Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: New McShay/Kiper mock, answering your calls

Episode Date: April 4, 2019

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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 today? Doing good. I got Noxy, my two-year-old, down for a nap, so that's always good. Yeah, so that is good. Everybody's back today. If you didn't hear our two shows with Mike Keith, you can go back and listen to those. Terry wasn't able to be on those because of a nap issue that he had going on over there. If you're not subscribed to the podcast, this is a good time to remind you to do that so that you would not have missed the episode of the Mike Keith. Just wherever you get your podcasts, iTunes, Google, Spotify, whatever it is, Himalaya, just search out Locked on Titans, and you will find us there.

You can also follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm, Terry's at tlamberttn. We cover the Titans from musiccitymiracles.com as part of the SB Nation, so you can check us out there. All right, so today we're going to talk about the McShay and Kuyper dueling mock draft that came out earlier this week. So we're going to touch on that a little bit for the picks for the Titans. They went two rounds in this one, so we'll break that down a little bit.

And then we're going to hit a few voicemails after that. So the Titans had, like I said, McShay and Kuyper both made a pick for each team in each slot. So you had four total picks for the Titans in a two-round mock. In the first round, Kuyper had the Titans taking Dexter Lawrence, the defensive tackle from Clemson. And McShay had the Titans taking Marquise Brown, the wide receiver from Oklahoma. I'm not wild about either one of these picks. I think that the more that I look at it, the more that I think that the Titans are not really going to be able to get the edge rusher that they want at this pick.

I think they're all going to be off the board. And that has just led me to believe that you're going to be looking at an interior offensive lineman here. And Kuyper and McShay both had a run on those guys, but it wasn't until a little bit later after the Titans picked. And so I just think that if the draft board plays out the way it did, really for both of these guys, Kuyper and McShay, I think the Titans are taking, whether it's Bradbury, Lindstrom, I mean, whoever it is that they like the best, I think that is ultimately who you see the Titans taking with this pick. Yeah, I'm with you, and I hate to be a broken record,

but I'm totally with that. I'm out on Dexter Lawrence. I don't think you take a nose tackle here. I think that position has just been devalued over the past five years in this league. There's a reason we've seen John Robinson sign one late with Band-Aid type one-year deals. Guys like Al Woods, they just don't play a ton of snaps in this defense. So you're talking about a guy that has a position that has played 20% to 30% of the snaps in a defense. I'm not taking that at 19, and I don't think John Robinson is either.

Like you've kind of said all along, if you're taking a defensive lineman, better be able to consistently disrupt, better be able to play all three downs, all the passing downs, and get after the quarterback. So I don't think Lawrence is that guy. He's a true nose tackle at 340 pounds. So I'm also out on Marquise Brown. Call me crazy, maybe we're too close to Taewon Taylor, but smaller receivers just aren't my thing anymore.

I'm kind of out on that. And then you throw in the whole injury deal with the foot and the Liz Frank injury for a speedster that weighs 166 pounds. I'm not taking that in the first round, especially when you're in kind of an all-in situation with Marcus Mariota. I'm not waiting on that. There's a chance that he might not even go through training camp. He's immediately going to be behind the eight ball.

You've said all along that you're kind of out on a receiver. I'm getting to that point. I just think the Titans have a clear need on the offensive line, and that's where I want them to go. Yeah, and it just seems, again, we talked with Mike Keith, and I think there's no place the Titans necessarily have to go here because you do have some options to play right guard that are currently on the roster that re-, they re-signed Palmfield.

You've got guys like Corey Levin. I mean, some of those guys, Taylor Merritt, however you say his name. You know, they've got some guys that maybe could fill in in that spot. But that is, right now, when you look at, if you look at the roster and you want to throw up a rejected starting lineup, that's the only spot that you don't have somebody plugged in at and that you don't at least feel reasonably good at. I mean, I think defensive line is really the other spot where you see the big holes.

But, again, the value for a nose tackle at 19, I just don't – it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me there. All right, so second round, Kuyper had the Titans taking Debo Samuel, wide receiver South Carolina. McShay had them taking Draymond Jones, and it was a tackle from Ohio State. You know, I think if you look at it, so let's look

at it in the context of what you had from both guys. So if this was the Titans' first two rounds, you know, you've got Kuyper having them going Dexter Lawrence, Debo Samuel. That's your first two picks. McShay has them going with Marquise

Brown and then Draymont. You've got you hit needs in both spots there. I get that, but I don't know. Give me your thoughts on Debo Samuel. I like the player a lot.

All he did was produce at South Carolina. Undersized guy, but we know how John Robinson feels about production. I think he's going to be a really good number two in the league. Now, if you take an offensive lineman at 19, I'm totally cool with this pick but if you take a nose tackle at 19 you've still got a ton of needs on the board and you're taking Debo Samuel here who's you're gonna rely on to be a receiver here in starting the offense and you know it's not that Debo can't I'd feel comfortable plugging him into the offense, but you don't address the offensive line here.

