Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - AFC South Draft Recap: What did the Colts, Jaguars and Texans do?

Episode Date: May 7, 2019

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Welcome in to another edition of Locked on Titans. I'm Jimmy Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you today? Doing pretty good. What's up, man? Oh, not too much. Today we're going to kind of go around the division and talk about the draft classes from the other three teams in AFC South. Before we do that, remind you we write for musicmiracles.com.

We cover the Titans for SB Nation, so you can check us out there. You can also follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry is at tlambertfb, or at tlamberttn. Just first time messing up, or maybe only the second time messing up. Yeah, it's been a while. It's not too bad. You can get the podcast, or if you get your podcast, just search out Locked on Titans.

You'll find us there. We also have a voicemail line. If you would like to call in and leave us a voicemail, we'd like to do one of those shows late this week. So if you've got any feedback, we haven't got much since the draft. If you've got any feedback on the draft class overall or whatever, 615-787-8762. Just leave about a minute-long message,

and we will get to that on the show later this week. We also are available to play on your smart speaker. It may be in your house, in your car, wherever it is that you have one of those. Just say, play podcast Locked on Titans, and you will hear us there. All right, so as we look at the other teams in the AFC South, we're going to start with the Colts. They had a really, really good draft class in 2018. We spent a lot of time talking about how good that draft class was, how much they got out of that.

It was unfortunate a little bit when they got a good general manager because it was fun in the days where they weren't drafting very well. They seemed to continually ignore the offensive line, that kind of stuff. We know it's been a little bit different since Ballard took over. They've had, obviously, one really good draft last year and then another draft this year where at least they traded down a bunch. People seem to love that. Picked up a bunch of extra picks. Didn't make a pick in the first round but ended up with three second round picks

um and got some guys there that seemed to be pretty good value um their first pick in the second round uh was the second pick of the second round it was rakia sin uh one of the best names obviously in the draft but a guy who's a good player, cornerback in Temple. And in a year where the cornerback class wasn't very highly thought of, he was a guy that was at least in the mix as the best in that group. And they took Ben Bonogu, I'm sure I butchered that, linebacker from TCU with their second second-round pick, pick number 17 in the second round.

And they took Paris Campbell, the speedy wide receiver, with their third pick in the second round, and then they took Paris Campbell, the speedy wide receiver. With their third pick in the second round out of Ohio State, I got, you know, pair him with T.Y. Hilton. So, you know, it's a team that, you know, kind of like when John R. was the third group of the Titans, they needed a lot of help in a lot of positions. And so Ballard has done a good job in the first couple of drafts of picking up picks. Now you've got a lot of young guys on the roster that can come in and contribute.

They've still got a ton of cap space that they can do whatever they want to with. So what were kind of your overall impressions of the Colts draft? Very Patriots-like. You know, you trade back two times and amass some picks. You know, that defense needed some depth, and I think that was their main goal, and they certainly did accomplish that. They picked up a corner, two, three linebackers, a couple DBs, and a defensive end. So you get deeper on the defensive side of the ball.

They've needed that for years. So a couple ways of looking at it, you didn't get the all-pro starter maybe, You didn't get the all-pro starter maybe, but you got five or six or seven guys that can come in and provide depth, and two or three of these guys can be starters. So, you know, I want to look at Paris Campbell because that is terrifying to me when you pair him with Andrew Luck and T.Y. Hilton on the other side. That is a – that's two guys with legit 4.3 speed playing on that turf indoors in that offense so you know I like you know from a Titans perspective I don't like them maximizing their offense but

from a Colts fan perspective you've got to love that just just loading up for Andrew Luck plenty of speed you know they add a guy like Devin Funches who doesn't get you real excited, but maybe that's a red zone threat. He's the polar opposite of those two guys. So those three top receivers now, it's a pretty good group, and that's a pretty scary group. That's two guys where you're going to have to locate at all times. You're going to have to rotate safeties over.

You're going to have to play tooeties over. You're going to have to play too deep, you know, to keep these guys in front of you. So I think that opens up a lot of things underneath for all those tight ends they have. So I think the Colts added depth to their defense was they badly needed, but they added yet another layer of scariness to their offense. Yeah, I think that is probably, like you said, the most scary thing about what they were able to do is just add more speed out there. We've seen over the years how much trouble the Titans have had with T.Y. Hilton.

