The OTP | Exclusive Interview with Titans DC Dennard Wilson

The OTP with new Titans defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson, presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans.

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Tit up this is the OTP presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans plan on paying less for the coverage you need with Farm Bureau Health Plans get a quote today at fbhp.org Studio thank you it’s nice to be here we’re we’re glad to have you good and you everybody wanted you this off seon

I’m glad the Titans got you I’m glad the Titans got me as well I’m right I’m right where I wanted to be this is a hot man right here he is a hot man the one of the most buzzed about names and now here you are and now here you are okay

So the press conference last week you threw out a lot of names that were influences right a I mean a lot of names it was like you had just won an Academy Award you thanking everybody so what we wanted to do and Amy’s taking the lead

On this we wanted to go through your history a little bit to see where these names come into play is that okay that’s fine all right so Amy take it away yeah I think what we’re going to do is just show you your life a little bit so I’m

Going to start at the very beginning because you prepped at dtha Catholic which is really close to Washington DC right okay so from there you signed with the University of Maryland where you a you were a fouryear letterman yes three-year starter in the secondary and you spent the last three seasons there

Playing for Ralph frien correct y all right so far so good you’re rolling Amy you’re rolling so after that you sign as an undrafted free agent with Washington in 2004 correct head coach there is Joe Gibbs defensive coordinator was Greg Williams here we go yes and Steve

Jackson was part of the secondary staff so this is where it gets interesting Mikey okay so Steve Jackson is on the staff here now and he I don’t think he was probably more coaching safeties and Nicholls well he was coaching me he was my safeties coach okay good you know

Steve Jackson was here obviously Steve Jackson played for the Oilers and Titans oh yeah and um you know he’s a hell of a Coach and he’s a great influence on me that’s why I have him here with me now okay so Steve Jackson’s your coach in Washington you had an injury yes and

That basically ended it for you yeah ended my career I end up breaking my fibula my left leg oo um came back again and then got hurt again and I end up messing up my other knee so at that point I was like I’m kind of done with

Playing football I want to be a football coach so that’s where the journey started all right so the journey starts what was it like being with Greg Williams during that time well uh playing then you know Greg was tough all right he was a tough-minded coach and he

Put a lot of pressure on the players so you had to you had to fight through a lot of adversity you had to be mentally tough uh you had to have a a strong mindset so all those things that that he was doing to instill that in us as

Players and then later being around him as a coach it’s kind of some of the same things that I’ve been able to um pick up in in my philosophy of coaching and and and and where we’re going forward here so you mentioned you decided you wanted

To be a coach so that’s where we’re going to pick up this story because you go back to D Catholic yes decide to coach there for a couple years then you become a graduate assistant at Marland for two seasons after that you make the move to the National Football League and

Jerry Angelo hired you as part of The Scouting Department with the Chicago Bears now that is not coaching no it’s not coaching so what happened was you know I I was coaching at at the University of Maryland and I was trying to get back into the National Football

League and when you’re a young coach in the college ranks it’s hard to get a full-time job right because everybody will say you don’t have experience so I I was um working at at Maryland and I got a call actually from Bobby DePaul Bobby DePaul was the pro Scout um the

Head of pro scouting with the Chicago Bears he’s a former University of Maryland grad ah so he he calls me and say hey I heard a lot about you I followed your career and I know you want to get in coaching I have an opportunity

For you to come in and Scout you do this for a few years and if you decide to stay in Scout and you you stay if you decide to go and coaching you’ll be better off as a coach going into scouting then getting back into coaching because his big thing was you’ll learn

The ins and outs of the building you’ll learn how to evaluate talent you’ll learn how to work with both coaches and players and the knowledge that you have of how the organization Works will help you going forward and you know I give him a lot of credit for that and Jerry

Angelo but that was probably one of the the greatest things I’ve ever did in terms of of uh professional growth is going to Scout and then going back to to coaching it’s pretty good advice that’s very good advice so you were able to take that experience and in 2012 you

Head to the Rams with Jeff fiser yes and uh some of the names on there I believe the OT people are going to recognize because a couple yeah you were a defensive quality control coach there and then you become the secondary coach and you’re working with Dave mcginness

Yes who is a a friend of ours Greg Williams of course who we’ve talked about Chuck Cecil and Frank Bush Frank Bush who’s now again the Titans linebacker coach yes um you know just going going to the Rams was was a great opportunity uh Greg Williams and I we um

