Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Mock Draft Monday - Two WILD What Ifs, Mock Draft Round-Up & TyTan Mock Draft

Episode Date: March 9, 2020

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Welcome to the Locked On Titans Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, it is a Mock Draft Monday. Hope you guys all had a fun and safe weekend. We are going to kick off the week of content as we typically do with a nice Mock Draft Monday presented by the Draft Network. We have the most recent Mock Draft Monday release here from Trevor Sykema, so we are going to break down what he projects for the Titans. And of course, we are going to follow that up as we typically do on a Monday with a Mock Draft Roundup. Go around the draft community, around the football sphere, and see what some other pundits have projected for the Titans in the first round

and maybe a little deeper. And then, by popular popular demand you guys have been asking me on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans to do my own mock draft and see how the board shakes out for me and what direction I might go if I were John Robinson and calling the shots for the Titans. So like potato chips with mock drafts you can't just have one. So I did a couple of different mock drafts for you guys so we could take a look at a couple of different ways that the board could shake out and what options the Titans may have

sitting at 29 in the first round. Guys, we are one week away from the legal tampering period of free agency opening. Spring is right around the corner and that means nothing but excitement for football fans. We are getting into the thick of the offseason now, so I'm going to be here with you all week breaking it down.

Make sure you're subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast. A lot to jump into on this Mock Draft Monday. Let's get it. This week's Mock Draft Monday comes from Trevor Sikama of the Draft Network. And in this scenario, he does have the Titans losing Derrick Henry in free agency due to his salary demands. If that were to be the case, if the Titans did lose out on Derrick Henry and they didn't choose to franchise tag him, I would assume that would be because they spent that money keeping Ryan Tannehill around and also re-signing Jack Conklin.

You would have to think that that would happen and that's the way that money would be utilized. I guess there is the outside chance that the Titans could use that money on outside free agents like a Jadavion Clowney and Ryan Tannehill, but at this moment in time, if you're looking at losing Derrick Henry, it would have to be because the Titans choose to bring back a different free agent Titan like Conklin or Logan Ryan, so I guess that would make this selection for the Titans a little bit more palatable and make a lot of sense. Sycamore has the Titans going with Jonathan Taylor, the running back out of Wisconsin

with the 29th pick in the first round. Now, once again, if Derrick Henry is let go and the Titans let Derrick Henry walk in free agency, then a running back would be a must. But here is the issue with that. If you're letting Derrick Henry go you're basically acknowledging that running back is not that valuable of a position and that you could find a cheaper option to then turn around and use your first round pick and as valuable of a pick as that is as valuable of an asset as it is to turn around and use your first round pick on a running

back would almost spit in the face of you letting Derrick Henry go. I know that the salary would be a different amount and the Titans would save a lot of money there by going with a rookie running back, but at that moment in time, if you're willing to let Derrick Henry walk, well, when you take a running back in the first round, you can only hope that they would turn out to be like a Derrick Henry. So if you know that you're going to get a running back like Derrick Henry and you would let that player walk because of his value anyway, taking a running back in the first round doesn't really make much sense at that moment in time either.

But it would be understandable that they would want to replace the running back position with a talented player like Taylor, who can run in between the tackles, can run outside his great explosion. He's a nice size, 5 10 226 pounds did run that 4.39 40 yard dash at the NFL combine that really impressed scouts and he is one of the top running backs on the board with J.K. Dobbins from Ohio State and DeAndre Swift from Georgia he has a little bit more versatility than those Swift is great in the passing game but Taylor is a better pure runner so getting a pure

runner like that but similar if you're going away from Derrick Henry it's because you would want someone super versatile in the backfield and while Taylor adds more versatility than Henry in the passing game he's not quite the guy that DeAndre Swift is so I would much rather go the community approach than you know designing an offense around someone like Taylor again. But Sycamore did give us a three-round mock draft here for the Titans. So looking at some other picks that he had for the team. In the second round with the 61st overall pick, he had the Titans going with Curtis Weaver, edge rusher out of Boise State. I do like this pick for the Titans at this value.

