Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: A look around the division in Free Agency

Episode Date: March 28, 2019

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Welcome in to another edition of Locked On Titans. I'm Jimmy Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you today? Pretty good. What's going on, man? Not a whole lot today. We're going to go around the division and talk about what the teams in the AFC South have done in free agency. Before we do that, remember to be right for beautyofmiracles.com. We're covering the Titans for SB Nation, so you can check us out there. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry's at tlamberttn. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry's at tlamberttn.

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leave about a minute-long message. If you have a reaction to any shows we do, a question, or a topic you'd like for us to cover, we'll be sure to get to that. Probably, it'll be next week before we do another one of those, but call in again at number 615-787-8762. Alright,

so, we have obviously three other teams in the division. We spent a lot of time talking about what the Titans have done. But some interesting moves and non-moves from other teams in the division. We'll start out talking about the Texans. You know, their biggest, I guess, target in free agency or the guy they needed to re-sign was Jadavion Clowney. They franchised him.

So I guess still working on a long-term deal there. But we know he'll be back with the Texans next year. Their other free agents of note that were on their roster last year, you had Tyron Matthews, the Honey Badger, Kareem Jackson, and Kevin Johnson. So you had a lot of that secondary there. And all of those guys have found new teams. Matthews signed with the Chiefs. Kevin Johnson

signed with the Bills. And Kareem Jackson signed with Denver. Now they did do a lot to upgrade their secondary. They signed Tayshaun Gibson from the Jags. They signed Bradley Roby from Denver. And then they also signed Brian Bodie Calhoun. So, I mean, I guess, you know, kind of we'll see there.

I don't know how that will play out. But the more interesting piece was the Texas offensive line was terrible last year. So you really thought that would be a place that they would attack in a free agency. And they did sign Matt Khalil, but that's all they've done so far. Matt Khalil has not been very good the last few years. So you would think that they'll be drafting offensive linemen early and often in this upcoming draft, but I think you're like me, a little bit surprised they didn't try to go out and do more to upgrade that offensive line. Yeah, absolutely.

You had Sean Watson, and you've got a franchise quarterback there. You want to take care of him. You know, what the Titans are doing with Marcus Mariota attempting to upgrade that offensive line, offensive line that was pro-average in the league already, trying to do more to protect him. You know, the hits add up, as we've seen with personal experience here. So you just fear for a guy like Deshaun, who's already suffered an ACL injury in his rookie season.

So pretty surprised Texans haven't done more there. That's just a quick fix. Getting a veteran that you don't have to rely on to develop, bringing them into the fold seems like a no-brainer there. They didn't go that route. So they had some things to them into the fold. Seems like a no-brainer there. They didn't go that route. So they had some things to address in the secondary. It's definitely a new look over there with Tayshaun Gibson and Bradley Roby and Bodie Calhoun.

So I think they upgraded with Roby there. Probably downgraded, losing Tyron Matthews to the Chiefs. That's a big signing for the Chiefs. Upgrading from Eric Berry, who his body seems to be failing him late in his career. So it'll be interesting to see how they recover from that. But, yeah, I think the main takeaway here is the Texans are planning on drafting offensive line, and Deshaun Watson better hope they follow through on that plan. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, like you said, he got hit. There was that one game where they put the Jaguars last year where Watson had to take a bus and the rest of the team took a plane because he had bruised lung and ribs or whatever it was, and they were afraid to put him on an airplane. So, yeah, you would think that they would be looking to do multiple things to upgrade the protection in front of him. They haven't done that yet, which obviously leads us to believe

that that's what they're going to do in the draft. The other move, they signed A.J. McCarron, a guy that's still bouncing around the league. He was with the Raiders the end of the year last year. So they got, I guess, an upgrade of their backup. I don't even know who their backup was last year. But, you know, McCarron's, I guess, pretty serviceable there. It was Whedon, wasn't it?

Yeah, at some point they had Whedon. Yeah, that's another guy that's bounced around. But anyway, yeah, so that's what the Texans have done. Like I said, just the surprising thing there is that they didn't work to upgrade their offensive line. All right, moving on to the Colts. And this is probably the most surprising of anything that's gone on in a free agency. They had something like $100 million in cap space that they could spend in 2019. And so we thought they'd be active early on.