We stayed in contact after I was done playing right CU I made an impression on him and I respected how he went about his business so we stayed in contact and throughout the scouting years he was like if I have an opportunity for you to

Come on board I’m going to bring you on board wow so he ends up leaving New Orleans he goes to the Rams I get a call from him say are you willing to come do quality control and I was I just jumped at it you know obviously I wanted to get

Back in coaching and you know being around that staff with Jeff fiser and obviously Frank Bush who’s on the staff now and as a linebacker coach Frank’s one of my biggest mentors as a coach when I was a young Coach Frank Bush was the guy that kind of trained me on how

To do things how to set up your power Point how to present certain things in the meeting room with the players so he was vital in my development as well obviously getting this job who who am I going to surround myself with people that I trust and people that I know are

Going to do it the right way and we we both look at things you know the same in terms of how we attack football so on the Frank Bush front are you part of the daily text that he sends out at like what 4:30 in the morning where he has a

A thought or a message or uh an inspirational sort of quote or or whatever it is yeah Frank uh I guess he started this years ago um every morning he’s a early riser so my day is always starting by competing with Frank to get in the building so I’m trying to get in

The building before Frank does every day because he’s going to work out and then he’s going to send out his quot of the day um but every day during football season and whenever we’re at work he sends out a quote a day it’s something inspirational um it’s things that you

Can actually take on a daily basis and put it in front of your group of guys and just talk on it you know because it’s all about uh experiences how you get better at things how do you fight through adversity um when you’re handling success when you’re not it’s

Those type quotes that’s very inspirational and you can use it on a daily basis he is a mentor to maybe hundreds of people yes I mean it’s amazing how many people will say Frank Bush did this for me or he’s this and he’s also man some kind of linebacker

Coach yeah he’s one of the best coaches I’ve ever been around you talking about being detailed uh getting the players to play for him playing at a high level he’s had all kinds of different athletes different personalities and everywhere he’s been those players have played at a

Level uh higher than they’re supposed to in terms of their their potential and when he gets into a room um guys get better and they enjoy playing with him he has an effect personality um he’s demanding all at the same time and he has a wealth of

Knowledge and and God’s grab to him all right so you may be aware that on Titans radio Dave McInnis works with us right that he’s a big part of what we do you’re going to see him in this building like every day starting in March he will

I mean he kind of sleeps here he’s coach ma he goes everywhere he watches tape he does all those coach ma things he has talked about you fondly for some time when you got to know him starting in 2012 what was that like it was great you

Know obviously MC has had a lot of years of service in the National Football League being a head coach being a linebacker coach I mean he was part of this one of the greatest you know defenses in Chic with the Chicago Bears but Mack you know Mack is a guy that’s

Welcoming to everybody um if you listen you can gain a lot from him and when he feels a certain way about you he’s going to gravitate to you as well and um you know when I was in St Louis through those years you know Mack would grab me

Bringing me in his office and hey talk about hey you can be better this way you can do this better um you’re actually getting better at this you know so it was always encouraging you know being around Mac and then you know about his stories no he ever story he has a story

About everything I know you know sometimes you hear the same ones over and over we have but Ma’s going to hold court but it’s he’s he’s great you know he gave me some great words of wisdom last year um before I went to Baltimore

Um I was at the combine and I didn’t get a job that I thought I was I had a good opportunity to get and ma said you know what it’s going to be the best thing that ever happened to you he said you’re going to move on from this you’re going

To grow and a better opportunity will come for you and guess what the the the best opportunity I could have got was being here with the Tennessee well that’s what we think and you know back to coach mcginness for a second and he likes to give all of us a hard time and

So we give him a hard time back but like Frank Bush and maybe even to a greater extent he’s been a mentor to so many people I I mean it’s it’s staggering the head coaches you meet that almost I mean they have to hug him yeah because they

Feel like they owe him that start and those lessons and the the way he would give them chances to present in front of the offense or the defense of the entire team so they would learn how to do it um he he’s a master teacher in this business yeah he gives you an

Opportunity it’s funny you said that the first time I ever got in front of a whole team is one day a coach had got sick and he didn’t make it in to the building right so Jeff fiser comes to Mac he’s like someone has to present

This so ma says to coach to to to uh coach fiser let dinard do it and fish was like is he ready to do it Max said you haven’t seen him in front of the room I’ve seen him in front of front of the room let him do it and I went up

