Why the Titans traded Jarvis Brownlee and Brian Callahan gives up playcalling duties

Why the Titans traded Jarvis Brownlee and Brian Callahan gives up playcalling duties

[Music] Yo, hello. Welcome in to the A Toz Sports Prime Time Show for a Tuesday night, September the 23rd. I’m your host, Eastston Freeze. I am a Titans beat writer and reporter here at azesports.com and I have had a very busy day. How have you all been? Good to have everybody in here live. Appreciate you guys tuning in, jumping on with us on Facebook, on YouTube. Very, very, very busy day in the Titans world, in the sports news world in general. Actually, the Titans, I think, ended up doing well by themselves on accident because they got buried by the Russell Wilson benching news and the Mike Gundy firing news, and I’m sure other chaotic things happened that aren’t coming to my mind right off the top, but um the Titans made waves a couple of times today. It’s just one of those things I, you know, I get a heads up that our 11 o’clock press conference is going to be a little different. Reading the tea leaves from yesterday, from the weekend, from the conversations I’ve had with some folks, wasn’t uh surprised once we knew that coach was going to speak today before the coordinators, what happened, that he was going to give up a play calling. Um, but it was interesting to find out who that new play caller was going to be and why. It was interesting to see how he addressed that situation, a situation that I am uh deeply skeptical of. And speaking of being skeptical, then later in the afternoon, of course, the Titans trade Jarvis Brownley Jr., starting quarterback, the New York Jets for a trade package that does not make any sense on the surface. and the fact that it fundamentally does not make sense from a value standpoint should tell you everything you need to know about what the heck happened here. So, we’re going to dive into all of that. We’re going to dive into uh what I know from having dug on these things all day long. We’re going to talk about what it mean and how it’s going to impact the Titans going forward as they face the also winless Houston Texans this weekend. Quick side note on that, the Texans are 0 and3. The Titans are 0 and3. The Texans hosting the Titans this weekend are seven point favorites, which is a whole lot of points to be favored if you’ve won no games. And I was wondering when the last time this happened that a team through at least three weeks was favored by a touchdown or more having not won any games. And I hit up my buddy Terron Davenport who works for ESPN and said, “Hey, throw this to your buddies up in Bristol. ESPN’s got a killer stats and info research department.” And on occasion I will be like, “Hey, like feed that up there.” And then TD tweets it out because it’s an ESPN thing and then I get to use the information. And so it’s a little symbiotic relationship. And uh it was I believe 1986 I think was the last time that a team was favored by a touchdown with no wins. So uh some rare rare air that this this slopfest is going to be this weekend. I know that you all have questions and you have comments and you have thoughts on the Titans trading Jarelli Jr. and Brian Callahan’s decision decision to give up play calling today. We’re going to get to all of it. If you have any questions throughout the show, trusty producer Ross is monitoring the situation from behind the scenes. He will keep an eye on the chat and we will get to all of your thoughts and then we’ll get out of here on this Thursday. Thursday Tuesday evening. So much more to say, but first got to tell you all about our friends over and I’m I’m seeing are people saying that my audio and video are messed up. Ross, is there an issue here? We have we have a problem. You’re like it cut out for a second. So I think it’s a second behind, but we might be good now. If it’s if it’s not good, let me know because I know how to fix it. Behind like you’re talking and then the audio is coming at Okay, give me Ross, take over for two seconds and I will fix it. Get get back in here, Ross. Get back in here. Entert entertain the people. Thank you. Well, everybody, it’s obviously been a wild day. Um, and the audio issues, you know, that just kind of sums up the day. There’s so much going on. Um, I’m not in a bathrobe, Benjamin Buck. I’m in a white hoodie right now, but um, no, Brandon, I’ve already done that a lot today. I can’t do it anymore. Are we better? Is this Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think we’re good. Sometimes you just got to you got to turn it off and turn it back on. I didn’t want to It’s so annoying. I don’t want to do the next 30 minutes when I’m not in sync. So, thanks for the heads up there. Uh, a lot to talk about. Let’s first cover our sponsors, our lovely and amazing sponsors for the show today. Got to shout them out. 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It’s more than shopping. It’s a store that feels like it was made for you. So, make the trip. Visit Simon Says in Nashville today. Simon Says Men’s Clothing. Appreciate them. Appreciate True Mav. And appreciate Two Rivers Ford. And with that, we are off. Let’s start with our Two Rivers question. Ross, let’s just get it out there and begin the conversation. We know that Brian Callahan gave up his play calling duties today. We know that Jarvis Brownley Jr., Titans starting quarterback, was traded today. What’s going to be more impactful for the Titans this week and going forward in 2025? Bo Hardigree now calling plays Titans quarterback coach or Jarvis Brownley no longer being on the roster. So, in the chat on Facebook, on YouTube, by the way, help me out. Throw us a like on the show tonight. Like the show on Facebook or on YouTube. That is your ticket to jump into the comments and answer like Curtis did saying Brownley’s absence will be more impactful on the Titans. Dalton says Brownley as well. If Sne goes down then who do we have? We’ll talk about that. Jack Longley play calling because you can go and sign a cornerback. Hashtag QJ says play calling as well. So we’re split in the comments so far. Henry Schlottman neither. The Titans are screwed no matter what. Fair enough man. Fair enough. Cat Nelson Bow Hardigree play calling that is important. Cope cope 615 harderee. Our secondary hasn’t been great as it is. So hard a degree is more impactful. So we are split on this. Let’s