Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Talking Adam Humphries, Kenny Vaccaro; What's next?

Episode Date: March 12, 2019

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome in to another edition of Locked on Titans. I'm Jimmy Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you? Good, man. It's been a busy 24 hours here. Yeah, yeah. We just recorded this time yesterday. A lot of stuff has happened since then. So we'll get into all of it. Before we do, a reminder, we're right for me at citymiracles.com. 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 tlamberttn. You get the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Just search out Lock us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry's at tlamberttn. You get the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Just search out Locked on Titans.
Starting point is 00:00:28 If you want to call and leave us a voicemail, 615-787-8762. Your reaction to free agencies this far, anything we say today, questions, whatever it could be, leave us a call in there, leave us about a minute-long message, and we'll get to it on the show probably later this week. You can also play us on your smart speaker at your house, in your car, wherever you have that. Just say, play podcast Locked on Titans, and that's where you will get us. Alright, so the
Starting point is 00:00:52 Titans made two big signings yesterday. The first one was announced was Kenny Vaccaro, which really wasn't a surprise. I mean, you know, John Robinson had said at the end of our combine that Vaccaro was a priority for the team. There was a report a couple weeks ago that they were going to release Jonathan Cipri.
Starting point is 00:01:09 And the Titans didn't officially say that until yesterday when they re-signed Vaccaro. So not a huge surprise that he's back with the team. I was surprised the number they got him at. When you've seen some of the deals the other safeties have been getting, I thought that was really going to drive the price up for Vaccaro. But you get four years, $26 million, $11.5 million guaranteed. So it seems like a really solid deal for the Titans, like I said, in a safety market that's really gone crazy in the last 24 hours.
Starting point is 00:01:40 So this is, I mean, a good get by John Robinson. And I think Vaccaro is probably willing to, I don't know if he had to take less to stay here, but I think he's willing to stay here and negotiate based off of the way things went last year. Clearly liked the staff and all that kind of stuff. But good to get him back and really good to get him at that price. The safety market is just bizarre. I can't figure it out. It seems like every team dumped their starting safety into free agency and then yesterday people go crazy and give Landon Collins $80 million and
Starting point is 00:02:11 you saw Amos get $36 million from the Packers today. Kenny Vaccaro at $26 million total. That's a really, really good deal and a deal that, again, we both agreed Titans had to make. I'm surprised it happened so early. I just with how the Vicaro deal went down last year waiting so long You know that was that was at the start of training camp last year It just seems like this safety market It's kind of yo-yo back and forth, but that one really made me happy, really solidified the secondary really for the next couple years. So Kevin Byard's going to break the bank.
Starting point is 00:02:50 Good to get Kenny Vaccaro on a team-friendly deal. Yeah, absolutely, and it's good, too, because that defensive back room, which is one of the best on the team, really, if you look at it from top to bottom, you've got pretty much everybody coming back at this point. You've got your two starting safeties from last year, and then you've got Logan Ryan, Adoree Jackson, Malcolm Butler. You've got all those guys back. So it's good to kind of keep that continuity there.
Starting point is 00:03:18 And like I said, it's just the Titans, I think, really lucked out in what happened with the safety market last year. The fact that Vaccaro was still there when Ciprian went down The Titans, I think, really lucked out in what happened with the safety market last year. The fact that McCarroll was still there when Ciprian went down at the beginning of the year and then for it to play out the way that it did and for him to come in here and play as well as he did. So that was good to see. Like I said, they did officially move on from Ciprian, which we expected that to happen. I never loved the Ciprian signing from day one. I didn't think he had played that well
Starting point is 00:03:47 in Jacksonville. They obviously weren't huge fans of him. You kind of saw everything that went down there. But a guy, by all accounts, that came in, busted his butt. Obviously, without that hit on Travis Kelsey in the playoff game two years ago, the Titans probably don't win that game.
