Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Deion Sanders WON'T BLOCK Shedeur Sanders From Titans, Say No to Quinn Ewers & Abdul Carter Declares

Starting point is 00:00:00 Would Deion Sanders block the Titans from drafting his son number one overall? The NFL legend ended that narrative, and I'll break it all down on today's edition of Locked on Titans. You are Locked on Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to the Locked On Titans Podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland, Titans fans. Today's edition of the Locked On Titans Podcast is brought to you by PrizePix. Go to prizepix.com slash lockedonnfl.

Starting point is 00:00:39 Use the code lockedonnfl, all lowercase, to win $50 instantly when you play $5 on today's episode. I'm going to go over what Deion Sanders had to say about the Tennessee Titans. I'm going to talk about why you don't take a quarterback later in the draft. And Abdul Carter, my number one prospect in the draft, finally declared for the NFL. I'm going to go over him as a prospect and why I like that as a pick. Before we get into all of it, I do want to thank you for making the Locked on Titans podcast

Starting point is 00:01:09 your first listen each and every day. Remember, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content all year round, always for free. You're not going to beat that anywhere else. It's your team every day here on the Locked on Titans podcast. Speaking of every day, shout out to my everydayers out there.

Starting point is 00:01:28 Tune in Monday through Friday. Couldn't do it without you guys. And if you aren't an everydayer, you need to be one because the Titans are going to hire a general manager soon. Maybe they make some changes to the coaching staff. We got free agency, the draft, and all kinds of things to dive into. Like should the Titans draft? Should Earth Sanders at number one overall? Well, we're going to dive into that. But what I first want to dive into, like should the Titans draft Shadur Sanders at number one overall?

Starting point is 00:01:46 Well, we're going to dive into that, but what I first want to talk about is the Deion Sanders aspect of this situation. So, of course, if you don't know, you're living under a rock, but Shadur Sanders, one of the top quarterback prospects in the NFL draft, his father and his head coach in college is Deion Sanders, the NFL Hall of Famer. Maybe you're a younger person listening to the show. You didn't know his father, Deion Sanders, is the greatest cornerback in the history of the NFL. Not only that, he is one of the most exciting, most fun to watch athletes in the history of the planet, period. Played baseball for the Cincinnati Reds. I think he played for the Yankees for a minute as well.

Starting point is 00:02:25 I'm a Reds fan, so I know about that. But Deion Sanders is absolutely tremendous as a personality, as a player, all of that. But there are some people out there within the Titans ecosystem, we'll say, fans and media members and such and such, who were skeptical as to whether or not Deion Sanders would actually allow his son to come to the Tennessee Titans. The Titans obviously have been struggling as an organization over the last few years, not only on the field, but also off the field with the public relations view of the Titans after firing Mike Vrabel and being, you know, widely mocked for that.

Starting point is 00:03:03 And then this situation with Rand Carne looks awfully ugly as well. Add in the wins and the losses that the Titans have, which much more losses than wins. And you could understand maybe why a high profile person like Deion Sanders would want to use his power and his leverage to prevent his son from coming to the Tennessee Titans. But that is not going to be the case. Now, we don't know if the Titans are going to draft Shadur Sanders. We don't know if they are going to take Cam Ward or if they're going to take Shadur Sanders.

Starting point is 00:03:30 We don't even know if they're going to take quarterback right now. We don't know, all right? But what we do know now is that it isn't going to be a scenario where Shadur Sanders tells the Titans, I will not play for you because Deion Sanders went on the, I think it's like 94 feet a game podcast. I don't know for certain, but Deion Sanders said this quote, talking about, this is about Tennessee, about the Tennessee Titans. He was asked directly, what do you think about the Tennessee Titans? He said, quote,

Starting point is 00:04:05 I love it. First of all, no state tax, new stadium going in, beautiful city. I love it. I really do. I don't know what's going to transpire because right now it's positioning time. You're going to see articles come out. I don't like Shadur. I don't like Travis. I don't like Cam. Just so they fall right where they want them to fall. So it's a lot of positioning going on and strategic hating going on right now. He also goes on, I'm paraphrasing this part, but he goes on to say that he loves Cam Ward like a son. Cam Ward, Shadur Sanders, Travis Hunter, those are like his sons. So if you're crapping on Shadur Sanders, Travis Hunter, those are like his sons. So if you're crapping on Shadur to hype up Cam, well, you're hyping up Cam.

