Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked On Titans - Roster Cuts!

Episode Date: September 3, 2019

Going over the roster cuts! Jon Robinson makes some trades and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I'm your new host, Tyler Rowland. Thank you for joining me. Titans fans, I'm so excited it's week one. I was so tired of the preseason, so tired of the offseason, really ready to kick things off. I'm going to be bringing you guys a show daily, Monday through Friday, all season long, covering all the news and notes out of Nashville.

I'm also going to spend a lot of time breaking down the game tape so I can give you a better understanding of what the Titans are doing schematically on offense and defense. As for today, we're going to start out in our first segment. I'm going to give you just a little bit more about who I am and what I want to do with the show. And then we're also going to cover some of the hot topics and transactions from over the weekend. We'll take a break and come back and take a look at the roster cuts as a whole i'll go

position by position so we can see exactly who was cut who made the team and then in our third segment i'm going to do tighten up and tighten down and point out some individual players that i thought had an interesting outcome after the roster cuts. If you guys would, please follow us and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, whatever service it is that you use to listen to podcasts. Really appreciate it. You can also find the show at LockedOnTitans on Twitter. I'm at TicTacTitans. But before we begin the show, I just wanted to let you know that the opening week of the NFL season is brought to you by Mack Weldon.

Mack Weldon is a premier men's essentials brand that believes in smart design and premium fabrics. Mack Weldon is better than whatever you're wearing right now. Promo code LOCKEDON gets you 20% off at MackWeldon.com. Okay, welcome back, welcome back. Welcome back. Well, like I said at the beginning, I want to give you guys just a little bit more about me. My name's Tyler Rowland.

You can follow me on Twitter at TicTacTitans. I'm going to try to break down all the X's and O's. Okay, get it? All right, never mind. Anyway, please follow the show also at LockedOnTitans on Twitter. Definitely would appreciate it. Going to try to marry some of the schematic things I'm going to talk about with some visuals, some pictures on the Twitter accounts,

just so I can put both of those together for you guys. Going to be giving you a daily show. Of course, I'm going to cover all the hot topics, like I said, all the little scuttlebutt that happens throughout the season. Really excited to do it together, build a community with you guys, all just Titans fans hoping for a good season. Looking to do that throughout the season. Wednesdays, we're going to do the popular crossover event,

crossover Wednesdays. I'm going to have on the locked on podcast host of the team that we're playing on Wednesday I'll talk more about that at the end of this segment okay so some of the hot topics out of the weekend John Robinson trader John added again traded a seventh round pick conditional could become a sixth for Reggie Gilbert from the Green Bay Packers they had a ton of depth at the outside linebacker position and I agree with John Robinson that the Titans did not Gilbert played a lot of snaps for the Packers last year he's a decently productive player I mean he's not starting quality but he does add good depth to a team that needs it. I'm not very sold on

Kamalei Correa as an actual edge rusher. He brings versatility. He'll play special teams. He can play edge. He can drop into coverage. So his versatility kind of boosts him up and keeps him on the roster. But as for actual edge rushing talent, getting to the quarterback, standing up against the run, he just doesn't really give you a lot of talent. So, Adam Gilbert really helps. He's dealing with a little bit of health issues. He should be healthy and ready to go shortly, but really happy to see that selection.

You've got to capitalize where other teams have advantages. Reggie Gilbert probably was going to get cut by the Packers because of the depth that they had. They brought in a first-round pick in Rashawn Gary. They brought in two major free agent signings with the Smith brothers. So not that they're actual brothers, but that's what they're calling them in Green Bay. So felt like it was good to go with that. Either way, it makes sense to go out and get a guy like Reggie Gilbert

rather than try to pick him up once he's cut because once the player is cut, he can sign with any team that he wants. You have to negotiate. This way, you have the rights to the player. You don't have to fend off any other teams, and you don't have to worry about negotiating the contract. You can just acquire the player and see where it goes from there. So really like that trade, like the addition of Gilbert,

and hope that he gives the Titans some quality snaps this year. On the flip side of that, John Robinson got the seventh round pick back by trading Tyjuan Taylor. Obviously, Tyjuan had created a divide in the fan base, some ready to give up on him, some had seen the signs and thought maybe as a third round pick, we should give him more of an opportunity to prove himself I personally found myself on the side of John Robinson where it was probably time to let it go as a third round pick like I said you never want to let him go for a seventh rounder but at this time we couldn't count on Taiwan to be where he needed to be

