Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Robinson Gives Clowney Update, Compensatory Pick Impact & Sounds of the Titans

Episode Date: April 28, 2020

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Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, it is a Titans Talk Tuesday. We are going to focus on some quotes and the things that Titans General Manager John Robinson and Head Coach Mike Vrabel had to say about the completion of the NFL Draft. And not just the NFL Draft. As a matter of fact, we are going to start with some quotes coming from General Manager John Robinson in regards to his pursuit of Jadavian Clowney. So

we are going to start there talking about the superstar free agent and what the quotes Robinson had to say on Monday morning on the radio mean for the ongoing pursuit. We're also going to talk about some other NFL situations that could give us a window into what the Titans are trying to do right now in regards to Clowney and specifically take a look at a former number one draft pick and how his free agent circumstance does impact the Titans or at least is something that the Titans have to keep their eye on in regards to how the NFL responds and with that in mind we will also do a little bit of a refresher on where the Titans currently sit with the salary cap after the NFL draft but after we get done with that we are going to continue with our Titans talk Tuesday with

sounds of the Titans we are going to hear first from General Manager John Robinson and his post-draft press conference and everything that he had to say now that the process is completely wrapped up. And then we will finish out the show in a similar note there with Titans Head Coach Mike Rabel and his thoughts to take us home for the end of today's episode. So we have a lot to talk about on this Titans Talk Tuesday. Sounds of the Titans coming.

But first, let's jump in to that Jadavian Clowney update. Let's get it. one of the more interesting takeaways from the titans draft class is not necessarily a selection that they made but a positional omission from the class and that was at the edge rusher position the titans did not go out and secure an edge rusher despite the need for depth and overall talent at the position essentially since John Robinson took over in 2016. So obviously that led a lot of people to wonder how the Titans plan to add talent or depth to the edge rusher position with the draft and free agency out of the way. And naturally we would move into a conversation about Jadavian Clowney who the

Titans brass at multiple points and times during this offseason has said they are still interested in signing and Robinson was asked about Jadavian Clowney on the popular Nashville radio show midday 180 on Monday morning and he had this to say quote quote, nothing is imminent, not coming in at any point this afternoon, end quote. Well, that leads people to ask, why would John Robinson put a spotlight on Monday afternoon? Why would he be expected to have an answer about Clowney by Monday afternoon? And the reason for that is the NFL's deadline for free agent signings to count towards their compensatory pick formula was 4 p.m. Eastern on Monday afternoon. And you may be asking yourself, what is a compensatory draft pick?

Well, every year the NFL looks at free agents that teams have signed and lost and decides if an NFL team deserves an extra draft pick for losing so much in free agency. Let me give you a real world example using our very own Tennessee Titans. So in this offseason, the Titans are set to get an extra third round draft pick. And the reason for that is there are three players involved in this formula the Titans lost Marcus Mariota in free agency he signed a reasonably sized deal with the Oakland Raiders for 8.8 million dollars average per year on the flip side of that the Titans did sign Vic Beasley to a deal that pays him about 9.55 million for the season. Per the NFL,

those deals, Marcus's being $8.8 million and Beasley being $9.5 million, they basically cancel each other out in terms of value, which leaves the Titans with Jack Conklin, who left the team and was a free agent lost and signed a massive deal with the Cleveland Browns for $14 million per year. That's about as high of a contract as you are going to see in the NFL's compensatory pick formula. So that would give the Titans and award the Titans the highest possible compensatory pick. And that is a third round pick. So right now the Titans gained Vic Beasley but lost Marcus Mariota. That's a wash. And then they lost Jack Conklin. Those are the only three players whose contracts qualify for this formula. So if the Titans did not sign a free agent around the amount of contract

money that Jack Conklin got by 4 p.m. on Monday afternoon, which they did not, then they should get a third round pick in 2021. And that could be the reason why the Titans most speculated that that is the reason why the Titans were holding off on signing Jadavion Clowney so that they could keep that compensatory pick. So that is why Robinson put a highlight on nothing coming this afternoon because a lot of people expected Clowney to be signed immediately after the 4 p.m. deadline. But that leads you to