begin with the Brian Callahan Bohardeeree play calling situation. And we’ve got some clips to play. Um Ross, let’s let’s I I should have cataloged which of these do we have the clips to play? We do. Okay. Just making sure. Let’s start with um the initial announcement from Brian Callahan. Here’s what he had to say out of the gate uh about his decision to hand play calling over to Bohardigree. Thank you. Okay. Um so I said yesterday um you know a lot of things under under evaluation and a lot of things that you self-reflect on at the start that we’ve had so far and and things that we got to get better at. One of the things that I think is going to help our football team, help me be a better head coach for our team uh is I’m going to hand over the play calling uh to Bo. And part of that process is uh part of the decision- making in that in that process is that um you know, Bo’s been had had some interim experience calling. He’s been with the rookie quarterback before. Um that part of it will make it a little bit seamless in in that regard. The other part of it is that um our offensive staff and our our game planning process and system uh is going to remain in place. It’s it’s still a collaborative process. We rely on everybody to do their part. Um Nick is still the offensive coordinator. He’ll still maintain his uh same exact routine and process that he’s gone through to help me. And then Bo is going to step in as as the play caller on Sunday. It’ll allow me to to do a little more with our team and with the with all three phases, pay more time and attention to those things and less in the weeds of of getting ready to game plan. And um you know, one of the things I told the team and told the players after the after our game um is that look, everyone owns a mirror, right? We can all look at it. We can all see where we need to be better and what can help us be better. And uh I think this is one of the best things for us at the moment uh to help me do a better job as a head coach and and be more present and available for the football team and um and less less involved in just the day-to-day minutia of getting ready to call a game. So I think it’s going to be positive for us. I think it’ll help. And I think at the end of the day too, the for our players, you know, it’s the same same thing as if there’s nothing I love more than than offensive game planning and calling plays. And for me to be able to do this for for the betterment of our team and to put us in better position, I think we should get the same from everybody that’s involved in the process. There’s nothing I love more than game planning and calling plays, but I’m going to give it up. I think we have another clip from Callahan. Uh yeah. I so I asked Brian a as and this is the kind of question you want the answer to as a journalist. You know you’re not going to probably get it, but you you try to craft the question in a way that maybe it lands softly enough to get them to give you a little wink or a nod somehow. And so the question really was, hey, uh did Ched Brinker and Mike Borghazi force you to do this? Or force might be strong. Did they sit down with you at your Monday meeting and say, you know, we think that that would be what’s best for the team. We we would we would like to ask you as your bosses to do this for the team. What do you say? Now, you can’t ask that straight up because one, you look dumb for thinking that’s a question that’s going to get answered honestly, and two, if you want any kind of wink or a nod, you have to play the game. You have to kind of speak their language. So I asked the question, I forget exactly how. Basically along the lines of, you know, you and Mike and Chad have been pretty open and honest about the way that you lean on each other organizationally and you meet with them and you met with them yesterday, I’m sure. How how did this decision come about? And I and at the end I I gave a follow-up. I don’t know if it’s in the clip or not, but I was like, “So, was this really like a suggestion from them or did they just endorse the idea when you when you brought it up?” And here’s what he had to say. That’s all part of the process. You know, we we communicate daily. We talk about everything. Um there’s there’s nothing that goes on over the course of the day that that I don’t have a a conversation with both of those guys at different points. U sometimes together, but our communication, I think, is what leads to our strength and our ability to to operate. And um these jobs sometimes require, you know, some some self-reflection and and decisions that maybe sometimes personally you you struggle with and and you got to make the you got to look real hard at yourself and and do what’s best for the team. And I think that’s ultimately what uh where we’re at and what we’re trying to do is we want to win, you know, we want to win games and uh we want to put our team in great position to do so. And and that’s what the fun in this profession is. It’s not fun losing football games and and we want to put ourselves in a better spot and I think that’s was all part of the discussion. So, is that something that they suggested or just endorsed? No, that’s something this is this is something that I felt like would would help us the most and um you know, we we talked through it. I think we talked through the pros, cons, all those things and and ultimately at the end of the day felt like this was was going to be the best thing for our football team moving forward and and allow us to to allow me to do a better job as a head coach and allow our coaches to coach and and our players to play. And I think that’s that’s the the general mindset from the whole thing. And again, it’s this isn’t like uh it it happens. It’s happened all the time. This is not an abnormal process uh for guy for guys in in these roles and and for how this processes work and trying to be better at the end of the day. And that’s that’s all that’s all I ask of our players and it’s I’m no different. So, I’m trying to do a better job at at the job that I have. Thank you. Now, listen, Brian’s my guy. That’s not a secret. Um I I call balls and strikes and I cover them straight, but on a personal level I really like him. Everybody on the beat would tell you that on a personal level they really like him and they we all respect deeply the way that he handles us in the media. So it’s a real shame that