Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Crossing over with Locked on Texans

Episode Date: April 3, 2018

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Welcome in to another edition of Locked On Titans. I'm Jimmy Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert. Terry, are you tonight? Doing well. What's going on, Jimmy? Not too much. Tonight we have two very special guests with us, Brian Patterson and Robert Land from Locked On Texans. We're going to bring them in here in just a second to give us all of the information about Mike Vrabel and then about the Houston Texans offseason. Before we do that, remind you, as always, you can follow our work on the Titans, MuselyMiracles.com, where we cover the team for SB Nation. You can follow us on Twitter.

I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry is at tlambertfb. The podcast account on Twitter at LockedOnTitans. Follow us there as well. And then you can find us wherever you get your podcasts. iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, wherever it is you're looking to find us, you can find us there. So we'd appreciate you giving us a follow. And

when you do that, you get the latest episodes whenever they become available. Like I said, tonight we are joined by Robert Land and Brian Patterson. They are LockedOnTitans, or LockedOnTexans, sorry. You can find them there. by Robert Land and Brian Patterson. They are locked on Texan. You can find them there. You can also find them at houseofhouston.com

and in various other Houston websites, podcasts. We'll let them tell you a little bit more about that as we go along. You can also check. We're kind of doing a crossover thing here. We'll let you know when their episode that we recorded earlier tonight uh is available where we talked titans with them so um obviously you know the most i guess important or the most pressing thing that the titans titans we as titans fans quite have questions for them is about mike variable mike variable comes from the texans the defensive coordinator there in 2017. So guys, if you could just give us your thoughts real quickly on Mike Vrabel as a

defensive coordinator and how you think Mike Vrabel will do as an NFL head coach. With Vrabel, you know, the situation with him is that this is eventually going to happen. He's like, I don't know, for some reason, he's like the golden boy and everybody wants him. You know, he was the linebackers coach, and then he was promoted to defensive coordinator. They had to do something or else they were going to lose him because he had interviewed with various positions. I mean, the 49ers interviewed him back before the start of last season,

so he was eventually going to leave. But with the way the defense looked, it looked like they had taken a step of last season so he was eventually going to leave but with the way the defense looked it looked like they had taken a step back last season even with the injuries it looked like guys were out of place and now our old defensive coordinator you know romeo crumnell who's now the you know he still holds the title of assistant head coach and now he's going to take the defensive call playing back i think we're going to be fine but I that was his first year wet behind the ears but things just didn't look right with him at the helm but the thing about Mike Vrabel is is that he looks like a coach right out of central casting I mean he needs to be in a football movie because he looks just like a head coach you know with the

headset on and the polo shirt and whatnot so at least you have that going for you but the way texans fans felt whenever he got hired by another team was see you don't let the doorknob hit you on the way out so i mean that's the way i feel as well so good luck to you guys maybe just in his role he's gonna have good people surrounding him to help him make the decisions that are needed but um again i you know i wish him the best of luck but not when you guys are playing us that's for sure if you guys just looked out of position when when he was the as the defensive coordinator they just didn't look like uh they were where they were supposed to be as as much as when romeo was the

defensive coordinator. And I think the thing with Vrabel is, you know, I think with all these head coaches, I want to say that it's so much more about hiring a great staff. And from talking to you guys, that's what he's done so far. So maybe it'll work out that way. As a position coach, he looked great. I mean, he was the linebacker position coach. Everybody praised him you know i was out there from day one when mike vrabel uh was hired and

i remember watching him work with the linebackers and he's just you know in your face he's he's that you know type a guy that everybody uh would want to have as your position coach he's you know brings the you know the super bowl pedigree and the whole thing. But let's see. I mean, it's kind of a we'll see what happens when a guy turns into a head coach and see what he can do with it. But he just didn't seem like he knew quite what he was doing as a defensive coordinator for most of the year.

Yeah, I wanted to go a little deeper on that. I know you guys had some injuries down there that really derailed the season. So when Vrabel was hired here, everybody pointed to his defensive stats, and the Texans ranked near the bottom of the pack in defense last year. What was up with that? I know there were some injuries there, but you guys have already said some guys were out of place. Can you point to anything specifically?

Was it scheme-related? What was the deal there i really think that jadavion clowny probably could have had an even better season i mean he was pretty solid um out there but um you know putting him at an outside linebacker and rob we have debated this on the end you know this guy is a defensive end he needs to have the freedom to go about and do what he needs now toward the end of the season he was allowed to do that because you know things are already going south but i just think that with jay bionconi they did not use him as effectively as i thought that they should have uh even though he was a pro bowler he made it but i think they could have done better with that he should have. Even though he was a pro bowler, he made it. But I think they could have done better with that.