Adore Jackson absolutely got torched by T.Y. Hilton in the game and in Indianapolis. And then when you talk about Adore Jackson's kind of the tight end speed matchup guy, now you've got a guy on the other side with similar speed. It is a little bit scary, you know. And, again, they had Andrew Luck for years and years. Obviously, he was hurt, you know, one year, two years ago. But you just knew that as soon as they were able to add talent around him, as soon as they were able to have a couple of good drafts,

that they were going to be really good for a long time. And so it seems like we're entering that period now. So obviously not something that we're really excited about, but they're going to be there. They're going to be good. I would say they have to be the pretty overwhelming favorites at this point to win the division. That's not to say that I don't think the Titans can compete with them

because I think if everything goes right for the Titans, if you can keep Mario healthy, all that kind of stuff, I think the Titans can be competitive with them. But don't you think, as we sit here on May the 7th, that the Colts have to be the pretty overwhelming favorite to win this division? Yeah, I think so. And, you know, Houston had a chance to really go out and add some pieces in front of Deshaun Watson. They just didn't do it.

You know, for whatever reason, they chose not to, still really concerned with that offensive line. They've got some pieces they're going to have to rely on, some young guys. You know, we'll talk about that coming up. I'm just not sold on that offensive line protecting Deshaun Watson. I'm not sold on him staying healthy. So, yeah, I think the Colts are definitely the scariest team. They've added a lot to defense.

You know, we talked about the steps they took defensively last year, just going from a bottom five group to a top 15 or so group, and they were playing really well at the end of the year. So, you know, we talked about it for years. Ryan Grigson didn't do a lot with that roster. Now you've got Chris Ballard in town. You've got a new coaching staff in town. It just seems like the Colts are destined to be good for the next five, six, seven years.

Yeah, and the Texans, you know, they obviously won the division last year. But I just, like you said, it seemed like they needed to do more in free agency and in the draft to help with that line. And I don't know how well they accomplished that. We'll talk about them here in just a second. So Colts are scary. But, again, I think that the Titans can compete with them. But the Titans are going to have to have these guys in this draft class be good,

have some good luck with health and that kind of stuff in order to do that. All right, coming up we're going to talk about the Texans. Before we do that, Trevor's favorite sponsor is back. I mean, listen, Trevor was running low on supply, needed a new promo code, so we've got Blue Chew back in the mix for Trevor. If you've listened to the podcast before, you know what it is. If you are lacking that confidence in bed, if you're not ready to go like you used to be, then you need to check out Blue Chew.

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on Titus Howard out of Alabama State. And I think pretty much everybody agrees that Howard has the ability to become a good offensive tackle in the league. I think my concern here is that pretty much by all accounts, again, he is very much a developmental guy. A guy that's going to take some time to get up to speed. Like a guy coming from Alabama State, you're going to have a huge jump up in competition. And so I don't know that it was the worst pick for the long long term but i'm just not sure how well he plugs in and helps them right away well for me it was you know more about the texans being in a spot where they had to force something right you know so they didn't address this and free agency they they had you know money

to spend and you would think they would want to spend that to protect deshaun watson they didn't do that they waited until the draft. Pretty much everyone knew they were going tackle or offensive line. Andre Dillard goes with the pick before the Eagles trade up and get ahead of the Texans. Jawan Taylor, apparently,

gets medically flagged, so they end up having to force Howard here. And look, it might work, but Howard was a day-two prospect on most boards. So it seems like a little bit of a force. We'll see how it works out. But if I'm a Texans fan, I don't want to hear about this left tackle project coming in to protect my franchise quarterback.

Yeah, and that's the thing. I mean, we talked about it last year. Deshaun Watson was in the Jacksonville game that they sent him on a bus because they were afraid to put him on an airplane because he had the bruised lungs and broken ribs and whatever else? Part of that is how Watson plays the game. That's something I'm sure they've had conversations with him about. When you get outside the pocket, don't take that unnecessary hit,

that kind of stuff. But still, that offensive line is bad, and it just doesn't seem like they've done enough to to help it they in the second round they go Lonnie Johnson cornerback from Kentucky uh third round they went or second round they had two picks in a row 54 and 55 uh Max Sharping an offensive lineman out in northern Illinois interesting but you know both of their offensive line picks who are not were not big conference guys. That doesn't mean they won't work out,

but just not something you see when a team needs guys to come in and step in right away. Then they have a tight end, Cahill Waring, in the third round. Then you've got Aminahou from Texas in the fifth round, another corner in the sixth round, and then a running back in the seventh round. Again, their defense has struggled at times on the outside last year.

