Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Locked on Titans/Jaguars Crossover

Episode Date: May 15, 2018

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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 tonight? Doing pretty well. What's going on, Jimmy? Not too much tonight. We have the host from Locked on Jaguars with us, so we will break down what the Jaguars have done this offseason. Before we do that, we remind you, Terry and I are at communityofmiracles.com, covering 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 tlambertfb. And the podcast account, at LockedOnTitans. And you can obviously find the podcast wherever you get your podcasts, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and search LockedOnTitans.

All right, with all that being said, we will bring in our guests for tonight, Zach Goodall and Chris Thornton, again, of Locked On Jaguars. How are y'all tonight? Doing great. Doing pretty good. Can't complain. Living the off-season dream. There you go.

Yeah, we're getting into the dog days here. So it's good to have y'all on and, like I said, catch up with what's going on around the division. All right, so we'll start with free agency. You know, obviously the Titans have a lot of big changes that have happened. The Jaguars didn't have as much from a coaching staff standpoint, all that kind of stuff. But the Jaguars, again, were very active in free agency. You know, you had three or four kind of big ticket signings. Break down maybe what you think

the two most important signings are that the Jaguars added in free agency. I'll let Chris kick this off because he's been talking about Andrew Norwell to the Jaguars since 2016. Yeah. Waking up on, it felt like waking up like a little kid on Christmas morning, the night of tampering, or the morning of tampering

to see that the Jags had agreed to a deal with former All-Pro left guard Andrew Norwell. I thought it was a pipe dream. I didn't think that would ever happen, but it did, and the Jaguars O-line got extremely better, and as you guys

know, the O-line is very important as you guys have a very good O-line, so Andrew Norwell by far probably the biggest signing, and I'll let Zach handle the number two. They had a couple of other signings. It was weird to see the Jaguars spend so much, but they were able to do it, as a lot of people on Jaguars Twitter like to say,

cap space just seems to be a fake thing. They had to find a replacement for Aaron Colvin. I don't love the DJ Hayden signing. I just thought they overpaid for a guy that they probably could have drafted someone to be just as good in that role. And obviously on a rookie deal, especially in the mid rounds really is like next to nothing. But I really liked the Austin Safarian Jenkins signing.

You know, he obviously, when he was in Tampa, things kind of fell apart. He had a DUI. He had to move on from there, went to the New York Jets, seemed to clean his life up a little bit, and had a productive season. I think something like 37 receptions, like 500-some yards.

I can't remember how many touchdowns. But he seemed to put things back together, and he hit the market. He had interest from a couple teams, including his hometown, Seattle, but came to Jacksonville and was already seemed to become a fan favorite on a relatively cheap deal a couple years, I think around $10 million. So it didn't break the bank on him whatsoever. But he's a guy that they view as versatile, someone that they can play in line,

have him help block in this power run scheme, as well as maybe line him up in a big slot, give him a better receiving weapon than what they had at the start of free agency after they let Allen Robinson walk. So I think he'll be a versatile type of piece for this offense that they really needed. So doubling up on offense there is what they really needed to do. Yeah, you already mentioned the cap space.

And that's kind of been a weird thing for us, being a team that doesn't typically spend money in free agency. How are the Jaguars doing this? It just seems like they just signed everyone for the past couple years through $9 million at Dante Moncrief. Are we missing something here as Titans fans? So the way they do it is they have John Idzik, the former Jets general manager in house, as like their cap specialist. I don't really know exactly what his title is. But pretty much he helps them set up contracts to where the guarantees are out the window within the first two years.

And at the end of two or three years, it's pretty much they have an out to where they could release these guys for very little to no dead money. They signed Chris Ivory to a five-year $32 million deal just two years ago. He didn't work out. This offseason they cut him, and I think it was, Chris, you know how much dead cap, like $2 million? Yeah, I think it was like $3 million, but they also made like $4 or $5 million. So they found ways to clear guarantees very early on in the deals. And, I mean, we hate to talk about losing Malik Jackson or Clayus Campbell

or players like that that are so important to this defense now. But after this year, you can make money by create cap space by releasing Malik Jackson. And in two years, you can create cap space by releasing Clayus Campbell. Despite these guys being some of the top paid guys at their position like they can make it happen and I'm sure we'll talk about that a little bit more when we get to the draft talking Taven Bryan stuff like that but I think the way that they're looking to build this defense with their money and then build drafting young replacements to take over over time I think they've developed a really good system to kind of go around cap space.