He could have been even better than what he had outputted as far as performance. Just guys weren't where they were supposed to be in the secondary. We pointed to the injuries at times, but keep in mind J.J. Watt went out early this past year, but he also went out early the previous year. So Romeo really didn't have JJ much at all the previous year. And they were one of the best defenses. Now, the other thing that

everybody's going to point to, of course, is they lost two, two main guys, AJ Boye, who was one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL this past season. And he was an up and comer with the Texans, you know, put up some great numbers from a defensive standpoint, but, you know, losing Whitney Merciless was also something because, yeah, you didn't have the pass rush. But it was just more than that. I mean, I don't know how to explain it, but it just didn't seem like the guys were quite where they needed to be.

And I put a lot of that on him. I mean, I think I would say 70% of the problems with the Texans on defense were him. And then 20 or 25 to 30% would probably be on losing merciless and AJ Boye. Okay. So moving on from Mike Vrabel, obviously you had the injuries on defense. You also had the injury to Deshaun watson touching that a little bit if everybody stays healthy for the texans what do you think the record would have been in 2017 do you think they would have been in the mix for the division championship absolutely without a doubt and my prediction from the start you know and rob that we did a two-parter

on just predicting the schedule uh whenever it was released and my prediction was 10 and 6 and i think it would have stayed intact had deshaun watson stayed healthy because he meant so much to the team in terms of giving them a chance to win and you know that's just one win improvement from the season previous but 10 and 6 can get you far in the afc. I don't know what it's going to do this year. It may take a little more because it's going to be so competitive, but that's what I would have stuck with for the entire 2017. I didn't think we were going to be 4-12, even with the injuries, but the losses just kept racking up. Tom Savage wasn't getting any better, and, you know, I don't know what kind of losing streak we

were on i stopped counting after you know the losses kept racking up i honestly did not know how many we lost uh in a row after that fourth win so you know it's it's just you know i well of course you can count it but you know i just wasn't really thinking about that i was already thinking about 2018 and what deshaun watson was going to look like don't forget Deshaun also played in the toughest part of the Texan schedule he had to go to the Patriots and they lost a close game he had to go to Seattle and they lost a close game they got the Chiefs when the Chiefs were absolutely rolling early in the season and and then they lost J.J. Whitney Merciless you know right at the beginning of that game, those were his three losses. When you look at the Texans' second half of their schedule, the schedule after Deshaun

Watson was injured, it wasn't anywhere near as difficult. I mean, Jimmy Garoppolo being a part of the 49ers when the Texans played them, it was a little bit tougher than we thought it was going to be because they didn't have Jimmy Garoppolo, obviously, when the season started. But, yeah, I think at least 8-8. I mean, I would think they would have been over 500. I don't know if I would go as far as Brian is 10-6, but I think at least 9-7 would have been fair. Staying with Deshaun Watson, first of all, is there any update on his recovery?

Is he going to be ready for training camp? And secondly, any concerns with Watson in year two? You know, you kind of see NFL defensive coordinators start to figure things out. You see rookie quarterbacks burst onto the scene and then kind of fall off in year two. Any of those concerns for 2018? Absolutely not. I am not concerned that Desha watson is going to have a drop off if anything he's going to be better i am concerned about his long-term status in terms of injuries acl injuries are no joke and that's why i feel

that texas really need to look at who is going to be backing him up. We signed Brandon Whedon to a one-year deal, you know, about a million dollars with about $90,000 with the signing bonus and about close to, what, $800,000 guaranteed if he, you know, plays all of his games. But aside from all those numbers, I'm just not real trusting of Brandon Whedon at this time running this offense. He'll win you a few games, but can he get you to the promised land? You know, that dog didn't hunt with the Cowboys. It tried to hunt with the Browns, and now he's here. I mean, he is a good backup, you know, a guy that can do those things for you, but we need to get serious about someone

who actually is going to be able to run this offense just like he can i know it's hard to find a player exactly like him but there are guys that have those traits even better than brandon whedon so i i think honestly we are not done as far as finding who is going to be the suitable number two backup for deshaun watson and then in regard to if he's going to be ready there are reports coming out that he is going to be ready for OTAs so he he won't be like you know hard hitting or whatnot just throwing but at least he'll be out there but that is just all preliminary I don't know if Deshaun Watson could keep scoring 30 points a game on average going forward. I think they're going to catch up to him a little bit. But I also think he played behind the worst offensive line in the NFL last year.

