Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans MUST LEARN Philadelphia Eagles Roster Lesson, AJ Brown Was RIGHT & Time For 2025

Episode Date: February 10, 2025

The Tennessee Titans need to take notes after watching the Philadelphia Eagles demolish the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl and let that guide them when building their roster over the next few seasons. A quick lesson would be to draft Abdul Carter with the first pick. With the Eagles championship comes a championship for former Titans wide receiver AJ Brown. Brown left in the worst trade in Titans history, but this is also proof that time heals all wounds because watching Brown win wasn't all that painful for Titans fans. Finally, with the 2025 football season coming to a close, Tyler is glad to move on to the future and restore some hope. Subscribe to the TicTacTitans Film Channel:https://www.youtube.com/@TicTacTitans TicTacTitans Merchandise: https://dixons-dream.square.site/shop/tictactitans-gear/C3AAPNWXSXA6SBYG3USV2I7R?page=1&limit=30&sort_by=category_order&sort_order=asc Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitans Follow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPod Subscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/LockedOnTitans/videos Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply.PrizePicksDownload the app and use code lockedonnfl to win $50 instantly when you play $5. You don't even need to win to receive your $50 bonus, it's guaranteed! Prizepicks. Run Your Game.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFL FanDuelRight now, new FanDuel customers can get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in Bonus Bets if your first FIVE DOLLAR bet wins!Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.   FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

Titans need to learn from the Philadelphia Eagles and their own past and trade down in the NFL draft. I'll explain why on today's edition of Locked on Titans. 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 Ruhl, and Titans fans. On today's show, I'm going to tell you some lessons that the Tennessee Titans need to learn from the Philadelphia Eagles about building a roster,

talk about some drama recently with some former Tennessee Titans, including AJ Brown. And finally, I'll put a cap on this 2025 football season and talk about why I'm so excited to get into 2025. Before we dive into all of it, we do want to thank you for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen each and every day. Remember, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content all year round. Always for free You're not gonna beat that anywhere else. Make sure that you get subscribed stay subscribed It's your team every day here on the locked on Titans podcast speaking of every day

Shout out to my everydayers out there tuning in Monday through Friday If you aren't an everydayer you need to be one because there's tons of breaking news all all season long We got cap cuts free agency the draft and I break it all down like nobody else. Also tomorrow show, we're going to do a little veteran quarterback, veteran position player conversations about who to sign, who to trade, who makes sense for the Titans. So make sure that you don't miss that. But with that being said, do want to talk about some of the lessons that

need to be learned here for the Tennessee Titans after watching the Philadelphia Eagles absolutely dismantle the Kansas city chiefs in the Superbowl. And the number one lesson that I think the Tennessee Titans need to take from this is that they need to trade down in the NFL draft. Now, look, you guys know, and if you don't know, I've explained it a number of times. I'm going to explain it again. I prefer Abdul Carter. He is my number one player in the draft.

Travis Hunter would be my number two player in the draft. But if the Titans love one of the quarterbacks and go with the quarterback, I'm willing to give them a chance. I'm not for reference. I'm not going to act like I did after Tavon Dre Sweat got picked. If the Titans draft the quarterback, I'm willing to give them a chance. I'm not for reference. I'm not going to act like I did after Tavon Dre sweat got picked. If the Titans draft the quarterback, I get it. If they fall in love with one of the quarterbacks, I get it. And I'm down for the ride.

I'm down to support that quarterback and go, but here's the reality. Whether the Titans take Abdul Carter or they take a quarterback. They're not going to turn into a great team next year. That's not the reality. There's this argument going on online every day when I open my apps to post my shows, whether it be on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram or YouTube or TikTok or it doesn't matter. How are you going to win as many games as possible next year? What wins you more games next year?

A quarterback or pass rusher? Pass rushers don't win games. We, what the Eagles proved last night is that there is no firm answer. There's no blanket statement. You can't look at the quarterbacks and say if the Titans drop one of the quarterbacks, they're going to be great.

That's the best chance to go get wins. The Bengals have Joe Burrow. They didn't even make the playoffs. Patrick Mahomes is a better quarterback than Jalen Hurts. They didn't win. It's not all about the quarterback. You have to have other things. And I think the Chiefs proved that as well.

