Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - LOCKED ON COLTS - 5/15- 2017 AFC South Look Ahead: Tennessee Titans W/@TLambertFB

Episode Date: May 15, 2017

To begin this week, we will look at each of the other #AFCS teams and what their offseasons have done to improve the roster and how it affects the #Colts. Today Matt is joined by Terry Lambert to kick it off with the Titans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. No, I'm not for sale. You are lockeded On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back to Locked On Colts, ladies and gentlemen. I'm your host, Matt Dainley. Thank you guys here for joining me on a Monday. We've had fantastic several weeks in a row.

A lot of stuff to talk about this week as well. We're kind of going to drop it into a different mode here. We're going to talk about the rest of the division over the next few nights. And tonight we're going to start off with the Titans. And I brought in my guy, Terry Lambert. You guys can catch him on Twitter at TLambertFB. Terry, what's going on, man? Not much, Matt. Thanks for having me.

Absolutely. Glad to have you. And he also writes for SB Nation's Titan site, Music City Miracles. So make sure you guys are giving him a follow and check out his work. So the Titans, as we kind of spoke of real briefly off air, have had a pretty fantastic, well, really two years in a row, pretty good off seasons and have had some strides. You know, there are obviously some strides that look like they're coming your way. What's your thought just in general as far as where the Titans stand in the division right now? I think you've got to put them right up there at the top. I'm not sure I can separate the Colts, the Titans, and the Texans right now.

I think you can probably throw a blanket over each of those teams and make a pretty good case for each. But the thing that sets them apart right now is Marcus Marotta. He's been the true difference maker. You can argue John Robinson or even Newbled at head coach and Mike Malarkey, but Marcus Mariota has made all the difference in the world. Just getting out from under the Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Kerry Collins, Vince Young, Jake Locker, getting out of that

and getting into a legitimate franchise quarterback. It's a pain that you Colts fans probably don't know too much about, but we know all about it down here. So having Marcus Mariota has been huge. And then John Robinson is putting pieces around him. So I think an improved offense around Mariota and improved skill position guys, the Titans are going to be a fun team to watch

and a really trendy pick, I think, going forward. Yeah, and you guys, you know, you did a lot last offseason as well, but you've done a lot this offseason that kind of started with free agency, bringing in Ciprian, Logan Ryan, Carl Klug, Darren Bates. I don't know a ton about him, but I've heard a little bit about him. And then you guys got Sylvester Williams, a nose tackle, Supernall, the tight end, and Nate Palmer, another linebacker. So, I mean, you guys are putting the pieces in place.

And then, of course, you know, with your draft, he's done a good job of trying to find things that will complement the rest of the unit. And, you know, Robinson's really been a fantastic addition to the Titans, really. You kind of feel like he's the guy that, you know, everybody else in the division, including Colts fans, are kind of shaking their head out like, man, this guy's got it. Yeah, he's legit. He's been a great kind of surprise. Getting out from Ruston Webster, who was just kind of fell in love with the athlete,

loved the combine guys and all that. And you've got Robinson now just taking football players, taking guys that have produced on the field that may not have put up the greatest numbers at the combine. But you're just taking guys for specific roles, which I love. This roster's come so far under him. And just two off-seasons. You know, people don't realize where Robinson started.

It was a really, really barren wasteland of talent. It was just really bad. But thankfully, he was given Marks and Mariota. He was given Taylor Vaughn. Those are two huge pieces to build around. And he's kind of built it from there. But yeah, this offseason was you had to pick the secondary,

plain and simple. The Titans probably win 10 or 11 games with even a bare minimum average cornerback play. They just didn't have it last year. Parrish Cox was cut midseason. Jason McCourty, personally, I think the tank's probably empty there.

