Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Roster LOCKS on Offense, Will Titans Carry 3 QBs & Wide Receiver Numbers Issue

Episode Date: May 21, 2023

The Tennessee Titans are beginning their organized team activities for the summer and it is important to know just how many spots are actually available to be had on the roster. Tyler dives into his offensive roster locks. Will the Titans keep three quarterbacks? Which WRs should we expect to make the team? How many offensive line spots are even open? Tyler answers all of that and more on today's Locked On Titans podcast!Follow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPodSubscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/LockedOnTitans/videosSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.FanDuelMake Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.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) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I have 17 players on the offensive side of the ball as roster locks for the Titans. I'll tell you who they are and why I chose them on today's edition of the Locked On Titans Podcast. Let's get it! 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 today's show, I'm getting you ready for the summer OTA sessions by going over my roster locks. We're going to look at the offensive side of the ball. I have 17 players as locks to make the Titans roster. We're going to go through all of them. Before we do, I want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, the official sportsbook of the NFL. Make every moment more.

Visit FanDuel.com slash locked on to get started today. Also want to thank you guys for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen every day. Remember Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content on YouTube and your favorite podcast platform all year round and always for free. Make sure that you get subscribed,

stay subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast where it's your team every day. And of course, shout out to my everydayers who are tuning into the show five times a week. I got a lot of great content coming up for you guys tomorrow's show. We are going to do the defensive roster lock. So I'll go through every position there. And then on Tuesday, we have an open Titans OTA to the media. I'm going to be breaking down everything you need to know from that.

A lot more content coming throughout the week as well. So stay locked in to the Locked on Titans podcast Monday through Friday. But moving right into my roster locks, what I want to say first is there are going to be 53 spots available on the roster. With my locks on offense and defense, I have 33 of those spots already taken. So let me know down below in the comments who you think is a roster lock, who you think maybe I was wrong about being a roster lock. Let me know your guys' thoughts down below or tag me on Twitter at TicTacTitans. But we're going to start with the quarterback and the running back position. And listen, starting with quarterback,

most of the time throughout the John Robinson tenure with Mike Vrabel, at least, we will say that. Obviously, new general manager now, coming from San Francisco where they had a lot of quarterback problems. So someone from San Francisco like Rand Carthon is maybe more partial to having three quarterbacks on the roster thinking injuries happen and you want to keep guys around. But throughout Mike Vrabel's tenure, he has kept two quarterbacks on the roster.

Now, a trade could happen at any moment, guys. I'm not expecting it to happen. I don't think it's likely to happen, but the Titans could trade Tannehill. They could trade Henry. They could trade for a wide receiver. They could make any trade realistically, and that would change maybe the calculation

of the roster locks, but to me, you look at quarterback. The Titans are keeping two players. They're going to keep Ryan Tannehill, who's going to be the starter, and they're going to keep Will Levis, and look, I've had this conversation, and I'll keep it brief. Is it fair to Malik Willis that he's probably going to be cut from the team?

No. He probably needed more development time than the Titans can give him. But in my opinion, Malik Willis needs more development time than any team in the NFL has. And even if you gave Malik Willis ideal development situations, great OC, great offensive line, great wide receivers, good development team with the position coaches,

all that, and two or three seasons of development time to sit on the bench. If you gave Malik Willis all of that, I'm still not convinced that he would be an NFL starter. And in my opinion, and I said this before the Dallas Cowboys game last year, Mike Frabel gave up on Malik Willis then

and put in Josh Dobbs. He was done. He's never believing in Malik Willis ever again. And I think we got even more evidence of that fact when they drafted Will Levis and traded up to go get him. We're rumored to try to be traders, people who are trying to trade up into the bottom of the first round to go get Will Levis.

