Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: A running back in the first round?

Episode Date: February 22, 2018

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Welcome in to another edition of Locked on Titans. I am Jimmy Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert, squeezing us in tonight during halftime of the Vols game. Terry, how are you doing? I'm busy, I'm busy, but it's good to be on. Glad we could make it work tonight and ready to talk some running backs. Absolutely. So before we do that, again, we will say subscribe to the podcast, please. iTunes, Stitcher, wherever you get podcasts. Just search out Locked on Titans. You'll find us there. Follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry's at tlimbertfb. The podcast account at Locked on Titans.

So follow all of those on Twitter. And again, we'll do a Q&A thing next week before the combine from the Locked on Titans account. So follow us there so you can get in on that. And check us out at museummiracles.com. That's where we cover the Titans for SB Nation, so we have all this stuff and the news as it breaks during the day there.

So everything you need to know before we get started here. The running back discussion just kind of led this morning. Mel Kiper put out, I guess, his second mock draft of the 2018 season. And, you know, we've talked a lot about how pretty much every mock draft between now and at least free agency was going to have the Titans picking an edge player. Well, Kuyper went a different direction this morning, and he had the Titans taking running back, which was the first time that I'd seen that. Now, we've talked about running back being a need for this team. back which was the first time that i'd seen that now we've talked about running back being a need for this team but we'll get into this a little bit more after we talk specifically about ronald jones who's a running back that um that kyber had the titans taking out of usc so let's talk about

him first a little bit and then we'll kind of get into running back in the first round discussion terry give me your quick thoughts on ronald jones uh it's kind of scary. He's actually like a carbon copy of Jamal Charles, right down to the number. He's kind of a wiry guy, a guy that's shifty, a guy that's patient. He really lets the blocks develop. He's not going to just run into the crowd. He's going to be patient. A guy that bounces some runs outside.

He's just really he's decisive uh and explosive so i really enjoyed watching him at usc i think you know if you miss on on barkley you miss on darius geis he's right there as your your third option maybe even to be um so i i'm a big fan of ronald jones uh as you were saying i'm not sure about him in the first round i think there's better value especially if you're the titans uh you know i don't think we necessarily think that running back is the most pressing need but as i was saying you know if the board falls a certain way and and you and like we talked about last night, don't force picks. Don't force an edge rusher if you don't like the player.

I could see it happening. Yeah, so it's interesting to discuss. On Ronald Jones really quickly, I don't watch any USC. I think they come on after my bedtime. But he only caught 32 passes in his career. Does USC not throw to the running back, or did they just not use him in that way? I mean, that would kind of be my – kind of a red flag there for me. But then if you go look, like Sonny Michel, who I'm in love with,

he didn't catch very many passes either. So, I mean, it's kind of, I guess, hypocritical of me to not like Ronald Jones because he didn't catch many passes. But that was just something that jumped out to me was he had 14 catches this year, 11 last year, and then seven the year before that. So it wasn't like they used him a lot in that role. Doesn't mean he can't do it, but it's just not something that he did a lot in college. So I thought that was kind of interesting.

Yeah, as far as running back in the first round goes, okay, let's look at it from the perspective of kuyper's mock because i mean i i am pretty much 100 anti running back in the first round like you said there i'm sure there are some scenarios where just everything that they need slash want it goes in the first 24 picks and so then the best player available is a running back. He's the guy that's going to come in and make the biggest difference on day one for this team in 2018. So sure, in that scenario, you take that guy and roll with him. But I just feel like this running back class seems to be pretty deep.

And I don't know that your best use of resources is taking a running back in the first round. We've seen so many guys that have been taken later in the draft and have come on and have been great players. Look at Alvin Kamara this year. Just look at the impact that he made. He was, what, like a fourth-round pick? I don't know that you need to spend that draft capital on that position

when it seems like what's the drop-off between ronald jones and you know sonny michelle or whoever else in this class that you could get in the second or third round is it really worth using that pick on him now and again just real quick before you before we get on that uh kaiber only has two edge rushers going in the first round in his mock which is just utterly ridiculous we talked last night about how those guys get pushed up boards. We know how important those guys are in today's NFL. There's no way only two of those guys go. My biggest beef with this pick is Harold Landry still on the board,

and I just don't see any way you can take Ronald Jones with Harold Landry sitting there. It's kind of strange how Big Draft is just kind of pushing Harold Landry down. I don't know. It feels weird because I turn on the tape of Landry, and he just looks like a franchise-type pass rusher. So I don't know what I'm missing there. Maybe it becomes clear to everybody after the combine.

