah, I didn’t miss too many practices, but the ones that I didn’t practice, I always I have to stand behind my position. So, I’m standing all the way like maybe like 40 yards back because I got to watch it. I can see it. And those are my mental reps. It’s one thing to watch it on film, but I got to see it because in my head I see the guard pull, I can tell. I’m like, “Okay, I can I can walk through it, you know, I can, you know, not going fast, but me seeing it, walk through it or open up, take my drop.” But that is a real rep. So, as a player, I definitely um I did that even now when I’m in coaching situations when I go and I coach. Um, I watch from behind because now I can, you know, see every single player and I go back with real information for them maybe after that drill or during when we watch film because I’m not there to be their coach, but I can add on something that their coach may have told them in practice or in that film session that I saw twice now that I saw it on film and then I saw it in real time. So much of being a professional athlete obviously is being able to do athletic things with your body and being stronger or faster or cap capable of doing things that other people can’t do. But there’s also a really large part of it that I think is probably underestimated and that’s understanding how your body moves through space and almost the choreography of what you need to do. And that is something that you can practice kind of whenever, right? Yeah. I mean, look, that’s that’s pretty cool that you said that because I was a safety, then I had to play linebacker. So, like, come on now. Like, and this is when you like really banged, you know, like it was happening. Real football. Yeah. So, like a football my day, right? Back in my first back in my day of the season. Didn’t take that long. Nope. Um, but yeah, like so yeah, I can come in and bang, but if I can swim you at the last minute or get skinny and contour my body and still get in and make the play at the end of the day for me, it’s about making the play without the ball running through my gap. So take care of my gap and then try and make the play. So a lot of times, yeah, I can a lot of times I did go, you know, whatever you have to do battling Ram because you throw different pitches. You know, first time if I slip, they’re going to come a little more timid and then that’s when you hit him in the face. So, you know, um it wasn’t always slipping and dodging, but at the end of the day, for me, someone that played at 235 when fullbacks for Lorenzo Neil and those guys were out there, uh you know, Sam Gash and all those guys, um the real killers, uh I had to kind of throw different pitches. Well, it’s uh just something that doesn’t really have anything to do with anything, but it definitely caught No, it definitely does. It caught my interest and I thought that if anybody had thoughts about this it would be Keith Bullet. Yeah. Because um I was uh talking with Albert Haynesworth and um he had a style that he had to use. Um Aaron Donald had a style he had to use. Sap Warren Saps had a certain style. Um Big Jeff has a certain style. So when you get to talking about all pro those caliber of players, the contortion and the different styles come into come into play. They’re not jacks. No, there it is. You know, I I I thought there’s levels to this. There’s levels to this. And I think that sometimes we get caught so caught up in just the baseline, what you see on Sundays. Did he do it? Did he not? That’s it. But there’s so much more that goes into it and the the different ways that you train your brain, train your body, train all of the aspects of who you are to for peak performance. Yeah. To understand what you need to do in that moment. It’s so much deeper than like did he make the play? Yes or no. Right. And I feel like who the player that doesn’t get a lot of credit is like the seventh round draft pick or the undrafted free agent who becomes a player becomes a piece on a team that you know they can’t win without this guy. You know what I mean? They don’t I feel like they get their credit gets overlooked because you have that expectation of a first round draft pick se probably just about any draft pick within the first three three rounds but after that um those guys have to beat guys out. Those guys are the guys that have to beat guys out for the first three years. So, you’ve just described Bryce Oliver, undrafted last year from Youngstown State, who’s one of the main gunners on special teams and will help this team there and has progressed enough to help this team in the wide receiver room in a pinch needed in a game. Those