Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Talking through first round draft strategy, underrated needs

Episode Date: April 9, 2019

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Welcome to another edition of Locked on Titans. I'm Jimmy Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you today? Oh man, I'm a busy man, but it's good, it's good. Glad to be back and talk a little Titans today. Yeah, absolutely. Terry's got a lot going on. A lot of UT stuff been happening in the last few days. So if you're into that kind of stuff, you can check him out on Rocky Top Talk. I'm sitting outside today. It's a beautiful day here in Nashville so if you get some background noise I apologize but just too pretty to be inside. Today we're going to talk about some a couple news things off the top and then we're going to get into some draft discussion. We've been involved in a couple of mock drafts

in the last few days and just kind of some discussion around how those have gone. And then we'll talk a little bit about a post that Mike wrote on the site earlier, I guess it was last week, about underrated draft needs for the Titans. So those are the kind of things we're going to hit today. That's musicmiracles.com is where Mike wrote that post. That's where we write, Covering the Titans for SB Nation. You can check us out there. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm MattJayMorrisMCM.

Terry's at TLambertTN. You get the podcast wherever you get your podcasts, Google, Apple, Spotify, Himalaya, whatever it is that you're looking for. Just search out Locked on Titans. Subscribe so that you get the newest episodes as soon as they are available. You can also play us on your smart speaker. Just say play podcast Locked on Titans, house, car, wherever it is that you have that, and you will hear us there.

All right, so a couple of news things. It was reported earlier today that the Titans will play the Patriots this preseason. The guy who is the Patriots reporter for The Athletic, I'm trying to get his name really quickly here, reported, it's Nick Underhill. He tweeted out the Patriots' preseason opponents, and the Titans were on that list. The Patriots will be coming here, according to him, to play the Titans. So, you know, that's pretty cool. I mean, hopefully if they can get joint practices,

I think that would be a little bit better deal there. You know, the games, I mean, Tom Brady's probably not going to play in the preseason, so it wouldn't necessarily get to see him there. But if you could get a couple of days of Bill Belichick here matching up with Mike Vrabel and the Titans, that would be pretty cool to watch. Yeah, a lot of storylines there, obviously, with the Titans and Patriots connection there. So I don't think it will ever be a rivalry per se, but it's always interesting to compare the two teams, and you get the Vrabel and Belichick connection there.

I believe it was the Bucs last year that came. It would be cool just to have them in town for two or three days in the preseason. ESPN would be all over that. They'd be here in Nashville covering that on their afternoon NFL shows. That would be really cool. Again, probably not going to see Brady or anything like that. But it seems like it's two very connected franchises. You're seeing the Lions kind of take that same approach there.

So, yeah, it would definitely be cool, and I think it would bring the Titans a lot of attention in the preseason. Yeah, so we'll keep an eye on that and just see what we hear along practices and that kind of stuff. It may not be the way that he tweeted out the schedule. He's got the Titans-Patriots listed first. I don't know if that means it's going to be the first preseason game or not.

I think it's probably a little bit less likely that we get those practices if that is the case. But we'll get the full preseason schedule, like I said, in the next couple of weeks. So we'll keep an eye out for that uh really the only other news thing that we've had uh the titans added two former aaf players probably familiar with the aaf league that was it seemed like it was doing pretty well but then they folded uh i guess last week now the titans have brought in logan woodside and keith tobridge Woodside, you probably remember from last year,

the Titans signed him kind of late in the season for the practice squad. So he was here a little bit with them. And then Tobridge is a tight end. So, again, just kind of looking for talent anywhere you can find it, right? And, you know, Mike Vrabel talked at one point this preseason about a third quarterback, adding a third quarterback to the roster. You know, it's always good to kind of have that developmental guy around. Maybe Woodside is that guy for the Titans.

I mean, he had some good plays in the AAF, and obviously they had at least, you know, somewhat of interest in him last year. So, you know, nothing really more than a developmental guy there. I mean, I would say the same thing with Tobridge. I mean, you're just looking at adding depth to that tight end spot. We know what we've got in the top two guys. But outside of that, you know, you've got Pruitt and Ferkser and Colwick are the guys that are currently left on the roster with Luke Stocker

leaving to go to Atlanta. So, again, just John Robinson looking to, you know, add some guys to bring in and get a look at in camp. Yeah, a couple camp bodies. I don't know that anybody should be too excited by their addition there. It's probably guys that you're going to see a lot of come August, preseason game, fourth quarter, stuff like that. Woodside is at least interesting. Like you said, if anything, he's a third quarterback on this roster.

