Opponent Breakdown: Tennessee Titans

An insider's look at the Miami Dolphins' upcoming opponent.

Tennessee Titans quarterback Will Levis (8) runs with the football as Miami Dolphins safety Brandon Jones (29) prepares to make a tackle during the second quarter at Hard Rock Stadium last December. / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The Miami Dolphins will look to bounce back after their back-to-back losses when they face the Tennessee Titans at Hard Rock Stadium on Monday night.

Nashville Post reporter John Glennon joined the All Dolphins Podcast last week. to break down everything related to the Titans and the matchup.

Here are excerpts from that interview. The full interview can be found below.

THE STATE OF THE TENNESSEE TITANS AND QB WILL LEVIS

How much of a surprise is it that the Titans have started the season 0-3?

Glennon: I would say starting with the fact that they probably could have and should have won both of their first two games against the Bears and the Jets. Both those games they had the lead, especially against the Bears. It's in the opener, that game seemed to be almost salted away until they made a few just catastrophic mistakes. A silly pick-six return for a touchdown, a punt block for a touchdown, all of a sudden the Bears are back in the game and they go on to win. Jets, again they were up on the Jets and mistakes were the difference again. Now against Green Bay, I think they were thumped for the most part. They had their share of mistakes again but Green Bay was certainly the better team. I think there were a lot of high hopes for this team coming in. This team spent over $300 million dollars on free agents, brought in a new head coach, pass-friendly head coach and good wide receivers, better offensive linemen that there are high hopes in at least in Nashville for this team to do better. So, yeah, there is certainly some shock right now.

What has gone wrong with QB Will Levis, who showed promise as a rookie in 2023 but led the NFL in turnovers through three weeks?

Glennon: When they brought in Brian Callahan, a guy who'd worked with Joe Burrow pretty closely for the last five years, Brian Callahan becomes head coach. A lot of people were saying, OK, now he's got an offensive-minded head coach, a guy who really knows quarterbacks, as opposed to Mike Vrabel in the past, he should make steps forward. Now he's got the wide receivers. He's got Calvin Ridley, he's got DeAndre Hopkins, he's got Tyler Boyd, he should be better there. They draft a left tackle number 7 (JC Latham), they add a big-time free agent center Lloyd Cushenberry, so they make the offensive line better as well and everybody was waiting for Will Levis to take the next step. Well, the next step has gone backwards unfortunately. It hasn't helped that he's had terrible protection as well. He's been sacked 15 times in three games, including eight on Sunday against Green Bay. But even when the pressure hasn't been there, Will Levis has made too many poor decisions. He's talked, in fact, he used the phrase rewiring my brain, not to make these kind of decisions. But the rewiring is yet to take full hold.

Is it actually possible that some Tennessee fans are missing their former QB Ryan Tannehill right now?

Glennon: Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure. You know, Ryan Tannehill was not an especially popular player. His last year, numbers had gone down. There were some key interceptions. And certainly in some playoff games Ryan Tannehill was not as good as he'd been in the in the regular season But I would think there are plenty of Titans fans who would welcome him back with with open arms right now and maybe even shockingly they might be ready to bring back Malik Willis with open arms and certainly he was no favorite here either. But after what the way he looked against the Titans, maybe Tennessee fans are having second thoughts about that move.

Was Tenessee's Monday night victory at Miami last year the high point of the 2023 season for Will Levis and the Titans?

Glennon: I think we can all remember probably the sideline shots of will levis just looking like kind of a pumped up excited maniac over there you know chest bumping Mike Vrabel five yards back and and uh... you know just just a wild man and that i think was when Titans fans really started to believe we might just have something here not only has he got that spirit, that emotion, that fire but if you can throw for 327 yards and and lead a fourth-quarter comeback like that maybe we really have something. Unfortunately for the Titans, that was Will Levis’ as a starter. He's gone 0-5 as a starter since then. It wasn't too bad last year, but obviously we talked about his problems this year. You have to worry about Will Levis' confidence at this point, certainly. There have been some thoughts that maybe he's starting to hesitate, maybe to feel a little gun-shy when he's throwing the ball. So maybe a trip down south again back into the lovely and warm conditions in Miami, Monday night football again, maybe it all might bring back the good.

THE COACHING CHANGE AND THE ADDITION OF O-LINE COACH BILL CALLAHAN

How surprising to you was the firing of head coach Mike Vrabel after last season considering he arguably was a top five coach?