Starting point is 00:04:04 People point to that as a reason that the Titans shouldn't years ago. The Titans probably don't win that game. I mean, that's not, you know, people pointed to that as a reason that the Titans shouldn't cut him. That's kind of silly. But, you know, it's not one of those things where you're glad a guy is gone necessarily because of anything other than you just think Kenny Vaccaro is a better player. They had an upgrade there. You only end up spending about $2 million more than you would have
Starting point is 00:04:22 if you'd had Ciprian and you've got a better player. So, I mean, I think all things considered, the Titans, everything really worked out well for the Titans there. That was always an odd signing to me. I mean, we knew his struggles from Jacksonville, right? We saw him twice a year. We knew he couldn't play in the deep half of the field. We knew he couldn't play center field.
Starting point is 00:04:39 Dick LeBeau, when he was here, man, those safeties were interchangeable. So he asked him to do a lot. Thought it really hurt the team Yeah, I think he's got a role on an NFL roster assuming that knee is fine Like you said he had his moments that game against Kansas City will never forgive him for that Hope the knee is okay. Wish him well I don't think he'll be back with the Titans like need a need a fourth safety you can probably find that guy for cheap or somewhere in the draft.
Starting point is 00:05:10 But just an odd signing. You know, kind of reminds me of the Sylvester Williams deal, maybe to a lesser extent there. But a couple of those first initial John Robinson signings were head scratchers. Yeah, yeah. So it's good that at least so far in this free agency process that hasn't been the case uh coming up we'll get to the second signing the titans made and have a little bit of conversation around that all right so yesterday afternoon it was announced that the titans had agreed to terms with adam humphries uh comes out the deals four
Starting point is 00:05:42 years 36 million 19 million of that being guaranteed. Listen, I really like this signing. Adam Humphreys is not the piece that's going to put the Titans in the Super Bowl. I don't think anybody's foolish enough to think that. But I'm seeing remarkably a lot of hate on Twitter, on Facebook, that kind of stuff, from Titans fans about the Adam Humphreys signing it. I just don't get it. The Titans have had a problem really for as long as they've been here, but especially over the last couple of years with having receivers that can run their route the way that they're supposed to and catch the ball when it's
Starting point is 00:06:14 thrown to them. And those are two things that you know Adam Humphreys is going to be able to do. He's been very productive in his role in Tampa Bay. It's a different offense. We don't throw the ball as much. Titans don't throw the ball as much. I mean, I understand all of that. But you're talking about a guy
Starting point is 00:06:28 who's been productive, a guy who's definitely been effective over the middle, good route runner, good hands. You know, John Robinson is obviously familiar with him because he was there when the Buccaneers signed Humphreys as an undrafted free agent. So you got all of those things kind of being considered into
Starting point is 00:06:44 this signing. But I really like the deal. Again, I don't think it's the greatest thing and he's going to do whatever, but it's a really solid deal. Your number two receiver behind Corey Davis is better today than it was yesterday. You don't have to have Tyrod Taylor, Tajay Sharp, whoever running those plays. You've got a second reliable target. You pair him with Delaney Walker coming back. Marcus Mario is going to have two reliable outlets over the middle of the field
Starting point is 00:07:09 this year they didn't have last year. And I don't know how you can consider that anything other than good. You've got to come in with the right mindset. You know, you're thinking day one free agency. You're thinking Titans are going to sign somebody to fix this offense. That didn't happen. I'll be the first to say it. But it's a step in the right direction.
Starting point is 00:07:31 I don't think the Titans should be done here. I don't think they are done. They still have a need on the outside. But with Humphreys, now you've got a guy that can win over the middle. And where is Marcus at his best? It's working the intermediates. So now you've got someone who can immediately separate who can take those hits over the middle Who won't drop the ball like Nick Williams did you know if the Titans have receivers that can catch the ball?
Starting point is 00:07:55 That's two wins. You know you think back to tail wants drop in Miami you think back to Nick Williams drop in Buffalo There's your two wins, you know. That's how important this is. So I think it's a definite step in the right direction. Getting Mariota, a guy that can really win over the middle, was a big deal for John Robinson. And for those that are crapping on the signing, the Patriots were in on him. The Titans had to beat out the Patriots. So those are the teams that you want to be contending with in free agency.
