Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Three round Titans Mock Draft simulation

Episode Date: April 17, 2018

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Welcome in to another edition of Locked on Titans. I'm Jimmy Morris, joined by Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you tonight? Doing well. Excited. We're doing a little something different tonight. I think it's going to be fun. Yeah, so what we're going to do tonight is go through kind of a mock draft and talk about, I guess, some potential scenarios the Titans will be facing on draft day. We're just a little bit more than a week away from the draft at this point, so that's always a really exciting time, and we'll obviously have a ton of content around that. Before we get started tonight, I want to remind you that Terry and I write for MusicCityMiracles.com, where we cover the Titans for SB Nation,

so you can find our work there. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry is at tlambertfb. The podcast account is at LockedOnTitans. And of course, you can subscribe to the podcast iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, wherever you get podcasts. So check us out

all those places. Alright, so what we're going to do tonight is kind of run through a mock draft. And we're going to be using Fanspeak. Fanspeak.com, which is a really cool mock draft tool where you can import a board or you know that i mean they have boards listed there and then you can kind of say i mean around you want to go

and it kind of simulates a draft and you get to pick for your team so obviously we'll be working that through for the titans so uh talk a little bit before we jumped on here i think the consensus number one need is obviously edge rusher i mean there's no doubt about that where it gets interesting is what's the second need uh you know we've been obviously talking a lot about this since really the end of the season and didn't necessarily have wide receiver in on that list but the titans have worked out a lot of receivers so i think there's a pretty good possibility that they pick a receiver in the first two days of the draft um and then i think you have a conversation around inside linebacker and then we've been wondering uh you know they've had a lot

of corners in and we've been wondering why that was and terry made an interesting point tonight that i think makes a lot of sense i'll let him kind of lay that out for you. Yeah, it all stems off of Logan Ryan who signed that big deal last offseason. He was John Robinson's first real big signing. His contract runs through 2019, but next offseason his dead money goes from $5 million down to a little over $600,000. So the Titans could cut him and get that contract off the books and save about $10 million.

Now, you talk about Marcus Mariota getting a new deal, Taylor LeJuan getting a new deal. That's going to be pretty attractive to John Robinson, I believe. So now you've got Adoree Jackson. You've got Malcolm Butler. You've still got young guys, Ty Smith, LeSean Sims on the roster. I could see a scenario where they move on from Logan Ryan. And, you know, that might be the way they go if we see them take a corner early.

And like Jimmy said, they've been connected to some already. Jair Alexander out of Louisville and Josh Jackson out of Iowa, the main two ones there. I think you'd probably have to spend a first to get Jair Alexander. Maybe Josh Jackson slides into the second. But still, those are two corners that are coming off the board early. So just kind of interesting that they're connected to those two. Yes, sure.

And, you know, they added Malcolm Butler. So you've got Butler, Logan Ryan, Dory Jackson as your three for the 2018 season. But, you know, we've had a lot of conversations about you need three corners, all that stuff. So that kind of makes sense. I think corner is in a mix for that second need when you look at it through that lens obviously inside linebacker is something that you know people have been talking a lot about uh i think they're probably pretty comfortable with wesley woodyard and jayon brown there but again woodyard as you kind of start to look forward will he be here in

2019 so i mean a lot of questions around that interior offensive line ben jones similar deal on the contract uh makes a lot of sense for them to be able to move on from him after 2018 season so there's a lot of a lot of things at play and this is again it's a good place for the titans to be and somewhere that they obviously weren't the last couple of years but now you've got a scenario where you don't have any huge needs outside of that edge rusher so you can start to look down the road a little bit and if there's a guy that's a really good value there when you when you come up to pick then you can start to build that roster in so you can kind of sustain the success that you've built uh you know that's what the good teams do is they're always forward thinking they're not they're not having to

necessarily fill holes right now. They're looking down the road so they can continue to build on the success that they've had. So that's kind of where we'll start off here. So Terry's going to run kind of a simulation, and then we'll talk about where that puts the Titans with 25th pick. All right, welcome back to Locked on Titans. We have run the mock draft simulation here. Titans picking 25th.

The obvious name that you've heard a lot about, Josh Sweat, the pass rusher out of Florida State. He is on the board here. You've also got Marcus Davenport out of UTSA. That's a really interesting situation there with the two. We haven't talked about Davenport a lot, but he's huge. He's 6'5", 260, and runs in the 4'5". Very athletic.

Titans have been more connected to Sweat, obviously. Outside of that, you've also got Leighton Vander Esch out of Boise State, the middle linebacker, along with Rashawn Evans. I would say those are the four options on the board there. And for me, the pick is Sweat. You're talking about a guy that was misused at Florida State, playing inside, very athletic, 6'4", ran a low five in a 40-yard dash, super athletic.