couldn't count on him to catch the ball I think it's pretty clear that he's a body catcher. He uses his body and his arms to catch the ball in a lot of tight circumstances rather than just picking it with his hands. And when we're dealing with wide receivers, speed, athleticism, even route running, a lot of things are very valuable. But if you can't catch the ball when it gets to you, then none of that is going to matter. So as much as I loved seeing the speed of Tywin out there and think stretching the field was something he could definitely help this team do, if you can't catch the ball and if Mariota can't count on you, then the value to the team really decreases. Taylor didn't do much on special teams. He didn't add any value in the return game,

definitely isn't playing any other special teams unit. So at this point, it'd be better to replace this spot with someone who gives you some similar qualities, but can also add more versatility and add value in some other ways. Okay, so in our second segment, we are going to go ahead and take a look at the roster after all the cuts. We're going to go position by position, both sides of the ball. Take a look at your 2019 Tennessee Titans. Before we do that, I do just want to remind you that since the NFL season does begin this week, it means the return of Crossover Wednesday. For the entire NFL regular season, you'll get a special episode every Wednesday as the hosts from opposing sides meet up to preview the excitement of the games happening that week.

Find your favorite team wherever you get your podcasts. I'm hoping that's the Titans, and you can always find me here. And be sure not to miss the NFL listeners' favorite segment. It's time to celebrate. Football is finally back. In DraftKings, the leader in one-day fantasy football has huge week one contests. The first one starts this Thursday night when Chicago and Green Bay kick off the season in a single-game showdown with $2.5 million in total prizes up for grabs. Draft your single-game showdown lineup and feel the sweat like never before.

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Download the DraftKings app and use code LOCKEDON. For a limited time, both new and existing users can get a deposit bonus up to $500, and new users don't miss this extra special week one bonus. Enter my code LOCKEDON to get a free shot at $1 million with your first deposit. That's code LOCKEDON only at DraftKings. Make it rain. Minimum $5 deposit required. Deposit bonus requires a 25 times playthrough. Eligibility restrictions apply. See DraftKings.com for details. All right, let's go through the roster, see who made it after the cuts. We'll start on offense with the quarterback position. Not really any surprises, Marcus, Tannehill. The only thing I will say is I'm surprised that they didn't keep three quarterbacks

on the active roster and have Woodside there. He performed pretty well in the preseason. He did land on the practice squad, but with Marcus and Ryan's injury history, just kind of shocked that we, I wouldn't say shocked, but I am just a tad surprised we didn't keep three quarterbacks just based on that. But Woodside landed on the practice squad. We can bring him up. That's definitely a good thing. The running back room, there is a surprise here. We got Derrick Henry, Deion Lewis, David Flewellen, no shocks there, but Dalen Dawkins did make the team after a really strong week four.

Thought he had better explosion than Jeremy McNichols. I wasn't as sold on McNichols as a lot of the Titans community, but we'll get more into that in the third segment. Go to the wide receiver group. More into that in the third segment. Go to the wide receiver group. Corey Davis, Adam Humphreys, Tajay Sharp, A.J. Brown, Darius Jennings. Adds a lot of special teams value.

And Kalief Raymond did make the team. So that's a welcome surprise. As I mentioned, I was one of the people down on Tyjuan Taylor. The flip side of that coin is I was high on Khalif Raymond making this team. I thought he added some of the value that Tyjuan did while giving you better hands and more reliability. So glad to see that. Keeping six wide receivers, I like that as well. Going to the tight end group, Delaney Walker, Jonu Smith, the sure-handed Anthony

Ferkser, and then Nicole Pruitt. Going back to Vrabel's days in Houston, there's a comfortability with Pruitt there. They seem to trust him and rely on him, so he made the team. I'm not really that surprised. Thought maybe Ryan Hewitt who is listed as a tight end a lot of places played a lot of H back for us in the preseason a fullback tight end combo surprised he didn't make the team but maybe they think they can get that elsewhere on the roster going to the offensive line where I thought the biggest shock of roster cuts took place. We'll go over who made the team. Dennis Kelly, Taylor LeJuan, Jack Conklin going to be rotating tackles. Kevin Pamphil is probably going to start at right guard

but also can play some tackle on a pinch. Ben Jones, who just received an extension over the weekend. Rookie Nate Davis looks like he's going to be able to get back healthy and start playing, but all that missed time in the preseason really set him back. So don't see him being able to compete for a starting guard position until maybe a little later in the season. Jameel Douglas did make the team, Roger Saffold, of course.

