Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Affected by Tom Brady Retirement, QB Dominoes & Defensive Team Needs

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the Locked on Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, Tom Brady retired on Wednesday, and I'm going to tell you why it has a major impact on the Tennessee Titans offseason plans at quarterback. All of that and more on today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Let's get it. You are Lock locked on Titans,

Starting point is 00:00:28 your daily Tennessee Titans podcast, part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. Titans fans, Tom Brady, the GOAT, retired on Wednesday. And depending on what you wanted out of the Titans quarterback position this all season, it's going to have good or bad effects on how the Titans operate. We're going to discuss that also. An unnamed NFL executive tied the Tennessee Titans to a young quarterback in the NFL via trade. We'll talk about that rumor and how Tom Brady impacts that now. Also, day four of the Titans offseason roadmap week here on the Locked on Titans podcast. We're going to go through the Titans defense, talk about team needs and how they should

Starting point is 00:01:28 address those needs, whether it be draft, free agency, or both. Before we get into it, do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by PrizePix. PrizePix is daily fantasy made easy. You pick two to six players, and if they score more or less than their PrizePix projection, you can win up to 25 times your money on your entry. First-time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 when they use promo code LOCKEDON.

Starting point is 00:01:57 That's prizepix.com. Promo code LOCKEDON. Thank you guys for making the Locked On Titans podcast your first listen every day. Remember, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content all year round on all platforms and always free. Make sure that you get subscribed,

Starting point is 00:02:17 stay subscribed, and stay locked in to the Locked On Titans podcast. This is day four of the Titans off-season roadmap week here on the show. Day one, we talked about cut candidates. Day two, we talked about in-house free agents. Yesterday, we talked about offensive needs and the Titans' current salary cap situation. We are going to hit the defensive needs for the Titans at the end of the show tomorrow. Barring more breaking news, which I knew would happen throughout the week, we're going to hit a seven-round mock draft and talk about what the Titans' options are

Starting point is 00:02:49 from a full draft perspective. But we've got to dive in to this Tom Brady news and how it affects the Titans. Tom Brady retired, and first and foremost, he's the best player of all time. If you don't agree with that, I don't know what you're on. It's just reality. The numbers speak for itself. The guy had three Hall of Fame careers in one career, but it looks like now he is gone for good.

Starting point is 00:03:12 And this time I do believe him that he will stay retired. So the obvious impact to the Titans is Tom Brady's not going to be a Titan. Now, I know a lot of you guys hated that idea. Not something that I thought was likely, but hard to rule it out as a possibility entirely. But now we can do that. Tom Brady will not be coming to the Titans, whether it be for a big deal, a small deal,

Starting point is 00:03:36 friends with Mike Vrabel, doesn't matter. That's not an option. So that's the obvious one. But there are so many layers to this because not only is Tom Brady not an option for the Titans, but now he's not an option for San Francisco. Now he's not an option for the Las Vegas Raiders. Now he's not an option to go back to Tampa Bay, a team maybe like New Orleans, maybe thought they could get into that as well. Very doubtful. But teams like San Francisco,

Starting point is 00:04:04 where Tom Brady is from, a team like Vegas, which has Josh McDaniels as their head coach, didn't make a lot of sense for Tom Brady if he decided to move on. And now there's a huge vacancy at quarterback with Tampa Bay. The only quarterback they have on their roster now is Kyle Trask, a young player from Florida. And I don't know about you guys, but I'm not a big believer in Kyle Trask. So that leaves three open spots for quarterbacks, maybe two out of those three places combined with some other places like Washington and Carolina and the Jets and New Orleans. Like I mentioned, they're going to have quarterback openings.

Starting point is 00:04:41 So you could look at this as a good or bad thing, depending on how you feel. If you didn't want Tom Brady, then this is good. He's not an option for you. If you did want Tom Brady with the Titans, this is a bad thing. Also though, now that Tom Brady is not in those spots, and again, depending on what you want, this could be a good or bad thing for the Titans because now more teams will have open quarterback positions and that may in turn raise Ryan Tannehill's trade value. Now, like I said, good or bad. If you're somebody who wants Tannehill back in Tennessee no matter what and that's what you think is best, then this is maybe a bad thing for you because now Tannehill's trade value is going to be higher around the league with Tom Brady out of