Patrick Mahomes is the best quarterback in the NFL and a top three quarterback of all time. But because the chief's roster was so mediocre around Patrick Mahomes on the offensive line, the weapons on offense, some of the spots on defense, because the roster around Patrick Mahomes wasn't good enough. They got demolished. Now on the other side, Philadelphia has

Jalen Hurts. Jalen Hurts isn't an elite quarterback. Jalen Hurts deserved Super Bowl MVP. He stepped up in the biggest moments. He played a great game. He deserved MVP for a player award, but the Eagles dominated that game because of their pass rush, because their front seven, their defensive line, the trenches, their O line, their D line dominated. So even though the chiefs had the better quarterback, the Eagles had the better football team and that can still win. And what I'm saying is the Eagles path to a Superbowl is the more realistic path for the Tennessee

Titans to take and the best way to build a roster as good as the Eagles have done is to trade down, trade down, collect more picks, get an additional first round pick next year. If the Tennessee Titans had multiple picks in the first round next year and added additional top 100 picks this year, that would be the best way to quickly talk about what quickly fixes the Titans. The best way to quickly fix the Tennessee Titans is not just to take a lottery scratch off on a quarterback. And then what you get the quarterback and he's good.

The rest of the team isn't good enough. You talk about taking the pass rusher. I want Abdul Carter number one for the Titans. That's the best player that they can take. But I would still tell you that if they could trade down and pass on Abdul Carter, then they probably need to do that too. Because like I said a couple of weeks ago, Abdul Carter is the best player in the draft in my opinion. But he's not a generational prospect.

He's not as good as Von Miller or miles Garrett were coming out of college. He's not that level of prospect. So the best thing for the Titans to do is to trade down. And if you don't want to look at the Philadelphia Eagles, who had the best running back in the NFL, top five wide receiver duo, top three offensive line, top three defense and a good quarterback. If you don't want to look at them. Okay.

That's fine. Look at the Tennessee Titans. When were the Tennessee Titans at their best over the last 10 years? It was 2019 and it was 2021 2019. You had Henry, you had a good offensive line, a great offensive line, a great offensive line with LaWan and they added Saffold and Ben Jones and Jack Conklin and Nate Davis. That was a great one of the top three offensive lines. You had the best running back in the NFL and look, AJ Brown and Corey Davis were not a top five duo, but we saw how good AJ Brown ended up being.

And Corey Davis went healthy is a good number two wide receiver. So the Titans still had a very good group of weapons there. They had Delaney Walker at the back end, but John who Smith was also turning into a pretty good player in his third year in the NFL. So you have a really good group of weapons, the best running back in the NFL, a top three offensive line, and then a good defense, a great defense. No, but a really good defense. And if I recall, they were very good in certain metrics that year that mattered. And then you go to 2021, really good offensive line, not as good as 2019, but a good offensive line, still have Derek Henry, AJ Brown and his peak powers. Julio Jones didn't get the

all the value that we thought Julio Jones could bring, but Julio Jones was still solid, especially when he played, especially in that playoff game, he did his job. But then you go to the defense and the defense was awesome. The best pass rush unit that we've seen from the Titans in over a decade with Jeffrey Simmons and Harold Landry and Danico Autry and Bud Dupree and Bud Dupree was incredibly overpaid. He was paid as the number one rusher on a team when he was the number four rusher on the team. But that's a great rush group right there. So whether it be the Eagles winning this Superbowl or whether it be the best versions of the Tennessee

Titans, it's the totality of the roster that made those things happen and go back. How did the Tennessee Titans build those rosters by trading down and John Robinson's first season as general manager. And the answer to that, that people say is, well, they had Marcus Mariota, so that made it possible. Marcus was not any better than the game. Marcus Mariota was not better than Sam Darnold as a free agent right now. So don't tell me that the quarterback made it different because Marcus was just an average starting NFL quarterback. So learn some lessons

from the Eagles and from your past trade down and stack picks. I do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by prize picks. Football season may be over, but basketball is in full swing and there is no better way to stay in the game than with prize picks, the best place for daily fantasy sports. With prize picks, you just pick more or less on at least two player projections. if you're right, you can win up to 1,000 times your cash this week. You can look at like Jason Tatum for more than 29 points. I would be looking at Luca Donchich for more than However many points they want to give him. I don't care. I'm taking more. Luke on the Lakers basketball is here. It's going to be great. And it's never better than on prize picks. Download the prize picks app today.

