Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Titans Bring Back Borders, #JJWATTCH2021 Ends & Rowland's Rant

Episode Date: March 2, 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, it is a Tuesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast. And we have some big news to talk about today. We have a Tennessee Titan that was signed back onto the roster. So going to talk about that. And then we also have a player that was a Titans target that will not be joining the team.

We got big news on Monday of a premier free agent that the Titans may have had their sights set on that decided to go elsewhere. So I'll be breaking down both of those two stories, the player the Titans got and the player that got away from the Titans. And then at the end of today's show, we are going to dive into a little bit of a Rollins rant. It is the offseason, ladies and gentlemen. In the sports world, there was a pretty big topic that popped up on Monday, a big debate going on on Twitter. And I do have some things to say from personal experience in the industry.

So we will do a little Roland's rant at the end of the day on a Twitter Tuesday topic that I would like to touch on. But the player of the Titans signed, the player of the Titans did sign, and a Roland's rant on this Tuesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Let's get it! The Tennessee Titans and general manager John Robinson made a roster transaction on Monday when they signed a player to the team. And what's most interesting about this signing was this was a player that was just waived from the Titans roster last week.

And it's none other than cornerback Breon Borders. last week, and it's none other than cornerback Breon Borders. And if you guys do recall, Borders did spend six games with the Titans last year. Five of those games, he was able to be a starting outside corner. Now, he was with the Titans past those six games, but the rest of his year was on injured reserve, and that's going to factor into the conversation as well. But Breon Borders was brought back at this time. We do not know the terms of the agreement, but I am willing to bet that it is on a one-year deal.

It's obviously going to be a cheap deal for a guy like Breon Borders who played pretty well for the Titans at times last year during those five starts in those six games. But the reality is the Titans were able to get Breon Borders off the scrap heap in the middle of the season. He was an undrafted free agent when he came out of college in 2017. He's bounced around with five or six different teams, mostly being on practice squad. So we're not talking about a consistent NFL roster guy. We are talking about a roster fringe guy. So you got to

take that into account. Although Breon Borders did have some very solid games for the Titans last year that have seemed to garner him a lot of love from the Titans fan base. I saw a lot of people online really excited to hear the news that Breon Borders was back. But in those five games, he did have 27 tackles, five pass breakups, and that interception. But in my mind, I can't help but think about that play against the Cleveland Browns where he got burned by DPJ for 75 yards to the house. And that kind of highlights his strengths and weaknesses.

So Breon Borders is kind of like in the Malcolm Butler mold. He's a physical guy. He likes to get up on you, press you at the line of scrimmage, can get his body on you, make it difficult for you to get through your routes, get into your breaks, but he does lack good hip fluidity. He's not a guy who has great change of direction skills. He doesn't have great straight end speed either. He's not incredibly agile. Doesn't do great with pattern matching, basically just mirroring what the wide receiver is doing because those are things that take great agility, take great hipness, and take fluid hips. And those are not the strengths of Breon Borders' game. Like I said, again, he's physical. He's going to get on you, put his hands on you,

try to disrupt your route, try to disrupt the timing. But if you can get a clean release on Breon Borders, or as we saw, run a double move to give yourself some separation, he just doesn't have the change of direction. He doesn't have the hip swivel, and he doesn't have the straight line speed to be able to correct those mistakes or recover from those mistakes. So that is something that we have to watch going forward because going forward, Breon Borders should not be counted on or not be thought of as a potential starter for the Tennessee Titans. In my mind, Breon Borders is taking the Jonathan Joseph spot from last year's roster. You're going to have

Christian Fulton. You're going to have one of Malcolm Butler or a Dory Jackson. You could have Desmond King back. I do believe that the Titans will draft a cornerback. You're going to have Chris Jackson mixing in there potentially with the Titans. Maybe he'll improve from a disastrous rookie season. You know, you got Kareem Orr still going to be available. Like I said, I think the Titans will bring in a corner, maybe two in the draft, maybe an undrafted free agent from this class as well. So at the end of the day, at the end of the day, Breon Borders is a guy that while you have concerns about his style of play and just about who he is as a player, you also can at least trust him to a point. You know that he knows the system. He has had good moments for the team. So if you're

going to have a fourth or fifth cornerback on the roster, a guy like Breon Borders is an excellent guy to have as your option there. And this is only his fifth season. He's still a young guy. Maybe being in the Titans system a second year, getting that coaching from the Titans, getting it from Anthony Midgett there in the defensive backfield, maybe that'll allow him to improve even more. And who knows?

Maybe the Titans do have a low-level starter in Breon Borders after a little bit more development I could possibly see that as well but either way it's a very safe pick and the reason that Breon Borders was waived last week is because he finished the year on injured reserve and there are issues with the CBA and the salary cap where Breon Borders's year in 2021 would have basically locked itself in for about $8,500 to $900,000. John Robinson probably got Breon Borders at a lesser rate than that, maybe even on a futures contract, a non-guaranteed training camp contract. So obviously this move was made, the wave and then the re-sign was made to help the Titans out financially based on

some strange CBA circumstances and rules that are in place so that's why you saw the move that's my opinion on Breon Borders as a player and I also talked about what his role could be for the Titans going forward so now after talking about the player that the Titans did sign we are going to jump into a conversation about a player that got away from the Titans in free agency. Another installment in JJ Watch 2021. Before we get into that though, I want to remind you guys I will be bringing you Monday through Friday Tennessee Titans content all year long.

