Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Should The Titans Sign....Free Agent Linebackers & Roster Building Philosophy Breakdown

Episode Date: March 4, 2021

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You are Locked On Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to the Locked On Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland, Titans fans. On Tuesday, on Twitter, at TicTacTitans, I made you guys a promise. In fact, I made you guys a promise. In fact, I made you guys two promises that I would, number one, discuss two popular free agent names on the market right now that the Titans community is far more interested in than I am.

So I'm going to tell you who the names are, why I'm not as interested in them as some other folks seem to be. And then we're going to use that conversation as a springboard into the second promise that I made to you all and that is that I would discuss my general roster philosophies and how I'm going to frame that conversation is by telling you which positions on a football team I think are ultimately the most important and allow that to guide us through a conversation on where I would spend money. Ultimately bringing us full circle back to why I am not interested in these two names that everyone else seems to have an eye on. So I'm excited to go through the entire process, the circle of life in terms of my roster philosophy with you guys today on a Thursday edition of the Locked

On Titans podcast. Let's get it. The two free agent names that we are going to kick off today's show by discussing happen to play at the exact same position. So we are going to dive into not only those names, but that position in general. Before we do, I do want to remind you guys that I will be putting out Monday through Friday, that's right, daily Tennessee Titans content, not only throughout the entire season, but throughout the entire offseason

as well. So make sure that you never miss an episode of the Locked on Titans podcast by subscribing on whatever platform you do stream. But we're going to dive into these two names. And the first name that I'm going to mention is actually a name that I've mentioned in passing on a previous show. But the second name that we're going to talk about has truly become the Tennessee Titans flavor of the week online.

So I'm going to discuss both those guys. Number one, the first player is linebacker K.J. Wright, formerly of the Seattle Seahawks. Now, K.J. Wright is an off-ball linebacker. He's not a guy who's going to be rushing the passer consistently, but he has built a long career and a solid career as a guy who not only can stop passer consistently, but he has built a long career and a solid career as a guy who not only can stop the run, but also adds value as a pass coverage guy over the middle of the field. Now, he wasn't quite the level of player that his mate there in Seattle, Bobby Wagner, at

linebacker was, but that defense wasn't just dominant for a while because they had that secondary. They had solid middle linebackers who helped in coverage as well with Wagner and with Wright. Now, Wright is a little bit older in the tooth. He's later in his career. This might be his last contract if he gets a multi-year one. But a vet like that could still come in and help the Tennessee Titans if they were to find the right price.

Now, I don't think that that's going to happen. I wouldn't project that to happen. And the second name that we're going to talk about, we'll dive really into why, but the second name that's been a buzz is Kyle Van Noy. Now, Kyle Van Noy is a very versatile linebacker. Remember, he played for the New England Patriots for a while, just got a big-time contract last offseason from the Miami Dolphins and then was cut. And this move saves the Miami Dolphins $9.5 million. And with the

depressed cap because of the COVID implications now, you're going to see a lot of that around the league. But the point is Kyle Vannoy didn't play bad last year. He didn't play poorly. He didn't play down from the contract that he got. He played very well. He's a versatile guy. He's had 12 and a half sacks over the last two seasons. He can rush the passer a little bit, but he's more effective as a blitzer, but then also, you know, a chase and tackle linebacker, your traditional linebacker. So he's a versatile piece. But from my perspective, and this is gonna, like I said, springboard us into how I view roster building in general in the NFL at least. To me, when you look at the Titans problems

last year on defense, I would not start the list with the off-ball interior linebackers, Jayon Brown, David Long, Rashawn Evans, Will Compton. While I do believe that the Titans need to add some depth there, maybe draft a guy in the later rounds, maybe add a veteran middle linebacker who, unlike a Nick DeZubnar, can only really help you on special teams, or unfortunately, I know people don't like to hear it, but Darren Bates, who really can only help you on special teams, add a legitimately solid backup veteran linebacker. And some are saying, well, that could be K.J. Wright. Well, K.J. Wright could be looking to start now.

