Expectations for Bo Hardegree as Play-Caller + More Jarvis Brownlee Jr. Trade Info

Expectations for Bo Hardegree as Play-Caller + More Jarvis Brownlee Jr. Trade Info

What should we be expecting from Bo Hardigree, the quarterback’s coach, now calling plays for the Titans offense? How many wholesale changes should we be expecting? What won’t change with this move? Plus, we give out our grade for Cam Ward’s week three performance, touch a little more on the Jarvis Brownley trade and more. This is the Music City Audible. Let’s get to it. You know, it’s it’s great because, you know, going from that quarterback coach to a role like this, being a play caller, I mean, I’m with him every day. You know, I talk to him every day. check in at night. We have meetings. We got a meeting this afternoon and so, you know, that’s not going to change and it’ll just be, you know, me and him rocking and roaring on on Sunday. That’s Bo Hardigree talking about his experience working with quarterback Cam Ward as the QB coach, now the play caller for the Tennessee Titans. 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, this is going to be a little bit different Wednesday episode. We had a little different Tuesday episode. There’s a lot going on in the Titans headquarters this week. So, we had to take a little we had to call an audible, if you will, on the Music City Audible here. We had a weekly plan. We’ve been sticking to our weekly plan, but things happen and our plans change. So, we are not doing two Houston Texans previews this week. We are not talking to a Houston Texans guest this week. There’s too much other stuff to cover. The Bohard Agree promotion to play caller, the Jarvis Brownley Jr. trade. We haven’t even gotten to our Cam Ward grade this week and we want to have that because not for really for this week, but in a few weeks towards the end of the season, like I want that graph of Cam Ward grades. I want to see if it’s coming up or down. like I I think that’s going to be a really useful tool for us to analyze his season later on. So, we want to hit all that stuff. Also, I’ve never seen fan apathy set in this quickly uh for an organization. It’s not even week, it’s week, we haven’t even done week four yet, and I already feel like Titans fans don’t care too much about previewing the upcoming game. We’ll definitely want to talk about the game after the fact, but in advance like we are going to tomorrow’s episode will be a full preview of the Texans Titans game, but we got to cover all this other stuff first. So, today we’re going to get to our Cam Ward grade. We’re going to touch a little more on the Jarvis Brownley Jr. trade and then the meat of this episode will be you and I sort of diving deep into what Bo Hardigree brings as the offensive coordinator and what doesn’t change because I think that’s just as important of a conversation. And I have a lot of thoughts on that. So, can’t wait to get to it. But Justin, I haven’t even let you talk yet. How’s it going? Well, it’s about time. I’m doing well. Doing well. Uh, no, this is a good episode. I’m glad we called in Audible because we we got to dive deep into Bo Hardigree. We got a good sample size that we’re going to educate you guys on. Again, he was the interim offensive coordinator and play caller for the Las Vegas Raiders in 2023 after they fired Josh McDaniels head coach and their offensive coordinator, Mick Lombardi. So, got a really good sample size on what the offense looked like. We’re going to school and educate you guys. Little more info on the Jarvis Brownley trade, but I think we should start with our Cam Ward grade. As you said, we didn’t get to do it on Tuesday’s episode, the normal episode we’ve been doing it on because we did a full-blown coaching candidate episode that you guys have been loving. We thought it was, you know, a bit weird to do that before they’ve actually fired a coach, but you guys have responded well to that episode. I think we were right in predicting that this apathetic fan base is interested in talking about who’s going to succeed Brian Callahan. But as you said, we want to have that Cam Ward grade. We want to keep that data so we can look at it as the year goes on. So, let’s get into that real quickly. What grade are you giving Cam Ward for his performance against the Colts in week three? Well, I hate to be super boring and like I don’t want this graph to just be a straight line, but I also want to be like truthful to myself and what I feel and what you know, we we talked before the show to come up with this grade and we’re going with a B minus for the third straight week and I think the context and the nuance of the conversation is important because these three B minuses are all different levels of play from Cam Ward. But this week’s Bminus, I think, would have been a higher grade without the pick six. Obviously, third third play from scrimmage. Cam Ward throws a pick six to Kenny Moore. Doesn’t see the slot corner lurking underneath his check down. Mentioned in the postgame press conference that he told Tony Pard the wrong route to run, which is obvious Like, I can sniff that out. We know Cam Ward is a bullshitter. Like, talking about all of his teammates being top five at their position, all that in a good way. like he’s gassing people up in a good way, instilling confidence. Yeah. The way that a quarterback should. But, uh, on this one, I don’t think that he told Tony Pard the wrong route. I think that maybe Pard ran the wrong route. I think there’s a chance Pard ran a different route than Cam was expecting, and he took the blame by saying, “I told him the wrong route to run.” But either way, it doesn’t matter if that’s the wrong route or the right route. There’s no way that that pass should have been ever thrown. Kim Ward should have seen the defender lurking underneath. So, that impacts the grade massively because that’s a huge, huge negative play. But the way that Cam Ward bounced back from that to lead the offense to their best output in terms of points yet this season despite, you know, being hamstrung a little bit by Brian Callahan’s conservative play calling and completely wasting a possession that they when they take over the ball with over three minutes left in the half. And really for me, Justin, I would I would have liked to give Cam like a B because of the way that he controlled the offense in this game. the number of checks, adjustments, audibles that he was making at the line of scrimmage, particularly in the second half and when the team was running the uptempo, no huddle offense that they ran for parts of this game. That is just a super super encouraging sign for his grasp of this offense, his ability to see the defense, process what