I like betting on athletes at pass rusher over production. You've got Sam Hubbard on the board also, but for me, the pick is Sweat. What about you, Timmy? Yeah, I absolutely agree. I think at this point, even if they have Sweat graded a little bit lower on the board, you do kind of have to force this pick. And like you said, you've got a guy who wasn't necessarily used correctly at Florida State, and so maybe it does take him a little bit of time to get up to speed,

being 100% comfortable with playing that position. The good thing is you've still got Aragpon Morgan ahead of him, so he's got some time to kind of learn there um you know and and work in as a piece in 2018 but then you expect him to be you know kind of a a cornerstone of the defense in 2019 so yeah i mean i'm going sweat with with the way that this this has fallen out and again it's kind of funny we're talking about this before we came on too i mean this has started to become the consensus in the mock drafts around the internet, and so those things never kind of seem to play out when draft day comes. So that's kind of got me thinking about it a little bit.

But I think they have to go edge rusher, and I think if you've got a guy with that type of talent, you can go ahead and take him there. Yeah, I totally agree. So I think we've hit a home run with that first-round pick. That's the guy that Titans seem to be targeting. I agree with it. So we'll move on to round two. Round two, you mentioned it's really tough to kind of select a need number two

for this team. I feel like we've talked a lot about linebacker. But, you know, you get Will Compton there too, the veteran free agent. Will Compton's not going to change any draft plans by any means, but you've still got that veteran presence there, so I don't think the Titans have to draft one. Malik Jefferson is here on the board out of Texas. A guy that kind of underachieved at Texas

and hadn't really put it all together. You've got Harrison Phillips, the defensive lineman from Stanford. But I'm looking at receiver. DJ Chart from LSU, the guy that ran the 4-3 at the combine. Underachieved at LSU due to poor quarterback play. You've also got Dante Pettis from Washington sitting there, who the Titans have already been connected to. James Washington also out of Oklahoma State.

Jimmy, did any of those guys kind of get your motor running? I think I'd have to lean DJ Chark, honestly, for what the Titans need at receiver. Yeah, Titans need a burner. And Matt LaFleur was on the Midday 180 last week and talked about how he thinks every offense needs a burner. And the Titans clearly don't have that right now. So if they're going to draft a receiver here,

I think it makes sense to go with Chark because he's the guy that does give them that element of speed, that over-the-top speed that they don't currently have. And again, going back a little bit, we talked about how we think this is probably one of the best groups of receivers they've had since they've been here. But with so much talk and so many workouts and all that stuff, so many visits going to receivers, I don't think there's any doubt at this point that they take one in the first two days. So, I mean, I think Chark makes the most sense here when you look at it through that lens. So, I mean, I'm fine with going ahead and pulling the trigger on him. I'll agree with it. I'll pull the trigger, too.

You know, it's interesting. I think you could go a number of different ways with this next pick. You've got offensive line needs. I think you can bolster the defensive line. You could even circle back and grab another pass rusher. That's something that we were talking about before we came on. You could also go running back. You know, the Titans only have two running backs right now,

if you don't count flu season, which I don't. So a whole lot of options open for the Titans here. All right, the simulator has just finished up. We've got an interesting amount of names left here on the board. A couple of corners, Dante Jackson out of LSU, Anthony Averitt out of Alabama, Arden Key still on the board here in the third round. He's an interesting guy. If you want to double down at pass rusher, a guy that's 230 pounds

would likely need some molding there. You've got some character concerns. He kind of walked away from the team and then came back. He got up to 270 pounds. He's back down to 230 now. Just a really, really odd story with Key. But the Titans have had him in for a visit there. So would you even be interested in entertaining the idea of Arden Key on day two?

You know, that's a really interesting question. In the third round, maybe. What's his talent? Let's say, take all the off-the-field concerns away. Where does he get picked? If you asked me that before his pro day, I would have said he was a first-round lock. But he goes out and he runs, I think,

like a 4'9", 238 pounds, something like that. So I'm kind of out on Keith. Yeah, and I think if we're trying to keep this to what we think might actually happen, he doesn't seem like a John Robinson guy, right? I mean that just doesn't seem like a thing. That seems like a Jeff Fisher pick back during that era. But I don't see Robinson going that way, so I'd probably pass there. Now, when you get into day three, I think you have to take a serious look at him if he's still around at that point. But here, I just think you've got maybe not necessarily bigger needs,

but I think you've got better players, better football players that you can plug in when you look at the total package. Yeah, I agree with that. So I'm looking, and the guard's really dried up. I'm not going to reach for one there. Running back is interesting. You've got my man John Kelly left on the board. You've got Mark Walton out of Miami.

You've even got Royce Freeman out of Oregon. So, yeah, it's pretty wide open here. Honestly, if I had to guess what John Robinson would do, I'm going to go with Nathan Shepard, a defensive lineman out of Fort Hayes State. I don't have the stats in front of me right now, but this kid just destroyed lesser competition, put up huge, huge numbers, had an astronomical amount of tackles for loss.

Titans need help on that defensive front. I think it's a pretty good bet that they're going to take a defensive lineman. Benny Logan, that's just a one-year deal. So I could see them going that direction. And I think Nathan Shathan shepherd is my pick here yeah i'm good with that again i think what you have after if you get sweat in the first round which you know in this exercise we did um you're just you're taking the best football player available and if that if that's where you where you find what you find here, then I say go for it.