It was just time for new blood. You saw John Robinson jump right in. He got Logan Ryan for the Patriots. I think he's a great fit. He was a guy that most Titans fans called. There's been some Titans-Patriots connections there, so that was a pretty easy prediction there. And then you go out and you draft a Dory Jackson

who's going to start and play some inside and outside. So you've got, well, Sean Sims on the other side is a second-year player, a former fifth-round pick who they like a lot. He's got some size and compress. So I think they've improved that secondary, especially at corner, with some bounds from where they were last year. So that alone should make them a lot more competitive. And, you know, I go back to the Bears game.

Titans were almost beat by the Bears. And it was a Matt Barkley and Cam Meredith show, and it was just embarrassing. So, you know, they had to have some big upgrades there, and I think John Robinson's done a good job of doing that. And those are great points as far as the transition from everything. But the real deal, like you said earlier, was Mariota. I mean, is this the year where he takes yet another leap? I mean, if you just look at his first two years, I mean, granted, he's got the injuries. Those are scary a little bit, especially for the quarterback position for

a guy that's so highly relied upon within that offense. But literally everywhere, aside from really completion percentage, which was even only just a slight drop, everything else that he's done from year one to year two has been an improvement. Obviously, he has nice yardage. His touchdown percentage went up. His interception percentage went down. Even net yards per attempt, everything, sacks, QB rating. I mean, just all of it went down or up, you know, where it needed to go. It all improved. Is this next

year? Now, this third year is really, I mean, sometimes it's highly looked upon as far as this is the year that he really shows everybody what he can do. But it's also a year, it seems, with young quarterbacks who are ascending in the league can have that drop off. It's not always a sophomore slump. It seems to be a third or a fourth year deal where there's a slight decline or something like that. Do you think, Mariota, inside of Robiskey's offense, that that is an issue at all? Or do you think that those two, the pairing there, sets the Titans up for another year of improvement from Mariota? I think there is pointing up.

I wasn't a huge fan of the malarkey and Robiski hires. But, you know, Mariota makes a tick. You know, he makes it go. Obviously, he's got to come back healthy, the first and foremost. But he's supposedly supposed to start running here in the next few weeks. So he seems like he's on track for training camp. So the big thing here is it was his first year in the offense. And you saw kind of the first four weeks last year he was really struggling

and had a lot of people in Nashville worried that, I don't know, here we go again. It's Vince Young, it's Jay Walker, here we go. But, you know, week five, he kind of seemed to hit his stride. And what you have to understand is, you know, it was Delaney Walker and it was Rashard Matthews, and that was it. And he had a good running game, but he just didn't have any weapons around him at all.

But you saw him take huge strides attacking down the field. it and he had a good running game but he just didn't have any weapons around him at all but you saw him take huge strides attacking down the field uh you said his completion percentage went down a little bit well he was he was making some big boy throws down the field he was attacking uh and doing stuff that he wouldn't do his rookie year uh my main gripe with him his rookie year was that deep ball which just he didn't have. He didn't have the velocity on it. He didn't have the placement on it. He came back year two, clearly worked on it in the offseason and made some spectacular throws.

So now you add in guys like Corey Davis. You add in a Taewon Taylor. You add in Johnnie Smith. And Rashard Matthews is coming back. You surround him with all this talent, and Titans fans have to be excited about it. I know I am. I'm excited to watch it.

It's going to be fun. But, yeah, Mario is the driving force behind all this, and I've got no reason to bully you. He'll go anywhere but up. Right, exactly. And I was going to ask you about that with the addition of Corey Davis and Taewon Taylor. You've got a guy like Taewon Sharp, or Tajay Sharp, I mean, that as far as I'm concerned was a guy who was disappointing last year

because I think a lot of people were expecting him to really explode. But I think it was maybe a little over-exceeding. Those expectations were too high, I mean, for a guy to come in like that. Now second year is a different story for him to kind of be in here and be acclimated. Now he's got some other rookie guys that are going to help him. And like you said, Davis is going to help him stretch the field. Taewon Taylor, the same. I mean, these guys are legitimate deep threats. And not only that, but Sharp can run a bevy of routes. You know, I mean, a lot of these guys aren't pigeonholed into deep threats or, you know, short to intermediate game.