Starting point is 00:04:49 If you're crapping on Cam to hype up Shadur, you're hyping up Shadur. So blah, blah, blah, blah. He was just going through saying that no matter what people want to write and what people want to do, it's good for his kids. He doesn't really mind it. You know what I mean? And number one, the big takeaway here is obviously Deion Sanders is fully on board with his son coming to the Tennessee Titans. Now you could argue that of course Deion is going to say this publicly, but what he says privately

Starting point is 00:05:15 is really what matters. But I have a hard time believing that a guy like Deion Sanders, who's every single word that he mutters publicly is scrutinized and put under the microscope. I have a hard time believing that Prime would literally lie to that degree publicly and then say something entirely different behind the scenes. So I do think that we can dispel anybody who says to me throughout the next few months leading up to the draft, well, Deion Sanders won't even let us. Shut up. You're wrong. You were wrong about that.

Starting point is 00:05:44 That's not the case. It's not true You were wrong about that. That's not the case. It's not true. Everybody had their doubts. That's fine. But it's on paper right here in front of you. Deion Sanders loves the idea of the Tennessee Titans. He's perfectly fine with that. I mean, no state tax.

Starting point is 00:05:57 New stadium going in. Beautiful city. I love it. I really do. That's all you have to know right there. So Shader Sanders, absolutely a possibility for the Tennessee Titans. And look at the end of the day, I continue to say with the quarterbacks, and I'm going to dive way more into both these quarterbacks, just because I would prefer

Starting point is 00:06:15 a trade back or a defensive player here does not mean that I am totally out on drafting a quarterback. I'm willing to see it. It's about what my preferences are. And as I talked about during the season, when you watch these players in college, Cam Ward has higher upside. Cam Ward is a guy who has better physical traits. He's a better athlete. He's got a stronger arm.

Starting point is 00:06:40 But I think Shader Sanders may be a better fit in the Tennessee Titans system with Brian Callahan because he's a little bit more, he holds the ball too. I'm not trying to sit here and say Shadur Sanders gets rid of the ball real fast. He has had a long time to throw in his career as well, but he just plays within the structure of the offense more commonly than Cam Ward, who has the ability to play make and play off structure and play off schedule. Shadur Sanders isn't really the player that you want doing that all the time because he doesn't have the physical traits to really pull off that style of play all the time. I look at Shadur Sanders more like a Joe Burrow or CJ Stroud type athlete in the pocket where I look at Cam Ward and he's got some Jane Daniels, some Lamar Jackson,

Starting point is 00:07:22 some Jalen Hurts to him. You know what I mean? So I look at it differently there based on their skill set. So I think that Shader Sanders is actually a better fit for the Titans, but Cam Ward has higher upside as an athlete. And if you made me guess which of these quarterbacks goes on to be a solid veteran quarterback that starts for 10 years, I'd tell you it was Sanders.

Starting point is 00:07:42 But if you told me one of these quarterbacks becomes a top five quarterback in the NFL, I'd probably tell you it was Cam Ward. So that's really the choice for the Titans. I don't care about any of the other quarterbacks in this draft class. And that includes Quinn Ewers from Texas who declared for the draft. And I'm going to tell you why I want nothing to do with them. Before I get into it, though, do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. From big upsets to game-winning drives, the NFL playoffs are better with FanDuel.

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Starting point is 00:09:44 because I kind of touched on Shader Sanders and Cam Ward and my initial thoughts on them just a second ago. But now I want to look at all the rest of them because there's a lot of Titans fans that communicate with me and they'll say, what about Jackson Dart? What about, you know, before he went back to school? What about Carson Beck? What about Dylan Gabriel? What about Will Howard? What about Dylan Gabriel? What about Will Howard?

Starting point is 00:10:05 What about Quinn Ewers? The Texas quarterback officially declared for the NFL draft. There was some talk that there were teams in the NCAA in college football that were trying to recruit him to come back to college because obviously with the NIL, you can get a lucrative deal at this point. He's probably, he probably would have got paid more for next season in college than he would in the NFL based on where Quinn Ewers probably gets drafted, which to me is third round or later, maybe late second round at minimum, I would say, or at maximum, mid-second round at maximum. I think he's more of a third round, fourth round option.

Starting point is 00:10:41 mid-second round at maximum. I think he's more of a third round, fourth round option. But regardless of that, Quinn Ewer's actual position in the draft, which I'm sure we'll discuss when we preview the quarterbacks in this draft later on in the offseason. But I don't want any of them, and I never do. And if you are looking for a quarterback, you have to take one in the first two rounds, period.