Obviously, they could still upgrade their defense some, could use help at wide receiver outside of T.Y. Hilton. Outside of T.Y. Hilton, like I said, other players on defense. And so far, I mean, they did sign Justin Houston, which is a good signing, not somewhere that I was really hoping that he would go. They also signed Devin Funches, so they did, you know, I guess they upgraded their second wide receiver there. But, you know, really haven't done anything else. They re-signed Clayton Gathers.

They re-signed Pierre Desir, a couple members of that secondary. But I'm just really surprised that they didn't do more to try to upgrade their team and free agency. Yeah, it's an interesting spot because you like to set over $100 million in cap space. We were looking at their roster. They don't really have anyone worth re-signing coming up in the next two years. They had a really, really good draft last year. It just seemed like a spot where they could really maximize these next two years, go sign a couple of short-term contracts,

use some of that cap space because it's not being used right now. So it's a, it's a different approach. You know, I'm typically not spending, spending all your cap space, but I think the Colts needed to spend here. They had a chance to really blow it out of the water over the next one to two seasons.

They didn't take it here. But, you know, Justin Houston can still play. You know, that's a pass rusher that they didn't have last year. Really solidifies that front seven, which was pretty shockingly good considering how young they were. And Devin Funches, I think I like that one. I think he's an interesting piece. You know, Cam Newton's receivers really haven't produced,

but you put the same guy with Andrew Luck. It'll be interesting to see what he can do. That's a big red zone target, you know, adding another piece to that puzzle there with Ebron. I think he's a really interesting piece. He's an expensive piece. One year, $10 million kind of reminds me of the Dante Moncrief deal with Jacksonville last year.

But interested to see how that works. But, again, Indy had a chance to really become a contender and throw themselves into the forefront of the Super Bowl race, and they didn't do it. Yeah, and I don't know. It's weird. Because, I mean, I guess you've still got to call them, I think, the favorites in the AFC South

just with the way they ended the year last year and just that draft class and what you saw those guys be able to do. Obviously, Chris Ballard will have his second draft coming up here in a little bit. I think they're still in a good position, but it just would have made sense to go out and find a couple guys that you could give a bunch of money to on the short term where, like you're saying, there's really no way to spend all that money. And like you said, you don't want to go spend it all away on nothing

just for no reason. But at the same time, you know, it would have just made sense maybe to get a couple more guys. I really thought they'd be involved in Tyrell Williams. You know, that obviously is not how that played out. So it'll be interesting. It would have just made sense maybe to get a couple more guys. I really thought they'd be involved in Tyrell Williams. That obviously is not how that played out. It'll be interesting. Obviously, Chris Bowers, another one of these guys that comes from the school of you build through the draft, don't spend a bunch of money in free agency.

We understand that, and that's a smart way to go about things. But when you have all that money, know it just it doesn't it doesn't hurt to spend it and you know it's kind of the same deal titans have been in where you just didn't have you didn't have those guys coming up that you really needed to redo contracts for um so it puts you in a little weird spot but that's just that's really the most surprising thing to me they've got a bunch of guys from that list last from their roster last year that are still available. But really nobody, you know, nobody that anybody's rushing out to sign. But, I mean, look at their receivers, Ryan Grant and Dontrell Inman,

guys still out there. And that was their receiving core last year. So, obviously, they, you know, really did upgrade that. And, like you said, I think Funchess is a pretty nice addition there. All right, coming up, we will talk about the Jaguars, and then we'll talk about a couple other things to wrap up the show. Okay, so the Jaguars are always maybe the most interesting team in free agency. Obviously, their big acquisition this year was Nick Foles. They gave him way more money than he probably had to,

but he'll have that respect that he gets in the locker room because he makes all the money. So good for them on that. They finally lost some people. We've been wondering for years and years and years how they kept just signing people and not ever getting in cap trouble. But Malik Jackson signed with the Eagles.

