Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans: Voicemails on Free Agency, Draft

Episode Date: February 22, 2019

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Welcome in to another edition of Locked on Titans. I'm Jimmy Morris, joined as always by Terry Lambert. Terry, how are you? Doing good. Fired up for another voicemail episode. Yeah, absolutely. We got a bunch of, I think, what, six voicemails today, so that's awesome. We appreciate you guys calling in. It really has been good to have something different to do during what's been a slow time for NFL news, really, but especially Titans news. We just haven't got anything. So hit your voicemail here in just a sec. Before we do that, remind you to write for me at cityofmiracles.com where 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 tlembertfb. Get the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Just search out Locked on Titans. And if you want to be a part of next week's voicemail show, just call 615-787-8762. Leave us about a minute-long voicemail, question, comment, whatever it may be,

and we will get to it next week on the show. Coming up first, we have a question from John in California that's actually a really interesting question about who would we pair with Marcus Mariota if we could have any wide receiver in the league. Hi, John here from California, active Titans fan for the last two or three years. I was just going to ask you guys a hypothetical. Of all the receivers in the NFL currently, realism out the window, obviously, which receiver currently playing do you think would help Marietta the most

in this coming season? And you could go into that, what type of receiver would help Marietta the most? What type of receiver would make him the strongest quarterback in this coming season? Thanks for the show. That's a really interesting question that you could go a number of different ways with here.

For me, I think the first guy that popped into my head was probably DeAndre Hopkins, just the guy that catches everything no matter what the coverage is. You know, he gets away. We always make fun of him because he gets away with offensive pass interference like nobody else in the league. But I saw something crazy, like he didn't drop any balls this year. So just that reliability, you know, a couple with his big play ability. You know, everyone wants to talk about Will Fuller there.

DeAndre Hopkins can still take the top off of the defense and make some big plays down the field. So that would be my vote. If I could go get anyone in the league, just get me someone that can do a little bit of everything for a Titans offense that desperately needs someone like that. Yeah, I'll give you my heart pick and then maybe my head pick. There you go.

Julio Jones, of course. I mean, you know, one of my favorite all-time players. But, listen, he can do everything, right? I mean, catch the ball over the middle, go deep, all that kind of stuff. Now, the issue with him, he's 30. He has had injuries, that kind of stuff. So you wonder how much longer he's going to hold up. So if you're starting a franchise, that may not be where you start.

But, you know, led the league in receiving yards last year, still playing at a very high level. But I wonder, you know, you've seen bigger guys like him. They tend to break down pretty quickly when things start falling apart. But, I mean, you know, I take him still. A guy that's interesting to me is Michael Thomas. Now, I'm hesitant with a guy like Michael Thomas who plays with Drew Brees. I mean, and Michael Thomas is obviously a very good player.

But when you've got a guy who has a quarterback that's so good, it's kind of hard sometimes to tell, you know, how much is that quarterback making the guy. But with him, we're talking about a guy that's young. I mean, he's – DeAndre Hopkins is still really young. Michael Thomas is a year younger than Hopkins. And a guy that just – he also, you know, has enough speed, but he can go get the ball over the middle, so that kind of stuff.

So, I mean, I think that all of that makes sense. You know, we've talked a lot about needing a guy to take the top off the defense. None of the guys that we've mentioned are necessarily that just burner type guy, but if you're talking about a guy to just kind of do everything and be a guy that, you you know you can go to, you know, play in and play out, third downs, in the red zone, that kind of stuff. I think you're going to want to go with one of these guys,

and we've mentioned one of the more, like, you know, big-bodied receivers that can go up and get the ball but can also get deep. Yeah, but, John, I think that question was actually a really interesting exercise for us. All right, coming up next, we have a question from Travis in Mississippi about the interior offensive line. Hi, guys. This is Travis from Allen, Mississippi again. I was just wondering, Josh Klein, if he was cut,

would he have any dead money with the way his contract is set up? And if the Titans are looking in pre-agency to go for an interior offensive lineman? Because I was reading today that the Kansas City Chiefs center is young and supposedly pretty good, and he's supposed to be hitting the market because of all the extensions that they're going to have in the next few years. They're not going to be able to retain him. I was just wondering what y'all's thoughts were on that. Appreciate it, guys.