the football product has been what it is obviously and his performance on Sundays has been what it is. Hard to you know say the things we have to say about the way that it’s gone when we wish things were better because you like the personally. So, I I say this lovingly, he’s full of crap on this. Almost every word he said in those two clips is baloney. And it’s not that he’s feeding it to you because he thinks you’re dumb or because he thinks that it’s believable even. Uh he’s saying it because he has to. This idea that he, you know, I saw one comment we we started said uh uh it’s oh it’s uh desperation to save his job. Richie, I can understand why it might come across that way initially, like, oh, this guy, you know, it’s last ditch effort and coaches aren’t beyond last ditch efforts. Obviously, it’s usually either this kind of thing or, you know, you fire the receivers’s coach or something. But as Curtis says, oh, he didn’t have a choice, did he? No. Zen Eastston, did you get the vibe Cali gave up the play calling willingly? No, he didn’t give up the play calling willingly. he was he was strongly suggested to it was strongly suggested to him that this needs to happen and um that is I don’t think that’s surprising given where this team is and the at one point in his answer by the way it wasn’t he talks about how it’s nothing I love more than play calling and at one point in a video clip that we didn’t play here but from the press conference at one point he says there’s nothing about my play calling that I that I am disappointed in, but I’m giving it away to somebody else. It’s cuz he was told he had to give it away. Um I I’m not surprised he picked Bo Hardigree who has experience doing this. He put was it the play caller? Um so Kyle, fair followup. Did he pick Bo or did the ones nudging him pick Bo? That I don’t I don’t know. I’m assuming he picked B because he’s still the head coach and that’s he’s going to know best. But I’d imagine the consensus from everybody involved just based on the facts on the ground. Who’s done this? Who hasn’t? Who’s in the best position to do it was we should give it to Bo. And I want to talk about what that means for Nick Holtz in a second because I got to defend my man Nick. Um, got to defend my man Nick. Hard agree did this in Vegas when uh Josh McDaniels got fired. He was the interim OC. Called plays there and that team was three and five when he took over play calling. They finished five and four in the games that he that he called. So he he won more games than he lost as a play caller. Before he took over, the team was averaging 15.8 points per game. Afterwards, they were averaging 22.9 points for points per game. They went from 268 to 308 yards per game. So there was an uptick. Um some of that was inflated by the fact that if you remember the prime time game where the Raiders hung 63 points on the Chargers, it was the Brandon Staley give up game. It was Brandon Staley’s final game as a Chargers head coach. Um, that game did a lot for his numbers. It’s not like I’m not It’s not his fault, you know, they managed to score 63 points on an NFL team, but that those points were about the the defensive coach on the other side of the ball, not about not about his play calling. We all watched that game. We know what happened there. Zion says, “I’m a little surprised by Bo Hardigree being the pick. It makes Holtz look like he isn’t qualified, whether that’s true or not.” So, let’s talk about that. Listen, I am so sick and tired of Nick Holtz getting sideswiped, catching strays for doing his job well because that’s what happened today and it sucks and it’s crappy. Um, it is a bad public look for Nick Holtz by no fault of his own that he’s the OC and they went with somebody else to call the plays. like there’s there’s no avoiding that. But the reality is, and I know this to be a fact because I have talked to people behind the scenes all year long about Nick Holtz because fans all year long have been like, “What does Nick Holtz do? Is he just here for the vibes? What’s going on?” And I talk to these people who and the reason why I know they’re not just playing me on this is because these conversation when I say off the record these conversations I’m having with people where I’ve established trust with them. They aren’t hesitant to be indifferent on people or players on the team. They aren’t hesitant to be like that guy stinks or I don’t really like working with working with that guy or like it’s it’s it’s water cooler talk. You understand? It’s not there’s no microphones. there’s no worry that I’m going to run off and say something that that they don’t want out there because there’s a level of trust there. So when they when they sit there and gush to me about Nick Holtz when I know they wouldn’t if they didn’t feel that way and the job that Nick Holtz does, I believe them. And so Nick Holtz in his role with this team practically does all of the important dirty work things for the offense during the week that fans are never going to care about because they don’t see. and that’s just what it is. So, you can either choose to accept that or not. I’m not like mad at fans for not getting it. I I understand why you don’t get it. I only get it because I ask the people that are around. Otherwise, I wouldn’t get it either. Um, but he he is adored in the role that he’s in, which is handling the install, handling the base offense, aka the majority of the offense, handling um uh uh working with all the different position groups in the offense in the classrooms, making sure people know what they’re doing, when and where, establishing what is and isn’t going to be in the playbook, in the game plan based on scouting the the future opponent. all of the things that have to happen for an offensive football game to work, for a game plan to be implemented. And that’s not to say that he’s actually incredible because they’ve been losing the games and the offense has been bad. So like I’m not saying like, well, he’s a shining star. No, no, no. What I am saying is they love him in his role. He has not called plays before. He’s up in the booth, but Hardigeree is down on the field as it already is. And Hardigree is in the ear of the quarterback who the play calling I mean Hardigree at one point today, we have a clip of him. We’ll play in a minute. At one point he talks about it some I forget how he phrased it but it was like