I'm not sure that he makes this team. I think he'd have to do a lot there. But I'm not sure about his practice squad eligibility. But if he's still eligible, that's where I guess he would land. But it's kind of interesting. We saw the AAF basically fold after, what, six or seven weeks, maybe a couple months. It just seemed like with all these signings that were happening,

it seemed like the product was working. So it's kind of unfortunate to see the money kind of dry up so quick because you've seen around the league 10 or 12, 14 guys that have found new homes and new opportunities that they might not have had without the A.A.F. It didn't Spurrier declare his team the A.A.F.? Yeah, of course he did. Of course he did.

That's Pete Spurrier. Anyway, yeah, like you said, you are seeing a trickle coming out of these guys. It seems like, you know, every day there's a couple of guys you see that have signed on with somebody else. I'm a little bit disappointed that it folded just because it was something to at least somewhat penchant to during the offseason for the NFL. I guess the XFL

is supposed to come back next year. I think it started too early. I think we were all like, you know, it's weird to go from Super Bowl to AAF the next weekend. I think there's a starvation for football kind of after the draft. So if they started late spring, early summer, I know it would be hot. But it just seemed to be an odd time to start to me.

Yeah, I'm with you. You go from, like, the peak Super Bowl game or the peak, you know, football game of the season to, you know, preseason. I mean, I don't know what exactly to compare it to, but yeah, just a huge drop-off there. So yeah, that's probably a good point. If they started at a little bit different time, it might have done better. But anyway, like I said, just a couple of guys that are, you know,

as John Robinson works on rounding out the 90-man roster that we'll see when training camp opens in July. So just a couple things to take note of there. All right, that will do it for the news part. Coming up, we're going to talk a little bit about the way certain mock drafts have been falling and what it could mean for the Titans when the actual draft rolls around. All right, so we have been at least somewhat a part of a couple of mock drafts locked on. We mentioned that last week.

They were doing an NFL mock draft. I'm not sure if they have posted that yet, but they were doing that. And the SB Nation Writers Mock is also going on. The Titans, our pick won't post until I think the 15th of April. But we have already made it, and they're just kind of running up to those picks in the meantime so not not to give too much away about what's going on there but you know i think the fear that we all have as titans fans is that you're going to be sitting there at 19 uh your edge rushers are going to be gone which i I think is, again, in my mind, still at least the biggest need or 1A, 1B, however you want to say that,

need for the Titans. Edge rusher is your offensive lineman, I think, at this point for me are the biggest two needs. But if you get to a point where you get to 19 and all those guys that you think have the ability to be early impact edge rushers are gone, you get into a point of what do you take? And you don't love taking an interior offensive lineman at 19. It feels like you should be able to find value with that later on.

But I don't know with the way that both of these draft boards have fallen and just different mocks that you see around the you know we all know what those are worth but it just for me and both of those mocks Garrett Bradbury was a pretty easy pick and not because I necessarily loved it but because he just seemed like the best player available that also fit a need, and I think Tom Gower put it a really good way on Twitter the other day in regards to the Titans' first pick. Are you more comfortable playing 700 snaps of Correa and Finch, or are you more comfortable starting Penfield or potentially kicking Dennis Kelly inside the guard?

I think you responded with neither, which I think all Titans fans feel. I think that's how they feel. But for me, you just look at this locked-on mock. You see Rashawn Gary. You see Brian Burns go top 10. Christian Wilkins goes 11.

Montez Sweat goes 12. Other guys, you've got Lawrence going 17, the big defensive tackle. You've got Farrell going 15th. Who does that leave? For me, it leaves a bunch of guys that you can't pick. For us, it was easy to go Garrett Bradbury there. I think that fills an immediate need.

