Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: (1/30) Answering your voicemails on needs, Draft strategy, Adoree and more

Episode Date: January 31, 2019

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Welcome in to another edition of Locked On Titans. I'm Jermaine Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you tonight? Doing pretty good. What's going on, man? Not a whole lot. Doing a voicemail show tonight. Like I said, we always enjoy these. Appreciate everybody calling in. Got six to go through tonight, so that's a pretty solid number. Again, the number is 615-787-8762. You can call in there, leave us a voicemail, keep it to about a minute. That would be perfect, and we can get on the show next week. At least we're going to try to do one of these a week. So, again, 615-787-8762. Leave us a voicemail, ask us a question, comment, whatever you want to do,

and we'll get you in next week. Before we get started, I want to remind you to write for me at SteveMiracles.com where we cover the Titans for SB Nation, so you can check us out there. You can also follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorthmcm. Terry's at TLambertFB. You can get the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Just search out Locked on Titans.

You can also play our podcast on your smart speaker in your house, whether it's the Google One or the Alexa or whatever. Just say, play podcast Locked on Titans, and you will get us there. All right, tonight we start with Todd, who has a question about the defensive line in free agency and the draft. Hey, this is Todd from Columbia, Tennessee. Day one listener, big fan of the show, yada, yada. Hey, I was looking at the crawler on ESPN,

and they were listing the top ten free agents as they stand now. Eight of them were defensive players, possibly nine, and about six of them were defensive end slash inside pass rushers. With the glut of available defensive linemen available, I really think that's our number one need. We can talk wide receiver all we want, but until the Titans prove they're going to throw to those wide receivers, we really need a defensive line that gets pressure on the quarterback

when it's needed and not during garbage time. This team has not been awesome since they had a legitimate, meaningful pass rush when it mattered. We far too often sit back and let scrub quarterbacks have 20 seconds in the pocket, and that just doesn't cut it even against Sage Rosenfeld. Anyways, what are your thoughts on signing and drafting defensive linemen? Yeah, Todd, I think you hit the nail on the head. It's been a need for a while.

Like we've talked about, I think it's been a need that's been pushed down for several years now with the Titans struggling on offensive line, at receiver, at corner. It just seems like they've been decent on the defensive line, and now you're just kind of seeing that group just be really mediocre. So they need some new blood. They need some guys that can really interrupt opposing offensive lines. Like we said before, if we feel bad for Jarrell Casey,

he's had to do it alone up front on the interior for all these years. It's honestly kind of a shame. If he had a running partner, his numbers would probably look a lot better. But, yeah, I think you're seeing around the league these quicker defensive linemen that can really penetrate and make plays in the backfield. You know, everybody wants their own Aaron Donald. I don't think you're going to find another Aaron Donald out there, but you can certainly see the Titans try to mimic that.

Yeah, I mean, you know, when you go back to the days of Kyle VandenBosch, Albert Hainsworth, Tony Brown, Javon Kersh, I mean, Antoine Odom even. I mean, you had for a while there, you had a pretty steady flow of really good defensive linemen here. You know, even Carlos Hall. There's a lot of guys that came through here and were really good and could get after the passer. A lot of credit, I think, goes to Jim Washburn on that.

He's another guy we talk a lot about Mike Munchak and the job that he did for the offensive line. Jim Washburn, same deal with the defensive line. He could take those guys that were mid-to-late-round picks and turn them into something. I mean, people, you know, Van Bosch was so good, people forget the Titans got him off the scrap heap. He was coming off a couple mean, people, you know, Van Bosch was so good, people forget the Titans got him off the scrap heap. He was coming off a couple injuries, and, you know, he came in here

and worked and watched and, you know, had a couple good years. And, you know, you had some of those deep tackles, too, that had some good years here. So, yeah, you're absolutely right. And it'll be interesting to see. You know, it's so tough right now. We've got nothing else to talk about. But it's so tough right now to try to project

free agency in the draft because, one, the draft, obviously, team needs will change after free agency. With free agency, so many of these guys that are set to become free agents will get re-signed by their teams. And so, you know, all that will happen before they even hit the market, before the market even opens. So it's

tough when you look at these lists of, you know, the top 10, top 100, whatever you see, players that are going to be available. There's some names on there you get really excited about. And then you have to stop and realize that some of those guys are not going to hit the market. But I'm with you. I mean, I think that, you know, we talked about building up the offense

and how offense wins games now and all that stuff. And I do believe that. But I think you also need to have a competent defensive line, a defensive group that can get after the passer. And that's clearly some of the Titans have struggled with over the last few years. And hopefully they can find an interior guy and an edge guy throughout, you know, we're phrasing the draft this year, and they can help with the pieces they already have there.