you know Cam’s great Cam’s good you know Cam’s gonna be good with this and Cam just does such a good job for us you know making the play calls better aka checking out of the play calls which I found kind of rich because there have been a couple times that he’s screwed up the plays by checking out of the play calls but that’s not shocking for a rookie. It’s just funny to say that he’s been great at it when it’s put them in trouble a couple of times. It’s neither here nor there. they’ve empowered him to be a part of the play calling process. And so it makes sense for the guy that’s in his ear as the quarterback coach to be the one to just step into that role, especially when he has experience doing it. It went relatively well for a bad Raiders team when he did it. And the offensive coordinator does really well with what he already does. His role has not changed and he’s up in the booth. Anyways, that’s the deal on Nick Colts. That’s the deal on on Bohard Agree. Uh, do we have any more questions or comments from the chat on this topic before we talk about Jar Jr. Buer? Anything? No, nothing. Okay. Ross has vetted your comments. He says there’s nothing of import. Uh, Titans SRT says, “Is it normal to announce this?” Yeah, you don’t just show up to a game and change uh who the play caller is. Teams teams announce this. That’s that that is a normal part of it. Um, and Hernand says, “Am I correct to understand Bo will stay on the field, not going to the box?” That’s a good question actually because we asked him uh Bo how many times how many times this year now that this has happened, right, Ross? You know, it’s going to happen on every airway. People are It’s It’s impossible not to. Bohard agree, not Bo Callahan, whose birthday party I heard was a real bummer. Um, he will be on the field, I think, because that’s where he has been, but he did say today that they’re still talking about whether or not it makes most sense for them to have him in the booth or on the field. I don’t know why he wouldn’t be on the field unless it’s just a seeing the field clearly thing for a play caller. But then you’re taking him away from Cam, but Cam still has I guess Callahan down there so he can lean on Callahan to have as a person actually in his ear. But then wouldn’t you still want your quarterback? I I don’t really know how that would work if they choose to put him in the booth. We’ll have a lot of questions for him on that. Let’s just put it that way. Let’s go ahead and play Let’s Let’s play the one clip since we have it of of hard agree. Here’s what he had to say today. He spoke to us because of this announcement. I don’t know if he’s going to speak every week with the coordinators. He took Nicole’s spot today. I was told that’s a today thing, not an always thing. So, I don’t know when we’re gonna get to talk to hard agree going forward. It should be. I hope Titans are listening to this. Titans PR. It should be that we talk to the three coordinators, including the Colts and Vardigree every Tuesday. Doesn’t that seem right? Doesn’t that seem fair? We get both play callers. We get all three coordinators. It’s four different people. We got the time. There’s nothing else going on Tuesday. There’s no practice. There’s nothing there’s nothing else happening. Bring them to us on Tuesdays, please. And thank you. Here’s the clip. Yeah. That was uh obviously a great experience for me um being able to also work with a you know take over an offense, work with a work with a rookie quarterback. You know, I’ll draw from those experiences, but we you know, we had a great staff with us. You know, stability is good. Um so, I’m really looking forward to working with our with our staff and working together and putting this thing together and go get a win on Sunday. How would you describe your philosophy as a play caller? Philosophy as a play caller. Uh protect the ball and win and score points. That’s it. Do you see the play calling changing materially from the way like just the the general approach for this team coming into the year? Do you think that you’ll be really doing things a whole lot differently from the way they’ve been called? Yeah, we evaluate everything every week. Um but we’re just going to call the best plays for our players on Sunday. Put them in the best situations possible. All the above. Um you know, we’re all in this together. 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’s helped helps out. You don’t think that’ll negatively impact the attention that Cam is getting? No, I think Cam’s going to be just fine. Yeah. Yeah. I I mean, I talk to Cam every day. Cam’s fine. Cam, you know, like everybody else, Cam wants to win football games. He’s And uh, he’s going to do his part, and, you know, we’re going to do this as a team. to kind of put a bow on this and we can circle back and answer any specific questions you guys have in the chat. Uh I wrote about this at adzports.com today. You should go read it. Um I am not skeptical that this decision in terms of what will be impacted on the field. I’m not skeptical that it won’t maybe be a slight boost. I think the Titans are trying to kind of capture a coaching change bump that you see when coaches get fired here, but doing without firing. Uh, put a bow on this. Nice. Yeah, you like that. I got a lot there’s a lot more clever nonsense where that came from. I I think it’ll help a little bit, but is it going to change the fundamental issues this team has that only time and development and getting better players is going to fix? No. No, it’s not. Like, it’s the same. It’s basically the same opinion I have right now for all of you. Fire Callahan now folks, like, fine, fire him now. See what changes. Team still sucks. Team still sucks. Time’s fixing that. new players and development of the current players is fixing that. Firing the coach is not magically fixing that in week four or week five or week six. You might get a deadc cat bouncer. It’s like, wow, they look awesome for one week because they’re playing really hard now because the coach they hate is out of there. I don’t actually think that would happen for this team because I don’t think the players hate the coach, at least not yet. So, um, even that I’m skeptical of, but it would not be a sustainable change because the team sucks. Um, okay. Let’s talk about Brownley, who the Titans traded in a trade that didn’t seem to whole make a whole lot