Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans SIGN QUANDRE DIGGS, Perfect Safety Fit & Ran Carthon Continues to COOK

Episode Date: August 5, 2024

The Tennessee Titans signed safety Quandre Diggs on Sunday night and he is exactly what the Titans needed to complete their secondary. Diggs joins a great group with Amani Hooker and Jamal Adams as a the centerfielder they truly needed. This is yet another fantastic move by Ran Carthon who continues to cook at every turn this offseason.Subscribe to the TicTacTitans Film Channel:https://www.youtube.com/@TicTacTitansTicTacTitans Merchandise: https://dixons-dream.square.site/shop/tictactitans-gear/C3AAPNWXSXA6SBYG3USV2I7R?page=1&limit=30&sort_by=category_order&sort_order=ascFollow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPodSubscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/LockedOnTitans/videosFor your next listen, check out the Locked On Fantasy Football podcast. Get daily insight to the best Fantasy draft strategies so you can win your league this season. Click HERE to listen now. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your Team. Every Day.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.eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotors.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.BetterHelpThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Make your brain your friend, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/LOCKEDON today to get 10% off your first month.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms Apply.FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. As playoffs wind down, the sports stop sporting like we want them to. But this summer, FanDuel is hooking up ALL CUSTOMERS with a boost or a bonus, DAILY! That’s right, there’s something for everyone, every day, all summer long! Visit FANDUEL.COM/LOCKEDON and add a big win to your summer bucket list!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)

Boom! Rancor Thawne cooks again. The Tennessee Titans have signed Quandre Diggs at safety. A perfect move to complete this secondary. I'll break it down now on a bonus 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 Rowland, Titans fans. Rancart Thon does it again. Another big veteran signing this time. Three-time Pro Bowlerler Quan Dre Diggs. I'm going to tell you why this is a great signing, talk about how he fits perfectly within the Titans secondary and safety group, and give credit where credit is due to Ran Carthon,

who continues to cook this offseason. Before I dive into all of it, thank you guys again 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 going to beat it anywhere else. There's a reason this is the number one Tennessee Titans podcast in the world for five years running. Get subscribed. Stay subscribed. It's your team every day. Throw a thumbs up on the video if you're watching. Throw a Titan up in the chat.

Man, what an incredible move by the Tennessee Titans here to complete this secondary. We have been waiting for that second foot to drop at the safety position for some while and I'll admit I'll go in the boo-boo box. I didn't think that this move was coming. I didn't think that the Titans were going to go out and get another

safety even though they needed a pure coverage safety in the biggest way possible. But they absolutely made the move they had to make. So I'm guessing that watching Will Levis drop bombs on him over the weekend made him realize, hey, we need to get a coverage guy back deep. I like Elijah Molden, but, you know, the Titans definitely needed another guy. And here steps in Quandre Diggs on a one-year deal up to $5 million.

Look, just to hit the contract quickly, up to $5 million is how an agent makes the contract sound better than it is. It's probably $1 to-2 million in guaranteed cash, just like the Jamal Adams deal, and there's probably incentives that can get Quandre Diggs up to $5 million. But with the business aside, this guy is a perfect fit. An absolute perfect fit.

So, the elephant in the room, of course, is the age. Quandre Diggs is going to be 31 this season, but you look back at what he's done the last few years, and it's hard to question the player that he is. Number one, Quandre Diggs has played every single game for the last four games, all right? And three out of his last four seasons, he's gone to the Pro Bowl. This is a guy who has 24 career interceptions,

and he is what you think of when you think of that back deep safety. He's a guy who's going to play in the back end, play the coverage role. We know that the Titans have been a multiple defense for the last few years. They have had their safeties be versatile. They can do a little bit of everything. But in Seattle, they were running that heavy cover three scheme where you have a deep safety, a more traditional deep free safety, thinking like the Earl Thomas,

and then you have that strong safety down in the box. Think about Cam Chancellor. So that's how Seattle ran their defense, heavy cover three. So Quandre Diggs was always that back deep guy. Well, we know that from Baltimore last year, where Denard Wilson, Titans defensive coordinator, came from, that they ran a lot of cover three coverage, and they had a guy in the back end and Gino stone,

who was that Rome, the back end, not going to be asked to come up and make a bunch of tackles. He's just going to be that traffic cop, you know, traffic control on the back end. And that's exactly what Quandre Diggs is going to do. And that's exactly what the Tennessee Titans need.

