Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: DaQuan, Kline and..... SUH?!

Episode Date: March 16, 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, how are you? Doing well. Tennessee got the win in the tournament today, and so did Bama. Yeah, I don't know if that's ever happened before. Bama basketball, man. That's right. They said on the broadcast it's the second time in 12 years they've been in the tournament, so that's something, I guess. But anyway, yeah, we'll see. They'll know the next. I don't know. We'll see. Yeah, Colin Statham's got to play better than he did tonight. Anyway, this is a football podcast.

So we've got a lot to talk about. We didn't record last night. So we've got Josh Klein, Daquan Jones, Benism, Chad Henney, and Dhammakan Su. So we'll break all that down. Before we do that, Terry and I cover the Titans for SBNationMusicMiracles.com. Check us out there. We've had obviously a ton of stuff going up there in the last few days, and we'll continue to hit all this stuff as it becomes available.

The free agency has slowed down a little bit. It seems like the first and really part of the second wave took place almost even before free agency opened this year. It was kind of wild. So I think we'll see a little bit of a lull and then we get into waves two and three as things continue to trickle in. We'll be on top of that.

Check out that site. Follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry is at tlambertfb. Follow the podcast account at LockedOnTitans. Next week we will do another question and answer episode. So follow us there. And you can get, if you tweet that account, that's where we'll pull the questions from. So check all that out.

Subscribe to podcasts, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, wherever you get podcasts. So anyway, all right, so Josh Klein re-signed. That was, I think, the first thing that happened after we recorded on – I guess it was Tuesday. We talked a little bit about – I guess there were reports circling when we recorded Tuesday night that they were close, the Titans and Klein, and that it would probably get done before free agency opened, which it did. It's a four-year deal, $20 million, $12 million guaranteed, and I guess there's another $1 million in incentives, so possibly a $27 million deal.

You know, we talked about Klein being probably better in this new scheme than he was in the old. You know, it's so important to have continuity on the offensive line, better in this new scheme than he was in the old. It's so important to have continuity on the offensive line. And with a few things up in the air with Quentin Spain, with Jack Conklin's injury, when will he be ready, all that kind of stuff, we kind of figured they would put a priority on signing Klein. That's exactly what they did.

Honestly, that's a little high for Klein. That was a lot higher than I thought the Titans would go with him uh and now it's interesting that seeing how they viewed Klein how they valued him they're potentially going to let Spain walk for uh what seems like a very small amount of money uh so that tells me that we were way off in our assessment of how they would value things up front. But it's pretty clear that they think that he's a better fit, like you said, in the zone scheme. So it's good to plug a hole. I'm pro-plugging holes in free agency and drafting the best player at 25.

You never want to get locked in to what you want to draft. I'd still argue that the Titans are still going to be locked in to taking a pass rusher. But outside of that, it's pretty much wide open. So I look for this team to add defense. We'll see what happens with Spain. But, again, that's probably a little higher than I would have gone with Kline, especially with what was out there and what you could have drafted in this draft class.

Yeah, it's interesting. Like you said, it's always good to be able to go into the draft without that huge gaping hole because it just frees you up to do so much stuff. You can take the best player available on your board, even if it's not necessarily in a position of high need. You can trade out if you don't like your options and if there's you know somebody that a team that somebody really wants to come up and get or i mean a player that a team really wants to come up and get so um you you have more options available to you if you have filled most of your now again i guess the the flip side of that is you pay more for

these guys obviously in free agency you're paying jocks klein more than you probably even would a guard at 25 uh which i mean i don't really think we thought they would do that anyway so you know there's pros and cons and all that familiar with the guy and all and so i mean you know we were talking a little bit about cap space before we before we jumped on here and we'll talk a little bit more about it when we get to the Indomitian Sioux visit. But Titans have got money, so from that standpoint, you would assume that most of this $12 million guaranteed is going to be in the first couple of years. So I don't know. We'll kind of see how it all plays out.

But like I said, I just think it was important to them to have some continuity on that line. And I still think you'll see them draft an interior lineman uh probably not in the first at this point but second or third round possibly um and then you you know you bring in some competition for if spain is still here you know if you if you've got a guy like guard or center then you've you've got you know spain and and even ben jones you could create some competition for, and then you kind of let the best guy play there.