the question of wouldn't the NFL notice that the Titans are essentially gaming the system? That brings us to former number one draft pick Jameis Winston. It was announced on Monday that Winston plans on signing with the New Orleans Saints, but reporter from Tampa Bay Greg Allman found this interesting wrinkle. He says that essentially the NFL is monitoring the situation and if they feel that Winston's agreement was made before the 4 p.m. deadline on Monday and that the Saints wait until after that deadline to sign Winston that they would still count Winston against their compensatory pick formula because like I said that's essentially gaming the system so that may give us our answer as to why John Robinson was non-committal and very vague about Jadavion Clowney if they did intend to

push out his signing so that they would not lose their comp pick, they do not want the NFL to know that it was a calculated move. Now, it is worth mentioning that the Seattle Seahawks did cut two offensive linemen today to carve out more cap space. And although they appeared to be out of the race, according to reports and according to, I guess, logic behind some of their draft picks. I guess it is possible that they have the ability to carve out about $15.5 to $16 million to get themselves back in the Clowney race. There are also some other teams still with cap space who can make a move. So, don't want to get anybody's hopes up, although mine are, if I'm being honest.

I think it's pretty clear that Clowney would be the best possible fit in Tennessee. So I hope that John Robinson is able to make that happen. But just want to be fair here and point out the other bits of news that show that there are still plenty of competition for Clowney services going into the rest of the offseason. But that is going to wrap up our first segment here talking about an update on the signing of Clowney we are going to move into our second segment where we do a little bit more Titans talk sounds of the Titans and hear from Titans general manager John Robinson about his ending thoughts on the NFL draft.

Let's continue this episode of Titans Talk Tuesday by diving into sounds of the Titans. Let's hear from Titans General Manager John Robinson in his end of the draft conference call. Of course, audio is courtesy of TennesseeTitans.com. The first question we have for Robinson here is just his general recap of day three of the draft, which had just wrapped up. Yeah, sure. I mean, coming into day three, we had, I think, five picks.

We had to wait 67 picks, and it's kind of ironic. It was eerily similar to the previous two nights. We really liked Murchison there. It's great when I talked to him this morning. He was the guy that he had kind of circled in his notebook. And he was the last guy that I looked at when I closed my computer up last night to go to bed. And we weathered 67 picks there with him. And I was fortunate enough to get him took, took cold air.

I talked briefly about him there with the first pick in the seventh round, my Kansas city called and they were interested in jumping back in, and I thought it was a good trade for us to acquire a six-round pick for next year, which will give us at least eight picks, and then we'll see how the formula works out. Then at the end, they added Chris Jackson, defensive back, out of Marshall of um marshall who's a really productive um really athletic guy i look forward to working with him how does

robinson approach the draft knowing that he has to look at the now but also look at the future well i think that you know right now we're just we're excited about the players that that we're able to add um and excited that get the, when we can get them in here and start working with them. I know, I know that, I know that Mike's ready to get out of his house. I'm ready to get out of my house and get out there on the grass and work with our players, work with these rookies. And it is, it's a, it's a build, you know, and that's, that's part of our job is to, is to, is to constantly work to improve the roster and add guys that are about what we're going to be about that hopefully at the end of the day help us contribute on game days.

A great question here coming from the wonderful Teresa Walker talking about how the Titans didn't really make any sexy or dramatic draft picks and what Robinson's thoughts are on that. Yeah, I wouldn't call myself sexy or dramatic by any stretch of the imagination. I think that's the identity of our football team. I think we roll our sleeves up and we go to work, and we're not looking for flash or any of that. We're looking to come together as a football team,

as Mike alluded to in this, in this draft process and in the post-draft process, I would echo what he stated about working together. Um, we got, we got an awesome thing going. Um, there's, um, there's meetings, there's discussions with coaches, with scouts, and we work really, really well together, um, as do our players. And I think we saw that last year. And I think the players that we added over the course of this weekend, they embody that same mindset. I've told every single one of them, I don't care where you come from, be ready to come in here and go to work because we're about winning football games. Why no wide receivers selected in a historically deep wide receiver class?

Yeah, we'll see how that goes. There were some receivers that we looked at later on today, but we were ecstatic with the picks that we were able to add in rounds one through three. We spoke on those the last two days, and we're working through this post-draft. There were some good players that didn't get drafted. We'll see kind of how they fit into our football team if we can get them here.