The Titans needed a guy who could play in that back end. And now you have Jamal Adams who comes up and now you can have a Monty Hooker go everywhere, wherever youer go wherever you want him to go. I'm so hyped I can barely speak. Alright, so this is a perfect move from a skill set and an experience standpoint and here, I'll talk

about Rand Carthon at the back end of this but where the Titans, we said all season the Titans couldn't fix everything at once. Well, you gotta get some veteran help to fix the problems that you can't fix immediately in the draft. And that's what the Titans have done here. So again, I love the fit from Quandre Diggs as a player. The contract is probably only a couple of million, up to five million in incentives, which, I mean,

if he hits those incentives, tighten up. Like, I'd love to see Quandre Diggs hit all of his incentives and get his $5 million for the Titans. Excellent. So, 24 career interceptions, played every game the last four years. Pro Bowl three out of the last four years. This is a guy who could still play at a high level. Just the safety market. I mean, Justin Simmons was voted in the top 100 and still isn't signed. So, don't tell me that Quandre Diggs not being signed up to this point means that he's somehow a bad player.

You know, like, that's not the case. So, love this move. Love the signing. We've been talking about Quandre Diggs for quite some time throughout this offseason. He's a perfect fit for where the Titans need help in the defense and a great value and a player who's been very consistent and very reliable, which is exactly what the Tennessee Titans need when they had some injuries over the last few

days. So just great news here. Love what I'm seeing. Let me know how you feel about it down below in the chat. I got to talk about how Quandre Diggs fits within the safety room, within the group itself. So I'm going to discuss that before I do. Do want to let you guys know that today's episode is brought to you by BetterHelp Online Therapy. What are your self-care non-negotiables? You never skip leg day. Maybe you should never skip therapy day either.

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That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash locked on. Titans fans, a bonus edition live. Locked on Titans breaking down the signing of safety Quandre Diggs, an excellent move by the Tennessee Titans. Let Rancar Thon cook. We just talked about Quandre Diggs as a player and how he fits with the Titans. But now I want to talk about the safety group and the secondary at large

because this, I'm not acting like Quandre Diggs is some amazing all-pro, one of the best safeties in the entire NFL, blah, blah, blah, when I say this, but this was the crowning jewel of this revamped secondary.

Like, this is exactly what the Titans needed with their current group. So, number one, you have Imani Hooker. And Imani Hooker is a do-it-all safety. I just mentioned it a second ago when we talked about digs schematically, but the Titans ran a very versatile style of defense where their safeties would play deep half and cover two, play single high, come down and play a hook zone over the middle, be a robber over the middle of the field, have a buzz coverage where you come down into a hook curl. I mean, the Titans safeties, both of them would do everything.

It wasn't like, you know, they had these strict rules like you do in certain cover three systems. I gave the example of the old Seattle Seahawks, the Legion of Boom. You had Earl Thomas in the back and Cam Chancellor was that strong safety. The Titans didn't look at their safeties like that. They were multiple. They were do-it-all safeties on both sides. Well, Denard Wilson last year had Geno Stone with the Ravens.

He was not a guy who came down in the box a ton. He played in the back end as just a free safety center fielder, and that's what Quandre Diggs' role is going to be, and that matches perfectly with Imani Hooker, who I was just explaining is more of a versatile safety. You want Imani Hooker in the back end. They need Imani Hooker in the back end, too. That's also going to be important in their base defenses and certain packages. Imani Hooker has the ability to be that back deep center fielder, but Imani Hooker in the back end too. That's also going to be important in their base defenses and certain packages. Imani Hooker has the ability to be that back deep center fielder. But Imani Hooker also

can drop down over the middle, can guard a tight end, can do different things. So last year, Imani Hooker was used too much as a tight end stopper and a man coverage guy. He wasn't allowed to roam at all. Well now that you have Quandre Diggs in the back end, you can have him do that, and that leaves

Jamal Adams. So you have a money hooker who can do everything. You want Quandre Diggs back deep as your post safety and cover three. You could also have Jamal Adams in that mix as an early down slot against the run in certain matchups. If you're playing against a team that uses a lot of

tight ends, you need somebody a little bit more physical than Roger McCreary as an every-down slot. So you can use Jamal Adams as that early-down slot guy in certain matchups against run-heavy and tight-end-heavy teams. And then Jamal Adams slides into the inside to be that sub-package linebacker. And when I say sub-package for anybody who's not fully aware, sub-package is just anything less than your base package.