Starting point is 00:11:07 They have to be a first or second round talent, period. That's all that it comes down to for me, and I've been this way. I've talked about this for a couple of years now. You do not look for a starting quarterback in any round later than two, okay? And I personally wouldn't take Quinn Ewers in the second round, or Jackson Dart is a guy wouldn't take Quinn yours in the second round or Jackson

Starting point is 00:11:27 Dart is a guy who I think could go in the second round, but I'm not sold on Jackson Dart. And I don't want to go that route. If I'm the Titans either after going that route before with Will Levis, but Will Howard, Dylan Gabriel, and no, it's just a flat no to me. And look, just a flat no to me and look we have to pay attention to data all right my opinion is based upon vast amounts of data available to us right now so let's talk about it look at the playoffs right now look at the quarterbacks who made the playoffs but ready NFC Jared Goff, number one pick. Jalen Hurts, top of round two. Baker Mayfield, first pick. Matthew Stafford, first pick. Jordan Love, first rounder. I think it was pick 24, something like that. Sam Darnold, third pick. Jaden Daniels, second pick. So that's three first picks, a second, a third, a round one, and a high round two.

Starting point is 00:12:36 What about the AFC? Patrick Mahomes, 10. Josh Allen, 7. Lamar Jackson. I think Lamar Jackson was pick number 32. If I'm correct about that, uh, pick number 32 in the draft. So still a first rounder, uh, either way. I mean, that's, you know, there's 32 picks, but he counts. Okay. And I guess I want to make sure that I'm right here, but even if Lamar Jackson was, yeah, 32nd overall. So first round pick there. All right, so we have 10th, 7th, 32nd. CJ Stroud, 2nd.

Starting point is 00:13:17 Justin Herbert, 6th. Then we have Russell Wilson, 3rd rounder. And then Denver Broncos, Bo Nix, 12th. So if you look at that, that means that other than two quarterbacks, all the other 12 quarterbacks in the playoffs this year were drafted in the first round, and high in the first round at that,

Starting point is 00:13:40 other than Jordan Love. In the top 10 picks, we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. 9 of those, 14 in the top 10. 10 of the 14 in the top 12. And the only people, again, outside of the first round, Jalen Hurts, which was one of the first picks of the second round his year, and then Russell Wilson, which is one of the greatest draft stories of all time. You know what I mean? And you know what you call that, right?

Starting point is 00:14:17 An outlier. So look at NFL starters. Look at starters in the NFL. How many of them were not a first or a second round pick? Four. And talking about the starters who were expected to start the year. You know what I mean if you did the start. Russell Wilson who we just discussed. Dak Prescott. Brock Purdy. Kirk Cousins. That's it. That's it. Four out of

Starting point is 00:14:44 32 were drafted after the second round. Now, am I here to tell you that it's impossible? It's impossible to find a starting quarterback later than round two? No. I'm not.

Starting point is 00:15:05 It's not impossible. You can find a Brock Purdy. You can make that work. Although I'll say, this year San Francisco's roster took a little bit of a hit with the injuries. And the moment that Brock Purdy didn't have an all-world roster, he looked pretty regular. He looked like the 18th to 32nd best quarterback in the NFL.

Starting point is 00:15:28 And now people in San Francisco are like wait a minute should we pay Brock Purdy 55-60 million dollars a year I don't know about that I don't know about that so my point here is the data is clear it's right in front of us you need a quarterback in the first or the second round. So if the Titans want a quarterback this year,

Starting point is 00:15:50 well, then take one of the top two. Don't think that you're going to find a Dylan Gabriel or Will Howard or Kyle McCord. Give me a break. I watched Kyle McCord at OSU for a whole season with elite wide receivers and an elite roster around him. He is not a starting quarterback in the NFL. Maybe he could be a good backup.

Starting point is 00:16:16 But what I don't want is, this is what I always say to people when they bring up outliers. Like when people say when Will Levis was struggling, that, oh, he's Josh Allen. Or like bringing up Dan Campbell for Brian Callahan. Yes, those are examples of people turning it around. But they're not

Starting point is 00:16:36 likely. Those are outliers. Those are extremes. Those are things that do not happen very often. And it reminds me of the meme from, I think it's the league, is the show, the fantasy football show, the league, where the one guy with the mustache, he's bald, he's got glasses. He goes, you know, the girl asked him,

Starting point is 00:16:58 did that ever work for any of those people? And he goes, no, but maybe it'll work for us. Like, that's how I feel when people talk about drafting Dylan Gabriel or Kyle McCord or Will Howard or whatever. Like, that does look around at the NFL. Four out of 32 go to the playoffs. One out of 14. One out of 14. If you want a starting quarterback in the NFL, you have to take them in the first two rounds. And they need to be first or second round talents.