And if you start K.J. Wright, then you're going to have to either not give David Long the chance that he gets, not bring back Jayon Brown, which I know a lot of you are in favor of, or move Rashawn Evans out of that every down middle linebacker role. And some of you are saying, yeah, just go ahead and do that. And I understand that as well. I'm not saying that that's an insane way to think. But to me, to take Rashawn Evans in possibly the last year of his contract with the Titans on his rookie contract, if they don't pick up the fifth year option and you know

you're going to have to pay him this last year of money I think it would be silly to move him out of his natural role and pay a decent contract like seven million dollars or more to a guy like KJ Wright or a guy like Kyle Vannoy who could be looking at nine and a half to eleven million dollars per season I mean I just don't think that the Titans should allocate their resources in that way and allocate their talent in that way. In my mind, the root cause of the Tennessee Titans issues on defense last year is the pass rush. Look at what was historically bad. The run defense was 19th in the NFL. That's not great, but it's not in the bottom 10. It was the Titans coverage and

the Titans pass rush that were historically bad along with the third down defense, but all of that is connected together. So to me, you don't get pressure on the quarterback in a historically bad way. You're putting your coverage in a very bad spot. You add in the Titans injuries in the secondary and the youth that they had to play. Now you have a recipe for disaster and coverage, which leads to that bad third down defense. And then the run defense is down more because the other teams score more points because there's no pass rush to help the injured secondary and they can't get off the field because they're not converting on third downs and getting teams off the field. Now the run defenders, the big bodied guys, the heavy guys, they're playing more

snaps. They're playing more reps. They're playing closer games later into the fourth quarter. The Titans are scoring 35 points, but yet the Texans have 36 and they can still run the ball because it's a close game. You're asking your run defense to do so much. I would argue the Titans are a top 14, top 12 run defense, but the pass rush, lack thereof, and then how that affected the coverage in the third down defense, I think that ultimately made the run defense worse than it actually should have been. So to me, you don't pay Kyle Vannoy $11 million, $10 million, $9.5 million because he had 12 and a half combined sacks over the two years.

You don't want another versatile piece where you have Harold Landry, who's the best pass rusher, but he's dropping back into coverage for a career high snaps while the Titans are dying in pass rush because they love versatility so much. At some point in time, you got to have versatile pieces surrounding a few one-trick ponies. The lockdown coverage corner. Yeah, maybe he doesn't tackle well, but he's a lockdown coverage guy. And no, that's not a Dory Jackson. He's not a lockdown coverage guy at this moment in time. So, you have that guy. You have the deep free safety who can just cover all over the place.

Maybe he doesn't come up and help and run defense so much. Maybe the strong safety has more of that responsibility. You rely on your linebackers more in those sub-situations. But to me, the Titans, if they had any one trick pony whatsoever on the whole defense, and then had 10 versatility guys, if they had any one trick pony, it has to be a guy who sacks the quarterback because that will lead to a domino effect that will improve every other area. And I believe that if the pass rush was improved then the Titans could survive and win a Super Bowl with Rashawn Evans David Long a veteran or bringing Jayon Brown back and running

it back with Rashawn and David Long as that trio one more time maybe you disagree but to me it would be silly to pay an off-ball linebacker that much money in the Titans' current situation after seeing what we saw last year. But that's going to lead me into a bigger conversation about my roster philosophy, and that's just a little bit of an appetizer to the entire entree of the entire roster. I'm going to break it down in a way where I tell you which positions on an NFL team I think are the most important to the least important and have finances kind of mixed in with that as well. Before we get into that though, I do want to tell you about rockauto.com. Rockauto.com is a family business that's been serving auto parts customers online for 20 years. The best

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what I do think is important and where I do think that the Titans specifically should spend and generally where I think that you know a, a team should be built, the strength should be laid. Let's go into this by talking about which positions I think are the most important. Probably not going to shock anybody up front. The most important position in football by far is run stuffing nose tackle. You have to be able to stuff up the middle of, right, right, right, right. Sorry. Scratch that quarterback, duh guys, obviously, it's easy, we don't gotta spend a lot of time there, the Titans found a good enough quarterback, he's not, you know, one of the top four or five elites, but in my

opinion, he's right, right behind them leading the next group, and that's just such an advantage, so it's worth paying for, And the deal was such a steal. Unbelievable. Good job, J-Rob, there. But anyways, you guys know how important quarterback is. I don't have to sell you. But next, in my opinion, it's about counterbalancing. And I've said this all offseason.

I'll continue to beat you guys over the head with it. Pass rusher. Whether you run a 3-4 and you call it an outside linebacker or a 4-3 and it's a defensive end, either way, you're outside pass rusher. Incredibly, incredibly important. And I'm not against calling someone like a J.J. Watt that, you know, he could play a little inside, but he's a defensive end, playing a 5 technique and a 3-4 defensive end, moving up and down, but J.J. Watt's much more of an outside athletic defensive end than he is your typical interior big defensive tackle.