of sense. I’m going to send in the comments right now the link to the article I wrote about this. Four reasons why the Titans front office views trading Jarvis Brownley as the right move for the future. Why do the Titans trade a young star? I answered uh as earnestly and as knowledgeably as I could. A lot of little winks and nods in there for those of you with eyes to see. So, go and read that and I think you’ll find some interesting things. on why the front office did this, but let’s run down the details of the trade. Titans trading Jarvis Brownley to the Jets for a 2026 late round pick swap. Specifically, they are sending Brownley and a seventh this upcoming draft to receive back a sixth. So, they are turning a seventh into a sixth rounder. Practically nothing. Now, that was met with a lot of questions online such as what and also why. I felt the same way. Upon digging into this, um, it’s because a change of scenery was needed. Apparently, uh, he seems to have been on the trade block for some time now. This is not a new thing. The Patriots called on him. They were one of, I think, more than one team that expressed interest and ultimately the Jets and this piss poor offer is what was went with because it was all that was it was the best that was offered is the reality of the situation. They didn’t turn down better offers to send him to the Jets because he he really wanted to be a Jet. That that didn’t happen. Here’s the deal on this. When a value proposition like this, just purely on paper, the value of, okay, a fifth round 24y old quarterback you drafted last year. Reminder, in the fifth round, he became a starter as a rookie. He started 16 games for you and he clearly exceeded his fifth round draft value and then you trade him for what amounts to like a 2027 or 2028 7th in terms of pure value because you’re turning a seventh into a sixth. So the actual value of that is like a future a future seventh. That doesn’t come close to being correct in any world. No matter how wrong any front office could possibly be on what a guy is worth, a starting cornerback is worth more than that, especially when they’re 24 years old. What are we talking about? So, when this kind of thing happens and it’s head scratching, you have one of two choices there. There are really only two explanation, two basic explanations for this kind of thing. Either number one, the front office has no idea what players are worth and they don’t know what they’re doing or number two, there was a lot more to this player andor their standing on the team than any of us know. It’s one of those two. It has to be it has to be one of those two things. There is no third option. And as Z Dean pointed out, Jim Wyatt did some implying on the radio today. I did some implying in the article that I sent in the in the chat. You really should go read it that there were issues behind the scenes with Brownley on 3HL earlier today. So, something must have gone on internally. Something did go on internally. I don’t have to be an insider to tell you that. I am insider and I am telling you that, but you don’t have to be I imagine many of you in the comments understand something or something’s happened here. This didn’t happen overnight. This didn’t happen because they thought they were getting value uh in terms of turning him into what they paid for him to versus what they sold him for and and banking money. Obviously, that didn’t happen in any world. There’s no there’s no reality in which this was a good trade for them on paper, which means there it had to happen. They had to they he had to move on. Maybe he demanded a trade. Maybe he was a big headache. Maybe I I don’t know. I don’t want to speculate because I liked Jarvis a lot. I still like Jarvis. Jarvis was my guy before the Titans long before the Titans drafted him. I watched him in Mobile at the Senior Bowl in the stands. I was like, who is this undersized quarterback that plays like he is 4 in taller and 25 pounds heavier than he is? This guy, I love his play style, his tenacity. He’s incredible. He’s a fantastic tackler. Led the Titans in tackles through two games, by the way. Uh PF’s highest graded runs stopping quarterback in the entire league. Very effective. also a walking penalty, right? Also unders sized, right? Um, also rough around the edges and needed polishing. Now, I’m somebody that believed in Brownley as a prospect and was elated when the Titans drafted him and thought that they had stolen a starting caliber quarterback in the fifth round and he started 16 games. And during the 16 games, I thought I think they did steal a starting caliber corner in the fifth round. And now I’m inclined to think that the Jets just stole themselves a starting caliber corner. So don’t don’t think east old Eastston’s not skeptical of this and he’s finding a way to spin his own pretzel his mind into this was a good trade. No, what I am saying is that the facts on the ground clearly point to something happened here and it this had to happen. He had to go. They had to get rid of him. However you want to phrase it. I don’t know. Maybe maybe we’ll find out what happened. Probably won’t. We’ll talk to Brian Callahan about it tomorrow at the podium. He’ll say what he has to say. I’d imagine not much, but uh if you hear from me, you hear from Jim Wyatt, you’ll probably hear it from Paul Karski at some point, uh you’ll probably hear from Toronto Davenport at some point. There’s there just there’s more to this than meets the eye of the value proposition. And it is a crying shame that the Titans had to part with a guy that was a real value for them. and I still believe can develop into a really nice starting quarterback in the NFL if he continues to uh you know smooth out his rougher edges. So that’s really all there is to say on the Brownley thing besides what now there are and it is funny to me Ross that on Sunday there were so many people that were like ah man this team sell them all everybody get them out and then today those same accounts were like whoa not that guy hold on wait a minute I understand why you feel that way obviously people were like so the old guy it’s not the 24-y old quarterback it is still funny to me it’s a very funny example of a uh you It’s like a an over technical genie. You have to be very specific about your wishes or you might you be careful what you wish for. So, you know, is it the only move they’ll make? Surely