Use the code locked on NFL to get $50 instantly. After you play your first $5 lineup, that's code locked on NFL for $50 instantly. After you play your first $5 lineup, it's prize picks. Run your game. Titans fans. Let's continue today's edition of the locked on Titans podcast. We talked about the lessons that the Tennessee Titans need to learn from the Philadelphia Eagles. Again, I know that this is a bit of a hot take, but I think about 15 to 20 NFL starting quarterbacks could have won that game as the Eagles quarterback. Jalen Hurts deserves his credit. He stepped up and he did it. He did it. That's the difference. He actually did it. He got it done. He deserves his MVP But again, I still think 15 to 20 starting quarterbacks in the nfl

Could have won that game if they were on the eagles last night with how dominant they were in the trenches And especially on the defensive side of the ball. So my point remains build the roster, but I want to 50 years here because with aj brown winning a super bowl for the philadelphia eagles obviously it created a bit of An outcry from tennessee titans fans. Um a bit of a reaction obviously And he's not the only former titans to maybe upset some Titans fans in recent weeks.

So I'll get DeAndre Hopkins and Derrick Henry, but I want to start with AJ Brown. Two years ago, when AJ Brown was in the Super Bowl with the Eagles and they lost, I was desperately rooting for the Chiefs to win. I did not want AJ Brown to immediately get traded to the Eagles and win a Super Bowl. I did not want that to happen. I just don't look. I am not the Titans organization. I don't work for the team. I'm not employed by them. You know, like that is not me. I'm not in the building. I have no impact on the decisions they make. I'm an innocent the building. I have no impact on the decisions they make. I'm an innocent bystander here at the end of the day.

But even with that being true, as a fan, you feel the embarrassment of the organization and you get secondhand embarrassment from that. Don't lie. When the Titans do something stupid, when the Titans lose a game, when the Titans get smoked, when the Titans trade AJ Brown Bubble-Bloat when the Titans are getting you know, Lam Lam based it online or in the national media You feel that embarrassment too as a fan of the team you feel that okay So I did not want AJ Brown to win the Super Bowl two years ago and make the Titans look even dumber

Then they already looked it would have hurt too bad. It would have sucked. But I'll tell you watching that Super Bowl on Sunday night, I just felt different about it. I didn't feel hurt. I didn't feel embarrassed. And look at the end of the day, these feelings of hurt, embarrassment, frustration, those aren't things you can control. You don't get control when you feel embarrassed or when you don't. In your mind, you can tell yourself, well, I only feel embarrassed if I allow other people to make me feel embarrassed. That's true, but we're all human beings. And you trip and fall, walking up some stairs.

You know, when your toe hits the sidewalk, when the sidewalk's indented a little bit and you trip right in front of the school building and the girl that you have a crush on sees you? Yeah, in theory that doesn't mean anything. She's not going to not like you anymore because she saw you trip, but you're going to feel embarrassed. So that embarrassment is not 100% self-controlled. At the end of the day, it just hits us. It's like blushing.

You know what I mean? You can't always control whether you blush or not. It's just a reaction. My reaction, my emotional reaction to AJ Brown winning the Super Bowl wasn't what I thought it was going to be. I thought I was going to be more hurt. I thought I was going to be more embarrassed. I thought I was just to be more hurt. I thought I was going to be more embarrassed. I thought I was just going to feel more.

But at the end of the day, A.J. Brown has been with the Philadelphia Eagles for as long as he's been with the Titans. A.J. Brown is an eagle. There's no question about it. There's no debate or anything like that. There's no more pulling between two sides. And not only that, but the big thing is, is John Robinson was fired a while ago. It clearly was a stupid trade. One of the dumbest trades in NFL history. That is clear. That's obvious.

There's no more debate. There's no discussions. It's obvious. And the guy responsible for that stupid trade has been fired and let go and the organization acknowledged, Hey, that was just really, really stupid. So with the time that has passed, AJ Brown clearly being a Philadelphia Eagle for his career, John Robinson getting what he deserved for doing that to the fan base and the team. I guess I'm just not as upset as I thought I was going to be.

And you know, obviously there are going to be people who send the meme of the guy with the happy face mask and he's crying underneath. And I get that maybe that's how some people will take what I'm saying right now. But I'm being honest. I just really wasn't that bothered by it. He's not a Titan anymore. And it's been enough time where it just doesn't, I just don't feel that embarrassed by it at this point in time. It time heals all wounds at the end of the day.