That's the difference between a Watt and a Jeffrey Simmons. You know what I mean? There's just a little bit of difference in explosiveness and athleticism compared to size and strength there that separates those two categories, in my opinion, the difference between an Aaron Donald and a J.J. Watt. So anyways, right there, that's where I see because throughout history, we have seen that the best way to counteract an elite quarterback is with an elite pass rush. We know that. It's been well documented.

So to me, that makes those two easily the most important. And when the Titans are historically bad at one of those spots, we see the kind of effect it can have on the entire defense. Next though, how do you stop the guys who can counter the quarterback with a left tackle? Now with the way the NFL is played nowadays, right tackle, left tackle, either way you want to call it, offensive the way the NFL is played nowadays, right tackle, left tackle, either way you want to call it, offensive tackle is the third most important. The game truly is one in the trenches, in my opinion, so that's why left tackle gets that third spot, and the trenches get the first two spots, or two and three, quite frankly. So, next, who helps out the quarterback when the

pass rush is on them? If it's not a blocker, like a tackle, well, the next guy is a pass catcher. Now, I said pass catcher because I don't want to say wide receiver or tight end. I'm just saying a dominant pass catcher who can get open at any time. The quarterback has to get rid of the ball, and they're going to get open. So on a roster, you have to have one dominant pass catcher whether that be your tight end or your receiver everybody wants to want everybody wants to talk about how Brady when he won his titles didn't have incredible wide receivers no but most of the time he had

Gronk so I mean that that really helps and his old titles were just in a different era and different style of football, so it's hard to compare to what's going on exactly right now. But typically, all the other Super Bowls that you see, there's one dominant pass catcher on the team who can always get open and help the quarterback. Now, as the balancing act goes, where would that leave the next position? Well, if we start with quarterback and all the dominoes fall from there, the best way to stop a quarterback is with the pass rush. So then we have left tackle at

number three. Well, now if the pass rush and the left tackle are battling, what do we need? We need the quarterback to get rid of the ball. Somebody get open a pass catcher. Now, how do we stop the pass catcher with a dominant defensive back? But in my opinion, cornerback, because of the nature of the position, far more important than safety. and I'll separate the two for this reason. So next, I have cornerback, and those are my top five most important positions on any NFL team. Quite frankly, that's how you want to build a roster, but with the Titans, you got to think about what they're missing here, and why things are tough for them. So quarterback, they're in a pretty good spot, but they don't have a pass rusher at all. Left tackle, with Taylor. So quarterback, they're in a pretty good spot, but they don't have a pass rusher at all. Left tackle with Taylor LeJuan, they're in a pretty

good spot. With a pass catcher, they have A.J. Brown. So that's why the Titans offense is dominant a lot of the time. And we even saw without Taylor LeJuan that they were still really, really solid. Obviously, Taylor takes it up a level, but you got those covered, and the Titans' offense was top five in the NFL. Dominant in the NFL. But, look at the other side. Cornerback, yeah, pretty good, but and then just nothing with the pass rush. They don't have

the dominant rusher. I am convinced now that Harold Landry is a secondary rusher, and that's where he would have his most success. So, to me, the Titans are just missing the second most important position. And to me, those are the positions that you spend big time money on. Now the guy has to be an AJ Brown level. He has to be AJ Brown level. You can't be paying pass catchers that don't quite get it. Like a Kenny Galladay, a Devante Parker,

guys like that. They're like on that secondary tier. I'm not paying them, but AJ Brown's on the first tier. So I am paying for him. You got to be that secondary tier. I'm not paying them, but A.J. Brown's on the first tier. So I am paying for him. You got to be careful about that. I'm not just saying you pay the best pass catcher on your team. No, you got to make sure they're worth the money, of course. That's the name of the game. But to me, those are the positions that clearly matter the most.