Edge rusher is a hot commodity, and in this draft, there are some different kinds of edge rushers you could choose from. You have your Marlon Davidson, your Gross Matos, your guys who are big, physical, who maybe slide inside, and then you have your guys outside like Curtis Weaver, like Calevon Chasen. Weaver is a guy who doesn't have insane bend and insane athleticism. He could have a little bit more twitch, and I know that's what I'm looking for, but that's what I'm talking about a first round pick. If you're getting a guy like Weaver in the second round here, well now you're getting great value, and Weaver has a lot of linear speed. He

can get up the field quickly. He doesn't have a lot of pass rush moves to go to right now, but he has some that you can see develop, so I like Weaver. He doesn't have a lot of pass rush moves to go to right now, but he has some that you can see develop. So I like Weaver. He could quickly turn into a very good role player. Will he be a dominant edge rusher across from Harold Landry? I don't know, but in the second round at that value, someone like Weaver, who was very productive in his career, you would really like the opportunity to take him with the 61st overall pick. And then the third and final pick that Sycamore has for the Titans is the most questionable. Jake Fromm out of Georgia. Fromm doesn't have a lot of gifted traits. He can't throw the ball very well outside of the

hashes, very limited with his arm. And I like the Titans looking for a backup quarterback in this draft, but you wouldn't want to burn a top three pick when the top three rounds are where you're expected to get starters, and we know Fromm is not going to be a high-level starter at any point in time. So I wouldn't like the outcome of a draft where the Titans go running back edge quarterback, but if they lost out on Henry, that could be a possibility. If we are taking a look at some wild scenarios like losing Derrick Henry, if the Titans were to lose out completely on Derrick Henry, not tag him, not re-sign him in any way, that would be a pretty wild circumstance in my opinion. Might as well take a look at all of the possible outcomes for the Titans when it

comes to the draft, even the most wild of them all. So we are going to do that next and kick off our mock draft roundup segment with a supremely insane look at a possibility that the Titans have in the upcoming 2020 draft. If you've been a listener of this podcast, I'm sure you've heard all the great advertisers working with Locked On to reach sports fans. But you may not know that Locked On is a great way for your local business to reach passionate fans just like you. Unlike any other podcast, Locked On gives your local company the unique ability to reach local podcast listeners. And not just any podcast listener, a Locked On podcast listener. If your company wants a way to connect with Titans fans and a predominantly male audience that is well-educated with disposable income,

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We'll get a team to help your team achieve Locked On advertising success. Once again, text the word advertising to 33777 or visit lockedonpodcast.com advertising. We look forward to hearing from you. it is mock draft roundup time let's continue this mock draft monday by going around the football sphere go around the draft community take a look at some other pundits from some other outlets, and just see what they seem to project for the Tennessee Titans in the first round and beyond with some of these. So we are going to dive right in with the wildest mock draft I have seen for the Titans since we started doing Mock Draft Monday. This is the craziest outcome I have seen so far. And it also comes from the draft network. We got Carter Donick from the draft network and he has the Titans

with the 29th overall pick in the first round, packaging that with the 61st overall pick in the draft, the Titans' second round pick, a first and third rounder from 2021, and moving up 22 spots to the 7th overall pick with the Carolina Panthers and selecting Justin Herbert, quarterback out of Oregon. This is insane. Now, of course, Carter Donick is not here to defend himself. So, what I want to do at the minimum is at least read to you guys his reasoning of why he has the Titans doing this. So, let's go ahead and take a look. Quote, after nearly winning the AFC a season ago, Tennessee is a contending team with very few holes. But that doesn't mean that the Titans

should be contemptuous with their current status. Much like the Kansas City Chiefs when they had Alex Smith as their starting quarterback, the Titans have a decent signal caller capable of leading a team to the playoffs. What they don't have is the guy to take them over the edge, which Herbert eventually could be. Landing in Nashville would be perfect for the former Oregon quarterback as he could refine his skills for a season or two while Ryan Tannehill operates under the franchise tag or a bridge deal. This is an uber aggressive move that will take a lot of picks, but if any team has a strong enough roster that could withstand parting with this many assets, it's the Titans. End quote. That is his blurb. Okay, so I want to go through a couple of things here.

First things first, I generally agree with Carter's point here. Ryan Tannehill is not the guy. Ryan Tannehill is a great game manager. He has good ability. He has mobility. He has a strong arm, but he's never going to be an elite player like Deshaun Watson, Russell Wilson, Pat Mahomes. It's very difficult to find a quarterback like that. So if you don't have that guy, I agree that you should always be aggressively pursuing finding that elite quarterback that can be transcendent for your franchise.