Yeah, your question on Kline interesting because I'm not sure how good he was last year. But it just seems like this group really seems to favor him over Quentin Spain. You saw Spain get benched one stretch last year over Klein, who we all thought was the worst player at that point. But it's interesting because he's making a lot of money. He's got a $6.7 million cap hit. If you cut that, you still have 3.5 in dead cap, so somewhere around 3.2 in savings.

I think they like him. They like his ability to move around, even though he was a little erratic last year. I think they like him somewhere on this offensive line. Everything else is just kind of dependent on how they feel about Ben Jones, how they feel about Quentin Spain, if they're going to bring those guys back.

We talked about Jack Conklin moving over to guard. That would kick Kline over to the other side. We'll see what they do at center. Your question on Mitch Morris, Kansas with the Chiefs. That's a good young center in this league.

He's probably going to command a decent amount of money. One of the top offensive linemen that's probably going to hit the market there. I don't really study centers. I know Jimmy doesn't either. I'm all for spending on the offensive line and making it one of the best positions on this roster.

Yeah, here's my issue with Mitch Morse. Just look at pro football focus grades. Like you said, we don't necessarily study the Titans center, much less centers on other teams. But Mitch Morse graded out basically the same as Ben Jones. And so are you going to pay that guy a bunch of money when you can probably get a guy that can give you similar production in the middle rails of the draft? I think I would prefer to go that way.

But, look, I'm on record as saying I don't want to give him to your offensive lineman a bunch of money. I don't want to spend early draft picks on him because I think you can find those guys. There's that group on Titans Twitter, right, that they were all in on the Bradbury guy at 19. They've moved on to Hawkinson, other issues there. I just feel like they should be able to find some of those guys in the mid-round that can

come in and at least be serviceable. If you look at the grades on Pro Football Focus, Ben Jones graded out basically at a 70, Quinn Spain 62.3, Josh Klein 58. Give me two serviceable guys in there that can grade just higher in everything. And you don't have to necessarily have an all-star in there. You just need a guy that can come in and play. So Mitch Morse would be an upgrade over Josh Klein, I feel like.

Now, different positions you're talking about, but then if you move Ben Jones to guard, you know, maybe that's an upgrade over Josh Klein. So the combination of Morse and Jones is better than the combination of Jones and Klein. But I don't know. It's not something that I really want to spend a bunch of money on, unless you've got a guy that's going to come in there and, you know, just really be like an all pro caliber player. All right.

Next we have a question from David in California about some of our favorite prospects in the draft. Hey guys, this is David calling from California and really appreciate you playing my last couple of voicemails. You both have done a really good job of covering the mock draft so far and giving us your opinions on those guys. I know we still have the combine.

We've got free agency. And a lot is going to happen between now and the draft. But I wanted to see if you guys would be willing to give us your top five players you hope the Titans draft with that first-round pick. Would love to know a bit about why you like that player based on what you know now and if you think that player could actually be available to the Titans at 19. If you have more or less than five, that's great, too. I'd love to contact.

Again, a fairly long question, but as you guys mentioned, it's been a bit of a slow couple of weeks for NFL news, so I thought that might be kind of fun. Anyway, I appreciate the content and the hard work you guys do. Thanks again. Yeah, for me, we'll keep it realistic. You know, just guys that the Titans might have a shot at. You know, we won't bother with Nick Boster and Quentin Williams and all those guys.

But for me, I think it starts with DK Metcalf. And it's interesting because we've talked so much about free agent receivers and needing some experience around Marcus Mariota. At the same time, DK Metcalf is just kind of rare. You know, 6'4", 225 and can run. So that's always appealing to me. We've talked about some of the production concerns, some reasons why John Robinson might not like a guy like that.

But if you can add that into the offense, I'd be all for it. After that, it's all defensive front for me. You've got a bunch of guys on the board that really haven't separated for me. You've got Chakotah Polite from Florida. Obviously, anybody that's going to help you rush the passer. We talked a lot about Christian Wilkins from Clemson. Anything up front for me, we'll know a lot more after the combine, after free agency, and we'll really start zeroing in for me.