So, again, you just rolled out those names, Levin, Panfield, Merritt. I don't get excited about those guys. You know, that's going to be a bottom-tier starter in the league. I think the Titans can really upgrade there and take Lindstrom and take Garrett Bradbury. I think you can really fix that. And if you do that, I think you build in some flexibility with your second-round pick there.

So I don't think Kuyper did that. While I would love Samuel if you addressed the offensive line there, I don't love him there with the defensive line there because, again, you don't get your edge rusher and you don't get your offensive line there. I don't love him there with the defensive line there because, again, you don't get your edge rusher and you don't get your offensive line there. I think that's a failure by both McShea and Kuyper here. That's the thing. Like I said,

there's no one spot that they have to take at 19 anymore. But I think with one of these first two picks, you need to get an interior offensive lineman. They absolutely, in my opinion, have to do it before the end of day two at least. Now, they didn't go to a third round, so who knows what would have happened there. But they need to get a guy in this draft that can at least come in and compete to start at right guard.

And so, like I said, with both of these picks, you don't have that. Now, again, to your point, you take that guy at 19 you can do whatever you want to at 51 i mean you're you're really wide open at that point because you've still got some things that you need but you're really in that you know everybody loves best player available you're really in that spot to sit there and you know say hey hey, we can take the best player in the basketball. So, I don't know. The more that this is played out after free agency, the more of these mock drafts we're seeing. Look, you know, something's going to happen in the first 18 picks.

A couple of things probably are going to happen in the first 18 picks that nobody really saw coming. And so there might be a guy there at 19 that we just really don't think is going to be there right now. But the more that I look at all this and mock drafts and they are what they are, I mean, I get that. But the more that this stuff plays out, I just really believe that they have the biggest need at right guard,

and that's going to be the best value position that's going to be left on the board. We'll see how it all plays out. But, yeah, I would not be too particularly happy with either one of these drafts. All right, that will do it for our mock draft talk. One thing real quick before we move on. We're doing a mock draft as part of the Locked On Network. So that's going to come from the Locked On Draft channel. But we'll be a part of that.

So keep your eyes out from that. We'll tweet all that stuff out when it comes out. But the picks are being made currently we haven't made our pick yet uh it's almost our turn but we're not quite there yet but you'll you'll hear more from us about that later on all right coming up after this we will get into voicemails hi this is Keith. I was curious with the durability issues with Mariota that we've dealt with, do you think John Robinson, if for some crazy reason the Cardinals select Kyler Murray with the first pick and they put Rosen on the trading block, do you think that Jayron would kick the tires to maybe have some insurance for Mariota? Next year, the injuries pile up again, and we have to move on, unfortunately. I'm hoping that we don't because I'm pulling for Mariota to be our guy for hopefully a long time. But there are plenty of issues

to keep coming up. It's not a toughness or heart thing. It's durability. I wanted to get your guys' opinion. I didn't want to be that fan that sounds like a conspiracy theorist, but I just want to hear your guys' opinion. Thank you.

Yeah, Keith, I think they're out on the Rosen deal. I think getting Tannehill there is really solid. You know, I think you've got probably a top three backup in the league now. You know, I know that's a little short-sighted, and we're not looking down the road. You know, Marcus could very well flop. He could very well have another injury-riddled season,

and the Titans could be left with nothing at the position. But we've talked about this being an all-in year on Mariota, and I think this offseason has been about surrounding him with the best possible team around him. I think they're going to need that second-round pick, which is what I would think it would take. That's been the hot rumor at least. I think the bottom is the third.

I just think they need all of their day one, all of their day two picks to really round out this roster. We just talked about in the previous segment all the needs that are left on the board. I'm out on Rosen. I think a team like the Giants or someone like the Chargers, it makes sense in their cases, but not necessarily for the Titans anymore. Yeah, I'm with you. I really started to get intrigued by the idea of Rosen before they traded for Taney Hill.

Just when you talk about a guy being that young, that was that high of a pick, how cheap he is over the next few years and all that kind of stuff. I mean, it sounded interesting. You got your backup there at that point, and then, you know, if you don't need him, maybe you can flip him next year, or if

Mariota gets hurt, then you've got that guy. You know, there were just a ton of different scenarios. But now, with the way that everything's played out, the fact that Tannehill's here, I don't think that's something that they're going to be interested in. Like you said, when it changes from a third-round pick to a second-round pick, again, I don't think that's a place the Titans are really going to want to go.

I don't think it's a place they need to go anymore at this point. They took care of the problem that they had with the backup quarterback, and now it's just about let's see what happens this year. We'll worry about next year, next year. So, yeah, I think they're probably pretty much out on that. All right, coming over to this, we'll have another voicemail to talk about. Hi, this is AJ from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Love the show.

You guys do a fantastic job. Without you guys, we wouldn't, you know, have really anything to talk about over here. There's only a few of us out here. We're small. But I just wanted to get your guys' take as far as the draft coming up here. Sitting at 19, if there's that pass rusher, of course, I think we all, you know, kind of want to go that route. If there's that pass rusher, of course, I think we all kind of want to go that route. But since we need that interior offensive lineman and I feel like a speed receiver,

what do you think about maybe trading back from 19, being able to maybe get both of them? I really like Marquise Brown. I think he'd be perfect to complement with Corey Davis. And if that's not an option, how do you feel about maybe like in the third or fourth round, like a guy like Andy Isabella? Thanks again, and I'll listen to your show. Hey, AJ, I'm a big fan of the idea of trading back, especially if you can land kind of in the 25 range.

