Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Julio Jones Trade Timeline: Titans Past & Future Point of View, Robinson Speak on Trade

Episode Date: June 8, 2021

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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 Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, this Tuesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast is presented by the Peacock and Williamson podcast. NFL analyst Brian Peacock and former NFL scout Matt Williamson host Locked On's Peacock and Williamson every Monday through Friday. Brian and Matt give you a national perspective on all of the latest NFL news,

so make sure you check out the Peacock and Williamson podcast, part of the Locked On podcast Network, wherever you get your podcast. Yesterday's show was insane. The emotions were running high. We were just some crazy young fans living in the moment. We talked about all of the actual confirmed details surrounding the Julio Jones trade, the trade compensation. We talked about what this means for the Titans team right now and going forward.

We reveled in the glory of the trade, but we focused on the present today. I want to focus on the past and the future as it pertains to the Julio Jones trade. We are going to kick that off by taking a look at an article done by Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer. And Breer gave us a lot of good information in his MMQB article last week about the Julio Jones pursuit. And he followed that up with some really solid information about how the trade was put together from the Titans perspective, some other nuggets from some other teams as well.

So we're going to break all of that down and go into the past of the Julio Jones trade to give you an idea of how everything came together. And then we will step into the future of the Julio Jones trade. And what I mean by that is we are going to hear from some of the people who are intimately involved. We are going to hear from Titans General Manager John Robinson. All of the highlights from his post-Julio trade press conference. We are going to talk about the quotes that came from the future of the Julio Jones trade. And then we are going to hear from my two personal favorite Tennessee Titans,

A.J. Brown, who obviously led this charge in a way, and then also Kevin Byard, the team's voice as well. So excited to dive into the past and the future of the Julio Jones trade on a Tuesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast. Let's get it! Titans fans! We are going to kick off this Tuesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast by diving into an article from Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated basically detailing the background information

leading up to the Julio Jones trade becoming official on Sunday. Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, basically detailing the background information leading up to the Julio Jones trade becoming official on Sunday. So we're going to dive into the proverbial past of the Julio Jones trade. Now before we do that, I do want to remind you guys, I'm going to be putting out Monday through Friday daily Tennessee Titans content here on the Locked On Titans podcast, not only during the season, but all year long. There's not another Titans content creator that can say that.

Make sure you never miss an episode of the Locked On Titans podcast by subscribing or following on whatever platform you do stream. Not only do we have a great episode set up today on the past and the future of the Julio Jones trade, but also going forward,

I'm going to do winners and losers of the Julio Jones trade within the Titans organization to kick off the show tomorrow. We're also going to later in the week talk about how this affects the Titans offense schematically, things that I want to see from them out on the field and advantages that can be created based on this move being made. So a lot of good stuff coming up. Make sure you never miss it by subscribing or following to the Locked On Titans podcast

wherever you get your podcasts. But let's dive into this article by Albert Breer. Number one, this Julio Jones drama actually dates back to 2017. Per Albert Breer, there was a contract issue in 2017. The Falcons gave Julio Jones kind of a band-aid bump raise in 2018 with the expectation he would get a new deal in 2017. The Falcons gave Julio Jones kind of a band-aid bump raise in 2018 with the expectation he would get a new deal in 2019, and while he did end up getting that new deal in 2019, it took the entirety of the offseason, and basically it fractured the relationship between Julio and the Atlanta Falcons. Then they end up firing Dan Quinn after this season. Julio and Dan

Quinn were very close. Now, I don't blame the Falcons for that. I think Arthur Smith is going to be a better head coach. But either way, that did, again, affect the relationship between the Falcons and Julio Jones. And also, a good nugget here from Albert Breer. Apparently, Julio Jones did not know he was on live television when Shannon Sharp kind of broke open this story on Fox Sports Undisputed television show. So that's a very interesting nugget and that's still up in the air.

I'd like to hear Julio's opinion or Julio's statement on whether he knew or not. Now some other interesting info as we get more into the trade deal itself and less of the past that led up to this Julio Jones trade. No first round pick was ever offered. So that report from Diana Rossini, definitely just messaging from the Atlanta Falcons trying to get the Titans to offer a first round pick. There were other teams that were in the race

that were offering a conditional second round pick. Basically, if Julio plays a certain amount of snaps, a third round pick becomes a second round pick. If they win enough games, a third round pick becomes a second round pick. But the Titans were ready to step in and actually give them a clean second round pick with no conditions on it. And that got the job done. The Ravens were in on it, but once they drafted Rashad Bateman early in the draft, they got out. Apparently the Patriots never really were in the deal, nor were the Las Vegas Raiders.

