Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans 2021 Draft Recap: Pick by Pick Analysis, Reaction & Draft Grade!!

Episode Date: May 3, 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, this Monday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast is presented by Built Bar. Go to BuiltBar.com, use promo code LOCK15, and you'll get 15% off your next order of the best-tasting protein bars in the galaxy. The NFL draft is complete.

The Tennessee Titans go through all seven rounds and leave with eight new players. And what we're going to do on the show today is go pick by pick through the Tennessee Titans draft hall and explain what happened with that Titans selection whether they made the right pick or whether they missed manage that certain spot we'll go over all of that and then at the end of going through each individual pick I will give my final draft grade for the 2021 Titans draft. So excited to dive into my draft recap with you guys. And then we are going to talk about the undrafted free agents the Titans have added over the

last 48 hours. Because as we all know, when the draft ends and the seventh round ends, that doesn't mean that the work is done for these front offices. So we're going to go over every new player that the Titans have added over draft weekend on today's Locked on Titans podcast. Let's get it! Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to kick off today's show by going through the first four picks that the Titans made out of their eight in this weekend's NFL Draft. Before we dive into that conversation, just want to remind you guys or let you know if

this is your first day listening to the podcast. I'm going to be pumping out Monday through Friday daily Tennessee Titans content here on the Locked On Titans podcast. Not only during the season, but all year long. There's not another Titans content creator that can say that. So make sure that you follow the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream so you don't miss any of the episodes that I have planned coming up here in the future. We are going to continue evaluating the Tennessee Titans roster, their needs, what's available in free agency throughout the week.

Also going to get into some player breakdowns and some film breakdowns over the newly drafted rookies. So make sure that not only you stay locked into the Locked on Titans podcast by following on whatever platform you do stream, but follow me on social media for those video breakdowns as well, on Twitter at TicTacTitans, and on Facebook at LockedOnTitansPod. But the number one pick that the Titans made was on Thursday night in the first round, pick number 22, cornerback Caleb Farley out of Virginia Tech. Six foot two speed, sir.

It's hard to find a guy that speed at that size. He's got incredible coverage instincts, great recovery speed, needs to work on his physicality a little bit. And then ultimately, of course, we have talked a lot about the back injury and how that will affect him long term. We're going to dive more into that when we do a player profile later on Caleb Farley and spend a whole episode talking about him. But for this moment in time, we know what we need to know.

It's hard to find a guy as talented as Caleb Farley, a top 10 talent, as far down as pick 22. So even though there are back concerns there that we do have to watch, the Titans will have a hard time being as good of a team as they are and finding players as talented as Caleb Farley in the first round. So a good risk for John Robinson there, in my opinion. Pick number 22. So things got a little squirrely here. The Titans, we knew we're looking at Elijah Moore, wide receiver out of Ole Miss. We knew that the Titans had some interest in off-ball linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koromoa. So we were watching those names.

And I thought on day two, the Titans sat at pick number 53. I thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and jump up a couple of picks, put some picks together, trade up, and get a value target. The Jets took calls on pick 34, but apparently the price was never good enough for them to leave. So they went ahead and picked a big fan favorite for the Titans, and that's Elijah Moore. Can't really kill the Titans for that. Jumping up nearly 20 picks.

That would have been incredibly expensive for them. But there were some other trade partners the Titans could have looked at, like the Atlanta Falcons at 35, and they ended up making a trade with Denver for that pick. The Panthers at pick 39, the 49ers at 43, the Lions at 41, and coincidentally, three out of those four people who I identified on Thursday night that the Titans could trade up with, three out of those four teams did end up making a move. So the Titans do end up sticking and picking at 53

with Jeremiah Owusu-Koromoa going one pick ahead of them. I do believe if he was there, he would have been the Titans pick. But either way, they end up with offensive tackle Dylan Radins out of North Dakota State. There's obviously concerns with Radins that he played at North Dakota State and the competition level wasn't that great. Of course, he's going to manhandle people.

But also there is some concern he's a taller guy at six foot five and doesn't have a ton of weight, so he needs to put on some weight and add some strength. But overall, he is a big-bodied, athletic, nasty competitor on the offensive line. And I know that some people are upset because of the Isaiah Wilson pick, but the Titans had to get a young offensive tackle that could start for them to balance out how much money they have on the left side of the offensive line. You can't pay a Jack Conklin, a Dennis Kelly, and have Taylor LeJuan, Roger Saffel, and Ben Jones making that money. It just doesn't work from a roster building standpoint. So I really like the pick of Radins. I think once he adds a little bit of weight onto his frame, he is a perfect fit for the Titans

outside zone running scheme. The next pick for the Titans is where things go off the rails. So you start taking a look at what happens on the board. Terrence Marshall Jr. goes at 59. Pat Friermuth goes at 55, looking at pass catchers. Then this was a devastating stretch for the Titans, who sat at pick number 85. 81, tight end Hunter Long. 82, wide receiver Diemi Brown. 83, tight end Tommy Tremble. The Titans were going to pick one of those three players, guys.

