Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Division Crossover Finale: Convo w/ Locked On Browns & Titans sign Larrell Murchison

Episode Date: May 14, 2020

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Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, today is the series finale of our division crossover conversations. We talked with the NFC North last week. We talked with the AFC North this week. And we are going to wrap things up with a conversation with Jeff from the Locked on Browns podcast. So that is a long conversation.

Me and Jeff went three different segments for you guys discussing everything about the Titans and the Browns offseason and teams so far and then what the matchup could look like in the season. So definitely a great conversation ahead. Before we jump into that, I do want to remind you guys that today's show is brought to you by BuiltBar.com, the best tasting protein bars out on the market. Go to BuiltBar.com, use promo code LOCKEDON to get $10 off your first box from Built Bar. But I do want to talk to you guys early about something that me and Jeff did not get into.

It's Titans specific news here. And that is fifth round draft pick Larell Murchison agreeing to terms with the Tennessee Titans on a four year rookie contract. Murchison's representation enter sports management tweeted this out on Wednesday, making it official. So nice to see Murchison officially in the fold. He is the first of the Titans 2020 draft class to agree to a contract. Murchison had 80 combined tackles and 11 sacks in his last two seasons at NC State. He'll be expected to come in, add depth, and some situational pass rushing skill to the

defensive line that took a hit with a few key departures in Jarrell Casey and Austin Johnson during the offseason. So Murchison could have a very important role early on as a rotation piece and hopefully can develop into possibly a full-time starter. John Robinson is known to hit on some defensive starters late in the draft. So Murchison will be asked to just be part of the rotation early on. Hopefully he can help the Titans in the pass rush situations that he will be asked to help in. But just wanted to talk about that early on in our episode today, let you guys know about that information

before we do jump into a compelling conversation with Jeff from the Locked on Browns podcast. So without further ado, let's jump into that conversation on the other side of this intro. Let's get it. We are here with another edition of our Division Crossover Series. We are going to be talking to Jeff from the Locked On Browns podcast about this upcoming matchup in the regular season. Everyone is excited for some football, but obviously things are a little strange around the country and the globe right now.

So, Jeff, just to get us started here, how are you doing? How are you holding up? And what are your thoughts on this game coming up? We're doing okay here. I think to this point, two months in here where I'm at in New Jersey, my kids have been home now for about two months. They're not going back to schools this year. My wife works in a high school here in our town as well. There will be no more school this year. I think to this point, you've either

found a way to adapt or you've probably just cracked. Look, you still get to go outside, more time with family. I think it's an adjustment here. And unlike anybody in my lifetime, anybody's ever had to deal with here, just take some time, getting used to here. But most importantly, everybody's healthy. We're all holding in and holding down the best we can. Yeah, absolutely. I would say that my experience has been pretty similar,

just hanging in there, trying to stay healthy, stay safe. But I'm glad you guys are doing good over there. Excited to talk some football with you, though. We've been doing this division crossover series. This is the last edition for the last two weeks. I'm sure you've had your previous seven conversations as well, but I'm really excited to talk to you about the Browns because I know that last year they had a lot of hype and everything,

but this year they're getting some similar hype. It seems like they had a pretty good offseason even with some changes. So let's dive into that. First off, a coaching change. Bring in Kevin Stefanski, let go of Freddie Kitchens. That was obviously a lot of turmoil around Freddie Kitchens there at the end of the year. How are you feeling about the new coaching staff and what do you think that can do to kind of take this team to where the fans of the Browns were expecting them to be? And that's playoff contention and a competitive team. I, you know, for bringing in coach Stefanski, now it was, you know, he was familiar with him, the organization. They had spoken with him the year before. They had spoken to him about an offense quarter coordinator position the season before that.

So he was not a stranger in the building. He was somebody that this franchise and Paul DePodesta and Andrew Berry at the time while he was here before his quick run to Philadelphia and then returning as general manager. It was somebody they liked. They thought highly of. They loved the fact that he had some analytic approach to what he did, which, you know, was in step so to speak with Paul D Podesta and Andrew Berry.

They liked that fact about him. The owners at this final time around, they said they were going to put the decision in the hands of, you know, their decision makers. And that was the case. The owners, you know, for a while here thought and wanted Josh McDaniels to be the head coach of this team. That's not the way, you know, for a while here, thought and wanted Josh McDaniels to be the head coach of this team. That's not the way, you know, the front office, that's not the decision they came to. The ownership stuck with agreement to the front office and honored their word and said, look, this was going to be your decision. We're going to stand by it. What you get here with a guy like Kevin Stefanski is experience.