So that's kind of surprising. And there's some dubious reporting on the Patriots, whether they were interested or not. But according to Breer, they were not. All four of the NFC West teams, the Cardinals, the Rams, the Seahawks, the 49ers, they all called apparently. But the Titans were the first team to actually offer that strong, clean second round pick. The Titans originally had offered a third round pick, but as those trade negotiations sped up, the Titans got serious and offered the second round pick, and a lot of that had

to do with the Titans talking to Nick Saban. Julio Jones played college football at Alabama, and they got a blessing on the football character of Julio Jones, and that really allowed the Titans to go ahead and make at Alabama, and they got a blessing on the football character of Julio Jones, and that really allowed the Titans to go ahead and make that push. And that's something that Robinson actually said in the article. There's a lot of good quotes that John Robinson gave to Albert Breer in this article to summarize some of them. Saban was very high on Julio Jones' character,

and that made a big difference. We'll hear John Robinson mention this later, but A.J. Brown's recruiter, John Robinson, laughed that off and said that he might have a career in arts and crafts, so that was pretty funny. John Robinson did say that after the draft, these negotiations really became a realistic possibility, and within the last 36 to 48 hours leading up to the Julio Jones trade, things got very serious, and that makes sense. The Titans probably had hoped that they would be able to fill that need for a pass catcher with a higher value player in the draft. After they weren't, it kind of put the onus on them making this move, and that's something

that I have said the entire time. Now, one thing we do got to say is, once again, John Robinson, the Titans general manager, an absolute boss. He made this deal while wearing flip-flops on a boat on a lake enjoying his weekend. I mean, how much more of a boss move can you have than bringing Julio Jones to Nashville while being on a boat in some flip-flops, probably with a cool drink in hand, enjoying your summer? I mean, that's something that is completely legendary in my opinion, but that's some of the background information that Albert Breer laid out. I mean, that's something that is completely legendary in my opinion. But that's

some of the background information that Albert Breer laid out. I encourage you guys to go ahead and check out that article for yourself. There's a lot of good nuggets in there. Breer does some very good work for Sports Illustrated. But we're going to move into the future of the Julio Jones trade. What happened directly after it became official? We are going to hear some great quotes from the man himself, John Robinson, on his perspective. We're also going to hear from some of the Tennessee Titans players as well. Before we get into that portion of the show, I do want to remind you guys about rockauto.com. Rockauto.com is a family business that's been serving auto parts customers online for over 20 years.

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the process that led up to it, not only for the Titans, but for Julio himself within the Atlanta Falcons organization. Now, let's talk about the direct future of the Julio Jones trade in the comments that were made right after things became official. And we are going to hear from the man who made the deal himself, Titans General Manager John Robinson. Of course, these audio comments and these audio highlights coming from Tennessee Titans.com. Big shout out to John Robinson as well, who it's an audio clip I'm not going to play for you guys. At the very end of his press conference, he basically gave appreciation to the Titans media and said that he wanted to come on and speak some words so that everybody could do their job. And while I wasn't directly on that call with John Robinson, I also do benefit from him coming out and giving us some quotes, giving us some explanation, his thoughts behind the deal. And I just want to say that I do appreciate John Robinson as well

for considering the business that all of us are in as well. So John Robinson, not only a beast in the Julio Jones trade, but a beast afterwards taking care of all the other people who rely on his information. So let's dive into these quotes. I thought there were some really interesting things that John Robinson had to say. Number one, how did this whole process start from his perspective? Yeah, I mean, when word got out that he might be available, you know, I started looking at it. We looked at him, coaches looked at him,

you know, how he might fit in offensively. I mean, he's big, he's fast, he's tough, great with the ball in his hands, willing blocker. You know, I think a lot of the things that we ask of our receivers, which, you, which all the locals know, it's get open, catch, and block. He certainly checks those boxes and has done it at a high level for a lot of years in the National Football League. And did our due diligence just with the film work and the evaluation piece about what he might add to the team. And again, excited that we were able to kind of get some closure to it today. In his answer there, John Robinson talked about the physicality of Julio Jones.