That's how much they believed in him. So, I'm sorry. There's just not room on the team for two development quarterbacks. There's just not. You don't have enough room on your roster. The Titans have needs elsewhere. So to me, there are two locks at quarterback, and it's Tannehill

and it's Levis. If Tannehill is traded, if Tannehill is cut and Levis performs so well that they want to go with Levis as the starter, don't think that's going to happen. But if that does happen, then in my opinion, you can't have Will Levis and Malik Willis as your two quarterbacks.

The whole entire idea of Malik Willis is to develop him into a starter. If you're not developing him into a starter, there's just no reason to have him on the roster because he's not, as we saw last year, and as will probably be the case this year, Mike Vrabel does not believe in Malik Willis to go out there and get the team a victory if he needs to. So if the Titans do, which I'm not expecting, cut Tannehill, go with Levis, then they need to go get a veteran backup quarterback to

come in and be that second quarterback, okay? And personally, although I'm not very high on Malik Willis' chances right now, when the Titans cut him, they're not going to get him back on the practice squad. Some other team in the NFL is going to, oh, we're going to pick up Willis and see what he's got. A team who maybe has a better long-term situation at quarterback and kind of just have some fun, just a development project. Like you would go get a nice old car that you want to remodel. You know what I mean?

Something like that. So to me, that's simple. At running back, Derrick Henry, of course. Tajay Spears just got drafted. They ain't cutting him unless something bad happens, which I don't see happening. And then Hassan Haskins. To me, those are the only three locks at running back.

After that, Chestnut, Jonathan Ward, whoever you want to bring. McClelland, any of the undrafted free agents. Maybe, but the only locks to make the roster that I know for certain are Henry, Spears, and Haskins. And look, Derrick Henry, we don't got to spend a lot of time talking

there. Sure, it's Derrick Henry. He's making the team, if he's not traded. But I don't see that happening right now. Spears, compliment back, potential lead back in a committee in the future years. He's making it. Haskins. We got to have a bigger conversation about Haskins eventually. But look, in my opinion, based on what I saw last year, Haskins is not a guy you want to give the ball to. He doesn't have the talent to run the ball. He's a downhill hammer who doesn't have any wiggle,

doesn't give you anything on the outsides. But, and some people will call the Haskins pick a bad pick now based on what I'm about to say, but I don't think that's the case. Haskins is a really good pass protector on third downs. He is a really, really good special teams player. And maybe you don't want that with your fourth pick, the fourth round pick in the draft, but as your third running back to have great,

I mean, Haskins led the Titans in special teams tackles last year, for sure off the top of my head. So if you have a fantastic special teams player who you can trust as a pass protector on third downs, special teams player who you could trust as a pass protector on third downs. I think Haskins is a great third running back on the depth chart. So those are the only three running backs that I think are even anywhere close to being a lock to make this roster. But I'll take Levis and Tannehill at quarterback,

Henry Spears and Haskins at running back as my five locks in the backfield. So we're going to get to the pass catchers now, which is a very, very interesting conversation. Before we get into it, though, I do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Look, sad times. My Lakers are going to get swept.

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That's FanDuel.com slash locked on. FanDuel, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. Titans fans, we are going to continue breaking down who is a lock to make the Titans roster. We have talked about quarterback and running back. We're going to move to wide receiver and tight end. Before we get into it, I want to thank you guys again for making the Locked on Titans podcast

your first listen every day, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content all year round on YouTube and your favorite podcast app always for free. Make sure you get subscribed. Stay subscribed. Let me know down below if you agree, disagree with my locks. Throw a thumbs up on the video as well. I don't charge anything for the show.

All I ask for in return is the press of a button. So if you guys wouldn't mind throwing a thumbs up on the video, I would really appreciate the support. Shout out to my everydayers, of course, tuning in every single day of a button. So if you guys wouldn't mind throwing a thumbs up on the video, I would really appreciate the support. Shout out to my everydayers, of course, tuning in every single day of the week. As a reminder, tomorrow we're going to be talking defensive roster locks. The next day, we're going to be breaking down Titans open OTA that happens on Tuesday afternoon.

