Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: HAROLD. LANDRY.

Episode Date: April 28, 2018

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Welcome into a very exciting edition of Locked on Titans. I'm Jimmy Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you tonight? I tell you, I don't think I could be doing much better. Yeah, John Robinson, greatest general manager of all time. I don't think it's a stretch to say that at this point. So obviously a lot happened tonight with the Titans, so we're going to get into that here in just a sec. Before we do, I want to remind you that Terry and I write for NewCityMiracles.com, where we cover the Titans for SBB Nation, so check us out there. You can also follow us on Twitter.

I'm at jmoresmcm. Terry's at tlambertfb. You can follow the podcast at LockedOnTitans. And you can subscribe to the podcast wherever you get your podcasts, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, wherever that is. Just search LockedOnTitans, and you'll find us there. All right, so the Titans surprised me. We were talking a little bit about tonight and how it all played out.

But moving from, what, 57 to 41 to take Harold Landry, which was a guy that somebody on Twitter, that you know somebody on twitter i'm trying to find uh mike will seven talk about how we always talked about this whole draft season was uh was harold landry and and as terry said before he's not he's not wrong uh that was a guy that we spent a lot of time focusing on and was a guy that we were we were you know quite honestly surprised that slid out of the first round last night a guy that you know both of us we were kind of texting texting last night when the Titans traded up in the first round. So on Thursday night when they traded up in the first round, hoping that that was going to be Harold Landry. Obviously that was Rashawn Evans.

But tonight they move up again, move up pretty significantly to get a guy that John Robinson said in his press conference was a top 15 player on their board. And I don't think we have any reason not to believe him there. I mean, I know general managers say that a lot, and, you know, you get into all that. But, you know, listen, are there some medical concerns with Landry? Maybe. That's the only thing that made sense to me is why he fell as far as he did last night.

John Robinson basically said in the press conference he's not a doctor. The doctors on the Titans cleared Landry, so he was good with that. But, hey, I mean, I'm thrilled. When you get a guy who has the upside that Landry has at 41, I mean, you just can't go wrong. And just real quick, when you think about basically the Titans gave up a third-round pick to give him – you know, obviously they swapped picks in the second, but they gave up a third-round pick at the given moment. Obviously, they swapped picks in the second, but they gave up their third to come up and get that guy.

Look, they could have ended up with Rashawn Evans, Harold Landry, two guys that were probably in the top 20 on their board. They walk away with that in the first three rounds. Hard to not be excited about that. Yeah, as the afternoon went on, you kind of got the feeling that John Robinson wasn't going to leave it to chance. Sitting at 57, that's a long time to wait. If the doctors gave him the okay, you just weren't going to see him wait on that.

He's proven to be aggressive, even going back to last night, going up to get Evans. So he pulled the trigger, gave up the two and the three to get to 41. It's a guy that they believe in. Like you said, top 20 on their board, 16.5 sacks in 2016, 10 forced fumbles, a ton of tackles for loss. Really a guy that had the production, which is a John Robinson trait, but he also had the athletic ability.

Kevin Dodd had the production. He didn't have the athletic ability. Landry's got both now. We've got to talk with the caveat of assuming that he's healthy, but I don't think the Titans would have done this if their doctors didn't feel pretty strongly about it. So absolutely thrilled. They had to go pass rusher here after getting Evans last night.

I wasn't sold that sticking at 57 was going to be the route they needed to take. And clearly John Robinson wasn't either. But it was awesome to see John Robinson stay aggressive, go get his guy. And, look, the Titans have two players currently from this draft class, and it doesn't matter. Normally I'm a big stockpiler of picks guy, but I don't mind kind of emptying what you've got to go get two top guys like he's done.

That's the thing. I mean, like you said, picks are valuable, obviously. And two years ago, even last year, when you had a roster that had a lot of holes on it, and so you've got a guy like John Robinson who's drafted well, so you want him to have more picks, to have more chances to bring guys in that can compete for roster spots. Well, at this point, the Titans have done a pretty good job of, you know, drafting, of bringing in free agents that are quality.

You know, again, when we started the whole process of the offseason, the biggest needs they had were obviously edge rusher, running back, you know, possibly a corner. I mean, we talked about all those kind of things. Well, when you sign dion lewis and malcolm butler in free agency you you took two of the things they needed a draft for off the board immediately and so then it frees you up a little bit now they needed an edge rusher and and that was the kind of the conversation we had last night was rashaun evans is a good football player nobody really doubts that um and you could talk about his athleticism and that kind of stuff and how he fits and whatever.