You've got to make them a pretty good defense already. But if you can add a couple of pieces, then I think you have a defense that could be close to dominant. So, yeah, I mean, I'm with you as that being, you know, one of the biggest needs that they have. All right, coming up next, we have Don, who I think has a really good question. Hey, guys. This is Don from L.A. again. Hey, guys. This is Don from L.A. again.

You know, we're just listening to your recent show, the recent voicemail show, and I just heard some things. But I just wanted to just, you know, mention, am I crazy or do the Titans just make things more difficult than they should? It just seems like teams like the Patriots and the Chiefs and, you know, the Colts, I mean, they see their quarterback is getting hit. You know, if the running game isn't working like ours wasn't working this last year, it's like why not do a quick passing game where you're going to gain three, four, five yards every play

and be patient until you can do something you should, you know, or until you can do something like a play action deep hit or something like that. I mean, instead of doing that, they just continue to try to force the issue. And, unfortunately, Mariota kept getting hurt because of it. And, you know, to me, I look at LeFleur and I'm like, man, he wasn't any different than Rabisky because he kept talking about we need to run the ball to make sure our passing game goes. I mean, I see what the Rams are doing, and that's exactly what they do.

They're a really good run game team, but it just really seems like, you know, we can't get anybody that's innovative enough to make the offense work with what we have. You know, you got guys that are stuck in doing what they're trying to do, and it's just really hard to watch sometimes. Thanks, guys. And Don, like Jimmy said, you raised a really good point. I think it's something that Jimmy and I talked about,

specifically after the Baltimore and the Indy games, where Marcus Mariota just kept taking sacks, just got hit seemingly on every down. That's my main concern with Matt LaFleur. Being in Green Bay now, I don't know how Packers fans watch that and have confidence. He just failed to adapt right there. There were spots where he did adapt last year. Thinking back to early in the season when he was without Marcus Mariota,

he did some good things there, but definitely not in those spots. So it's something that Arthur Smith can definitely capitalize on. You know, I just think it's a way to alleviate some offensive line struggles. If your offensive line is having a bad day, dial up some quick passes. It's a way to get Marcus Mariota in rhythm. It's a way to get Taewon Taylor in a rhythm, get him some confidence, get the ball in his hands. You know, we've seen him do some things in the open field.

So, yeah, I'm not sure why they just repeatedly left Marcus Mariota in these five, seven-step drops in these slow developing plays. But certainly it could have been improved throughout the season. Yeah, and honestly, I just want to see an offense that looks like other good offenses in the league. I don't know why, you know, as Titans fans we can't have that. But, you know, we watched Titans play. You know, they've moved around a little bit more.

But for the longest time, you know, we watched Titans play at noon on Sunday. And then whoever that 325 game was, always a team like the Saints or the Rams or, you know, somebody in the Patriots, somebody like that. And it doesn't look like they're playing the same game on offense as the Titans are. And so I'm just looking forward to the day where we see something similar to that from the Titans. And, yeah, you're absolutely right. Take advantage of what you can do.

Hit some short stuff. Do some things to get the offense to momentum. Go on a slowdown, a pass rush. That was the thing, especially that Ravens game. I mean, Mario looked like they were getting killed. And it just never seemed like they made at least a good adjustment in that game. And, you know, obviously we saw the, you know, I don't know if that game was what, you know, gave them the wear and tear that slowed him for the rest of the year or whatever.

But, yeah, I mean, I'm with you, man. I hope that Arthur Smith, that's the first thing that he does is try to clean up this offense and make it look like these efficient offenses that we see from these other teams, the efficient offenses that you're going to see on Sunday in the Super Bowl. Give us something that looks similar to that. I understand that there are limitations, whether it be on the offensive line, with the quarterback, with the receivers, whatever it may be, but you can still do something that resembles that.

