Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Jon Robinson comments at Senior Bowl, Breaking down DL

Episode Date: January 23, 2019

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Welcome in to another edition of Locked On Titans. I'm Jimmy Morris, joined by Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you today? Doing good. What's up, man? Not a whole lot today. We've got a few things we're going to discuss. John Robinson talked to Jim Wyatt yesterday, I guess when they were both down at the Senior Bowl. So actually some interesting comments from him, which you don't see much from general managers this time of year. So we'll talk a little bit about that and then talk about the defensive alignment currently on the Titans roster. Before we get into all that,

I remind you we're on communitycitymiracles.com where we cover the Titans for SB Nation. So you can check us out there. You can also follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry's at tlambertfb. You can get the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Just search out Locked on Titans.

You can also play the podcast on your smart speaker by saying play podcast Locked on Titans. We also have a voicemail line where you can call us and leave us a message if you have a question or if you have feedback about the show. 615-787-8762. Again, 615-787-8762. Call in there. Leave us a message. I think we only have one message right now, so we'd like to do a show on those tomorrow. If we get a couple more, again, leave your message in about a minute,

and we will do our best to talk about it at some point in the next week or so. All right, so like I said, John Robinson talked to Jim Wyatt down at the Combine. I haven't seen a video. Senior Bowl. Senior Bowl, that's what I meant. The Combine would be up. Down at the Senior Bowl. And, you know, had some interesting things to say.

There's no video of the interview, so it's hard to know what he was responding to and stuff like that. But kind of towards the end of Wyatt's article, John Robinson says, much has been made about the defensive front seven. There's really good depth on the front seven of the defense. I think there's good offensive linemen. It's a heavy tight end crop. There's some pretty good backs in the draft.

And he went on to say, I think there's good value at receiver. There's certainly some guys at the top, but I think in the later and he went on to say i think there's good value at receiver uh there's certainly some guys at the top but i think in the later rounds too we already have our kind of our sights set on if you will or earmarked as guys who can help our football team so you know really touched on kind of all the needs the titans have there and got at least somewhat specific um with the groups they're looking at and then talking about late-round receivers. So just a little bit more than you typically get from a general manager, especially this time of year. Pretty shocking, actually, because, you know, Robinson hasn't been very forthcoming, and no GM is going to be at this time of year.

But I think the most important or biggest thing that stood out to me there was talking about receiver Saying there there are some guys at the top but really focusing in on those later rounds It just sounds like he's kind of going with with our point of view here Look, you don't want to spend a first round pick on a another receiver. You're going to have to wait on Maybe there's there's a certain exception to that rule. I definitely think receiver's a need, but as we've talked about quite a bit, I think it's more of a need for a free agent. Maybe you can get a guy that can help your return game,

your punt return game, as we've seen, is a big need. Special teams, all that, and kind of round out your roster. So I'm happy to hear him say that because like we're going to get into later in the show, I think this front seven needs some more young talent, particularly on the inside. Yeah, absolutely. That's kind of, I guess, what we've been earmarking as the needs. And obviously it's pretty easy to see when you just look at the roster, the landscape, and that kind of stuff.

I think that, again, we got into this a little bit yesterday about the interior offensive line and where that is, and that's one of the things that John Robinson touched on there. I mean, honestly, he touched on pretty much everything outside of defensive backs and quarterback there. But I think there's a few things they really, really need to target. And then after that, they could add some depth pretty much anywhere else. I guess he didn't talk about offensive tackles either.

But there are definitely a bunch of places that they can add depth. But when you saw kind of his zeroing in on the things that we've been talking about, and like you said, I think receiver is a thing that they need to address. They need to bring some veteran guys in for that. That room is already young enough, not necessarily make it any younger. And again, I think you said this too, if there's a guy that's just way high on the board and for some reason he slips and you've got a receiver that you thought was going to go to the top 10 but is still there at 19, sure, maybe you kind of alter your game plan there.

And one of the things we got into last week, or at least I got into on people, got into with people at bcmiraclescom uh talking about you know tight end obviously after mel kuyper gave the titans a tight end in the draft um you know you get into this best player available thing and you know i think as a general rule of thumb best player available is a smart way to draft you don't you don't necessarily want to reach for a need but i also think that when you're talking about best player available it should come from a list of you know kind of your highest needs so not necessarily that you have to reach for an edge guy because you need an edge guy but when you've got you know defensive linemen

edge rusher interior offensive line wide receiver as those of your four needs to me i think you draft the best player available from that group not necessarily even just the best guy on your board yeah and i have a little bit of a problem with the positional value of taking a tight end that early yeah i just i just think there's you know three or four really really outstanding tight ends uh in this league and if you're not one of those three or four, you can probably be replicated, but you can probably be found in the middle rounds and the later rounds in free agency or something like that. We saw the Titans operate pretty well with guys off the street.