are the guys that become like glue guys that play that role that gets overlooked and you need those guys to um, you know, become the team you eventually want to be and that’s a championship caliber team. Absolutely. All right, we have to take one more quick break, but when we come back, we are going to do a little preview of the the Titans taking on the Denver Broncos. So, stick around. More on the way on Pinnacle Financial Partners Titans tonight. Pinnacle Bank, the official bank of your Tennessee Titans, member FDIC. We have reached the final segment of Pinnacle Financial Partners Tennessee Titans with Keith Bulock. Keith Bulock is here of course, right Brian? I am. I’m Amy Wells and we are going to wrap this up and get you ready for the Titans taking on the Denver Broncos. 305 is that kickoff time. Rhett, I’m going to start with you, I guess, man. Okay. Um, tell me a matchup that you are excited to watch as the Titans take on the Denver Broncos. I am so glad you asked this because we’ve spent a good chunk of the hour talking about the number one overall pick, Cam Ward. His best friend in this is probably going to be Calvin Ridley. And so I am intrigued supremely by the matchup of him across from Pat Certan, the defensive player of the year, who is a shutdown corner. He mirrors and matches about 54% of the time last year. I’m interested to see if he is the follow guy and and them thinking, “Hey, they don’t have really a defined role. Who’s the number two receiver? Let’s just follow him and let them see if they can beat us with the other stuff. I want to see if he does that. Or are there moments where Calvin Ridley lines up opposite Riley Moss and there’s a different matchup for Pat Certan, but that’s one I definitely am watching. KB, what about you? Hey, Brett. Rhett just covered the one I definitely my number one. I stole yours. Sorry about that. No, it’s cool. There’s plenty of matchups, but I’m going to go with I want to see how the defense uh of the Tennessee Titans handles the offense of the Denver Broncos. Are the Tennessee Titans going to be able to put pressure on Bo Knicks? Are they going to be able to contain the run? Because even in the preseason, it seemed to be a little gashy. Let’s see if the defense with um Travante Travante Sweat going. Oh yeah, big sweats in there. Let’s see if Big Jeff. Yeah, let’s see if a healthy Tennessee Titans defense can stifle this um offense. I think that they are think they’re a little better than they are. Denver Broncos offense that is. Um I would love to see complimentary football all phases. And he hit the nail on the head because they bring in JK Dobbins who was some injured with the Chargers last year. He’s healthy now. He’ll be the the bellcow in there, but they also draft RJ Harvey from Central Florida. He will be his in hisstead switching out. He he won’t be in there as much, I don’t think, because of the pass protection that rookies don’t have in their toolbox yet as a rookie running back. But Bo Nicks, 92 carries, 430 yards, four rushing touchdowns, 4.7 a carry, and had six runs of over 20 yards last year and a 32 yer the longest. He’s a dual threat. You don’t think about him that way, but you got to watch him. Got to watch him. Him saying all that, you got to choke out the run. So, you put Bo Nicks in those um predictable situations where you know if he can’t make those passes that he may run and that’s where you look for to see what type of scheme the defense of the Tennessee Titans will come out in those long passing situations. Keith Bulock Rhett Brian I am so excited to have the band back together. Football is here. Keith, has your level of excitement increased throughout this program? Yeah, man. I got the matchups. I got from more familiar with the team. I’m ready to go. All right, that’s what we want to hear. The Tennessee Titans take on the Denver Broncos. 3:05 is that kickoff time. That’s central time for you. Titans countdown is on the air at 2:00 Central time on Titans Radio. Be sure to tune in because we’re all going to be here. For Rhett Bryan, for Keith Bulock, I’m Amy Wells. And this has been Pinnacle Financial Partners Titans tonight with Keith Bulock. [Music]

“Mr. Monday Night” Keith Bulluck is on assignment, so Rhett Bryan and Amie Wells discuss the latest news on Titans Tonight with Keith Bulluck, presented by Pinnacle.

00:00-17:17 – Chapter 1 – Titans Tonight is Back! We head to Denver.
17:17-31:57 – Chapter 2 – Titans Roster Improvements
31:58-43:33 – Chapter 3 – Preparation for a Game as a QB
43:33-47:14 – Chapter 4 – Preview of Denver Matchup

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