I think with the money they're giving Klein, he's pretty much locked into a starting position. But I don't necessarily think that Quentin Spain is at this point, even if he's back. I would agree with that. And, you know, that's pretty obvious from what they tendered him. And, you know, he's going to – they titans have the ability to pay him like what 1.9 million dollars uh so that's that's the thing that's not committing to anything so yeah i would totally agree with that with the fact that they could draft one on day two uh i'm still look there's a couple free agent guards out there that would interest me. So I wonder if they stroll down that lane.

You saw Sitt sign with the Dolphins today, and Justin Pugh is nearing a deal with the Cardinals. But maybe some of those, like you said earlier, the second wave guys, I think we'll get our answer for sure here in the next couple of days. I wouldn't rule out them signing one and potentially keeping one because I think they need some more competition there. They definitely need that rotational guy with, what's his name, Blanken on Titans backup.

Well, shoot. What about guard? Yeah. Corey Levin or Levin or whatever yeah Levin's in the mix too Swanky that's who I was looking for he's going to be out of the picture

we still don't know what they think of Levin don't know if he can be a starter down the road don't even know if they want him being a backup next year that guard spot is really interesting to me, and it's definitely not the guy in Quentin Spain that I thought we'd be talking about at this point.

Yeah, it's just interesting how these things play out. And again, we speculated a little bit that, you know, Klein would be a better fit for this offense than Spain would be, but I don't think either one of us thought that they would value, you know, at least what it looks like, value Spain. So just not at all, basically. So I don't know. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out. Like you said, we'll know more as we get.

I think second wave is where you'll see if somebody will have to quit in Spain. You know, we'll see what happens there. Anyway, so Klein, like I said, was the first player that was on the roster last year that they locked up. Daquan Jones was the second. Coming up, we'll talk a little bit about his deal. All right, so Daquan Jones, actually, that deal wasn't done until after free agency was officially open. And, you know, we speculated again that he would be a guy that they would target, a guy that had really started to play well before he got injured,

and, you know, a guy that we'd heard a lot about making strides. But, like I said, it kind of seemed like it all came together for him and as he was you know in that what was it like the 13th 14th game of the season they got hurt in um he had three and a half sacks this year which was was his career high which again that's not some of the jumps off the page at you but those sacks had come right in those games right before he got hurt so he's a good rotational player uh they gave him three years, $21 million, $14 million guaranteed in the first two seasons. So, again, maybe a little bit more money than I thought he would get, but I think he's a guy that, by all accounts, good teammate, works hard, is a solid player. So those are the type of guys, the guys that you drafted so you're familiar with.

Those are the type of guys that they haven't had very many of lately, but guys that you want to keep around. Yeah, you talk about keeping the continuity. That's a key piece of this defense, in my opinion. The guy's not flashy. He's never going to be in the stat sheet. He's just not. But he's going to plug the holes.

He's going to slow down the other team's rushing attack. He's just a good guy to have. So I don't mind paying a guy three years, what was it, $21 million? $14 million guaranteed. So the guy's produced. He's been a really solid player across from Jarrell Casey. And, you know, it's kind of interesting now. You've got Austin Johnson there, and Titans are going to talk to Indomitian Sioux. So, it's clear that they want to get better up front. I

think they can get better up front, but at the same time, I didn't want to lose Dequan Jones. Now, we've talked a lot about nose tackle. Sylvester Williams is just not that guy to me. I think they can do a lot better there. And not that Sioux would play nose tackle, Sylvester Williams is just not that guy to me. I think they can do a lot better there. And not that Sue would play nose tackle, but you look at Daquan Jones, he's 322 pounds. I think he could handle some nose tackle duties. And let's be clear here, you know, how much are the Titans in 3-4 base? Not a whole lot. lot you know it's mostly nickel like logan ryan said on the midday 180 uh yesterday you know it's just so multiple now uh that that i feel like we get sucked into to define roles when it's just really not like that anymore so uh i would i would caution uh

saying in dominican sioux would be coming into play somewhere specific, and we'll get to that a little later on. But I think the Titans can get better up front, but I don't think Daquan Jones was the problem. I think their problem lies more in the nose tackle realm. Yeah, and they really haven't had a nose tackle, or at least a good one, since they switched to the 3-4. Yeah, that's kind of strange. Yeah, because it's been a long time now.