he’s seeing, get them into the right call, especially the right run play calls. Bo Hardigree talked about this yesterday that that’s something Cam’s been doing a really good job of, and that’s high level quarterbacking. So, I give him a a bonus for that. I take away points for the pick six, and we end up at a B minus for the third straight week. Yeah, I came very close to pushing back on this. I’ll be honest with you, and and pushing that we got to go C++ cuz I did think it was probably his worst performance of the three so far. But, and the pick six is so bad that I I was a little hesitant to go B minus, but I do agree with you that he responded really well. I mean, part of that maybe is their trailing and I don’t know if the Colts took the foot off the gas at any point, yada yada, but um I did think he did respond well in the second half. The control, the command he showed at the line of scrimmage. There were a number of impressive throws, some of which were dropped. Like I see that team shot to Chig on my timeline a bunch with like the Forest Buckner right in his face and it made me more upset that Chick didn’t catch it. Like somebody, oh, it was inaccurate or he’s got to take some off it. He had Deforest Buckner right in his face and delivered an accurate ball to Chick. Chick’s got to catch it. Calvin Ridley dropped a couple passes. So once again, he was hurt by his supporting cast. He was hurt by the right side of the offensive line that featured an all backup crew of Blake Hans and John Ajoku due to injury. Um I I did think he responded really nicely to the pick six. So I’ll settle on a B minus with you. Yeah. See, I I I’m glad you said that cuz I was thinking a C++ originally, but it was reviewing the tape and seeing just how much control of the offense he had that that pushed me to come back up to B minus. So, I’m glad we are in agreement there and we have again a straight line through 3 weeks. That’s okay. Hopefully, this line starts trending upward with a new play caller, which obviously we’re about to talk about. Before we do though, Justin, a quick shout out to Sinker Beverages, 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. If you head to the sinker beverages website or check the link in this video podcast description, you can join the in crowd, a freeto join membership program. Incrowd members get access to allocated wines and spirits, exclusive events, early access to barrel releases, and more. Check out Sinker Beverages today. We love the comments that Sinkers saved your marriage, that Sinkers did something incredible for you. So, keep leaving those comments below. And while I’m talking about comments, comment below. What do you think of Boharde as a play caller? What do you think of Cam Ward week two per week three performance? What do you think of Jarvis Brownley? all the topics we’re going to talk about today. Remember to drop your thoughts in the comments below. Subscribe to the channel. We’re pushing for 5100 subscribers now, just 20 away as we record this. So, help us get to that number and like the video. Before we get to the Bohardigree stuff that I really, really, really want to talk about, Justin, you had some more thoughts on the Jarvis Brownley Jr. trade. Let’s get to those now. Yeah, I want to lead here because, you know, uh we did their emergency pod yesterday. you guys have tuned into that one, but it was fairly short and we did it quickly after the trade. As I’ve gathered more information, I’ve spoken to different sources. I’ve spoken to different people I trust. I just want to give a clearer uh snapshot on this trade. Um the the Titans clearly don’t really like or didn’t like Jarvis Brownley very much, I think, from both a person and player perspective. Now, there there were some red flags coming out of college. I mean, there was issues at Florida State, which is why he transferred to Louisville in the first place. There hasn’t been anything egregious with the Titans, but I do think he’s come kind of close, right? Like I mentioned yesterday, so I the comment about playing in the cold, the comment about not switching up his play style even after a Dinard Wilson press conference where he said, “Well, we got to teach the technique, avoid those penalties.” And then there was the instance, remember, at like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers joint practice where he almost fought a fan. like he literally almost fought like he had to be held back by a fellow player because he was really hot about something a fan yelled at him. So, there hasn’t been anything crazy, but he’s towed the line with some stuff that you could understand why they might not love Jarvis Brownley Jr. the person. And then some of the penalty stuff, maybe not being super coachable. You add that into not loving Jarvis Brownley, the player. They inherited him from Ran Carthon, the previous regime. pretty obvious that Mike Boronzi doesn’t like Ran Carthon players like he traded Kenneth Murray immediately he released Cheeto Auzier like he’s done and there was others he’s done a ton of stuff to rid himself of as many Rancon players as he could he’s already cut Josh Wy we can go on and on right but Jarvis Brownley is the latest example of that now it’s still a surprising example but it’s pretty clear that what a Ranthon player looked like doesn’t look like what a Mike Borgani player looks like now I’m going to end with this I am not saying any of that to excuse this or to say yes, I get it. I agree. I love this trade. I still think that Jarvis Brownley Jr. is a pretty good player on the field for them. Uh secondyear developing guy. They need more of those types as they rebuild what is a bad roster. They’ve just opened up another hole for themselves. Now, obviously, they didn’t see Jarvis Brownley as a solution to that hole, but we kind of all thought he kind of was, right? So, not ready to let them off the hook by any stretch of the imagination. I’m going to continue monitoring how Jarvis Brownley Jr. plays for the New York Jets and we will torch them for this trade if he plays well and figures it out because a couple of things that concern me. Costc controlled rookie deal through 2027. They need more of those. They need more starting caliber players. We heard the New England Patriots tried to make this trade. Now, you may disagree, but for me, and you guys listening and watching might disagree. When Aaron Glenn wants a player, a a cornerback, the position he played, I’m intrigued. And yes, I’m still I still like Mike Vrabel. So, when Mike Vrabel wants a player, I am still intrigued. When both of those guys want the same player, my ears perk up a little bit. So, and uh you know, we’re not letting Mike Borgansi off the