So hopefully that's something that Arthur Smith is going to do. All right, coming up next, we have Tom asking about free agent wide receivers. Hey, guys, this is Tom from Nashville. I had a wide receiver free agency question. A pretty reoccurring debate I have with my fellow Titans fans is Tyrell Williams versus

Golden Tate. I realize that free agency hasn't officially begun. We don't know if either of these two will hit the market, but from the chatter around the league, it sounds like they both, there's a good chance they will, that they will be two of the biggest names on the market. So I was wondering, of those two, which do you think would fit the team better, and which also do you think would be more likely to sign with the team? Personally, I think Tyrell

would be a better fit due to his ability to stretch the field, and he's quite a bit younger than Tate. Also, he's quite a bit bigger. He would add some size on the outside. Thanks, guys. Have a good day. Well, I think you can make really, really good cases for both of these guys. Golden Tate's obviously the name that everyone wants to talk about with the

Nashville Connections. I think he would be great for the Titans. He'd be great for Marcus Mariota. Marcus really hasn't had that guy other than Delaney Walker, but hasn't had that receiver that can really play the slot, that can really win on some key downs in the intermediate part of the field where Marcus Mariota is probably at his best. Tyrell Williams gives you a little bit of everything. He gives you some more size, gives you a little more downfield ability, which

the Titans certainly need. If I had to pick, man, that's really tough. I'd probably go Tyrell, but I'll throw it to Jimmy, who's probably got a better solution. Yeah, you know my answer to this is both. It's not both guys. Why not? I really do think that they need to find someone like both of these guys this offseason. I think it needs to be two guys. I think it needs to be two guys, and I think it needs to be a free agency. Now, we've talked about there are options available, right? I'm really interested to see what kind of contract Golden Tate is going to command

because the Eagles gave up a third for him, and he didn't really get acclimated there. I mean, he was pretty good in the playoffs, but in the regular season, they didn't use him that much. He was on the field for that many snaps that game, and he didn't get very many targets. So I wonder if that hurts his value. I mean, I don't think it probably does. It's because, you know, it's a tough spot for a receiver

to come into an offense in the middle of the year. So I'm interested to see what he gets, but I think you can get similar production in a guy like Adam Humphreys. I think Golden Tate's obviously better than Adam Humphreys, but I mean, I think if the contracts are huge, you know, difference in amounts there, then I mean, I'm okay with Adam Humphreys, even a guy like Cole Beasley. With Tyrell Williams, I mean, I think he's probably going to be the most popular, you know, deep threat wide receiver on the market.

You've got a guy like John Brown who can bring similar upside. You possibly have Deshaun Jackson in the market as well. So there's a lot of different pieces there. But if I have to pick one, I think I'm with you. I want Tyrell just because he brings a different skill set, something that I think this offense desperately needs. But, I mean, I've been saying it over and over and over again. They've got to get a deep threat.

They've got to get a slot guy, you know, whatever you want to call that guy in this offseason. And I believe they both need to come from free agency because I don't think you need to make that wide receiver room any younger. So, like I said, why not sign both? That's probably not going to happen. It's probably not realistic because they're both going to command, you know, pretty big contracts.

And while the Titans aren't in salary cap trouble, they don't have that, you know, just the massive room that they've had for the last couple of years. So there will be some kind of constraints there. So, yeah, I'm with you. I mean, I think Tyrell brings a little bit of something different. I think you can find something more similar to Golden Tate with a guy like Adam Humphries, even a Cole Beasley. Again, not as talented, but can bring you similar type production.

All right, next we have a question from Ed about the quarterback situation. Hey, guys. My name's Ed here in Nashville. I don't really know if this is a question or not, but more of a concern. I've heard some of the free agent pickups or other people costing draft picks and with the quarterback class of 2020 being pretty deep, we stay away from anything that will cost us

a first round or even a second round draft pick in 2020, just in case Mariota doesn't make it through the 2019 season, which I honestly hope he does. But just, you know, an observation to see what you guys think. Thanks. Bye. All right, Ed, yeah, I'm 100% with you. We've seen John Robinson be really aggressive in his first couple drafts in Tennessee.

