Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Schedule release, two more draft visits

Episode Date: April 18, 2019

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Welcome in to another edition of Locked on Titans. I'm Jimmy Warren. This is always about Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you tonight? Doing pretty good. What's up with you? Oh, not much. We've got the schedule.

You know, shocked to see who the Titans are playing this year. Big surprise as far as all that's gone. It's always so funny to me how big of a thing this is. Like you said, you're just finding out the order in which people are playing. I don't get it. People get really excited by it. We'll talk about it. I mean, there are some things, obviously, some conclusions you can draw.

There's a couple of kind of quirky things in this Titans schedule. So we'll get to all that before we do. Remind you right from me to see miracles.com. We're covering 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 tlamberttn.

Hit the podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts. Just search out Locked on Titans. Hit the podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts. Just search out Locked on Titans. Hit the subscribe button so you'll get the new episodes as soon as they're available. We're going to record a couple episodes with Justin Mello, breaking down the draft for early next week. And then obviously we'll have tons of reaction to the draft, you know, the night that it happens,

and then plenty of analysis following in the next couple of weeks. So subscribe to the podcast. You'll get it there. Also, if you want to leave us a voicemail, 615-787-8762. Keep that to about a minute, and we'll be sure to get those on the show. Probably save that until the week after the draft. But if you've got any thoughts now that you want to say before the draft, you want to call your shot or something like that, we can give you credit for that later.

But anyway, so that's everything we've got going on. All right, like I said, schedule release. I'm sure if you're listening to us, you've already seen the schedule. But if not, we will run through it real quick. Week one at Cleveland. Week two, the Colts at home. Week three at Jacksonville for Thursday night football. The Titans' only primetime game on the schedule so far.

Week 4 at the Falcons. Week 5 home for the Bills. Week 6 at Denver. Week 7 home for the Chargers. Week 8 home for the Buccaneers. Week 9 they go to Carolina. Week 10 the Chiefs come to Nashville. You have your bye in week 11.

You have Jaguars at home week 12. You go to the Colts in week 13, to Oakland week 14, Texans at home week 15, Saints at home week 16, and then at the Texans in week 17 to finish out the year. All right, so the first talking point I think that everybody, you know, the fan bases have all riled up about is one primetime game, and it's Thursday night against the Jaguars. I'm a little bit surprised that the Titans didn't get more than that. I mean, you've got a team that has been fairly successful a couple three years in a row here, a year off of winning a Pell game.

You know, we're 9-7 last year at a winning record. They've got plenty of games against you know marquee players marquee quarterbacks i mean it seemed like there were a few options there that they could have gotten wrong time games now with all that being said i don't think any of us are overly shocked that they didn't uh used to that and you know a lot of times people complain about it kind of without justification because titans haven't been very good but i think you can have a little bit of a legitimate beef here with the titans only getting one based on the success that they've had in the last couple of

years look i'm going to be brutally honest um titans don't play an exciting enough brand of football to to get a bunch of primetime games. You know, it's just Derek Henry. It's this run game. It's Marcus Mariota. It's been Marcus Mariota throwing for 140, 150 yards, you know, no touchdowns. It's not real exciting. That's not something you go sell to a TV network. So I get it.

I totally get it. Maybe I'm one of the few Titans fans that does get it. I totally get it. Maybe I'm one of the few Titans fans that does get it. But this Jacksonville game has become an annual joke on Thursday night. It's not going to change because it knocks out Jacksonville's primetime spot. It knocks out Tennessee's primetime spot. So you knock out two small market teams in their primetime spot. You don't have to worry about them for the rest of the year. So I don't think it's going anywhere until these two teams play a more exciting

brand of football. You know, the Titans certainly have wins. You know, they haven't blown anybody away, but definitely a 500, a slightly above 500 teams over this last, you know, three years here. So, you know, you thought the Jaguars were going to be something down the road, but that obviously didn't work out. But, again, until the Titans play an exciting brand of football and kind of get out of this, what are we doing with Marcus Mariota?