A lot of these guys have diverse skill sets as far as being able to get downfield. Now, when you add all of that, you got Delaney Walker and you mentioned Johnnie Smith there. He's a little bit different of a tight end. But where does that come in as far as the tight end with Delaney Walker? Because he's a huge asset in this offense now, but you add a guy like John Hugh Smith, that doesn't necessarily seem like natural progression as far as from one tight end to the other. How do you think that dynamic is going to work out? Is there another guy in there in that tight end core that's going to be possibly the number two over Smith?

Yeah, the tight end's a ton. They use two tight Smith? Yeah, the Titans use tight ends a ton. They use two tight end sets almost exclusively. They use a ton of three tight end sets. They lost Anthony Fasano, and he was huge. That was a huge loss. I kind of got laughed at on Twitter when I said it was a bigger loss than most people said. He just did all the dirty work.

He did all the blocking. I think they're going to expect Phillip Supernaw to jump into that role. So I would expect him to be the second tight end right off the bat. But they've said they like Johnny Smith's ability to block in line. They like his receiving upside a little better than Supernaw's, I would assume. So I think Supernaw probably comes in as the second tight end to start, but I'm not going to be surprised if John, who starts eating into that playing time a little bit down the road. They're going to use him more of probably in the H-back role, I would assume,

kind of a guy that can split out, also come into the backfield a little bit, either block and or run routes out of the backfield. And there's a guy on the Colts that kind of reminds me of that, at least with that skill set and that type of idea within the offense, and that's Jerome Lane. Obviously, Smith is a more highly regarded prospect, but ultimately it's the same position, same role. And that's kind of what I was getting at. You've got a guy like Supernaw that you brought him in in the offseason. That's a guy that can really eat up some time and some snaps. But then you've got a guy like Smith that can move around a little bit, and you've got some dynamic pieces outside at wide receiver

and the addition of some speed. That's an offense that is really going to give a lot of teams fits, especially within the division. Yeah, and that was a theme. John Robinson said it in his post-draft presser. He said they wanted guys that can do multiple things, that aren't pigeonholed outside or aren't pigeonholed inside. You don't want a tight end that can block and catch, not just one or the other.

So I think that was a theme. And then you even look at Adore Jackson. He can play inside or out. He can play some offense. He can return. So I definitely think that was a theme in the draft, even going back to last year. So getting guys that can fill, do special roles, do multiple roles, just makes you more dynamic and gives teams more to worry about.

Let's talk about the defense here for a moment then. And like you said, Adoree Jackson, that second pick for the Titans in the draft, that was a really kind of a guy who had ascended over the past, I don't know, maybe four or five days before the draft. He was a guy that was getting a lot more attention. What do you think that he presents necessarily? What do you think he presents immediately, I guess I should say, in that Titans defense? Immediate upgrade, which isn't saying a whole lot

because the Titans are so bad at corner. But I think he's a pretty elite athlete. He's a guy. He's smaller. But they've said they're going to start him on the outside. So I liked him. I liked his off-ball skills, you know, his ability to sit there, plant his hips and read what he's seeing in front of him

and explode through the ball. Pretty good ball skills. Got his hands on a lot of passes this last year, which was a big improvement because he didn't do that his junior year. And I think he's a guy that can probably play some nickel if they want to go that route. Logan Ryan played a lot of nickel for the Patriots, too. I'm interested to see what they do there. I think they play a little bit of both with both guys.

Jackson also gives the Titans a dynamic return, which they haven't had since probably Pac-Man Jones, which has been a long time. Mark Mariani was in that role last year and he was basically just a fair catch catcher, nothing more. Special teams have been a big thing of

emphasis for John Robinson. I think he signed four special teamers in free agency which is kind of astonishing when you think about it. But the Titans lost the game in Houston, I know at least. They gave up a big punt return, and that ended up costing them the game. So that was a big thing that Robinson wanted to shore up, and I think he's done that.

