Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Talking offseason with Mike Keith, Part Two

Episode Date: April 3, 2019

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Welcome into another edition of Locked on Titans. I am Jimmy Morris, joined again by Mike Keith. Thanks so much, Mike, again for joining us. If you missed yesterday's episode, you can go back and listen. We talked with Mike about the Titans in free agency. Today we're going to talk a little bit about the Titans in the draft. Obviously, you know who Mike Keith is, but if you don't, he's the voice of the Titans. And he also is one of the hosts of the official Titans podcast.

They are now back to running daily on all the Titans social media channels. Also, wherever you get your podcast. And it's live every day at 10 Central. Did I do a pretty good job with that one? Well done. The OTP. Yes. Thank you.

All right. So today we are going to talk about draft needs. So as we sit here on April 2nd, again, with everything that we talked about yesterday in free agency, what do you see as maybe the Titans' biggest three needs that they still have on the roster? I mean, I think it stands out you're still trying to to figure out offensive line because you don't have the answers there. And this is what you do when you talk about needs. You're like, where do we not have every answer that we completely feel good about going into training camp?

So offensive line is one because you don't quite have an answer at at least one of the spots. Defensive line is one where you really don't have any depth to speak of right now that you totally count on. It doesn't mean it won't happen. It doesn't mean that Matt Dickerson doesn't become a super player that you can rely on for years and years. But again, it's about a complete answer. And then my whole thing, and I say this over and over again, I said it last year, it's outside linebacker. If you're going to run the 3-4 and you're going to be a great defense,

you've got to be great at outside linebacker. The Titans were not great at outside linebacker a year ago. They were the number eight defense in the NFL. linebacker a year ago. They were the number eight defense in the NFL. I thought they had the capability of being top five if the outside linebacker play was great, and it wasn't. That's also a position where you have to spend big money in free agency, Jimmy. So if you're able to draft a player, particularly at number 19, and there's a cost containment there for four years, you help yourself a great deal. So those are the areas that jump out to me.

It doesn't mean that if there was a great, versatile defensive back, a great tight end, a special receiver or a running back, you wouldn't go in that direction. But those don't seem to be as pressing as some of the other spots that I named. Okay, you brought up tight end. I have been a staunch anti-tight end guy on Twitter. There's a lot of people. Is that a thing?

Really? You're a staunch anti-tight end guy? Man, that's awesome. Listen, I've been out here fighting the battle. But here's my opinion, and just again, tell me, do you line up with this at all or not? So, I

can see Tight End being a need in a year or two. I mean, that's obviously a thing, and we'll get into, you know, because people have brought up the 10-1-1 thing, so we'll get into that in just a second. But, you've got Delaney coming back. I think he can give you at least a couple more good years. You've got Jonu Smith, who you drafted in the third round just two years ago,

a guy that was really showing some promise before he got injured last year. I guess if you have a generational-type guy there, that might be a place you're willing to go. But to me, it just looks like you've got some other really pressing needs on this. And if you draft a tight end at 19, you're not putting three of them on the field. So you've got – you're either going to have to slow down John Yoo's progress and you'll have Delaney in the draft pick out there, or you don't play your 19th pick as much. I mean, I don't know.

Am I wrong in a lot of thinking there? Again, like back to the 10-1 thing, I mean, I remember I heard an interview with you like the day of that draft. I think it was a little midday one. And the first time you kind of brought up the idea that this could be a spot where if there's something they're going to need in a year or two, they could go there. And they obviously ended up taking 10-1.

Yeah, they kind of bashed me over that. I think Kaharski gave me the bits of that, didn't he? Yeah, probably. That's not something Kaharski would do. But, you know, that to me is a little bit different because you didn't have any really – It is. It is.

I just – to me, that feels like you're just i don't know i feel like at that point if you're taking johnny off the field i don't know this is just kind of taught me through this no but i think you're right i mean the tackle position is one that's very different because that is i mean and we've been put at left tackle since we've been here as any team in the NFL. Any team. I mean, who can name Brad Hopkins, Michael Ruse, and Taylor LeJuan? And every year there's some people, oh, we've got to get a left tackle. We've got to find a tackle.

The difference in our franchise is a left tackle. We've never had to do that. We've always had the next guy ready to go. We drafted Michael Ruse and played him at right tackle and then moved him to left. We drafted Taylor LeJuan ready to go in for Michael Ruse because there's value there. There is a difference, you're right, between taking

an offensive tackle and taking a tight end. I'll say this though. 2003. We need a wide receiver. We got Tyrone Calico. Tyrone Calico. Tyrone Calico, I believe, had Roy Williams not horse-collared him at Dallas the next year, would have ended up being a really good player for us.

I believe that. But nine picks later, we could have taken Jason Witten. Hello? hello i mean that that's the point is we didn't need a tight end because we had frank wycheck who was entering his last year aaron kenny and you know i mean we were okay there but what would it have meant to the franchise at that moment had we taken Jason Witten. Now, nobody is sure at that point that Jason Witten is going to be what he turns out to be. I get that.