I think you're going to see the schedule makers kind of keep them at bay here, and all you're going to see is that one Thursday night game of the year. Yeah, I mean, you're right. And like you said, I think maybe more than anything, maybe more than the success, it's the brand of football that they play that's going to keep them away. I'll tell you what I don't hate is having that short week in week three, you know, because then you kind of get a mini bye after that game, and you've only played two games at that point.

So it's not, you know, like in the middle of the year or late in the season, having a really short week. You know, it's like the Titans had last year when they played the Jaguars here. So, I mean, I do like that from that standpoint. I think it sets up well. I like having a bye a little bit later. Week 11, I think, is a really good spot to have the bye, you know, basically halfway through or close there.

So, I mean, I do like that. The other kind of things that you look at when you look at a schedule or things that stand out to me, weather, is something that you want to think about. You know, you're talking about after that week 11 bye, you don't have any – what you think will be tough weather games. The games that aren't here, you're at Indianapolis. That's obviously inside. You're at Oakland, California.

Weather's going to be good out there. And then week 17 at the Texans. So you don't have to worry about any kind of snow blizzard type game late in the year. Another thing that you don't want to do is go to Florida early in the season. We saw what happened last year when they had the eight-hour game in Miami. They do go to Jacksonville, but it's a night game early on, so it shouldn't be as hot air. I think when you look at it from that standpoint,

the other thing, the Denver game. Denver and Cleveland were really the two that you would be worried about late season weather you've got both of those in the first six weeks of the season so i mean i i think the titans you know did pretty well as far as that was concerned and then the last thing i'll mention you know just when you talk about when they play these teams it's really weird how you've got four of your six division games after the bye and we don't see the texans until week 15 and then you see the texans twice in three weeks there It's really weird how you've got four of your six division games after the bye, and we don't see the Texans until week 15, and then you see the Texans twice in three weeks there.

That's really weird. I don't like that. It seems like you'd be able to spread those games across the schedule. They did a better job with the other two teams in the division, not bunching them up as tightly. with the other two teams in the division, not bunching them up as tightly. But, you know, listen, if they can get to week 11 and still be in the hunt, they're going to have the meat of their AFC South schedule still ahead of them. So, you know, if they're sitting in a good spot when they get to week 11, they're going to be in a situation where they control their own destiny.

And that's obviously good. That was going to be my point. I was going to say, they better make some hay in the first 11 weeks of the season. Because Jacksonville is a very winnable game. But at Indy, you haven't beat the Colts in decades, it seems. At least Andrew Luck in the Colts. At Oakland is a winnable game. But then you finish with Houston, you get the Saints,

and then you go at Houston. That's three tough games. It seems like the Texans have had the Titans number as of late. I know they managed to beat Deshaun Watson here in town with Blaine Gabbert, but it was kind of a fluky game. It just seemed like Deshaun Watson wasn't quite himself yet. I think you saw the true Texans kind of show up in their second matchup there. So, yeah, playing Houston twice in the last three weeks of the season, that's weird. I know it's tough

I know you've got of things to work out as a schedule maker I think the Saints are the the Panthers and Falcons as I think played a similar schedule last year so it happens these things happen, but Unfortunate because I think Houston's a bad matchup for Tennessee Interested to see how they respond. But like I said, I think they need to make hay in the first half of the regular season for sure. Yeah, absolutely. All right, coming up, we'll finish our thoughts on the schedule

and then get into a couple of notable draft visits that have happened in the last few days. All right, just a couple more things that I've kind of noticed the more that I've looked at it. One, that Panthers game in Week 9, there was the rumor on whatever day it was, I guess Tuesday, Monday or Tuesday, that the Titans were going to be opening at Carolina. I would have liked that better because you got Cam coming off that shoulder surgery. And similar to what you were saying with Deshaun Watson last year.

I mean, you know, the Titans coaching staff gets a lot of credit for that win against the Texans last year. And absolutely deservedly so. I mean, they put together a great game plan, you know, went and won. But like you said, Deshaun Watson still wasn't himself. I just remember that last play of the game where he ran around forever and let time expire. So, I mean, I think they did catch a break by catching him early in the season. So, you know, if Cam's going to be healthy, he's not going to have something else going on. You know, you would think by week nine he's going to kind of be back to himself.