So I'm going to have a full recap for you guys there. And I have 33 players as locks to make the Titans roster. That means there's 20 open spots. As we start getting through OTAs, we're going to start having conversations about who could get those 20 open spots. So excited to dive into all of the roster battles, all the roster conversations, machinations with you guys. Don't miss any of it.

Get subscribed. Stay subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast, your team every day. But look at it wide receiver first. And to me, there are four locks here. There are only four locks. And I know that some of you guys really hate when I do pat myself on

the back content. And I get it. I get it. It's self-serving. I get it. But I just can't help but bring up the fact that most of the fan base was telling me when the signings happened that Chris Moore and Nick Westbrook-Akene won't even make the team. Oh, these guys will probably be cut. They'll be wide receiver five and six by the...

Nick Westbrook-Akene is your starting wide receiver, ladies and gentlemen, along with Traylon Burks. Those are your starting wide receivers. Kyle Phillips is a slot-only guy. When the Titans go out there with a tight end or two tight ends and a running back and two wide receivers, one of them ain't going to be Kyle Phillips. He is a one-down player.

He can only play on third downs or second and passing situations. He is only a slot guy. So the Titans Titans starting wide receivers are Traylon Burks and Nick Westbrook Akene. Alright? So those are locks. They are locks. And when Nick Westbrook Akene was re-signed, I

said, he's making this team. Period. He is in no danger of being cut. He will not be cut. It's not even it's silly conversation to even have in my opinion. What a waste of time cut. He will not be cut. It's not even, it's a silly conversation to even have, in my opinion. What a waste of time. And same thing with Chris Moore. Chris Moore went over 500 yards last year.

He played for the Texans. Mike Vrabel loves him. Mike Vrabel is not cutting Chris Moore. Chris Moore is probably going to get more snaps than Kyle Phillips this year. You know, I'm just trying to warn you guys. I tried to warn you when the signings happened and everybody was in the comments on Twitter and on my show telling me, you know,

you're overreacting, you're making too big of a deal. This is wide receiver five, six. They might not even make the team. Nope. So to me, Burks, Phillips, NWI, and Chris Moore are locks to make the roster. Now, again, I go back to what I said when I gave my preface to the entire episode. If a big trade happens, then sure, that could maybe change the dynamics a little bit.

But I don't see a world, even if a trade, if the Titans trade for Jerry Judy or DeAndre Hopkins or Cortland Sutton or whoever. To me, there's no way that any of those four guys are going to get cut because a trade piece is added. Those are, if you have, let's just, just for conversation's sake, you have Jerry Judy, Traylon Burks, Kyle Phillips, Nick Westbrook-Akene, and Chris Moore. That is a respectable five-man NFL wide receiver unit.

NWI is wide receiver four. Chris Moore is wide receiver five. I would flip that, personally. I think Chris Moore is a better player. Chris Moore is wide receiver four. Chris Moore is wide receiver five. I would flip that, personally. I think Chris Moore is a better player. Chris Moore is wide receiver four. NWI is wide receiver five. He can go back to being a gunner on special teams and stuff like that. That would be a respectable group.

Put in Cortland Sutton. Put in DeAndre Hopkins, obviously. But, you know, the Titans are one starting level wide receiver away from having at least a respectable group. I don't think it would be more than top 20. It would probably be, you know, 21 to 32, but it'd be respectable. So, to me, without a trade coming, Burks, Phillips, NWI, Chris Moore,

those guys are locks. And I don't want to spend too much time in today's episode talking about guys who I don't think are locks because I want to do that in the roster battles series that we do. But I just want to say this. Racy McMath. A lot of you guys really like Racy McMath, and I get it. AJ called him baby Julio, 6'3", 4'3 speed.

In a lab, you would be like, hey, this is a perfect prospect for, you know, getting him sixth round. There's no way that Racy McMath is making this team over Colton Dow, who can help on special teams and is a better wide receiver. I've said it for a minute now. Ray C. McMath is a special teams only player. He just doesn't have wide receiver ability. Not a good enough route runner.