Starting point is 00:08:28 If he goes to New England, all of the media is going to love it. It's going to be the next great white receiver to go up to New England and play with Tom Brady and break all kinds of records and win Super Bowl rings. So Marcus Mariota gets his guy, his reliable winner in the slot. I don't see how you can possibly have any problem with this. Yeah, I don't get it either. And again, anytime you upgrade the weapons on a team, that's good. And I know he's not Antonio Brown. I mean, I really think that the report that the Titans were in on Antonio Brown, I think it's kind of skewed everything else that's going to happen because whoever they signed is not going to be Antonio Brown, right?
Starting point is 00:09:09 I mean, even if Tyrell Williams, by all accounts, who still remains unsigned as of the time that we're recording this, you know, 1 o'clock Tuesday afternoon, you know, he's the best guy on the market. He's not Antonio Brown, right? I mean, so, you know, when you consider all these things, and again, like you're saying, when it comes out that the Patriots were the team that the Titans were basically beating against all day, I think that should make you feel better.
Starting point is 00:09:35 I asked on Twitter earlier if that made people feel better. You know, we made the point yesterday, talking about the Antonio Brown thing, when you get down to the end and it's just the Raiders left involved, that really tells you all you need to know. The Raiders historically have been a dumb franchise. They've got different people that are running it now. We'll see if that changes over the next few years. But they have historically
Starting point is 00:09:53 been the ones out there that do the dumb free agent signings, do the dumb trades, take the combine warrior high in the first round when the guy didn't produce. I mean, all those things. The Raiders have been the team that has done that. The Patriots have been the team that makes the smart signings. They spend in free agency when they need to, when they identify a need,
Starting point is 00:10:14 and they think there's a guy that can fill that. So, I mean, when you're there and you're working with that thing, like you said, I think that is a good thing. And I don't know. I mean, you've got a year right here for Marcus Mariota where he needs to have guys that he can count on. And it's hard to say how many times over the last few years have you seen a receiver go one way, the ball go the other.
Starting point is 00:10:37 And you never really know whose fault it is because we're not in the room, we're not on the sidelines, we don't have that type of information. But you feel like a lot of times it's been the receivers. And now when you see a guy like this that you know is going to run the right route, is going to understand the offense and all that kind of stuff, because that's what he's done. I mean, you know, when you've got these guys with these physical attributes where they can win with their size or their speed or whatever,
Starting point is 00:11:00 they don't necessarily have to be as much of a technician. Adam Humphreys is not, you know, getting open and catching footballs unless he's doing the little things well. And you've seen him do that. He's a guy that's proven that he can do that. So no, he's not going to come in here and have 1200 yards and, you know, 16 touchdowns, but he's a guy that makes the offense better. They can help them keep drives alive, that kind of stuff. And it's just something that they don't have enough of. And I don't
Starting point is 00:11:28 know. I'm really excited about it. Again, not like over the moon about it, but I just think it's a really smart signing. He's going to move the chains. Right. I mean, that's his best attribute there. He's tough. You've seen all these highlights floating around Twitter of him catching balls and just getting crushed over the middle.
Starting point is 00:11:44 You've seen him laying out dudes, blocking. You know, Vrabel's going to love that. You know, running an offense that's kind of centered around Derrick Henry, that's going to be awesome. So I'm excited about it. You know, I think the biggest criticism of it is it doesn't fix the offense, and you paid him, what, $9 million a year? But, look, if you're signing people on day one, day two, day three,
Starting point is 00:12:06 a free agency, you're going to overpay. And that's what we've been saying all along. So I think it's a step. I think there's another step to this. I don't know if it's going to be a top-level free agent. You know, you hear the reports that the Titans are probably going to be out on the rest of the top free agent receivers. But I still think they need to address it one more time.
Starting point is 00:12:27 You know, a guy that's floating out there right now, Cordero Patterson, you know, a lot of Tennessee fans will know who that is. They know what he can do. Titans have a big need in the return game, the punt return game. I think you can knock out two birds with one stone there. game, I think you can knock out two birds with one stone there. That's a guy that's not really a number two receiver or someone, but it's a guy that you can get the ball out to and he can make plays in space. The Titans don't have near enough of those guys.