I understand that philosophy. But the issue that I have here is I don't believe Justin Herbert is that guy. I don't want another quarter, excuse me for having a little bit of PTSD here, but I don't want another Oregon quarterback who comes in who has questions about his fire and his competitiveness. I don't want to have a Justin Herbert who had issues with handling the locker room, handling his huddle. Those are the knocks on Herbert because he has all the athleticism. He has a big time arm. So he has those things. It's kind of the mental aspects of the game, that it factor of the game.

And there have been conflicting reports throughout the combine and throughout the senior bowl of how he handled his teammates. And maybe he does have that it factor. But to me, if the Titans are going to make a move up the board, 22 spots, mortgage their future, give up, you know, a third and a first in 2021, a first and a second in 2020, you're not doing that for Justin Herbert. So I understand the idea of going up, getting a top-tier quarterback, kind of putting all your chips in like the Chiefs did, like the Texans did, and seeing if you can get the guy who you can mold under Ryan Tannehill

if they're able to franchise tag him or bring him back for, like Carter says here, a bridge deal. I understand the philosophy. I don't think the philosophy is insane, but I think when you put in the literal pieces, well, Justin Herbert is not worth making that kind of move. And another thing that I actually disagree with here, he says this is an uber aggressive move that will take a lot of picks, but if any team has a strong enough roster that can withstand parting with this many assets, it's the Titans Titans the Titans do have a good roster they do have a good foundation but in their situation currently with all the holes that they have I

don't think that they could withstand parting with that many assets so that's kind of my final point about what Carter had to say in this mock draft he does go on to mock the next two rounds as well of course the Titans gave up their second round pick, the 61st overall pick in this mock trade with the Panthers. So with the third round pick for the Titans, he has the Titans selecting Jabari Zuniga, the edge rusher from Florida. A lot of people consider Zuniga a tweener here. He's kind of a defensive end inside guy, five technique and a three, four mixed with an edge rusher and I've been pretty adamant throughout the draft process that those kind of tweeners are not what

the Titans need right now the Titans need an outside edge pass rusher who can get around the corner and bend and compliment Harold Landry they don't need a guy like Gross Matos who can be inside out they don't need a guy like Zuniga they don't need a guy like Gross Matos who can be inside out. They don't need a guy like Zuniga. They don't need a guy like Marlon Davidson who can play that five technique and slide down inside and rush in sub packages. The Titans have Jeffrey Simmons for that. That's why they spent that first round pick. They have Jarrell Casey for that,

and I understand you want to replenish the pipeline of interior pass rushers, but right now with the edge being such a need, I don't think that you spend a top three pick on a guy who most likely will have to have his most productive snaps on the interior. You need someone on the edge. That's what the Titans need right now. So relatively speaking, I just really hate that mock draft, and it's the most wild one that I've seen so far for the Titans. Moving forward, Daniel Jeremiah, who is absolutely excellent for the NFL Network, has the Titans take an offensive tackle, Josh Jones from Houston.

I would absolutely love that pick. I would love if Josh Jones was available for the Titans. But I think as we get closer and closer to the draft, it is obvious that the Titans aren't even going to be able to sniff Josh Jones. He's going to go top 15, at least top 22. So I don't think the Titans will really have a shot at him. They'll be looking at Austin Jackson, Lucas Niang, Trey Adams at tackle. So I think the Titans will be looking at those picks.

And quite honestly, if I'm the Titans and the way things shook out, I'll talk more about how my mock drafts went when I simulated them. But the more and more I look at the draft board and the way things are probably going to shake out for the Titans, the more I think it's likely that they need to go ahead and trade down, maybe look at that second tier of offensive tackles, but we'll talk about that more in our third segment. So continuing to go forward, once again, that was Daniel Jeremiah of NFL Network having the Titans going with Houston offensive tackle Josh Jones with the 29th pick. Moving to our next mock draft, and it comes from Henry McKenna from the USA Today, and he has the

Titans selecting edge rusher out of LSU, Calavon Chason. This is another one like Josh Jones from Daniel Jeremiah. I just don't see a scenario where Chason slips all the way down to 29 for the Titans. If he does, well, then the Titans absolutely have to take a chance on Chason at that moment in time being the second or at minimum third best edge rusher in the class. If he were to fall all the way to 29, you got to take a chance on Chason. Like he said, he gives you everything you need from a linebacker position. It's something he pointed out in his own press conference at the combine. He can rush the passer.