One of the things that I admire most about him is all the time he spent in Minnesota, he was there during three tenures of head coaches. So it's really difficult to stick with an organization when it's three different head coaches. So that means he obviously got the job originally. Then when he spoke with the second head coach, he interviewed well there. Third head coach, et cetera, et cetera. Bright guy, intelligent guy. You're not going to get cliches. He's not going to be one where you're going to run out and print up a t-shirt over a hashtag. Simple words like team fit, scheme fit. This is the best decision that fits with what we're trying to accomplish here. And to this point, he's won everybody over. I think he's gone out of his way to mention Baker Mayfield and what they're going to expect of him. And they've already talked about some things where they noticed some things that they wanted to tweak,

so to speak, with Baker to get him in a better suited position to succeed this year. So for what this is coming to this part, and look, it's been three and a half months of change to this point here. But you see a front office here where it seems like everybody is on the same page. And it's been a huge, huge problem for this team for a long time, certainly since I've been covering it, is you didn't necessarily know who was in charge. You didn't necessarily know who had each other's back. You had no idea whether or not everybody was working within unison. To this point thus far, it definitely gives off the reflection that this franchise is working in unison.

They all have faith in each other, and they all have faith in each other that they're going to do their individual jobs, which are going to, in total, just create for hopefully the best product this team can put on the field whenever we do get to see that in 2020. Yeah, I think the point that you made about Stefanski there and how he was able to make it through multiple head coaches, that's something that the Titans offensive coordinator, Arthur Smith, had a similar experience where he was there for multiple different coaching

staffs that the Titans had cycled through. So it does say something about the coach that he's been retained by multiple people. So definitely some optimism there. Now on the offensive side of the ball, which is where Stefanski obviously made his name, the Browns have a lot of high-profile names. Nick Chubb, Baker Mayfield, Jarvis Landry, Odell Beckham Jr. But a big source and a big pain point, a big source of the problem for the Browns offense

was that offensive line. So, of course, we could talk about the weapons and Joku. They add Austin Hooper. You still have Jarvis Landry, Odell Beckham, add Donovan Peoples-Jones in the draft. But the additions on the offensive line, obviously Titans fans are very familiar with the signing of Jack Conklin for the right tackle position. But they also added Jedrick Wills in the draft, JC Tretter to play center. What do you feel right now or what are your feelings right now going into the season about that Browns offensive line and do you think they've improved that enough to where it's not such a weakness for the team? It was an issue last year. There was no way around it. Chris Hubbard and Greg Robinson,

they played well towards the end of 2018. I think they were hoping that maybe they were going to get at least that play from both those guys in 2019. It never came to pass and the play they got towards the end of 2018 it was the best play either guy had ever done at this point so you know they were playing essentially over their heads um to hope and expect that was going to repeat in 2019 you know it was i guess it was maybe worth a shot but it you know failed and failed miserably um you know baker took a ton of hits you know baker was he wasn't injured per se, but he was beat up. He was hurt. Certainly hurt his game. Hurt how he ran this offense. It was just such a glaring, glaring need. As free agency approach, we kept talking, look, the way this draft falls here, it's a good tackle class.

You can go get one in round one. You can get one in round two. You've got your bookends. That's what you're going to be able to do. We didn't really think the Jack Conklin thing was going to be feasible. It's very rare that a team like the Cleveland Browns, even if you got a ton of money, it's very rare that you can get a player who is the top positional player at whatever position it is in free agency, usually to commit to teams like Cleveland. So for the fact that they were able to get out there within that first hour of

free agency, get John Jack Conklin handled, get Austin Hooper. So they were able to get the top tight end of the board, the top tackle on the board here. It's show great work. And I think a lot of people are under valuing it because this is a first time front office, you know, all of these guys. So I think that was impressive and I don't think that gets enough respect that it does, especially that they got him to come here to Cleveland. But Driscoll, you get – I mean, with Conklin here,

you get a guy who was established. Obviously, Tennessee had some decisions they had to make monetarily-wise. Obviously, Jack ended up as the odd guy out here. He comes in here now. Look, good run blocker. Worked his way back in 2019 off the ACL injury. Pass blocking started to come on as the season went on in 2019. As he got more confident in the knee,

obviously his ability started to come back more and more. He's a great, great fit. He's agile enough for this wide zone scheme that Kevin Stefanski likes. And look, you see what Nick Chubb did last year with poor tackle play. So now imagine him in this system, and a lot of Nick's success last year was running the wide zone. So you get that now with much improved tackle play, whether it's Jack Conklin, Jedrick Wills. There's going to be a question about whether or not he can handle the left side.

Almost every evaluator to the man said they have zero issue with it. Everything he tested-wise, as far as agility and the athleticism that was there, it looks like it'll work here. It's a concern until you see it's not a concern. So you certainly have to think about it in the back of your head. But I think he's going to fall into a perfect spot here. Joel Batonio, one of the best left guards in the league. Joel has came to the NFL as a tackle.

You know, Joel has become basically, you know, the captain of this room after Joe Thomas left. And one of the things Joe Thomas was really big on was, is you help your other guys. You help your, you know, these younger guys get through. Joe Thomas has already spoken with Jedrick Wills. You know, he's offered, hey, anything I can do for you as far as, you know, going from, you know, essentially one side of the mirror to the other here and switching up, what do you got to do to succeed here? They really did a fantastic job of addressing this year. And the fact that they could get Conklin here, it gave them so much more flexibility within the draft to

address some other needs that they had here. But Jack is, and it worked out well for Jack here because this contract could essentially be one year and he could be on the market next year after making a boatload of money this year. He could be back on the market at 28 and make essentially another run here for yet another big contract. So they were able to get a contract that Jack was comfortable with where he could come in here. He's going to make some really, really solid money with Cleveland. If it works out long-term, they can cross that bridge when it comes to it. Otherwise, you could see the market again at 28,

which is perfectly acceptable to bang out for another two, three-year heavy money deal. So it was a situation that just worked out for everybody. But I know skilled players and offensive players in that building, they are excited. Everybody kind of knew how much the tackle group was letting them down last year, and I know everybody's pretty confident that is not going to be the issue in this season.

