Now that you've sat with it for a little bit, do you still pin a lot of the loss yesterday on the Titans coaching staff?

I mean, yeah, I'll pin a good amount of it, but you know what? There's some executions that has to happen.

a play caller will just pick the perfect play at the perfect time.

And that's what happened when you saw the Cody Barton and Dave Flowers, you know, that matchup for the 52-yarder.

I think you look at the low red zone opportunities they had.

I get it.

The whole lot of it was moving people, man.

anymore,

[laughs]

... has...

He's having, he's having issues, like fleeing a, a, the pocket too early.

He...

Even when it's clean, uh, it's like that internal clock, it, it, it's sped up and, and, uh, that's a problem.

You know, he's still working to be able to layer the football, uh, as opposed to throwing lightning bolts, so that's an issue.

Um, there's some spacing issues also with the scheme.

... why was that game so close? What, what happened that the Titans, after they looked as bad as you could look against the Jets in the opener, played seemingly a, a, a heck of a lot better almost winning that game?

What is your sense of that connection? Is Cam buying into what Dayball is selling? And because I know, I know that Dayball likes Cam.

Yeah, absolutely.

I asked Cam straight up, like, what is it that makes you like Brian Davo so much? Because every chance he gets, he raves about him.

And Cam said the thing that really set things off the right way was the fact that he was so open to implementing the things that he likes right away.

Like, as soon as he got here to the facility, that's one of the things that they worked on.

And Davo, when I brought that back to him, he said that the whole thing for him was first to understand develop a relationship with cam as a man just as a person but then as that developed begin to see the game through the eyes of the quarterback and conversely Cam was like, well, I want to see the game through the eyes of the coordinator.

So that's allowed them to get on the same page.

Can you give me something about Wandel and Bellinger that that, you know, would make maybe me feel good knowing that they're in good hands in Nashville?

Where do you think Cam Ward is in the development, and how is it going, and is it positive or is it negative? Because there's a lot of negative outside of Nashville.

Yeah, I think Robert Sala said it best.

He's kind of at the floor of the process, and that's a good thing, right? Because the floor has basically been reset, right? You got a whole new coordinator coming in.

You have new offense.

You have new weapons, right? His top two weapons, Wendell Robinson and Carnell Tate, he hadn't played with them before this year, and I'm not excusing any of it.

I'm just explaining some of the things that are behind what was a terrible game last week, and You know, you look at a play, it was third and three, Carnell Tate ran a crossing route left to right, and they had to clear out On the right side.

And so it was nothing, you know, from that hash to the sideline, like nothing but green grass.

What do they have to do to try and win from, you know, giving the audience a look at what the Titans are going to try and do to win this game?

know what I'm

saying? And you look at Dayball's offense, even just Dayball, period, dating back to Deion Branch, Julian Edelman.

Danny Amendola, who I used to love.

That was my guy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He was a tough guy.

He was, man.

You

Yeah.

And I know a lot of it was because of that 49ers defense.

So what can you tell us about some of that chippiness and that physical nature that you saw between the Titans offense and the 49ers defense yesterday? Man, I tell you what, [laughs] from the very first, literally the very first snap, Tony Pollard had a run, and, and these guys were tangled up.

And then Cornell Tate caught a, a, an outbreak en route.

And I think it was, uh, Renardo Green, who from what I understand is having a really good camp, he blasted him.

And then next thing you know, it was just, [laughs] it was WWE, man.

Uh, Austin Deckler, he, he swung on one of the, um, the, the defenders, uh, the defensive ends and, and kind of drove him to the ground.

Just your thoughts on what you saw from Carnell Tate, or Carnell Tate, and if you had a chance to see Dejon Stripling at all.

So what can you tell us about some of that chippiness and that physical nature that you saw between the Titans offense and the 49ers defense yesterday?

Man, I tell you what, [laughs] from the very first, literally the very first snap, Tony Pollard had a run, and, and these guys were tangled up, and then Cornell Tate caught a, a, an outbreak en route.

And I, I think it was, uh, Renardo Green who, from what I understand, is having a really good camp.

He blasted them, and then next thing you know, it was just [laughs] it was WWE, man.

Uh, Austin Deckler, he, he swung on one of the, um, the, the defenders, uh, the defensive ends and, and kinda drove him to the ground.

And Robert Saleh has a policy, right? If you swing o- o- on somebody i- in practice, you're gonna get kicked out because that's exactly what happens in the game.

So i- it, it was, it was feisty.