There and I presented uh I forgot what the situation was and people responded well to it but it was just him believing in me and then telling Jeff fiser when I was a quality control coach that I had the ability to speak in front of people

Um that was huge for me um as a young Coach and he’s bypassed several opportunities for himself to give other people chances in in that way I mean it’s one of please don’t tell him we said this OT people but we’re we’re bragging on Coach ma okay I’m sorry Amy

Go ahead here this is your life dard Wilson I know I don’t want to lose lose your how are we doing so far you’re do you’re doing great we’re hitting the high points there’s a there’s the Steve Jackson connection the Frank Bush connection we’re we’re working on all of

It yes and you know we love the Greg Williams talk because that was our guy before he was anybody else’s guy yes yes he was MH okay so you’ve had your time with the Rams we’re moving on now we’re going to New York we’re going to New

York and the Jets so you were the secondary coach there for four years you for the last two years were the passing game coordinator let’s talk about some of the names that you were able to interact with in that situation we’ve got Todd BS as the head coach for two

Years he’d Blitz his grandmother yeah right yes he will Adam Grandma Adam gase was there for two years with the Jets here working with people like Casey Rogers Mike Caldwell Steve Jackson again Joe vit Frank Bush and there’s Greg Williams Greg Williams yeah it’s it’s um

Never ended Circle you have your squad I have my squad it’s it’s the people I’ve been around it’s kind of you know I’ve been trained in a in many systems but the the the verbiage the way we handle business the way we go about teaching players the way we have high

Expectations how we are demanding on people it’s a philosophy a mindset that we’ve have in that in that tight Circle um it’s funny you talk about going to the Jets and Steve Jackson again Steve Jackson was out of a job so if you you how things go full a circle he’s my

Coach when I first come in the National Football League he’s out of a job I was the lead DB coach pass game coordinator and I needed an assistant guess what I go get Stevie Jack Steve Jackson so it’s it’s it’s crazy how everything goes full

Circle but in that moment in that time I trusted him I knew what I knew the the coach I know the coach that he is and I know how he coach and how detailed he is so obviously having him then and then having him now was was huge for me I’m a

Todd BS fan I always have been I just think he I just think he does it the right way he’s just class all the way and there’s a professionalism to how he goes about the job and they’re also very successful particularly on defense what is it about Greg Williams plan which is

Attacking that is somewhat different and somewhat similar to Todd Bow’s plan which is attacking this is the misconception about attack defense attack defense isn’t just the pressure package it’s the mindset and it’s the way you play when you attack it’s about attacking the line of scrimmage being

Violent at the point of attack it’s about your effort running to the ball it’s about the competitive nature in which that you play and then you mix it in with bringing pressure off the edges bringing pressure off the quarterback uh up the middle to affect the timing of

The quarterback so being being an aggressive defense isn’t always about the blitz packages it’s about the mindset in the way that you play football you’re not catching you’re attacking other people you’re playing offensive defense you’re trying to dictate to them instead allowing them to dictate to you I don’t know that I’ve

Ever heard a defensive philosophy described in terms of a mindset as opposed to in terms of a scheme I think that’s very interesting well but look where he’s been and look who he’s been I know I mean Joe vet is a is a I mean you mentioned that name y’all pulling out

Names I mean Joe vet is a I mean what a football coach yes he is great mind what did you learn from him most um Joe vid is the the biggest thing I learned from Joe vid is how to connect with people like Joe VD he’s a he’s a outstanding

Guy in front of the room he can Galvanize people but it’s about he can he can bring a group together and make them play as one he can get people to believe in one another better than I’ve ever seen in my life and and and when he

Speaks in front of people he moves you and that’s one of the the biggest things I took from him is like he can grab the attention of anyone and you’re going to be dowed into him and you’re going to believe what he says but he’s a man that

Believes what he says and he says what he means he was always by some considered the secret weapon of the New Orleans Saints during yeah the greatest period in their history is you think that’s fair I say it’s fair cuz Joe he he’s more analytical than a lot of

People think so the the the small details on how teams were attacking who was in the game why should we pressure why shouldn’t we pressure he was helping Greg with piecing all that together okay um you know Joe vit is he’s a great coach and obviously he can’t stay away

Because he retired and then he went back to the Denver Broncos right now so he said he was done and he enjoyed playing uh golf and then next thing you know he’s back back with Sean Pete yeah are they ever done it’s hard it’s hard okay