I think it will. But back to your point about picking Ronald Jones in the first, I understand it's not the thing to do because this class is just ridiculously deep. You've got Kerryon Johnson, Sonny Michelle, Nick Chubb, Mark Walton, Josh Adams, Akram Wadley, you've got Bo Scarborough down in there somewhere, John Kelly. The list goes on and on and on and on. I've been saying you're going to get productive guys into the fifth and sixth round so from that standpoint no but if you think ronald jones is the the home run hitter if he is the guy that comes and transforms this

offense then yeah i don't have a problem taking him at 25 but i would have a huge problem passing up a pass rusher like Harold Landry. Now, is that going to happen? Is Landry going to be available for 25? I still say no. So I think it's going to be a really interesting conversation at 25 for John Robinson. I think it's going to come down to a guy like, you know, maybe a corner like Josh Jackson, maybe a linebacker like Rashawn Evans or something like that. I don't think we're going to have a real good idea. But, you know, I'm not totally writing off the running back in the first round.

And it doesn't have to be Ronald Jones either. I think Sonny Michelle is going to get into that mix. Maybe Geis falls down. So I don't know. It's definitely not high up on my list, but I'd be okay with it. I'd probably talk myself into it. Yeah, and we are going to have a pretty in-depth conversation with John Ledyard next week about the running backs in this class because I know he's already done, I think, pretty extensive work on them.

So we will get a little bit more into that next week and about just I guess how the class breaks down and again what you're talking where's the where's the big drop off from one tier the next and and all that kind of stuff because i think that is important it's important to have that conversation because when you're talking about we don't want this guy here well what if you know like you said if you've got geis and and whoever else right right together if they're if they're both sitting there at 25 do you go ahead and take one of those ranked right together, if they're both sitting there at 25, do you go ahead and take one of those guys? Or because they're both sitting there, do you say, okay, well, we can wait until the second round

because we know we've got four guys ranked similarly. We know at least one of them is going to be available when we pick in the second round. And all that stuff will be fluid, obviously, and we won't know any of that until a draft comes about who's going to be there, and we'll obviously never know exactly how the Titans have that stuff ranked out. So it's an interesting discussion. But again, I just still kind of think that there's going to be a better use of that first-round pick. But again, if this is the guy that comes in and puts your offense over the top, I guess do it. But I just don't feel like you're going to have that definitive of an answer

on one guy versus the next three on your board. So that's kind of why I'm anti-first-round running back. But like I said, we'll watch how it all plays out. All right, so we're going to have a little bit of discussion, continue kind of the running back theme, talking about a couple of free agent running backs that different media people have tied to the Titans today and kind of how we think they would fit in this system.

All right, so the first guy we're going to talk about is Carlos Hyde. Greg Cosell in the Midday 180 talked about Hyde being a good fit for this team. He's a guy that it's not the first time that Cosell has brought him up, and you've seen it other places as well. You know, he's an interesting guy for me. He did not have a particularly effective year in 2017 with the 49ers in a Kyle Shanahan system, which we think is going to be similar to what the Titans are going to do with LeFleur.

So, I mean, I don't know. You know, from one standpoint, his skill set looks like it makes sense, but I'm a little bit hesitant just based off of what he did last year. Now, there were some extenuating circumstances there. Offensive line, not nearly as good as this one. Quarterback play before they got, you know, Jimmy G, the greatest quarterback in the history of the world. Before they got him, you had C.J. Beathard and those type guys out there.

So there were some of those circumstances that play in. But I just don't know. I guess the point here is I would not be satisfied with where the running back group is if they open training camp with just Derrick Henry and Carlos Hyde. If you sign Carlos Hyde, to me, that's throwing in the towel on Derrick Henry because Hyde's not a role piece. He's a guy that's going to come in. He's going to be your workhorse, and he's not going to come cheap.

So that's a large investment and a workhorse back. So where does that leave Derrick Henry? That's my main thing. And I'm not blown away by Carlos Hyde. It is funny, though. I mean, he probably should have been the pick over Bishop Sankey years ago where just about everybody in the league was higher on Carlos Hyde. But the Titans made Bishop Sankey the first pick, the first running back selection in that draft,

and it just failed miserably. But still, I i just you know 27 years old i'm not a big fan of signing up to pay running backs over 25 years old you know when you can you can find one easily you can you can match that production in the draft probably on day two easily yeah sure so i mean again that that would be where i would be leaning as well uh there was another article from i think mark sessler's the guy named nfl network who tied jerek mckinnon he went kind of through he went through and did tie the free agents every afc afc team and jerek mckinnon was the guy he paired with the titans that one makes sense to me i mean mckinnon is

you know one of those spark freaks. Draft people on Twitter love him. Doesn't get as many chances as most people thought he probably should have in Minnesota. Was a huge part of their passing game there. So, I mean, all those things make sense. I mean, he had 51 catches

in 2017 for the Vikings. So, I mean, a guy that would be a perfect compliment to Derrick Henry. And a guy, a guy that would be a perfect complement to Derrick Henry and a guy that I think we would be a lot happier with that committee, with Henry and McKinnon versus Henry and Hyde. Now, the thing with McKinnon is he's probably going to command a little bit more money. McKinnon said at the end of the year that he wanted to go somewhere

where he could be the feature back. Terry and I were talking about before we jumped on, that opportunity is probably not out there so he's going to have to adjust that a little bit but i mean i think he could play a really a really important role here and would be a guy that would really give this offense something that it doesn't currently have but then the conversation just shifts to how much you're going to pay him because if you're looking we were talking about guys like that like a theo rid Riddick, Chris Thompson before we came on, and kind of looking at their cap numbers, and you're looking at about $3 or $4 million per year.