Yeah, I think that's something that they had to attack to make sure that it wasn't something that killed their chances, and they seem to do that. But the Browns do have a very talented defense to kind of transition to the other side of the ball here and they made some good additions in the offseason as well like they did on offense on the D line adding Sheldon Richardson adding Andrew Billings Jordan Elliott a talented defensive tackle out of Missouri in the draft Adrian Claiborne obviously added to the secondary by bringing on Terrence Mitchell, Kevin Johnson at cornerback, Andrew Sandejo at safety and drafting,

Grant Delpit along with adding Carl Joseph as well. I mean, the Browns added a ton in free agency this year to a defense that was already pretty solid. How are you feeling about the defense, and do you think that that'll be, I guess, the unit that this team can rely on week in and week out to to do their job I think and this is where it kind of became an issue last year is you know we kind of like the look of the defense last year but it quickly quickly injuries and other things decimated them uh you know they lost Christian Kirksey in week two. You know, he was just a solid, solid player within the locker room,

a guy that a ton of guys respected. So here it was, Joe Sjobert, you know, out there essentially playing linebacker by himself again in the way it was in 2019. You know, they lost their starting cornerbacks for the same amount of time. These guys were both out for a month together. That was brutal to overcome. They were deep at the safety position, but they had a mess of injuries at the safety position to go along with Demarius Randall,

essentially playing for himself and playing for his next contract, which never worked out in his capacity. I hear that that's a common thing with Demarius Randall. He doesn't necessarily seem like the most revered player by fan bases of the teams that he's played for. 2018, it was a special year he was a special talent he did everything he was asked there was uh the week they went down and had to go play Tampa Bay that week they had had in 2018 they had a couple injuries they weren't

really sure what they were going to do about Mike Evans Demarius Randall had cornerback experience you know they put him on there you know obviously Evans had a nice statistical day but it was never a point to be a difference in that game and then then, you know, 2018, you know, he saw all these safeties, you know, getting contracts in the 2018, the 2019 free agent class, safety class made a boatload of money. Demarius Randle was looking to cash in. It never worked out. So instead of handling it and going back and, you know, essentially doing his business in 2019 to get himself a nice big fat. He started during 2020. It was the exact opposite.

His play was down. His effort was down. Bitching and complaining. Ended up getting himself suspended for what turned out to be the most important game of the season for the Browns was the second Pittsburgh game when they traveled to Pittsburgh. Didn't have him. Had to start a rookie who wasn't ready.

It just didn't work out. Yeah, Demarius Randle, as much as we loved having around in 2018 i think most of us by the point of halloween of 2019 were like yeah we've seen all we can see he can pretty much go now he just became a disgruntled guy and look you know i understand these guys play for money but you know to get the money and there's a b and c you got to do to get it. And it just seemed like Demarius Randall's heart and heart was not in to putting in the work. Yeah. I think that that's one thing that people at home should,

should know that the NFL, while these guys are special athletes and we all look to them as, as some sort of a pinnacle of, of, you know, human athleticism, these guys are regular people with personalities. And just like you at your job or me dealing with this or you in the media, things like that, there are people who work harder than others. There are people who respond to things better than others, respond to adversity. And like you said, the key here in not just football, but a lot of the times in life is do the work no matter what. And if you work hard and take care of business, obviously things will work out better for you at the end.

But that's not always the case. Randall was such a talent. I guess I wanted to get a little bit of information on the ground floor because he got jettisoned pretty quickly by the Packers. And it seems like the Browns were ready to move on too. But we are going to jump to the second part of our conversation here with Jeff from the Locked On Browns. Of course, this is Tyler with the Locked On Titans podcast. We're going to kind of flip things around. Jeff will ask me some questions before we jump into that second segment of our show.

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going to be too much has you guys knocking off knocking off Baltimore? I did pick for the loss against Kansas City, but now that run, an incredible run. And the thing that I enjoyed the most about it was, is they realized what was their best bet essentially. And their best bet was Derrick Henry. And the work he put in during that playoff run, it was outstanding. It was incredible just the way he was able to basically put this team on his back. My question is, though, now, everybody that's going to be on this Tennessee schedule this year, not that it wasn't, but the onus is going to be there 10 times more it's look we can lose this game but we'll be damned if we're going to let number 22 kill us yeah and and that seems fair uh what i would say is those teams if they put too much