Just your thoughts on what you saw from Carnell Tate, or Carnell Tate, and if you had a chance to see Dejon Stripling at all.

Now back to Merfin Marcus on The Sports Leader, streaming live on thesportsleader.com and KNBR, The Sports Leader app.

[laughs] Well, look, at getting off the bus, yeah, Stribling absolutely looks better than Tate.

I, I, you won't get any dis- y- you know, disagreement there.

But, I mean, look, it, it was hard for me to see both of them.

I focus more on the offense, and the fact of the matter is the offense struggled, right? I, I mean, there's no getting around it.

They struggled.

Uh, they wanted to push the ball down the field.

So what can you tell us about some of that chippiness and that physical nature that you saw between the Titans offense and the 49ers defense yesterday?

Man, I tell you what, [laughs] from the very first, literally the very first snap, Tony Pollard had a run and, and these guys were tangled up, and then Carnell Tate caught a, a, an outbreak en route, and I, I think it was, uh, Renardo Green who, from what I understand, is having a really good camp.

He blasted him, and then next thing you know, it was just [laughs] it was WWE, man.

Uh, Austin Deckler, he, he swung on one of the, um, the, the defenders, uh, the defensive ends and, and kinda drove him to the ground.

And Robert Saleh has a policy, right? If you swing o- o- on somebody i- in practice, you're gonna get kicked out, because that's exactly what happens in the game.

So i- it, it was, it was feisty.

He, you know, it, it was really feisty.

Just your thoughts on what you saw from Carnate Tate, or Carnell Tate, and if you had a chance to see Dejon Stripling at all.

I think Chef to put out the tweet, last week about all these guys who are getting paid it's like that school just produces receivers i mean it's just a confidence that this thing is gonna likely work out the attitude that he has but aside from carnell um they also had a wanda robinson a very very big contract here and he's coming off a 1000 yard season knows brian dayball system and he should theoretically be a quarterback's best friend underneath so how significant of an addition is that for campbell

Yeah, I think that's a huge addition.

And then me speaking on Taylor, that's not to say Taylor has had a bad camp because he's been solid.

I've been impressed with what he does.

I just want to make sure that that's clear.

Now, I think when you look at Wanda Robinson, that's that's like the easy button.

Right.

So what have you seen from the offensive line so far from minicamp to training camp and all that?

What have you seen out of him at training camp, and do you think he can take it to another level?

Yeah, Tajay is always so pleasant to be around, and he's fun to watch because he's one of those guys that every time he touches the ball, he runs it into the end zone.

So the effort is there.

You always appreciate that.

There's explosiveness.

He's getting to line up all over the place.

He's catching the ball out of the backfield, out of the receiver spot.

With Teron Dravenport on the show, Teron, when the O-line and D-line go against each other full of pads, is the O-line holding their own or is the D-line just overpowering them?

What have you seen out of him at training camp, and do you think he can take it to another level?

Yeah, Tajay is always so pleasant to be around, and he's fun to watch because he's one of those guys that every time he touches the ball, he runs it into the end zone.

So the effort is there.

You always appreciate that.

There's explosiveness.

He's getting to line up all over the place.

He's catching the ball out of the backfield, out of the receiver spot.

Both, both.

One, who do you think it will be? And two, if the Titans could choose someone, uh, like this would be the best case for us if this player has this sort of breakthrough year, what, what would that answer be for you?

you?Yeah, I think it's gonna be Kevin Winston.

I, I, I firmly believe that, and for various reasons.

Uh, first off, his skill set.

I mean, this is a kid that is right there as far as the overall skill set with, you know ...

I'm not gonna say right there, but he, he's in a similar mold of your, you know, your Kyle Hamiltons, your Derwin James.

I'm not comparing him to them.

TD, how we feeling about Marcus Harris heading into this year, who I think is gonna be, you know, sneakily really important for the Titans this year?

Brown reuniting with Mike Vrabel on that Patriots team?

No, I love the fit.

I think it's really, really good for a young quarterback like Drake May to have a guy like A.J. Brown.

I mean, look, one of the things Mike Vrabel always talks about are free yards.

And I tell you what, there aren't too many guys in the league that don't give you more free yards.

And what does he mean by that? When you catch a 10-yard splint and you take it 60 yards and it goes to the quarterback's stat column as a 70-yard pass, when really, The 60 yards of it was done by the receiver, and that's what A.J.

Brown does.

What are you gathering with this relationship with Cam and Daybo, even though we're not too far into it?