I mean, it's not just, you know, I think sometimes we think back to, you know, when, I guess, Wizard Hunt came in. But it was even before that they switched to a 3-4. Well, I guess it was with Wizard Hunt. They switched to a 3-4. But they just haven't found that guy. You know, haven't valued in the draft or, you know, found a guy in free agency or whatever. So, you know, it'll be interesting to see what they do.

And, you know, Mike Vrabel talked about, you know, the multiple fronts and all that kind of stuff. And like you said, there's not as much defined, you know, you play three defensive linemen on this down and that down. It's more multiple. And so, you know, like you said, we'll talk about Suh in a little bit. But, you know, just having quality pieces there that you can mix and match, guys that are solid in rotation.

You need depth there because those guys, you know, they play hard. They tire out. You've got to rotate them in and out. So, I mean, that's a good signing for the Titans. And we talked a lot about Daquan and his value leading up to it. So, again, not a surprise there that that was done, and we were glad to see that. And hopefully he'll continue to build on what he was doing before he tore his biceps. So that was, I guess, the last big signing that we've seen.

So, you know, you had Malcolmcolm butler deon lewis josh klein daquan jones and you know a couple days tuesday and wednesday and then now it's down to you know we're kind of in the second wave we know the titans are still looking for a backup quarterback chad henney had a visit here he's got a couple other visits lined up um i saw some of the chiefs and maybe even somebody else i can't remember who it was now offhand that he was visiting but you know i think that we both agree the titans will they will get a veteran backup now whether it's through free agency through a trade whatever it is they're not i don't see them waiting on the draft because if

they're going to draft a quarterback it would have to be on day three um and i i just don't see them waiting on the draft because if they're going to draft a quarterback, it would have to be on day three. And I just don't see them feeling comfortable going into the season with Mariota's injury history, going into the season with a day three backup. So they're going to have to sign, you know, one of these veteran guys. Again, the names that are left are not going to jump off of the page yet, you. But they're going to upgrade from Matt Castle. Chad Henney, again, is not an all-star or anything like that,

but I think we can agree that he's an upgrade from Matt Castle. Absolutely. Look at the names available. Geno Smith, Blaine Gabbert, Brock Osweiler, E.J. Manuel, Matt Moore. If you want to get really bold, Colin Kaepernick and Johnny Manziel. So not a lot out there. The quarterback market dried up quick. I would fully expect the Titans to sign one of those names I just mentioned outside of Kaepernick or Manziel, of course.

If they don't, I think you can see them portrayed. I don't know who. We saw Brett Hundley's name drop last week. But, man, I've been surprised with how quickly even the bad quarterbacks have evaporated off the market. I really thought they'd be in on Chase Daniel or someone like that. But Chad Henney would not be the worst thing in the world. I think we saw the worst thing in the world uh i think we saw the

worst thing in the world last year honestly with matt castle and his broken down arm uh so he's a he's a guy that that didn't play a lot in jacksonville but had in the past and you don't know what he's got left in the tank but i would imagine it's a lot more than than matt castle had yeah and i mean i think that maybe you know if you want to talk about failures for john robinson i think that the backup court situation here last year was one of those and you know we talked a lot about at the time i really think they thought alex tanney was going to be the guy and then he was just so bad in camp and in the preseason last year they didn't have any choice but to stick with matt castle so um yeah so we'll see how it goes and it's just i mean quarterbacks you know like you said that that market dried up really quickly and you look at

the jets signing bridgewater and josh mccown and then you think they're probably going to draft the guys i mean they they're hoarding quarterbacks over there um so i don't know we'll see how all that plays out but there's just not there's not a lot left at this point so again it's not anything that's going to get us excited but you need need a veteran guy to come in and be able to, in a pinch, play a half or a game or whatever it ends up being. If Mariota does get hurt again, and you hate to say it, I mean, the guy's had, I think, just bad luck, really, with injuries early in his career.

But he has been hurt for at least a period of time in all three of his NFL seasons. So it's not a position that they can ignore, and they can't afford to go into this season without at least a guy, again, that they feel like can come in and at least be serviceable for a half or a game or two. So we'll see how all that plays out. And then the last thing we're going to talk about, the report tonight that Indomitian Sioux is coming in for a visit and just kind of his fit with the Titans. All right, so again, reported tonight, this is Thursday night, we're recording this, that Indomitian Sioux will visit the Titans. that Indomitian Sioux will visit the Titans.