But, yeah, I think it's down to definitely the defensive front. And Jimmy mentioned Garrett Bradbury is an interesting guy. I'm still on that train. I think you can really maximize your offensive line there. So that's kind of three options, three positions for me, again, with a lot of names still floating out there on the defensive front. Yeah, like I said, it's tough before you see free agency, but assuming that they address receiver and free agency,

then I'm with you. You're looking at these edge guys. Anywhere from Montez Sweat, Polite, Christian Wilkins. Any of those guys that you think can come in and get after the pass rush. Not necessarily edge, but anybody that can help you with the pass rush. I've

liked, I don't know how you say his first name, I don't know if it's Nikhil Harry, the raw receiver from Arizona State. Go watch that dude's tape, man. He's really, really good. You know, and he's not regarded by most people as the best receiver in this draft, but, I mean, I think I might take him over Metcalf just based on what I've seen. And so if you get to the spots where you missed out on receivers in free agency or whatever, you've got to do some things to add playmakers to the offense.

So those are kind of the ways that I would be looking. I mean, I think, you know, again, it really just depends on what they do in free agency, but I tend to think that they're going to have a better shot finding receivers in free agency than those edge rushers. And so those are kind of the guys that I've been looking at as far as edge rushers are concerned. But like Terry said, I mean, you've got the call line coming up next week. We're finally almost there.

And so we'll start to get some more answers on these guys, how they test and how they interview and that kind of stuff. So that's kind of where I come down on that as well. All right, next up we have Sam in Clarksville. You know, asking a similar question about interior offensive linemen, edge rushers, that kind of stuff. Hey, guys, this is Sam in Clarksville. Love your podcast.

I know a lot of the focus recently has been on a backup quarterback for Marty Oda, an add-in receiver to the receiving core. focused recently has been on a backup quarterback for Mariota, an add-in receiver to the receiving core. But I think two of the other needs for the Titans are main-tier offensive line and edge rushers on defense. I just want to get your opinion on who you thought could be some good additions to both those position groups in free agency and the draft. Look forward to hearing your takes and listen to the podcast.

Yeah, again, I think this list is going to change depending on who's going to get tagged. We talked about that earlier in the week. Guys like Jedevin Clowney, Frank Clark, those guys probably not really going to hit the market. Demarcus Lawrence, too. So looking at the more realistic guys, we talked about Preston Smith earlier in the week.

A guy that we haven't really talked about is Zedarius Smith, who comes from Baltimore. 3-4 outside linebacker that's worked with Dean Pease before. If the Titans are just looking for a plug-and-play guy, probably nothing flashy. That's definitely an option. I've seen him floating around Titan Twitter. I think Teron Davenport mentioned him as a possibility.

Yeah, I mean, Dante Fowler we talked about yesterday. Shaq Barrett, a guy that's been in Denver for a while. Those are all options there on the outside if you want to sign one instead of drafting one. But interior, we talked about Mitch Morse just now. Matt Paradis is a guy that's been with the Broncos. They're going to let him test the market. He's a veteran, 29 years old.

Would probably be an upgrade on this Titans team. Not sure what he would command. But, again, it just kind of depends on whether or not John Robinson wants to spend in this first or second wave of free agency to plug some of these holes. Yeah, absolutely. Like you said, just pull up any free agent list and look at the edge guys and any of those guys that are still available once the market opens up. I think the Titans should at least be interested in.

You know, when you look at wide receivers for me, I mean, I think they need to go all in on Tyrell Williams, a guy that's still pretty young, that has the elite speed that you're looking for. That's kind of Tyrell Williams, John Brown, those two guys. You know, the guys that can get down the field. And then you've got Adam Humphreys, Golden Tate, Randall Cobb, Cole Beasley-type group that can work the middle. So that's, again, what I'm looking for is give me the receivers in free agency

so they're not worried about breaking in a young guy again. And then give me, you know me young edge guys in the draft. That's kind of my plan for this offseason, and we'll see how that goes. All right, up next we've got a question about Jack Conklin moving to guard and kind of all of the things that would be involved with that. Hey, guys, tight note. I just was thinking about something after listening to the show on Wednesday night about Jack Conklin. When you guys discussed him moving to guard, it just seemed like something that was, like, you know, easy to do.