Starting point is 00:12:56 So that's just a name that I'm throwing out there. There's plenty of second and third level guys out there, but I'm with you, man. They need veterans. second- and third-level guys out there. But I'm with you, man. They need veterans. You know, taking receiver at 19 is going to be tempting. The board might set up for that, depending on how these edge rushers fall.
Starting point is 00:13:17 But I don't think John Robinson is done here. I think you'll see at least one more signing. Yeah, and that's what we've been saying all along, is that they need to add two here. And then if you want to get a guy in the mid-round of the draft, I think that's fine. But I just spent another early draft pick on a guy. I don't know. At this point, it just seems like they've got bigger needs at that point. So we'll keep an eye on that.
Starting point is 00:13:36 Obviously, this is, I guess, the first wave of free agency before free agency has officially opened. But you're still going to have another week or two of other guys coming available as team signed people or just you're going to have guys that are in the second wave. So we'll obviously be following all of that. All right, coming up to end the show, we'll give just some general commentary on what some other teams have done. All right, well, we've got to talk about Nick Foles, right? I mean, the Jaguars won a bidding war against
Starting point is 00:14:06 themselves for nick foals um it's just a ridiculous contract and again you know i think i even mentioned on the show the other day but i was listening to the midday 180 last week and they had pete prisco on at the combine and so maybe two weeks ago but anyway um and he said you know the the market's not really there for nick foals, so I doubt he ends up getting $20 million a year. And then the Jaguars just go and break the bank for a guy. I don't know. It just cracks me up. I mean, it seems like the most Jaguar thing to do.
Starting point is 00:14:36 And, again, somehow they end up, you know, making this huge splash in free agency once again. I mean, I get it from their standpoint that you need a quarterback and they've had all kinds of issues, obviously, with Blake Bortles, but it just seems like they could have gotten it for less than that. Yeah, you slashed
Starting point is 00:14:55 those three or four players last week and created $30 million in cap space and now what, 22 of it? It goes back to Foles, so they're all in i mean like you said i get it from a certain standpoint but it seems like he could have come cheaper i mean i didn't i didn't hear a second team emerge in this race ever not once uh so that's just kind of an odd situation um the packers to me uh that's a a team that never have signed free agents ever.
Starting point is 00:15:29 They go sign two of the top edge rushers, Preston Smith and Z'Darrius Smith. Z'Darrius gets $16 million a year for a guy that had 13 sacks over the past three seasons. So, you know, that was my prediction yesterday on yesterday's podcast for the Titans. But I never dreamed that that guy would get that kind of money. I was thinking more four years, $40 million, something like that. Really thought he'd have a tie-in with the Titans, with Dean Pease here. But the Packers have kind of thrown a wrench into the edge market. Yeah, and I mean, you said that kind of quickly, 13 sacks over three years. Not 13 sacks each of the last three years, but 13 sacks total in three years.
Starting point is 00:16:03 I mean, it's just's just yeah it's crazy that he got the money that he did and again like this is something we talked about and i mean if you follow me on twitter you know that i've been battling these tj hockinson people um for the last little bit but these edge rushers they don't hit free agency very often and when when the ones that are really productive do they get a ton of money the ones that are really productive do, they get a ton of money. The ones that are not even that productive get a ton of money. So that's why I think it just makes sense to try to get that position in the draft.
Starting point is 00:16:32 And that's kind of what I've been thinking all along. That the Titans are going to be in a spot where they need to go defensive, lying edge, whatever it is, somebody to get after the passer in the first round of the draft. And I think that's kind of how all this is shaping up. I think now that you've got, you know, you've got Adam Humphreys,
Starting point is 00:16:48 you've got Delaney Walker. I mean, I've said all along that TJ Hawkins is not an option at 19. I don't see them going tight at 19 at all anymore just because it doesn't make sense based on what they've got on the roster. But, yeah, that was crazy. I mean, the amount of money that Trey Flowers got was nuts. You know, and people make fun of the Titans all the time for being, you know, the Patriots South or whatever.