That's really it for me. It stands out. I don't know if you had any other thoughts. But, like I said, I mean, we know who they're going to play. It's just the order. And I don't know. Like I said, the weirdest thing to me is just all those division games at the end. I did hear, I think it was on OTP, they were talking to some mathematician or something,

and he said something about there's more NFL schedule possibilities than there are atoms on the earth or something crazy like that. I can't remember the number they threw out, but it was something crazy. I can't imagine what they go through to make these things work. And you think about, I mean, obviously you have to make sure that you don't have the same team playing in two different places in the same week. But you think about stadiums and conflicts and just all that kind of stuff that goes into it

i can't imagine the amount of you know time and energy that goes into this and i'm sure it's easier i'm sure they've got all kinds of computer programs and stuff that they can they can put a bunch of information into and you know spits out a schedule and they kind of work from there but still i mean there's a lot of variables they have to input to get the initial schedule that a computer would give you. Yeah, that's where you see the weirdness come out with playing Houston two out of three weeks. But I think the Browns, opening with the Browns in Cleveland, I think that's kind of interesting.

It's kind of cool because you're going to have Odell there. You're going to have a lot of hype around this Browns team over the summer. They're kind of the media darlings already. Baker Mayfield, what he did. Freddie Kitchens, everybody seems to love him. Titans are going to probably avoid Kareem Hunt there

facing a suspension. That's a touch of good news there. That's an interesting matchup because the Browns, they're going to be good. They might be favored to win that division. It's weird how quickly they've turned it around. Sashi Brown accumulating all those picks and John Dorsey kind of capitalizing on them. Odell Beckham, his first game as a Brown, that's going to be a really fun environment.

It's going to be a tough environment. as a Brown, that's going to be a really fun environment. It's going to be a tough environment, but it just seems like a spot where the Titans can kind of upset things in week one and nobody's going to see them coming. Yeah, it's definitely going to be a tough environment, like you said, because that fan base is going to

be excited. They haven't had this much hope since Bernie Kosar, probably. So, that's good for them. They already have a line on that game, too, by the way. Yeah. Titans are five-point underdogs. So, you know, that's good for them. They already have a line on that game, too, by the way. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's Titans. Titans are five-point underdogs. So Vegas, Vegas buying into the Browns hype.

You know, Vegas isn't typically one to buy into hype, but it certainly seems like they did so there. Yeah, absolutely. And, hey, listen, they got a lot of good players up there, so that'll be fun. Like I said, that'll be a fun environment. It'll be really fun if the Titans go up there and win because they kind of, you know, crush a fan base that's as high as that one is. So hopefully that's something they can start off with there.

All right, that'll do it for today's talk. Last thing, a couple of visits reported this week heading up to the draft. You had Cleland Farrell, I think Farrell is how you say his name, and Marquise Brown, two of the more interesting prospects in this draft. Two guys that could absolutely still be on the board when the Titans pick at 19. A guy that will probably not be on the board when, probably definitely won't be on the board when we get to 51,

but should go before the end of the first round. We've heard a lot about both of these guys. I think guys that both fit things that the Titans need. Obviously, we know that they need, you know, pressure on the quarterback on defense, whether it be from the defensive line or the edge position. So, Pharrell obviously helps you there. Marquise Brown, a speed guy. The Titans lack that on offense.

We've talked about our concerns with him. But as these draft things come out, it's just interesting that they had both these guys in because they could absolutely be in the conversation at 19.

Brown is so interesting because I get the Deshaun Jackson comparisons But it just seems like for every just Sean Jackson. There's a Corey Coleman there and I just did you know? I don't know if I'm too close to this to the Taiwan thing and you know Marquis is a better prospect prospect clearly But I'm just not big on five nine receivers 160 pounds. I mean coming off a foot injury I'm just not buying that Durability long term in the league, you know

We're talking about trying to maximize this roster for Marcus Mariota trying to figure out what he is Absolutely, if he comes in he's healthy. Absolutely 100% He can stretch the field he can help this offense But is he gonna be 100% from day one? Do the Titans have to wait on him? I don't think the Titans can afford to wait on the 19th pick. So when you talk about a guy like that versus an offensive lineman that you can plug in and play at right guard versus a defensive lineman that can come in and disrupt, versus a guy like Cleland who can come in and start on the edge for you and potentially start for a long time.