But I think in instances where you can get somebody that you're going to be able to say five years down the line, this guy's been a really good player for us, five years down the line, this guy's been a really good player for us, that building block is more important than what the guy is going to look like in terms of his playing time in the month of September 2019. If you don't have – and you've hit on this, and I've heard you talk about this before, and you're 100% right. I mean, when you've got to do something in the draft, that's when you screw up. That's when you end up with Pac-Man Jones and not Aaron Rodgers.

That's when you take a quarterback instead of taking J.J. Watt. Because you have to. Because you don't have a guy. We're not in that position. We don't have any spot on this team where you say, if we don't do this on April 25th, we may not be able to line up in September. So if Noah Fantzler and Noah Fantz, a difference maker, or TJ Hawkinson is there who may be a generational type tight end you know could be a Dallas Clark type of player for you for a long time if Irvin Jr. is there and you say this guy

is just so special I think that's what you do so I'm not a fan of the sexiness of the pick. I'm not a fan of the necessity of the pick like I was Taylor 1 five years ago. But I do think for the long term of it, you say, we pick this player, he plays for us for this period of time and is a really good player. That turns out to be a good pick regardless of position. And to me, that's how you stay in the race long term. And you're able to not only manage your roster, but manage your costs. Did that make you feel better at all? You did.

Like I said, I get it from down the road, but I just feel like this team's ready to play in 2019. Now, let's say one thing. Let's say one thing, though. This is a team with a bunch of injuries at tight end. I mean, if we had to line up and play a game, you know, if we had to line up and practice when the players get back in a couple weeks, there'd be a bunch of guys who couldn't practice. So while you feel good about

what's going to go forward at that position you know and i think everybody's gonna be fine it sounds like delaney's doing great i mean those are things you don't know so and and certainly we as people on the outside of that tight circle don't know all of the answers to that as well and i often caution people about that often the things we don't know especially for off the field type things with an injury or personal situation or some sort of trouble somewhere they dictate a lot more than what we ever have an idea about yeah absolutely so we'll So we'll see how that goes. I don't think I necessarily came away looking great there, but we'll see. No, you're all right. You're all right.

I don't see anything. I've seen the argument back and forth, and I see both sides. I see both sides of the argument, and I totally get it. I think where you may be on this, however, is a lot of it may be determined by how many of the great defensive linemen and edge rushers come off the board before 19. chart and in my needs chart in in reaching out to people throughout the league to find out the top three needs of each you would not believe how many of them have edge rusher at one or two it would stun you i mean it would it would absolutely dumbfound you how many have this. I was going to talk about this with Dave McGinnis on the April 3rd edition of the OTP. So a bunch of them may be gone. You may get to 19, and every edge rusher that you have on your board worthy of 19 may be gone.

Every defensive lineman that you may have worthy of 19 may be gone. Every defensive lineman that you may have worthy of 19 may be gone. And so they may select another position there. If an edge rusher is there that they think is worthy of that spot, they may have to go ahead and grab that guy because the depth in the elite part of that group may not extend all the way to the Titans pick at number 51. The defensive line depth might. It might shock me if the Titans went edge rusher, then defensive lineman, or even vice versa. Absolutely.

All right, coming up, we will continue our conversation with mike keith about the nfl draft okay so a couple more things uh interior offensive lineman you know if you look at the roster right now as it stands you can pretty much peg your starter at every position except for right guard probably. Do you think interior offensive line could be in play at 19? I do. And it wouldn't surprise me if it's a guy who had tackle capability

who could play guard also but could eventually move back to tackle. You know, having that versatility. What I like in this draft, from the Titans' perspective, and I'm not an evaluator, so I can't tell you Bob Smith's hand placement or his feet are excellent. What I can tell you is there's a bunch of guys who have been tackles in college who are projected as having the ability to play guard in the NFL and give you some more size in there,

and with the projection of being able to go back to tackle it. When you and I were talking about free agency yesterday, we discussed Roger Saffold and his versatility. I think there are some guys who, like Roger Saffold, was Indiana, are tackles coming out, but their better position in the NFL may be guard. So you may be able to steal a very special athlete at 19 at that spot. Okay, and then last thing, just as far as, you know,

we've seen John Robinson be very willing to move around in drafts for the part. In the first round, he has gone up. This seems like a year that he, I guess, is maybe a little bit more unlikely to move up. He's kind of said as much, you know, as much as he's willing to give away anything in some interviews that I've heard. Just basically coming off of a year where, you know, you only end up with three draft picks on your roster. Now, I mean, they obviously did really well in the undrafted period, but you only came away from that draft with three draft picks on the roster. It seems like a year where they need more picks rather than less picks.

Obviously, it's way too early to have any idea, but do you think he's more likely to be looking to move down this time than up? I think that's more likely because I think for what the Titans want to build depth-wise, in particular with big people, this draft has big people on both lines and an outside linebacker. This draft has big people on both lines and an outside linebacker. And I think you could potentially deal back and still get your guy in the 20s. And that may be what they want to do. The problem the Titans have, though, is I've analyzed it.

