Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Robinson, Vrabel speak at NFL Combine

Episode Date: February 27, 2019

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Welcome in to another edition of Locked on Titans. I'm Joey Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you today? Doing good. We actually got some stuff to talk about, so it's a good day. Yeah, some NFL news, some at least Titans conversation going on. So yeah, a change from what the last couple of weeks have been. So we'll get into all that before we do. Reminds me we're right for me at citymiracles.com. We're covering the Titans for SB Nation. You can find us there. You can also follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmortismcm. Terry, with his ever-changing Twitter handle, is now at TLambertTN.

So you can find him there. Trying to keep you on your toes. Yeah, there you go. You can also find us wherever you get your podcasts. Search out Locked on Titans. If you want to play us on your smart speaker, whether it be in your house, in your car, you can just say play podcast Locked on Titans, and you will get us there as well. All right, so NFL Combine has kicked off today, recording this on Wednesday afternoon.

We'll start with some NFL news first, and then we'll get into some specific stuff with the Titans. Both Mike Braywell and John Robinson were at the podium today, so we'll get into some of the comments that they made. But first, as far as general NFL news goes, a lot of quarterback news, starting with the fact that Howie Roseman, the Eagles general manager, basically confirmed what we already knew, that the Eagles are not going to put the franchise tag on Nick Foles. So he will be allowed to test the free agent market.

The reason this is really relevant to us here is because there's a lot of ties now with him and the Philadelphia Eagles. Not the Philadelphia Eagles, the Jacksonville Jaguars. With some of the connections going on there. So that'll be an interesting one to watch. We've talked about

the Jaguars being a competent quarterback away from being pretty scary. That was coming into the 2018 season i think things have changed a little bit down there since then but they're still a team that i think rises a couple of levels if they can get even just competent play out of a guy like nick foals yeah of course the question becomes does nick Foles perform like he performed in Philadelphia? It seems like we've seen this story before around the league with various names. They leave this offensive system and go somewhere that's quarterback starved, and it just doesn't work out.

So Jaguars are going to have to pay him a lot of money. We'll see if they can even do that. Some of these contracts are starting to catch up with him. But like you said, if they can get just even half of what Nick Foles did in Philadelphia, it would be an upgrade. So that's a big story to follow. I don't know if anyone else is going to be involved in that sweepstakes. Maybe the Miami Dolphins, who might move on from Ryan Tannehill.

Maybe they get involved. But, yeah, potentially a new face in the AFC South, and it would still be a big upgrade. But like you said, the Jacksonville Jaguars are going to have to rebound from this year. It was more than just bad quarterback play there. That defense wasn't what it once was. Some of those offensive pieces, Leonard Fournette wasn't playing very well.

You had all the drama with him. They've got a lot to iron out, and I think it's dumb to kind of just insert Nick Foles into that and expect a different result. Yeah, so we'll keep an eye on that. Like I said, it'll be interesting. He's going to have a market, and like you're saying, it's going to get into a place that would probably be uncomfortable for a lot of teams, but teams are always searching for the quarterbacks.

All right, next piece of news, Eli Manning confirmed that he'll be back with the Giants this year. That's got to be disappointing for a guy like Odell Beckham Jr. I don't know. I mean, Eli apparently refused to throw the ball in the field this past season. Some of that probably had to do with protection issues up front. Maybe if they can get that changed, it changes a little bit there. But it'll be interesting what the Giants do because, you know,

there's been a lot in pretty much every mock draft you've seen for the last little bit. Got them taking the quarterback with their first pick. I don't know that this necessarily changes that. And maybe if you've got one more year of Eli, you bring in that young guy to groom under him. But, you know, maybe it'd be time for Eli to go ahead and hang it up. But apparently he's going to run it back one more year. Yeah, as the owner of Odell Beckham in a high-dollar dynasty league, this greatly disappoints me. I was really hoping for a change there.

I don't know if this rules out them drafting a guy like Dwayne Haskins or Kyler Murray. It just means Eli's going to be there. But, you know, you'd kind of think if they had plans on drafting one, Eli wouldn't be there for much longer. So I don't know what the Giants are doing. I don't know why they didn't take a quarterback, didn't take Sam Darnold last year.