of a premium on stopping derrick henry and forget what r Ryan Tannehill did during the regular season last year, then they're going to put themselves in a pretty bad spot. Tannehill had a great year because he fit so perfectly in the Titan system with Derrick Henry. They truly are a symbiotic relationship with each other. Derrick Henry was not having a great season until Ryan Tannehill showed up and took over. Ryan Tannehill was a backup quarterback before Derrick Henry really started getting rolling, and they worked together. So while most people would just look at Derrick Henry and say, you stopped Derrick Henry, the Titans have Jonu Smith, the Titans have Corey Davis, the Titans have A.J. Brown,

who can all make plays with the ball in their hands after the catch have Corey Davis, the Titans have AJ Brown, who can all make plays with the ball in their hands after the catch and are excellent run after the catch guys. So I think if people really load up on Derrick Henry and just totally commit game plan wise to stopping Derrick Henry, that's exactly what the Titans want. The Titans want Derrick Henry to be a nightmare in defensive coordinators' minds and for them to sell out to stop him because when the Titans are at their best, it's not just the run game that's going. It's the play-action-pass game. The Titans are excellent at that, coordinating bootlegs and adding in different ways to move Ryan Tannehill, use that athleticism, get him out of the pocket, get guys wide open based on the play action fake, getting the ball

to them in the short and intermediate areas and allowing those guys I mentioned to do their damage and run after the catch situations. That's what the Titans want to do. So I think that the playoffs had the perfect effect on the mentality of defensive coordinators. If what you're saying does come to fruition and these defensive coordinators just go all out the kitchen sink, we're stopping Derrick Henry. No matter what, we won't let him beat us. Well, that's great because I think that plays right into what the Titans want to do, getting people off their scent when they go to their play action fakes and and let their their other weapons actually do a lot of the damage if you go through a lot of the the back end of the season for the Titans last year it was Ryan Tannehill slinging it and play action and making

plays all over the field so I think it would actually be a good thing for the Titans if teams get a little too focused on 22 in the backfield. Yeah, it was interesting because, you know, I think people kind of lost what Ryan Tannehill did last season because he wasn't a huge factor in their playoff games. And I think some people misconstrued that and were probably a little surprised about, you know, the way things worked out. And obviously Tennessee committing to Ryan Tannehill for 2020

and further on here. You guys, with the loss of Jack Conklin, with the Logan Ryan saga, which looks like it's finally over. Yeah, it might be coming to an end. You guys had two huge holes to fill. You go right at it, round one, Isaiah Wilson. And when it started leaking a couple days before the draft, Isaiah Wilson's going to go round one.

And I'm going through, and I was a fan. I was a big fan of his. And I was like, wow, round one seems a little rich. And then going through it, it just kept coming back. I was like, well, wow, Tennessee. You put him in there. You can continue the run game. Wow, that – all right, yeah, maybe that's the spot.

And obviously that came to fruition here. Christian Fulton, who was regarded for a while here as a first-round cornerback, obviously you get him late in round two here, but here's a guy who can step in he can play inside he can play outside they found a way to save a ton of money on two guys who were you know losing two guys who were really integral but you were able to bring in some young solid talent here hopefully to fill both those guys shoes yeah i think that uh yeah i think i think that that's the plan. And the Titans in general, on offense, they were trying to bring back as many people as possible and keep continuity.

So when you're looking to do that and you lose a Jack Conklin who's a mauling, run-grading right tackle, you just want to fill that spot. degrading right tackle. You just want to fill that spot. And while I understand that Isaiah Wilson was maybe a little rich for the back end of the first round, just what he's able to do and how he's able to fill that role similarly, I think that that makes him a little bit more valuable to the Titans than other teams who would be interested in a right tackle with everything that they do. And on the defensive side of the ball, like you said, losing Logan Ryan. But the Titans on defense have tried to start a transition to get younger and get faster. We saw that with the trade of Jarrell Casey. They're letting Logan Ryan go. They didn't bring back Cameron Wake.

And they drafted Christian Fulton. They're trying to add more speed to this defense. Laurel Murchison, who just signed his contract with the Titans, adding to the interior defensive line, who's a very fast guy for a defensive lineman. So the Titans are trying to get younger and transition away from the Logan Ryan, Wesley Woodyard, Jarrell Casey-led defense into the Jeffrey Simmons, Rashawn Evans, Kevin Byard-led defense with Adoree on the outside, Sean Evans, Kevin Byard led defense with Adory on the outside, Adory Jackson. So adding Christian Fulton helps the Titans start to get younger on defense, and they did attack those two needs pretty early on.

And I would say that depending on how early Isaiah Wilson is actually ready to play, the Titans could walk away from this draft, once again, being pretty happy with what they've done. And you brought up jeffrey simmons and now obviously you know the nfl and the tennessee titans only got a taste of jeffrey simmons last year um the player he was coming out of mississippi state you know before the acl acl injury obviously didn't affect enough you know he was still you know drafted relatively high in the 2019 nfl draft you know you had mentioned the realm urchison you bring in a player like vick beasley you were able to you know keep uh caray in the fold who draft, you had mentioned the realm Murchison. You bring in a player like Vic Beasley.