hook for it. We’re going to monitor it just like we’re monitoring that Harold Landry has as many pressures as the entire Titans edge room has more sacks than the entire Titans edge room. By the way, one we haven’t talked about at all is Keto Auzier is playing pretty good in Baltimore, like quite good in Baltimore. And when they cut him, we all said, “Well, they’ve got Jarvis Brownley Jr. to replace him with.” Well, now they got neither of those guys. And uh not letting him off the hook whatsoever. But if you want an explanation, they don’t think he’s a culture fit. They don’t really like the person. They don’t think he’s very coachable on the field. And there have been instances both on and off the field where both of those things are maybe true. But we’ll see how he plays in New York before we make a final determination. Yeah, I think for me the biggest issue I have with the trade is the value you get. I mean, you burn a fifth round pick on him last year and you get back a 30 spot jump up from a good fifth round pick. he was outperforming that fifth round pick slot, right? I mean, on the field, that’s what we think. Obviously, they didn’t think so. And I think that’s the like the disconnect here is, like you said, it’s just we’ll have to monitor. We don’t know if this is the right move or the wrong move until two or three years down the line. If Jarvis Brownley Jr. crashes out in New York, then we’re going to look back and be like, “Wow, they got ahead of it. They were smart.” If Jarvis Brownley Jr. becomes a starter or even a Pro Bowler or better, like then we’re all going to be like, “What the hell were they thinking getting rid of this guy?” So, it’s sort of a TBD. I don’t like the move right now, especially from a value standpoint. I think what you said, Jarvis Brownley doesn’t feel like this is obviously in their mind not the solution to this hole they just opened up. That’s fine, but he could be a temporary solution. Like is he a detriment to the team if you keep him on the roster right now? I don’t know. Like you could let him play himself into maybe some better trade value than this. This is that’s where I get hung up on it. I guess well where I’ll push back on the last thing you said is I don’t really care about temporary solutions because they’re 0 and three and going nowhere. I care about long-term solutions and he’s on a costc controlled rookie deal through 2027. So maybe he would have been a long-term again they obviously don’t think he’s a long-term solution but that doesn’t mean they’re going to be right. He could turn into something in New York. I mean if he continues playing the way he’s playing I’d still argue and you know doesn’t have any off-field issues. I’d still argue he’s like a starting caliber player and they have such few of those on the defensive side of the ball um that I’ll still take issue with it. But TBD, we will continue following it and we will bring it up again on this podcast probably, you know, in a year, two years from now. Yes. But even later this year because I want to see how he does the rest of the year with the Jets. Enough about it though. Let’s get to Bo Hardigree. Yes. All right. So, I am going to start I have a few things I want to talk about with this Bo Hardigree thing. like obviously what to expect from him, from his offense, from his play calling style if you will. I definitely want to get into that, but I want to get more into the other side of it, the background, why this happened first. So, why make this change? I mean, Callahan sort of explained it that he said he had to look in the mirror and make some tough choices. This is a move that is designed to make him a better head coach and not just an offensive play caller. Paul Kaharski asks him in during this press conference, you know, you were hired largely because of your play calling. Like, now what do you bring to the table essentially? And Brian Callahan, this was the best answer. I think this was the best answer Brian Callahan has given in a year and a half as the head coach of the Titans. I didn’t even pull this one. I have two other answers from Callahan, but um and he says, “I was hired to be the head coach, Paul, not the play caller.” It’s like, “Oh, you’re right, bro. You were hired to be the head coach.” Now, what do I think really happened? Do I think Brian Callahan made this decision on his own? Came to this reviewing the tape on Monday, starts thinking to himself, “Man, I’m not good at this.” No, of course not. In fact, here’s what Callahan had to say about how he feels about his own play calling abilities. It’s more about you trying to get more of a big picture feel for yourself as it as it is to kind of a disappointment in in your play calling. Is that Yeah, I I’ve have zero disappointment in my play calling. I mean, uh, I I don’t have any disappointment in that at all. Um, but it’s just more just so I can I can see see the rest of it, see the big picture, better, and and do a better job of it. Mhm. Okay. So, no disappointment in the play calling. Then why make the change? Oh, to focus on the bigger picture, to be the head coach, not the play caller. I mean, sure, he probably feels a little bit that way after he was told by Mike Borghazi and Chad Brinker, “Hey, uh, this is like Amy is pissed. Amy wants us to fire you today. We’re not going to do that because we’ve preached patience this whole off season. We’ve been trying to calm Amy down, but we have to do something. And we think that this will help the team a lot if you are able to focus on being the head coach because that’s why you were hired. You weren’t hired to come here and be the play caller. You were hired to come here and be the head coach. And Callahan’s like, “You know what? If this is what it takes to keep this job, and if you guys think this will make the team better, then okay, let’s do it. So, I’ll make Nick the play caller. And they’re like, “No, you’re not going to make Nick the play caller. You’re gonna make Bohart agree the play caller.” Now, you’re speculating too much. No, no, no, no. I’m going to stop you there. I’m sorry. Cuz we don’t know who he said he’s going to make the play call. I I don’t think that that’s true. But I do think we should say that uh uh yes, I I’ll go as far as to agree that he was strongarmed into making this decision to give up play calling. And I’m okay with that. I’m glad they strongarmed him into that because I wrote an article about it on Titan size. I think I think I I wrote it so of course I think I nailed it. But I have no doubt in my mind that one of the underrated aspects of this is that having to call plays played a larger role than the average fan realizes in the uh in-game management gaffs. Okay? Because