Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Mike Keith talks Jeffery Simmons, A.J. Brown and the rest of the Titans Draft

Episode Date: May 28, 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 today? Pretty well. What's going on, Jimmy? Not too much. We also today are joined by Mike Keith, the voice of the Titans. Mike, thanks so much for taking the time to jump on with us again. Jimmy, Terry, it's great to be with you. Thanks for having me on. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, we're glad to have you. We're going to do a couple episodes here with Mike, so you'll get a lot of info, draft info,

and then just we'll talk about the roster, talk about some of the Titans radio stuff like we did with Jonathan Hutton as well. Before we get started, as always, we run from UCMiracles.com where we cover the Titans for SB Nation. So you can find us there. You can also follow us on Twitter. I am MattJMorrisMCM. Terry is at TLambertTN. You can get our podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Just can also follow us on Twitter. I am at jmorrismcm. Terry is at tlamberttn. You can get our podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

Just search out Locked on Titans, whether that be Google, Spotify, iTunes, Himalaya, whatever it is, whatever podcast app you use, you can subscribe to us there so you can get the newest shows as soon as they are available. All right, so I'll start off with the draft conversation and talk about jeffrey simmons i mean obviously a lot has been made of the pick i mean we've gone through all that the off the field incident the injury and all that kind of stuff um but my god i think that you have had some have been able to spend at least a little bit of time with jeffrey simmons and spent some time i

would assume talking to people that knew him in college and that kind of stuff. Just kind of talk about the impression you've gotten of him so far and maybe the impression that some people have given you about him based on his time at Mississippi State. Well, first of all, Jimmy, I know you were disappointed we didn't pick a tight end. Absolutely. It broke my heart. So I just want to say I'm sorry personally for my entire organization

that we disappointed you in this way. I appreciate that. You know, when we talked about it earlier, the thing that we discussed was that they could go so many different ways. We talked about Jeffrey Simmons, and we talked about Jeffrey Simmons on the OTP road to Nashville extensively, because I really thought that was a place that they could go feeling like they were getting a top five type talent at 19, which really solves a lot of things for the future. And

the thing that I'm convinced of is this. If Jeffrey Simmons does not get hurt on February 12th in his workout and need knee surgery, I think he is gone for sure by the time Oakland finishes picking at number four. I know Mike Mayock just a little bit. I just think that this kind of guy is so hard to find in terms of his talent. It's funny, I was having a conversation the other night with Albert Hainsworth, and Jeffrey is not as big as Albert, but he has the same characteristics as Albert in terms of how he comes off the ball and the power with which he plays.

This is a guy who is 6'4", 305, and when you meet him, he seems bigger. Does that make any sense? I know that may be like, well, aren't all 6'4", 305 guys the same? The reality is some are just massive human beings in terms of their features and everything they have. And like Albert, Jeffrey is that kind of guy. And then when you talk to him, he has an on-off switch. On the field, he is a guy who plays every play like it's his last. Nobody ever questions this dude's motor. Off the field, he's very soft-spoken. He's very polite.

He's very reserved. He's from out in the country. You know, Macon, Mississippi is a country town. Even though it's produced, his home county's produced six NFL players and one of my favorite NBA names, Never Nervous Purvis Short, who played for the Golden State Warriors back in the 70s and 80s, played for a couple other teams as well. But, I mean, he's a mild-mannered guy off the field.

On the field, he is nothing like that at all. And so, because of the value that you got there, and especially because of who you ended up with in the second round, who to me is like a first rounder anyway, I think that makes the pick even more valuable going forward. So I've said a lot, I apologize, but I was excited about Jeffrey Simmons. He was the guy I was hoping they were going to pick. And I was not surprised because I caught John Robinson watching tape of him back in November. Just building off of that, I thought it was interesting to see the press conference after, particularly with Amy up there going to bat and saying how they had been through the process with this guy, and she believes he's a good person.