Tayshaun Gibson, like we talked about, signed with Houston. You got Moncrief that left and went to the Raiders. Not the Raiders, the Steelers. So you got a few guys there. Eric Flowers left. So they actually had some guys that moved on different places. Obviously, they moved on from Blake Bortles.

They did sign a left tackle, Cedric, however you say his last name, in addition to the Foles signing. So, you know, it'll be interesting there. Like you said, they've been for years and years and years just signing people, signing people, signing people, and didn't seem to, you know, really have any repercussions from that. So you did see a little bit of pushback from that this year. But they signed Chris Colley, too, another guy that, you know,

has got some speed, you know, a guy that can do some things, maybe. But I guess, you know, really their whole offseason plan was clearing cap space and signing Nick Foles. Yeah, and they're all in. I'm fascinated to see how it works out for them. I think we can both agree that Foles is a pretty large upgrade over Blake Bortles. But how much of an upgrade is he getting out of that Eagle system

where you look at Nick Foles, he hasn't had success anywhere but Philadelphia. So that's always a concern when you sign a guy like that. Gave him four years, $88 million. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy. I get it, though. I totally get it. As a franchise who has been without a quarterback for so long,

I certainly get going all in for it. But, man, you don't have much longer with this core. No cap space. You've got Jalen Ramsey coming up, a couple other guys. You've shed a contract. You don't have Malik Jackson anymore. The core is starting to crumple. So I think the Jaguars' window is closing.

You've got to kind of applaud them for being aggressive and turning their franchise around. This is a franchise that three years ago was irrelevant, and now they were one step away from an AFC title game. So it was different. It's not how we've typically seen teams win. Now they're kind of going all in on this last step with Foles. So I think they'll be a little better for it,

but I'm not sure that this team is a playoff team after what we saw last year. That's the thing. We felt like coming into last season, if they could have gotten a quarterback, then they were legitimate Super Bowl contenders. That's what we saw from that defense in 2017. Things obviously didn't play out that way in 2018. I don't know. I guess looking at it, their offense is better with Nick Foles

than Blake Bortles, like you're saying. I mean, I think that's a pretty safe statement how much better. And I guess really the question is, is the offensive upgrade enough to offset the fact that the defense is not going to be as dominant as it was? They've still got a good defense. This year they're still going to have Bouye and James Ramsey. So, I mean, you've still got a lot of those pieces there.

But, I don't know, it's just interesting. And with the way things went down there, just with everything, how that locker room seemed to fall apart last year, I don't know. I wonder how that's going to play out because you're looking at a division that has pretty significantly upgraded from what it was two years ago. And the Titans, we feel like, have done some things to upgrade their team this offseason. And I don't know. I'm not sure, like you said, if this team is really ready to fight for a playoff spot at this point.

And again, maybe some of the dynamics will be different in the locker room this year. I don't know, but it just seems like with everything that went on there last year and how just the situation in that locker room sounds like it really deteriorated as the season went along. From the team that was pretty easily the frontrunner for the division going into last year, it's fun to watch how they fell off because, you know, we talked about their fans are the worst in America. But, I don't know, it's just funny how they were really a team

that for a lot of years was picked to be, you know, that next up-and-coming team, kind of the Cinderella. And they finally had one season, and then it just seemed like that window opened and shut all in that one year. Yeah, and can that defense get the magic back? Because they didn't have it last year. And it was pretty clear that once things started going south, they kind of just threw in the towel in the season. But can you get that magic back?

Man, it's tough. NFL is fickle. It changes on a dime. So I'm not sure they can. Offensively, sure, you've signed the quarterback now. You've got Foles. Run game's still bad, and they've invested a lot in it. Offensive line is still bad.

They've got question marks there. A-hand is back as the guard there. He's not very good. I don't know that Leonard Fournette is enough to to carry that team you know we've seen him not even be able to stay on the field he's always hurt uh that that pick of him uh in in the top five picks just crazy just insane for for the positional value of what running back is now so uh jaguars have made some mistakes along the way um it's looking like it's going to bite them.

I just don't think they have enough firepower offensively still with Foles. And I think that defense is past its prime. But we'll see. We didn't expect them to come back two years ago and be the best defense in the league. So maybe they can get it back, but I'm skeptical. Yeah, I'm with you. All right, a couple of just odds and ends to finish up today.