And he's gotten a lot more dynamic with Dory Jackson. Well, Sean Sims uh he did some nice things with titans he was kind of pushed into that role i don't think they wanted to start him uh but parish cox was just so bad last year they were they were forced into that so he's a big guy uh he's got some length he's six one uh and they like him a lot he he sealed uh he didn't feel it he turned the game around in Kansas City and actually kind of spurred that upset at Arrowhead. So he's a big guy, again, with some ball skills and they like him a lot. And it's going into his second year and we'll

see if he can grow into that full-time player. I'm not sold on him yet. It's kind of a question mark for me, but he certainly opened some eyes last year, and he's certainly worth another shot this year. What about that front seven? Now, do you think that they've done enough to put some talent around Jarrell Casey and some of those other guys up there? I've been kind of clamoring for a true nose tackle for years down here. They still don't really have one.

They cut Al Woods, and he actually ended up in Indianapolis. Yep. So they're going to roll with Sylvester Williams and a couple of undrafted guys, and Austin Johnson too. I don't really know. I think they're going to take a rotational approach up front, at least on the defensive line. I think the problem is to take a rotational approach up front, at least on the defensive line. I think the problem

is kind of presented at edge outside of Arakpo and Morgan who are actually getting pretty old in terms of pass rushers. There's not a lot behind them. They've got Aaron Wallace. They drafted a kid out of TCU.

His name escapes me right now. Josh Carraway. And then they've got Kevin Dodd, the 33rd overall pick last year, who had a foot injury and only played one game last year. So lots of question marks as far as pass rushing depth goes. And as you know, that's been such a key the past few years in the NFL. So that's one of my concerns going in. One of the guys that, now you mentioned Carraway,

that was a guy that I was actually really hoping that the Colts would bring in as a late round pick just because he wasn't a guy who was one of the top, you know, whatever, 10, 15, or whatever you want to say, edge guys in the class. But the guy has a lot of upside as far as I'm concerned. He also has some limitations, but when I saw that the Titans nabbed him, I was kind of taken aback and I was just like, oh man, this is just it. As soon as I say, hey, Carraway's still on the board, of course the Titans go out and grab him. What are your thoughts immediately on him? Because I think that, I believe it or not, I really believe that he can have a real impact on that team with some

good coaching because he's definitely a work hard type guy. He's an explosive guy at times. He's not great in coverage or anything like that, but his length will help him out quite a bit in that. What are your initial thoughts on him? Yeah, he was a guy that I didn't get to study pre-draft, but looking at him after the draft, he was a pretty good athlete. Considering he's a seventh-round pick, you don't find very good athletes like that still on the board in the seventh round without some sort of crazy problem off the field, usually. But 17 sacks over the past two years. Again, production.

John Robinson loves production. So the more I watched him, the more I liked him. You know, 6'3", 242. I think he's a perfect guy to come in and push Kevin Dodd for that third rusher role. And, you know, we don't even know if we're going to see Kevin Dodd on the field. So adding a guy like

like Josh Carraway I was pretty excited about um we'll see I'm like you I think he's got a chance to kind of be that third uh pass rusher to give uh Dick LeBeau some fresh legs yeah I I was actually really uh not a high on him like I said said, in the first few rounds high on him. But for a late round guy, man, that guy is every bit worth the flyer. And I honestly think that's going to pay off quite a bit for the Titans in the end. I really do. Just a low risk guy with a lot of potential. And by all considerations is to be, like I said, a work hard type guy and a good guy. So

I think that the Titans got themselves a steal that late in the draft for a guy like that, for sure. Looking at the defense now, if you look at third and fourth downs with your defense with more than six yards to go by the opposing offense, the Titans did well on first and second down, averaging 10.6 yards to go with what's eighth in a league last year. So their early down success was key for them on that defense. Is the mode or the model kind of the same this year, do you think? Or have they lost something that could hurt them on their early downs? Like you said, because you were looking for a true nose tackle.