And then David Quisenberry, who I thought was a tad bit of a surprise. We will get to that more later. I'll cover the special teams unit with the offense real quick. Ryan Suckup, of course, Brett Kern, and then Bo Brinkley survives again. This guy's one of the worst-rated players in Madden history, I think, but he continues to be on the roster. He's an excellent long snapper, and as long as he hustles and does what's best for the team and is one of the better long snappers in the league, he will have a roster spot here. So we'll go ahead

and take a look at the defense next. All right, let's look at the defense. On the defensive line, All right, let's look at the defense. On the defensive line, probably the name that I saw that made me most excited who made the team is Isaiah Mack out of Chattanooga. Just thought he had a lot of explosiveness on the defensive line. In my opinion, the Titans lack disruptors. I think we need more, and the Jeffrey Simmons pick points to this as well. We need more guys up front who Simmons pick points to this as well, we need more guys up front who are just able to beat the man across from them and disrupt the offense.

It doesn't necessarily have to be sacks, quarterback pressures. It's in the run game. It's in the pass. We need guys who can just beat the man in front of them, get to the quarterback and create pressure, disrupt the game plan. I think Isaiah Mack showed a lot of that in the preseason, and there's always going to be the caveat of he's going against second and third stringers, but anytime he was in the game, even with the first team, I thought he made an impact. Really excited to see him make the roster. Of course, Jarrell Casey, Daquan Jones, Austin Johnson,

Brett Urban, Matt Dickerson also made the team. I was pretty impressed by his performance in the preseason. Same thing, able to get pressure. We've had him around for a while. Let's see if he can step up and actually get in the rotation and make some plays with the first team this season. Jeffrey Simmons is going to go on the reserve list. He will not be available for the first six games of the year. That's probably for the best. We don't want to put any pressure on Simmons. We need him back 100% just like he was before his injury. Although everyone is very inspired and excited about his quick recovery,

Vrabel's talked positively about his recovery, it's still best not to put him under any pressure to get out there in the first month or anything like that. Let him know he has time. I think that was the best move for the team. We'll go to linebacker. One of the best units in the NFL, in my opinion, Jayon Brown, Rashawn Evans, our starting linebackers, of course. Wesley Woodyard.

David Long, who I thought showed out in the preseason. Not expecting him to take many snaps away from the first-teamers, but a nice piece, a nice draft pick for John Robinson. Darren Bates, great special-teamer, good leader in the locker room, continues to make an impact in special-teams units, so he gets his roster spot. Even though I thought there was a chance that he might get pushed and they may only

keep four inside linebackers. The special teams value he brings made sure he was on the team. Probably the weakest unit, I think right now, just in terms of talent and depth for the Titans, is the edge group. Harold Landry, Cameron Wake, Sharif Finch, Kamalei Correa, obviously the addition of Reggie Butler. But as I said before, I don't see a lot in Correa as more than just an average depth piece. We're going to need a big showing from Harold Landry this year if the Titans expect to get pass rush consistently with four people. I think that is one of the biggest weaknesses of this Titans team, and it comes from the lack of talent in the edge rushing group. Every year, the Titans have to manufacture pressure through blitzes, through scheme. The best

teams in the NFL in the playoffs are able to create pressure with a four-man rush. So we're going to need a big improvement from Harold Landry and Sheree Finch if we're going to see the Titans be able to do that this year. Cameron Wake will obviously provide veteran leadership. Will provide some situational pass rush. But at his age, I don't think you can count on him to be an everyday player anyways. So we're going to need a lot out of Finch. Hopefully Gilbert will be able to give us some good snaps playing with the first team.

He is a talented player. I don't know if I'm ready to say starting quality like I mentioned earlier, but should be able to give us some snaps. Move to the secondary in the cornerback room. We got Malcolm Butler, Logan Ryan, Adoree Jackson, LaShawn Sims, Ty Smith. No surprises there. Pretty much chalk exactly what you would have expected. In the safety group, Kenny Vaccaro, Kevin Byard, probably the, I don't know, top three, top five, possibly top one safety combinations in the league. Amani Hooker, I expect to see him get a lot of work with the first team in the regular season, coming in there in three safety sets.

He adds a lot of versatility by being able to play the slot. He can play some deep safety. I think he's really interchangeable, and he should get some good run in his rookie season. Dane Cruikshank has been a special team standout. You're hoping to see a little more from him as an actual safety, but he's very valuable on special teams. Glad to have him on the team.

