Gus Bradley - Head Coach, titans Event: Press Conference | Date: 2026-09-17 | Full transcript (primary source).
Gus Bradley, Head Coach of the Titans, held a press conference on September 17, 2026, to discuss the team's preparations for their upcoming game. During the session, he addressed the challenges posed by opposing quarterback Jalen Hurts and emphasized the need for improved consistency in execution following their previous performance.
Transcript
Bradley: Well facing a guy like Jalen Hurst, he can run the ball really well. He can't throw it also. How do you approach that as far as the guys up front? Well, I think first of all, you just show his style over the course. I mean, obviously we got a lot of tape over the course of time. His style, he's always been a guy that can make plays with his feet. He extends plays, he takes shots on extension of plays. He can run the ball, extend series because of it. So I think just kind of showing a picture of who he is and what he does and his skill set and having a good idea and then putting a plan together where the players understand why the plan's in place.
Bradley: On the back end though, as far as the DBs are concerned, this week, are you really emphasizing plastering? Yeah, plaster, with any quarterback that can use his legs to extend the play, you got to be ready to plaster. Yeah, that's been a big emphasis.
Bradley: What are your biggest takeaways from you or maybe what needs to improve going into week two? Well, I think overall the execution. Our biggest thing right now is consistency. When you look at it, you can put together a tape and say, boy, we really played good communication. There's consistency, guys were talking, doing their job. But there was plays where we didn't have the consistency. And those are the ones that bit us. So I think that's the biggest emphasis is, you know what? We can do it, but we just didn't do it enough. And that's a part of the growing pains with a little bit that we just got to become more consistent in all areas.
Bradley: You expect the pass rush to be different, and what would you base that on? Well, I mean, every week is a little bit different because of styles of throws. You know, they do, Philly will drop back, they'll do RPOs, they do bootlegs. You know, so they got some movement passes. So really just take a look at the style of passes. You know, what is their emphasis, what are they doing? Every team has the ability to take shots. Philly's no different. They'll take their shot. So when they do that, we got to make sure we get some sort of heat. And it's a little bit what happened last week, although we kind of came out in the second half, we got to get some negative yardage plays, you know, and tried to bring some pressure, you know, for that reason. And we got hit and gave up some explosive plays. So I think it's picking and choosing your times and trying to limit those explosive plays, but at the same time, affect the quarterback.
Bradley: How do you keep the faith in terms of the defensive line that didn't win enough one-on-ones and allowed the chance to run for 150 yards? Right. Well, one-on-ones in the run game or the pass game? Run game. Okay. In the run game, some of those things were just fits. You could see guys strain. You saw guys, I think it's the ability to get off blocks and finish on the ball. You know, I think, you know, this week has a big emphasis is, you know, we got to get, you know, population to the ball. And I didn't think at times there was enough population. We missed the tackle. There was guys there, but there was leaky yardage. It never broke out. I think there's a couple runs over 10 yards, you know, so that part was good. But it was just still, I think there's opportunities where we could have gotten the third and longer situation around third and medium on some of the drives.
Bradley: You mentioned getting, you know, population to the ball. A guy like Saquon, is he almost like a Barry Sanders type of war? He kind of lulls you to sleep, and all of a sudden, next year, you know, he's out of the gate for a six-year-old, but you have to be aware of him. Very aware. So every week, right, it's like a broken record, setting the edges. And, you know, a population to the ball. But where he's really good is, if he has an opportunity, I mean, he will run through darkness. You know, that's probably a good way to describe it. He will run through darkness. And if he can hit it with a full head of steam, he is extremely difficult. Somehow we've got to do a good job setting the edges, make him check his feet a little bit, like with most good backs, right? You don't want to hit him full speed. So that that part of it is, you know, he's so dynamic. He can take one to the house at any time. Both backs really are really good. So, you know, that's got to be a big plan as far as, you know, that's why we talk about setting the edge and, you know, constrict run lanes, finish on the ball. You know, those are all principles that you probably hear like a broken record.
Bradley: There's a lot of talk about the youth of this team and having to be patient, guys kind of figuring it out in the newness. But when you've got so many proven commodities on the defensive front in particular, is it fair to expect that group to figure it out a little bit quicker than the younger guys? Sure. I think, you know, with, you know, that that's a good group. And and it's like in the past rush, right? We had a chance where I know Jeffrey had a couple of rushes where he got to the quarterback one time, Geno Scrambled. Anthony made the play on the sideline. So there's plays you can, you know, if we just constrict it more, keep him in the pocket, there's a chance for someone to have a sack right there. So we just didn't finish. We had opportunities when they did hold the ball. He did hitch a couple of times, you know, when he hitches. That's when we got to make sure our rush gets there. So, you know, sometimes there's quick rhythm throws where you go, all right, you know, get your hands up. But if you watch on tape, like the all 22 and you see him hitch, where he looks one way, comes back another way, that's when we need the rush. If he's hitching back there, you know, that's a way to evaluate rush.
Bradley: Did you expect Anthony to be so productive so quickly? And also from your vantage point, did you think that was a problem? Well, I would say this, that yes, we did expect him to do well right away. Because the Mike linebacker for us is going to be around the ball. So it's not surprising that he had many opportunities. I think what was, was here he is with the green dot, handling the hollow, getting this lined up, the communication that need to take place. That's where I thought he fared a little bit better than I thought. You know, but he ended up with a lot of tackles. Well, he's going to have opportunities because he's going to be around the ball quite a bit.
Bradley: How beneficial will it be to get Cedric back if you guys do this week? It was good. I think, you know, here he has been out a couple of weeks, you know, who we're getting. But yesterday in practice, well, he did a great job with his conditioning. He did a great job showing us his speed on the field. So, you know, we're, you know, kind of taking it day by day, see how he feels. But, you know, we'll see how the tests come out and things like that. But he's made really good progress and come back in a really good frame of mind.
Bradley: A clarifying question. So, if in that game, there just weren't that many pass rush opportunities, if teams see that as kind of a blueprint for the way to neutralize your pass rush, what is the counter to be able to force them back into what you want? Sure. Well, when you, you know, you stop the run so you earn the right to pass. So, that's where I think we felt like in the second half, let's take more opportunities instead of, I mean, what'd they have in the first, second quarter, a 19-play drive? Or it was just three yards and four yards and three yards. And we just felt like coming in the second half to get them the negative yardage opportunities to get our pass rush going. So, it comes back to, well, what happens at that again? We got to find a way to get negative yardage plays, you know, or at least get into more passing situations.
Bradley: Cody said he felt a little weird playing outside, seeing things from that perspective. How did he do out there and do you anticipate him being out there? Yeah, I think when we, you know, he's such a high football IQ player. So, when we moved him out there, the transition, we wouldn't have done it if we didn't feel like, not only his skill set, but his IQ was high. So, I think he'd look back and he'd say, yeah, there's a couple plays like everybody he wished he had back. And is it the perfect, we've taken a technique that he did maybe and making a teaching tape and all-timer on a couple of them? No, but there was quite a few plays where we thought we got just what we wanted. And he did a really good job for going and playing. And then I think he, you know, even more so than we probably expected. So, hopefully, each week that he gets the opportunity to play. You know, it just keeps getting better. You anticipate him out there, no matter who the other linebackers are based on anything? Yeah, I think that you see that both him and Sed, you know, work in that combo, see how Sed's doing. But, you know, we have great trust in Cody, great trust in him.