I think that we, you know, I texted back and forth when it was announced that he was probably going to be cut about, you know, how awesome it would be if the Titans were to go after him. Because, you know, the two things you cannot have enough of on defense, defensive backs, cornerbacks, and pass rushers. And if a guy like Indomitian Sioux is available, then you don't worry about does he fit our scheme or not. If you can sign him, you sign him, and then you build your scheme. And then when you've got Jarrell Casey already, if you could add Ndamukong Suh,

those two guys make Brian Arakpo and Derek Morgan better players. They make your defensive backs. They're all better players when you have those guys up front. I mean, we saw it. Just look at it. You don't need to go any further than Michael Griffin playing behind Albert Hainsworth and Kyle VandenBosch. I mean, Michael Griffin looked like an all-world safety when he had VandenBosch and Albert Hainsworth in front of him.

And then once those two guys were gone michael griffin was i mean he was horrific so it it's amazing what what a path for us what a push up front can do um and you know listen the reason that the dolphins paid indomitable consumed so much money when they did was because you want to get pressure up the middle against tom brady get him off his spot i mean that was the whole thing the dolphins in the same division with the patriots that's the way to get him off his spot. I mean, that was the whole thing. The Dolphins in the same division with the Patriots. That's the way to get him. So that's how they tried to go about it. Now, again, I don't think it necessarily worked out the way that they would have liked.

Miami's kind of become a disaster, and they had cap problems and all that stuff. So that's why Sue's out there. One interesting note here that I hadn't thought about it until our friend Mike was talking about it on Twitter tonight. Terrell Williams is the Titans defensive line coach. The last three years, he was the Dolphins defensive line coach with Indomitian Sioux. Now, I have no idea what their relationship is like. I don't know if that's a plus or a minus, but the fact that he is coming here for a visit i think signifies that they at least have a pretty good relationship and so you know that could be kind of a wild card in this whole thing that you know we weren't necessarily thinking about when the report came out there

but you know maybe it's just one small thing the titans need to tip the scales in their favor i mean obviously money and all that stuff is going to be the deciding factor. But if that gets the Titans, you know, at least in the conversation, then maybe he does end up here. And maybe that's all it is. Maybe it's just due diligence visit. But it's hard not to get excited. I mean, imagine Sue playing with Casey and Daquan Jones with the rack poe

and Morgan coming off the edges. And that secondary that you've rebuilt over the last two years, that is a really, really solid defense. And, you know, it makes potentially a new starter in Jayon Brown. It makes his job a lot easier. It just makes everything better. Now, obviously, the big thing here is money. The Titans are going to have to resign-sign Taylor LeJuan.

They're going to have to re-sign Marcus Mariota. Those are the two deals that we've been waiting to come down, really, for a couple seasons now. So keep that in mind. The Titans can't push all their chips to the table here. But if they can get Sue for a reasonable amount of money, there's no reason not to do it. I mean, football's still won in the trenches on both sides of the ball.

If you can stop the run and you've got this secondary that you think is going to be one of the top in the NFL now, that's a really exciting thing to pair with this offense that you think is finally going to be fixed. You're going to hear about the locker room stuff, and I don't know how much that is. His antics on the field are more worrisome to me, but I think that's just kind of the style of player he is. He's just a little bit of a dirty guy, but that's honestly what I want out of my defensive

tackle. But yeah, I'm I want out of my defensive tackle. But, yeah, I'm all for it. I don't see a negative to it. If John Robinson thinks this is the piece that he needs to go get, go get him. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and I think that's probably the point that we're at. And I can't remember if Hutton said it on our show or if I heard him say it on the Midday 180.

But, you know, Sue just screams a one- or two-year deal guy. You know, he's made a ton of money. So, I mean, that's not – I don't think that has to be the only thing that he's thinking about at this point. You know, and again, we expect them to get LaJuan's deal done before the season. So, I mean, right now LaJuan, if he plays under his fifth-year option, which is what he would do if nothing changes, it's like a $9 million cap number this year.