not. I’d imagine this is probably the first of a handful of moves. The Titans are the most textbook seller at Deadline of all time. Right. This team is built on. And it’s a topsyturvy roster built on bad and well, I’m generalizing, but like bad and overpaid mercenaries that are old and inexperienced young guys that are cheap and there’s not really like we’ve hauled out we’ve hauled out the middle class of the Titans roster. The where’d they go? Where’ the middle class go? John Robinson burned them all to the ground with three consecutive draft classes. That’s where the middle class went. Listen folks, I the the deal with this is that they’re not going to get better until they allow their younger players to play. How many times I know that Ross, I know I bet you have. I know I have multiple times this year thought all the Titans best players are your rookies. Like all of them. Their best players are the rookies, which isn’t a good place to be. It’s encouraging for the future, but like right now, what the heck? This allows them to play some younger guys. It allows them, I’d imagine, for Marcus Harris, the sixth round quarterback from this year, who they like a lot and he’s a guy they’ve trained on the outside. He’ll probably get some more run. I think it allows you to uh So, Dre asks, did we do this for the quarterback? No, I don’t. They did not do this for him. I think he is going to be put in a better position as a byproduct of it. But they didn’t they didn’t sell super duper duper low on Brownley for the sake of getting him more involved. They could have like you could have just kept Brownley on the roster and like gotten Marcus involved that you didn’t have to get rid of the guy in front of him to do it. You’re it’s your team. You can do what you want. Um Eddie says, “We sure they didn’t get better offers. Lord help us that yes, I’m I’m certain that they did not get better offers. They they shopped him for a while. They took the best one they got. People weren’t biting around the league.” And that should tell you something. By the way, speaking of things that should tell you something, far be it for me to accuse Jarvis of anything. I’m not I am Let me be very clear. I am not accusing. But I am saying that we’ve seen players get hurt and then get mysteriously moved and then by I suppose the grace of God miracles they come raining down from the heavens and suddenly they are healthy. I am not saying that’s going to happen to Jarvis, but I am saying that on Thursday last week after practice he was limping around. Looked like he was in a lot of pain with that ankle. On Friday he was in a boot in the locker room. Those of you that are astute readers of adsports.com you knew that. A lot of folks on Sunday realized it because they saw videos of it. But if you read on Friday, azports.com, you’d have known he was in a boot on Friday. On Sunday, shows up to the stadium, limps in with a boot on. Looks looks real to me. It I never questioned it once. If this week he gets to New York and that ankle starts feeling real good. It’ll be interesting. I’m not saying it’s going to happen. I don’t I don’t even think it’s going to happen. I’m I’m a good faith kind of guy. I I don’t think that he was faking it, but it did the question pop into my mind when this all happened. Yeah. So, let’s see. I don’t know. You know, I’m not a doctor. Maybe you can go from being in a boot and limping visibly on Sunday to playing NFL caliber quarterback the following Sunday. Maybe. Maybe that’s above my pay grade. Seems seems unlikely. Any other questions, Ross, before we get out of here? I know we’ve got some things started. We want to just kind of rapid fire some random stuff from the comments here. Dalton, what’s there tension between Brownley and the front office? Why did we trade a rising star for a practice squad player? I I’m wondering if he’s talking about Jaylen Armor Davis, who I think is going to be the primary guy to step into that role. I think I think he’s saying like the the future draft pick, like it being a sixth round. No, you’re it’s you’re right. I should have read that the correct way. Um, first of all, how dare you that that sixth rounder next year, he’s going to be a stud. I can’t I can’t wait. I can’t wait for the draft night revisiting of Well, this was the Jarvis Brownley pick and Jarvis is coming off of a year with the Jets where he has four interceptions and 14 PBUs. I wonder if Jim Smith from BYU is going to be any better. A sixthround white quarterback. The This is This is not a situation where it’s going to end well for the Titans from a value standpoint. I have we covered that. I think we’ve covered that. Um, but yeah, the the answer as to why they did this is because they had to. That I feel like I kind of answered that. Next question. Next question. Adam says, “In your opinion, what do you think will be the next person we trade?” Oo, good question. I don’t know. Let me pull up the roster. This Jeffrey Simmons thing, like that’s the obvious one folks go to because he’s the only really the only tradable asset that has a lot of juice. Like Simmons is playing borderline defensive player of the year level right now. And if you turn on the tape you like that’s not just a homer thing. Like I this is I promise he’s playing incred. Go look at the charts, look at his numbers, look at his tape. He’s playing incredible on a really really crappy defensive line at the moment. Um which is good for the Titans if they want to trade him because a contender could really use a Jeffrey Simmons on their team. So, could he garner a future like second round pick? I think he could. I think you wouldn’t take anything less than a second round pick that I would not I personally would not take less than a second round pick for Jeffrey Simmons. You might could get a what’s going to end up being like a really late round pick from a team that’s clearly awesome. So, I don’t think it’s Simmons next. I really don’t. Um H. So, who are these guys? Like, I mean, Ridley, could uh Kansas City use a Calvin Ridley? feel like they could, right? You’d be selling kind of low on him, I feel like, because he started really slow. Do I think he’s gonna just be this the rest of the year? No. Need I remind you last year at one point early in the season, he went on a streak where I think he had 14 total yards in three games. So, he started real slow last year, too, and he