And what they did was they sat on their hands. They didn't make a move up the board. They got complacent with being at 85 and thought, hey, we like about three of these dudes. One of them will fall to us. And they didn't. And what happened was the Titans got in scramble mode. They were like, dang, we don't have any of those three guys that we really, really wanted available to us. I guess we'll trade down. So the Titans pick up pick 135 from the Packers to go from 85 to 92. The Packers come up to 85 and take wide receiver Amari Rogers out of Clemson, who I think would have been a great fit for the Titans. So not only do the Titans trade out after missing on three

obvious targets that they had, two tight ends and a wide receiver, they get lazy and complacent and don't trade up and make a move to make sure they can secure one of those guys. Then they have to trade down with the Packers and let the Packers come up and take Rogers. So clearly they didn't like Amari Rogers, but that's confusing to me.

And then at pick 29, they take a linebacker who they probably could have gotten 30 picks later at 126 in Monte Rice. Now, I don't want to hate on Monte Rice, the linebacker out of Georgia, 6'1", but the reality is, like I said, the Titans could have gotten him later in the draft. And I say that, but I don't know that for sure,

but that's my read based on his projection and a lot of the different things that I have followed in the draft. And I say that, but I don't know that for sure. But that's my read based on his projection and a lot of the different things that I have followed throughout the draft process. But it's just obvious to me that the Titans missed out on targets that made sense from a pass catcher standpoint. And then they traded down to try to get some more draft picks and took a guy who, if you watch The Call,

where the Titans call this player to tell them they're going to be a Titan, it obvious that Mike Vrabel's guy was Monty Rice they talked about the individual meetings that they had together how things were were going around basically the vibe around the meeting I encourage you guys to go watch that video on Titans YouTube you will understand what I mean when I tell you it was a Mike Vrabel pick. In my mind, what happened here was pick 85, the Titans messed up, didn't trade up, missed out on all the good pass catching targets that really could have helped the team. Then they traded down to try to save face and do the best they could with the situation. And then they're like, oh, well, you know, we don't really like

any of the guys available at pass catcher and we missed on all the players that made sense from a value perspective. So Mike, just take your favorite prospect in the draft. Now I'm not going to kill inside linebacker completely. Rashawn Evans probably won't be here next year. Jayon Brown probably won't be here after this year. David Long, can we really count on David Long full time? I don't know. So replenishing that position, I get that. I wanted depth at off ball inside linebacker. But just the way that the situation went down with the Titans missing on Hunter Long, Daimi Brown, and Tommy Tremble right before their pick and then skipping out on Amari Rogers and trading down even further to 92 just to take Monte Rice who is a sideline to sideline physical linebacker who can help in the run game but struggles in coverage

he's basically Rashawn Evans without the blitzing ability and at a lower value so I don't hate it but what I really hate is the Titans sat on their hands and got complacent and didn't move up from pick 85 to say 78 to 80 to make sure they secured a pass catcher that could actually make a difference on the 2021 Tennessee Titans and then with pick 100 the Titans sat and picked and they took defensive back Elijah Molden out of Washington. Don't hate this pick whatsoever. Elijah Molden can play slot cornerback. He can maybe transition to safety at the next level. He's an incredibly instinctive guy. He's a smaller guy at 5'10", but he's got great instincts, great ball skills. He really understands how to read route combinations and read what the offense is doing. He's a very savvy mental player, very reliable tackler, but he doesn't have explosive athleticism. He is smaller

at five foot nine, five foot 10. He's not really a guy who's going to be able to play man coverage full time. He's like a baby Logan Ryan style player. And Molden is a guy who just based on all the traits I read about his instincts and his mental makeup, he's probably going to be a very good contributor for the Titans. But it's confusing to me that the Titans have told us all year long, all offseason long, that they're transitioning into a press man, heavy blitz style defense, and they're getting away from the Dean Pease, zone scheme, Logan Ryan style slot cornerbacks. They told us through the offseason they're getting away from that.