They were terrible. And I would hope they would at least be a little bit better this year. They've made some additions. We like where they've added some guys and what they're doing there. But they're not there uh but they're not adding all pro pro bowl type guys so we'll see how it works out but if you look at what deshaun watson had to work with it was it wasn't the most incredible offense in the world to work with i mean deandre hopkins was extraordinary and and he made deandre hopkins uh back to the

extraordinary guy that we've seen in the past. And he turned Will Fuller into the deep threat that we always knew that he could. That's what Deshaun Watson can do for you. The thing that we're probably most concerned about on offense outside of the offensive line is the tight end position. They still haven't addressed that. They lost their starting tight end. He had to retire C.J. fedorowicz because of concussions and so now they're left with really ryan griffin who had

concussions issues last year he had a couple himself and then a guy that was an underdrafted free agent and steven anderson so you would like the texans to have somebody at tight end that could help deshaun watson out a little bit one thing that we've mentioned a couple times on our show the fact that they don't they didn't even have a tight end that could help Deshaun Watson out a little bit. One thing that we've mentioned a couple of times on our show, the fact that they don't, they didn't even have a tight end that could block. They didn't have a dual threat tight end. And when you have a quarterback like Deshaun Watson, you want to make them think that you can do either thing with any play. And, and I think if they can get that dual threat guy, you know, the guy that we'd like to see him sign is somebody like Mercedes Lewis. But if they could get somebody like that,

Deshaun Watson would even have more weapons to work with, and he could do more. But I don't know if he could continue 30 a game. That's tough to keep up. Yeah, yeah, it is. And you know what? I would not be surprised if the Texans, their first pick in the third round, if they stay in the third round they go for a tight

end because with cj fedora's fedora was his uh retirement it it is definitely a dire need we we need to go and get a tight end uh and we need to do both get a veteran and then bring somebody in to groom because that is a very important position especially with deshaun watson at the helm adam shaheen would be a perfect guy. I don't know if he's going to be available by the time we pick or if we're going to go up and get him, but he's kind of got that similar trait of Fedorowicz, hopefully not being able to sustain the concussions.

He was able to always find a way to get him, and that was just unfortunate with that. But he's 6'6", 278 pounds really athletic and versatile which is one of the important traits of being a Houston Texan you got to be versatile you got to be able to do more than one thing and you've got a roster spot on this team but I really would like to see the Texans go for a tight end early and then work on the offensive line after that. Versatility is kind of a drinking game for us over here. Yeah there you go yeah it seems to be quite the buzzword around the nfl these days all right so coming up we will ask about the texans offseason where uh guys that

are in guys that are out and kind of get these guys thoughts on the grade that they would give the Titans or the Texans to this point. All right, so we know, obviously, you know, the honey badger, I guess, is the big thing that the big signing that we've seen from the Texans. But kind of tell us who's new to the Texans as far as free agents, who left the Texans as far as free agents. And like I said, what would you grade their offseason to this point at this point i would give it a b plus yes yeah it i there's still there's still some answers they need to solve on the offensive line i'm still not pleased i think we're still missing something but if they can find it in the draft then i can bump

that easily up to an a but but tyron matthew that because i had it at a c i was like it's passing you know they were able to get some help on the offensive line but tyron matthew that was a good answer right there aaron colvin's a good pickup too you know what i'm being kind of rough probably would have put it up to maybe a b minus because the aaron colvin signing i didn't think he was going to be available and we were able to go out and get him but uh the other rare signings like zach fulton and incinio calamente i think those are going to make big differences as well uh i am still out on chantrell henderson i don't know what this held you know what he's gone through and he has been to hell and back you know trying to get himself back on the field it would be an inspiration

to me uh if i saw him out there uh playing left tackle you know somewhere you know during the season but we're just gonna have to see about that uh but i i definitely give this this is a a very surprising free agency for me. We're usually not active in free agency, guys. You know, when free agency comes, yeah, we just sit back and just wait on the draft because that's usually where we do our damage. But because we have money this season and because we don't have a first or second round pick, this is something that we had no choice to do but to hit hit it big and free agency and they've done so so far with our new GM the Texans never have a good safety I mean I think they've got one year out of Daniel Manning that was decent and they got one year or two years

out of Marcus Coleman early on in the franchise so the Tyron Matthews signing was a huge deal here. I mean, obviously, he's a name guy. The Texans, you know, they they're not known for big splashes in free agency or name guys. I mean, Brock Osweiler was their name guy. And obviously that worked out great. they did in free agency to to add Aaron Colvin uh losing Boye the previous year was just massive and to get Colvin especially with veterans like Jonathan Joseph and Kareem Jackson looking like they're closer to the end and the beginning they're starting to get injury problems that was huge so those those were the two big ones now the offensive line they they were terrible just to give an idea for Titans fans how bad they were the numbers the pro football focus numbers of almost every guy in the offensive line was in the 30s and if you if you're not good with math 30s out of 100 is not good so uh yeah that was a huge deal for them to do some stuff with the offensive line they tried to go after nate solder

for them to do some stuff with the offensive line. They tried to go after Nate Solder. That didn't work out, but they got three guys that maybe under the radar guys, and they could work out. Chantrell Henderson at tackle has a ton of talent, but he's somebody at Buffalo that has dealt with Crohn's disease. It's an incredible story. He had his intestines operated on.