If they do it again, man, that's going to be such a shame, just throwing away a great player like Odell Beckham and his prime. And honestly, kind of now you talk about throwing away Saquon Barkley too. So Giants have to do something there. It's pretty bizarre that they just want to stick with Eli. Yeah, you know, like you said, they get the weapons there. So you would hate to waste many more years just not having a guy that can really efficiently get the ball to those guys. So that'll be interesting to watch.

Last piece of news, Steve Keim, the Cardinals GM, said that Josh Rosen is our quarterback right now. So not exactly a ringing endorsement. Cardinals obviously have the number one overall pick. Cliff Kingsbury there now and we know how he has not been shy

about his love for Kyler Murray. Different stops along the way. So to me, one thing it could be is just, hey, we want to keep interest in the fact that we could pick Kyler Murray, number one overall, in case some of their team is in love with him and wants to trade up to number one to get him. And they may end up going a different direction on draft night altogether. But not exactly a ringing endorsement of a guy that was, you know,

Josh Rosen, their top pick last year, didn't necessarily, you know, just say that they're confident and that they're ready to move forward with him. Yeah, I think you've kind of set the stage now for the story of kind of draft season, you know, leading through the combine, you know, through free agency and all that. I think you're going to see Kyler Murray pick up steam. You're now going to see the quarterback talk at number one overall. It seems like we do this every year. Even if you don't have that super obvious guy to go number one overall,

it seems like we always get there with somebody. So Kyler Murray seems to be the hot name right now. But, yeah, it was kind of alarming just to So Kyler Murray seems to be the hot name right now. But, yeah, it was kind of alarming just to see Kyler Murray kind of say right now about Rosen. I understand he wants to keep his options open, but still, that's the guy you took 13s overall last year. It can't feel good for Rosen right now. So interesting situation to follow there.

I just think they're going to still kind of, I think they're going to go Joey Bosa, or Nick Bosa, excuse me. I just can't see them moving on from Rosen in year one, being that Kahn was the guy that drafted him just a year ago. Yeah, I mean, it'd be tough to have two first-round picks

like that on the roster back-to-back years. I mean, I would assume they would try to move Rosen, but there's contract implications and all that kind of stuff if they go to that Rose. I mean, I think you're right, but it's just interesting that they didn't completely shut the door on taking Kyler Murray first overall. All right, coming up, we will get into some of the Titans-specific news with the John Robinson press conference.

Okay, so I mean, I think the most interesting things of note that came from John Robinson, press conference. Okay, so I think the most interesting things of note that came from John Robinson, one, the Titans are interested in Kenny Vaccaro, called him a primary target in free agency, said basically they have some things to work through with that position on the roster. We'll talk a little bit about that in a second and then do some other things. But one thing to keep in mind, that John Robinson was on the midday 180 after he had his press conference, and Karski was giving him a hard time about not saying anything. And John Robinson said, well, if you think I was up there for 15 minutes and I didn't say anything, then I accomplished my goal.

And then I think Hutton asked him, how much of what you say this time of year is the truth, and he said like 50%. So just things to keep in mind as we go through this draft season that you can basically count on about half of everything you hear being a lie coming out from these teams as we lead up to the draft. With that being said, I think he had some good things to say about Kenny Vaccaro, the way he fit in last year, Talked about him being a primary target. Talked about the issues with the position on the roster.

And to me, that just kind of reiterated the fact, and we've talked about this, that you're not going to have Kenny Vaccaro and Jonathan Ciprian on this roster in 2019. So if they're going to re-sign Vaccaro, they're going to release Ciprian. If they're not going to re-sign Vaccaro, then I think Ciprian probably stays. But, you know, you'll see a lot of people on Twitter, they want to keep both. They want to keep everybody and all that stuff. And I just don't think that's realistic. You've got a contract with Ciprian that you can get out of, not have a lot of dead money.

That doesn't kill you against a cavern and like that. So, I mean, I think that there are definitely conversations going on there with Vaccaro. So then it just becomes, you know, how comfortable are you with the number that he's at? Do you try to work that out before he gets to talk to other teams? Or are you willing to let him go out there and test it with that number and then come back? Maybe his market's not as good as he thinks it is. Yeah, it kind of surprised me to see him call Vaccaro a primary target. You know, we think highly of him, what he did, what he stepped in and was able to bring to this team, some leadership.