You're thinking about four down linemen, two linebackers, five defensive backs, or even into a dime package. But in those dime packages where you have six defensive backs on the field, in those nickel packages where you have five defensive backs on the field, you could have Jamal Adams as an every down. I talk about Jamal Adams as a slot guy on early downs when they're playing against heavier offenses. Well, when they go against light offenses,

think about like a Miami Dolphins or something like that with a lot of RPO and a lot of quick throw. They want to spread you out with motion and speed. When you go up against an offense that's maybe lighter and faster, now you can use Jamal Adams as a linebacker and nickel, and you can have Roger McCreary as that slot on every down. The Titans are going to be a matchup, multiple formation, multiple

personnel package defense. They're really going to look to match up with people. And when you do that, you have to have different chess pieces. And I think Jamal Adams is a guy like that. So you have Diggs in the back end as more of a coverage safety. You have Amani Hooker as the versatile do-it-all safety. And then you have Jamal Adams

as the physical safety that's more of a dime linebacker, kind of running towards the line of scrimmage. You don't want him to do too much in coverage. You guys know who listen to my show every day. My everydayers out there, tuning in Monday through Friday, could not do this without you. And if you aren't an everydayer right now,

I mean, listen to the breakdown you're getting with the scheme and the coverage and the skill set and the insights and the stats. You're not getting this anywhere else. It's the number one podcast for the Titans in the universe for a reason. But with all that said, you guys know who listen every day that I like to build out my skill, my position, certain positions like basketball teams.

I don't want everybody exactly the same. At wide receiver, I want a Kyle Phillips, a Jaquan Jackson, a short, shifty guy. I want a big physical X. I want kind of a medium split thatthat-gap speed receiver as your Z guy. I want a big physical guy that you can use as a big slot. I want a basketball team out there. Same thing with my cornerback group and my safety group and my linebacker group.

I really like to have that versatility and skill set. You know what I mean? That's what I'm looking for. So when I see the Titans building it this way with three different safeties that can all do very different things, it just gets me absolutely going. It gets me going. And then you have Elijah Molden as your fourth safety, which is a perfect rule for Molden because Molden can do a little bit of Imani hooker stuff with his versatility, not as much of the cover stuff, but he can do a little bit of the Imani hooker stuff. If you get in a pinch, he can just hang back deep

and just make sure he doesn't get beat too bad, but he doesn't have great foot speed, so he's not a perfect match for that role. He can just kind of do it. You know what I mean? That's why I didn't really want Elijah Molden to be a firm starter for this team and think they needed a second starter,

but he could be a backup. It's that box safety, and I think you look at Jamal Adams' missing practice for the last week. Elijah Molden can be the Jamal Adams direct backup because that's basically what he did his rookie season. He was an early down slot against the runs and heavier teams and then he went to be a sub-package linebacker in passing situations. So I think that Elijah Molden could be a direct backup to Jamal Adams and do some of the things that he does, but at

the same time, he can kind of back up Imani Hooker a little bit, and then Imani Hooker can back up Quandre Diggs a little bit. So if anybody is missing, you can kind of figure that out. You can figure that out. And I love that. I love that. So a great group here. I think you keep Matthew Jackson as your fifth safety.

He's been so impressive in camp so far as a second-year player. Three interceptions just this last week. You keep Matthew Jackson as your special teams dynamo, as your developmental safety. And then that's your five safeties. And honestly, with Denard Wilson being such a safety guy, he loves his defensive backs, the Titans could keep six safeties.

I could see that with how important the position is, how many safeties they're going to use on a game-to-game basis. I could see them keeping six. But I love the safety group. This was a great move. They really needed this move. And, again, Rancart Thon. Rancart Thon just continues to cook.

And that's what I'm going to talk about next to finish off this bonus episode. We're going to give a little bit of love to Rancar Thon for cooking once again. Before I do though, do want to let you guys know that this bonus episode is brought to you by FanDuel. I love sports. It's probably obvious if you watch the show for any moment in time.

I love them so much that I never want them to stop. As the playoffs wind down though, we get fewer games. The sports stop sporting like we want them to stop. As the playoffs wind down, though, we get fewer games. The sports stop sporting like we want them to. But FanDuel lets me keep the sports going whenever I want. All I got to do is open up the app and dream up bets anytime I'm in the mood. And I'll tell you what, I might be in the mood right now. I'm fired up for this Tennessee Titans season.