Doesn't have good enough hands. He's just a big physical athlete and can play on special teams. But he's not a wide receiver. He's not good enough to be a consistent wide receiver for the Titans. Simply not. So I think Colton Dow will probably get over him. And either way, the point is, But he's not a wide receiver. He's not good enough to be a consistent wide receiver for the Titans. Simply not.

So I think Colton Dowell would probably get over him. And either way, the point is, neither of those guys are locks to make the roster. We only got four of those. Burks, Phillips, Moore, and NWI. At tight end, pretty simple. They're keeping Chig, obviously. Josh Wiley, he's not getting cut.

Again, like with Tajay Spears, unless like something off the field crazy happened. And then Trevin Wesko is not getting cut. He's the new Jeff Swaim, a new and improved Jeff Swaim, younger Jeff Swaim, we're hoping. So those three guys are the locks at tight end. The Titans are brought in by a few free agent tight ends, whether it be like Elise Mack from the XFL or the Billingsley guy from Texas who's an undrafted free agent.

Titans have brought it in. Kevin Radar is still around, of course, but none of those guys are locks to make the roster that I would bet on. You know what I mean? So to me, Burks, Phillips, NWI, and Chris Moore at wide receiver, Chig, Trevon Wesko, Josh Wiley at tight end.

Those are the only locks that I see. Again, if you disagree, let me know down below in the comments. If you agree, you can let me know too. That would be nice. You know what I mean? Not just everybody down there telling me I'm wrong. That would be cool.

But either way, we're going to move to the trenches. We're going to talk about the offensive line. I have five locks. So start thinking to see if you can guess who my locks are. I have five locks. And we're going to get into that in just a moment. Titans fans, let's cap off today's offensive roster locks edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. We have talked about the backfield with running back and quarterback. We have talked about wide receiver and tight end. Now I want to get into the trenches, get a little physical,

talk about the offensive line. Before we do that, I want to thank you guys again for making the Locked on Titans podcast your first listen. Every day, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content for free all year long. Stay locked into the Locked on Titans podcast wherever you listen to your podcast, YouTube, your favorite podcast app. It's everywhere, always free. But tomorrow we're going to do the defensive locks. The next day, whether you listen

on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, we're going to be recapping Titans OTAs from Tuesday. And then we're going to get into maybe some of those roster battles at the end of the week, unless more things pop up. There's usually news and talking points out of OTAs, all that stuff that I want to dive into. So don't hold my feet to the fire at the end of the week unless more things pop up. There's usually news and talking points out of OTAs, all that stuff that I want to dive into. So don't hold my feet to the fire at the end of the week. Just know I'm going to come with some good content there. Moving into the offensive line. I gave you guys time.

I have five locks. And it should be no surprise that my five locks to make the roster are the five people who I think are the starters. Andre Dillard. There's no way the Titans are cutting Dillard after just signing him as a free agent. Peter Skowronski.

Same, I don't have to explain that. Nicholas Petit-Ferrer. I'm sorry, but you don't get drafted in the third round, start every single game for the whole season, and then get cut. Even if they want to move him around, maybe if he gets beat out or something like that, whatever, but he's not getting cut no matter what.

So Dillard, Skowronski, Nicholas Petit-Ferrer, to me, Daniel Brunskill with his veteran leadership, his savvy, being a free agent signing, they clearly had a role pictured for Brunskill's making it. And Aaron Brewer. You guys can talk bad about Aaron Brewer all you want. At the end of the day, Mike Vrabel really likes Aaron Brewer and everybody in the building thinks he's going to be

better at center than he was at guard. Not good at guard. And that could be true. I don't know that I believe 100% that Aaron Brewer is going to be a starting level center.