All right. Obviously, you know, as Titans fans, we love Blake Bortles. We're super excited when he was re-signed. And I know that, like, from a contract standpoint, you know, it's not a cap issue. And, you know, the way the deal is structured, kind of like you're talking about, all that stuff's going on, so it's not like you hindered yourself with that down the road. But were you all a little bit surprised that they didn't go after one of the guys that was available in free agency and try to upgrade there? I mean, I think it was kind of always on the table that a Blake extension was there.

I think a lot of Jags fans deep down in their heart didn't want it to happen, and then also they kind of did because he just kind of embodies what Jacksonville is all about. But I thought it was a pretty good deal. I was kind of almost pro bringing him it back because he did manage the ball much better last year. I think really his turning point was uh i would say probably that later stretch especially in december when he was just looking like a quarterback we

hadn't seen consistent just making all the throws in jacksonville uh a lot of jacks fans wanted to go after kurt cousins i personally was against that i didn't want to spend 100 million dollars on a quarterback that really hasn't been a $100 million quarterback in my eyes. Now, if they wanted to throw $100 million at Jimmy Garoppolo, I would have been okay with that. Obviously, yeah. I didn't think it was a horrible deal all the way around. I thought it was a fairly smart move,

especially like we mentioned earlier with the cap. They've structured it to where after next season they can get out of it and have no remorse over that decision. Yeah, I look at it as – I think I saw someone say this the other day, that with the way teams are utilizing cap space to pay quarterbacks, even average ones. I thought paying Derek Carr the money that Derek Carr got paid was a joke. Someone made this great point to me the other day,

is that with the money that teams are spending in guarantees alone, not even just the full contract, you can build a pretty damn good team. And if you can build around even just some a quarterback that blake is up and down i'll i'll go as far as to call him mediocre because they're good aspects and they're very poor qualities that match that um but with the way that they've built it and the way that they've reiterated they want to be this power running team with a great defense and a guy that they know that they can at least trust to manage the game at best and we saw that last year and i think i think nfl teams are really driven by ego that's always been a thing that i've believed in and dave caldwell having blake as his quarterback

and seeing that they were able to win with him i think that was a huge part of the thought process is that to just keep building around him like build as dominant as a team as you can and save the money rather than dishing 91 million guaranteed pretty much a fully guaranteed contract to kirk cousins just keep doing what you're doing and try and build from there so i get it i would have loved it if they you know if they just went ahead and said nope we're gonna upgrade whether it be kirk whether it be trading up for a quarterback. Like, I love Josh Rosen, and I would have loved him here. But I understand the move after it happened. And like you guys said, it is a financially smart deal.

It doesn't hold the team back much at all in terms of cap space. No more Allen Robinson, no more Allen Hearns. It was really kind of fun to watch these no-name jacks receivers emerge and develop down the stretch last year for you guys. Just give me your one, two, three at receiver right now. Who's going to be catching all these balls from Blake Bortles? I think we're going to see a lot of growth from those young guys. Keelan Cole was a deep ball threat last year.

I think he ranked near the top in terms of yards per catch in the league. We'd like to see him be able to do more than run a nine route, and I think he's learning to develop his route tree more in the short game. But currently, I mean, he can run posts, he can run corners, and he can run goes, so he needs to grow there. I think they really like the idea of DeeDee Westbrook as a possession guy. And then DJ Chke i jags fans love him i love the draft pick i think there's a lot more project to charke than people are leading

on in terms of his development as a receiver but the the raw speed athleticism and size combo is something that i'm sure keenan mccardell is drooling over. So I know they signed Moncrief. I know they have Marquise Lee. I think Marquise Lee will continue to be in that top three just because of his trust level with Blake across the middle. But then I do think it'll be Lee, Cole, and one of Chark or Westbrook this year that truly takes that third spot. Yeah, I mean, I think with Lee's contract alone,

he's probably going to be forced into that top three role whether he's needed there or not. If I had to choose it, it would probably be, I'd probably have Keelan Cole as probably my one, DJ Chark at two, and let's put Westbrook at three. The really young receiving core. Really not a clear consensus number one, I feel like, on the roster at this point.