It's just hard for me to get there. So Cleland, it got to me that fits John Robinson. You know, I think he has 21 sacks over the last two years at Clemson. Played on a stacked line, so didn't really get to face those double teams. played on a stacked line, so didn't really get to face those double teams. But, you know, a junior that had been there for four years obviously has the production, which we've seen John Robinson, really value in the past. So that's an interesting conversation when you talk about Cleland

versus an offensive lineman or maybe a guy like his teammate, Christian Wilkins. I'm fascinated to see which way the Titans go. Yeah, I would be shocked if they took Brown at 19. Yeah, me too. I don't know. I would be really surprised there. He seems more like a guy that if they were able to trade down, then that's a conversation you start to have.

You know, and Pharrell, I think that is probably, I mean, I'm by no means a draft evaluator but i would think that one of the hardest things that to do in this draft would be to evaluate those clemson defense linemen because you're looking at what three guys that from that line they're going to go in the first round uh and that's just that's just crazy and so how do you how do you tell like you said you know they can't really double team anybody because they got other guys they can hurt them there. I do think, though, that when you're talking about him coming into a line

that has Jarrell Casey, you can alleviate some of those concerns because he's going to be the focus. So maybe he doesn't have to face as much of that as he would if he were walking into another situation. But, yeah, that's what it's going to come down to is what does John Robinson value the most there? get into another situation. That's what it's going to come down to. What does John Robinson value the most there? Does he think

if he's going to go with a defensive player there, does he think he's got an offensive lineman, an inter-offensive lineman that's going to be sitting there at 51 that can come in and start? Again, you can give me your thoughts on this here in just a sec, but they have to come away from the first two rounds of this draft

with an edge rusher and an interior offensive lineman. Now, if you get a guy like Pharrell, I mean, I think that counts as your pass rusher there. So, I mean, I think that's okay. He's not necessarily, you know, a stand-up outside linebacker. I mean, I think you're good with that. But I think if they're going to pass on a Garrett Bradbury or whoever at 19, they have to feel pretty confident that there's going to be a guy there at 51 that can come in and at least compete for that right guard spot right away.

Yeah, I'm going to widen that. I'm going to say instead of an edge, you've got to come away with an edge. You've got to come away with a defensive disruptor. Yeah. You know, and I think we're on the same page with that. Yeah, you know and I think we're on the same page with that You know getting a guy like Wilkins like Jerry Tillery At 19. I think that's fine as long as you would you're able to address the offensive line at 51 and obviously that's a risk and

Obviously, I I think you know offensive line is it's clearly the most important spot for the Titans This that's just my opinion though, but I do think those two needs You know offensive line is it's clearly the most important spot for the Titans Just that's just my opinion though, but I do think those two needs Offensive line and front seven, you know, wherever it may be. I think the board is gonna fall I think it's gonna make John Robinson's decision for him. I'd be surprised if both Wilkins and Cleveland Ferrell are still there You know and you talk about Garrett Bradbury and Chris Lempster. So if all four of those guys are there, I'd be really interested to see which way John Robinson went. Yeah, that would be a fun conversation to be a part of

if those four guys are there to see where they go. So anyway, all right, well, that'll do it for this show. We appreciate you listening. Like I said, we've got a couple episodes to start the week with Justin Mello coming up, kind of breaking down everything that is the Titans draft, and then we will have plenty of reaction to everything that

happens Thursday night, Friday night, over the weekend. So be sure and check that out. Again, the best way to do it, just go ahead and subscribe to the podcast so you'll see those episodes come to your phone or however you're listening to this as soon as they are available. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm.

Terry's at tlamberttn. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Locked on Titans, and we will talk to you again next week.