So the fact that they take Molden, I like Molden as a player. I think he's going to contribute, but he doesn't really fit schematically with what the Titans have been telling us they're transitioning to. And if you watch that phone call video like I talked about with Monte Rice, John Robinson is pumping his fist while Mike Vrabel talks to Elijah Molden. Here's what happened. The Titans missed out on all the good pass catchers in the early 80s. They trade back to 92. Mike Vrabel, you take your favorite guy in the draft, Mike. John Robinson even said Elijah Molden was his favorite interview in the entire process. John Robinson gets his favorite guy. Mike Vrabel gets

his favorite guy, and they move on feeling good about it, even though they sat on their hands and missed out on a value pass catcher that actually could have helped the team. So that's the first four picks. We're going to get into the Titans' second four picks in the draft. But before we do, Titans fans, listen up. Nugenix, the number one selling free testosterone booster at GNC, is offering a complimentary bottle to all football fans in America.

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They are literally going to let you sign up for free and get free money when you use promo code LOCKEDON at BetOnline.ag. BetOnline, your online sportsbook experts. We are going to continue the 2021 Locked on Titans NFL Draft Recap. We just got done talking about the Titans' first four picks, cornerback Caleb Farley, offensive tackle Dylan Radins, linebacker Monte Rice, and defensive back Elijah Molden.

We are going to move into the Titans' next four picks. And I say four picks, but the Titans went into day three with six picks due to their tradeback with the Packers. They had pick 126, pick 135, pick 166, pick 205, pick 215, and pick 232. Now, the draft kicked off, and all of us collectively were talking about the fact that the Titans had to add a pass catcher of some kind here. What is going on?

And here's my view. I have been pushing all along throughout the offseason, I'm okay with the Titans losing Jono Smith. I'm okay with the Titans losing Jono Smith. I'm okay with the Titans losing Corey Davis. But only if they spend a relatively high pick on a pass catcher. Because my whole point was, you

can get a rookie wide receiver in the first or second round, maybe even early third round, who can actually contribute on day one and help you in a way to help you replace the compensation for Corey Davis at a much reduced price. But the Titans didn't do that. In my opinion, they didn't.

And one of the reasons they didn't is because I absolutely hate, I hate the move that they made to start out day three. The Titans take pick 126, pick 166, and pick 232. Half of the picks that they have in day three. Half. And they trade up to pick 109

for wide receiver Des Fitzpatrick from Louisville. Des Fitzpatrick is 6'1". He's got some decent athleticism to him. But he's an older prospect. He's already 23 years old. And he has major deficiencies in the timing and pacing of his route running.

In his footwork on releasing on press man coverage at the line of scrimmage. He's a guy who's got great body control. He really adjusts to the football well. If it's a bad throw and he's got to contort his body, jump in the air, change the way he was running, switch shoulders, all that, he's good with that body coordination, that body control, and adjusting to the football on a bad throw.

He played with Lamar Jackson early in his college career. He had some bad quarterback play after that, so his numbers are down. They don't look great, but I'm not blaming him entirely for that. And having a guy who isn't a complete accurate thrower for most of his college career has helped him develop that body control. But, like I said, 23 years old, an older prospect. Are we really going to bank on a guy who's already 23 to develop as much as he needs to to be a contributing player?

And he's got drop issues. He's got decent hands. But over the intermediate, like I said, he's good at adjusting to bad throws. But when throws are just on target and should just be easy catches, all he's got to do is focus, catch the ball, and go. He has some drop issues that you would like to see cleaned up. Now he does add some yards after the catch ability, which does fit in the Titans offense.

But at pick 109, trading up, Amon Ross St. Brown was on the board. Tylan Wallace was on the board. Heck, even outside of wide receiver, edge rushers Chris Rumpf and Jordan Smith from UAB were on the board. Interior defensive lineman Tyler Shelvin was on the board I just don't understand how you pass on Amari Rogers

you pass on Amon Ross St. Brown and you trade half of your picks to move up for Des Fitzpatrick who I can't watch the amount of film that some of the quote unquote scouts watch in the pre-draft process. I just simply don't have the time to do that. I rely heavily on some tape work and then the scouting reports of people I trust.

And one of those was Dane Brugler, who puts out The Beast every year with over 350 prospects that he's watched in depth. He had Des Fitzpatrick ranked 34th out of the wide receivers in this class. Then, pro football focus, they ranked 44 wide receivers this year in their draft guide. Des Fitzpatrick wasn't one of them. It's hard to find a scouting report that doesn't consider him a 6th round, 7th round pick. So I just don't get it.