Now, some people were mad at AJ Brown earlier in the week when they asked, he was asked during Superbowl media. What's the biggest difference between Tennessee and Philadelphia? I thought AJ Brown really took the high road with this one. He said opportunity. He didn't say, Oh, this is a way better organization. You know, everybody in the building's better. We've got a better quarterback.

We've got a better team. The GM's way better. Philly's a better city. This is a better fan base. It's a better team, better organ. He didn't do that. He said the big, the only difference is opportunity. And if you look, he's averaged 30 to 40 more targets a season in

Philadelphia than he got in Tennessee. So he's right. He got more opportunity in Philadelphia than he would have gotten in the offense under Mike Vrabel. He's right. I wasn't bothered by that. Some people were bothered by that and were like, Oh, he's hating on the Titans again. would have gotten in the offense under Mike Vrabel. He's right. I wasn't bothered by that. Some people were bothered by that and were like, oh, he's hating on the Titans again.

I thought AJ Brown took the high road. Didn't hate on the Titans. He could have hated on the Titans from top down and he didn't. He just said, Hey, they gave me more opportunities in Philadelphia. And he's right. Statistically, he's correct. And at the end of the day, AJ Brown made the right decision for himself He went he won a Super Bowl. He's got better stats and more money than he ever would have gotten, Tennessee

So I'm just not mad about that. I'm not upset about it I'm not so let me know how you guys feel down below Do you want to move to Deandre Hopkins and I gotta tell you guys if he didn't see on Twitter I put a bet on fan duel for Deandre Hopkins and AJ Brown to both score a touchdown in the game and I hit that bet I called it a Titans misery bet. But of course it hit but with Hopkins I Feel no embarrassment. I feel no disappointment Titans. Let Deandre Hopkins go. He's in the Super Bowl I feel zero embarrassment or hurt from watching Deandre Hopkins I feel zero embarrassment or hurt from watching DeAndre Hopkins. Again, that was a right move, not only for the Chiefs, but the Titans.

And they use Juju Smith, Schuster, more than they use DeAndre Hopkins during this playoff run. So in my opinion, the Titans got a great deal on DeAndre Hopkins. But he had a quote from earlier in the week where he said that playing for the Titans during this season almost made him question his love for football. He took himself out at the end of the Buffalo Bills game. But look, I'm not mad at Hopkins either. He's a veteran late in his career. He wouldn't want to be. Why would he want to be on the Titans for three and 14?

Why would he want to do that? And nobody is happy when you're losing like that. They got beat bad by the bills. They got destroyed by the Lions. It was devastation all year long. I don't expect DeAndre Hopkins to be happy. DeAndre Hopkins did the Titans a favor by taking himself out and making sure he didn't get hurt so that the next day when he went to Rancarth on and asked to be traded, the Titans could actually trade him. The Andre Hopkins situation worked out fine. He broke the curse last year and had a thousand yards as a veteran free agent. And then this year he got the Titans a draft pick back for a player that would have left and didn't help them anyways. Like, and then the Derek Henry thing is just

absolutely ridiculous. Derek Henry said he wants to retire a Raven and people freaked out. Number one, you don't retire as a team. Like you do in baseball's hall of fame. You just retire as a player in the NFL. You don't wear a hat or anything like that. It doesn't say Titans on the plat or anything like you don't retire as a team in the NFL. So that doesn't matter.

And two, all Derek Henry was saying is that he doesn't want to play for another team again. He wants to finish his career with the Ravens. He doesn't want to switch teams. He wasn't saying I'm a Baltimore Raven. When you think about Derek Henry, you think about the Baltimore Ravens. You can't change the fact that when you it's not like AJ Brown. When you think about Derek Henry, you're going to think about the Tennessee Titans. That's the truth. So he's not saying he wants to retire or Raven because he's a Raven, not a Titan. He's just saying he doesn't want to switch teams. And at the end of the day, when Derek Henry goes into the hall of fame, he is going to be known for his time with the Titans, not known for being a Baltimore Raven, so everybody just relax. But with that being said, I'm so ready to put this football season in the rear view and head to 2025.