So I just don't think that is where you go with this first-round pick. I don't think there's any chance, considering the other needs. But, you know, I think we probably disagree on this topic. Do you take an interior offensive lineman with your first-round pick? I say absolutely. I think you're built to run now with Derrick Henry. You've got an opportunity to upgrade potentially maybe over Josh Klein. You might have to replace Quentin Spain depending on what they do.

Yeah. I just think there's a, there you're in a spot where you can really blow this run game open. Get, get a little bit of an upgrade athletically. You know what you talk about the zone scheme. You've got to move, reset your hips, and really do things on the move and get to that second level.

So this team is still kind of transitioning into that type of personnel. So if there's a run-blocking interior offensive lineman there at 19, I'm totally fine with going for it. Yeah, I think, okay, I'm less opposed to taking an interior offensive lineman there at 19, I'm totally fine with going for it. Yeah, I think, okay, I'm less opposed to taking an interior offensive lineman at 19 than I am a tight end. Again, like you said, positional value. And just when you look at what this team already has, I just don't think a tight end at 19 makes any sense.

But it will have a better idea after free agency on how much of a need interior offensive lineman is for this team. I think they're going to try to at least address one of those spots with that. idea after free agency on how much of a need interior offensive lineman is for this team i think they're going to try to at least address one of those spots with that my whole thing with that is i just feel like you can find those guys later um and you don't need to necessarily spend the 19th pick on that position um it just seems like there'd be better value there and and you know we could we could get into all this and look at different studies and whatever else about where you draft your edge rushers versus where you draft your interior offensive linemen and where you can find more success with those groups. I have no data to back this up or anything, but I think it's a whole lot easier, I think, to find an interior offensive lineman that's going to be successful in the middle rounds than it is an edge rusher.

Now, again, that may not be true, but that's just kind of what it feels like, just watching the way teams kind of try to build their rosters. But yeah, I mean I'm not necessarily like just really, really opposed to it, but I just think they can find that guy somewhere else. But like you said, and you made the point yesterday, until you get this offensive line fixed, nothing else is going to go. And with the success they saw with Derrick Henry and all that stuff, if that's something you think you can build around, that's another avenue to helping Marcus Mariano to be successful. Because again, when we talk about Marcus Mariano's success, a lot of times we only think of it in terms of the passing game but you know if you watch the way

the rams that's that's who everybody wants to be like right now if you watch the way they run their offense they're they're run heavy i mean they're really run heavy they're successful with their running game so i think you could have a similar thing here we know how good marcus mario is in the play action game and you know again we've seen studies that say that you don't necessarily have to be effective with your run game for your play action game to work but i do think that you are more effective with it if the other team is actually afraid of the run so yeah i mean i get it from that standpoint but i don't know again i just i feel like you should be able to find those guys somewhere else yeah and it does seem like every other team can do that,

except for the Titans, seemingly. I just hold on to that stretch, you know, that Dallas-New England Chargers stretch where the Titans were playing so well, offensive line showed up and really protected Marcus Mariota. He kind of made what he was working with work for him. You know, he made Taewon Taylor work. He made Tajay Sharp work against the Chargers. He made Jonu Smith work.

We talked about him being able to elevate. I think he was healthy during that stretch, and I think he got protection. So, I mean, that's where I'm coming from with my emphasis on the offensive line. I'm not going to get hung up on where to take my offensive line that I need. I'm going to fix it up no matter what. But, yeah, I think offensive line, defensive line, edge,

just everything that John Robinson said, those are your needs right there. It's pretty clear. Certainly isn't a corner. Look, I love John ledger. He does good work, but I disagreed with his take yesterday. I needed a cornerback I think they've got a lot invested in that position Including a first-round pick including a 60 million dollar contract Malcolm Butler played well down the stretch a Adory Jackson had his bumps in the road, but Logan Ryan is steady

as they come. Even LaShawn Sims, it's a pretty good fourth corner. I don't think they're going that route even if it's best player available. I think Robinson did a good job of laying out the needs today. Absolutely. If you want to check out that article, it's on titanonline.com

from Jim Wyatt. Coming up, if you want to check out that article, it's on titansonline.com from Jim Wyatt. All right, coming up, we'll talk about the defensive line and look at the guys that are on the roster and some moves the Titans need to make. So obviously, anytime you want to talk about the Titans defensive line, you're going to start with Jarrell Casey, who is one of the premier players in the league at his position. A guy the Titans found in the third round has been a great pick for them, a great player for a long time. I'm starting to get the recognition that he deserves across the league, whether it be with Pro Bowl votes, that type of stuff, and from the media and all that. So you've got that.