Not only do I not get the Des Fitzpatrick pick at 109, trading half of your day 3 draft picks to move up and get him while Amon Ross, St. Brown, and Tylan Wallace were on the board? What? What? Honestly, you could have taken Amari Rogers at pick 85 and then traded up to 109 and probably got Monty Rice still. So just a despicable move by John Robinson. Makes zero sense whatsoever. Terrible value on the pick.

A player I'm not high on whatsoever. And a trade where you lose half your draft capital at the time to do it. Just makes zero sense at all. I wish I could make it positive for you guys, but I just don't see the positivity here. Now, John Robinson really saved things for me with his next pick at pick 135. He took Rashad Weaver, the edge rusher, out of pit. And I really love Weaver. This is an absolute steal for the Titans.

6'4", 260 pounds. He's got incredibly long arms. He is a powerful physical guy. He's great with his rush combination. So Rashad Weaver is a guy who worked with the pass rushing coach for Aaron Donald. And if you've ever seen those viral videos of workouts of Aaron Donald where the trainer has knives in his hand and he's doing handwork drills. It's basically like martial arts. He's trying to knock away the knife from hitting him with his hands and that handwork translates directly to playing on the defensive line and trying to knock the hands away of an offensive lineman. Now the knives are made of rubber so it's not too extreme but Rashad Weaver trains with the same guy as Aaron Donald and does those knives

workouts as well and works on his martial arts skills so he's great with hand technique and he's translated that at the college level into being fantastic with rush combinations so think about when you're playing like a fighting game on video games and you go aab and that's a punch punch uppercut and then you combo that with aab ccc bbb l1 l1 boom and now it'sunch uppercut. And then you combo that with A-A-B, C-C-C, B-B-B, L-1-L-1, boom. And now it's an uppercut with a leg kick that sweeps your defender off their feet. Or the guy you're going against. Rashad Weaver is fantastic at putting those combinations together. So you come in with a swim move.

The defensive lineman hits your side. You take a cross chop and cross his hands and combo that together. So it's not just one pass move. Oh, I'm doing a spin move. lineman hits your side, you take a cross chop and cross his hands and combo that together. So it's not just one pass move. Oh, I'm doing a spin move. You do the spin move. It doesn't work. And you combo that with other moves to continue rushing the quarterback. Weaver's great with that. Now he's not an incredibly twitched up athlete. He doesn't have great bursts, great explosion, anything like that. You're getting him later in the draft and he's 24 years old as well. So again, back-to-back prospects, they're not going to develop that much. They're going to develop some,

but their older prospects are getting close to being what they are as a player. But what Weaver is as a player is a guy who can contribute immediately as a rotation player for the Titans in their pass rush rotation. And quite honestly, at 260 pounds, if Rashad Weaver put on about 20 pounds of weight,

he could probably transition and maybe even be a replacement long-term for Danico Autry. So for as much as I hated what the Titans did at 109 picking up Fitzpatrick, I love what they did at 135 with Rashad Weaver. Now, we are going to continue talking about the rest of the draft call for the Titans, give my final grade on the draft, Best of the draft haul for the Titans. Give my final grade on the draft. And we are going to move into the undrafted free agents the Titans have brought in.

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I just like to eat the Bilt Bars as a candy bar because they're so delicious. If you want to check out the best-tasting protein, go to BuiltBar.com today. Use promo code LOCKED15 and you'll get 15% off your next order. Once again, that's promo code LOCKED15 for 15% off at BuiltBar.com. We have recapped the first six picks the Tennessee Titans made. They were cornerback Caleb Farley from Virginia Tech, offensive tackle Dylan Radins from North Dakota State, linebacker Monte Rice out of Georgia, defensive back Elijah Molden out of Washington. Wide receiver Des Fitzpatrick

out of Louisville. And then edge rusher Rashad Weaver out of Pittsburgh. The last two picks that the Titans made here, I'm not going to spend a ton of time on them because the reality is, in my mind, these guys are just special teams players and that's truly it just just guys who are going to compete for a special team spot on the Titans roster and those players are pick 205 Racy McMath a really sweet name though quite frankly at the end of the day Racy McMath that is a wide receiver out of LSU he's six foot two he's got decent straight line. Doesn't have a lot of feel for the wide receiver position though. Not a lot of natural instincts. He's only had 33 catches, 522 yards, and four touchdowns in three years. Now he played behind some really talented wide receivers at LSU

that's been well documented. Chamar Chase, Justin Jefferson, Terrence Marshall as well. But isn't that alarming to you guys? He had to play behind a bunch of guys who are younger than him his entire career? Doesn't sound like a guy who's going to be able to contribute at the NFL level if you can't get on the field at LSU. So I don't really see Rayce McMath as any help whatsoever to the wide receiver position, but he is a great special teams player. He was one of the best special teams players in college football, bar none.