Because, like I said, John Robinson has done a remarkable job of rebuilding this roster. He's done a really nice job in free agency the last couple of years of filling those holes so that they don't come into the draft with these just huge glaring needs where you have to force something. And, I mean, mean look you can say well they do have that at edge rusher and and i would agree but if you don't find those guys in the draft then you're going to be in trouble because i mean even look back to the brian arachpo deal the only reason the titans were able to get him for what they did was because he had the injury concerns so um you know those guys just don't hit free agency without some some type

of question mark going going along with them so yeah i mean i think they're going to be able to sit down in the third round and say okay especially if you look at getting your your edge rusher in the first round your speed waters even a second round who's the best player left on our board you know outside of a couple positions what you know tackle quarterback i mean you know outside of those couple of deals, what, you know, tackle, quarterback. I mean, you know, outside of those couple of deals, who's the best football player available? If that's what we got here, then I say we go for it. Yeah, so we wrap up this mock draft here. We went Joshua, took care of the pass rush.

We got our speed threat, DJ Charr, and we got our bolstered defensive front here, Nathan Sheppard, a guy that could grow into a starter one day. So that third pick could go, and really a second pick, it could go in any number of different directions. Like we said, corner, safety, anything on the offensive line, anything on the defensive line, receiver. Titans have been looking everywhere. Safety, Jimmy's top knee on the board.

You could go any number of directions there so it's kind of it's really hard to project but i think the top is really easy to project i would i would bet a large sum of money that uh john robinson comes out of the first round with a an edge presence a pass rusher yeah i think if you Yeah, I think if you're betting money on this, I think that it's a pretty safe bet that two of these first three picks are an edge rusher and a wide receiver. And that's just what we were able to get here. But I just really think that all the, you know,

if you want to read the T-Laser, however you want to put that, all of that is pointing in that direction. And, again, you know's it's obviously a good thing to not be picking it until the 25th pick it makes the the conversation a little around the draft a lot different than it has been in years past but you know the later picking the draft obviously the better you did in the season and then the the thing that's fun about when you get into those second third round picks that we don't have you know know, it's not like, okay, they're going to, we knew last year that in the first round they were going to get a wide receiver

and a cornerback. We didn't necessarily know which order it was going to go in, but we knew they had to come out of that first round really with those two positions. Outside of edge, they don't have that this year. So when you talk about those second and third round picks, it can go a lot of different directions. So that's what's going to make it fun to watch that's what makes it hard to predict but it's a good place for them to be so um you know we'll throw this up we'd love to hear your feedback

on you know what we've kind of pulled away here and we talked about maybe doing this again next week just to kind of reset right before the draft starts um and you know maybe try to throw a couple different scenarios in there because the one thing that we always right before the draft starts. And maybe try to throw a couple different scenarios in there because the one thing that we always know about the draft is it's very unpredictable. And there's always going to be some guy that we think is going to go really high that starts to slide down boards. And there's always a guy or two that gets picked way higher than anybody thought they would. So we'll kind of keep an eye on all of that as it's going along.

But, I mean, I don't know. Terry, if this is where the Titans walk away from on the first two days of the draft, are you happy? I'm thrilled. You know, you get the number one need, and you get a downfield presence, which the Titans might have, and Taewon Taylor might have, and Corey Davis. But you know they'd have it in DJ Chart. You know, he's got the size and the 4'3", legitimate 4'3 speed. And really, if you watch ACC football, that guy was pretty much the LSU offense outside

of Darius Geist. He was the guy taking all the jet sweeps. So he's a big-time playmaker. Titans could still use some playmakers. So you add more use to that receiver room room but i'm totally thrilled with it and then nathan chever just sounds like a john robinson pick if i've ever heard one uh just taking a productive athlete uh that destroyed lesser competition so uh think of tajay sharp and guys like that only on the defensive line so i think it's pretty uh it's pretty realistic Chark goes ahead of where we took him,

but I'm certainly happy with how this turned out. And one thing on Chark that I will point out, I really do think that in this offense, they would ask him to get down the field. You know, we saw the scenario last year where it was basically like if a receiver couldn't do everything, it was hard for him to get on the field. I don't think that's going to be the case.

I think Matt LaFleur has been pretty clear that he wants a burner. And so if it takes him a while to pick up the whole offense, I think there will be a package of plays for him where he understands what his job is, and that's to get down the field. So I think from that standpoint, it's realistic. Anyway, we'll see how it all plays out but so that'll do it for us tonight um we'll be back a couple more times this week we'll try to get a guest or two on to talk maybe specific titans uh draft needs and then you know

just maybe some guys looking at the at the draft as a whole and talk a little bit about i guess the other teams in the division, what they might be doing. So keep an eye out for that. Like I said, in the meantime, check out musicmiracles.com. We'll have a lot of content up there surrounding the draft, and there's apparently some, I guess, crazy trade winds blowing around the league. So we'll keep track of all that as well. Terry, anything else we need to hit tonight before we get out?

That's it. All right. So like I said, museummiracles.com. Check us out there. Subscribe to the podcast at LockedOnTitans. For Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks for listening and we will talk to you tomorrow.