You were able to keep Correa in the fold, who I think was an integral part of that defense last year. You emphasize the speed here with Harold Landry as well here. There's guys outside, but now on the inside as well here. This unit and this front seven of this Titans defense, highlighted by probably, you know, Simmons is, you know, he's going to end up being a pro bowl caliber player, possible all pro caliber player here. This is a really, really impressive group here in that front seven that Tennessee

has been able to put together in a short time. Yeah. I would say that I'm pretty impressed with the recent draft picks from John Robinson. You go back to Kevin Bayard in the third round, who turned into maybe the best safety in the NFL, first team all pro. You look at Rashawn Evans and Harold Landry from 2018. You look at Jeffrey Simmons in 2019. I mean, this even Jay on Brown in the fifth round of 2017, the Titans are building a young studly defense right now. And like I said, they're in a bit of a transition from the old guard to the new guard. But I think the increasing Jeffrey Simmons role here, letting him go into the drill Casey role is the penetrating three technique, defensive tackle and pass rushing situations I think that'll unlock his potential and I agree with your assessment uh brings a smile to my face I think

that Jeffrey Simmons does have the ability to be a top five interior rusher up there with a Chris Jones of Fletcher Cox obviously Aaron Donald is one of the best players in NFL history maybe not that level but in the in the same vein of guys like that, a DeForest Buckner as well, I think Jeffrey Simmons could make a leap this year into that group. With his expanded role and hopefully his expanded production, Harold Landry going into his third season and actually having a competent edge rusher on the other side of him and Vic Beasley now, Rashawn Evans finally just becoming the leader and the signal caller for the defense.

Adoree Jackson's technique has steadily improved since he came into the league as more of a track athlete. Obviously, you have Kenny Vaccaro and Kevin Byard in the back end kind of leading the secondary. I'm really excited about this Titans defense. How quickly Christian Fulton can get in the fold and actually be one of their press man corners on the outside and then let Adoree go inside in the slot to cover some of the quicker receivers that are in the NFL.

The sooner that can happen, the more potential this defense has. But a lot of these young guys that the Titans have on defense have the opportunity here to jettison the Titans into one of the better defensive units in the league if they live up to their potential. I mean, there's a limited offseason here, so we'll see how that affects them, but the Titans need these guys who have performed well in their early years to continue that development and become some of the better players at their position going forward. The Titans have the talent and the youth on the defense to be one of the better defenses in the NFL for the next few years it's just all about that development. Talk to me a little bit about A.J. Brown you know obviously I think it was like 55 touches almost 1100 total

yards six touchdowns the growth and maturation of him and obviously you know his you know his basically swat you know his introduction to the NFL was the long reception week one in Cleveland for the production he was able to put up in the long reception week one in Cleveland. For the production he was able to put up and the yard he was able to put up, for the limited amount of time he actually touched the ball, it was a really, really solid and quick rise for this guy. It looked like he just basically took to water, so to speak, here. Obviously, he had to play between two quarterbacks

and then really, really hit in stride with Ryan Tannehill. So just talk a little bit on AJ Brown and, you know, do you guys feel that he's going to become that true wide receiver one where you can basically pencil 80 receptions, 1200 yards per season? Well, I would like to see his, um, you know, his efficiency is going to regress because, you know, he only had 50 plus catches and was able to just be as effective and efficient as possible with those catches, racking up as many yards as possible. One of the best after-the-catch players in the NFL already, in my opinion, and that's why, despite having two different quarterbacks

with two different skill sets, he was able to produce because once he gets the ball in his hands, he's just going to make a few people miss and get downfield physical fast big guy like I said he will regress in terms of the efficiency he's not going to get so many yards per catch he's going to have to get more receptions get open more often but he didn't really even see over 70 percent of the offensive snaps until the back half of the season. They really limited his snap count early on as I'm sure he was learning the playbook and getting more comfortable with the offense. So with increased snaps early in the season, he should get more catches, which I think will balance out the regression and the efficiency that he showed.

But I just think what he does well is something that it's not going to be dependent. His production's not going to be dependent on the scheme or the quarterback play or anything like that, because if you get him the ball in the shorter intermediate areas, which is easier to do than going deep, of course, he's going to do a lot of the work himself. That's what his skill set as a player is, is that run after the catch ability. So I think that regardless of what happens with the Titans offense, how much Tannehill regresses, we should see A.J. Brown continue to be incredibly productive, continue to excel,

and be one of the better receivers in the NFL because his skill set just won't allow him to have a down year based on what he does well. I actually believe in A.J. Brown. The Titans haven't had a good wide receiver in all eternity, it feels like. So really nice to see him blow up as a rookie, and I certainly do hope he continues that progression. A lot of it comes down to what I said about the defense.