Starting point is 00:17:35 Trying, taking a quarterback at any point after the second round is statistically foolish. Statistically foolish. You're not going to find Tom Brady. You're not going to find Dak Prescott. You're not going to find Russell Wilson. That's not likely. That's not logical.

Starting point is 00:17:57 It's just not going to happen. Especially in today's day and age. So that's my passionate plea. If you want to quarterback Titans, take Shadur Sanders or take Cam Ward. Do not mess around and try to take a Dylan Gabriel or something like that in the late rounds or the mid rounds. It is a complete waste of roster space.

Starting point is 00:18:19 It's a waste of a pick. I do not want to waste one of the Titans' valuable, precious draft picks that they need so desperately on a backup quarterback. Like, there's just no need to do that. But with that being said, Abdul Carter, my number one prospect in the NFL draft, officially declared for the draft on Wednesday.

Starting point is 00:18:43 I'm going to talk about Abdul Carter as a player and talk about why I think he should be the pick. Before I do, I do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by Rocket Money. Did Rocket Money help you find any subscriptions you forgot about or that you were paying for twice? Definitely happened to me. I had a few subscriptions I didn't even realize I was still for it. Rocket Money made it so easy to track them all

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Starting point is 00:19:51 Go to rocketmoney.com slash locked on today. That's rocketmoney.com slash locked on. rocketmoney.com slash locked on. Titans fans, let's cap off today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. We talked about Deion Sanders' thoughts about the Tennessee Titans drafting his son. That narrative can be put to bed. We talked about why it's absolutely foolish to think that you're going to find a starter outside the first two rounds of the NFL draft. But now I want to talk about Abdul Carter, my number one prospect in the NFL draft.

Starting point is 00:20:36 I gave my thoughts on the quarterbacks a little bit. We're obviously going to dive way more into these prospects and everything like that. But talked about the quarterbacks early on. Now I want to hit Abdul Carter because he officially declared for the NFL draft. into these prospects and everything like that. But talked about the quarterbacks early on. Now I want to hit Abdul Carter because he officially declared for the NFL draft. Before I get into it, thanks again for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen each and every day. For your second listen, check out Locked on NFL. It's playoff time.

Starting point is 00:20:57 It's a perfect time to catch up on all your NFL news, to go along with all your Titans news. And I'm the lead host of Locked on NFL, so you'd be supporting me as well. But Abdul Carter, edge rusher from Penn State, 6'3", 259 pounds. Obviously, we're going to certify those measurements throughout the draft process, but that's what the official measurements are right now

Starting point is 00:21:18 for Abdul Carter, long arms, freak athlete, Abdul Carter out of Penn State. Just an absolute freak athlete. You could tell the explosiveness, the speed, freak athlete, Abdul Carter out of Penn State. Just an absolute freak athlete. You could tell the explosiveness, the speed, the agility, the range. It's all on display on the tape. His ability to win with pass rush moves this early while still being so raw and so new to pass rushing is awesome. You see a nice dip and rip, a nice bend around the edge.

Starting point is 00:21:44 He's starting to work on setting up counters. And those are things that obviously still need to improve and get better. But at the end of the day, what makes Abdul Carter so tantalizing is not just the height, weight, speed of the prospect, but the fact that Abdul Carter's only 21 years old and he's only played on the edge for one season. This is very Micah Parsons-esque. A lot of Titans fans yesterday,

Starting point is 00:22:06 when Deion Sanders' Dallas Cowboys stuff came out, I want Micah Parsons. Trade for Micah Parsons. Well, you might be able to draft a Micah Parsons and Abdul Carter, because Abdul Carter was recruited to Penn State as an off-ball linebacker. So he was an off-ball linebacker for his first two years,

Starting point is 00:22:28 and then this year, they moved him to edge edge rusher and he became the best edge rusher in the entire college football landscape. Folks, a guy with his physical attributes, with that much development possibility, he's already good enough to be the number one edge rusher in the entire class and a number one overall pick. And he's only played on the edge for one year and he's 21 years old. Folks, we are talking about a guy with the potential to be a top five

Starting point is 00:22:59 pass rusher in the NFL quickly. Quickly. And look, I think, and like I said, I'll dive more into Abdul Carter, but he needs to get better with his hands. He needs to add weight. He's got to get better against the run. All of that stuff is true. There is some off-field stuff that you got to ask about. A misdemeanor assault charge. What's up with that? You know, you got to find out those details. But, but, what it comes down to here is the risk involved.