I mean, I'd be happy paying Jarek McKinnon that for two or three years, four years even, if that's what it takes. But I don't know. I'm not sure that he's going to be willing to sign for that. takes but i don't know i'm not sure that he's going to be willing to sign for that but again if that's all that the market for him is willing to bear then eventually he's going to have to adjust his expectations and go somewhere where he has at least a specific role carved out and i think he would have that here with the tux yeah i think he would and i'm really interested to see this this market develop because teams aren't stupid you know they know what's coming in the draft uh so are they gonna really sign up to pay mckinnon five million a year um you know you talk about guys like rex burkhead dion lewis i just don't know what kind of money they're gonna command uh so you kind of

if you start to get to week two of free agency, maybe you can get those guys for cheaper. Maybe they kind of realize what their market value is. So, yeah, I think those are three names, the names I just listed, Deion Lewis and Rex Burkhead, along with McKinnon. I think those are three names to watch. Those are three names that would really improve this offense,

would give Marcuscus mario to a check down option and again not to say that derrick henry can't do that but we saw the lapses in pass protection uh we saw this team not trust him on third down for a reason i know we we rag on malarkey a lot but there was a reason he wasn't out there uh third downs, and there was a reason they begged DeMarco Murray to play on a torn-up knee. So I don't think Henry's a complete player. I think he needs that compliment, but I'm going to be interested to see if they go veteran or if they're comfortable trusting a rookie.

Yeah, and just quickly, Deion Lewis and Rex Burkhead are interesting names. Obviously we know the ties that this team has with the Patriots. I think at least one of those guys ends up back in New England. I can't see them letting both of those guys walk. But how much money is Deion Lewis going to come in on this market? Because he showed last year, when the other guys were hurt, that he has the ability to be the every down back. He's a guy that can run between the tackles, they can pass protect,

they can catch passes out of the backfield. That's a valuable guy. Now, again, he's probably not going to get the money he would even four or five years ago because teams don't use that every down back as much as they used to. He's a guy that's interesting and I think a guy to keep an eye on because he could come in here and play in front of Derrick Henry

versus, you know, a Rex Burkhead or, you know, the other guys we've been talking about, Jerick McKinnon, coming in here and sharing time and having that role. You know, if they signed Deion Lewis, they might be bringing him in here to be the guy. So, I mean, that's just kind of all stuff to keep an eye on. But, again, I think he's going to get a little bit more money than these other guys that are kind of role players. But, you know, like I said, we'll keep an eye on all this, and we'll learn a lot about the draft stuff, and we've talked a lot about this,

but we'll learn about the draft stuff after free agency because we're going to know where Deion Lewis, Rex Burkhead, Jerry McKinnon, Carlos Hyde, we're going to know where all those guys are going to end up long before the draft ever rolls around. And so that will give us kind of a better idea of what the Titans are thinking. Terry, any thoughts on any of that before we head out? I'm interested to see how Derrick Henry takes this. You know, if they go out and sign Deion Lewis, how will he take it?

Will he kind of pout and be disappointed, or will he come out and say, this is my job? So it really probably should be his time to shine. I think he's earned that. But, yeah, it would almost be disappointing not to see him get that shot. Yeah, and I don't want to be the guy that has to tell him if they sign Deion Lewis. Have you seen his Instagram work? I mean, that dude, like, yeah, I'm not going gonna be the one to deliver that new derrick henry all right well

that'll do it for tonight like i said next week we will really dive heavy into combine stuff because that'll be the week leading up to the combine then obviously we'll have a lot of recaps up the week after uh once we see how guys have gone and tested and all that stuff so keep an eye out for that again check out the site music miracles.com have a ton of content going tested and all that stuff. So keep an eye out for that. Again, check out the site, musicseamiracles.com. Have a ton of content going up with all this stuff. And, you know, there's been news trickling out over the last little bit, and obviously that will ramp up through next week into the combine. So follow us there.

Again, Twitter, at jmorrismcn, at tlambertfb, at LockedOnTitans. Check all that out. Subscribe to the podcast. We'll be back next week with at least three more episodes. And like I said, we're going to have John Ledyard on, a really knowledgeable draft guy. We'll have him on Monday of next week, so the episode will post on Tuesday. We'll have him on, getting his thoughts on this running back class. So for Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks for listening to Locked on Titans,

and we'll talk to you next week.