That's going to go up a little bit when he signs a deal. But, I mean, you know, I don't know, $4 million or $5 million, depending on how they structure the deal. So, you've still got another year before you have to re-sign Marcus Mariota. I mean, technically, you have to you have to re-sign marcus mariotta i mean you don't even have to re-sign him next offseason either because he can play under his fifth year deal but if you can find a way to you know sign sue to a two-year deal but basically make it to where it's like a one-year deal kind of a prove it thing um you know give him all the money in in, and just kind of see where it goes from there.

This is the year right here where the Titans are going to have the most cap flexibility that they're going to have for a while. Because like we said, you've got Luan coming up. You've got Moriota coming up. You've got Bayard. You've got Conklin. You've got some guys that you're going to need to pay. You're going to want to pay. You're going to want to pay.

It's a good problem to have, but it's something the Titans haven't had to deal with. This is the last year, more than likely, where you don't have the quarterback. Well, this is the last year where you don't have the quarterback eating up a huge chunk of your salary cap. Like I said, even if Mariota plays under his fifth-year option in 2019, that's still a big number. even if Mariota plays under his fifth-year option in 2019, that's still a big number. So, like you said, if you can kind of push all your chips to the middle of the table for this one year, if you can get sued or agree to something like that, I mean, you know, I think it makes a ton of sense. Like you said, it makes everybody better.

You can never have enough pass rushers. And then if they draft a pass rusher at 25, if aold landry falls or you know whatever it may be whoever they can find there then you could be talking about an elite defense i mean then your weak link is what jonathan cyprian and surely you can hide him right um all those corners and you got byard and you got all those pass rushers so i'm all for it uh you know and and again if you follow if you follow me on twitter you know that most of the time i'm the one out there poo-pooing richard sherman jordy nelson i mean all these guys that that that are late in their career that become available that everybody wants signs go down because they've heard of them but sue's different he's a guy that can come in

and can impact the game on every snap that he's in there and you don't have to worry about his burst or anything like that i mean yeah he's he's older but he's still got life left he's still an effective player he's still a guy that offensive coordinators have to worry about every single play so if you can if you can get something done that makes sense for you cap wise i think you do whatever you can to make that happen and he's still 31 yeah i feel like he should be older but he's still 31 still playing at a really high level you know i've seen uh the talk around twitter is uh he's getting older and his play is falling off but he talks to people in miami and he's been the stud that he's always been

uh they think that they got the best years out of him uh so you talk about signing a 31 year old in dominican sioux to a one or two or three year deal uh you're still getting three of the best years of his career potentially uh and that's he just seems like a guy that's gonna want to get paid again so i could see him totally taking a one or two year deal uh and just kind of figuring out what's going to want to get paid again. So I could see him totally taking a one- or two-year deal and just kind of figuring out what he wants to do. But, yeah, I'm totally with you. I am not a pro-free agent guy.

I don't think it's the way to win football games and sustain success. But how often is a difference maker like Ndamukong Su on the market? So that's kind of where I'm at. I'd go for it. Like you you said this is the final year they won't have marcus mariotta making uh 20 million dollars uh and at least in killing your cap number so uh why not that's honestly where i'm at why not go make a run at sioux uh go all in make this defense potentially one of the best in the nfl yeah absolutely so we'll keep an eye on all that um hopefully we'll have something fun to report uh you know schedule wise we'll this will be it for this week and now unless they get a deal done

with sue we'll probably hop on and record something real quick just kind of talk about that um especially get contract numbers and all that kind of stuff so we could just just break all that down but if not um we'll be back next week recapping the things that have transpired in the next three or four days and again i expect it to slow down a little bit um after this you know for this initial rush again it seems like we kind of had waves one and two combined this year i think you'll you'll start to see the breaks we signed a little bit and some of these guys finding different deals i mean like curtis riley tonight uh signed with the giant or today at some point apparently signed with the giants um and so that's a guy that you know in the past you wouldn't see

him signing a deal in free agency until like, you know, the second week. But things have just been accelerated so much this year that that's already happening, and we're less than, you know, 48 hours into the official free agency period. So, you know, keep an eye on all that. Again, check out musicseedmiracles.com. Between now and then, we'll have everything updated. And you can follow us on Twitter at jmorrismcm, at tlambertfb, at LockedOnTitans. So check us out there.

And, again, subscribe to the podcast so you get the newest episodes when they are available. So for Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks for listening to LockedOnTitans, and we will talk to you next week.