Now, I know that you guys probably know some of the consequences that might happen in your head when you were talking about it, and just it wasn't the topic of the show, so maybe you didn't elaborate. But I think it's important to talk about maybe some of the unintended consequences if we do that from Conklin's perspective if I'm him guards seem to get paid a lot less than tackles so them moving me to guard hurts my earning power going forward in the future I might get saddled and and pushed into a box that I'll always be a guard even if I change teams he was once an all pro tackle and coming off an ACL injury, it's possible that he could argue he just never felt right all season long,

and that kind of caused the dip in his play. So if I'm Conklin and I'm John Robinson, I don't know if I'm accepting or doing that change easily because Dennis Kelly, while he may have played better last year, I don't see any, like, more upside to Dennis Kelly than what we have right now, which I think will just leave us to need another tackle in a few years. And Conklin, he may be upset with the team and may hurt his mentality. I know as pros we say, like, you know, you're getting a million dollars.

You shouldn't care about that. But I think, you know, it may hurt his confidence, even if he, you know, would play a little better at guard. I just think there's a lot of issues and bad things that can happen if we do end up going that route. So I just wanted to maybe say that, see what you guys think. As I say, I'll hang up and listen. Thanks.

It's a really odd situation with Conklin. And, yes, tackles have historically earned more money. I just don't know. I don't know what the big difference is because you've seen some guards really break the bank here recently. I just think that offensive line in general has really ramped up in importance and teams are going to pay, you know, guards like tackles like you've seen.

But I think Coughlin has something to prove here. I don't think he's been good enough to just say, hey, I'm not going to go do this because it was pretty clear to me that Dennis Kelly was the better player. You know, I'm sure the coaches felt the same way, you know, watching Derrick Henry finish the year like he did. I'm sure the coaches felt the same way, you know, watching Derrick Henry finish the year like he did. I just think he needs to come back and prove that he's healthy rather than worry about what position he's going to play.

Just on a fit perspective, you know, you watch him when he's on an island, doesn't have any help. He's kind of struggled to move laterally going back to his days in college. You know, you've seen the knee issue pop back up. Maybe that's affecting his mobility. Maybe he wasn't right next year. Maybe he comes back and he's the guy that we saw in his rookie year. I certainly hope so.

The Titans need that. But I think the fit at guard, I just think he would fit better. I think the Titans wouldn't have to put him on an island. It's a little different game playing guard than it is tackle. So I think it's worth a shot. Obviously, he's got to be open to it. But, again, I don't think he's been good enough to kind of dictate where he's going to play. Yeah, I mean, he said last year he's a tackle, not a guard.

But you're right. Listen, he's under contract. They can put him wherever they want to, really. I mean, I think that's only what it boils down to. Sure, he needs to buy in or he's not going to be successful there. I mean, that's absolutely true. But, I mean, I don't know. Like I said, we haven't heard anyone within the organization say anything about that.

This has just kind of been speculation amongst a lot of people. And some things that were said about him in his pre-draft process that he might need to move to guard because of the foot speed, the quickness, that kind of stuff at the next level. So I don't know if that's something that's even on their radar, but, you know, I mean, I would imagine right now they're sitting there examining all possibilities and then they'll come out with whatever works best for the team and not necessarily be worried about how Jack Hawkins is going to feel about it or how his potential earnings down the road are going to be affected.

They're just going to do what's best for this team. All right, we finished up with Brent from Ohio asking about some free agent water stevers. Hey, guys, this is Brent from Twitter, Ohio Brent. Hey, guys. This is Brent from Twitter, Ohio Brent. I just wanted to call in and say, first of all, thank you for everything you guys do, turning out content consistently. I'm sure I can speak for myself and all the other out-of-market Titans fans.