He can stop the run. He can drop into coverage. Kind of gives you everything that you need, but does it all at a high level. And here's my thing. Like someone like Zach Bond from Wisconsin, who does a lot of those similar things as well, but Chason has much more upside and much more twitchiness as an actual edge rusher I profile him as much more of an edge rusher with the ability to drop back in coverage where someone like Bond I project as someone who's more of an off the ball linebacker who can help you out with

an edge rush here and there so that's kind of the difference I see in those two but if Chason were available at 29 the Titans would have to scoop him up at that moment in time, but I don't see Chason being available there. I would imagine that he'll go in the top 16, top 20 at minimum, but would be great value for the Titans. Our last mock draft of our mock draft roundup comes from Kevin Hanson from Sports Illustrated, and he has the Titan selecting Christian Fulton, cornerback out of LSU. I love Fulton, six foot over 200 pounds. He can play excellent man coverage. He's so good at press. He's got great hips, great instincts. Yeah, he could do a little bit better in the run game. He could tackle. He could tackle with a little more physicality. He doesn't really seem too interested in that, but once you get to the NFL level, cornerbacks have no choice but to tackle. Coaches aren't really going to allow it,

especially a team like the Titans, who honestly are a very disciplined football team, and normally a lot of injuries hurt the Titans last year in the secondary, but normally get really good tackling out of their secondary. That's going to be hurt by most likely losing Logan Ryan but you need talented cover corners in the NFL and that's something that the Titans are lacking a little bit right now and Fulton would absolutely be one of those to the point where once again I just don't see him dropping to the Titans and when I ran my mock draft simulators which we're going to get to next I didn't have an opportunity to draft Jones, to draft Fulton, or to draft Chason in any of the three that I did.

So that is our mock draft roundup for this week. We gave our guy over at Bleacher Report, Christopher Knox, a break here. Let's see if he can come back and rebound and not give the Titans an off-the-ball linebacker. So we'll give him a week reprieve and check back in with our guy Knox next week. But next for our immediate future, we are going to jump into my version of a mock draft. I did a few mock draft simulators on the draft network.

So I will share those results with you guys next. if you guys want to have some fun during this pre-draft process i encourage you to go to the draft networks site take a look at their mock draft simulator it's a lot of fun just to take a look at and it does relatively give you an idea of what the Titans will be faced with when it's their pick, because the needs that the Titans really have positionally, it's obvious that the top players at those positions, the Titans aren't going to be able to get a crumb of one of them in the unlikelihood that the board goes incredibly different than expected. Like I was saying, I did three different mock drafts, and I didn't really see an opportunity for the Titans to go after any of their biggest needs. I

had one out of the three turn out where I would honestly be happy with what the Titans had available to them at that moment in time. So let's jump right into my mock drafts, which will eventually turn into a Roland's rant here about the Titans situation and where they sit in the draft so my first attempt went and all of the best cornerbacks were gone Gladney was gone Fulton was gone Okuda was gone CJ Henderson was gone. All of the top five offensive tackles, Andrew Thomas, Jedrick Wills, Tristan Wirfs, Makai Becton, Josh Jones, all were gone. You saw a lot of the top wide receivers go as well. Chason was gone. I didn't really see a great avenue for the Titans there. There's no first-round tackles left. There aren't really any first-round cornerbacks left.

There aren't a lot of first-round wide receivers available either once you see Justin Jefferson, Jerry Judy, CeeDee Lamb, Henry Ruggs, T. Higgins all go off the board, and I'm sitting here looking like, what would John Robinson actually do here you're either reaching for someone who's not a first round talent when you should never really reach for need especially when you're in the Titans position being a talented roster but it's a really tough position and with my first choice my first mock draft run through the only option that I had was to agree with Trevor Sycamore his choice at