Amy all right you’re doing great by the way thank you I appreciate it we’re moving on from New York now we’re heading to Philadelphia four years with the Jets four years yes and now we’re moving to Philadelphia we’re going to Philadelphia we’re going to Philadelphia you’re with the Eagles for two years

Jonathan ganon’s the defensive coordinator there correct yeah what was that experience like working with Jonathan it was kind of funny because you know Jonathan ends up getting a defensive coordinator job but Jonathan was the coach that used to call me as a DB coach about technique but and and

It’s funny because I knew him through Jerry gray right who used to be here and Jonathan used to be here he used to be his assistant so that’s how I knew Jonathan and when he was actually here we had a lot of communication about defensive back play um you know just

Little things so he would call we had a connection and one day I think it was right before the Super Bowl um right before one of the Super Bowls I get a call from him like would you be interested in in in in in going to Philadelphia

And I was like yeah but I didn’t understand I didn’t know that he was talking about to be you know the defensive coordinator and then one day he calls me say I got the job you want to come and I jumped at it and then obviously I was going closer down 95 to

Be closer to family back in Maryland so that worked out well Jonathan one of the smartest people I’ve ever seen I mean the fact that he and Arthur Smith were here together as young assistant coaches uh for Mike munack which I mean really stunning that we had that kind of brain

Power in the room at one point last year they were obviously both head coaches and I think Arthur will be again but the cerebral nature he didn’t necessarily play the the same style of Defense not known as much for the quote unquote attacking yeah Jonathan believed in

Keeping a roof over the defense um eliminated explosive plays still playing fast still playing physical and taking the ball away and that was his that was his approach he was going to be coverage first when he pressured it was going to be timely pressures um when he knew that he

Can attack certain protections and he knew that he can get home when he called it but it was more pass first keep a roof over it play good pattern match underneath defense stay connected at the top of the routes and then um when you do that when you’re connected at the top

Of the routes all right meaning I’m attached to receivers it creates a hesitation for the quarterback cuz there’s nowhere to throw and then when you have a leite pass rushers like we had in Philly all right when you connected and know where to throw guess what happened you get 70 something

Sacks that’s true that works yeah could we order that now remember this it’s not about scheme it’s about players I know there you go Mike okay I’ll sit down now all right we are closing a geographical Loop here because we started in Maryland right right outside of DC and we are now

Ending in Baltimore where you spent the 2023 season yeah with John Harbaugh and uh Mike McDonald of course and that was kind of your last stop before you came here tell me about being in Baltimore man Baltimore was great um you talk about all the coaches John harball is

Amazing um obviously when you’re doing it 15 plus years there’s nothing he hasn’t seen right and his timing in terms of getting the players together his timing on when things are going well his timing on when it’s when it’s going bad when he can communicate and bring

The unit and make them stay focused at the job at hand like every day we talked about every day was about being one and0 and then we talked about winning but he abbreviated winning to what’s important now and those All the Small Things so harbs was I mean it was great working

For harbs and obviously we won we played good uh complimentary football um you know almost had a chance to we really had a chance to go to Super Bowl uh fell short and then Mike McDonald I mean he’s gonna to me Mike’s going to have great success in Seattle he’s one of the

Smartest guys I’ve ever been around he’s the mixure of the cerebral with the aggressive and um you know I love I love my time with him uh we we created a great connection a great Bond he’s a brother for life um Baltimore was a great experience for me seed geek is now

The official ticketing partner of the Tennessee Titans whether you’re buying or selling tickets to Titans games or any other live event in Nashville SeatGeek is the place to do it SeatGeek the new official ticketing partner of the Tennessee Titans so now we are here in present day

Wait wa so tit F tit fansin fan I’m sorry you didn’t do your line no I got really excited about what are you going to ask him talking well ask him something else he’s going to have to go soon so but I’m having such a nice dard Wilson Titans defensive coordinator with

Us on the OTP we brought we’ve gone through your entire your life now your professional life now here we are in Nashville and you are able to take all of these pieces and put them together in this new role how does one do that how do you take a piece of everything and

Consolidate it into your mindset your philosophy the way that you’re approaching this new position well it just didn’t start when I got here throughout those course of years from the journeys that I’ve taken and the people that I’ve been around I’ve been formulating what I’ve been wanting to do