figured it out and still got to thousand yards. I I’m anticipating him doing the same thing. It’ll be frustrating when he does it, but I think he’ll eventually get over the hump because I don’t see him having lost a big step on tape. I just see him having an all-time crisis of hands faith and can’t make a play. Jack says, “If Rley went to KC, he’d all of a sudden catch everything and be primary deos.” Yeah, probably. Probably. But what would the Titans get for him? H, you know, would you get a I don’t know. I need to do some math on this. Could you get a He’s old. Like it’s the age thing that’s throwing me off. Could you get a fourth for him? Probably. Feel good about being able to get a fourth for him. Could you get a third? Maybe. You know, the like the most recent third round pick trade the Titans made was for Sneeed. Now, there was the contract on top of that is right. Like you’re you’re paying a third for the privilege of getting to pay Sneeed a gajillion trillion dollars. That wouldn’t be the case with with Ridley, but you would be sending him off on a contract that needs revising and he’s 31 years 31 32 years old. Um, so maybe a third, maybe a fourth. Is that worth it? I don’t know. We’ll certainly be talking about it as the the weeks pass and the Titans become sellers the deadline. I’ll say Ridley is the next guy traded. Especially if my beautiful perfect boy, the only thing I have to smile in life about right now, Elgaya Manor, continues to be awesome because he is awesome. And if he’s awesome, then you know who needs Ridley, right? That’s a joke mostly. But also, next question. Cooper Sweat. Boronghazi didn’t draft him. Devandre Sweat. This is interesting. bringing up a more general point I’d like to make about how it’s it’s become very clear to me in the past couple of weeks that even the good players that Ray and Carthon acquired are still maybe not exactly the fit that this current iteration of the front office loves. So like I’m talking about like Sweat and Jason. I’m not there’s no conspiracy here. I’m not like well they actually hate these guys. No, no, no. They like their starters. These guys are starters. They want both to get healthy and get back out there. But I I just I’m not sure that the kind of guys that they would have gone for, especially Mike Boronzi. I’m not sure that they’re And and when I say they, I’m really more talking about sweat than I am JC. I think JC, I mean, he’ll get back. I think he’ll be fine. I just think little things like him not knowing to keep his mouth shut about him calling himself out a day early in the locker room like that. It’s the little stuff like that where it’s like, bro, with Sweat, Sweat strikes me as the kind of guy who’s going to be really productive over his rookie contract and then is going to surprise a lot of folks when he doesn’t get a second contract with the Titans. And that’s a crying shame because talk about my guys. Sweat was also a guy that I did some wild victory lapping over last year. Also my guy, I loved him pre-draft. I loved the Titans. Took a swing on him and I felt like he proved all the haters wrong in year one. And since then, it’s gotten it’s become a bummer. my vibe has been harshed and I just don’t I think the reality has kind of sunk in that I’m not sure this is going to work long term and he’s gonna be productive until that day comes and we’ll we’ll figure it out then. So, um do I think he’s going to be traded? No. No. Especially right now, you’d be selling solo on him. But is do I think he’s going to stick around beyond this the first contract? At the moment, I I don’t I don’t. And by the way, uh Jaylen Carter in Philadelphia, exact same case. watch when he’s still considered a top five defensive tackle in the entire league and then the Eagles don’t resign him. Just watch. Next question. Brandon Nolles East, can we please discuss about people too many pe too many people having their hands in the pot for the offense? Why so many handling third down versus running backs versus the red zone? Seems like it be can be too much. That’s an understandable comment. My understanding is around the league. That’s just the way that it is. that people specialize in different elements of the the game plan because it’s too much for one person to really be an expert on. And so that’s why like Colts is doing, you know, I did find this funny today. Randy Jordan was Did you see this roster where they’re like, “Okay, Nick Colts has the base defense and so and so has the third downs and so and so has the red zones and Randy Jordan has the screens.” By the way, Randy Jordan, let’s just throw him right under the bus. Screen guy. Those screens you guys hate, that’s Randy. Old Ry’s dialing those up. And Ry’s like, “What are they saying screw me for?” may now he I mean he is in charge of the screens which is an unfortunate thing to reveal but it was revealed today so now we know we’re to direct the the eyeire at the screens at old Randy Jordan sorry Randy but to answer the question no it’s not uncommon next question what exactly does Mike McCoy do his title seems very niche it is niche he’s basically an adviser for the offense um he’s somebody that has been a head coach and been a play caller before he’s a wise old sage football mind and he’s a great sounding board for the head coach and for really anybody in any kind of coaching position on the team. Brandon, I hope Brandon gets Randy gets the smallest scoops at Chipotle. It’s terrible thing to wish on somebody. So yeah, that’s what he does. He’s an adviser. Anything else? Anything else? Two more chosen. East, do you think Cali will be fired either e even though he gave up play calling? I just don’t see him surviving if lose to the Texans and Mike Frael. Um, I would say it’s not looking good for Callahan keeping his job right now. I don’t know how I could say that. Do I think he’s getting fired next week if he loses to the Texans? No, I don’t. Um, I could be wrong about that. I’m not like I’m not like planting my flag on that. I just don’t think that this team, number one, the people that would do the firing out maybe outside of Amy. I don’t know about Amy. She won’t talk to us. Like, I don’t know. I’d love to talk to her. the Mike and Shad know the reality even if they really are displeased with the job that Callahan and the staff are doing. They know that firing him is not going to change the roster blows. They