You know, we always talk about how the team fell off when he got hurt. Just physicality, but didn't give up too much in coverage. You know, that was different than what we saw from Jonathan Ciprian. And you've still got Ciprian coming off of injury. Don't know how he's going to fit in Team P, the system. So I think it makes sense to bring in Kenny Vaccaro. Maybe if you even have to overpay a touch to keep him here, I'm for that. But like you said, you know, if they re-sign Vaccaro,

you can pretty much guarantee that a Cprian release is coming down the pike. But he kind of kept his options open. Also mentioned the draft. That's not something we've really talked about as a need in the draft that they could fill if both guys end up walking. So I don't think that's a realistic scenario if you lose both guys. But maybe if you lose out on Vaccaro and you want some insurance on Jonathan Sifrin, then you start to entertain a guy in the middle rounds of the draft. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I'm with you. I don't think there's a scenario when there are guys here, but I guess it's possible. Probably depends on how they feel about Dane Cruikshank. Obviously, there's just a lot of things in play there and things that they're working through, evaluating right now. Robinson also mentioned that they have been in touch with the representatives for Quentin Spain and other guys that are potential free agents from the Titans.

No real big news there. I would be surprised a little bit to see Spain back. And, again, you know, we go back to if you look at grades and that kind of stuff, he was the best interior offensive lineman. It seemed like an eyeball test to be the best one that they had, you know, as far as the three interior guys last year. But he was the one that got benched in that one game. When Ben Jones moved to guard, things seemed to go a little bit better there.

We know that they didn't place a lot of value on him this time last year when he was a restricted free agent. So I would be somewhat surprised to see him back. But, I mean, I guess anything's possible. But I would imagine that he gets to the market and there's just another team out there that's going to be willing to give him more than the Titans are based on the scheme that they're running and that kind of stuff. I was surprised to hear him mentioned by name. I mean, I'm like you. I'm going to be surprised if he's back with his team this year.

So I was surprised to hear him mentioned specifically by name. Look, he's a good young player. Maybe he didn't fit what they were wanting to do last year. Maybe that's changed this year. Maybe it's tweaked a little bit. We know they've talked about continuity, but maybe things are going to be different. We're going to talk a little bit about Mike Vrabel

and his comments on the offense here in a minute, but maybe he fits here. I just think it would be dumb to let him walk. I just am not an advocate of letting good young talent walk out the door. I know he was benched last year, but everybody that's watched him and evaluated him thinks he's a good young player, good young guard, and that's exactly what the Titans need. So I'm going to be upset if they let him walk,

but encouraged to hear that they've been at least in contact with his reps. Yeah, and I mean, I'm kind of with you there, but what's your sense of the situation at this point? I mean, I don't know. Something just tells me that he's not going to be back here, and I do think that's a mistake, but that's just kind of the feeling that I get. Yeah, I had that too until today. Got a little bit of a glimmer of hope.

You know, maybe their numbers are way off. You know, that might be where we're at. I remember last year, I forget what the exact numbers were, but their tender offer to him wasn't up to snuff. And then, you know, a better offer never came for him, so he ended up coming back. Maybe it's another situation where that plays out again. But we'll see.

I've gone from very confident he's not going to be back to, I guess, somewhat confident that he's not going to be back. Yeah, so we'll see how that one plays out. All right, like Terry mentioned, Mike Rebel had some interesting comments on the offense. We'll get into that. And then some things John Robinson had to say about the offense as well. on the offense.

We'll get into that. And then some things John Robinson has said about the office as well. So the last thing that I would say from the John Robinson part of all this, and I think this was something that he said on the radio on the midday, one 80 was basically just confirming that the terminology from last year's office is going to stay the same. I don't think that means we're going to see the same offense. And especially when you get into the fact where Mike Vrabel said he wants to see a more consistent and more creative offense.

So, I mean, that leads me to believe that there will be some pretty major changes in the way things are called, that type of stuff. But Robinson said, you know, if we call it a route, the specific example he used was if we call it a route Flamingo last year, we're not changing it to Parrot this year. So, I mean, I think that's good. We've talked about continuity and all that kind of stuff, but I think it's also good because you don't have to spend that

time learning the terminology and all that stuff. You come in, you know all that stuff. If you're going to work with different concepts and stuff, that's fine, but you can be teaching that stuff instead of teaching guys, this is what we call this play, this is where you line up on this play, that kind of stuff. So, I mean, I think it's good to hear that kind of stuff. But, you know, you were the one that kind of pointed this out to me