in week one when he’s figuring out whether or not to challenge that Ellio maner elbow tap, what the average fan doesn’t realize as the play caller, play clocks move fast in the NFL and offenses need time, right? So as you are simultaneously deciding whether or not you’re going to challenge us and you’re having those conversations with Rob Reirer and whoever else is involved in that and you’re also worrying about well if I’m not challenging it, I got to spitball this play out because we got to call a play if we’re not challenging it. He hasn’t proven capable of balancing that. Same thing happened in week three when he’s deciding to go for the field goal or to go for it on fourth down. Guess what? If you’re deciding to go for it, you’ve got to get the play out. He has not proven capable of bouncing those two things. That’s why this uh change is being forced on him. I’m glad it’s being forced when you’ve only got to think about one thing and just make the decision. You’re hoping he’s going to make swifter appropriate decisions in-game management wise, right? and for the Titans to strongarm them, strongarm him into making this change as opposed to just firing him. Every fan, maybe you and I included, just wanted to see the firing, but it’s not our money. It’s not our decision to make. I totally get there being a natural progression, saying, “Hey, before we just fire him and pull the plug three weeks in after we preach patience, we have to try something else.” This is the something else. Let’s see if he becomes a better head coach as he gives up play calling. Does the offense improve under a different play caller and does he make better in-game decisions because he’s not worrying about calling plays at the same time? This is the natural uh uh progression of the process of hey, we are strongly evaluating whether or not you’re going to be our head coach moving forward. This probably maybe this only gets one week. I don’t know if they get blown out in Houston, but my gut tells me this gets a couple of weeks before they decide, hey, we’re you know, we might have to fire them. Yeah, I agree. And let me just clear let me be clear about what is speculation and what we have heard through our sources and what we’ve done digging on. Speculation is how the conversation went down. Speculation is what Callahan actually thought. What we have heard and what we believe to be true is that Mike Bonzi and Chad Brinker forced this decision, right? That’s what we know. Yes. What we what I believe is everything else I just said. I believe all the stuff I just said about Callahan coming up to the podium and telling the media, “This is to make me a better head coach cuz I’m not here to just be a play caller.” I believe somebody said that to him first and it was in his brain. And he came and spit it out to the media and he just told you he’s got no regret about how he’s called plays. He anytime he was asked about giving up play calling months prior before, he said, “I really enjoy doing it. I love that aspect of coaching.” Like he’s going to he’s not going to like this, but he’s trying. He said that again. He said that again yesterday that game planning and calling plays is is still his favorite part and still what he loves and so he’s still going to be involved in the game planning, but we’ll get to what is changing and what’s not changing in a second. Why not Nick Holtz? We have to talk about this. Why Bo Hardigree and not Nick Holtz? Well, I mean, aside from the fact that you pegged Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Hardigree as the correct choice and I pegged him as a correct choice, too based on what their their career experience, Bo Hardigree has called plays with a rookie quarterback taking over mid-season before. like he’s done all of this before, so it makes sense to go to someone like him. However, the Titans now have the strangest setup in the NFL right now. They are the only team in the league with a play calling quarterback coach and a nonplay calling offensive coordinator working. They’re the only team like that. And you add to the fact that working under an offensive-minded head coach who is basically the offensive coordinator, just not entitle because he’s above that in title and head coach. It’s a strange move. Why not give Nick Holtz the reigns here? Aside from the fact that Bo Hardigree has experience doing this before, well, I don’t want to state the obvious, but this is all a setup for what’s coming. This is what is going like this is so that they don’t have to reshuffle again in a couple weeks or three weeks or four weeks or five weeks or whenever it eventually happens because it’s still inevitable that Brian Callahan gets fired. Like let’s just be real. I would say the chances of it happening go from 99.9% to like 89.9% with this in season or in season. Yeah. Uh well maybe the inseason chances go down to like 70%. But the fact the fact of the matter is it’s still going to happen. Why not Mike McCoy? Mike McCoy, senior offensive assistant. The most If it’s about experience doing it, the most experience of anyone on staff calling plays in the NFL. If it’s about not reshuffling things, why not let Mike McCoy do it? Bo Hardigree doesn’t have to take on more responsibility in addition to being the quarterback’s coach again because this is all a setup for when Mike McCoy becomes the interim head coach and they don’t want to reshuffle things. You and I both think it’ll be him, but it could be Bones. But I It could be. But if No, this this changed my mind there. I was sort of like split between ah it’s going to be one of the two. I’m leaning McCoy. Now I’m like it I would say it’s very strongly I feel very strongly and I could be wrong obviously that it will be Mike McCoy because he’s not the play caller now. He has such little on his plate right now. Like he does so that it wouldn’t take much reshuffleling but and then you have to like consider oh now he’s the head co the play calling head coach again. And it’s not like he was great at that when he was the San Diego Chargers head coach. I mean, they went 33 and 43, right? Like it wasn’t like he was great and they went they had he got fired twice as an offensive coordinator after that in season during his first year. Like I don’t I don’t know if you got to that part of it, but he was after he got fired from the Chargers, he went back to the Broncos OC. Fired in season next year Arizona Cardinals OC fired in season. So, not a whole lot of uh you know, excitement about Mike McCoy calling plays. But anyway, I I and then and the obvious, right, the Nick Colts, he’s never done it at the NFL level. He’s never like that that we can’t glaze over that because that’s part of it. He’s never