Starting point is 00:17:12 Now the Lions, they're signing all the Patriots guys. But another guy that, I mean, is a good player, but just hasn't had the production to seem like it would match $15, $16 million a year, whatever it was they ended up getting. So this Edge guy, it just gets crazy. The edge and the safety markets have been really the most surprising thing to me so far. So, you know, you kind of reset this edge market real quick. You've got Justin Houston.
Starting point is 00:17:37 You've got Bruce Irvin, Shaquille Barrett from Denver, and, you know, an aging Cam Wake that's still pretty productive. So the Titans can make a play for one of those guys. Your need on the edge isn't that dire. But I don't know. It just feels like the Titans are kind of honing in on a pass rusher or a defensive lineman at the 19th pick. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:18:04 You hear rumors that Justin Houston, Titans aren't really interested there, haven't heard anything on some of these second-tier guys like Irvin and Barrett. So it just seems like his top guys went fast. I really thought the Titans would make a play there. It just seems like it's setting up for the Titans to go somewhere on that defensive front with the 19th pick. And to your point, TJ Hawkinson, Noah Fant, those tight ends, more than ever before, I just can't get on board with it.
Starting point is 00:18:35 I can't even see it. Yeah, and then just a couple more things. Roger Saffold is a guy that the Titans have at least been connected to somewhat. Taylor LeJuan asked Roger Saffold on Twitter if he wants to be best friend. So I don't know what the – you know, he's the former Rams guard. So I don't know what the level of interest there is. But, you know, Quentin Spain, you know, I've heard the Titans initially were interested in bringing him back. But you haven't really seen anything there concrete
Starting point is 00:19:05 since this legal tampering, whatever you want to call it, period, opened. So that could be a place that they're going to be looking as well because I still think they're going to try to bring in a veteran guard as well, and then you may still see them draft one early because at that point, if they wanted to move on from a Ben Jones, they could. I think that's probably the biggest remaining need that they have because right now you're missing a starting guard because Quentin Spain is officially a free agent.
Starting point is 00:19:36 So they're going to have to do something there. But I think that is, as far as the next couple of days, I think that would be the thing that I would probably see the Titans doing, is getting on a guy like Saffold. And like you said, you're moving into Wave 2 or 3 or whatever you want to call it. That's when I think they'll find their edge guy. Yeah, and Saffold makes a lot of sense. If you really want to maximize out Marcus Mariota in this 2019 season, bring in a vet.
Starting point is 00:20:02 Plug him in at guard, and you just roll. So that's a signing that I'd like to see that we haven't talked a lot about. Also, we probably need to talk about backup quarterback because I think that's a big deal. Tyrod Taylor, Ryan Fitzpatrick sitting out there. That's going to be probably a wave two type of signing, but I think the Titans need to be at the forefront of that. We've just seen Marcus Mariota.
Starting point is 00:20:27 You're going to get two games where Mariota's going to miss in every year. Potentially more. You hope not more, but Mariota's going to get hurt. It's just a thing that happens, so you need to plan for that, and I think the Titans need to spend up, overspend. Titans fans are probably going to hate it when it happens, but I just think they need to be prepared heading into this season. Yeah, absolutely, and that's the thing.
Starting point is 00:20:52 Tate Bridgewater was the other guy that was on that list, but he's apparently going to stay with the Saints. Kind of surprising there, I guess, a little bit, but I think he thinks that whenever Drew Brees moves on, he's going to have a chance to be there with Sean Payton. So, I mean, it kind of makes sense from that standpoint. So that's kind of where we are. You know, Titans were a little bit more active yesterday than I expected them to be. Like I said, I expected Vaccaro after what Robinson said at the combine. And we knew that they needed to get a couple receivers.
Starting point is 00:21:19 We weren't sure just if they would based on how the market would go and all that kind of stuff. So I just think they've done a good job so far. And we'll just continue to see what they do, you know, adding a couple more guys in waves two and three. So we'll be back later this week with another show. Like I said, between now and then, you can look at MusityMiracles.com. We'll have all the updated signings there. We've got a tracker that's tracking basically where everybody goes. So you can watch that, update that
Starting point is 00:21:45 as we see stuff come available. Follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry's at tlambertt. Thanks so much for listening to Locked on Titans and we'll talk to you again later.

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