I just think if you're going to take one of these interior offensive linemen, I think one will still be there. And I think you might as well maximize on the picks that you can recoup there. Of course, the problem is what are you trading up for? You know, what else are teams interested in there? I'm not sure you're going to have that with this quarterback class. But maybe. I mean, you certainly never know. I think the Titans are going to be

out on a pass rusher. I don't think any are going to make it. Just the way these mocks are going, you're seeing most of them land inside the top 15 now, and I don't think that's a huge deal because like we've said all along here, interior offensive line, it seems to

be where the Titans are zeroing in. I think we disagree with you on the receiver there and your take on Marquise Brown. Like I said in the previous segment, 166 pounds, five foot nine. Those guys, there's not many that work out in the league. You know, everyone's going to point to Deshaun Jackson. I think he's kind of the exception to the rule. You throw in this Liz Frank injury. I'm not touching that in the first round.

I would kind of be surprised if anyone did. I think he's a candidate to kind of slip there. So again, I'm a broken record, but it's offensive line for me at 19, but definitely still not against a trade down. Yeah, that's the thing. And we talked, when we talked with Mike Keith the other day, the issue with trading down that he brought up is you've got a lot of teams

in that range that they're probably looking to trade down at this point. And so then it becomes about, you know, can you find somebody that wants to trade up? That's kind of how this all goes. A lot of that will depend on what happens with the quarterbacks. Is, you know, there's, you know, you know how these things go. Like quarterbacks, there's only going to be two in the first round, and then all of a sudden four get picked in the top 20,

or whatever it ends up being. So that's going to be something that's going to be two in the first round and then all of a sudden four get picked in the top 20 or whatever it ends up being so that that's going to be something that this is going to be interesting to watch because in most of these mocks that you see you have two quarterbacks going before the titans pick and so that just you know a lot more of these other players of the things the titans are that they need that they're interested in um those guys are getting taken. Now, what happens if Drew Locke and the guy from Duke that his name escapes me right now, Daniel Jones, what happens if a couple of teams really like those guys and either they go in the top 19 or the top 18 or somebody decides that they want to come up to 19 to get them because they're afraid that somebody else might be interested? I don't know. Those are all questions

that are interesting, but when you're looking, you know, when you look right around the Titans, Seahawks, Ravens, Texans, those teams don't need a quarterback. The Raiders at 24 do. Do they address that? They might if they don't want Derek Carr anymore. Do they address that or they might um if they don't want derrick car anymore do they address that earlier and then you know everybody kind of behind the titans obviously they had their quarterback so i don't know it'll be interesting to watch and see how all that plays out if they can find somebody to trade back with but i i just the more that i look at the world i think they're

picking a 19 i think they need a speed receiver. I don't think there's any doubt about that. Yeah, absolutely. We've talked about that. I was the one saying, hey, let's get two receivers in free agency, an Adam Humphreys type, which obviously they got, and then a speed guy. They didn't address that, so I think that's still a need. But, again, it's not Marquise Brown for me. And, listen, if he's there later, sure.

But I just, at 19, you outlined the concerns, the injury, all that, the size, all that kind of stuff. I'm 100% on board there. And when you look around, I mean, he seems to be sliding down, at least, you know, what people outside are thinking. So, you know, we'll kind of see how all that goes. But, yeah, they do need a speed receiver no doubt but i just don't think they're going to take that at 19. all right thanks so much for calling in uh we appreciate everybody that leaves voicemails um again if you want to react anything we've said today or anything that would be um mike

key said any of that stuff 615-787-8762 is the number you call in. Leave about a minute-long voicemail. We'll get to it. One more thing, touch on Quentin Spain. Signed earlier this week, signed with the Buffalo Bills, a one-year deal. I mean, we've known pretty much since the beginning of free agency that Spain was not coming back here. You know, it wasn't a fit for whatever reason.

Good for him. I mean, we knew he was going to end up somewhere. A guy that was a lot of fun. A guy that definitely overachieved. The Titans, you know, got him as an undrafted free agent. You know, you never forget during the Stanley Cup run of the Predators and Spain's up there in the box with his shirt off, you know, guzzling the beers with Llamet and Mario and all that stuff.

So, was a fun guy. Wish him nothing but the best. But it just kind of became obvious that he was not a part of the Titans plan. So, anyway, good luck to him. All right, that'll do it for this week. Again, if you missed the Mike Keith shows, go back and listen to those. Really good. If you want to follow us on Twitter, I'm at jmorrismcm.

Terry's at tlamberttn. MusiCityMiracles.com is where you can find us writing. You can get this podcast wherever you get your podcasts, iTunes, Spotify, Google, Himalaya, wherever it is. Check us out there. You can also play us on your smart speaker, play podcasts, Locked on Titans. That's how you get us there. So for Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks so much for listening, and we will talk to

you again next week.