Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans Take Caleb Farley: Breaking Down the Pick, Robinson/Vrabel Explanation & Day 2 Outlook

Episode Date: April 30, 2021

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You are Locked On Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to the Locked On Titans podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland. Titans fans, we officially know the Tennessee Titans first round pick. With the 22nd pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, the Tennessee Titans selected Caleb Farley, cornerback out of Virginia Tech.

I'm going to be breaking down exactly what the Titans are getting in Caleb Farley, why he was such a polarizing prospect, and what the major risks are with Farley for the Titans as well. So giving you everything you need to know about Caleb Farley as a player in his current medical situation. And then I'm going to let you know what John Robinson, Titans general manager, and Mike Vrabel, head coach of the Titans, have to say about their pick of Caleb Farley. Going to go over some of the best quotes we got from both of those guys

after the pick was made. And then I'm going to get you guys set up for Friday's session of the NFL Draft, the second and third round. I am going to tell you who is still available that makes sense for the Tennessee Titans and who they should be targeting in a trade-up. So excited to dive into everything. Recapping what took place on Thursday night. Getting you guys ready for the rest of the draft.

Also want to remind you, I'm going to be putting out a bonus episode on Saturday. Recapping what took place on Friday with the Titans. Make sure that you subscribe or follow the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream so you don't miss any of the content that I will be putting up. Plus, my overall draft recap will be dropping on Monday, and we'll be diving further into the Titans draft class in the coming weeks. Also, follow me on social media, on Twitter, at TicTacTitans. My Locked on Now Caleb Farley reaction video is up, and I'm going to be putting up reaction videos for all of the Titans picks throughout the weekend.

You can also get those videos on Facebook at Locked On Titans Pod. The new Facebook page would appreciate a follow over there. But we are diving into the Tennessee Titans selection of cornerback Caleb Farley and what's to come in the NFL Draft on today's edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Let's get it. The Tennessee Titans take cornerback Caleb Farley out of Virginia Tech. And while it's not a surprise because the Titans have been linked to Caleb Farley

for the last month or so after his stock started dropping due to the back surgery he had earlier in the year. But what was interesting is a lot of the common targets that we had had pegged for the Tennessee Titans were on the board when they came up at pick 22. You had wide receivers Rashad Bateman and Elijah Moore on the board. You had linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koromoa on the board. You had offensive tackle Tevin Jenkins on the board for the Titans as well. So it wasn't really an easy answer as to which direction they would go. But when you look at the selection they made of Caleb Farley, it does make a ton of sense following how John Robinson has acted as a general manager in the past. You look at 2019, the Titans wait,

and they take Jeffrey Simmons at pick 19, coming off an ACL tear in the pre-draft process, and well, that's worked out pretty well for the Tennessee Titans. It's a similar situation here with Caleb Farley. The positives for Farley, he's 6'2", tall, long cornerback, with just elite speed you don't see cornerbacks at his size with his sort of speed his sort of fluidity his sort of change of direction skills and speaking of that speed he has the best recovery skills of any cornerback in this draft

by far heck Chris Collinsworth was on Pro Football Focus's draft coverage and compared Caleb Farley's recovery speed to that of Deion Sanders to the point where they will intentionally let the receiver beat them because they know their speed will be able to get them back into play to make an interception. And speaking of interceptions, you take that elite speed, elite movement ability, that recovery ability, and you combine that with incredible ball skills. We know that John Robinson values production on the ball from his defensive backs in the

draft. We saw that with Kevin Byard, who had a ton of picks in college, and Caleb Farley had six interceptions in the last two years playing at Virginia Tech. So he's a guy who not only gets his hands to the ball, but catches the ball and takes it away from the other team. Now, of course, you do have to get to the negatives at some point. Being in college, it's not a ton of press man coverage. He needs to work on his physicality at the line of scrimmage, making sure that he doesn't get beat. That recovery ability is put on display a little bit more than you want

because of how often he gets beat at the line of scrimmage. So have to work on that. And then, of course, the back injury. Finally, we'll talk about it. So Caleb Farley had back issues earlier in his career at Virginia Tech. Then he had back surgery again in February, I do believe, in the pre-draft process this year. Now, I'm not a doctor, and I'm not going to sit up here and go through L5, L6, compressed spine, this and that. I simply am not qualified to talk about those sort of things.

I do not have a medical degree. But what I do know is, earlier in this process, Caleb Farley was considered by far the consensus number one cornerback in the draft. And what we just saw was we saw cornerback go at pick eight and at pick nine higher than a lot of people expected. Most people expected the first cornerback to come off the board at 10 to the Cowboys with Patrick Sertan. Both the top cornerbacks went before pick 10.