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FanDuel, official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball. Titans fans, let's cap off this bonus episode of the Locked On Titans podcast. The Tennessee Titans signed Quandre Diggs. Safety, it's a perfect fit. I talked about Diggs as a player to start. Talked about how he fits within the safety room. And now, I got to give some credit to Rancarthon. And this just continues.

It continues this offseason that has been stellar. I mean, absolutely stellar. Just for a moment, before I give Rancarthon his credit, Titans fans, just kind of close your eyes for a second. If you don't want to close your eyes, just focus. If you're driving, do not close your eyes. My commuter's out there.

Just saying. But an offensive head coach, got the top defensive coordinator on the market, did get Bill Callahan to come over from the Browns. The Titans actually get a center that we all wanted. They make a big signing with a big wide receiver. They make a big trade to get LeJarius Sneed. Like, you go in the draft, they get the left tackle.

Sweat looks like a beast so far. They actually get some of these veterans like Tyler Boyd and Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs. The Titans are doing all that. You know the meme where Squidward is upstairs in his room and he's looking through the bars of his window and he sees Sponjob and Patrick running with their hands up having fun. That's how I felt as a Titans fan at times. Watching teams like the Eagles make these moves to make their team,

just the obvious moves. The obvious, oh, if I was in charge, I would do that. You don't have to be a brainiac to do it. Just make some moves and prove to me that you want to win. You want to be as good as possible. Just show us. And they are. They are.

I said it at the beginning of the offseason. I was just mentioning this earlier in the show. But I was saying it a second ago that this offseason has been truly, truly incredible. Like, the Titans could not solve every roster problem that they had in one offseason. We all knew that. We all understood that.

This roster is not good enough for the Titans to fix every problem in one offseason. But let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. I know that this is, it's not a perfect comparison, but it just to drive the point home. You're playing Madden, NCAA, the new college football game. You want to recruit to fix your roster problems. You want to, but you don't get every recruit that you want.

And you get certain recruits that aren't ready year one. So what do you do? You go to the transfer portal and you get that immediate fix. The Titans couldn't fix safety depth, linebacker, defensive line, offensive line, wide receiver, cornerback. I look like an ASMR person going to the different sides of the mic. But, you know, like, they couldn't fix it all in one offseason. So what do you do?

You get the young guys that you think can help you. You get some veterans long-term that you think can help you and actually fill holes and fit the timeline of the team. And then you just, you just plug in older, low-risk veterans and all the spots that you can't necessarily fix entirely. The Titans have fixed, well, almost fixed wide receiver. They need another young, good wide receiver.

But like, they basically fixed the cornerback group. I mean, that is good to go. The offensive line needs a little bit. I mean, the wide receiver group is basically fixed for this year and for probably next year will at least be good. Right? It won't be the disaster it's been the last few years. So, you couldn't fix everything in one offseason. So, what you do is you try your best to fix what you can, and then you plug in with cheap veteran talent. And you take some risks on some guys who are still out on the market.

Like, and I don't even know if it's a risk. The Titans still have $18 million in cap space, even if Quandre Diggs hits all of his incentives, which we all hope he does. So it's just a perfect way to approach the offseason for the Titans. Fix what you can. And as Zach McLean says,

Band-Aids over everything else. But at least they're trying. At least they are trying to do that. You know, they are trying to make the team as good as physically possible while not taking unnecessary risk, and that is exactly what they've done. So,

like, letting go of Rabel was step one, was a hard step one of an incredible journey that we've been on this offseason. Incredible. So, Rancarthon, giving all the power to Rancarthon,

trusting in Rancarthon's vision, that is exactly what the Titans did, and that is exactly what they should have done, and look where we are now. With a much better roster, with a much better organizational structure, and with a much, much brighter future. That is going to do it though for this bonus edition.

If anybody heard my last episode, the actual Sunday episode, I had such bad internet problems. I do apologize. I know it's cutting out and blurry and audio or visual. It's not going to be the greatest experience ever, but I hope this bonus episode makes it up to you guys. We're talking more Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs It's not going to be the greatest experience ever, but I hope this bonus episode makes it up to you guys.

We're talking more Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs and Titans secondary to go with the cornerbacks on tomorrow's show. Can't wait to see all of you guys there. But that is going to do it for me today, folks. Get subscribed. Stay subscribed. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.