But, yeah, I think we've got confidence in our receiver group, the guys that we've got coming back that they can line up and make plays for us. Was there any consideration given to drafting a kicker in the seventh round? Yeah, we said earlier in a couple of the press conferences, we had a ton of confidence in Greg. He did a great job for us, and we'll keep looking. And we want to try to infuse competition at every position. We're going through some guys now and trying to see if one of those guys

can come in here and compete with Greg, because I think competition brings out the best in all of us. But that's kind of where we're at right now with the kicker situation. Brian McKeegan for John. Did the pursuit of free agent Jadavion Clowney impact the draft whatsoever? You know, I think that draft to see as many good football players as we could at a lot of different positions. You know, we looked at some some edge guys today. We looked at some edge guys the previous two days. At the end of the day, we're excited about the guys that we had. And then, you know, the roster building process is never over.

You know, we'll continue to look at guys that are available in the post-draft process, these rookies that did not get drafted, as well as some veteran guys that are still out there. Robinson really had to think about his answer to that one, you could tell. Then he answered questions about fifth round draft pick Larell Murchison and the final pick of the draft, Chris Jackson. Yeah, I think that you've heard us talk about it probably ad nauseum for some of you about the versatility for guys, especially on the line of scrimmage and either at receiver or defensive back. The more positions they can play, the more opportunity they have

to make the team. You know, Murchison kind of played all along the line there. I watched a lot of tape on him this past fall, and he went down to the senior bowl and I thought had a good week, had good length. I had a really great conversation with him via FaceTime a week or so ago. I know Big T, our D-line coach, has spent a lot of time with him and we thought he was a guy that has size, he has length, he has strength, he's got some power in the run game, he's got some quickness and the ability to flip his hips in the pass rush.

So excited that he was there and we're gonna get to work with him. And then Jackson is a versatile guy, he's athletic, he's got really good production. Like he said, 35 PPUs and seven picks or so in his career. So he finds the football, he ran well for us from our timing standpoint. We liked his athleticism. He'll mix into the group and try to carve out a role for himself. Then we finish with Robinson's thoughts on seventh-round pick quarterback

Cole McDonald. Yeah, we're not going to set the roster to 55 today on the third day of the draft, but he's a guy who's got really good size, really good athleticism, ran fast, he moves around, he's got good arm strength. We spent quite a bit of time with him here in the process, just getting to know him a little bit. Arthur and Pat did and developed a good relationship with him. And, you know, felt like from a tool standpoint,

he was a guy that we'd like to work with. Once again, that audio is courtesy of TennesseeTitans.com. And we are going to dive into more of the draft-related audio from Mike Rabel, from John Robinson as we progress throughout the coming weeks when we do our deep dives. Into each of these draft prospects. That the Titans have selected. So we will play some more quotes. And some more audio.

In their individual episodes. But wanted to make sure I got you guys a little bit. From Robinson's end of the draft. Conference call. And we had Mike Vrabel. On that conference call as well. So in our next segment. To round out the show. We will hear what head coach Mike Vrabel on that conference call as well. So in our next segment to round out the show, we will hear what head coach Mike Vrabel had to say

about a lot of these prospects and the draft in general. Let's continue our titans talk tuesday with another sounds of the titans coming from head coach mike vrabel the first thing we get from mike vrabel here is a recap of the draft from his perspective and he talks a little bit about the partnership between him john robinson and john robinson's staff that I find incredibly interesting. You know what my thoughts are, Robbie? My thoughts are appreciation of an organization that has a lot of great alignment. I'm happy and proud to work with John and his group.

They were fantastic through this entire process. I hope that the coaches were able to provide some input, but this was a really cool and fun draft. through this entire process. I hope that the coaches were able to provide some input, but this was a really cool and fun draft for everybody. It was unknown, and I'm proud of the way that our guys handled it, proud of the communication, and I'm proud of the efforts and decided to work with these players. So I'm appreciative that we have input from a lot of different places in our organization.

And then John and I try to make a best decision for the Titans. Does the strength of the Titans' current roster allow the Titans to avoid having to trade up for specific players? It really worked out well. It was fun to watch the board kind of fall in places where we needed it to. you know, kind of fall in places where we needed it to. I think just in doing this just a few years, it's just, you know, sometimes when you want to go up and get a guy, you just have a hunch that he's not going to be there.

And you feel like you have to go travel to get them. But it was cool. And then obviously you're fielding calls and you're listening to calls and what people are saying. So it all worked out well. How much does Coach Rabel focus on or pay attention to other teams' drafts and the players that they select? I think you're always, from my perspective, you're always thinking about matchups and, oh man, I like that player. Or who got so-and-so? You know, because you end up with about 30 guys that you like, you know, that you want to bring on your team through all these players that are evaluated.