And those are the positions that you pay. And off-ball linebacker was not included in that list. And off-ball linebacker was not included in that list. So we are going to continue the list after I tell you guys about a new podcast from the Locked On Podcast Network, a whole new podcast feed, and that is the Locked On Presents feed. And on it, throughout February and early March, we are celebrating Black History Month and honoring the challenges and successes of black men and women in sports with a new series called More Than The Game. This week, we have two conversations for you to wrap up the month. First, a discussion on protest and sports across leagues. Then, tune

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Quarterback, pass rusher, left tackle, or just tackle in general, the way the game's played now. A dominant pass catcher with, again, the way the game is played now. That can be one tight end or one wide receiver. And then a cornerback to cover, most likely, the dominant pass catcher that is at wide receiver. That's where tight ends make things a little more interesting, but they're also much more rare to find. I would only say that there are two tight ends, in my opinion, right now that are that level, Kelsey and Kittle. So moving forward through that, we talked about those top five. Where do we go from there? Well, to me, we gotta get in the trenches.

Outside of everything there, that's where the game is won, guys. If you can dominate up front, you can dominate anything. Offenses can't run if you can't stop the pressure from getting into the backfield. And that's why I'm going with an interior defensive lineman next,

whether that be a defensive, a Jeffrey Simmons, a Daquan Jones, those style of guys. That's what I'm talking about here for the Titans. You have to have one of those guys that can not only be impactful against the run, but also give you a little bit in the way of pass rush as well. That's what you're going to get from a good player as an interior defensive lineman. So me, right outside of that top five where we're all playing the quarterback game and all of the positions are truly affected, we get into somebody who ups not only in the

pass rush, but also in run defense and sometimes can be primarily run defense, but has to have a little bit of both parts of the job to be the kind of guy that I'm thinking of. But that's where I would start right there out of that top five. And to counteract that, as all of this discussion has been about counteracting things, quite frankly, to counteract that, for me, we arrive at interior offensive linemen. I would start with center, just like when we're talking interior defensive linemen, I would start with center. Just like when we're talking interior defensive linemen, I would start with a guy who gives you a little pass rush, can stop the run too. That's what you're ultimately going to want. But next, I'm going interior offensive line. Like I said, starting at center, but guards can be just as important. A guy like Quentin Nelson can really

change things for your offensive line. So to me, it starts in the trenches from there. Your interior defensive linemen, your interior offensive linemen. And outside of that, you kind of got to build out a little bit more. Next, we're going to get into your secondary pass catchers. I talked about having a dominant one. So let's say the Titans have the A.J. Brown. Well, then I'm going interior defensive line, interior offensive line. Then we're getting into the secondary pass catcher, tight end one or wide receiver two, which honestly would have been Corey Davis. If we're talking about how the Titans built the roster, they would have had their wide receiver two there.

And I would go with that secondary pass catcher. And then after that, for the way that the NFL is now, I have to go with safety. That's where I would go from there. I would go with safety because safeties now are tasked with, with the speed in the NFL, safeties have to be able to play deeper than ever and get back quicker than ever. That puts a lot of pressure on your free safety.

More often than not, the guy that you think is better at that, Kevin Byard, Amani Hooker for the Titans. And what that's going to do is that's going to cause your safety that's better at run defense. In some schemes, it's designated as a strong safety. The Titans are very multiple with their safeties, so I don't like calling it free safety and strong safety for the Titans necessarily because they're versatile and they kind of do both. But more often than not, they're going to have Kenny Vaccaro coming downhill trying

to put Kevin Byard or Amani Hooker going back because that's just what they're better at as players. So in this scenario, you need safeties who can play very well and kind of do a little bit of everything. And really, it's about covering those dominant tight ends. And because the NFL is in more three wide receiver packages now, safeties have to be like linebackers more than ever and come up and help and run defense. So the value of safeties in the modern NFL has gone up

and that's why right outside of the top five, the interior, the trenches, and then that secondary pass catcher, I'm going with safety. Right after that, that's where I would get to interior off-ball linebacker. That's where I'm at there. If you have a stud,

now I know Tampa just won with some freaks, but they had studs. Levante David's been one of the top five off-ball linebackers in the NFL for years. Devin White was a top five pick. I mean, he was a freak at LSU. So to me, it's not comparable. If you get an absolute specimen

at any of these positions, then of course you pay them. If you get a big time freak at safety, like Ed Reed, you don't just say, oh, well, you know, safety's kind of down the list, so I'm not paying.

If you get great players, you take them because it's a football team. And of course you need everyone. But in a vacuum, theory in practice I could survive without having my safeties be the highest paid guys on my team but I would have them above off-ball linebacker because of what they have to do against tight ends and playing against the run it takes a more versatile guy to do that then I have interior off-ball linebacker because like I was was saying, if you don't have one of those studs, then in my opinion, everybody is a little bit more in the group.