Starting point is 00:05:30 the picture and there may be more likely of a chance the Titans trade Tannehill to one of those teams if you're somebody who you know wanted Tannehill gone no matter what you can view this as a good thing as well because now there is that higher chance that he could be traded. So it really depends on what you wanted out of the quarterback position. For me, I think this is a good thing because what I've said all along is I would like to see the Titans either trade up for a quarterback they believe in, go with Dobbs or go with Malik to set themselves up to draft a great quarterback next year in the draft. So to me, this increases the chance that not only Ryan Tannehill is traded,

Starting point is 00:06:17 but that you get better value for Ryan Tannehill now on a trade because the desperation level is going to go up for teams. So I see this Tom Brady retirement as a good thing for the Titans from that aspect. But again, depending on what you wanted to happen with the quarterback position, I can see how you can look at this as bad or good either way. But for me, a good thing, Ryan Tannehill's trade value just went up around the NFL. So we're going to dive into more trade talk because there was an unnamed NFL executive that tied the Titans to a certain young quarterback that we've talked about before

Starting point is 00:06:56 that the Titans would acquire via trade and the Tom Brady news impacts that as well. So we're going to dive into all of that. Before we do, I do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. FanDuel is the number one sportsbook in America. They are the official sportsbook partner of the NFL and the official sportsbook partner of the Locked On Podcast Network. FanDuel is the only app you need at your Super Bowl party.

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Starting point is 00:08:57 moment more with FanDuel, the official sportsbook partner of the NFL. Titans fans, we're going to continue today's show talking about this trade rumor that we got from an unnamed executive in the NFL that has to do with the Titans. Before we get into it, I do want to thank you guys again for making the Locked On Titans podcast your first listen every day. Remember, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content

Starting point is 00:09:35 all year round on all platforms and always free. But I do want to tell you guys about another free program that I think makes a lot of sense to dive into right now. Locked On is live at the Senior Bowl. Some of the best of the best hosts that Locked On has are down at the Senior Bowl breaking down everything you need to know from each day's practice. Their first podcast went up on the Locked On NFL Draft YouTube channel and the Locked On NFL Draft podcast feed on Tuesday night, breaking

Starting point is 00:10:05 down Tuesday's practice. They're going to have another show up on Wednesday night, another show up on Thursday night at 9 p.m. Eastern, breaking down the guys who had good days at practice, the guys who had bad days at practice, what all the buzz is around the senior bowl. I mean, if you're somebody who really likes to dive into the NFL Draft, even if you're not, you just want to be as informed as possible as a football fan. This program is great for you guys. So check out the Locked On NFL Draft podcast feed or YouTube channel

Starting point is 00:10:33 for a live breakdown every night at 9 p.m. Eastern on what happened at the Senior Bowl that day. Tuesday night's episode was fantastic. Wednesday night's episode was fantastic. Make sure you guys go back and check those out if you missed either of them. But diving in here, there was a report and it came from Mike Sando from The Athletic. And it was an unnamed executive that said this, quote, I think they will trade Trey Lance to Tennessee and then they will end up with Brady

Starting point is 00:11:09 and Brady will play one year for his home team and they will have Brock Purdy as backup. That is the chatter. Well, whoever said that was wrong because Tom Brady retired and not only that, but we learned on Wednesday Brock Purdy has to have Tommy John surgery and it's going to be out for an entire season. So I bring up all of this to say the Titans are not trading for Trey Lance. It's not going to happen. Kyle Shanahan

Starting point is 00:11:41 came out on Wednesday and said he does not expect Jimmy Garoppolo to be with the team. So if they're not going to have Jimmy Garoppolo back, if Tom Brady is retired and Brock Purdy's out for the year with Tommy John, who do they got left? Trey Lance. And with what they invested in Trey Lance to go up and get him in the top three, there's just no way in the world that they get another quarterback to play over Trey Lance. It just doesn't make any sense. Now, I said from the moment that Rand Carthon was hired and people started to piece this Trey Lance stuff together, Trey Lance had the crossed fingers emoji on the Instagram story. Since the moment that that happened, I have said it would be a disaster for the Titans to trade for Trey Lance.

