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All-Pro safety Kevin Byard believes it doesn’t get much better for he and his Titans teammates: First learning from defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau and now Dean Pees.

”Just having two legends as coaches on the defense Womens Ryan Shazier Jersey , man, I was blessed,” Byard said.

Now, what the Titans’ defense with look like under Pees, that remains somewhat a mystery. Neither Pees nor the Titans are sharing many, if any, details right now. Oh, there’s been talk of showing different looks on the defensive line and being consistent in coverages.

But that’s about as much as Pees is willing to share.

”I’d like to be more little more precise, but I really don’t want to talk about scheme particularly and what we’re doing,” Pees said Wednesday when asked about coverage consistency.

The Titans made a change from Mike Mularkey to first-timer Mike Vrabel as head coach in January mostly to get more production from an offense led by young quarterback Marcus Mariota. Even though the Titans were the AFC’s best against the run and allowed a league-fewest five touchdowns rushing and tied for fifth in sacks, they still have plenty of room for improvement on defense.

Maybe because the Titans were so good against the run Youth Antonio Brown Jersey , they faced more passes than any other defense in the NFL. They also gave up the most first downs through the air last season. The Titans ranked 25th defending the pass, giving up 239.3 yards per game, and 17th in points allowed. Despite Byard intercepting eight passes, Tennessee finished with 12 interceptions overall – tied for 18th in the league.

With Pees last season, Baltimore ranked 12th in yards allowed per game. The Ravens led the NFL with 22 interceptions and also tied for 10th against the pass giving up 213.8 yards per game.

Pees, 68, has spent the last 14 of his 45 years as a coach in the NFL. But he hasn’t talked with LeBeau, someone he’s always admired and wanted to have a relationship with as a coach. The new Titans coordinator has been busy learning his new players and installing his defensive schemes with a little more than third installed as of Wednesday.

Outside linebacker Derrick Morgan, now on his fifth head-coach with this franchise, said the defense remains primarily a 3-4 base. Each coach uses different language to describe plays, and Morgan said learning that is the biggest challenge.

”Once we get across that barrier and kind of on the same communication lines Womens Le'Veon Bell Jersey , I think we’ll be fine,” Morgan said. ”It’s a different scheme from what LeBeau ran here, but you know it’s football at the end of the day. So you’ve just got to get the concepts, get the philosophy and understand what we’re trying to accomplish on the field.”

Byard echoed Morgan’s comments.

”We’re not creating a new Cover 2 or Cover 3 or anything like that,” Byard said. ”It’s just we’re trying to execute at a high level man. DP just brought a great defense, and I think we’re trying to execute it at a high level.”

Titans drafted linebackers Rashaan Evans and Harold Landry , additions linebacker Brian Orakpo welcomes. Pees has a reputation for being creative in trying to free up pass rushers to get to the quarterback, and the four-time Pro Bowl linebacker said they’ve already seen some of that.

”Guys getting freed up, guys getting one-on-ones,” Orakpo said. ”You see me and Morgan flip-flopping that you’re normally not used to seeing. Just trying to get advantages across the board. We’re just going to keep taking it day by day and see what happens.”

After all, the Titans’ season doesn’t start until Sept. 9 in Miami.

Notes: Vrabel said he told the Titans on Wednesday morning that the team and controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk will support players on making a decision on the national anthem when the time comes. Pro Bowl tight end Delanie Walker said that’s not a decision that has to be made until September.

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Membership in the group that calls itself the @PFTPMPosse carries with it an important obligation. Via the questions posed for every episode of the #PFTPM podcast Authentic Adrian Peterson Jersey , the ever-growing group of loyal supporters introduces concepts and ideas that probably wouldn’t have otherwise entered my relaxed brain.

Here’s a great question that emerged in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision to allow legalized sports wagering in the 49 states that don’t have it: If Patriots coach Bill Belichick had planned to bench starting cornerback Malcolm Butler for the entirety of a Super Bowl (with the exception of one special-teams play) in an environment with widespread legal gambling, would Belichick have been able to keep that to himself?

The people who legally (in Nevada) and illegally (everywhere else) bet on the Patriots to cover in Super Bowl LII surely were miffed and perplexed that Butler didn’t play. If hundreds of millions of dollars legally had been bet on the Patriots and Belichick had made such an unexpected move for reasons that he chose (as he always does) to keep to himself, the reaction may have been far different.

This is just one of the many issues that NFL will have to consider as it braces for the unintended consequences of something that, on the surface, will result in much greater revenue for the sport. And it will be important for the league to anticipate the many unintended consequences and plan for them.

Given the Butler case, the NFL may need to demand a greater degree of transparency not just as to injuries (where there’s currently a very limited degree of transparency, thanks to the bare-bones injury reports) but also as to strategic departures from the reasonably expected status quo. Teams eventually may have to publish binding depth charts within, say, 48 hours before kickoff. Other than players listed as questionable or worse on the injury report, the starters as listed on the official depth chart would then be starting the next game.

But that would have unintended consequences, too Authentic Kareem Hunt Jersey , with coaches easily avoiding the spirit of the rule by listing a player as a starter — and then benching him after as little as only one play. So then the question would become whether the players listed as starters would be required to participate in a certain number of snaps barring injury or gross ineffectiveness. Which then would open the door for teams to claim a player was injured and/or grossly ineffective when perhaps he actually wasn’t.

It could quickly become an effort to juggle Jello for the league, with coaches who strive for maximum secrecy (and who already resent having to make basic disclosures about injuries) doing anything they can to find a way to comply with efforts to prevent another Butler debacle while keeping the flexibility to do whatever they want to do without explaining themselves to anyone. But the NFL will have a good reason to come up with something that works, and to compel the coaches to go along with it.

The unspoken nightmare scenario for the league office continues to be the creation of an independent agency charged with overseeing professional football. If enough gambling controversies emerge, whether due to corruption, incompetence, or an awkward intersection between coaches who want to win football games and gamblers who want to win money, the NFL may lose its stubborn insistence to handle its own business.

And if it seems far fetched to think that government would get involved in something like this, consider the overall purpose and mission of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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