I think they had to take out part of his intestines. I mean, it was a major deal. And this guy was somebody that looked really good early in his career, but has been recovering from that. Uh, he's got a couple of marijuana convictions or a couple of marijuana infractions against them, working against them as far as, uh, maybe the third, the third one is not a good deal if he got another, um, another drug suspension. So that's a concern. But, you know, he's got some talent. Zach Fulton just was a numbers game in Kansas City.

His numbers were pretty decent as a guard. And then they added one other guy, Senio Calamente, who bounced around with New Orleans. But one of the Saints offensive linesmen said, you know, he was our team MVP this past year. So if those three guys can give you just a little bit better, which I think they can, than the guys that they had, then that's a huge deal for the Texans.

If they can just get some decent play on the offensive line, we would take average at this point. Yes. That's a perfect transition to my next question. I'm going to tee one up for you all, and you all feel free to knock it out of the park. Tell Titans fans what they're going to see out of Xavier Suofilo. He's probably not going to see. Go ahead.

Nothing good. No, I mean, the only positive i could say is you know uh if our offensive coordinator maybe he just did a terrible job with them because he has the physical skills it was just you would see that one or two or three or four plays where he gets beat really badly on a pass rush or something like that. A guy just blows by him, and you wonder why, because his footwork for a big man doesn't look bad most of the time. He just never developed that consistency. Now, we saw a guy here in Brandon Brooks that was good,

better than Xavier Suofilo that took a major jump with the Philadelphia Eagles, was on the Super Bowl champion, was a pro bowler. And maybe Suofilo can take that kind of jump once he gets out of Houston. But my concern with the guy is it's the consistency, and I don't know if he ever gets that. I mean, I just, you know, that's something that I don't know if it's, he's got the heart. I just don't know.

I don't know what the problem is, but he just never could do that and and I know Brian is probably more down on him than I am so there you go go go ahead Brian I teed that up for you oh I appreciate it yeah the things that the Titans fans are going to see I mean it's just going to be a situation of is he going to get on the field is because he's going to be going into a new system that he's going to have to learn uh one of the things is that he's going to see is he going to see the field i mean um it's just um one of those things um as far as uh what he's doing uh out there but uh what what i i do see from uh xavier suofilo is is potential, maybe with a new staff. And again, I'm surprised that Mike Devlin wasn't a casualty this season because they were so bad, but it looks like they're going to give him another shot. But I forget who your offensive line coach is and if, you know, is he any good?

Is he, you know, respected in the league? But maybe with just new coaching, this is just going to help this guy out. Suofilo is definitely a guy that, that you know you want to have on your team as far as his character i mean that's why he's a houston texan i always felt that we went a little high with him when we drafted him but um you know i understood the reason why they had to do it but we could have had derrick carr i won't go there but again you, I was just expecting him to blossom, but it just didn't quite work out. I currently have, and I've written a piece on this,

Xavier Suofilo could very well be one of the biggest busts in Texas history. No, it's not even close. We could speak for an hour on it. The guy's ahead as far as the Texans are concerned. I've stated with different people on it. Well, there you go. So we're really excited to see what he brings to the field here. That's got us all fired up.

All right, so we talked a little bit about this on y'all's podcast. And, again, check out Locked texans uh for terry and i on there uh talking about the titans there but we talked a little bit about the division and how this division has been kind of a laughingstock uh at least the last couple of years uh around the league but about how we think that this year things are going to be different and you've got the the opportunity to have you have three franchise quarterbacks, at least, in Mariota, Deshaun Watson, Andrew Luck. You've got that Jaguars defense.