The Titans have gone with a youth movement. They've gotten a lot younger over the past two off seasons, and anytime you're starting to rely on young players like that, they have to continue to progress and continue to develop and, and continue to get better. And I think AJ Brown has all the ability in the world to continue to do that. Third round, you draft, uh, Darrington Evans out of Appalachian state here. Um, is this, is he going to be more of a factor than people think here? Because you look at the workload that Derrick Henry took last year, and it's hard to fathom that possibly a player is –

and look, if anybody could possibly handle it, it is Henry. But, I mean, until it's done, you do have to think it is somewhat of a concern here. Is the selection of Darrington Evans maybe, hey, let's keep Derrick Henry. Let's hopefully keep some of the mileage off on him. Look, if there's a week where we got to go 30 plus carries because it means a ballgame, that's one thing here. They only have the franchise tag invested in Henry for this season, but is the key here figuring out what we can do besides Derrick Henry and hopefully maybe keeping some of the wear and tear down so when we do need him

and it's just something that folks can't stop if we want to feed that horse we essentially can't you know I really 100% agree with your evaluation there and I'm much higher on Evans than the national I guess let's say like the fantasy football gurus and such looking at his productions predicting I think Darrington Evans is going to be an absolute steal for the Titans and like you mentioned it's it's somebody who can help take the load off of Derrick Henry if the Titans you know they do have Derrick Henry on the franchise tag as you mentioned if the Titans do want to extend Derrick Henry on a long-term deal which I honestly think that they should at this moment in time he's a little bit

of a unique case in my opinion he's not your standard running back. So some of the other examples don't necessarily match as well. But if you are going to do that, then you have to have someone who is cheap because if you're going to invest a lot of money in a running back, you can't pay a lot to a backup running back. That was the problem with Deion Lewis. He made $5 million as a running back. That's quite a bit if you look at the running backs in the NFL. So if you're paying Derrick Henry big time money, you can't be paying the backup running back big time money too. That's too many resources to sink into the running back position. It's just not a smart way to handle that group of players. So the Titans needed a complimentary back who would be cheap. And Evans will be on

that four-year rookie deal while Derrick Henry is on his four-year extension. If he does go ahead and get that worked out by the 15th of July. I think that Evans is not just a compliment to Derrick Henry in terms of what he can do in the passing game, the returning game, different types of runs, outside runs, and things that require more of a quicker change of direction, more agility, like a regular running back route tree. It's something I talk about quite a bit. So not only can Evans compliment Derrick Henry perfectly, but I agree that he can spell Derrick Henry. He's a talented enough runner in between the tackles as well that he can spell Derrick Henry. And if you're going to give him that kind of money and that type of long-term extension,

you have to do more on the cheap to keep him healthy and to extend his career and keep that wear and tear off of him. Can't have another season like last season where he's carrying the ball that much. He had a hamstring injury and actually sat out the game against the Saints so that he could get ready for a matchup against the Texans. And I think that the Titans need more in the backfield if something like that happens again. So getting Evans is not only a great compliment to Derrick Henry's skill set, but also someone who can share the load. And I think Evans is a sleeper for fantasy football this year for any locked on Browns fans or locked on Titans fans that love playing fantasy football. I think Darrington

Evans could have a really solid year as a fantasy running back helping take the load off of Derek Henry. I think the Titans offense wants to do a little bit more than they can do with Derek Henry. So I think Evans will be used in a multitude of ways, returning the ball, receiving the ball and running the ball. He could be a steal for the Titans. I'm very, very high on his potential as a player,

but also as a fantasy option. Yeah. He, you know, it seemed like he was getting some love through the draft process, then put together a solid combine. And, you know, with Daniel Jeremiah,

obviously propping a guy from his alma mater certainly helped him and, you know, gets, gets himself in the, in the third round here. But look, know derrick henry is their horse but look it's just you know you've got to be able to do more and i know tennessee was able to do more they got to the playoffs just trying to keep it conservative you know with good defense strong run game here but even still you want to be able to hopefully balance that out not put it all on

derrick henry i think they put themselves in a great position to do that. We're going to get to Tyler's thoughts here on the AFC South. We'll talk about, you know, my thoughts here, AFC North and where the Browns may stand in there. Jeff Lloyd from Lockdown Browns, Tyler Rowan from Lockdown Titans, iTunes, Spotify. Now's a great time to make sure you're subscribed. Leave those five-star reviews and five-star ratings and written reviews. We do greatly appreciate that.

Now, Tyler, there's a lot of changes in the AFC South. Houston, I don't know if you want to say they're a better team after what they did or not. It's still one to scratch your head over. Obviously Indianapolis, with all that happened, Andrew Luck just decided to call it quits, and what Indianapolis thought was going to be an extremely

promising season for them. So you bring in Phillip Rivers. They made the big move for DeForest Buckner. Houston, whatever moves they made, they actually came and kind of circled back around with a pretty good draft here. It's going to be a three-team dogfight in the AFC South. And look, obviously, Tennessee had their success last year. Houston won a playoff game as well here. But there's almost a scenario where you could probably see any one of those three teams winning this division. I mean, there's obviously always something that's going to come into it,

whether a key injury here or that, or, you know, some new, something new that they implemented it in each, any team didn't essentially work out like it did here. So give me your thoughts here on Tennessee, you know, not having to make this run, so to speak next year through the wild card part of the bracket. Well, the, the big talking point for the Titans organization, this off season has been, we got to find a way to host a playoff game. Win the division, host a playoff game. That's the next step for this Titans team after four years of 9-7. But speaking about the AFC South,