You're not reaching for anything. I think you get the most bang for your buck right there. So to me, it just seems like the draft board is going to take all of these front seven pieces away from you. So I think you can make things easier on yourself by going ahead and grabbing the top interior offensive lineman, whether it be a guard, whether it be a center, get you a guy that can play both, give you some versatility there.

I think that's really easy, and I'm not sure how you pick any other position right there. Yeah, and the other thing to keep in mind, and this is something that Mike Keith talked about when we had him on the show and then he was talking about it on their show, I think it was yesterday, whenever it was they were talking about offensive linemen, keep an eye on a guy that, and I don't have a guy in mind, but just a guy that played tackle in college that could possibly kick inside

to play guard at the next level. You know, either somebody that projects that way, or even if you just got, you know, if the best offensive lineman there happens to be a tackle but has the athletic ability to kick inside and play guard, that might be something that the Titans will be looking at. And then if you need him, because, look, we could be sitting here next year. We still haven't heard on Jack Conklin's fifth-year option.

Dennis Kelly, I think he's entering the last year of his contract. So, I mean, two significant pieces that they still have questions about. As far as how much you want to pay Dennis Kelly, how healthy is Jack Conklin going to be? I mean, those are the questions you have about those guys. So, you know, we could be sitting here next year needing the right tackle. I mean, it's not a ridiculously far-fetched thing that we could be talking about. And so if you get a guy that you think can play guard for you, but you also think has the ability to do that,

that could be something that the Titans would be interested in doing. I mean, I don't know. But like you said, just to me, all these other mocks where it's like, you know, everybody loves best player available. That's what everybody wants the team to do, best player available. Well, that's fine. But with the way the Titans seem to be gearing up for this year, it seems like they're gearing up for a run in 2019.

And I can't see them taking just an offensive tackle, whoever the best offensive tackle in this draft is, if he falls at 19. I don't see the Titans doing that just because he's the best player on their board. If they don't need him, and possibly might not need him for a couple years down the road. I don't see them going that direction. I see them looking at the best player but also a guy that can come in and help them right away that's been my biggest problem with tight end we're going to talk about underrated draft needs in a little bit we can kind of get into that discussion a little bit then

but i just i don't see them taking a guy that they don't expect to make an impact for them in 2019 yeah and just to go back to this lockdown mock draft, you had Greedy Williams still on the board. You had DK Metcalf, the receiver from Ole Miss. You had Byron Murphy, the corner from Washington. So probably your best players on the board at that point were two corners and a receiver. Are you really going to take one of those guys over Bradbury,

who you can plug in and play year one, day one, and he's going to be a starter for at least three or four seasons, you hope? That's just a no-brainer to me. I've never been a big best player available guy. It kind of worked out in years past where you took Taylor with one. It didn't exactly work out when you took a guy like Kendall, Kendall, right? So I think it's a double-edged sword. I think you have to go into it with a balance of both.

You know, you can't reach, you can't reach it. If a guy's slated to go, you know, 30 to 40, you can't take him at 20, but I think it's a good marriage of everything for the Titans to address interior offensive line and even a guy like you know you mentioned tackles that that might play guard uh a guy like jonah williams if he falls uh you know alabama guy that that might be an option there dalton rissner um another offensive lineman there so i think they're open but i think we've got it narrowed down to front seven or offensive line. Yeah, absolutely.

I just, I don't know. DK Metcalf is an interesting piece because in both of these mocks, he was still available. And I really, really don't think that happens on draft night. I think that there's going to be, you know, teams always fall in love with combine measurables. Not that, I mean, I think DK Metc can play and i i have some questions about him but i mean i think he can definitely be successful in the nfl but it's just it's just funny you know for all the hype that he was getting and then he goes and he blows up at least certain portions of the combine to to be in these two mock drafts and still be on the board at 19 um i mean we had to at least

think about it, I think? It's a consideration, and I don't think it would be crazy that Robinson would do that if he were available, but I don't know. It's just worse than right now. I can't see any way he's still on the board at 19. You look at John Robinson's history. He likes seniors. He likes production. He likes consistent production over two, three, four seasons. Metcalf doesn't have any of that, and he's got injury concerns. He's sat out half the year with, I believe, a back injury.