Just speak a little bit about the cohesiveness between Amy and Vrabel and Robinson. It just seems like the Titans are in a really good spot just from an ownership standpoint, from a general manager standpoint, and a coaching standpoint. Terry, you're not going to make this pick unless the owner approves it because he does have an incident in his past which is not going to go away. I mean, it's not going to go away forever. And I think he understands that.

Mississippi State understood that. John went into it early in the process and did a lot of intelligence work on it. Mike did intelligence work on it, the coaching staff, the scouting staff, and then they went to her and made sure that she was 100% on board with it. When it got to the place where they decided to make the pick, Amy made the decision she wanted to be in the press conference. That was not something that was necessarily recommended or, you know, some outside service says this is what you need to do to look a certain way. This is who she is. She wanted to be there not just for Jeffrey, but for Mike and John. She wanted to say this is an organizational decision. And I think your question about cohesiveness, I should say that better, is one that is something that really stands out to me as one of the big positives for this organization right now. Everybody's on the same page. And with everybody on the same page, I think that gives us a chance to be the best we can be.

And it's the way that you could make this pick and feel good about it, which the Titans do. All right. Coming up, we continue our conversation with Mike Keith. All right. So you mentioned earlier the second-round pick. Obviously, that's aj brown the wider from old miss um i was thrilled when he was still on the board when the titans came back on the clock at 51 kind of talk about how you think he's going to be using this offense i mean i know at

old miss he mainly at least until later this last season was was a slot guy you've got adam humphries you would assume that he's going to be the primary slot guy for the Titans. What do you think about A.J. Brown's fitness offense? And, I mean, are you confident in the ability for him to be an outside receiver in the NFL? I am. After seeing what he did when D.K. Metcalf was out and the fact that he averaged 20 yards a catch, I just think he's a player. And when we got to 51, we're on the General Jackson doing the Titans radio draft coverage, and we're all looking at each other saying, and, you know, only one of us, Dave McGinnis,

has done personnel before. The rest of us are just dudes doing radio. But we're all going, you have to pick A.J. Brown here, right? I mean, in terms of where the roster was, we didn't necessarily need A.J. Brown. We could have gone ahead and taken the guard there. We could have gone defense there. I mean, there were other things we could have done, but this was just such a good player. And you're like, guys who score touchdowns and who are good players are what help you win games.

I think he can play inside. I think A.J. can play outside. I think they will find ways to get him involved very quickly. I like the versatility of this group now, largely because of Humphreys. I told you before, I thought Humphreys was the key signing because suddenly he pieced your receiver core together the way it needed to be. We didn't have a true slot on the team. Corey's not a slot. Taewon's not a slot. Tajay's not a slot. I mean, we just didn't have that guy. And now you've got a slot, and now you've got a second guy who can play there,

but he can do other things. I think we've got a pretty doggone good rotation at wide receiver. And, you know, we'll see, you know, who else is able to make this ball club. Is it just five wide receivers total? Where's Batson? Where's Jennings? Where's Raymond? Where's Tolliver, where's Hollister.

I mean, Tolliver's a guy who's played in this league. And the other guy who's got my attention piqued is Anthony Ratliff-Williams from North Carolina because of his returnability. He's also a guy that was not – I mean, North Carolina, I've seen North Carolina games the last two years. I think you guys know my son goes to school there um they couldn't throw the ball at all for two years and he was their number one receiver so i'm wondering if that's a guy whose numbers don't tell what a good player he is uh back to aj brown real quick he seems a little different to me you

know you then then other guys that have come in here. You've had Justin Hunter and Daryl Greenbeck. I'm thought of a little bit as projects. Maybe they didn't run their full route tree. And then you draft Corey Davis. He's got the injury that holds him out. Just had trouble getting started. This guy's come in, and he just seems super confident.