He's going to get out there. He's going to run. He's going to catch. He's going to block. And those are the things that the Titans ask of their wide receivers. But John Robinson took it a step further here as well, talking about the physicality of the Titans offense overall. Now, when you have a Julio Jones, an A.J. Brown, a Derrick Henry, here's John Robinson's thoughts on the offense that he's built. Yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, the bigger and

the faster and the stronger of that any player can be at their respective positions. You know, the advantage, you know, goes to the usually the bigger, faster and skilled players. Certainly all three of those guys have have proven that they can be successful at their respective positions with their height and weight and their speed. But excited to get Julio in here. And I know he's excited to get to know his teammates to get the timing down and get ready to work. The Titans offense is about to be a bully, quite frankly. I mean, just the physicality all over the offense has to get you pretty excited. Now, we're going to move from just, you know, thinking frivolously about how great this offense can be to the realities that have to take place within the trade.

And the big reality here is the money. How will the money work? Well, John Robinson talked about how they're going to make this work. Are they going to have to cut a player? Are they simply going to rely on restructures? He gives that information here. No, I think it's more just kind of restructuring and moving pieces around, Joe. Like I said, those discussions are internal.

And we're working through those. But I feel like we had a good football team coming into today and yesterday. I'm happy with the progress that's being made in the OTA sessions, those voluntary sessions. And then hopefully we've bolstered it today by adding Julio. So there you have it right there. John Robinson loves the roster, and they wanted to add Julio Jones to this roster, not in turn cut another player to make space. So, of course, we can count on some restructures coming out.

John Robinson didn't give any real comments about that, said he was going to keep all of those thoughts internal. But as we have talked about throughout the entire all season, the Titans can easily restructure Ryan Tannehill's deal, open up about $15.5 million. There are also reports the Titans are working on restructuring Julio Jones's deal as well, which could open up an additional close to $5 to $10 million in that range of cap space for them to make some other moves and bolster the roster in other places as well. So, of course, I'll be here to report on all of that

here on the Locked on Titans podcast. And the next portion here is just John Robinson's personal scouting report on Julio Jones and what he thinks he can bring to the field. Yeah, I mean, I think that he can run the full route tree. He's got really good size. He's got a long catch radius, good catching skills. He's strong with the ball in his hands. Still think he can push the field down vertically.

He's willing to go in there and dig out a linebacker or a safety. That Seahawks game was a fun game to watch last year with him and Jamal Adams, who's an outstanding player as well. They were going at it. You could see the competitive fire and spirit out of both of those players who were at the top of their game. We'll see kind of where he fits in with what exact position.

I think that's to be determined. We've got to get him here and get to know him. He's an extremely smart player. Coach Saban spoke really highly of him. And I'm excited to see how he factors in for the offense. Not going to lie to you guys. I can sum that up pretty quickly. Julio Jones is good at football.

So love hearing that from John Robinson, though. He clearly did his due diligence. But how much due diligence do you have to do with a guy who's been a hall of famer for the last 10 years but maybe my favorite answer of the John Robinson press conference was his mind state on making mistakes it's obvious that John Robinson has had some big misses in his career with the Titans as the general manager but who hasn't but he talks about just getting back up on the horse and not being afraid to take more risk as you try to make a Super Bowl winning roster.

So I really love this answer about risk assessment from John Robinson. Yeah, it's, you know, John, it's, I mean, we take it, we take stock of the ones that, you know, certainly don't work out and try to learn from those mistakes. But, you know, I don't think we try to be too frivolous with what we do. But we got a chance to shoot, we shoot. And we felt like this was a move where we needed to pull the trigger. And I'm glad that we did. Yeah, that's, you know, we try to do as much due diligence, Chris, as we can.

You know, I've said it, you know, I felt like a million times, you're never going to be a hundred percent right in this job. No GM is in any sport. Like you're going to miss sometimes. But, you know, you continue to, like I said earlier, I'm going to try to learn from those where you missed. And, but, but you don't, you never, you never you never you never you never put the gun away you keep you keep firing at it you know you keep you keep taking shots. You know like all these basketball players do you know I don't quit shooting three pointers

if they miss one they keep shooting. And you don't want to be callous with it you You don't want to be frivolous with it. But you've still got to maintain an aggressive mindset, yet patient and a diligent mindset to work through everything and try to get as many answers to the questions that you have, you know, about acquiring a player. And then fire away. And if it works, you works, you're lauded. If you're not, they're ready to run you out of town. That's what we signed up for. But we're going to always keep that mindset of being diligent with our approach and aggressive when we feel like we need to be aggressive.