He's gotten the players that he's wanted to go get. Now he's cost the Titans picks. I don't think any of us have any real problem with that, though, especially looking at last year's draft. I think you got two impact defenders there, and we were both pretty happy with what he did on the first two nights of the draft. But it's interesting because this class is pretty different. I don't know that you've got those top offensive guys

At least in terms of a receiver or running back or something like that So maybe it's a spot where you see John Robinson do the opposite Maybe you finally see him trade back Maybe you see him accumulate a flip pick 19 for a couple day 2 picks Maybe he loads up for next year like you're talking about if the Titans have to make a run at a quarterback. I don't think that's totally unrealistic to think about right now. But, yeah, I think we could see John Robinson kind of reverse course

and kill some aggression there and kind of try and go the Patriots way and really stop causing picks. Yeah, and, you know, the last point you made there is interesting because, you know, everybody talks about the similarities to the Patriots and all that kind of stuff. But John Robinson, from a draft perspective, has not been the Bill Belichick model. He's not constantly trading back, you know, having three, four, whatever it is, second-round picks every year, which is what you see from the Patriots a lot of times.

But, yeah, I'm with you. You've got to keep your options open for 2020 just because we don't know. We don't know what's going to happen with Marcus Mariano. We've had so many conversations about that. So, I mean, I think that is a very realistic thing. And something that John Robinson will have to be thinking about with pretty much every move he makes this offseason, that you could be prepping for a new guy there at that position.

But, yeah, he was so aggressive last year, and it'll be interesting to see what all is said and done. You know, it's impossible to – it takes a long time to be able to grade draft classes, so it's impossible to do that with that class last year. But I think we've seen enough positive things, you know, from Rashawn Evans to feel good about him, from Harold Avery to feel good about him. Even Dan Cruikshank, I mean, you've seen some ability there.

We'll see how his career plays out. Obviously, Luke Falk's not here. But then I think with that, you throw in these undrafted guys, the Sharif Finches, those types of guys that came in and were productive for this team. So anyway, that's kind of off point, but it'll just be interesting to see how all that plays out. I'm with you. You have to keep as much of your and as many options as you

can open for 2020 with the thought that you might be looking to add a quarterback, whether it be in the draft or whatever. And, you know, I don't know. It's hard for me to think this team's going to be much worse than they were last year, much worse than 9-7,

and so you're probably going to end up with your first-round pick. I mean, even if things go bad, being around kind of that same spot, and so if you need to go up and get a quarterback, you're going to need to have some of that draft capital available. All right, next up we have a question about Adore Jackson and the return game. Hey, guys. I've been listening to you for a few years and think the show's great. I'm Nick, and I just had a few questions on Adore Jackson.

You guys were talking last time about corners, and it got me thinking. I kind of drafted him in the first round, and everyone thought he'd be more of a return specialist and kind of figure out the corner stuff later. Kind of seems like it's been the opposite. I know in about year one, he looked pretty good. He looked like he might have something in the return game. We had a few flags not go our way.

But then since then, he seems like he's struggling a little bit. Doesn't seem like he really knows what to do back there anymore. I didn't know if he thinks he might figure it out this year or if the Titans need to start looking somewhere else and trying to figure out a new plan for what to do in the return game. So I'm interested to hear what you guys think about that. Again, I love the show. Thanks.

Adoree's career arc has been so strange. You look at him coming out of USC, and I think Jimmy would tell you this too, I think we both thought that he was going to make an instant impact in the return games on special teams, but we really didn't know what we were getting at corner, and like you said, it's totally flipped. Now he's a decent corner and just an atrocious return man. So I don't know what's going on with him there.

It's kind of like he's got the yips back there. But Titans have to figure that out. It's been weird. I can't believe that Adore hasn't been able to fill that need. You know, you look at a guy like Darius Jennings, who I would imagine the Titans want back.

You look at what he did in the kick return game. It's kind of odd that they didn't give him any run back there. But, you know, NFL teams are odd like that. They'll kind of divvy that up and not really cross those lines. So I wonder if they had plans for Michael Campanaro, if he was going to get that role before he got hurt. So I think they tried to address it last year, and I think it kind of got undercut from them.

But I would imagine that they're going to do something because they tried Cam Batson, and we all saw how that went. Adoree just has too many mental blunders to stick back there anymore. Yeah, and that's one of the most confusing things about anything with this roster right now is how did Adore Jackson go from being what he was as a player at USC? And even early in his rookie year of the Titans, I think he had one callback in the preseason. I think he had one callback in an early regular season game last year. You know, we went for touchdowns, and he got called back from holding calls.

And I think both of them were, you know, kind of behind the plate. It didn't really matter. But this year, it was just a disaster. Like, he couldn't figure out when to catch the ball, when not to catch the ball. Actually, he just never caught it. Let it bounce. You know, I just don't understand what happened there. Like I said, I mean, I guess it's the case of the Yips.