I actually have for the last couple of years. We know about their front seven. I mean, those guys are about as good as it gets in the league, but needed help in defensive backfield, needed help in the offensive line. You know, and listen, they got a couple of, I think, pretty solid corners, guys that could be able to come in and help them. But I don't know. Again, my concern, again, is the offensive line for them. I mean, obviously it's good for the Titans.

But my concern, if I were a Texas fan, would be the offensive line. I'm just not sure if you've got enough here to get it done. I mean, if I were them, I might have spent all three of those picks, those first three picks on offensive linemen. Or, like you said, the Eagles jumped in front of them and got the tackle the Texans were probably wanting. Why not in the situation that they were in, when you've got as much good stuff as they have,

you think you've got your franchise quarterback, why not trade up a little bit and just be sure you get that offensive lineman that you want? Yeah, I'm with you. I don't get it. It doesn't make much sense to me. But, you know, I want to talk about Lonnie Johnson a little bit. If, you know, the Texans had a need at cornerback, too, Kareem Jackson and Kevin Johnson, both former first-round picks, left in free agency.

That kind of created a hole there just as big as the offensive line. They signed Bradley Roby in free agency, and then draft Lonnie Johnson. 6'2", cornerback, got the length that NFL teams love there. But again, going to be young in a spot. We'll see

what Jonathan Joseph has left in the tank. That's a totally new corner group in Houston, so that's something to watch too. But, yeah, I mean, just the overwhelming thought exiting the Texans draft. The Texans are going to be young up front, and that's just not what you want. Protecting Deshaun Watson, who needs protection,

who needs time for all those receivers they have. Good Lord, they have a ton of weapons over there. But, again, Deshaun Watson needs time in the pocket to let those guys work down the field. Yeah, and, again, it just makes sense to me. They seem like, you know, you look at them like the Colts. We talked about them, obviously, in the beginning here. But you need a lot of players.

You need to fill up the depth on that roster. Like I said, you know, when Chris Ballard took over there, you need talent everywhere. The Texans, I'm not sure about their too-deep depth chart, but when you look across at what they have at receiver, at quarterback, their running backs are fine. You've got the front seven on defense. It just seems like they're in a situation where they can afford to give some stuff up to really go get the guy that they want.

And they didn't seem to do it in this draft. So it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. Like I said, secondary will be young. From a Titans perspective, you just hope the Titans will be able to attack that. You hope the Titans can protect enough up front against the Clownies and the Watts and those guys. You hope they can protect enough against those guys to

give Mariano enough time to see if they can take advantage of a young secondary. I think that's absolutely what the Titans would be looking at as they evaluate what the Texans have across the field from them. I would say the Texans the Jaguars draft was interesting, but I would say the Texans probably had the worst draft of anybody in the league.

And if you look at different spots around the Internet that graded drafts, when you look at AFC South grades, the Texans were pretty much the lowest across the board. And again, just because it doesn't seem like they did enough to make sure they got that line in front of Deshaun Watson ready to go. Alright, coming up, we will finish up with the Jaguars draft. Before we do that, I'll tell you about ZipRecruiter. We all know

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ZipRecruiter.com slash locked on. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. All right, and so we end up with the Jaguars draft. You know, the worst part of this entire draft for me was when Josh Allen fell to the Jaguars draft, you know, the worst part of this entire draft for me was when Josh Allen fell to the Jaguars at seven. You know, a defense has been dominant for the last few years. They weren't

quite as good last year with injuries and, you know, all the stuff they had going on. But then they finally, you know, you finally had the cap get them a little bit. They had to get rid of a couple guys. And so you think, okay, maybe they're not going to be that good. And then a bunch of dumb stuff happens in the first six picks, and the Jaguars get Josh Allen at seven.

So that was just kind of the moment. And it was funny because it wasn't until they were on the clock and I was sitting there, like, you know, looking at everything, and I was like, oh, my gosh, they're going to get Josh Allen, who, you know, by some people was considered to be the best player in this draft or one of, at least in the mix, with those top, you know, by some people was considered to be the best player in this draft or one of, at least in the mix, with those top, you know, Quinton Williams, Nick Bosa, that group. And somehow this guy falls right into their lap at seven.

Yeah, and, you know, what made it worse was them getting Jawan Taylor in the second half because most mocks you saw, Jawan Taylor was going seventh to them. So, again, he gets dinged for, I believe, the ankle injury, gets flagged there. They ended up getting him at, what, 35. So that's just a ridiculous value on your first two picks. You know, it really doesn't matter what you do after that. So, yeah, you just look at this offensive line now.