called the NFL level. But if you’re firing Brian Callahan, you’re in season you’re probably firing Nick Holtz, too. And your your Raiders example is the perfect like this happened before Josh McDaniels and his offensive coordinator both got fired and Bo Hardigree stepped up as the quarterback’s coach. Bo Hardigree was the quarterback’s coach for the first eight games of that season and stepped into an interim offensive coordinator role. That’s probably going to happen again. Right now, he’s the play calling quarterback’s coach, which again, not really a thing in the NFL. And Brian Callahan can sit up there at his press conference and say, “This is normal. This happens all the time in terms of like reshuffleling who’s calling plays mid-season.” That might be true, but it’s not normal to have your quarterback coach call plays. And I have to call that out because this is a strange setup that’s going to make game day kind of weird. Okay, because now Bohardigree, what does Bohard do on game days, right? He is with Cam Ward every second of the game that he’s not on the field talking to him between series, talking about what’s coming up, what they’re looking to exploit, what play calls they might be going, what what avenues it might be going down. In a second, I’m going to play an answer from Bo Hardigree about how this is going to work now with him having to call the plays for the entire offense in addition to still being Cam’s quarterback coach. Um, I’ll still be there with him, you know, and then there’ll be some times where I got to, you know, go talk to a position group or two about some things going on in the game or where we’re going to go with it and kind of communicate, you know, so they can anticipate what’s what’s going to be called in the first couple plays, next third down, things like that. But, uh, you know, again, drawing from prior experiences, that that helps helps out. I don’t think that’ll negatively impact the attention that Cam is getting. No, I think Cam’s gonna be just fine. So, he doesn’t think this is going to negatively impact the amount of attention Cam gets during a game day, but he does have more responsibility. He’s going to go have to talk to certain position groups about what’s what they’re struggling with, about what he wants to change, about what certain aspects of the defense that on the next series they’re going to focus on taking advantage of or whatever. Isn’t that Nick Holtz’s job? He’s the offensive coordinator. what what are we doing here? I mean, I don’t want to get too much into that. I want to get into what Bohard Agree brings. But I will say I think I had a lot of people ask me what does Nick Holtz do? And and to me, I’ll be honest, I don’t love that question because I do think I mean there like Monday to Saturday exists, right? Like there’s a lot that Nick Holtz is doing Monday to Saturday. It’s helping put together a game plan installation. Like there Nick Holtz does things. He’s not just showing up with a cup of coffee Monday through Saturday. So, but but certainly uh yeah, perhaps he could take on a bigger Sunday role. Uh because it does sound like Bo Hard is going to be, you know, doing quite a bit of multitasking. Yeah. I mean, Bohardigree is effectively the game day offensive coordinator and then the Monday through Saturday quarterback coach where Nick Holtz is the offensive coordinator. It’s just a weird setup and I and I it won’t be like this for too long because I really do still think at some point Callahan will be dismissed. Uh Holtz will be dismissed. Hardiger will become the offensive coordinator interim. Mike McCoy will become the head coach inter coach. I don’t know. Does he do both? That’s a good question. That would be I mean that’s he did it um in 2023 for the Raiders. He remained the Aiden Oonnell’s QB coach and Jimmy Garopppolo and uh who else was there? Brian Hoyer I think. um in 2023 when it comes to what’s going to change like yes Bo Hardigree has the authority now when it comes to calling the plays but there’s also a lot of things that are not going to change and I want you guys to take a listen to Brian Callahan answering this question calling this not a seismic shift it’s not really to me at the end of the day it’s it’s pretty pretty normal in this league for things like this isn’t some seismic shift or crazy change it’s just uh trying to help me do my job a little better and and let some other people uh take on a little bit more the things that are not going to change Justin are Brian Callahan still has the game situation management duties. He is the head coach. So if it’s 2 minutes to go before the half and Brian Callahan wants to be conservative and just try to take points, he’s going to communicate that to Bohardigree and the play calls will reflect that. if a play needs to be challenged, if uh a timeout needs to be called, whatever it is, game day situational management, the the area the Titans have struggled with more than any other this season, discipline of the offensive players, penalties committed on both sides of the ball, all that stuff is still under Brian Callahan. There’s not a lot changing there. It’s literally just like what is the actual play that we are running on this first and 10? And maybe there will be more first down passing opportunities for Cam Ward to take advantage of a defense that doesn’t know if a run or a pass is coming. Maybe there’ll be more run like a different style of run calls. Maybe there’ll be more play action. We’re going to get into all those stylistic things here in a second, but ultimately it’s the same team run by the same head coach with the same problems when it comes to penalties and discipline, when it comes to game management. Now, obviously, the hope is that the game management stuff gets easier for Callahan when it’s the only thing he has to focus on. But that doesn’t I I still don’t there’s no I have no reason to have a lot of confidence that it’s just going to get better because he’s not also thinking about calling a run to the right or a quick pass to the whatever that like it’s it’s still him making the decisions that has been the issue. Yeah. I mean, I’m willing to say we’ll see on that because again, I I I do think removing something from your plate allows you to hopefully think a bit more clearly and and just when you got to make one decision instead of two or three decisions, sometimes you make that better one decision, right? So, we’ll see. But I think to me, I think what I want to get into here as we get ready to close out is stylistically what you think could change because you did a lot of digging on Board’s tenor with the Raiders there. what the numbers look like, what concepts I think he ran more than Josh