Starting point is 00:23:35 The risk of going with the quarterback when you don't have anything else versus going with an edge rusher when you don't have a quarterback. have anything else versus going with an edge rusher when you don't have a quarterback. And I saw recently online, somebody made the point of TJ Watt didn't win a playoff game. Miles Garrett didn't make the playoffs. Nick Bosa didn't make the playoffs. Micah Parsons didn't make the playoffs. Why? Because they either have, they don't have a quarterback who can win, or in Micah Parsons' case, Dak Prescott got hurt, so they didn't have their top quarterback. And it still makes the same point of, if you don't have a quarterback, it doesn't matter how great your pass rusher is. And you know what? That's right. That's a great point. That is a great point for that person to argue.

Starting point is 00:24:25 I agree. But look at the teams that have won in recent years. The Chiefs have a Chris Jones who can rush inside and outside. The only other team that's won recently is the Los Angeles Rams who had Aaron Donald and Vaughn Miller on their team. You go back to the Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they had Shaquille Barrett on that team. They had a ton of great defensive talent on that roster.

Starting point is 00:25:01 Like their defensive line was great that year to go along with Tom Brady. So I think you look at the Philadelphia Eagles, when they won their Super Bowl, they were loaded on the defensive line. Think about Fletcher Cox and Brandon Graham. And I think they had Derek Barnett at that time as well. Yeah, you look, Ndamukong Su, Jason Pierre-Paul, Shaquille Barrett. Like, every Super Bowl champion in the last, you know, five or six years, whether it be the Eagles, the Rams, the Chiefs, think about San Francisco making it to the Super Bowl with Nick Bosa. Think about the Eagles that made it to the Super Bowl against the Chiefs.

Starting point is 00:25:53 They had Hassan Reddick. They had Josh Sweat. They had Fletcher Cox still. I mean, like, the point is you can't just win with a quarterback and you can't just win with a quarterback, and you can't just win with pass rush. And then the instant rebuttal to that is, well, look what Jaden Daniels and CJ Stroud did for their teams. And the question then becomes, do you think CJ,

Starting point is 00:26:15 or do you think Shadur Sanders and Cam Ward are as good of prospects as Jaden Daniels and CJ Stroud? Now the instant rebuttal to that is, Cam Ward didn't have anywhere near as good of weapons as Stroud had at OSU or Jane Daniels had at LSU. But Shader Sanders had Travis Hunter, who might be the best wide receiver prospect in the draft, and won the Heisman.

Starting point is 00:26:40 So maybe you make the argument for Cam Ward that he didn't have enough around him, and that's why he shouldn't be held to the standard of Jaden Daniels and C.J. Stroud, but Shader Sanders definitely had, I mean, he had Jimmy Horn, and he had Travis Hunter. They had a pretty good cast of weapons in Colorado,

Starting point is 00:26:57 even if the O-line wasn't fantastic. So I'm just saying, I think it's pretty clear that most of the time, and again, don't chase outliers here, most of the time, good teams have a great pass rusher and a good quarterback. You need both. You need both.

Starting point is 00:27:24 And I am just willing to take the risk that you'll find another good quarterback prospect available to you in the next couple of years who is as good of a prospect as Sanders or Ward, but you're probably not going to find another 21 year

Starting point is 00:27:39 21 year old six foot three 260 pound athletic freak with the development potential of Abdul Carter. I'm not saying that my opinion is ironclad. I'm right. You're wrong. I'm not saying that. I don't know that that's the truth. I don't know that.

Starting point is 00:27:58 But you got to take a calculated risk here. And I think that Abdul Carter is a much more logical and safer option to build your team with than Sanders or Ward are at quarterback. Again, I'm not going to be pissed if they draft a quarterback. Sure. But I definitely do think that the safer play to give you a better way forward to long-term success comes from taking Abdul Carter in this draft. forward to long-term success comes from taking Abdul Carter in this draft. So that's where I'm at on that. But with that being said, we're going to get more GM news,

Starting point is 00:28:33 I would imagine, in the next 24 to 36 hours. And I'm going to be back with you guys to cap off the week tomorrow to send you into the weekend with everything that you need to know. But that's going to do it for me today, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland. And this was Locked on Titans.

Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Deion Sanders WON'T BLOCK Shedeur Sanders From Titans, Say No to Quinn Ewers & Abdul Carter Declares

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