So, yeah, I mean, here's the thing. If he's back there and he's, you know, making big plays for you, because there's a lot of people that don't want Adore back there catching punts anyway because, you know, he was starting corner and all that type of stuff. And, I mean, I get that argument. If he's back there and he's making big plays for you, then I think it's worth the risk. But if he's really just back there, you know, not catching the ball half the time, catching the ball and just getting lit up half the time,

it's not worth the risk in that situation. So, yeah, they need to figure out what they want to do there. They need to figure out if Adore can get fixed back there because, again, he's a guy that we have seen him be electric with the ball in his hands. So he's a guy that you want to take advantage of that skill set, but at the same time, the way that it went last year, it's just not worth the risk of getting him hurt and putting him out there on punt returns

if he's not going to do any better than what he did last year. All right, we will wrap it up with Dakota. Hey, y'all. This is Dakota in Memphis, Tennessee. About the draft, I would say maybe pick up an interior O-line, something like that. But I really think receiver, not everybody thinks receiver is a thing. I think receiver is kind of a need.

I mean, Corey Davis is Corey Davis. He can be your number one. You need a good gadget, good number two or three. Somebody I guess you can count on. Of course, I'm also of the belief that Marcus Mariota has not lived up to his potential and that he's not it for y'all. Or y'all, I say y'all because I'm a fan of the Titans. I'm not a Titans fan, if you get what I'm saying.

But, man, maybe that's why I think, because I'm looking at them from the outside looking at them. I think 2019 is going to be Mariota's interview or his application for another team. Hopefully he shoots off and y'all get to keep him. He does well for the rest of his career. I really loved him in college. I heard somebody explain him or call him an assassin, and I love accurate quarterbacks.

I really hope, you know, he works out. But anyway, thanks for taking my call, y'all. Y'all have a nice day. Bye. Yeah, receivers definitely need that. I would challenge you to find someone that disagrees with you on that statement. I think that the only conversation worth having at receiver right now, it's just like me and Jim have had so many times, whether to draft one or sign one or a couple.

So receivers definitely need it. It was definitely something that hampered this offense, hampered Marcus Mariota. On to Marcus Mariota himself. It's interesting when you get perspective from outsiders, how bad they think Marcus is. And I just

don't think that's fair to him. I don't think outsiders know the full story there. But look, I mean, Marcus at some point has to do it. He's going to get one more shot. You know, we keep saying it. He's going to get one more shot in 2019. New offensive coordinator.

We hope a whole new slew of receivers. We hope a couple new pieces on the offensive line. The pieces have not been great around him. The injury luck has been awful. offensive line. The pieces have not been great around him. The injury luck has been awful. It's just not fair to really grade him right now. But you can give him the caveat of he's been hurt, but at the same time, he's got to come out and prove that he can be healthy. So I think that's the only thing really holding him back.

If he can put together a healthy preseason, get through training camp, learn this offense, keep it rolling, you know, not have the week one slip up and the lingering elbow nerve issue for the entire year, I think you're going to see a pretty good season out of him. Yeah, I absolutely agree with everything you said there. Anybody that doesn't think receiver is a need is not watching this team or not looking at the names in that room. I think we can debate where on the list it falls. I don't think it's the number one need, but I think it's got to be in your top

two, three, four, however you want to word them there. So that's definitely true. And listen, you know, Marcus Mariota, it is what it is at this point, right? I mean, 2019 is his year to prove that he is a guy or he's not. And, you know, if we have the same type of year that we've seen the last couple of years, he'll go on and he'll play somewhere else, and we'll see if a change of scenery, you know, does him good. But at this point, you know, I don't have, you know, I don't have any kind of

prediction on what's going to happen. It's just there's been too much uncertainty with the whole situation. All right. So, again, we appreciate everybody calling in. If you want to be a part of the show next week, 615-787-8762. Everybody did really good this week with the voice bells and the time and all that stuff, so keep that up.

Keep them coming, and we'll obviously have a lot more stuff to talk about as we move closer to free agency in the draft. So I hope everybody has a good time watching the Super Bowl this week. We can all long for the time when the Titans are there. Hopefully that happens sooner rather than later. Anyway, thanks for listening to

this episode of Locked on Titans, and we will talk to you again next week.