the beginning of the show I went with Jonathan Taylor from Wisconsin DeAndre Swift was gone as well running back from Georgia so I went with Jonathan Taylor from Wisconsin even if the Titans bring back Derrick Henry they're going to need somebody to compliment Henry to keep him healthy in the long term they're going to cut Deion Lewis to save salary cap anyway, so the Titans need somebody. I would have rather had DeAndre Swift in that moment because he's more adept in the passing game, but like I said, he was gone. And J.K. Dobbins is a little bit better than Jonathan Taylor in the receiving game, but Taylor's just a better player in my opinion. So at that moment in time, I had no choice but to go with running back. And I wasn't very happy with that mock draft outcome. So I said, hey, I'm going to run it back again and do another

one. And I was left in a very similar situation. Those top five wide receivers were gone. The top five tackles were gone. The top four corners were gone. And I'm sitting there looking at the board like what in the world would John Robinson do now in my second iteration of the mock draft DeAndre Swift was still available so I took DeAndre Swift as I think he out of the top three top four running backs is the obvious best compliment with Derrick Henry who I personally expect Derrick Henry to be back on the Titans so I thought that was the the best, the most realistic, best outcome combination of those two factors together. I think DeAndre Swift would be a perfect complement for Henry.

He can handle his own as a runner, but add so much in the receiving game as well. So either way, looking at both of those, and this is where the Rollins rant factor comes into this, the Titans are in a tough spot. They're not going to be able to get a good value at a position of need unless the draft goes really, really haywire. They move up. Or what I want and what my really call for is right now, the Titans need to find a way to move down and pick up Lucas Niang, pick up Austin Jackson, offensive tackles, trade

down and get into the Denzel Mims, Jalen Rager, KJ Hamler area of wide receiver, trade down and get into the Denzel Mims Jalen Rager KJ Hamler area of wide receiver trade down into the AJ Terrell range of cornerback I think the Titans will have a lot more to choose from if they can trade down somewhere from 33 to 45 I think if the Titans can find a trade partner to come up to 29 to maybe look at Jacob Eason, maybe if Jordan Love happens to fall that far, I don't expect it. But there are other positions. Maybe one of these teams want to come up

and get a running back before the run of running back starts going early in the second round, late in the first round. So I think right now, the Titans really need to start making calls and seeing who would be interested in coming up to 29 so they can drop back into the top half of the second round. So I think right now the Titans really need to start making calls and seeing who would be interested in coming up to 29 so they can drop back into the top half of the second round. Remember, the Titans don't have a fourth round pick. The Titans don't have a sixth round pick.

So you could possibly pick up a third round or you could possibly pick up another fourth round or something like that. Back to our second segment. So I made things go full circle talking about Trevor Sycamore selected Jonathan Taylor. So didn't I with my first pick. Now I'm going full circle back to the second segment. You look at what Connor Donick said about the team that the Titans can withstand parting with all those picks. Well, like I said then, I don't think the Titans can withstand with parting with a bunch of picks. I think the Titans have a lot more holes than a typical contending team would have because of the in-house free agents. So the Titans actually need lot more holes than a typical contending team would have because of the in-house free agents so the Titans actually need to pick up more picks to restock the cupboards

right now with the mass exodus that we are about to see this year and then carry on in the next year where the Titans could lose some more pieces so the Titans need to pick up some more picks I think based on how the board is going to fall here, the Titans really need to consider trading down from 29 into the high 30s, the mid 40s, the top first half of the second round so they can take a tackle or a cornerback or a wide receiver and get better value out of that selection. With my third and final mock draft that I did myself, I did end up with Jeff Gladney from TCU, which I think would be a great pick for the Titans. He had gone before the Titans pick. They're in the mid-20s.

Every mock draft iteration before that, the two that I did where I ended up with running back. But if someone like Jeff Gladney, who I think is an ideal replacement for Logan Ryan as a slot cornerback, if he's there, the Titans should scoop him up. So that covers all of my mock drafts. That was really fun. And like I said at the beginning, it's like potato chips.

You can't just do one mock draft once you kind of get sucked in to the mock draft cycle. They're really fun to go through and look at all of the different possible outcomes. So as I've said throughout the show, go ahead and check out the draft network. Everybody over there does excellent work. They have that mock draft simulator like I'm talking about. They have really good mock drafts, not just the mock draft Monday version. And by the time you guys are listening to this, the new this week's mock draft Monday will be released.

So make sure you guys go check that out. So that wraps up this edition of Locked on Titans. Now tell your smart device to play the most recent episode of Locked on NFL. It'll be an excellent show for you guys as well. So as always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland,

and this was Locked on Titans.