You turn on the Ole Miss tape, and he's jawing at guys. You know, he just seems like that alpha guy. So I know it's only been a month, but tell us a little bit about what you know about him personality-wise. Well, when he came in for the pre-draft, I mean, the thing that we were interested in is who from Starkville goes to Oxford and plays? All right, now, you guys are from here, so you know what I'm talking about. Who does that?

You're a big star in Starkville, the biggest star in Starkville. You're the number one player in the state, and you choose to go to Ole Miss, and this is when Mississippi State has Dan Mullen and has an established program. It's probably the most consistent state has been in modern history, and a kid chooses to go to Ole Miss. That tells you something about the kid. The kid is a baseball draft pick, signs baseball, but tells everybody, I'm going to go to rookie camp or something with him, but I'm not going to go baseball. I'm going to go to rookie camp or something with him, but I'm not going to go baseball. I'm going to be a football player.

So he just chooses to play baseball because he knows he's good at it. So when we met him, it's like this is an unusual human being, and he doesn't come across as like wildly cocky with all the, you know, he's not telling you how great he is. It's almost like he doesn't have to, but he is very confident. And I will say, from a physical standpoint, he's one of the most, if not the most, impressive guys in rookie minicamp that I've ever seen since Chris Johnson.

All right, now, what does that mean? You know, that statement, $1.50 will get you a cup of coffee, okay? It doesn't mean anything. But it just means that the way he conducts himself, the way he plays, the physical attributes he has, he is a special-looking prospect, which is the reason I think the Titans didn't feel like they could pass him up at number 51. And it's the reason that I believe he's got a shot to help this club as a rookie.

Now, there's a lot to absorb. Can he remember all the plays? Can he handle all the pressure? Can he handle the fact that he's not going to get every rep to prepare himself and that he's going to have to work his way forward? I mean, he's got a lot going to be on him, but does he have those things when you look at him that give him a chance to be special?

Oh, yeah. And you're right. I don't know that we've had one like him. I don't think we have. All right. Coming up, we will finish up our draft conversation with Mike Keith. Okay. So third round pick, they go with the guard we had talked uh

before the draft and i think terry and i were both on the same page that they needed to come out of the first two days with a draft with a with an interior offensive lineman that could compete to start right away um think they had that here what do you think about the competition there at right guard um is that something that we're going to be watching in camp i mean i think when you look at this roster and we'll get into this a little bit later tomorrow we get into to just the the roster in general but there really aren't that many you know starting roster camp battles going on right now um just you you have a pretty good idea of who's going to be where. But at right guard, it looks like it's going to be an open competition.

Do you think that's the case? I mean, is it going to be between Davis and Kevin Palmfield? Is there another guy that's in the mix there? Do you think Davis has a chance to start? That's like three rapid-fire questions. I think he has a chance, and I do think it's an open competition. And I think it may be more than that because I think they're going to play the best five.

And I know everybody says that, right? Oh, we're going to play our best five. They say it in basketball too, right? But I think what they're going to do is they're looking for a best five, and then I think they're looking for a best eight. And so you're going to want to have some versatility in the eight, but then you're going to want to be able to have the five that give you the opportunity to step right in at Cleveland and go.

And so I do think he's in it, and I think Palm Field's in it. Dennis Kelly could be in it. Corey Lewin could be in it. I mean, what if, what if you decide to move Ben Jones to guard and play somebody else at center? You know, that's a possibility. I think they'll look at every option, and I think they will take a look at everything that is out there in order to figure out what's the best thing, the best for this football team.

I do think it's one of, if not the most interesting battles in camp, in order to figure out what's the best for this football team. I do think it's one of, if not the most interesting battles in camp, and I think in terms of roster spots, the other thing that's really interesting to me is who makes this team in the offensive line. Right now, as I look at our depth, we're in a position at this moment where we have 16 offensive linemen on the roster. And I think 10 of those guys, 10 or 11, have NFL experience.