before we jumped on here. The fact that Mike Vrabel said that he wants to see a more creative offense maybe gives you a little bit of insight into how he felt things went in year one with Matt LaFleur. Yeah, a couple of comments from Vrabel. He was asked, what do the Titans need to add to help Marcus Mariota? And the question was kind of geared towards a position, and he said coaching. So you couple that with Vrabel saying he wants more creativity out of the

offense. You just kind of get a sense that things weren't maybe hunky-dory with Matt LaFleur last year. And it's a complex conversation because LaFleur was handicapped. You know, he did have the Marcus Mariota injury. We don't know how healthy Marcus was. You know, he was forced to game plan with Blaine Gabbert for a couple of games at least.

But you just got the sense that he wasn't real happy with the direction of the offense. He talked about getting more action on these bootlegs, getting more action on play action. And that's all something you can build off of with the success of Derrick Henry, who both guys had glowing reviews for. of Derrick Henry, who both guys had glowing reviews for. But it was interesting to hear them just kind of, Vrabel kind of dinged the creativity of the offense last year, which I think we would all agree with.

So you just look around the league. We talked about it a lot, the eye test. You watch the Chiefs play football, and they look like they're on a totally different planet than the Titans. So, Titans have to kind of jump into the new age here, and hopefully Arthur Smith has got to do it. Right, and a lot of that depends on Marcus Mariota being healthy. You know, and I think it's tough to criticize LaFleur too much based on, you know, some of the issues they had with Mariota's health, the offensive line play, all that kind of stuff last year.

But at the same time, even when Marcus was going well for that month or five, six-week stretch, you didn't see anything that really jumped off the screen at you, like, hey, this is the direction they're trending, going towards something like you said, the Rams or the Chiefs or whatever it may be. Both guys were asked in different spots about Marcus Mariota, how he's doing. By all accounts, everything's checked out well so far. Seems like rest was the biggest thing he needed for the nerve issue that he had.

So they anticipate him being ready for training camp. You know, and kind of the standard answer from both Robinson and Vrabel, when they asked, how do you make him better, I mean, they pretty much pointed to everything, better players, offensive line, playmakers, coaching, all that kind of stuff. So that'll be, I think, the primary focus is getting protection shirt up up front, getting a couple more weapons on the outside, and we've obviously talked about the different ways that they can do that.

So that'll be something, you know, that obviously they're going to be focused on. And we've talked about free agent wide receivers and all that kind of stuff. So that'll definitely be something to watch there. I was trying to think, is there anything else that you took away from the conversations today? Yeah, one more note. I mean, it's not a surprise, but he said Jack Conklin and Dennis Kelly were primarily viewed as tackles. Talking about John Robinson, he said that. So, you know, that's something that we kind of concluded to last week.

Sure, they want to be viewed as tackles. We'll see what the Titans do. You know, Quentin Spain factors into this, whether or not they bring him back, whether or not they add a guard. I think the Jack Conklin potential experiment could happen in training camp if a couple of guys go down, if they're forced into that situation. But Robinson's certainly not just coming forward and saying, hey, we're going to try Conklin at guard or anything. He's saying that he's going to stick at tackle for now.

Yeah, yeah. There's been a lot of speculation kind of outside of the building on if that would be a move they'd be willing to make and and i think robinson kind of shut that down today but again i think once you get through free agency in the draft you got everybody in there then that's the time that you can kind of make those assessments and see what the takeaway would be from that. So anyway, all that to say good stuff today. At least we got some things to talk about. Offensive linemen, I think we're weighing in today, measurements and all that kind of stuff.

Start workouts for those guys tomorrow. And then you have the skill guys, the receivers and that stuff coming in over the weekend. So we'll obviously keep an eye on all of that and talk about that here. In the meantime, you can see miracles.com where you can check out our work. We'll have a ton more about all this stuff, combine over the weekend, all that stuff. So you can check that out there.

You can also follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry is at tlamberttn. We also have the voicemail line. I got a couple of voicemails. Could use a couple more for a show on Thursday. So if you've got any reaction to the stuff that Vrabel and Robinson talked about today, 615-787-8762.

That's the number you can call. Leave about a minute-long message, and we'll get to it on a show later on this week. Again, you can play the podcast on your smart speaker at home, car, play podcast, Locked on Titans, and that's how you'll get us. So for Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks for listening, and we will talk to you again tomorrow.