And then Josh Kalou has made the roster. Really nice addition. He played well in the preseason, so good to see. In our third segment, we're going to take a look at some individual players, some surprises that I mentioned. Go into those. Be a quick break, and we'll be right back with you. Fellas, let's talk about the bedroom. Ever wish you could

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and we thank them for sponsoring our podcast. tighten up and tighten down so i just want to take a look at some of the individual players i mentioned some in the previous segment but get more into it so on the offensive side of the ball obviously khalif raymond really impressive in training camp, really impressive in the preseason. His ability to come in and push out a third-round pick like Tywon Taylor to make him expendable. John Robinson was willing to send Tywon Packen for a seventh-round pick. That is pretty impressive. As an undrafted free agent, obviously the odds are against you,

but I think he showed the type of mentality that was needed and the type of reliability that was needed. We could put him out there and Marcus could trust him to catch the ball when needed. Too many drops from Taiwan, and when you see the flip side of the coin in someone like Kalief Raymond who's catching the ball consistently, it puts a microscope on Taiwanjuan's drops as well. So really excited to see them actually pull the trigger on that move.

More than just the player, Kalief Raymond, it's more of a mindset of willing to cut your losses. John Robinson could easily have given Tyjuan Taylor that spot, kept him on the roster because he was a third-round pick and he didn't want to give up on him that soon but having the self-awareness to know that it's just not going to work out and being willing to cut bait I think that's an important sign and something you like to see from the general manager of your football team David Quissenberry making the team

not what I expected. Good for him. Obviously, he performed how the coaches wanted him to. He did everything he needed to do to secure a spot. You like to see that, and you have to believe that John Robinson and Mike Vrabel made the right decision and what's best for the team. But for a tighten down, how does Corey Levin get cut from this team? Consist consistently throughout the preseason he played fantastic felt like anytime he was out there he was moving guys around the

second unit line had Taylor LeJuan so clearly they're going to over perform but when you were out there seeing Corey Levin and Taylor LeJuan it was almost like you saw two starters. So I'm not 100% certain what went into that. We may learn more, but really surprising move to see Quisenberry get kept over Corey Levin, who had versatility at guard and center. Felt like there were times where Corey Levin may have been a better option at center, so Ben Jones could be moved to right guard

over Kevin Panfield. Obviously that didn't happen. Very surprised by that. But we'll see what we get from Quisenberry if in fact he is needed. Another tighten up, Isaiah Mack. Really impressive throughout the preseason. I talked a lot about him in the previous segment. Don't need to go over it more. He's just a disruptor. Gives you something similar to Jarrell Casey possibly down the line. So excited to see him. Matt Dickerson, similar, like I mentioned before.

Just another guy who's showing a little bit of disruption. We need more of that on the defensive line. Going to the secondary, nice to see Josh Kalou make the team. He has a lot of versatility in the secondary. It seems like Dean Pease is going to go heavy safety this year. He does add special teams value. Played five games with the team last year, so there's familiarity there as well. Nice to see him actually make the ball club.

Some more tight end downs. Jeremy McNichols, a lot of people thought that he was going to make this roster. Some thought over David Flewellen. Some thought if four running backs were kept that he would be one. However, I do want to look back and early in the preseason, after one of the preseason games, Mike Vrabel was asked about Jeremy McNichols and he did criticize him and say that he thought he left some yards on the field. I'm paraphrasing, of course, but felt that he could have done more with the blocks that he was being given. I thought that was a pretty telling thing. Mike Vrabel is

not one to criticize players openly, and to say something like that in front of the media, I thought had a lot of weight to it. So I wasn't as surprised because I noticed some of the same things watching the game. I felt like he could have done more. So when you see the explosiveness of Dawkins, it makes a little more sense to me than some acted previously. But I am not surprised to see Jeremy McNichols not make this team. I didn't see a lot of explosiveness, although he had some good moments in the preseason. Okay, so that's going to be our show for today. I wouldn't be surprised to see John Robinson continue to make moves. Guys are clearing waivers. Guys are getting cut. So I'm expecting some more action between now and the beginning of the actual season

and the first game. Again, please follow the show at LockedOnTitans on Twitter. Follow me at TicTacTitans. Please subscribe. Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, whatever services you use. I appreciate you joining me, and I'll talk to you guys tomorrow on Locked on Titans.