I understand how anybody could make the case for the Titans, the Texans, or the Colts. I mean, the Titans just did what they did last year and brought back most of the team. The Texans have Deshaun Watson, and I think he's one of the top five quarterbacks in the NFL. And as long as he's on the team, they're going to have a chance to compete for the playoffs. So I wouldn't be surprised to see him go Superman and lead that team, maybe win MVP and lead that team to a division championship. And the Colts have a very solid roster. I really like what

their general manager, Chris Ballard, is doing over there. But here's what I have to say. I'm more worried about the Texans than I am the Colts because Phillip Rivers is 38 years old. He threw 20 interceptions last year. It's more likely to me that Phillip Rivers is completely washed up than it is that he's going to play like a top 10 quarterback next year. So a lot of people are just banking on the fact that Philip Rivers of 2018 and the previous years of his career are going to show up in Indianapolis and take this good roster to the next level. But I think it's much more likely, like I said, that Philip Rivers is the 20 interception washed up old quarterback that we saw in San Diego.

Sorry, I do that all the time in Los Angeles. They should still be in San Diego. I still don't like the move. But that we saw for the Los Angeles Chargers last year. So color me skeptical on Phillip Rivers and how much he takes the Colts ceiling up a notch. I'm not buying it. I'm much more worried about Deshaun Watson and the Texans. But yeah, I think that the AFC South could be pretty competitive outside of the Jaguars

who seem to be one of the worst teams in the NFL. But I will say that I'm not too worried about Phillip Rivers. And I think that the Texans, as you talked about some of the moves they made, I think they did get worse overall as a team. So right now, I'm about as optimistic as I can be for the Titans' chances at winning the AFC South division title. On the flip side of that, in the AFC North, the Ravens seem to have a chokehold on the division right now. North. The Ravens seem to have a chokehold on the division right now. They seem to do no wrong, it appears, until they get to the playoffs, at least in back-to-back seasons. With that, Big Ben is coming back. It's almost a similar situation to Phillip Rivers adding an old quarterback to a decent roster. The Bengals draft Joe Burrow, but I don't really expect

them to contend for a division title. Where do you see the Browns fitting into the AFC North this year? And do you think that there's any chance they could compete with the Ravens for the division title? The difficult thing here is going to be when everybody can get to work, so to speak, where you can actually get your team in the building, get practices in here. If it's going to be longer, if it's going to be extended here, If it's going to be longer, if it's going to be extended here, the Ravens are going to have a really, really extremely easy, easy regular season here because this is a plug-and-play system. They've added a couple of extra niches to it with, obviously, Dobbins, the running back, a couple of rookie wide receivers, but they don't necessarily need these guys right away. They could just essentially be sprinkles on top of the ice cream here. They have their system in place. They've got their beast of a tight end.

They've got their big play wide receiver. They already had several running backs who were doing a fantastic job for this team before they drafted JJ Dobbins and Lamar Jackson. I mean, the system they run and with Lamar having a year and a half of experience on the job now, nothing's changed. Same offense coordinator. They're going to just essentially just run it back when, and when you go 14 and two in the regular season, that's probably what you should do. You did see Tennessee and the Browns for the most part, we're able to do this.

They won, they won by 15 points down there in week four in Baltimore. And even later in the season, when the Browns were decimated on the defensive side of the ball, they committed wholeheartedly. And what it is is if we can make sure Lamar Jackson's legs don't beat us, at least we've given ourselves a lot better chance at winning this game. And with you guys, obviously you kept the ball out of Lamar's hand. It's a lot easier to contain Lamar Jackson when you realize most of the time

it's going to be pass plays that are called. You're still going to get scrambled where he's going to pick up yards. But if you can take that running threat away, it makes it a lot, lot easier to face the Baltimore Ravens. I do think they're probably going to slowly, gradually take away his running opportunities because look, I mean, he's developed to where he is, the quarterback that he was last year, and they want him around for another decade. So you got to protect those legs. Pittsburgh, and I'm so with you as far as with Phillip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger here. Look, Eli is now retired.

Ben, and this is one with all the Steelers fans. Oh, well, Ben's back. It's fine. I mean, he's 38 years old. The elbow was bad. We're just going to assume now he's going to pick it back up and everything's fine. I mean, like Tommy John works when you're like 23 or 24.

I don't know what it's going to do for him at 38. Their defense is better though, Pittsburgh. They've done a lot of work on their defense. So I think that's going to be a tough aspect and it's going to come down to, you know, what Ben is and what Ben can be. Cincinnati and, you know, Bengals fans are giddy. And I guess I get it because, you know, I can understand it from the Brown side of things. You know, to finally know what your future is or think you know what your future is,

to at least have that in-house, it's got to excite you. You know, but, you know, you still, oh, well, A.J. Green, and A.J. Green's another one in this Ben Roethlisberger. A.J. Green's barely played in a year and a half. I mean, who knows what A.J. Green has? He's already not the best wide receiver on that team. Tyler Boyd is. They did actually make a couple of moves in free agency, which is rare. Cincinnati just doesn't have the opportunity to get really active. They were able to get a couple of pieces there in free agency. I think they're going to be better, and I'll say they're going to be better, but I still think they're going to be the fourth best team in this AFC North. The key with the Browns is it's going to be cohesion.