There's been a lot of chatter from, I think, J.J. Watt and DeAndre Hopkins both about the Texans wanting to wear Oilers throwback uniforms. And, I mean, I think they understand why they can't. The franchise is not being connected there. You know, Paul Kaharski asked Amy Adams-Shrunk about it at the owners' meetings and, you know, basically said there's no way that's ever going to happen. It makes sense because the Titans franchise is still that oldest franchise. But I think especially as long as you've got Bud Adams' family in control of the franchise,

that's not something they'd ever be willing to give in to. I don't think that's something that could logistically happen anyway. But Paul asked her if the Titans would ever think about wearing Oilers throwbacks. And she said something along the lines of, you know, put out a survey to fans and if fans wanted to see it, that might be something that they would be interested in. I don't know where you come down on that. I was not an Oilers fan. I was not a fan of the franchise until they moved here um and of course you know you were too young to probably even remember when

they were the oilers um but i i mean i i get i listen i'm all for if it makes the texans mad that they can't do it i'm all for not letting them do it um but i just i you know people get all fired about franchise records and you know the the Oilers versus Titans and all that stuff. I just really don't care about anything that happened before really 1999, even when they moved here in what, 98 or 97, I guess. They played two years as the Tennessee Oilers. Really, the only things that I care about, records and that kind of stuff, all that starts in 99 for me. I'm with you. I don't really

have a connection to the oilers obviously you know i'm too young to have a connection to the oilers but i will say this oilers uniforms the oilers logo that's classic nfl and you know it's hard to beat that from a pure look standpoint i just think that's some of the cleanest looking uniforms just it you know when i see that it makes me think of 1980s football makes me think pure look standpoint. I just think that's some of the cleanest looking uniforms. Just, you know, when I see that, it makes me think of 1980s football. It makes me think of Earl Campbell. I'm for getting that look back on the field in some capacity. I know they've done it before.

I'm definitely for the changeup. I think it would be really awesome to see that in the modern-day NFL once again. Yeah, I guess it's been. I don't remember the last time they wore them. I feel like one of those – I want to say it was like 2010. Yeah, one of those big Chris Johnson games, I feel like. They were in those. And a lot of those uniforms are coming back around, right?

I mean, the Rams will wear their throwback to that era a lot. The Chargers will powder blues a lot of times. And I think you said the Eagles have gotten approved to wear their old helmet a few times. I mean, it's funny how all those things roll around. And then when you think about the Titans, I mean, at this point, I guess they have a throwback uniform now that they changed their uniforms last year.

So they do have some of the difference. But for the longest time, if you wanted something Titans, you didn't have anything. I think they wore something even older than the Oilers at one point. But anyway, it's just a funny discussion. Like I said, people get really fired up about it. But for me, it's just I don't care about it. But it doesn't make any sense for the Texans to have it.

I mean, I get there are people houston that were loyalers fans that are probably now texans fans because they you know didn't care about the team once it moved they're mad about adams or whatever and so they probably just didn't really follow a team or pick somebody else until the until the texans came into existence um but i don't know it's just one of those funny things that gets debated around uh from time to time and like you said it would be cool to see the titans wear those every now and then. And like I said, Amy Armstrong said that that could possibly happen. But with the new uniforms just coming into existence last year,

I'm sure it'll be a couple years before they do something like that. All right, that'll do it for today. Probably the last show that we do this week. We had a couple scheduling things come up last night, so we weren't able to get with Ludyard. But we'll with him next week dive in and draft stuff with him and we'll really get into draft prospects and all that kind of stuff uh for the next couple weeks we'll have mellow justin mellow on and some other people so uh be tuned at music miracles.com between now and then check out everything we got going on there follow us on twitter i'm at jay morris mcm. Terry's at tlamberttn.

Again, we're Reader Podcast, Himalaya, Google, Spotify, Apple, whatever it is. Just subscribe. You get the new shows as soon as they come out. And if you've got a smart speaker, play podcast Locked on Titans. So for Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks for listening to Locked on Titans

and we'll talk to you again next week.