You're not going to like them all, and you shouldn't like them all. You know, so there were some players that I wanted to see, you know, we weren't able to get, but I liked them, and I wanted to see maybe where they ended up. So you take notice of that. But it was everybody from IT, I'm telling you, everybody in the organization was prepared for this fantastic process that we went through. And again, I feel terrible for the fans that couldn't appreciate this live, but I'm proud of the way everybody handled it in our organization.

Now that the draft is over, what is the process of handling workouts and tryouts with undrafted free agents? Well, we did a fantastic job, and that was part of what I alluded to as far as the alignment, the position coaches working with the scouts through that process, through, you know, John and Ryan and Salgi and myself and Vin on, on one line and in one computer working through our scouts. And it comes together pretty quick. It's like the wild, wild West and the, the undrafted process. And so the, the, the tryout process,

they haven't informed us what that may be. Certainly can't try anybody out that without having them at your facility to work them out. So we'll, I'm sure there'll be some sort of opportunity to, to be able to evaluate some more players that maybe you didn't sign or need another chance to make an impression on you. But we'll let you know as soon as there's something that's talked about as far as the rookie tryouts. Thoughts on fifth round defensive lineman Larell Murchison? well I mean I think that the further along you get into the evaluation process you start to have feelings for guys and you understand their ability to learn and their

ability to connect with you as a coach or a position coach and I think that's what happened here the longer the process went out the more that we all started to like Laurel and his willingness to, to learn our defense and build a relationship. So I think that there's at least coming in, there's some, there's some versatility that he can provide us. Thoughts on seventh round pick quarterback Cole McDonald. Well, I mean, I think we like the athlete. I think we like the, the, the energy, the leadership. Somebody that stood out for us at the combine and through our evaluations

and our conversations, our coaches were certainly intrigued by the player. We feel like there's some skills to develop. And then what we ask him to do will be what we ask all the rookies to do, is to come in, do is to, to come in, to, to pay attention, to, to focus on the details, to try to learn as much as they can, uh, stay self-motivated during, during the workouts and start to build a routine for us and our program as it relates to their learning, uh, and meeting in the virtual classrooms with the coaches.

Thoughts on seventh round pick pick defensive back Chris Jackson? Well, they all get an opportunity. I mean, if you sign and you're on a roster and you're in a team meeting room in front of me, I think our philosophy is that you're all going to get an opportunity. Some guys may get more opportunities than others, but they're all going to get opportunities. And so we'll see how that goes and what they can handle.

And if it transitions to learn in more than one position, I think that that would be outstanding. That would not only help the team, but it would help, you know, Chris as well. As most of you are aware, head coach Mike Vrabel can be a tad feisty. So, of course, we will round out his segment of Sounds of the Titans with a little bit of a snappy response in regards to a question from none else than Paul Kaharski about is this Titans team better now than it was at the end of the season last year?

Well, I would say that there was some, you know, to answer parts of your question, there were, I think some spaces that we looked to fill that we did and to address, is it better? It hadn't won a game, so it can't possibly be better. But there were some things that we needed to get done out of this draft and I think we all feel like we did to me that is the number one takeaway from the NFL draft and that's the Titans got done what they needed to get done they didn't set themselves back they hit key areas of need they hit key players

who will serve a role on this team immediately and that is what is most important going forward so I hope you guys enjoyed hearing directly from the decision makers who will decide the future of the Tennessee Titans you got all of my yesterday, so hearing a little bit from general manager John Robinson and head coach Mike Rabel is a very good thing. Now, as I said at the end of our second segment, I will be playing some more sound bites about specific players, Isaiah Wilson, Christian Fulton, things like that, when we give them their own individual day

and we spend an entire episode breaking down each prospect. So we'll hear more direct quotes about players then. But I wanted to make sure I gave you guys all of the most interesting information from that end of draft conference call. So that is going to do it for today's show. Now that you are done with this episode of the Locked on Titans podcast,

make sure that you tell your smart device to play Locked on Fantasy Football. Now that we know where some of these high-profile draft prospects have gone, it's time to start talking about and projecting out their potential value fantasy-wise in the 2020 regular season. So it's a very good time to check out the Locked On Fantasy Football Podcast. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked On Titans. Thank you.