Does the offensive line come along quickly, which I think should happen. You have Nick Chubb. You're getting a full year of Kareem Hunt. Odell Beckham Jr. is already healthy. Jarvis Landry should be healthy by the time it all goes. They brought back Rashard Higgins, who is – he's just got this yin and yang relationship with Baker Mayfield. They understand each other so well.

Higgins knows where to be. Baker knows where he's going to be. And the fact that Higgins – it was essentially a lost season in 2019. That was a lot of what took the Browns down. Baker didn't have the guys he succeeded with in 18. Jarvis was still the number one wide receiver, but he lost Aaron Fowles. You know, David Ajoku was injured most of the season, lost Rashard Higgins, no Rashard Paramin, and no Antonio Callaway.

So Baker was playing with a really unfamiliar cast in 2019. Look, he's going to have to learn some new guys here, but he's got his relationship with Odell. He's got his relationship with Jarvis. He's going to have to learn Austin Hooper, David Njoku here. He had a nice development with Kareem Hunt in the passing game there. Defensively, they were really smart. They're four deep at defensive tackle now.

Since I've been covering this team, they were never more than two deep at defensive tackle. They are four deep at defensive tackle. Now, you know, they want to, they're still looking for one more edge rusher to pair with Olivier Vernon. And obviously miles Garrett,

who's just, you know, similar to Jeffrey Simmons. I think that, you know, that there is no ceiling on players of this caliber, athletic, strong,

smart, dedicated. There's just, there's just, there's just no telling how I either player can go secondary. We had talked about that. You brought in Sandejo, Carl Joseph. You get Grant Elp at default.

He had 44. You're pairing that with a Denzel Ward. There's other cornerbacks in place in case Greedy Williams cannot right the ship. It was a really, really tough rookie year for him. It was strange how it went because he was literally playing third quarter snaps in the fourth preseason game. And then came the following Monday, oh, well, Greedy Williams is starting cornerback. He didn't really show in the summer he was ready. They kind of threw him out there. Then the hamstring injury after week two ended up losing a month. Guess what? He comes back. What do they do? Okay, you're starting. They were playing at New England. I mean, they should have shown a little more protection for their player that they drafted in the second round.

So maybe with this new system, Greedy can maybe hit the ground a little bit more comfortably. If not, there's guys in place that they can use and start over him in Kevin Johnson, in Terrence Mitchell. Linebacker has been weird. It's not something they are really, really focused on. Joe Showbert left, Christian Kirksey left. There was a lot of free agent linebackers available. They didn't pursue any of the big names there. They didn't market as a huge, huge draft concern. This team is going to rely on pass rush, defensive line play, and a lot of nickel and dime.

And I do think part of it is because looking at the Ravens here, your defensive backs are going to be faster than your linebackers. So if you can get them off the field, you'd rather grant Delpit chasing around to Lam around to, uh, you know, Lamar Jackson, then you certainly would any linebacker in this business. So I think that's where the focus is shifted for them. I think with this seven, you know, teams from the AFC and seven teams from the NFC making, you know, making the playoffs, I think they have a strong, strong possibility here.

There's just, there's like two or three games on the schedule. Obviously you guys would be one of them. There's going to be a game or two that they're going to have to steal. And, you know, that's with any team. So it's going to come down to that. And, you know, you guys are a part of a really tough stretch for them. I know Philadelphia is also in that stretch. I believe Houston is in that stretch as well.

So they're going to play a four game stretch where they got three 2019 playoff teams out of four games. And it's going to be a tough stretch for them. And that'll probably tell the ultimate tale of what will be the 2020 Cleveland Browns. Yeah, absolutely. There are little pockets of the season where you, you have to win that the Titans have a little bit of a tougher back end of the

season. The Browns are a part of that equation. Then they do the front end of the season in terms of playing on the road and, and the opponent. So it's those little pockets in the season where you have to find a way to come out on top to be able to move things forward. But what an excellent conversation. Had a great time talking to you, Jeff. Can't wait to do this again in week 13 when the Titans and the Browns

actually face off again. I know I am looking forward to the rematch. Certainly hope it is as fun as the last time these teams faced off when I was in the building for that game but either way I had a great time talking to you and I look forward to talking to you again when we have a little bit of football under our belts no doubt about it and I think for everybody here that's what we're all hopefully you know trying to get to and you know everybody oh well I want to get a haircut and you know I want to get my nails done no I want to see a 2020 NFL regular season folks so if that means I got to spend 23 and a half hours a day in my house I'm damn well going to do my part to do that here for Tyler Rowan host

of Locked on Titans for Jeff Lloyd host of Locked on Browns we appreciate you all for listening here today again you know iTunes Spotify ratings reviews are always a great way to help out Tyler and myself make sure you check out Built Bar. Use that promo code LOCKEDON. Get $10 off your first box. Until we talk the next time, this has been another edition of Crossover Series on the Locked On Podcast Network.