So cornerbacks were highly, highly coveted in this draft. We saw a run on cornerbacks late in the draft as well in the first round. So for a guy who was considered the top cornerback in the draft consensus wise and see how high the other two cornerbacks that he is supposedly better than went, the Titans might have just gotten a top five player at pick 22. So yeah, the back issue is a concern, but when you look at the potential talent the Titans could get, Caleb Farley is far and away more talented than Bateman, Moore, Jenkins, is far and away more talented than Bateman, Moore, Jenkins,

any of the pass rushers there, Barmore, Owusu, Coromoa. I mean, it's not really close. None of those guys at any point in time during the process were considered top 10 picks like Farley. So while there is risk with the back injury and some of the quotes that we're going to talk about in our next segment are going to hit on the back injury, so we'll get more into it. But what I really want to focus on here is the fact that you don't get guys as talented as Caleb Farley at pick 22.

You don't get guys as talented as Jeffrey Simmons at pick 19. So with that in mind, thinking about the Titans cornerback group now, Caleb Farley, Christian Fulton, Jack Rabbit Jenkins, I mean, this defense is overhauled and Caleb Farley can be a superstar, a true superstar at cornerback. A.J. Brown, Caleb Farley, Jeffrey Simmons, John Robinson's getting himself some blue chip prospects. So while there is risk for having the 22nd pick, I think it's a necessary risk.

It's a worthy risk. And I'm incredibly excited about what Caleb Farley could be for this Titans defense. And some of the quotes that I have for you guys next from Mike Vrabel, John Robinson, and some from Caleb Farley himself, they're going to get you even more excited about this pick. Now we're going to get into that,

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you just don't get guys as talented as Caleb Farley at pick 22 in the draft. So I'm fully on board with the selection, and now I want to hear from the people who made the selection, and that's Mike Rabel and John Robinson. I'm going to dive into some of the quotes that really stuck out to me from their press conference after the pick, and a couple quotes here from Caleb Farley as well that are sure to get you guys excited. Now, obviously, the hottest topic, the biggest question that we have here is Caleb Farley's

back. When is he going to be fully recovered from surgery? When's he going to be ready to go? John Robinson obviously was asked about that early on. And Robinson said that the Tennessee Titans doctors got to evaluate Farley. They weren't relying on a pool report when making the pick. And what that means is, so every year prospects in the NFL draft go to the combine and pull medical doctors. So it's doctors hired by the NFL, not the Tennessee Titans team doctors, just general doctors hired to work the combine event. They put these players through medical exams and they create reports that any NFL team

has the ability to access. Now, obviously NFL teams want their own personal doctors who have their best interest at heart to have a chance to look at these prospects as well and based on this quote from Robinson the Titans doctors actually got hands-on time with Caleb Farley and weren't just relying on the doctor's reports from the combine and no there wasn't a regular combine this year but they did have a medical combine for the top 150 or so prospects. So that is great news that the Titans actually got to see it firsthand and look at Caleb Farley's back and figure out what was going on and they weren't taking secondhand information.

Another quote from John Robinson here, he said, they had some opportunities to move back via trade, but the team didn't want to risk losing Farley. And that obviously makes you very happy as well because the Titans weren't just, hey, we're going to take our favorite guy available. No, they wanted Caleb Farley. That is who they thought would fall to them. That is who they wanted to take.

That was their guy. And that's what that tells you. Another question about the back. is who they wanted to take. That was their guy, and that's what that tells you. Another question about the back, Robinson was asked if Farley will be available to start training camp, and he said, quote, we don't put timetables or expectations on that. And I know that that's a little discouraging. You'd like to hear that they know he'll be ready for training camp, but the Titans don't handle injuries like that. Think of Dory Jackson sat out 15 straight weeks, including the week that he got

hurt last year, and the Titans didn't give us one single update on what the issue was. Also, they never put a timetable on Jeffrey Simmons either. They didn't say when he would be ready, when he would be able to play in the season, anything like that. They were more worried about getting him back to full health, and that's what the focus should be for the Titans with Farley as well. Robinson talked about where Farley was on their board. He said, Farley far and away the top ranked player on their board. And that makes sense for me. A lot of people had Caleb Farley as a top 10 talent in this draft. And if the Titans were comfortable with his medicals based on their own personal evaluation of his

back, then it makes sense they would have Farley on their board in the top 10. If medicals weren't a problem, Caleb Farley would never be even close to a possibility for the Tennessee Titans. So this is a great thing for the Titans. And quite frankly, I believe Robinson that Farley was far and away the top rated player on their board. Now getting out of the, you know, the back injury and everything like that from John Robinson's standpoint and getting into Mike Vrabel talking about scheme and fit on the defense. Vrabel had