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in bonus bets. Make every moment more with Fandool, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Titans fans, let's cap off today's edition of the locked on Titans podcast. We talked about lessons, the Tennessee Titans need to learn from the Philadelphia Eagles and their own past. We talked about some former Tennessee Titans, AJ Brown, Deandre Hopkins, Derek Henry and why I just feel like people overreact to be mad about some of

this stuff. I just don't get it. But what I want to do right now is kind of. Kind of want to put a pin, put a period on the 2024 football season. I say football season in totality, quite honestly, and I'll get to it, but more than anything, just want to put this Tennessee Titan season to rest. Like totally move on from the 2024 NFL football season. Because the reality is.

This was one of the worst football seasons of my entire life. This is one of the bottom three Tennessee Titans seasons of all time. And my thing is, it's not to me, this season sucked worse than 2014 or 2015. This season sucked worse. 2014 is definitely what I want to go with. And the reason for that is I thought the Titans were going to suck that year. I was convinced that they were going to be terrible. This year, I thought they would at least be competitive.

And maybe what you're saying is, well, Tyler, that's your fault. Your expectations were too high, but I had them winning like eight games. I thought there was a good chance they would win like six or seven. I didn't expect a ton and I was still so so let down for the Titans to And I was still so, so let down for the Titans to hire Brian Callahan, promote Randcarth on basically not technically, but basically sign Ridley sign, push trade for Steve, do all these things for the Titans to do all these things. The hype around will Levis think about about firing Mike Vrabel and how dumb the Titans looked for that.

And then going with Levis and Callie and for how terrible, I mean, like the plane didn't just crash. The plane hit into the side of a mountain and exploded and combusted in midair. Like it was an absolute disaster This just wasn't a plane crash. This was a tragedy What will levis and brian callahan did this year so to go from? firing Mike Vrabel and being publicly shamed for that to having all of the haters on the Titans proven right and all of us that had any belief in them proven wrong in an un-debatable way and then to come into the offseason and even if it was the

right move even if it was the right move to fire Rand Cawthon to choose Cawthon over Rabel to go with Levis and Callie and then to fire Rand a year later from Mike Vrabel's firing to the firing of Rand Carthon was the worst year in Tennessee Titans history. The worst man, the worst. And then you add in AJ Brown wins the Super Bowl. Derek Henry rushes for 1900 yards and has a great year with the Baltimore Ravens. It's just like every possible thing that could go wrong for the Titans went wrong this year except

really their draft class. Latham, Sweatt, Jarvis Brownlee Jr. looked pretty solid. Brownlee Jr. Looked pretty solid. Like there's the hope. But other than that, Yikes, man can't believe in lettuce. Hard to believe in Callahan. Hard to believe in the organization and Chad Brinker. Is Kush going to be healthy?

What are they going to do on the O line? Are they going to trade sit? Like there are just so many questions that things have failed so miserably in 2024 that I cannot wait to get to 2025 because at the end of the day, I have a hard time believing it could be worse. How could it possibly be worse? I just, you know, only place to go is up. So I can't wait for 20, and the reality is it's not even the Titan season I told you guys before My nephew started playing middle school football this year his team went 0 and 8 and got killed every game He's from a very very small school. They're totally outmatched. It's not really his fault He's actually one of the best players on the team

But anyways, and then I started covering high school football games this year I do the broadcasting for my local high school like the PA announcing for the games they went oh and ten Maybe the worst team in the history of the school So the team look I'm an Ohio State Buckeyes fan I'm from Ohio born and raised but the Ohio State Buckeyes do not impact my personal happiness anywhere near the way the Tennessee Titans do. So the Buckeyes won a championship and I'm happy that they won. I enjoyed it, but it's nowhere even close to my emotional attachment to the Titans or

like my Los Angeles Lakers. So with the middle school team that I watched my nephew's team going 0 and 8. The high school team that I cover for going 0 and 5 in the games I did, 0 and 10 overall. The Tennessee Titans going 3 and 14 and not just being bad, but being absolutely terrible when we thought they might be decent. By far the worst football season of my life. And now look, I do my dream job every day. I make a living and make really good money talking about NFL football for locked on Titans.

I got promoted to be the host of locked on NFL. My personal life is going great with my career and all of that. But I'd still would like my football teams to win some more games, right? Is that too much to ask? Can I have a good career going and my football team be decent please I'm begging you 2025 I'm begging you please be better to me than 2024's football season was but with that being said

that is going to do it for me today folks again tomorrow's show we are going to look at the veteran quarterback carousel but as always I am I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.