Cam Robinson, Andrew Norwell, Brandon Linder, A.J. Kan, and now probably sliding in Jawan Taylor to that right tackle position. That's a pretty nasty offensive line. And if Leonard Fournette can get it right and keep his head on straight, that's got a chance to be a really interesting rushing attack. So we'll see. I mean, Fournette didn't seem all that interested in playing

at an NFL level last year. This entire roster lost interest. Adding Josh Allen to this defense, that's a potential game changer. That's a potential game wrecker. 17 sacks last year at Kentucky. Pretty much single-handedly

transformed that entire defense and had Kentucky in the top, what, 15 for a lot of the season in college football last year. So really interesting defense now. Now they really didn't need a piece like Allen, but absolutely impossible to pass up the fact that he fell at seventh. Yeah, and again, it's just mind-boggling, like you said. I'm interested to see with Taylor because the Jaguars came out and said that they didn't have any medical concerns about him,

whereas other teams at least dinged him. I don't know if some of them took them all the way off their board. But a guy that was projected by pretty much everybody to be a first round pick and again there's always a guy or two like this that we don't we don't know about the medical stuff until later or it doesn't come out till closer to the draft and so you've seen these guys go in first rounds and mocks over and over and over and they end up falling on draft night and and joan taylor just happened to be one of those guys this year uh they rented it out they had two third round of those guys this year. They rounded it out.

They had two third-round picks. They took Josh Oliver, tight end out of San Jose State. They took Quincy Williams, a linebacker out of Murray State. They didn't have another pick until the fifth round. They took a running back out of Temple. And then they took a long-shot QB out of Washington State in the sixth round and took a defensive tackle in the seventh round. I think the biggest thing here is they haven't had a tight end, really, that's been a defensive tackle in the seventh round. You know, and I think the biggest thing here is, I mean, you know,

that they haven't had a tight end really that's been a huge weapon in a while. So we're going to see what Josh Oliver can do there. But really, when you talk about the Jaguars, the biggest thing is going to be how did they rebound from last year? How did they come back from, you know, a season where, like you said, everybody lost interest. You know, we had all the reports about, you you know i mean all the stuff with ford net but him and tj yelled in that last game you know not caring center of events whatever um you know there was obviously a lot of infighting

in that locker room you heard that from multiple people uh so i mean i think that's the biggest thing now you've brought in a blue chip playerip player, no doubt about it, in Josh Allen. Obviously, they signed Nick Foles, so you wonder what he can do for the culture there. But, I mean, really, to me, that's the biggest thing. I mean, we know what they have talent-wise. They've got as much talent, at least on the defensive side of the ball, and, I mean, I think even their skill-pushing guys are good enough that they could absolutely be in the mix for the AFC South title.

It's just really, to me, going to be a matter of how they rebound from last year and if they can keep that locker room together. To me, it all comes down to Nick Foles. You know, we've talked about it all offseason. How does he perform outside of that Philly system? He's got the weapons. We've already talked about Fournette, D.D. Westbrook, Marquise Lee, DJ Shark, Chris Conley signed there, Keelan Cole.

Those are pretty good receivers, top to bottom. They might not have that one true impact guy, but top to bottom, that's five playmakers for foals there. So interested to see how this offense transforms. I want to see if it opens up a little bit or if they're just ground and pound. That's what they've been built to do. That's why they took Leonard Fournette fourth overall, which just seems crazy to me and you.

But they've got a chance to put all the pieces together. I don't know how much longer it can hold with their cap situation, but like I said, the offensive line looks pretty good on paper. We'll see how Taylor performs at right tackle, see if he's healthy. But they've got the pieces in place. Again, like you were saying, it's just the level of interest. Can they turn it back on again? Because they certainly shut it down last year.

Yeah, and I think so much of that will just depend on how they start. I think if they start off well, I think those guys will be in and engaged and all that kind of stuff. If you have a rough start or a rough stretch throughout the season, that's when you can see some of that stuff go down. So that'll be something that'll be just to keep an eye on as the season comes about. All right, that'll do it for today's show.

Again, we thank you so much for listening, as always. Like I said at the beginning, voicemail, 615-787-8762. Draft thoughts on the Titans or any other teams in the division. Who are your favorites to win the division this year? You can call in and give us your order of how you think things will play out. Anything on your mind, just leave us a message there, and we will get to it probably on Thursday's show. You can follow us on Twitter, at jmorrismcm, at tlamberttn.

For Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks so much for listening to Locked on Titans, and we will talk to you again later.