If he was worth giving up what they gave up to get him. But he's a good football player who's going to help this team. But they still need an edge rusher. That was the thing. Derek Morgan, Brian Ragpoe last year in their contract. Guys that are older later in their careers. So that was the concern that we had last night. So obviously John Robinson had the same concern.

And like you said, I'm not going to leave it to chance, willing to give up the picks. And he talked about draft currency. And I think a lot of times, like you said, we make the mistake of when we hear that conversation, we're thinking, oh, he wants more picks. He wants to trade down so he can get more picks and get more guys. I think in this draft, it's pretty clear that he was going to use his currency

to get the guys that he wanted. And again, when you're walking away, like you said, there's only two players. But how many teams, honestly, after three rounds are walking away with two guys that they probably had graded in the top, what, 15 or 20 on their boards? I mean, I think we have to assume, right, that the Titans graded Evans higher than they graded Landry, okay, because they traded up last night and took him. And then he said tonight, again, that Landry was a top 15 player on their board. And I know GMs say that and all that kind of stuff, and they're never going to be like, you know, this guy fell to us, and we were, you know, we didn't think he was that good,

and we went ahead and took him. I mean, I get all that. But, I mean, I really do think that he had a high grade on their board. And, again, go back to how we talked about this whole offseason. I mean, we talked about way back in February that if Harold Landry went to the combine and tested well, that he was going to be probably not in consideration when the Titans picked. Now, obviously, you know, there were some concerns there with teams, whatever. But for them to come away with this draft with those two guys that I honestly believe,

two guys that were top 15 graded on their board, I just don't know how it gets any better than that. Again, I trust John Robinson. I trust the evaluation that he has on players, his scouts, and all that. And so, yeah, I mean, I get it. They didn't have a third-round pick. Now it's a long time between when the Titans picked Landry at 41 and when they pick again in the fifth round.

I mean, there's a big gap there. Obviously, a lot of talent is going to go off the board between those two places. But still, you walk away with two guys, first-round talents in this draft. It's hard to be anything but positive about that. Yeah, whatever happens tomorrow is gravy. It doesn't really matter, honestly, because you filled your two top needs with top talent there. So not a whole lot to complain about there. Just look at this defense now.

It's been totally overhauled in two days. You've gotten younger at key spots. Now you're going to have an interesting situation here. What do you do with Derek Morgan? What do you do with Brian Arakpo? Is Harold Landry ready to go from day one? Does he take time from either of those guys? So I think the easy answer is for Landry to play the Eric Walden role.

But I think he's going to get a lot more time than that. And you can't forget about Rashawn Evans and what he can do rushing the passer. Coming up the middle, coming off the edge, he's got some burst to him. So the Titans got a lot more multiple. They got a lot more versatile. They got a lot more dangerous with their pass rush. And it's something that had been needed uh for what three four five years now it just seemed like it's such an odd spot to neglect as a front office but they had but

now with each of these picks you know obviously evans is more of an inside guy but he's going to be able to help out too so uh really really exciting uh Pease has plenty of toys to play with now. And then even looking to the future, you know, you've got two future starters. So you've got two needs filled and marked off the board. So you're going to see a different draft next year. I don't think you're going to see a clear need. I think you're going to see more of best player available type picks from John Robinson, which is exciting, which is kind of what we've been building towards.

Yeah, and think about this defense and how much different it is, as we said, right now than before free agency started because now you've got three really good corners. And, you know, Adore Jackson, who had a really good rookie year, Logan Ryan, who is a really good rookie year logan ryan who is a really good nickel slot corner which is where he's going to probably predominantly play this year you add malcolm butler on the outside now you've added harold landry as a pass rusher to like you said the group that already includes brian aragpo and derrick morgan both solid players um you you added rashawn evans who i think is I think is an upgrade over Avery Williamson.

We can talk about whatever, athleticism and all that kind of stuff, but I think he's a pretty clear upgrade over Avery Williamson. This defense is a lot better than it was last year. And so the defense, for the majority of the season last year, carried the team. So when you think about upgrading that, and then we hope that the offense gets an upgrade just by a switch in coaching staff, even without talking about personnel changes, I don't know. I mean, I feel a whole lot better about this team.

And again, like I said, you look at a team that won a playoff game last year, no doubt the division is going to be harder next year, assuming Andrew Luck comes back, assuming Deshaun Watson is healthy. The Jaguars are similar to what they were last year. The division is going to be harder. The Titans have gotten better. And I think it's hard to just clear in a way right now, say, X team, whether it be the Jaguars or even the Texans with Deshaun Watson or whatever.