That's not a guy that you play on third downs typically, unless they've got some real pass rush upside to them as well. But what about the surrounding pieces there? I mean, they've got a little bit of interior pressure and stuff like that, but do you think that this is the same kind of team that could do that? Yeah, I think it's the same kind of team. I think you're going to see Al Woods replaced. They've got a couple of options at nose tackle.

Actually, coming in is undressed free agents. D'Angelo Brown out of Louisville and Roderick Henderson, which a lot of guys were high on coming out of Alabama State. So I think you can see those two make a push to make this roster and actually see some significant playing time. So I think they were excited about some of their young talent,

which is why they moved on from Woods. Yeah, I wasn't... The Titans were just so bad against the pass that teams just attacked them against the pass that teams, you know, just attacked them through the air. So I think that run defense stat kind of gets inflated a little bit because teams just kind of said, well, you know, you're so bad in the secondary,

we're going to attack you this way. So I'm a little worried about that. You know, and it's really just Darrell Casey up front. Daquan Jones is a nice player. He's nothing special. And like I said, they're going to rotate a bunch of guys that know. So we'll see. The linebackers behind them are just okay, middle of the road.

I thought they might be a landing spot for Reuben Foster or even Hassan Reddick. But they chose to go with Jaylen Brown in the fourth round, I believe. So Jayon's going to come in and cover the tight end and do some passing down work. So Wesley Woodard and Avery Williams are nice players, but I think they're both pretty limited. So I'm kind of lukewarm on the front seven as a whole, really outside of Jarrell Casey.

And Arakpo's a nice player. Derek Morgan's a nice player. They just don't have too many difference makers outside of Casey, which I think you'll see John Robinson focus on in the future. Yeah, and like you said, the pass defense, even through the division, throughout the division last year, was pretty unspectacular. But the Titans did manage on third, basically yards to go for first down, did manage a 2.8% turnover percentage,

which was a full percentage almost better than anybody else in the division. The Jags had probably one of the better pass coverage units in the division, and so did the Texans, but the Titans ended up being a little more able to turn the ball over and get, you know, an extra possession, if you want to call it that, out of it. Now with the turnover in the secondary and stuff like that, they really have a need for Adory Jackson, Logan Ryan, and those guys to, and you know, even Cprian to really kind of stand out and be better than they've been in the past even, and for a Dory Jackson to step in and be a very impactful rookie right away. That's asking quite a bit. It is. It is. And I think

you're asking a lot out of Cyprian, honestly, who wasn't all that great against the pass in Jacksonville. So I think the Norris-Thirsty is still going to be a big part of this team. And I think you kind of see Thirsty and Cyprian kind of rotate in on passing downs versus run downs. So that's something to watch. And you know teams will still target Cyprian. They know who he is at this point. Asking a lot of Adore Jackson for sure.

But at the same time, you're upgrading from Parrish Cox big time with Logan Ryan and Adore Jackson. Again, I thought Adore took a really nice jump his senior year just as far as pure corner goes. And, you know, he's a guy that's been focused on track and all kinds of other stuff, offense too. So maybe full-time focusing on cornerback is probably something that he's never done, and maybe that helps his rookie season

go a little smoother. Yeah, he's definitely one of those guys too that if he does manage to turn the ball over, he's a guy who's extremely dangerous with the ball in his hands. So that's another dynamic that the, you know, opposing teams have to deal with if they are to, if they're going to target him, they better make darn sure that,

you know, the ball stays in there at a minimum incomplete, but not in his hands. Cause that could be a pretty dangerous for other teams on his return game. Now, first, I wanted to ask, who was your favorite free agent acquisition in the offseason this year? You know, I'm going to be real boring here and say Logan Ryan, but it was just such an area of need.