Thank you for keeping us plugged in. That being said, I think a wide receiver is a position for the Titans that they need to address through free agency. I don't like the idea of drafting a wide receiver this year. We all know they take two to three years to develop. I don't think this team has that luxury this year. I would like to hear what you guys think, who they should go after in free agency. I know Jamison Crowder, Michael Crabtree, Golden Tate,

those seem to be the three best fits in my opinion. I don't know if they can afford any of them. I'd like to hear your thoughts on that. I've heard you guys touch on moving Ben Jones to guard. I think that's more likely than Conklin at this point. I think Conklin's probably a little too prideful to move to guard. Personally, I think he's probably a little overrated. They always needed help chipping with him, bringing a tight end over. And his first year where he was an All-Pro.

Maybe he's just not as good as everybody thought in the beginning. Maybe he is what he is. I would love to see him move to guard and slide Kelly in. I don't know how he will react to that. I don't know with his contract coming up soon how that would impact him when it comes time to renegotiate a contract. And I think the other priority that they need is help on the D-line. We need to give Casey some help.

Obviously, they need a pass rush. Everybody knows that. But I don't think you can roll out with the same guys as before on the D-line and be successful. I don't know who's available in free agency. I'd like to see if you guys can touch on that as well. Anyway, again, thanks, you guys. Thank you so much. Keep up the good work and we'll keep listening.

Well, unfortunately, Brent, we've talked about a lot of your topics that you sent in, so we'll just kind of give a general overview again here. But you brought a new name to the table that we hadn't really talked about, Jamison Crowder. That's a guy that really kind of exploded onto the NFL scene and then hasn't done much since thanks to injury. I just wonder how cheap he might come because it seems like the league kind of knows what he is, a guy that stayed hurt.

Maybe he can get an upside play there. Crabtree, I don't think we've discussed either. That might be a decent Band-Aid if you're looking to draft one of these guys in the earlier rounds. That guy could come in and really start opposite of Corey Davis and give Marcus Mariota another legitimate red zone threat there. So, you know, we've talked about pass rush, you know, all that stuff. So, yeah, yeah, I mean, we're totally with you on all that. It's clear what the top needs are.

You mentioned Ben Jones moving over to guard. That's something that seems to be picking up steam here. Obviously that creates a new need at center. We kind of ran down those names there. Matt Paradis and Mitch Morse are the guys that are going to be seeing a lot of

teams in free agency. This offensive line is really interesting. It's one of the most interesting positions this offseason. It's one of the most interesting positions this offseason. It's not something you typically say. There's just a lot of moving pieces there. It'll be really interesting to see where they all end up when it's finalized. Yeah, I mean, for me, there are very few free agent wide receivers that you could name

that I don't think the Titans should be as interested in. wide receivers that you could name that I don't think the Titans should be as interested in. Because, again, how many of those guys are not, at least in the conversation of being better than every receiver on this roster, not in Corey Davis? You know, I mean, I'm sure there are some on the list. But, yeah, a guy like Jameson Crowder obviously has a skill set. Like Terry said, I mean, you've had the injury issues, but he's got a skill set that can absolutely help this team. Same for Michael Crabtree.

You know, I think you mentioned Golden Tate in there as well. You know, all those guys to come and help. So, absolutely. I'm on record saying the Titans need to sign two receivers in pre-agency. I don't know if that will happen or not, but I really do think that's what they need to do. And, again, the offensive line, we'll just have to wait and see. Like I said, I'm sure they're evaluating everything,

and they're going to try to get the best combination of guys that they have. You know, we talked the other day about, you know, just keeping Dennis Kelly off the field. As good as he's been, that doesn't seem very smart. So I'm sure our name's on the table there, and we can – I mean, you know, I trust this group to come out with the best combination of five guys once we've everything in-house, free agency in the draft, once that's all done, I think they will do their best to improve that group going forward.

Hey, we appreciate everybody calling in and leaving voicemails. Like I said, it's really hard at certain points in the year to do a daily podcast about the Titans, but it's been so helpful to have these voicemails and have things to talk about. We love hearing y'all's ideas and stuff like that to bounce off. Thanks for doing that. Again, if you want to be in next week's show, 615-787-8762.

Between now and then, follow us on Twitter. I'm at jmorrismcm. Terry is at tlambertrt. For Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks for calling in, thanks for listening, and we will talk to you next week.