But I think it will probably be Lee in the slot, even though he's probably going to be the number one receiver. He'll probably be in the slot. Cole on the outside, and then it will probably be Moncrief and Shark probably taking reps out at the other spot. So that's who I think will probably be out there. All right, obviously the conversation about DJ Shark leads us into the Jaguars draft, so coming up we'll get some more thoughts from these guys

on what Jacksonville was able to do in the 2018 NFL draft. So like I said earlier about contracts and how they're trying to shape things for the future, I viewed it as at pick 29, and I was sitting there at the draft, and I didn't want to tip the pick, and then I saw that, I just saw, I think Alex Marvez, maybe 10 minutes before they picked, said, watch Taven Bryant and the Jags. And I knew Will Hernandez was going to be on the board at that point and I was totally shocked I had just I had no idea um I figured that they would

have tried to upgrade both guard spots put him at right and then just have a truly dominant running game um but then they took Bryan and you've got like I said with the contracts is that they can let these guys go within the next year to two so you've got his their replacements in-house and at that point not only do you have someone that can just kind of fit right in after being under jackson's and campbell's wing whether they're playing defensive tackle or defensive end um to grow from them but then you grow that cap space within a year or two to then be able to pay your guys like jaylen ramsey or miles jack or yannick and gawkway so at first i didn't like it i didn't think it was as much of a move that screams we're trying to win now but then you

look at it and you see how smart it can be long term and how good of a prospect brian can be because i do think he's probably got some of the one of the best first steps i've seen out of a defensive tackle in my time watching college prospects, albeit that hasn't been that long. But just from what I've watched, I think that there's truly some unique ability from Bryan. I really liked that pick after I got used to the fact that it wasn't Will Hernandez.

Yeah, so we've talked about DJ Chart, and we've talked about Taven Bryan. Give us one more draft pick that Titans fans need to know. Ooh, that's a tough one. I'll probably say Ronnie Harrison, safety from Alabama. He might or might not start this year depending on injuries or whatever, but I think in the next few years he's going to be a really good safety uh if there's a draft pick that you want that you will probably see day one uh this year it's going to be logan cook the punter out of texas a&m so no no more freebie bad punts

from brad nortman anymore it's going to be uh the cook show in jackville. All right, guys, we really appreciate you jumping on with us tonight. Before you go one, give us kind of your thoughts on the 2018 Jacksonville Jaguars. Yeah. Jacksonville Jaguars. What do you think the record will be? Can they repeat as AFC South champions and then let our people know where they can find you Twitter and all that kind of stuff i'm

not sure what chris is thinking um as for myself i i see regression coming and it's not that i see them not being dominant i still think that defense can be top of the league i think the offense the running game continued to be good you still have blake there so you really never know i just think it's hard to really you know expect the defense to play at the level they did last year because there were parts of it that almost seemed historic. You don't see that good of a defense that often, so I feel like it would be unfair to ask them to repeat that. But I wouldn't be disappointed if they go 10-6,

and I think that still competes for the division. But all of a sudden, you've got the Titans coming up again. You've got the Texans who were a Deshaun Watson for the whole year away from contending for the division but all of a sudden you know you've got the titans coming up again you've got the texans who were a deshaun watson for the whole year away from contending for the division so i do think it'll be one of the more tough divisions in in football so it'll be fun i'm seeing about 10 and 6 for the jags now i i tried not to be a homer when i made my entire season prediction i kind of went and being the board person I am, did game by game for every team. I think the defense will slightly regress.

I don't think it's going to be super noticeable because there's really no significant pieces missing, aside from Aaron Colvin, but that's a nickel cornerback. So I think the defense will still be there. I think the offense is going to take a step forward next year. I think Blake's going to play pretty well. I think the emergence of wide receivers that were at the end of last year will continue to play well this year. The O-line got better, so that only helps everybody.

I think the Jags are going to go 12-4 off a fairly easy schedule. There's a few games, the Steelers, the Patriots, and then the yearly, you don't know what's going to happen between the Titans and Jags. But I think they'll be able to be better than what they were last year with an improved offense. Alright, sounds good. So yeah, let everybody know where they can find you on Twitter and all that good stuff. You can find me, the easier handle to remember, at Zach underscore Goodall,

as well as all of my work being at Locked on Jaguars and Big Cat Country. Then I'll let Chris spell out his handle. So you can find me at Misto Christofo, but if you want an easier passage to finding it, you can just go to the at Locked on Jaguars Twitter page and look in the bio and look for the unusual name, and that will be mine. So that's a slightly easier way to find me. All right, perfect, guys.

Well, thanks so much for hopping on with us, and we will talk to you again down the road probably when it gets closer to the season. Thanks for having us. All right, so, yeah, that'll do it for this episode of LockedOn Titans. We'll be back later this week. Still kicking some things around for what we're going to do next, but we'll have a couple more episodes for you this week, so check that out.

In the meantime, you can see miracles.com. Check us out there. We'll have stuff posted there every day. So for Terry, this is Jimmy saying thanks for listening, and we will talk to you again later this week.