I love that. I mean, I absolutely love that we are in that sort of position. Because what they're saying is, A, we've got to run the ball from the jump this year. It's not going to be about, oh, let's get to November and December and let the running game take over. We've got to run the ball from the jump. And the other thing, too, is we've got to protect the quarterback. And so how do we find the combination that gives you the ability

to do those two things? I'm going to be watching really closely offensive line play, in particular right guard. You mentioned depth. The Titans picked some up in the secondary in the fourth round. Imani Hooker is a really interesting player, a guy that can play multiple spots. I don't think anyone's expecting him to start this year, but maybe that's a piece that starts going forward.

Where is he going to start his career this year at, and how is he going to play into this depth of the secondary? I call him the steal. Imani was so impressive when he sat down with us for his pre-draft visit, and I truly believe that Imani would be taken in the second round. I thought he would go in the second round, and Chauncey Garner-John Johnson from Florida was the same type of player. That weapon on defense, that guy who can give you a third safety

or who can play that inside slot or who can line up as a nickel linebacker if you decide to go six defensive backs. I'll say this. I think Imani Hooker has as good a chance as any rookie to help the 2019 Tennessee Titans because of his versatility. I love this football player. I love what he brings to our attack overall because where the game's going, with teams being in sub-packages over 70% of the time,

it used to be, when I first started, the sub-package would mean the fifth defensive back, and whoever the nickel was went out there and just played. If you played five defensive backs, that was it. Now they change who the nickel is based on the other team. they change who the nickel is based on the other team now they now they go to these variations like greg williams used to go to with six and seven defensive backs and all these different looks according to down and distance you need these pieces uh and and this guy has given us the ability to be a piece do i think he will start start? I mean, what's starting on defense? Is he one of our first 11?

Probably not. Do I think he's going to play somewhere? Do I think he may be really good on special teams? There's even talking maybe our kick returner, our punt returner. Great pick. I truly do think he is the steal. You know, you mentioned him as a returner. There's a bunch of different guys that have options. This is just kind of an aside.

But, you know, a few years back, they couldn't find anybody to return on the roster, it seemed like. And now they've got a bunch of different guys, a lot of versatility there. I think that's a good thing. And, again, I think it speaks to what John Robinson has been able to do with this roster and just the overall talent level of the whole group, which is pretty cool. All right, last thing for me as far as the draft's concerned, undrafted guys that they've got in here.

Have you seen anybody stand out in that group thus far? I mean, I know you mentioned the receiver earlier, but anybody else that you've seen that has stood out thus far? I think Groberson from Sam Houston State at outside linebacker has a real chance. He had a really big year. You know, he was a four-star recruit out of San Antonio who went to Texas and had injury problems and then really developed his senior year at Sam Houston, played great.

So I'm really interested in this player. I'm interested in Isaiah Mack out of Chattanooga, the defensive tackle. Pretty good-looking talent. He's got some Jarrell Casey in him, and some will be interested to watch him. I mentioned Anthony Ratliff-Williams because of his return ability. He's got me excited. The Vanderbilt safety, Ladarius Wiley, he really he's an NFL looking player I'm going to be interested to see him and also the corner out of Chattanooga by the name of Kareem Orr who who was off to a nice start in his career at Arizona State and transferred back to Chattanooga and made the team as a tryout player in the rookie miniicamp. And then I think all of us want to see Alex Barnes at running back from Kansas State.

Alex Barnes was, as a college football fan, I knew exactly who he was. But like most of these guys, he's done very little in a passing game before. He thinks he has because every college back who comes out believes, oh, I know all about the passing game. They don't. So how quickly does he learn to do that? Lots of guys can run the ball. Unfortunately, a lot of guys who come into the league can't figure out what they have to do in the passing game, in particular in protection. You guys know it took Derrick Henry a while, and that was a big factor for him, and I think he's

really got that figured out now, which is great. So that's a factor for Barnes and I think he's really got that figured out now which is great so that's a that's a factor for Barnes that I'm going to watch but man do I love to watch this guy run the ball already what is Barnes window today oh go ahead I mean he's big and fast and I mean he he's pretty now I mean that's when when you watch those guys you you realize you know guys develop and guys work hard and then I think the good lord makes some running backs I don't think you learn to do what Tony Dorsett did and what Emmett Smith did and what Walter Payton did on your own I think that's innate and those those special guys have that. He's got some of that about him. Now, can he do the job? We'll see. But, ooh, he's pretty.