know that. Um and they know that it’s tough and they they also know the insides and outs of some of these situations that have been more difficult narratively in the public than behind the scenes where there’s there’s context that’s important. Like they they know all the details of what happened on these things. So, they’re more in the no on that kind of thing. Um, so I don’t think they Here’s the other thing. I was I blanked on the my second point. Here’s the second point. They It’d be a bad look for them if they spent all year from January to August being like, “Patience, patience. We don’t care about the wins and the losses. We just care about progress. We care about continuity for Cam. It’s all about Cam. It’s about patience.” And then they fired the guy before September’s over. you know, can’t really do can’t really do that without us then coming on the radio and the internet and saying, “You guys are liars and this is a bad look.” Now, could they fire him after the buy? Could they fire him after the year? Yeah, they sure could. And right now, it’s kind of looking like that is where we’re headed, unfortunately, if things don’t turn around in a big way. Um, but now, no. Does the play calling thing change it? Not really. Although I do, you know, I wrote about this a little bit today at adcports.com. Go check it out. I I don’t really I fundamentally I dislike the the offensive mind who was brought in for you to enjoy the luxuries of having a play caller head coach. I don’t like that guy having the play calling taken from him because then best case is you keep the offensive system because it’s his system and it’s somebody else calling the plays, but then you can cycle the guy calling the plays. And here’s a here’s a way too early conversation for you, Ross. The Titans now have their quarterback coach calling the plays. We talked about why that makes sense instead of the OC. We talked about why the OC does not deserve to be sideswiped for this. And yet, as much as I love Nick Holtz, Nick’s my guy, when we get to the end of this year, let’s say it goes well. Let’s say that Callahan’s going to get retained. And let’s say that Bohart agreed a good enough job for them to win some games and it’s like, man, we feel good. Yeah. Josh says, say we go on a win streak. What happens then? What happens then is at the end of the year, Bohardigree last off seasonason was garnering interest from teams around the league for other positions, including coordinator jobs. He interviewed for for some coordinator jobs. And if he had been offered one of those jobs, the Titans would would not have been able to block him because if you’re moving vertically, if you’re going from a a position coach to a coordinator job, your team can’t block you for taking that job. Your team can block you from taking a job of like kind. So if you go try to go from position coach to being offered another position coach job, they can block you for that. And the Bears did that with Hardigree and the Titans blocked it. And does that mean hardree was trying to go and Callahan said no. I don’t know. I don’t know how that works. But either he was trying to go or they offered it. One of the or you know either one or both of those things happened and it got blocked. So that was last offseason. If he calls plays this year and it looks good and he’s still this hot coaching candidate in league circles and he gets offered a coordinating job somewhere else when he’s currently the play calling quarterback coach, Callahan’s going to have to choose, do I keep the guy who called plays and it went well for us this year or do I stick with Nick Holtz who again Callahan will swear up and down. Nick’s done great. We love Nick. Nick’s been fantastic for me here. He’s been critical for me from an operations standpoint. But if I don’t make Bohardigree my offensive coordinator and promote him within, I cannot block him from going to be a coordinator elsewhere. And of course, he’d want to be a coordinator elsewhere. He want to move up and pursue his career. Of course. So, that’s going to be an ugly conversation if we get there. And it’s a position that is a long-term problem that’s easy to see right now that they willingly put themselves in today for the sake of, I guess, taking some things off of Callahan’s plate, even though he himself thinks that that’s not important enough to do. like he thinks that’s that’s not going to help and now I guess he’s just going to twiddle his thumbs on the sideline because he loves to call plays and they’re not letting him call plays. Good luck. I don’t know. Weird stuff for Titans right now. Um plenty to talk about though and plenty to see. I almost turned in uh an article today that was titled what to expect from the the Bohard Agree called Titans Offense and it was just going to be a oneline article that said tune in Sunday to find out. That’s what I’ll leave you with tonight. Tune in on Sunday to find out. Should be fun against the pathetic Texans who do not don’t have a pathetic defense. They do look pathetic elsewhere. Ross says, “Y’all’s grammar performance has been piss poor. Get better.” Um, that’s disappointing to hear. Crack a crack a dictionary. Crack a thesaurus, people. Attend a grammar class if you still need it as an adult. Pathetic. Uh, I’ve been Eastston. This has been Prime Time. Uh, I won’t be on the morning show tomorrow. Tomorrow it’ll be Austin and JT, but I will be on the morning show on Thursday with JT and on Friday with Austin and then I’ll be on the game day show with JT live from downtown in Margaritavville, uh the second floor, the Land Shark Bar and Grill up there. Had a really fantastic time watching the otherwise crappy Titans game, but watching the other interesting games as well at that sports bar on Sunday. Was there all day long for the all of the slates and was doing work there and and grabbed the drink there and grabbed the food there. It’s awesome. Come hang out anytime. Any Sunday, we’ll be there. We’ll be there this Sunday. It’ll be a good time. Come join us. Uh until tomorrow morning, same place, 8:00 a.m. Central Standard Time for JT Austin on the morning show. They will break down both of these topics in much greater detail. I’ve been Eastston. This has been Prime Time. Have a great rest of your night. [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause]

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