I think he ultimately may still be a backup in the NFL because of his size. He's just the smallest starting offensive lineman in the NFL. But outside of that, the Titans paid that man $4.6 million this year on a second round tender as a restricted free agent. They're giving him nearly $5 million. They ain't cutting him. They believe in Aaron Brewer.

So Dillard, Skowronski, Brewer, Brunskill, Nicholas Petit-Ferrer, that's what I think the starting offensive line is going to be on day one. And obviously, I think that all those guys are locks. Those are the only locks. Some people mention, look, Jamarco Jones. I thought he might be a cut candidate early,

but I could see him being cut after June the 1st when it saves the Titans a lot more money. Because Jamarco Jones just has been a ghost. You haven't heard anything about him, really. In the offseason, Mike Vrabel mentioned his name a little bit, but let's be honest here. I don't see a real role for him. Dylan Radins is another name that's going to be mentioned.

And look, guys, I will continue to say there are two factors that go into my skepticism of Radins as a guy to talk about in offensive line conversations and Radins as a guy to talk about a roster lock situation. One, he just tore his ACL in week 15. That means he's probably going to start the season on the PUP. Probably won't be available until week 7, week 8. Well, week 7 is the bye, so probably week 8.

Dylan Reigns won't even be available. And then two, Mike Vrabel hates the kid. Mike Vrabel hates him. It's just obvious. The Titans offensive line was the worst in the NFL all season. Dennis Daly

started from what? Week 2 when LeJuan got hurt? Was it week 2 when LeJuan got hurt? So every week going forward, Dennis Daly. Dylan Radins played 10 snaps at left tackle in week 15 and played better than Dennis Daly played the whole season. Yet,

yet, Radins couldn't get on the field as a starter for the Titans when he was healthy. As a former second round pick, Mike Vrabel hates him. Mike Vrabel hates the kid. There's just no other way to reason this in your mind of why he couldn't play last year, why they wouldn't let Raidens play last year.

It's absurd. It's absurd. So the only logical reason is it has to be personal. It has to be Mike Vrabel personally just saying, I'm not letting this kid play. I don't want him out there. That's the only logical answer to playing Dennis Daly over him at left tackle all year long.

It has to be personal. Because there is nothing football-wise that justifies Dennis Daly playing over Dylan Radins as long as he did. Look, if you want to play Dennis Daly for a couple of weeks and then it's not going well and you're going to give Radins a shot, okay, okay, I get it.

I want Radins in there right away, but you don't. All right, whatever. But watching Dennis Daly all year long and waiting until week 15 to give Radins a shot at the position that he played throughout college that made him a second-round draft pick. It has to be personal. So from that standpoint, there's no way that I can consider Dylan Raiden's a lock to make the roster when he's injured and Mike Vrabel clearly has something out for the kid.

So between those two reasons, I can't consider him a lock. And Jalen Duncan, everydayers know how I feel about Jalen Duncan, but I'm just not sold that he's a guy that's going to work very hard. And the Titans bet on athletic traits, and Rancart Thon said himself the late rounds in the draft are where the scouts make picks. They pound on the table and say they believe in a guy. Well, whatever scout bought into Jalen Duncan

because of the athletic traits, I think you're wrong. From what I've seen, I think you're wrong. I don't think he's going to work hard enough to make it. So, with that in mind, not a roster lock despite being a draft pick either. But five locks on the offensive line. Dillard, Skowronski, Brewer, Brunskill, MPF, at tight end, Chig, Wesco, Josh Wiley, at wide receiver, Brooks, Phillips, NWI,

and more running back, Henry, Spears, Haskins, quarterback, Levis, and Tannehill. Those are my locks on the offensive side of the ball. Again, I'll be back with you guys tomorrow to go over my defensive locks. Let me know down below what you agree with, what you don't agree with, and then we're going to cover practice

on Tuesday night on YouTube, Wednesday morning for my commuters, and then throughout the rest of the week, we'll talk about whatever pops up. That's going to do it for me today, though, folks. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.