He's going to be an immediate help on that special teams unit. Now, will he make the roster? I'm skeptical. I'm dubious. But he is going to be a special teams guy. The Titans clearly trying to improve the special teams unit on this team. Maybe Ray C. McMath can help the Titans there. But I got to be honest with you.

Don't see any help whatsoever to the wide receiver position. Might as well call Ray C. McMath a special teamer. Next, same thing. Brady Breeze, safety out of Oregon. Just a pure special teamer at pick 215. Brady Brees does not have the athleticism or the instincts to be able to contribute on the defensive side of the ball. Quite frankly, Elijah Molden is, if you're looking for some depth at the safety position,

I think you're more likely going to get that from Elijah Molden than you're going to get that from Brady Brees. Although Brady Brees has a sweet name, he's just a special teams roster bubble candidate. He's not going to help on defense at all. So the Titans just used their last two picks to try to bolster the special teams unit because they probably didn't like what they had on the board. But either way, looking at that with the picks that they had, I got to give this a C for the Titans I mean I like to pick a Caleb Farley but man that's major risk with the back injury I do like to pick a Dylan Radins in the second round don't have anything to say about that but what happened in the mid rounds for the Titans

missing out on Hunter Long Tommy Tremble Daimi Brown multiple one after one after one right in front of you not using any of those nine picks that you had to move up from 85 to the 70s. You're going to give up three picks to go from 126 to 109 to get Des Fitzpatrick, but you're not going to use a couple of picks to go from 85 to 80, 85 to 79, 85 to 78, to make sure you get an actual pass catcher who might be able to help the 2021 Titans? I'm just entirely disappointed by that.

Not that I hate Monte Rice as a player at 92, but he's just an innocent bystander and just a terrible mismanagement of the board by the Tennessee Titans. John Robinson completely dropped the ball in terms of navigating the draft board. With that 85th pick, he blew it. He just absolutely blew it. And then they panicked, they traded back,

and they just took their favorite guys during the draft process earlier than needed to be. So I like the Elijah Molden pick, though. I think he's going to be able to help the Titans I know that it's a it's a kind of a bipolar scheme situation as I explained but I like the pick of Elijah Molden as well so Farley I like but a lot of risk love Raidens hate what happened with pick 85 down to 92 not Monty Rice's fault but but just hate the situation. Elijah Molden, okay, I can deal with that. Absolutely hate what the Titans did, jumping up from 126 to 109 for a guy who wouldn't have

been taken until the sixth round in Dez Fitzpatrick. Love the Rashad Weaver pick, though. When I do my NFL draft superlatives tomorrow, I'm going to talk a lot about the Rashad Weaver pick. I really like that pick. And then the last two picks are just special teamers who probably won't even make the roster. So I'm not going to give the Titans negative remarks on that. That's just dark throws. Who cares? But for the picks that do matter to me, the first six picks of the draft, it's a C, man. It's a C. Some upside, but just not very happy with how the Titans navigated the boards in the middle rounds, quite frankly. Just think they did a really poor job.

I know a lot of people don't like to hear that. Most people want positivity and optimism. Why is this player going to be great for the Titans, be a mid-round steal? But as you guys know, I keep it 100 with you guys. I always tell you exactly how I feel and I'm going to give the Titans a C for this draft and I couch that by saying draft grades don't matter at all. They really don't matter at all. My evaluation of the picks two days afterwards is not the be all end all. A lot of these guys could surprise us. Monty Rice could turn into one of the best linebackers

the Titans have ever had and that's what I'm hoping for. I hope that I'm wrong but based on my evaluation of players, based on my valuation of the board and how many picks the Titans had and what I expected them to do in this draft, didn't see enough aggressiveness and the Titans left this draft with zero help at pass catcher. Not a single player who is going to contribute pass catching wise for the Titans in a meaningful way in 2021 and to me that is a colossal failure and negligence by John Robinson so a C overall for the Titans draft I spent a lot of time talking about the Titans draft picks here I'm going to talk about the undrafted free agents in tomorrow's show those are still rolling into so there will be a couple more names added to the Titans

list by the time we actually discuss that. But that's going to do it for me today. Hey guys, go check out the Locked On Today podcast on whatever platform you do stream. You get all your Tennessee Titans news here with me, but get all of your major sports news in under 20 minutes every day

by checking out the Locked On Today podcast on the Odyssey app or whatever platform you do stream. But that's going to do it for me today. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked On Titans. you