You're getting a guy that can play inside or out. And, you know, They didn't get in the Bouye sweepstakes. I think John Robinson set a number and once the Jags went over that number, he was out. I think they got their number two guy in Logan Ryan. I just

think he's going to be such an upgrade for Titans fans. I would agree. Who's your favorite draft pick? I was all over Corey Davis from August of 2016. John Robinson kind of let us know who he's going to be interested in. He values production so much. Every summer, I've now just kind of started looking at the stat sheet and using that to start my summer scouting.

And, you know, Corey Davis was a name that we were already on, so I started looking at this guy, and I'm like, man, John Robinson's going to love this guy. And sure enough, he was a late visit. I think he visited on the last possible weekend He could So once I saw that I was like You know what, John Robinson is going to find a way to get this guy

I didn't think it was coming at 5 And that was kind of a shock I thought he was going to trade out To like 10 or 12 But you know what He called it perfectly Because the receiver run started early And they were all gone by nine.

So, I'm going to pass it off to John Robinson. Yeah, I thought he did a really good job. I was going to bring that up earlier and kind of, you know, lost it. But that was the best way to go for it. If he goes cornerback that early, he probably doesn't get Corey Davis, you know. And that's, you know, if he doesn't go the way that he does, he doesn't get both of them. And Adoree Jackson was obviously a guy he was targeting.

So I think that he did a fantastic job of kind of manipulating the way to get the best combination of the two positions that early in the draft. I thought it was a fantastic job by him for sure. Yeah, and they were in on Lattimore and Conway too. And I would have loved to have seen how Conway would have affected that if his off-the-field stuff didn't come out a week before the draft. So I think that

kind of changed some things up and that might have been the breaking point for just saying, hey, let's take Davis at the top. That's true. But like you said, that extra aspect that Jackson gives, I don't know that there's anybody in this cornerback class that gives that returnability like a Dory Jackson does

on an interception attempt. Is there an undrafted guy that you think has a legitimate shot at making this team? I've already mentioned them. Roderick Henderson and I think D'Angelo Brown, too. Two nose tackles. That's, you know, football-focused, really, is the thing that Titans still have one remaining need,

and it's nose tackling. I agree with that. They don't have a true nose. I think they're going to try and mold kind of a five tech into a nose in Austin Johnson, maybe. But, you know, D'Angelo Brown, Roderick Henderson are big bodies that are legitimate with their size. So I think those are your two most likely. Outside of that, you know, you've got a a couple corners, Jeremy Boykins, John Green. Like I've said this whole podcast, Titans were so bad at corner,

it wouldn't surprise me if either popped up on this roster too. So those are my four names that I've got. I'd lean at one of the two nose tackles in this roster. That makes a lot of sense, too, like you said, especially for a front seven that desperately needs it. And then you compliment that with Jarrell Casey being able to be the guy to get in the interior pressure, too, as well. Terry, thanks for joining us tonight, man. I really appreciate your insight on the Titans, and it was great stuff.

No problem. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. Make sure you guys are following Terry on Twitter at TLamberFB, and check out his work at Titans Music City Miracles on SB Nation. Terry, thanks again, man. Have a great night. Thanks, man.

You too. That was really good stuff from Terry. A lot of insight that we as Colts fans desperately need. We don't follow these other teams nearly as much. Thanks, man. You too. So, I mean, it was informational for me and I'm sure for you guys as well. So make sure you guys are following us and hanging out and coming back to join us here for the rest of the week. We got the Titans today and then we got the Jags and the Texans the next two days. So we'll be getting through all these, trying to give you guys as much information, all the rest of the division as possible. And just thanks for joining us every single day right here on Locked on Colts, guys. I really appreciate it. Make sure you guys are getting the iTunes or Apple podcasts,

I guess is what they call it now and giving us a rating and review and make sure you guys, you know, hit me up on Twitter at M Dainley underscore NFL, or you guys can check the show at locked on Colts. Also the email is locked on Colts pod at gmail.com. Uh, anyway,

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