I think it's hard to point to one of those teams that they're clearly better than the Titans. And like you said, now you're building toward a point to where you're hopefully picking late in the first round. You're picking late in every round. And then you're just looking for, hey, there's a player that falls down the board for whatever reason. And so you're sitting there and you can take that guy

because you don't have any huge need to fill. I mean, it goes back to, I mean, it's been since the Keith Bullock draft, which was like 2000, was the last time the Titans were just in a spot where they could let the draft come to them, and there's this guy that's clearly a better value than, you know, he slides down the board. We can take that guy. We can even let him sit for a year.

And then the next year, he's a great player. So the Titans were so far away from that when John Robinson took over. But it feels like they're really close to being at that point. Obviously, there's a lot of unknowns still with the new coaching staff and all that kind of stuff. But I don't know. I could not be more excited about what John Robinson has done in this draft. Yeah, just look at what he's done over the last couple years.

Look at the remaining needs on the board. You've got safety. You just need depth there. You need one more body. Receiver, you could kind of say the same thing. You could use an upgrade there. Don't get me wrong. But what they've got there has been heavily invested in,

and it's fine, and I think it deserves another year. And then you've got running back. You need another body there. So you could say the same about the defensive line. So it's really just adding depth now. And then I think John Robinson made a statement by saying, hey, I'm only going to use two of these picks on the first two days of the draft.

I'm going to package these picks and move up and go get premier players. So I think he's telling us, hey, we're close. We're a player or two away. Let's load up and go get this thing done. And that's really exciting to hear. You know, he didn't, of course, come out and say that. But, you hear uh you know he didn't of course come out and say that but you know you can kind of draw that conclusion yeah and i think another thing too is there's been a lot of like you know patriots of the south and all that kind of stuff all that

conversation with you know the signing of malcolm butler and deon lewis those types of things and obviously you know john robinson comes from the patriots but what he did what he's done in the first two rounds of this draft are different than what you ever see the Patriots do. They trade back. They accumulate picks. Pick up what you got. You know, that's kind of what they're known for. Robinson is basically saying, look, you know, I learned from Bill Belichick, and obviously

he's done a great job with that. But I'm going to take that and I'm going to say, okay, when I see the spot where I can move up, lose a pick, either deny it but get a great player, I'm going to be willing to go ahead and do that. So I think he's kind of establishing himself as his own guy, kind of breaking away from that Patriots mold. So that's really fun to see. Now, like you said, there's a few places that they can upgrade the roster as far as depth position-wise. And so as we start to talk about

what's going to happen tomorrow, day three of this draft, we'll start to look at some of that kind of stuff and what they've got left coming up. Okay, so the Titans have three picks left as it stands right now in the draft. They don't have a fourth-round pick. They gave that up on night one when they moved in to get Rashawn Evans.

They've got two – well, they've got one fifth-round pick and two sixth-round picks. That's right. Right? Yeah, one fives, two sixes. So that's what they're looking at. Like you said, I mean, we're looking at now at this point, John Robinson just needs to add some depth at a position. The one position that I'm a little bit concerned about,

and this has kind of been a thing that we've gone back and forth about for the last few weeks, safety is kind of an area of concern for me at this point just because – so Kevin Byer, Jonathan Ciprian, I mean, obviously, Kevin Byer's great. We don't think Jonathan Ciprian's that good. But even if those are two guys, that's fine, and especially if you've improved your pass rush and your corners and all that stuff is better. But they don't have anything behind those guys.

We saw Jonathan Ciprian miss a significant chunk of time in 2017. If you have something like that in 2018, you don't have an Inora Searcy to step in and fill that role. So there's a little bit of concern there. So, I mean, I think that's going to be one of the positions they're going to be looking at in day three of the draft. You need to get a guy that can provide some depth there. Running back, similar type deal.

I mean, obviously you love what you have in dion lewis and derrick henry but if one of those guys goes down right now you've got what david fluellen and kalfani muhammad behind them um yeah there's there's a lot of buzz around david fluellen for whatever reason i know trevor's gonna be real sad that we're yeah yeah we're uh we're not we're not real high on david flew ellen but they need a guy that can at least be serviceable in that role and you know we talked about you know way back before they signed deon lewis um we talked about how deep this running back class was there's obviously some guys there that could they could help them still so i mean i think that's the position they're looking at and then again I think interior offensive line would be a place they're going to look at.