this to say about Farley. Farley is long. They did a lot of man coverage at Tech, Virginia Tech, of course. Didn't have a whole lot of help. Comes from a very aggressive scheme. He's used to it. didn't have a whole lot of help, comes from a very aggressive scheme. He's used to it. The Titans are just going all the way in on press man coverage and excessive blitz. It's more of what we saw from the Ravens last year. That's what the Titans want to do. They want to put a bunch of people on the line of scrimmage, not let you know where the pass rush is coming from,

play tight man coverage that ruins the timing of the routes and makes it difficult on the offense, and they are molding the defense in that way. Now, Vrabel did get a question about Caleb Farley from a medical standpoint, and he said this, the plan is to get him here as soon as he's able, begin working with medical, and continue to evaluate where he's at. Neither his agent or anybody else knows when he's going to be ready. And that sounds really bad. Neither his agent or anybody else knows when he's going to be ready.

That sounds really bad when you say it. But again, this is just the Titans protecting the player, not putting any unfair expectations or unfair timeline on him and allowing him to get back to full strength, which is the best move for the long-term success of this draft pick. Now, some quotes here that we got from Caleb Farley himself, which I think are very interesting. He talked about all of the ups and downs with the back injury, and he said,

you get to a point where you want to play for a team that believes in you. If you don't believe in me, play against me. Well, I love that attitude. And then they asked Caleb Farley about his fit in the defense. He said, my best fit in the defense is, Caleb, you've got that guy. Man coverage. That's what the Titans want to do. And this is encouraging.

Some medical notes here from Caleb Farley. Caleb Farley says he believes he'll be ready for training camp. And there was a report from Benjamin Albright last week that a lot of teams think Caleb Farley needs an additional surgery on his back. They asked Caleb Farley about that. And Caleb Farley said the notion that he needs additional surgery is quote, that's completely false. End quote. So two back to back great things you love hearing from Farley there. Farley also said that nobody showed more interest in him during the process than the Titans, which again goes back to my initial theory I just said a little bit ago,

that the Titans had their eyes on Farley all along. That was their guy. That was the guy they wanted from the start, they realistically thought would fall to them. He was right there for them. Perfect pick for the Titans, quite frankly. And this is the last quote that I want to give to you guys just to get you even more fired up. And it comes from Farley himself.

He says, I want to dominate. I want to be a great corner. Going to show up for work every day and try to make that happen. Well, to be honest with you, showing up to work every day for a Titans first round pick, I'll take it. I'll take it. So very excited about this pick though. Really excited to see what the Titans do going forward in the draft. And speaking of what the Titans are going to do going forward in the draft, I'm going to break down for you what the remaining needs are for the Titans and some interesting prospects that could still be available for them in round two.

And also, I have been saying throughout the process, I do think the Titans will find a way to trade up in this draft one way or another. And I could see the most likely trade up being in the second round going from 53 to the high 30s or early 40s to get a certain prospect. I'm going to talk about who that is and who some potential trade-up partners could be with the Titans in our next segment. Before we do get into that though, I do want to tell you guys about the best tasting protein bars ever and that of course are Built Bars.

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Once again, use promo code LOCKED15 for 15% off at Biltbar.com. So we have talked about the Tennessee Titans selection of Caleb Farley, gave you guys my personal breakdown. We got some great quotes from John Robinson, Mike Rabel, and Caleb Farley himself. But now let's take an eye towards the future. The Titans still have eight remaining draft picks in the next two days and have quite a few needs to fill. So let's discuss those. Obviously, the Titans taking a cornerback.

That was a huge need for them, but they still have wide receiver and offensive tackle, which are my two biggest needs remaining for the Titans. The only ones that really stand out immediately to me. Then the Titans, of course, could use edge rusher. They could use tight end. They could use interior linebacker. They could use interior defensive line, use interior linebacker they could use interior defensive

line interior offensive line as well so they have some lower end needs safety I think they could use a bolster of depth at minimum if not a talented guy early but with the names that are left for the Titans in the second round they have a ton of options I really could see the Titans in the second round, they have a ton of options. I really could see the Titans surprising us in the second round if they stay at 53 and take one of the players that are available. Think about some of the names that are currently still available for the Tennessee Titans in the draft. You have Tevin Jenkins at offensive tackle, who some thought would go before the Titans at 22.