Starting point is 00:12:32 Number one, he hasn't proven that he was worth that pick in the short amount of time that he's played. Number two, he's been injured already. Big injuries, little injuries, all of that. He's been injured already. Big injuries, little injuries, all of that. He's been banged up. Number three, you have already lost two years of rookie contract time, which the entire point I've been making the entire offseason has been the Titans need to get cheaper,

Starting point is 00:12:57 they need to get younger, and you do that through the draft. If you bring in Trey Lance, you get all of the risk of a rookie quarterback minus two years of the benefit of being able to develop him and two years of the rookie contract. So now even if Trey Lance is decent, you're going to have to pay him in two seasons. Where if you drafted a rookie quarterback, you get four or five seasons. So to me, it was always a bad move to trade for Trey Lance. I was never on board with that. But with this news that we got today, with Brady's retirement, Jimmy Garoppolo not being back, and Brock Purdy's injury,

Starting point is 00:13:42 the Trey Lance to the Titans trade rumors are dead. They are dead on arrival. DOA. It's over. But that's not the only quarterback news that I think is pretty interesting. We're starting to get some whispers here that Derek Carr

Starting point is 00:14:00 may just stay in Vegas. Maybe they don't want to release Derek Carr and they're going to hold on to him and maybe look for a trade closer to draft time. And here's why I think this is interesting. Because the Raiders have, they owe Derek Carr a big amount of money if he's on the team past February 15th, I believe is the date. So my thing is they can say, we're not going to cut him. We're going to keep him on the team. And then we're going to look to trade him later. But the big reason that everybody expected Derek Carr to be gone is

Starting point is 00:14:39 because of that money, that deadline for that money. The Raiders don't want to pay him that money. So to me, if now they're considering keeping him past that deadline for that money. The Raiders don't want to pay him that money. So to me, if now they're considering keeping him past that deadline, which means they got to pay him that money anyways, well, then you have cleared the hurdle that was the impetus for you wanting to make a move so quickly after the Super Bowl. So to me, if they're going to bite the bullet and give Derek Carr that money and hold him past the deadline to try to get a better trade, well, you've cleared the big hurdle, and there's a chance that Derek Carr may very well just stay in Vegas at that point.

Starting point is 00:15:16 So, if Carr is back in Vegas, how does that impact the Titans? Well, some people are saying that Vegas may be looking at a quarterback. Well, if Carr stays in Vegas, they probably won't be drafting a quarterback at number seven, which means they're probably going to take an offensive lineman,

Starting point is 00:15:44 which a lot of people are already mocking to the Raiders, which obviously could be detrimental to the Titans. But on the flip side, if Carr stays in Vegas, Trey Lance stays in San Francisco. Now, again, back to what we were saying in segment one. Carolina, Washington, Tampa Bay, New Orleans. There are still, and you could say the Jets,

Starting point is 00:16:14 but I just strongly believe that Aaron Rodgers is going to the Jets. Like, I really strongly believe that. So, if that's the case, strongly believe that. So, if that's the case, again, Ryan Tannehill's trade value is going up. Because that means that there's one less quarterback on the market for some of these needy teams. And if the Raiders were to draft a quarterback and trade Derek Carr, well now two quarterback spots

Starting point is 00:16:43 are filled that aren't Ryan Tannehill. So this, if you want Ryan Tannehill to stay, maybe this sounds like bad news to you. If you want Ryan Tannehill to go, this could be good news to you. Either way, a ton of quarterback news in the news cycle this last 24 hours. And depending on what you want from the Titans, you can see it as good or bad. But either way, no matter what you want to say, no matter what you want to happen, Ryan Tannehill's trade value went up on Wednesday, period. With all that news, Brock Purdy's injury, Tom Brady's retirement, the Derek Carr whispers, this is all Ryan Tannehill trade value going up noise, in my opinion.

Starting point is 00:17:23 all Ryan Tannehill trade value going up noise in my opinion. I still think, I still think Ryan Tannehill ends up back on the Titans. But again, this at least gives Rand Carthon and Mike Vrabel some more options, some teams that are more desperate and some more places and landing spots where Ryan Tannehill could go. But we're going to cap off the show talking about the defensive needs and whether the Titans should address them via the draft, free agency, or both. Before we get into that though, do want to let you know that today's episode is brought to you by PrizePix. PrizePix is daily fantasy made easy, guys. So here, let me break it down to you real quick. When you go on PrizePix, there's a projection for every player. Pat Mahomes,

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Starting point is 00:19:31 to sign up for an instant deposit match up to $100 at PricePix.com. Titans fans, we are going to cap off today's show with one of my favorite offseason games. Draft, free agency, or both. Yesterday, we went through the offense. Today, I'm going to go through the defense. And I'm going to be quite honest with you guys here. The defense is nowhere near as interesting as the offense. It's just the truth. The Titans have more needs on offense and more uncertainty on offense