I think at this point they're content with letting the guard spot between Quentin Spain, Suafila or whatever his name is, and Pam Field. Guys, just kind of let those guys battle it out in training camp. Whoever wins that job is fine. I think that could be a spot they're looking to upgrade in next year's draft. But your offensive line is pretty much solidified outside of those guys. But I wouldn't be surprised to see them take an interior offensive lineman. If I was guessing, I would say if they just stick with three picks tomorrow. We saw last year, Terry likes to talk about all the maneuvering John Robinson did last year late in the draft,

picking up all his extra picks. But you've got three picks tomorrow. I say still you're looking at a safety, probably a running back, and then the other pick is either an interior offensive lineman or a wide receiver we spend a lot of time talking about receivers they they still need some bodies there as well they did a lot of work on those guys so i i think with those three picks you see three of those four positions yeah safety is kind of interesting because most of the people they were connected to went in that really third round range where the Titans would have been picking had they not moved up.

So that's a little interesting. And look, you're not going to rely on a fifth or a sixth round pick to come in here and provide depth. I mean, those guys generally aren't up to speed yet. They don't do much more than play special teams right off the bat. If you've got a true need at safety, I'd probably say

it's possible they could draft one. The right guy would have to fall to them. I think it's probably a good bet that they're going to do something on the free agent market after roster cuts or something like that. You can say the same thing about receiver and defensive line and stuff like that.

So I don't really know what they're going to do tomorrow. It seems like they're going to take a running back. It just seems like they need a young guy that can come in and back up Deion and Derrick Henry. They got really lucky last year. We've talked about that a little bit. DeMarco Murray missed some time, but they got really lucky that Derrick Henry didn't miss any time last year.

So going in with two backs really active on the roster is a strange way to go. So maybe they change that up. But, yeah, it's going to be what value falls to them. I'm sure John Robinson will pull something off because that seems to be the way he rolls. I think last year he turned a fifth-round pick into, like, four sevens or something crazy like that. Jimmy left me to man the site alone that day.

So I still hold a bit of a grudge there. But we'll see. But like I said, it's, you know, the Titans don't have to do anything tomorrow. At this point, it's gravy. Sure, you want to take great players, but there's nothing they can do tomorrow to screw up what they've already done. It's an A-plus for me. Yeah, absolutely.

Again, anytime you can walk away with two guys that, you know, are generally, when you look at all these draft guys that, you know, we would trust, two guys that are consensus top 20, 25 picks, walking away from the first two days of the draft with two of those guys, I think you have to be thrilled. And again, it's crazy to think about how much better this roster is from top to bottom than it was when John Robinson took over. Because it was legitimately, you know, the year after, they had the year where they drafted Marcus, where they had the second pick, and then they had the first pick the next year.

That year, when they traded out with the Rams, they legitimately had the worst roster in the NFL that year. I mean, maybe there's a team or two you could debate with the Titans at that point. But to think about where they've come now from then in a relatively short amount of time, it's just remarkable to think about. And, again, it's just a testament to John Robinson. It's a testament to Amy Adams-Shrunk for hiring John Robinson. Just, you know, all the people involved there. So, I don't know. It's been really fun, and it's a good time to be a Titans fan.

I'm really excited to hopefully combine the talent with a coaching staff now that understands the way that the NFL game works today, an offense that's from this century that will be really fun to see. So, I mean, I don't know. I think the sky's the limit for this team. And, again, obviously we're Titans fans, and so there's a bit of, I guess, a Homer thing here. But I'm not sure how you can look at what they've done

and not be thrilled to be walking away with having your, hopefully, three-down inside linebacker, having your edge rusher. Again, two of the biggest things we talked about they needed to get here. So, like you said, whatever they do tomorrow, being saturday day three of the draft is gravy and it's just it's really fun to watch yeah you're talking about a team that won a playoff game last year and they've upgraded significantly their pass rush linebacker and cornerback you know so just common logic. It tells you that they're going to take another step forward next year,

new coaching staff. Offense should be leaps and bounds ahead of where they were last year. So, once again, it's just a fantastic time to be a Titans fan. Yeah. All right, so that'll do it for us tonight. We'll be back tomorrow recapping day three of the draft. And, you know, hopefully, again, we'll have some some more quality players to talk about. I don't doubt that that's what they'll be able to do between now and then.

You can check out music miracles dot com, breaking all the picks there as they happen. So check that out. We'll have picks and analysis and all that stuff there as it happens tomorrow. Again, follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry's at tlambertfb. Follow the podcast account at LockedOnTitans. So for Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks for listening, and we will talk to you again tomorrow.