Seattle at 21 only has four draft picks, so they're going to want to move back. Baltimore at 22 does not have a second-round pick, so you would think with them being in a situation with Eric DaCosta taking over as the general manager, he might want to move back as well. So there may be – if I was a betting man, I would bet they're picking at 19 because I think it may be hard to move back because I think other people may be in that market more quickly. Yeah, that's a great point. Everybody always wants you to move back, but you've got to have somebody that wants to come up. And, yeah, there's a bunch of teams around there.

And are you going to trade? You know, one of the teams that I look at that would have the capital to come up is Indianapolis at 26 because they have the Jets' second-round pick, and then they have a whole host of other picks. I don't know that Titans are trading with the Colts. You know, I don't know that they're going to help the Colts find the player the Colts are going to use to beat them unless the deal is just so good. And maybe that happens, but the Colts are one of the teams that I am watching closely

who I think is going to want to potentially reach up and grab someone, and guess what they're looking for? Edge rusher. And they're also looking for a second wide receiver so you could see them really start to hone in on somebody get really excited about one of these wide receivers especially one of these big bodied wide receivers that dave mcginnis calls a combat catcher because they've got T.Y. Hilton. Do they want Metcalf or do they want another one of those powerful

guys, Hakeem Butler from Iowa State? There's certainly some guys out there who can do it. Okay, and then last thing, we heard a lot about your reaction last year when the Titans drafted Rashawn Evans. You pumped to get

that guy on the roster professional one it's very professional uh is there anybody in this draft that you've kind of pegged so far that it not i mean not necessarily even the titan 84 or whatever but just a guy that's a football player like that that you'd be excited to watch there you know they're actually a bunch of them I was a Montez Sweat guy at Mississippi State both of the Mississippi State players he and Jeffrey Simmons who sustained the injury are just both so much fun

to watch love both of those players the Allen kid at most of them we probably have no shot of getting but the other one to me I like defensive guys, Ed Oliver at Houston. That guy is just a Tasmanian devil.

They triple-team him. He doesn't care. I mean, everybody, after he made All-America as a freshman, everybody just said, you're not going to beat us. So they double-teamed him. And this is a guy lined up all over the place and runs 4.75, a short shuttle of 4.22, which was faster than Saquon Barkley. I mean, this guy is just a beast. I love Ed Oliver.

I would love to see him paired with Jarrell Casey on a defensive line. I don't think that probably happened, though, because I don't think there's any way he gets to 19 after his on-campus workout. We can all hope, though, right? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, obviously, you're picking a layer on the draft. I mean, you had a good season. But there's a lot of these guys you get excited about,

and you kind of get that feeling of, well, there's no chance they're going to get them. But, you know, we'll take the wins in the fall over that kind of stuff for sure. That's right. There's some people who want to win the draft desperately and then don't care about the season. It's like my partner, Annie Wells, says she, in fantasy football, she likes the draft better than she likes the season. There's some teams that it seems like like the draft better than the season i

would rather have the season go well and then we kind of figure out the draft yeah absolutely um all right so tell us again about everything y'all are doing with the otp leading up to the draft yeah the official titans podcast you can download it wherever you download podcasts. We're doing an edition every weekday in April. It was my idea, so it's my fault. There's so much to talk about. That's why we're doing it. Every single day,

10 a.m. Central Time. We do it live from our studios at St. Thomas Sports Park. You can watch it at titansonline.com or through any of our media channels, the Facebook, the Twitter, so on and so forth. And then, you know, you can go back and watch it throughout the day if 10 a.m. Central doesn't work for you.

We've had a couple good shows so far, you know, three good shows so far. Hopefully it'll keep working. It's really a lot of fun because with this draft being in Nashville, Jimmy, I can't tell you how pumped I am. Every day I just hop out of bed ready to go because I cannot believe the draft is actually here. Yeah, and y'all know, I mean, it's been a while ago now, about some of the logistics of the draft and that kind of stuff.

So if you're into all that, go back and find the official Titans podcast where they did that because there's a lot of good information in that one. All right, Mike, thanks so much for taking a little time here to join us for a couple of episodes. And best of luck with everything going on. And here's to hoping that we get something fun on draft night. We will. Jimmy, thanks for having me on the show.

I appreciate it. All right, thanks so much. All right, again, that was Mike Keith, the official voice of the Titans. You can find the official Titans podcast every day at 10 a.m. on all the Titans social media platforms. Thanks so much for listening to this edition of Locked on Titans. Again, you can follow me on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm.

Terry, who's usually with us, at TLambertTN. You get him there. You can get Locked on Titans wherever you get your wherever you get your podcast, Google, Spotify, Himalaya, Apple, wherever it is that you get that stuff. Just search out locked on Titans and you'll find us there. So for my Keith, this is Jimmy saying thanks so much for listening and we will talk to you again later.