Starting point is 00:20:17 than they do on defense. Quite honestly, the Titans' defense, if they could just stay healthy, is in a pretty decent spot. I mean, really, they are. All they really need to add is some depth pieces. There are a few key places where I think they could stand to add a good addition, but mostly the Titans defense is in an okay spot if they could, again, just stay healthy. But we're going to get into that. Before we do, thank you guys again for making the Locked on Titans podcast

Starting point is 00:20:44 your first listen every day. As for your second listen, check out Locked on NFL. There's so much national NFL news going on right now. You get your Titans news here with me every day. Get your NFL national news Monday through Friday free on all platforms all year round with the Locked on NFL podcast. It's a perfect pairing to start your day. I actually host the Thursday show of the Locked On NFL podcast.

Starting point is 00:21:10 So going over to the Locked On NFL YouTube channel or going over to the Locked On NFL podcast feed and click and subscribe also shows me a little bit of support as well. And of course, I greatly do appreciate it. Moving forward here, getting into draft, free agency, or both on defense, we got to start with the defensive line. And for me, it's a little bit of a cop-out, but I'm going to say free agency. But because of the free agents the Titans have in-house, the Titans need to bring back T. Air Tart as a restricted free agent. And I talked about that

Starting point is 00:21:44 on Tuesday's show, on the second episode of the week. So if you Tart as a restricted free agent. And I talked about that on Tuesday's show on the second episode of the week. So if you missed the in-house free agent episode, go back and check that out. We also talked about Demarcus Walker, who had a career year with the Titans. And again, Walker had a career year, but I think Walker needs to recognize that being within the Titans system and having Danico Autry and Jeffrey Simmons as guys on the D-line with them allowed him to have one-on-one matchups to have success. And now Harold Landry's coming back. Add that with Rashad Weaver.

Starting point is 00:22:14 I mean, Demarcus Walker needs to be in Tennessee to play his best football. And honestly, the Titans need Demarcus Walker as part of the rush package as well. So you bring back Demarcus Walker as part of the rush package as well. So you bring back Demarcus Walker, also Mario Edwards, another guy who, and look, every player on your team can't be a superstar. So are Demarcus Walker and Mario Edwards, are they pro bowlers? Are they superstars? Are they starters even?

Starting point is 00:22:41 No, no, they're not. But you need depth players on an NFL roster of 53 guys. Not every guy can be a starting level player. It's just not how this works. So, you bring back Tartt. You bring back Walker. You bring back Edwards. I think the defensive line is in a good spot.

Starting point is 00:23:01 I really do. With Autry and Simmons. I think that the Titans have had a ton of success in recent years with undrafted free agent interior defensive lineman. Go all the way back to 2019 with Isaiah Mack. Then Tart in 2020. Naquan Jones in 2021.

Starting point is 00:23:16 The Titans have been able to find guys in the undrafted free agent pool that can come in and contribute on the interior defensive line right away. So to me, that's the route to go. I don't think you waste a draft pick on the interior defensive line. I don't think that's the right thing to do. Okay? The Titans have found really, really solid options on the IDL. Late in the draft

Starting point is 00:23:39 or literally undrafted free agents. So with positional value, the Titans scouting history at that position and the lack of free agent dollars, you bring back these cheap in-house guys and you add maybe an undrafted free agent to the group and battle it out there. You still have some people on your futures contracts like Tyler Shelvin,

Starting point is 00:24:02 who the Titans just brought in on a futures contract on a training camp invite. I think that's a guy who could come in and contribute and be a depth player for the Titans. So don't waste a draft pick on interior defensive line unless you're getting a difference maker early on in the draft and they want to use pick 11 on that. I'm not attacking that position with the draft or doing anything big in free agency. Just bring back some of your in-house guys and take some chances on some undrafted free agents. At edge rusher, Harold Landry is the big free agent signing this year. He didn't play at all last year with the ACL. He's going to be back this year with the Titans. To me, cut and dry. You can't spend money on edge. You're going to be cutting Bud Dupree, elevating Rashad Weaver. I want the Titans to take another edge rusher in the draft. Third round, fourth round, fifth round, get another guy that can come in and contribute and be deaf like they did with Rashad Weaver.

Starting point is 00:24:57 So with Weaver, with Landry, Autry has the ability to play some edge. Mario Edwards and Demarcus Walker can kick out and be a hand in the dirt edge in some rush packages as well. I think when you have all that, if you draft a guy in the fourth or fifth round somewhere on day three, I think that would make a lot of sense to add some depth there. But I don't think the Titans have the ability to go out and pay an edge.