You know how you play quarterback in fantasy football in a regular PPR fantasy football league and you think, hey, I know Patrick Mahomes is nasty. You know, I know that he's going to put up a lot of points and he should probably be the number one quarterback taken, but I'm going to let somebody else draft him in the third round of the fantasy draft because I know that the quarterback position, you can get a lot more value by picking later and getting a guy at seven or eight

because of how bunched up they are together. In my opinion, outside of the top five off-ball linebackers, your Luke Keekleys back in the day, the Bobby Wagners, the Pete Werners, the Levante Davids, the Devin Whites. Darius Leonard is another great example as well. Outside of those guys who are just absolutely nasty, everybody else I think is close enough together. How much better is Rashawn Evans or Jayon Brown from David Long? Yeah, they're a little bit better here and there at stuff. Jayon's a little better at pass coverage. Rashawn's or Jayon Brown from David Long. Yeah, they're a little bit better here and there at stuff.

Jayon's a little better at pass coverage. Rashawn's a little more physical at the line of scrimmage. But, like, how big of a difference is it really? So, to me, Kyle Van Ooy and K.J. Wright at this moment in time are just in that. How much better is K.J. Wright going to be at this age than David Long or Devon J. Campbell in the Titans scheme? Yeah, he's going to be better, admittedly better, but for the money difference?

For the money difference, guys? No. I'm not paying $9.5 million, $10 million for Kyle Van Nooy. I would rather have David Long at his $1 million salary from being a fifth round, sixth round pick. You know, that's the whole point here. It's not just, yeah, of course K.J. Wright is better than David Long.

But for the money, the difference there is not enough for me. And that's why interior off-ball linebacker is so far down this list. Because I think the other parts of the defense, the cornerbacks, the pass rush, the defensive linemen in front of the linebackers the safeties behind I think all of that is much more important than that spot unless you have freaks which is

always the overriding factor and the caveat to all of this this is just in practice you know what I mean I would rather have my best five players be my top five and then have Jags for the other positions that's the whole point here but not all rosters are the same. Next after that, I have running back. I know that we have Derrick Henry on the team, and I love Derrick Henry. And with the Titans' current roster situation, they had to keep Derrick Henry around,

and they have to keep feeding him the ball and build the roster around him. That's just where they're at right now. That's the best path forward. But if we were starting from scratch and from the ground up, look at Leonard Fournette off the scrap heap. Ronald Jones, he's all right. Darryl Williams didn't even play.

They had Clyde Edwards, Hilaire, and Darryl Williams. Damian Williams didn't play. See, that's the point. Even more. San Francisco had Raheem Moster all of a sudden. They had Jarek McKinnon, Tevin Coleman, Jeff Wilson Jr. Buffalo had two young guys in their first and second year, Zach Moss, Devin Singletary.

The Ravens were better with a rookie in J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards than they were with Mark Ingram. Do we have to keep going? I mean, at some point we have to realize here that while the Titans situation is special, because again, they have an all-time freak. But normally, and for most teams, the value at running back is just you can plug in. I mean, look at the Dolphins. They had Miles Gaskins, Savan Ahmed.

I mean, we just have to be honest with ourselves here about what typically would be the case in a vacuum. And then finally for me, I know we talked about this a little bit with interior defensive line, but pure run stuffing nose tackle. Like just a pure run stuffing guy who only plays on first and second downs, maybe just first down. That's probably the least important. And so when people talk about guys like that, I'm not paying anything. I'm paying a vet minimum for a guy like that, quite frankly.

That's how I see it. But that's it. That's my roster philosophy. Those are the positions that I value over others. And in a vacuum, if I could build a team, that's where I would put the most talented players if I could order them and pick what position they would be in. So I had a great time going over that with you guys. If you disagree with me, if you want to tell me I'm wrong, if you want to agree, do that on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans. Let me know if you have a mailbag question based on what I just said. Let me know as well.

Put that in the Apple Reviews or again, ask me on Twitter at Tic Tac Titans. But that's going to do it for me today, folks. Now that you're done listening to this, check out the Locked On NFL National Show, their Thursday show, and catch up on all your national news. But that's going to do it for me today. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked On Titans. Thank you.