Glennon: I agree with you. I was surprised myself. I'm not saying that Mike Vrabel was my favorite guy in the world. Not that that matters. He could be a little difficult to deal with at times. But I thought he did an awful lot even when he didn't have a lot on the roster. To me, I think the last two years when the Titans went 7-10 and 6-11, to me, the biggest problem was or two of them was the personnel on the roster and the unbelievable amount of injuries. The Titans really for the last three years had to either finish first or second in terms of man games lost. I think that was a huge part of the problem and I really think you know when you look at Mike Vrabel's overall body of work with the Titans I think you needed to take that into account if you're the owner, if you're Amy Adams-Stronk and say, look what he did the first four years or so, give him that chance, maybe with a healthier team, maybe with better personnel to try to turn things around. So I was surprised. And I think one of the reasons was not necessarily the way he was as a coach, but from innuendo, scuttlebutt, back-alley channels and so forth, you hear things that he wasn't necessarily the best collaborator, which is not hard to imagine.

How is the offensive line struggling so badly after the hiring of Bill Callahan, son of new head coach Brian Callahan and considered one of the best assistant coaches in the NFL?

Glennon: JC Latham is the left tackle, he was the number of 7 overall pick he has been probably the best and most consistent lineman so far, which I guess if you're not to miss you say that that's great for the future you've got a franchise left tackle. On the downside is better than all the experience guys that that are that are next to him on the line. They've got a number 1 pick at left guard, Peter Skoronski, who's been up and down, did not have a good day against the Packers. They brought in Lloyd Cushenberry at center, big-time contract, expect a lot from him. He's been inconsistent. A second-round pick at right guard, Dillon Radunz, again, up and down, a lot of pressures. And then probably the real weak link of the group at right tackle, Nicholas Petit-Frere, who was a third-round pick a few years ago, only played three games last year because of injury and because of a gambling-related suspension. There were hopes that he might bounce back to his rookie season and solidify that right tackle spot. Not the case so far. In that game against the Jets, he gave up 11 pressures in that game. Another thing that I've heard from a couple players too is kind of interesting in the offensive line, you mentioned Bill Callahan certainly is a tremendous reputation as a offensive line coach but he is different I think that from all other offensive line coaches in the amount of detail and the amount of kind of different technique he teaches and I think there's a little bit of catching up or just going to do in that regard maybe that's part of the problem with the offensive line so far.

THE OUTLOOK FOR MONDAY NIGHT AND THE REST OF THE SEASON FOR TENNESSEE

Have some fans already checked out after this 0-3 start?

Glennon: Well, there's certainly a share of them. I think we all know the statistics aren't wonderful for teams that start 0-3. So typically, you know how it goes, you see fans out there already talking about who we're going to draft at quarterback when we get the No. 1 pick and so forth. And there's certainly plenty of fans that are already calling for Mason Rudolph to get a shot in there. Mason Rudolph is certainly not a guy who's done wonders in his career, but he did finish well last year in Pittsburgh. He won three games in a row, helped get the Steelers into the playoffs. And, you know, fans are just very disappointed and the word we used earlier “shocked” by Will Levis’ performance. So there's a lot of disappointment because again, there was so much optimism. You spend $300 million, over $300 million in free agency, that's gonna generate some things. You bring in Calvin Ridley and L’Jarius Sneed and the center Lloyd Cushenberry, one after another after another like that, and you're gonna bring people's hopes up. It's not necessarily a great recipe. Over the years, it hasn't been shown to be a great recipe for turning things around, buying a lot of free agents, but it certainly drummed up a lot of interest.

Is the key to the game for Tennessee as simple as Levis avoiding turnovers?

Glennon: Yeah, I think so. Will Levis at some point is going to have to stop the bleeding on those turnovers. So maybe the Titans go a little bit more run-heavy this week. I haven't seen really necessarily how well the Dolphins are playing against the run, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Titans at least try. They only ran I think 11 times against the Packers, that they were behind for a lot of that game and started throwing, throwing, throwing. So I would think that they would like to try to run the ball a little bit more, you know, cut back on those turnover opportunities for Will Levis. I think defensively, it's gonna be interesting. We talked about L’Jarius Sneed and certainly he and Tyreek Hill had some interesting moments in the last playoff game. And if I remember right, I think L’Jarius Sneed has had some pretty good success against Tyreek Hill in the last few matchups. So that'll be interesting to watch as well.

What is your confidence level that Tennessee can come to Miami and pull out a second consecutive Monday night victory against the Dolphins?

Glennon: It's much better with Tua out of the lineup. I will say that. I did my podcast last night and we always do a prediction at the end, so I guess I've already put it out there once, so I'll go with, I feel cautiously OK about the Titans in very, very large part because of the Tua situation. I don’t think it's going to be a real shootout. No. I think it's going to be about 17-9 is I think what I predicted for the Titans victory. I think their defense had looked pretty good up until (the Green Bay game) when they were run right over, but again I don't necessarily think that that's the Dolphins forte is a strong running game, so maybe that that's OK in that situation. And again, L’Jarius Sneed seems to have some pretty good success with Tyreek Hill, etc. So if Will Levis, maybe if we set the over-under, for say 2.5 (turnovers)for Will Levis and he goes under this week, then maybe the Titans have a chance. If he goes over, if it's three or more, it's probably a Dolphins W.