McDaniels did, for example, because that’s really the data um that that gives us perhaps an indication of some of the things that could change. No doubt. So, let’s get into that now. Justin, I want to start by listening to Bohard Agree himself answer the question, what is your offensive philosophy? Philosophy is a play caller. Uh protect the ball and win point and score points. That’s it. I love the entire attitude that he had in this press conference. Like if you are watching on YouTube, you can see at the end of that clip, he’s just like got this little grin. This little like mischievous this little mischievous grin that it almost communicates to me like I can’t wait to show you guys what I can do as the play caller cuz I feel like we’re leaving a lot of meat on the bone and we’re going to go avoid turnovers and score points. I like how he also started to say win points before he correctioned himself. Um, but no, I I think that like that’s very simple and not not telling us a lot. A man of kind of a few words, I would say throughout most of this press conference, he’s not quite developed the art of talking for 35 to 45 seconds to a minute without saying anything. But when he was asked real questions about like actual processes and stuff, he actually gave very detailed, well thoughtout, smart answers that give me a lot of encouragement. And one of those was talking about how to make things easier on a rookie quarterback that you maybe don’t have to worry about with a veteran. I loved this answer from Bohardigree. Yeah, just just constant subtle reminders throughout the game. You kind of you can be in their back pocket until 15 seconds, you know, on the clock is is making it easy for him whether he at home and away and and getting him up there, letting him get at the line of scrimmage, take a deep breath, you know, whether the play matters that he needs to know a certain coverage or not. He’s able to see the see the defense every snap. Kind of know where where we are in a game. Um and just kind of being in his back pocket there the till that last 15 seconds. I love that answer. Like me too. Constant communication with Cam. And it also shows the emphasis that he’s going to have on getting that play call into him quickly so he can get to the line of scrimmage and assess the defense with enough time still on the play clock that they that Bo can communicate with Cam. because remember when that play clock hits 15 seconds the headset communication between the OC or in this case not the OC the play caller and the quarterback gets cut off but until that point Bo can get in Ward’s ear about remember to check this coverage where’s the safety where’s this Sam linebacker where’s this where’s that where’s anything else are do we have a strength on the right side against this front should we you know check this to a run or whatever the hell it might be I love the fact that he’s aware that this is something he can do that is something he wants to take advantage of doing and it’ll just help Cam Ward make those checks at the line of scrimmage that he’s already done a fantastic job of and uh so this is a very encouraging sound clip from for me to hear from Bo. Yeah, I’m in full agreement and again the fact that he’s done it before, he’s got that experience doing it with a rookie quarterback um Aiden Okonnell in in 2023 with the Raiders I think is going to be a strong uh something he could call back on. Right. Certainly. and and and let’s be honing with a much more talented quarterback now than he was then. So I I’m sure he’s giddy to have this opportunity. And I for one, I’ll be honest, maybe we’ll end up with egg on our face. Can’t wait to see how Sunday’s live recap episode goes. But I I’m excited to watch the offense this Sunday. I mean, any unknown is always exciting, right? And I’m certainly ready to move on from the Brian Callahan offense. So curious to see what Boharde cooks up and and really if it’s not any different then it’ll be boring but at least we’ll be able to analyze it still and say hey you know business as usual. So what is different? What changes now that Bo is calling the plays? Let’s just take a look at what changed when Josh McDaniels was dismissed in Las Vegas and Bo Hardigree took over the play calling there. Um, I’m going to be referencing a tweet here from our buddy Zack Lions. And I also did some digging into a lot of numbers on my own, but first I’ll start with Zach’s numbers. Um, these aren’t numbers. These are just trends. Play action percentage of passing went up. In fact, I can tell you the exact amount that it went up from weeks 1 to eight when Josh McDaniels was the offensive coordinator and play caller. The Raiders ran play action on 17.8% of their dropbacks. And this was over this was with three different quarterbacks. Jimmy Garopppolo, Brian Hoyer, and Aiden Okonnell all got snaps during this time. Only 17.8% play action rate. Afterwards, Bo Hardy called play action on 25.2% of dropbacks. Now, that’s not a huge number in the grand scheme of the NFL, but it’s a huge jump. 8% of your plays, that’s a massive increase. Drop backs with motion went up. the percentage of dropbacks were with motion before the snap or at the snap. Remember, motion at the snap or before the snap can help the quarterback identify if it’s man or zone coverage. Now, I will say over the last 5 to 10 years, defenses have gotten even better at disguising at having a zone defender run with a player in motion and everyone knows where their zones are changing and it’s not man coverage, but it looks like man coverage, but that it’s pretty rare still for def I mean, not every defense is doing that. Only a few are doing that and only a few few are doing that at a high level. So, drop backs with motion percentage up helps everybody. Gets linebackers shifting. It can help on run plays and pass plays. Screen percentage went up. Now, I know Titans fans are cringing when they hear that one. I don’t know that screen percentage is going to go up here because no doubt Bo Hard no doubt Bo Hardigree has watched the Titans try to execute a screen this year and seen Chica Conquo or Alec Iman or Tyler Lockett or whoever’s blocking for the receiver on the screen getting their ass thrown into the player catching the screen, whatever. No huddle percentage went way up. Zack put two upward trending marks emojis next to this part. Went way up on the no huddle percentage which we have seen the Titans have success with in the short season so far. The offense appears to be get to get into a better rhythm and to click more when they are going no huddle up tempo. So love that one. And the RPO pass rate went up as well. These are as Zach put it easy button plays for the quarterback. Play