This division has a chance to be one of the best in football. Talk about how you all see this division shaping up. And what do you think – how do you think it's going to shake out in 2018 i think we're gonna i think we have a great chance of winning the division um if if deshaun watson is healthy if this offensive line is righted you know i give the offensive line incomplete because i don't think this is going to be what's going to be marching out on the field in 2018 if we can find some decent guys to protect him uh you know with with what we have out there there's no reason why we can elevate to maybe 12 wins 12 and 4 again i don't know where this is

just a rough prediction because uh we know who we're going to be playing but we don't know when we're going to be playing them that all is going to come into play whether it's going to be playing but we don't know when we're going to be playing them that all is going to come into play whether it's going to be on monday night how many how many days of rest we have in between but um i i do see us we we could win this division it's going to be a dog fight between i believe it's going to be a three-team race between you guys and the jags the culture depending on andrew luck if he's available i just don't feel. The Colts are, depending on Andrew Luck, if he's available, I just don't feel that the Colts are going to be right there. They're going to be decent. I think that with Andrew Luck, they're going to be playing 500 ball, but with Jacoby Brissett, that's a possibility as well,

but I just don't see the Colts making the noise that they have over the years. It's just going to be us. There's a lot of ifs in this division. There's a lot of going to be us there's a lot of ifs in this division there's a lot of ifs and there's a lot of ifs with the Texans and some huge ones but to me Jacksonville you did an incredible job this offseason but they're the Texans had more injuries than anybody in the NFL I mean they played more players over the course of this season than any team in NFL history has played, or was on the active roster. 74.

Yeah, and the Jacksonville Jaguars, if you look at the Jags, they were pretty healthy this past year, and things tend to even out. You know, the numbers tend to even out. Now, they did an incredible job in the offseason, but I just wonder how healthy they're going to remain this year. I think, again, if Sean Watson is healthy, it's going to be, to me, it's a two-team race

between Jacksonville and Houston. I'm just not believing that the Titans were as good as they were last year. I'm wondering what Vrabel is going to bring to the equation and what the different staff is going to bring. Um, there's some good offensive or good, good, um, off season, um, additions for you guys. But I feel like if, if Deshaun Watson is healthy, it's between, uh, Houston and Jacksonville and boy, if JJ Watt is 80% of. Watt and he can stay on the field, I'm talking about the J.J. Watt that we know from defensive MVP J.J. Watt,

then the Texans are a legitimate Super Bowl contender. I think they can beat anybody in the AFC with Deshaun Watson and with 80% of J.J. Watt. I think we'll never see the J.J. Watt who won defensive MVPs, but if they get 80% of him and they get 100% of the Deshaun Watson that we saw last year, I don't even know if he's got to be that good. I think the Texans can be a Super Bowl contender. There's no doubt in my mind. There you go. Like I said, I think it's going to be a Super Bowl contender. There's no doubt in my mind. There you go.

Like I said, I think it's going to be a really fun division to watch. I think we're going to see a very sharp contrast from the conversation that's been around this division from the last couple of years to this year. I think really it does have the chance to be one of the best in football. it does have the chance to be one of the best in football. All right, on the way out, guys, anything that you want to point our listeners to, places that y'all are writing, podcasting, whatever? Oh, feel free to check out HouseofHouston.com.

That's, again, a fan-sided affiliate, all Houston sports. We've got it covered pretty much over there. You can follow us on Twitter, at House of Houston. If you want to follow me on Twitter, my account is at brkp 1999 at lockdown texans of course i'm at at i'm at hst podcast hst for houston sports talk i i've hosted a podcast for the last four or five years talking a little bit of everything in houston sports and we're just we're trying to pull these texans up to the other teams because I got a lot of fun stuff to talk about with the Rockets and Astros these days.

It is becoming, could be, could be coming title town pretty quickly. If the Rockets can do what we think they could do as far as winning an NBA championship. So yeah, it's, it's,

we're hoping that this season, if we just keep guys on the field with the Texans, they can be up in that same conversation with the other two big teams in town. Absolutely. So, like I said, check those guys out. And, again, I'm excited to see what this season has in store. And we will definitely get these guys on to talk more as we roll through the draft and then heading into the preseason and obviously the regular season.

So check them out there. Again, you can follow us. I'm at jmorphsmcm. Terry is at tlambertfb. Follow the Locked On Titans podcast at LockedOnTitans there. Check us out. We're, you know, daily. We'll be back

the next couple of days. We're going to have John Ledyard on to talk about edge rushers and inside linebackers a couple of positions the Titans have been heavily linked to in mock drafts over the last couple of weeks so we're going to break that down for you over the next couple of days so like I said subscribe, iTunes, Spotify

Stitcher, wherever you get your podcasts check us out there you'll get the latest episodes whenever they become available so again we want to thank Brian Patterson and Robert Land for joining us tonight. Check them out on all the places that they just talked about. And for Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks for listening to Locked on Titans, and we'll talk to you again tomorrow.