And that's one thing right there that I mentioned on yesterday's show is, although I will be the first person to be critical of John Robinson, that's just part of what I do here we all have to admit the guy is willing to take risk when they're smart and last year I thought taking the risk on Jadavion Clowney was still a smart risk and although it didn't pan out I still will not go back and Monday morning quarterback that in 2020 hindsight and say you know that was a bad move he shouldn't have done that that was a willing risk to take I thought it was a smart move I still think that was a bad move. He shouldn't have done that. That was a willing risk to take.

I thought it was a smart move. I still think it was a smart move, just like I feel this one is. And it's just nice to know that John Robinson is never going to get gun shy. And I think job security and Amy Adams-Strunk having faith in John Robinson and everything that he's done for this team is what allows him to have the confidence to make these type of moves. And we are going to hear a couple more things from John Robinson about the tight end position. Going to hear about A.J. Brown's recruitment.

But we're also going to hear from A.J. Brown and Kevin Byard themselves about this move and about bringing Julio Jones to Tennessee. So excited to dive into that as well. Before we do, I want to remind you guys about the best tasting protein bars ever. And they come from our friends over at Built Bar. Built Bar has nine delicious flavors on their website. They're always rotating in some occasionally limited time flavors as well. The Built Bars are just absolutely delicious. I'm not on a diet or any kind of health watch or anything like that

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at BiltBar.com. Titans fans, we are going to cap off this Tuesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast hearing a few additional comments from Titans GM John Robinson, but also hearing from my personal two favorite Tennessee Titans, A.J. Brown and Kevin Byard on their reaction to the Julio Jones trade. Now, of course, all of this audio is courtesy of TennesseeTitans.com. Big shout out there. But let's dive into these last few John Robinson quotes. Number one, he talks about the tight end position. So this is kind of outside the realm of the Julio Jones trade, but the tight end position may be the number one need remaining on the Titans roster.

And Robinson just kind of tried to grease the skids for fans to let them know it'd be pretty difficult to make any kind of big time move at tight end after the Julio Jones trade took place. It's probably, that would probably be tough. after the Julio Jones trade took place? It's probably, that would probably be tough. You know, it'd have to be some type of, you know, some type of pick flop or situation, you know, probably pretty low cost.

Yeah, and then from a salary component, you know, that may be a tough pill to swallow as well. Not saying that it can't happen. You never rule anything out, but that may be a tougher hurdle. Both of those things may be tougher hurdles to get over for us. So basically, Robinson has given us a peek behind the curtain. I thought that was a very transparent answer. Number one, it's going to be hard. Let's use Zach Ertz as an example. That's a name that's hot on the trade market a little bit. And Zach Ertz is about $8 million this year. The Titans simply wouldn't be able to fit in $8 million,

even if they restructured Tannehill and Julio Jones. It just wouldn't make any sense for them to do that. So when John Robinson says it would have to be low cost, really what he's intimating is the Eagles would have to eat some of that salary. And I'm just using Ertz as an example. But basically, if the Eagles were willing to eat like of that salary. And I'm just using Ertz as an example, but basically if the Eagles were willing to eat like six million of Zach Ertz's salary and the Titans only had to pick up two or four million dollars

and then rather than giving them an actual draft pick, they just flip like what they did with the Falcons just now, like flip the fourth and a sixth or flip the fourth and a fifth or even just a single round pick swap, something like that, basically would have to be incredibly low cost. The Titans can't give up a lot of draft ammo now,

and they also don't have a lot of room for a big salary. So a team would really have to work with the Titans to make that work if the Titans were going to go out and make some other move for tight end. Not something that I am expecting at this moment in time. Then the final thing we are going to hear from John Robinson here is just his thoughts on A.J. Brown's recruitment of Julio Jones. Pretty funny here. Enjoy. No, it was, it was, I chalked it up to harmless fun, Jim. A.J.'s passionate about football.

He, like me, wants as many good football players on a team as possible because he knows that, you know, that's going to give us a chance to win. He's a competitive guy. He's always looked up to Julio. And, you know, I got a nice little chuckle out of it, and I thought it was good. But the tape job was – the tape job was – it was pretty impressive by him. I think the football thing is probably going to work out for AJ,

but if not, he might could moonlight as an art teacher or something, or arts and craft. Arts and crafts, AJ Brown. I mean, he might have to think about opening an arts and crafts studio in Nashville after that sort of push from the general manager, but all in good fun. But seriously, though, I love what he said there about A.J. Brown's competitiveness. A.J. Brown really looks up to Julio Jones.