What does he have to do to potentially beat out a guy like Flewellen? Or is it even possible that they keep four backs? They could keep four, sure. They did it last year. I think if you like a back enough, you can do that.

But if he's going to have a chance, the only way he's going to have a chance to be on the roster, in my opinion, is if he shows he can play special teams. Because if he's a fourth running back and the other three guys are healthy, let's say hypothetically, then he's probably going to be down on game day. He's going to be a healthy scratch. You're only keeping him on the roster if you feel like he could play if needed. If one of the three were hurt and you had to keep him up, that you would feel good handing him the ball, that you would feel good having him cover kicks, that you would

feel good having him protect the that you would feel good having him protect the quarterback and catch passes out of the backfield so he's got to show the ability to develop in the pass game and i think he has to show special teams ability you know that's why flu's here flu does all of those things if we and you know we did game that Flew got hurt, we had put him in the New England game, and he was part of the game plan. You know, David Flewellen was part of the game plan that day. And the reason is because you could totally trust him with everything. That's where a guy like Barnes or Daylon Dawkins or Jeremy McNichols has to get

is to where they can be trusted in that way. Otherwise, you're probably a practice squad candidate. All right, and I do have one more thing. Just touching on the last two picks, DeAndre Walker, David Long, one of the biggest things that we thought the Titans needed heading into the offseason was help with the edge rusher position. You've got some guys there, but really competition, that kind of stuff, I thought was really important.

I thought they just needed another body there as much as anything else once they got into the draft. DeAndre Walker, a guy that I was kind of surprised was still available in the fifth round. What have you seen? What are you hearing people say about him? Do you think he's a guy that has a chance to contribute this year? Maybe.

I think he's got a lot to learn, and I think he's got to learn about being a professional. If I were him, I would stay near Cameron Wake and do everything Cameron Wake does, everything. And if he does that, he's got a chance to make it because he's got some intangibles. He's 6'2", 250, but he's really long for a man that size. So, I mean, you love that. You love that guy coming off the edge with some of those big paws they can get up in the air to bat down passes or get rid of tackles trying to block them, backs trying to block him. I think he's got some of those things.

But he's got a ways to go. His last year at Georgia was a good year, but, you know, he didn't have that massive year. So he's a work in progress. David Long, you know, it's ironic, our sixth-round pick, is probably further along than our fifth-round pick, DeAndre Walker. You know, that's a strange statement, but David Long is a really developed player. Now, the question is, is he going to be big enough?

Is he going to be fast enough? Is he going to be strong enough? But he's a guy that, in terms of his knowledge of the game and understanding his role he certainly comes in with more of that and walker has that developmental side now if walker hits like the other fifth round picks john robinson is hit on we're in beautiful shape yeah absolutely that's been a it's been a good spot for them unlike the second round as history has gone for this team recently. All right, well, Mike, we appreciate you so much taking the time to join us today to talk about the draft.

And like I said, we'll be back with another episode tomorrow with Mike talking about the Titans roster and some other things as far as Titans radio is concerned. But, hey, we always appreciate you taking the time. My pleasure. All right, so like I said at the beginning of the show, museteammiracles.com is where you can find Terry and I writing. You can also follow us on

Twitter. I'm at jmrsmcm. Terry is at tlamberttn. For Terry, for Mike, Keith, for Jimmy, this is Jimmy saying thanks so much for listening, and we will talk to you again tomorrow.