You have a guy like Jeremiah Owusu-Koromoa who, in full disclosure, I was here, my brother who's also a big Titans fan, we're sitting here in the living room, my cousin's here, a couple buddies, and I basically said this is going to be Jeremiah Owusu-Koromoa. We heard some rumbles that the Titans were looking at off-ball linebackers like a Zayvon Collins, a JOK, and I thought that that was going to be the pick. I'm happy that I was wrong,

and I'm much happier with the Caleb Farley pick, but if the Titans did end up with JOK, I wouldn't be mad at this point in the second round, even if it was a trade-up. You also have some edge rushers like Joseph Asai, Boogie Basham, Aziz Ujulari is still available as well. Ujulari has some medical issues with his knees that teams are scared of that obviously caused him to drop out of the first round. The Titans, of course, could look at tight end as well. Pat

Fryermuth, Tommy Tremble, Hunter Long, Brevin Jordan, all still available. At offensive tackle, I talked about Tevin Jenkins, but a guy like Dylan Radins is still available. offensive tackle I talked about Tevin Jenkins but a guy like Dylan Radins is still available a guy like um also uh Liam Eckenberg is also still available so they have some options there uh I mentioned tight end I mentioned Pat Fryer Muth I do believe so he's there at wide receiver Elijah Moore who I had resigned myself as probably going to be the Titans pick at 22 it wasn't again I'm happier with Caleb Farley but Elijah Moore who I had resigned myself as probably going to be the Titans pick at 22 it wasn't again I'm happier with Caleb Farley but Elijah Moore is still available Terrence Marshall also some medical concerns with his feet that are causing him to drop but Terrence Marshall also available

Daimi Brown also available and then another guy who is dropping like a rock currently Christian Barmore uh Barmore. Barmore was considered the top interior defensive lineman, but a lot of concerns have been coming out lately about his ability to take coaching, his work ethic, his personality type. So would the Titans take a chance on that sort of personality since it's in the second round? After the Isaiah Wilson thing last year, I just don't think that they would do that. And the Titans brought in Danico Autry.

They can go a little bit lower in the draft for their depth on the defensive line. But basically, there's a ton of talent still available for the Tennessee Titans right now that they could sit at 53 and still get somebody or move up. Now, if the Titans were to trade up, it's funny. Originally in the draft process, I said that the most likely move would if the Titans were to trade up. It's funny Originally in the draft process I said that the most likely move would be the Titans sitting at 22 and trading up in the second round for somebody and it looks like I should have just stuck with that all along rather than saying that they might go ahead and and Trade up in the first round because the Titans go ahead and trade up in the first round because the Titans, clearly it makes more sense for them to draft up into the second round.

And I'm looking at some teams who wanted to trade back originally in the first round, but weren't able to find a dance partner. You look at the Falcons, pick number 35. You might be a little too rich for the Titans blood, but you have the Arthur Smith connection there and that might grease the wheels. You have the Carolina Panthers at pick number 39, who already got their offensive tackle and now just need to stack picks to help their defense. You have the Denver Broncos at pick number 40. You have the Detroit Lions at pick number 41. That would make a lot of sense. San Francisco traded up earlier in the draft and gave up some picks. So at pick 43, 10 picks in front of

the Titans, you could have the Titans trading down there. And that's actually something that I've mocked before. I think it would make a lot of sense. So those are the teams I think make sense for the Titans to trade with. The Falcons at 35, the Panthers at 39, the Broncos at 40, the Lions at 41, and the San Francisco 49ers at 43. And in my opinion, if they do trade up to one of those spots, I think that they would most likely have to give up pick 126, which is their fourth round pick. We saw the premium to go up in the first round

be a third round pick. So in my mind, this would be a fourth round pick the Titans would have to pay. So pick 126 and pick 53 gets you up to, let's say, pick 39. The Titans take Isaiah Moore out of Ole Miss. Sorry, Isaiah Moore. Elijah Moore. It's 1 a.m. Eastern Standard Time right now. And yeah, it's been a long day. So Elijah Moore out of Ole Miss is my number one target for the Titans right now. I would like to see them trade up from 53, take 53 and 126 together, go up and get Elijah Moore. You

seal the Titans two biggest needs with Elijah Moore, who's a Titans fan favorite, who a lot of people wanted at 22, with Caleb Farley, who could be a top five player at his position eventually if he stays healthy. And the Titans still would have pick 85 and pick 100 to maneuver around to find that offensive tackle and to also fill one other position with a really talented player for my money. For my money. I would like to see the Titans move around one more time. Take that 100th pick and then 205. Move up into the 60s.

move up into the 60s, get themselves Hunter Long, tight end from Boston College, and then use pick 85 to get an offensive tackle. Ooh, sounds pretty good to me, but I will be back with you guys on Saturday for the second bonus episode of the week of the Locked on Titans podcast, breaking down what happened on Friday.

Remember, catch my Locked on Now instant reaction videos on social media at TicTacTitans, at Locked on Titans pod on Facebook. Follow the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream so you don't miss any of this draft content I will be putting up. But we did it, folks.

Draft day 2021. The Titans' first round pick is cornerback Caleb Farley, and what an exciting selection it is. 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. Thank you.