He suffered an injury late in the year, but no reason to believe that he won't come back 100% to start the 2019 season. After that, you've got a whole lot of guys. A whole lot of guys that are out there. They're logging snaps but not doing much else. Daquan Jones was a guy that they gave a pretty sizable contract to last year in the offseason. He was a guy that came on towards the end of the

2017 or not toward the end toward the ends of his 2017 season uh he was playing well for a couple games there he ended up getting hurt missing the rest of the year so you know you saw some promise from him there but i don't think he necessarily lived up to that in 2018 yeah like you said it's just a bunch of guys and it's been that way for a long time and You know the Titans are gonna mess around here and Jarrell Casey is gonna get old He's gonna be 30 next year So yeah, they've needed an influx of talent on that defensive line But for the most part John Robinson has gone dumpster diving

Find some some solutions at nose tackle Which is fine. You know your nose tackle isn't gonna play a lot of snaps in today's NFL but he's also missed on a couple of mid-round picks Early to mid-round picks, you know, you look at Austin Johnson Hasn't really panned out. He's okay. I'm just not sure what he gives you Yes, same can be said about daquan Jones outside of that 2017 stretch. So just not a lot there on the defensive line. Titans just need disruptors.

You know, I've said this a lot. I'm not going to get caught up in whether or not he's 6'6", 290 pounds, and fits the scheme. I think, you know, some guys around the league have proven that you don't have to be a perfect fit you know you look at guys like Grady Jarrett a short squatty guy that can really get off the line of scrimmage but he really disrupts plays so I think that's what the Titans need they just they need somebody to take some attention off of Jarrell Casey

to get Casey out of these double teams. I think you would have to say so far defensive line has been the place that John Robinson has missed the most on. I mean, his biggest miss is obviously Kevin Dodd. But I think, you know, obviously we think he has a good one in Harold Landry. So, you know, and he brought in a couple of undrafted – brought in an undrafted guy in Sharif Finch on the edge that seems like he's got a chance to be a good player, you know, traded for Correa.

You know, some guys that can give you at least a little bit of something. But, you know, like you said, you've got Austin Johnson in the second round. You've got Daquan Jones on a big contract. They gave a pretty big contract to Sylvester Williams. They brought in Benny Logan. It's just been a bunch of guys, and it hasn't really worked out. They haven't been able to find even a rotation that, like you said, can disrupt anything that makes an opposing offensive coordinator worry.

I mean, you've got Jarrell Casey. Obviously, you have to scheme to stop him. But other than that, whatever they've tried to do, however they've tried to patch that together to make it work, it just hasn't played out. They let Antoine Woods move on, and he had a good year with the Cowboys. But he was here for a couple years and didn't really do anything, so I don't know if that's coaching or what.

But it just seems like that's been really the biggest position that they've struggled with since Robinson has been here. Because every other position you can look at, and they've had a guy or two that have at least come in and be successful. But I think you can make the argument that there's not a guy on the defensive line that's had any success that John Robinson brought in. Yeah, and I'd argue that interior is a little more of a need than the outside right now. Like you said, they've kind of got a decent core going there with Landry and Correa and Finch. I realize some of those guys are unproven and haven't done it, haven't played the full amount of snaps quite yet. But that's a good young core, and I think they could probably survive a year if you can bring in a veteran

to kind of help with some snaps and provide some leadership there. But, yeah, it's been too long. I feel bad for Darrell Casey. He's played at such a high level, and he's just been the focus of all of the opposing offenses and just hasn't had any help. So I would expect when we see some of these senior bowl meetings coming out, I would expect to see plenty of these front seven type prospects, whether it be an edge, whether it be an interior lineman,

whether it be a nose, you know, I'm just kind of interested to see what type of prospects come out of this. Sure. And depending on, you know on how things go in free agency, which obviously we're going to say a lot between now and the draft, but you would think that at least two of the first three picks will probably be spent on defensive front, whether it be edge, interior guys, that type of stuff. So I think these are the guys that we're going to be really paying attention to

over the next couple of months just because it is the biggest need that they have currently. All right, so that'll do it for today's show. Again, just not a whole lot left to be said about the guys that they have on that defensive line. If you're okay seeing a bunch of guys, maybe somebody steps up and surprises you, but it just hadn't played out that way to this point. Tomorrow we'll get into either voicemails.

If we get a few more, again, you can call 615-787-8762. We'll do a voicemail show if we get a couple more tomorrow or talk about the inside linebackers, which has actually turned into a pretty big strength for this team. So that's what we'll be doing tomorrow between now and then, musicmiracles.com. You can check out everything that we're doing there. Still doing plenty of recaps on the season and looking

forward to next season and all that kind of stuff. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry's at tlembertfb. So for Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks for listening and we'll talk to you again tomorrow.