Of course, that's the reason he recruited him so hard and was out there on social media nonstop trying to get him to Tennessee. But also, it's the competitiveness. A.J. Brown wants to win. A.J. Brown is a purebred football player. I literally could not appreciate having him on this team anymore. He's absolutely fantastic. He is a bona fide superstar and excited now to pair him up with Julio Jones.

And speaking of AJ Brown, let's hear directly from AJ Brown and, number one, just his thoughts on Julio Brown. Julio Brown, hilarious. On Julio Jones making it to Tennessee. Talk to him this morning. Talk to him this morning. Like I said, we talk all the time. It was just a regular combo for us.

We were excited to get together at work. Like I said, the city right now is electric. They're pumped for a guy like Julio Jones on the team. I think the team loves it. We've got guys reaching out. I've never seen that. I think everybody is really pleased with themselves. It's just so rare that you see the actual NFL players themselves

just as excited about any acquisition as the fans are. I just really enjoyed that part of this, AJ. Everybody from the Titans being as pumped as the fan base is. It really makes for a fun environment, especially online. And of course, we have to have the conversation now about the number. It was something that everybody talked about, but now that the trade is real, will AJ Brown give up number 11 to Julio Jones? I'm in the works

with working with Vrabel about something, about the number. I tried to twist the one and didn't go through. There was some yes, there was some no's. But I'm trying to be a good teammate and look out for them and let them go out on the right

foot. But we'll see though here and there. So all the Jersey purses just stop for a while. Just give it like a month. So until we find out what's going on. Basically, it sounds like to me, A.J. Brown's trying to work out a way where he can get some maybe people to pitch in to help him buy out the rest of his Jersey inventory.

Remember, for NFL players, not only NFL players, but professional athletes, for them to change numbers, they have to buy out the remaining inventory that the jersey companies have on hand. So that can be pretty pricey. I think the Dallas Cowboys linebacker Jalen Smith paid $600,000 to change his number from 54 to number 9 for the Cowboys. So something like that. I'm sure A.J. Brown doesn't want to pay all that money to do so, but also does want to give number 11 to Julio. I got to think that number 1 is maybe on the fence.

Some people in the Titans organization still thinking about Warren Moon from the Houston Oilers and how that could look. But in my opinion, give A.J. Brown number 1. We're in Tennessee. We're the Titans, not the Oilers and how that could look. But in my opinion, give A.J. Brown number one. We're in Tennessee. We're the Titans, not the Oilers. But I know that that's a very controversial opinion that I have there. I hope no one's upset and gives me a bad review like the one dude. Very, very upset and continues to update that review continuously about how mad he is that I don't really put the Houston Oilers with the Tennessee Titans.

But that's another conversation for another day. Finally, we want to hear from the mature voice of reason in the locker room, and that is safety Kevin Byard. And this is Kevin Byard's welcome message to Julio Jones. It was good, Julio. It's KB here. Want to be one of the first ones to welcome you to the team, welcome you to the city of Nashville. Can't wait to go to work with you.

Can't wait to watch you and Aja go over top of defenses and watch Derrick Henry stiff arm everybody else. So like I said, man, welcome to the squad, dog. Man, I don't have any professional analysis to give you guys. Kevin Byard is just so awesome. Just absolutely fantastic. The only Titans jersey that I personally own that hangs in my closet is Kevin Byard. I'm just going to forever love that guy.

But that's going to do it for today's show. Guys, make sure you check out the Locked On Today podcast. It's all the biggest sports stories and all the major sports in under 20 minutes. So it's like having the sports section read to you. Hosted by Peter Bukowski. I was actually on the Locked On Today podcast on Monday. So you can go back and check that out if you want. But make sure you subscribe to the

Locked On Today podcast on whatever platform you do stream. It pairs very nicely with the Locked On Titans podcast. But that's going to do it for me today, folks. Going to be back with you guys tomorrow. Like I said, we're going to talk winners and losers in the Titans trade. We're going to talk about some gambling information. A little

off-season, keeping it plus 100 segment. So make sure you guys tune in to check that out. Follow and subscribe to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream. But as always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans. you