The whole time I’ve been preparing myself for certain situations having a game plan on um how I’m going to structure things with the coaching staff responsibilities those things and really it goes back to Greg Williams Greg Williams is one of the most organized detailed individuals there is and I was

A quality control for coach for so I had all the information so I started to build the way I would do things and run things not last year or this year this happened about 10 years ago wow so as you go through these experience with these other people people that you’ve

Been around you say oh I’m going take this I’mma put this into how I’mma do it I’mma take this out of it because the game has evolved a little bit and this doesn’t hold the same weight that it did before so it’s been a years of like I

Say a long obedience in the same direction where I’ve gotten to this point now it’s time to just put it all on paper put the film together put it to life and let the players go uh do what they need to do I ask you about a couple

Of Staff members outside we’ve talked a lot about Steve Jackson and Frank Bush on your staff here uh Tracy rocker yeah and getting him here back here right um what a teacher what a just a quality human being why was he important to sort of this formula that you’ve built in the

Defensive coaching staff through Brian cahan well like you said he’s a great person and every person that you’ve talked about that’s here and that’s on that defensive staff are great people first right but Tracy is a he’s a he’s a hell of a teacher you know and and when

You’re down in the trenches with the big guys is a little bit different like being with the DBS is a whole different world and being with the big guys is a different world and he has a way about himself that he can he can uh identify

With them on and off the field um he can teach them but he’s also there to help them through F through through life you know that stuff that happens in life outside of the football field he’s a great connector like he can bridge the

Gap and uh like you said he’s fun to be around you know it’s never a bad day with Tracy every day that he comes in the building it’s a smile he’s going to work he’s going to work his tail off and uh you know he’s going to get the guys

To play Play Hard Play physical and play smart so you’re a secondary guy MH you convince or offer or however you want to say it Chris Harris to stay as the the lead dog in the secondary so to speak uh very impressive last year in what we saw

From him why was it important to have Chris Harris as part of this staff well obviously his continuity he knows the players and we say this is a players driven league right so he had a great connection with those guys and then just watching from afar right when you’re a

DB coach you you you’re watching everybody like you’re watching what every other DB coach is doing and how well their players play and everywhere that he’s been even when he was an assistant with the Chargers those guys play well um funny thing about Chris you don’t know this connection here we go

When I was a scout for the Chicago Bears Chris Harris was a player was Chicago Bear yeah so I’ve known Chris since about 08 um you know so is he crazier on the practice field than you or are you crazier than he I’m full of high energy

There you go well yeah and and he’s certainly low energy yeah yeah you know I mean it’s all about compr I mean competing so I’m not going to compromise for competing so we’ll see we’ll see when we get on the field who um who is

An ultimate if you draw him up who is an UL ultimate uh dard Wilson football player who as a player represents what you want to have in your defense Brian Dawkins Ah yeah I want people that play I want guys that play with a certain mindset right you know um you know you hear the term uh dog all the time in my opinion you know what a dog is he’s a disciplined with Grit and that’s the type guys those those

Those are the type guys I want around me I want guys that’s disciplined they’re on the field and they they’re they’re they’re gritty you know they can dig down deep when things get tough and they can find something within themselves to take it to to another level that’s

That’s willing to play so hard for so long that they make other people quit that’s the type guys I want have you had had a chance to spend any time with Jeffrey Simmons yet yeah I’ve met with Jeffrey once he came into the building

Man he’s a big man uh so you know we just we just talked a little bit football got to know each other a little bit um you know he’s been a hell of a player here and we expect him to keep doing the same thing it’s it’s up to us

To put him in positions to keep having success but um you know he’s a guy that can wreck shop and you can’t have enough of those guys and then the greatest thing that I’ve learned about him you know just walking in building he’s a hell of a teammate and the guys the guys

They they appreciate him they respect him and because he played so hard and he such a good player the other players a follow suit so it’s great to have those guys it’s been great to have you sitting with us thank you for the time this is

Fun thank you uh all the the press conference was a huge hit the fans are are very excited yeah uh I’m excited would you Blitz Grandma I would Blitz grandma that’s great that’s what I want to hear I would Blitz grandma grandma got run over by a

Defensive end or a corner it’s all to me it’s all about winning that’s it and I don’t care who’s in the way we got to go through them love it dard Wilson thank you so much for Amy Wells I’m Mike Keith thanking you for joining us for this special edition of the o [Applause] T