Redshirt sophomore. There's a lot of red flags there. I just don't think he's going to be a John Robinson guy. Maybe I'm wrong on that. I also don't think the Titans are going to be able to get a chance to pick him. I think he's going to go somewhere before pick 19. But you're right. It kind of seems like he topped out early in the process,

and now he's kind of falling back down to earth. And he just seems like Al Davis, Jeff Fisher. Those people just love that stuff. I mean, they would eat him up. So I don't know. It'll be interesting to see what actually happens with him on draft night. All right, coming up during the show, we'll talk a little bit about some underrated draft needs

that the Titans could definitely address in this draft, but they're probably not doing it on night one. All right, so like we mentioned from the top, Mike wrote a post on Museum Miracles talking about the – he listed three underrated draft needs for the Titans and kind of laid out his case for each uh the three that he mentioned running back cornerback and inside linebacker again those are not places that you look and say okay the titans have a big need here but if you're projecting forward a little bit you're looking at guys that are on

the roster contracts that's all that kind of stuff it makes sense that it could be something that we're talking about this time next year regardless regardless of how well this team does in 2019. And so the first thing you mentioned was running back. And, you know, I think the most important thing here, Derrick Henry's in a contract year. So don't go with him. If we get the, you know, last quarter of the season, Derrick Henry will be willing to give him a contract.

If you get the guy that we'd seen for the majority of, you know, the three years before that or two, you know three first years before that i don't know i mean it got showed well at times and then really struggled at times dion lewis they can get out of that contract after this year um you know just didn't didn't go as well as we hoped it would in year one we need to see how you know arthur smith's going to use him uh then you're looking at you know the third running back on the roster david flivellen i i have you know sorry trevor but he's not an nfl running back i don't think they're ever gonna you know running him around him so it really is a place they could be looking at and if there's a guy maybe he's early to the

third round but definitely in day three if you've got a guy that you think can come in and can develop into a successful piece for you there, I think that could absolutely be something they look at. Yeah, I'm for it because I just don't think Deion Lewis is going to be here much longer. I don't know how much left he's got. He's a smaller guy. It just seems like the wear and tear caught up with him last season. And when the Patriots let somebody walk, that's usually a pretty good time.

It seems like they squeeze everything out of their guys. So I think the Titans will have a need there down the road. I think they've got an immediate need right now. I think they can upgrade there. I think it's probably unwise to expect Derrick Henry to do what he did in the last month of the season. You certainly hope he can get back to that point, but you can't forget about the frustrations and how we got to this point

and how much of a surprise it was that he turned things on. So I think you can add a guy in the fourth, fifth, sixth round, a guy that can come in and play special teams, a guy that can come in and beat out David Flewellen. I just think the Titans can get some more juice, maybe a home run hitter. We've seen them attached to a home run hitter. We've seen them attached to a couple of backs already. I saw them visiting with Alex Barnes running back out of Kansas State.

They were at Devin Singletary out of FAU. They were at his pro day. So there's definitely some interest there at the position. Seen that interest before, and we've seen them not take any. So it'll be interesting to see on day day three because i don't think you're taking one day two i think day three i'll be interested to see if they grab one yeah absolutely and and you know i yeah you just that you with these guys and with the just inconsistencies there it wouldn't hurt to have a guy that can even push you know those guys in training camp be a good piece to look at. The second thing, Mike, we're talking about cornerback. And again, the biggest note here is you've got LaShawn Sims and Logan Ryan

both in the last year of their contracts. I think they would like to have both those guys back. But you were talking about numbers and all that kind of stuff. So it's by no means a sure thing that they will be back on the roster in 2020. You've also got Malcolm Butler, who we talked a lot about last year, really struggled at the beginning of the year, came on and was playing at the end of the year. But in 2020, you're going to own a bunch of money.