Starting point is 00:25:21 Big money in free agency. It always made sense coming into this offseason to cut Bud Dupree, elevate Rashad Weaver, and then add another edge in the draft to compete with Weaver and push him a little bit. And that's the group that you're rolling with with some of your IDL guys having the ability to kick out and play edge like Danico Autry, for example.

Starting point is 00:25:43 So draft for edge is the only answer for me. At linebacker, I've said this before and I'm saying it again. You bring back David Long, you add him with Monte Rice, Chance Campbell, Jack Gibbons, and I think maybe you even draft a linebacker in those late rounds. Fifth, sixth, seventh round, somewhere in there, the Titans are going to move around. So I know that they don't have a full complement of draft picks, but they're going to do some movement around. That's just the reality here.

Starting point is 00:26:12 So target somebody late. Think about Dre Greenlaw. I keep bringing it up. Rand Carthon was in charge of the late round drafting for San Francisco. Dre Greenlaw was one of the better linebackers in the NFL this year and was a late round draft pick. So go that route. With linebacker, off-ball linebacker,

Starting point is 00:26:31 you can find tremendous value late in the draft because people just don't value off-ball inside linebacker like they used to. So I think the Titans, if they want to add linebacker here, you got to do it through the draft. Maybe you add some low-end free agents for special teams depth. Maybe you bring Dylan Cole back on a super cheap deal and stuff like that.

Starting point is 00:26:53 Just special teams guys that are depth pieces. But I don't think the Titans need to go spend any kind of substantial money in free agency on a linebacker other than bringing David Long back. Attack that position in the draft because your new GM has proven he can find some really good players late in the draft at that position. In the secondary, safety. With Imani Hooker and Kevin Byard both on decent deals, I just don't think the Titans should sink any of their resources into safety. If you want to bring back some guys on really cheap free agent deals like Lonnie Johnson or A.J. Moore or something like that, just super cheap veteran minimum deals for, again, special teams depth,

Starting point is 00:27:38 then I understand that. But for me, I'm not doing anything in the draft. And if the Titans did want to have a better third safety this year, heck, bring Dane Crookshank back if possible. But a guy who could make a little bit of sense is Jabril Peppers. Peppers is a really good returner. He's a guy who's a box safety and he could play that dime package linebacker. He only made $2 million last year. So if you add a void year to his contract, you can get his cap hit around a million dollars. So instead of getting AJ Moore or instead of getting Lonnie Johnson, if you've got a guy like Jabril Peppers, who can also return kicks and is a playmaker attacking the ball and because of his physicality can play some dime linebacker.

Starting point is 00:28:24 If you finagle the contract right to keep his cap hit low,ity can play some dime linebacker. If you finagle the contract right to keep his cap hit low, that can make some sense at safety. Cornerback, cut and dry, draft somebody. I would be okay if the Titans drafted a cornerback at 11 if the offensive lineman got taken early. I'm fine with that.

Starting point is 00:28:39 But not putting any kind of free agent money into cornerback. And then kicker, you got Caleb Shuttick. Think about a guy like Moody out of Michigan. The Titans, if they want a new kicker, and I think they should really explore it, they got to find one of these young, cheap guys to bring in, whether it be a super late round draft pick like seventh round

Starting point is 00:29:01 or an undrafted free agency like they did with Caleb Shuttick last year before he got hurt. Go that avenue. Bring in some competition for Shudick. I think they should cut Randy Bullock. And I would consider the draft or at least undrafted free agency to add another kicker for competition reasons. That's going to do it for me today, folks. I'm going to be back with you guys tomorrow. We're going to do a for me today, folks. I'm going to be back with you guys tomorrow. We're going to do a seven-round mock draft barring some kind of crazy breaking news

Starting point is 00:29:29 like an offensive coordinator being hired or something like that. As I tell you guys all the time, this time of year, I live in fear constantly that I'm going to record the show and then breaking news is going to happen afterwards. So let's hope that doesn't happen.

Starting point is 00:29:41 And if the breaking news happens, let's hope it's on Thursday or on Friday. And I'll be here to break that all down with you guys. But that's going to do it for me today, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland. And this was Locked on Titans. you

Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Affected by Tom Brady Retirement, QB Dominoes & Defensive Team Needs

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