action helps the quarterback. screens. All you got to do is get the ball out of your hand. You don’t have to read and react to anything. You don’t have to process anything. No huddle percentage. Uh they talked about this on the broadcast on Sunday if you’re watching the Titans game, how the defense, if the if the offense isn’t huddling, the defense doesn’t have time to huddle. They can’t call some exotic crazy blitz exotic crazy uh um coverage shift pre- snap. Yeah. Disguises. They have to just run a more base defense because the offense is is moving. Um RPO pass rate. We know Cam Ward was an excellent RPO quarterback at Miami. We haven’t seen nearly enough RPOS’s from this Titans offense so far. It helps the quarterback. You make one quick decision. You don’t have to read and process the whole field. Now, not that Cam Ward can’t read and process the whole field, but it sure would be nice to have more easy button plays for him where the yardage is sort of just generated by the scheme and not necessarily generated by great quarterback play. Like, yeah, at at times on big third downs in the fourth quarter, you’re going to need great quarterback play to win in the NFL, but you need more easy button action. Like, the top quarterbacks in the league statistically have tons of easy button stuff and then they have the athletic ability and the quarterbacking talent to make huge plays when it really matters. But we Cam needs more help from the play calling, which he’s now going to get. And then some just some basic stats from weeks 1 to eight. Again, weeks one through eight, Josh McDaniels, offensive coordinator. Okay, not technically offensive coordinator. I know I’ve said that a couple times. Play calling head coach. I’m giving him offensive coordinator credit even though technically yes, Nick Lombardi was the OC. From weeks 1 to 8, Raiders offense had eight passing touchdowns to 12 interceptions from weeks 9 to 18 when Bo Hardigree took over. 11 passing touchdowns to eight. Five interceptions to 12 under McDaniels. That’s a pretty seismic in Brian Callahan’s terms shift in terms of efficiency and production on offense. They took 21 sacks in eight games from weeks 1 to 8. They only took 18 sacks in nine games from weeks 9 to 18. Again, you get more RPOS’s, more screens, a better run game, more play action, the sack numbers are going to go down. What no matter who’s quarterbacking, the sack numbers are going to you’re going to have a better job there. Now, total yards. Total yards per game. They went from 268 to 308. That’s a 40 yard per game increase. Maybe that doesn’t sound like a lot. That’s a lot. Passing yards per game. didn’t really change. That’s interesting. 198 to 199, but the rushing yards per game. Now, this is interesting cuz we’re evaluating a rookie quarterback and that’s the most important thing this season and yada yada yada. The best way to help a rookie quarterback is to give them a good defense and a strong run game. We know the Titans don’t have a good defense. So, the next best thing they can do is give him a strong run game. The Raiders went from averaging 70 rushing yards per game to averaging 109. A huge jump. And finally, EPA per play. Now, this one was hard for me to figure out because I really could only get EPA per play from each game and then calculate the average game EPA per play. So, it’s not technically the overall EPA per play from those first eight weeks to the last nine weeks, whatever. The average EPA per play per game for the Raiders under McDaniels was a minus0.19. It almost got cut in half. almost was twice as better under hard degree minus 0.1 just more efficient our listeners don’t know they’re just more efficient better on offense right it’s it’s expected added per play essentially so the three things that are music to my ears if you don’t mind um uh it’s motion it’s the play action and it’s the RPO for a couple of things number one with motion yes I believe defenses have done a good job you know reacting to it but I still believe some of the best offenses in the NFL some of the most efficient offenses in the NFL make a good use of pre- snap motion and the Titans have not done that enough under Brian Callahan. The play action thing is really interesting because the it it it increased about 8% under Bohardree when he took over from Josh McDaniels and the Titans current play action rate is pretty low. In fact, I said in one of our group chats, it’s pretty obvious Brian Callahan just doesn’t like play action. I don’t think he’s a play action guy. They didn’t do it a lot in Cincinnati under him and Zack Taylor. They haven’t done it a lot here. I think it’s just one of his principles. Just not a big fan of play action. I expect it to increase quite a bit under Bohard degree. And remember in that week two game against the Rams, Cam Ward hit two explosives to Calvin Ridley, both on play action where he would it was designed to move the pocket. And I like getting him on the move, getting him away from the O line that’s struggling to protect. I like more play action. The third one that really interests me is the RPO rate for a couple of reasons. One of the things you said, one of them you didn’t Cam Ward was a great RPO passer at Miami. We haven’t seen a lot of it here in Tennessee. We should see more of it. The other thing that really interests me about that is if Bo Hardigree was calling RPO with Brian Hoyer, Jimmy Garopolo, and Aiden O’Connell at quarterback who are not much of a threat or any of them who are I don’t care which one it was. You can correct me. Neither of them are a threat to keep the ball, right? Like no one thinks any of those guys is really keeping the ball all that much. While Hardigree was interim OC, Jimmy Garopppolo dropped back to pass twice. Sure. Good. Aiden is even worse, right? Even worse. Aiden Oonnell. Aiden Oonnell took every other drop back. The Brian Hoyer snaps and the majority of the Garopolo snaps happened under McDaniel earlier in the year. But is do you see Aiden Okonnell as some big time threat to hurt you with his land? Now, Cam War is not a huge threat to hurt, but he’s more athletic than Aiden Okonnell is. He’s a bigger threat. And he was really good at executing it at Miami. So, for me, those three things, the motion, the RPO, and the play action are three things I hope we see go up under Bohard Agree. And if they do, I think the returns will be some, you know, varying degrees of success. Yeah. And to be clear with the RPO stuff, it’s not necessarily about using Cam’s legs. It’s more about him reading and but there will be some like roll out bubble stuff with the RPO and and yeah, Cam is the thing that makes him such a good RPO quarterback. We talked about