Is that where you want to have that money tied up, especially when we're talking about a quarterback, possibly if you're going to extend Marcus Mariota, you've got to sign Kevin Byron. They've got a lot of things coming up on this roster that they're going to have to pay for. So, again, it's a spot where I don't see them addressing it at 19. Like you mentioned earlier, there's a really good chance that when we get to the 19th pick in the draft,

there will not have been a corner taken, which is wild to think about. But I think that's a possibility. I still don't see that as a place the Titans go there. We've seen that in a few mocks. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. But it's definitely something that they could look to add some guys for depth, competition, and then when 2020 rolls around, you might have a couple of spots that have been opened up just based on other

things going on. Yeah, you mentioned Sam, you mentioned Ryan. Malcolm Butler, his dead cap really falls off next offseason. He's going to be 30 years old, would have a base salary of $11 million, but you can cut him and get $6 million in dead cap versus $18 million if you cut him right now. So there's a potential out there. If he plays like he did down the stretch, I don't think that happens. But if he plays like he did in the first half of the season

That's absolutely something John Robinson is gonna explore. So yeah, like you're saying you just got to kind of have a Forward-thinking attitude about this. I don't think it's something that you need to address on day one, too But the Titans have met with a ton of corners just looking through this here That might be something they're interested in. You saw them hit with Sean Sims. You saw them kind of hit with Kaelin Reed, bounced around, and didn't really have an opportunity to produce, but did some good things in the preseason.

So I can certainly see them go that route. Guys like that can always play at special teams for you. So day three, I think it's pretty much wide open. That's when you take your best player available pretty much regardless of need. Yeah, and that's really what I – you know, if you can address – I mean, I think they have to come out of this draft with an interior offensive lineman, a pass rusher, and probably a defensive lineman.

I mean, I think they really need those three things. And actually that I think is pretty wide open. They really are in a spot where they could just sit back, see how it falls in guys that may drop into the fourth, fifth round, that they had a lot higher on their board. That's when you get into, like you said, best player available, that kind of stuff. The third thing Mike mentioned on here was on my back.

Same type of concept. You got Wesley Woodyard. He's coming toward the end of his contract. He's also getting older now. He's been better, it seems like, the last two years than he was the three or four years before that. We'll see how that plays out. But you've got Rashawn Evans and Jalen Brown at least locked up for the next couple of years. But with the way Jalen Brown came on last year, he could be a guy that you're looking at having a decision on how much you're going to pay him, how valuable is he in this scheme and all those things.

So that's a spot, tight end. Again, a lot of people have given the Titans tight ends. I know my feelings are clear on that in the first round. But I do think that it would be nice to have another guy that could be ready if Delaney Walker doesn't return to form, if Jonu doesn't you know make the climb that it seemed like he ever again I am still very anti tight end at 19 but I do see the reasoning of why you would want to have a guy that would be able to that would be able to step in tribute somewhat next year because there are a lot of variables at that position and it's really deep you know I don't think that gets enough run when we have the tight end

conversation. Everyone wants to talk about those top two, three guys, the guys that are going to the first round. It was never realistic for the Titans. It still isn't. But this position has a ton of depth. So I could absolutely, absolutely see them planning for the future, taking one, you know, even as early as the third round.

I could see that. And then talking about linebacker, Titans have been interesting. Wesley Weard getting up there. Darren Bates is going to be a free agent. So just a couple of guys. Blake Cashman, inside linebacker from Minnesota. They've privately worked him out.

They've shown a ton of interest in him. Ty Summers from TCU. It makes sense. Just looking through what they've been interested in, what they've been interviewing, working out. It certainly adds with Mike's post. It's just a few

positions that we really haven't discussed. I could see each of those being addressed on day three. Hopefully those beads, edge, interior offensive line, defensive line get filled on day one and two. Yeah, I think it just goes back to the point that, you know, they've done a lot of positioning themselves, where they've got a couple things that they still need,

but they're not desperate for anything. And so they can just kind of see how it plays out, hopefully address those things early, and be free to just draft good players later on in the draft. So it seems simple, but we've seen that team struggle with this. Just draft good players. That's the plan. Anyway, all right, that'll do it for today's show.

Thanks so much for listening. Again, subscribe to the show if you haven't already. That way you get the newest episodes as soon as they are available I didn't mention we do have the voicemail line if you've got anything you want to talk if you want to call in and talk about how great my strategy of distracting good players

is 657878762 that's the number leave us a voicemail and we'll hopefully if we get a couple of those we can do a show on that later on this week. So for Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks so much for listening to Locked on Titans, and we'll talk to you again later.