it during the draft process is a he reads and reacts and processes very quickly and makes quick decisions, but more importantly, he has the the one of the quickest releases in Brian Callahan’s words, one of the quickest releases I’ve ever seen. Like Brian Callahan said that after they picked him and then he proceeded not to use that quick release much in the RPO game for the first three weeks of the season. But the like the fact that you have to read it, you have to get the ball out before the defense realizes, oh this is actually a pass and drops back into that lane. And Camward has that quick release ability to do that. And uh I broke all this down, his RPO ability, especially in a video, the blueprint video back in like April or May or June or sometime during the offseason. So go back and check out that video if you missed it. Um it makes me excited. But overall, I think Bohardree is going to give this offense a little boost. Now, at the same time, like it doesn’t change the talent out there. Bo Hardigree can’t make Calvin Ridley not drop the p drop drop passes at an insanely high rate. Bo Hardig is not going to help a right a backup right tackle not suck. And maybe JC Leam comes back this week. There’s some hope for that. We’ll find out what his practice report looks like. By the time this podcast is out, we’ll know if he practiced on Wednesday or what, you know, the early look at what what his potential status is going to be. Same for Zitler at right guard. Right. Right. Who also didn’t play uh last weekend. So, we’ll see how that shakes out this week. But I know that Bo Hardigere is going to do a little bit more to help that offensive line, whether it’s play action, screens, RPO game, whatever. And yeah, the screens, we can mock the screens, but it’s not the design of the screens that’s failing them. It’s the it’s the players trying to block on those execution. They haven’t executed it. I’d argue, I don’t want to get into this. Let a really good blocking receiver go and Nick Westbrook A was an outstanding blocker and then you call more screens and you don’t have any receivers that can block, but neither here nor there. I agree on some level, but Alec Manor also was a dog blocking on tape at Stanford and in the preseason, and he’s one of the guys that got absolutely just demolished on one of those early screen plays. Now, uh there’s one more sound clip I want to play here. This is Bo Hardigree talking about specifically now as we look ahead, as we wrap up this podcast and we get in more into the specific Texans Titans preview. This is another to me very encouraging quote from Bo uh Bo Hardigree on the challenge of preparing for this Houston defense that as much as their offense is struggling worst in the NFL in points per game, the defense is playing at a very high level. And let’s listen to Bo talk about this Houston defense. You know, it’s a new challenge every week um for an offense. You know, you obviously see, you know, who the game records are. You deal with those first. Um where are the advantages for us in the defense? Um, is it personnel standpoint, schematics, you know, what are our guys doing well? U, what do we do need to do more of? Um, but it’s it’s it’s more about us than them. I think that last part, it’s more about us than them can scare people a little bit, but it’s clear that they’re not just saying, “What do we do? Well, let’s do it.” Because he’s talking about neutralizing their game records, which to me would be a handful of guys depending on what Dererick Stingley’s health looks like. It feels like he’s in and out of the lineup every game. But, uh, Will Anderson and Denil Hunter, both of those guys are top near top of the league in pass rush win rate going up against potentially a backup tackle. Hopefully JC Laam’s back. TBD there. Um, so neutralizing those guys. Where do you, this is the most important thing and the most encouraging thing to me. Where do you have advantages? Is it schematic? Is it personnel? Is there a matchup we can exploit or do we need to engineer a matchup we can exploit with the scheme? I love that. I love that he’s thinking like that. And this all ties back to the clip I played as the intro sound clip here for this episode. The fact that Hardigree has worked with Cam Ward every single day. I would wager there’s no one in that building who has a better understanding of what Cam Ward likes and doesn’t like, what Cam Ward is doing well and struggling with the most, and how to implement the things that he likes and is doing well into the game plan and call those plays at the right time against the right looks. I am hopeful that against a again a very good defense that I I don’t know if the Titans offense is going to go score more than 20 points this week. Again, a tough opponent. Again, not a ton has changed on the talent side, on the discipline side, on the penalty side, but the fact that you might be putting these players in a better position to succeed, I’m hopeful that they can that they can have a decent offensive showing in this game. We’ll see. I mean, we’ll be back tomorrow to preview it. I don’t want to get too much into the Texans. We got a whole preview episode to do tomorrow, so we’ll talk more about it tomorrow. Uh some excitement to watch the offense this weekend with Bo Hard Agree making his debut as the Titans play caller. Excited to see what he does for Cam Ward. Does he does he does he identify the schematical advantages? Are there easy button answers? We think there are going to be, but we’ll actually get to analyze the action on Sunday. Until then, we’ll be back tomorrow, Thursday’s episode, traditional preview about the Texans. Graver and I will be able to analyze maybe where some of those advantages are. We’ll talk about matchups, things of that nature, injury report, status of JC Laam, Kevin Zitler, and all that. Make sure you guys subscribe to the channel. Until then, y’all stay safe out there and tighten up. A Broadway Sports Media production.

Justin Melo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Justin Graver⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ are back for a deep dive on Bo Hardegree’s brief history as a play-caller and what to expect from the Titans offense with him taking on that role in Tennessee. Before that, we give out our weekly Cam Ward grade for his Week 3 performance and share more info we’ve learned about the Titans decision to trade away cornerback Jarvis Brownlee Jr.

0:00 Intro
3:34 Grading Cam Ward’s Week 3 Performance
8:47 More thoughts on Jarvis Brownlee Jr. trade
14:28 Why make a play-caller change?
25:22 Expectations for Bo Hardegree as play-caller
45:47 Wrap Up

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