That's right. In the offseason and during the regular season. Also want to let you guys know that on tomorrow's show, we are going to be talking about the Titans' opponents in 2021 and talking about the schedule. We got a new schedule quirk with that 17th game possibly being added in. I'm going to tell you who the Titans would play in that 17th game, whether it would be home and away,

and then we're going to do a little exercise where we power rank who I'm most worried about and least worried about out of the Titans opponents next season. So don't miss that. Subscribe to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream. Also, you guys have to check out betonline.ag. BetOnline is the fastest and easiest way to bet on all your sports action. Football might be over, but you got NBA, college basketball, and NHL

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mobile device today. Sign up with the promo code LOCKED today. Sign up with the promo code LOCKEDON. Sign up with the promo code LOCKEDON. You'll get a 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit. Bet online your online sportsbook experts. It is time for another installment in what's been a fun off-season storyline, and that is hashtag JJWatch2021. And today, different from ClownyWatch2020, we got our answer much, much sooner. J.J. Watt in a surprise move. Well, let me go through the timeline with you guys. It was pretty

funny. So earlier today, Field Yates from ESPN. Field Yates, pretty trustworthy. No lie, pretty trustworthy on the news. But he posted a screenshot of what appeared to be J.J. Watt's Peloton profile. Apparently you have a profile page if you have a Peloton account. Didn't know that. But I like Echelon better anyways. But on his Peloton profile, or so we thought, it said like 2021...GBBUFCLE. So Green Bay, Buffalo, Cleveland.

And basically the news got stirring at that moment in time that this is J.J. Watt narrowing down his final list. These are the last three teams that he's going to. And everybody started discussing it. And we had our conversations. Oh, the Titans are out. This means that the Titans are out. That's okay. You know, we kind of dealt with the thought that the Titans are not going to be landing a guy like J.J. Watt,

which honestly, this sounds really weird, but I wanted Clowney more last year than I wanted Watt this year. I know that Watt is a much better player, but I'm just talking about like desire, my internal need. I wanted Clowney a lot more. I guess if we would have lost Clowney last year, it would. This J.J. Watt is over much quicker, but that story came out in the morning, made everybody think that was his final three teams and that things had been narrowed down. J.J. Watt then a little bit later on said, I don't even own a bike, stop. So clearly he was trying to tell us early on

that that was crap. And it came out a little bit later that, yeah, that was crap. I don't even know where that screenshot started circulating from, but pretty disappointed that Field Yates would kind of pump that out there. He's usually a trustworthy guy to get your news from, but that's a different story for a different time. But either way, it wasn't long after J.J. Watt kind of squashed that rumor that the truth came out.

J.J. Watt signed with the Arizona Cardinals for two years $31 million with $23 million guaranteed. My God. So, a couple of different things here, folks. Number one, I didn't want the Titans to pay that kind of money anyway. I had talked pretty consistently about the Titans being anywhere between $10 to $12 million. Now, I forget exactly which media member came out and said this, but they came out and said after the decision was announced that J.J. Watt was never going to take a pay cut to play with a contender.

He always wanted to make sure that he was paid properly and what he thought his value was. So to me, this makes it pretty obvious. If you had Buffalo and you had Green Bay and you had Tennessee on your list, and then you chose Arizona and got a ton of money from them more than the contenders were going to pay, well, you don't really care about winning that much. And I know a lot of people are fighting me on that, like Arizona's a good team.

Guys, Arizona is the worst team and the best division in football. San Francisco went to the Super Bowl in 2019. They were probably the most injured team in the NFL last year, and they still were decent. The 49ers in a normal year are better than the Arizona Cardinals. We know that the Seahaw year are better than the Arizona Cardinals. We know

that the Seahawks are better than the Arizona Cardinals. And now the Rams were already better last year. And now the Rams got Matt Stafford over Jared Goff. So they're going to be better. Cliff Kingsbury has underachieved as a head coach every single place he's been. He had Baker Mayfield early in Texas Tech. Couldn't win over eight games. He had Patrick Mahomes at Texas Tech. Couldn't win over eight games. He's had the number one pick in Kyler Murray two years in a row.

Hasn't been able to win more than eight games. Hasn't made the playoffs. And we're going to compare the Cardinals like they're some sort of contender who's equal to the Titans who went to the AFC Championship game in 2019, won their division and made the playoffs in 2020, or the Green Bay Packers, who went to the NFC Championship game two years in a row, or the Buffalo Bills who went to the AFC Championship game last year, who all have better quarterbacks, Ryan Tannehill, Aaron Rodgers, and Josh Allen. I would say Cleveland is even better than Arizona.

I like Kyler Murray a little bit better than Baker, but Baker played better than Kyler Murray last year. Baker Mayfield was a better quarterback than Kyler Murray last year. And they have Myles Garrett. Now, the reality is, seems like DeAndre Hopkins probably put in a good word. Arizona is a great retirement community. So maybe J.J. Watt is just setting himself up for some nice weather and a good retirement when he's done. But the reality here is, and the reports have come out, that Indianapolis and Las Vegas offered more money than the Cardinals did.

And the Titans offer was similar. Now, when you say similar, that means that there were some differences so the Titans clearly offered less money whether it be overall or less guaranteed money and I would imagine that the Titans didn't want those guarantees to bleed into 2022 so they probably only wanted to guarantee one of his years rather than 23 million gives him the 15 in the first 15 and a half and then another eight and a half guaranteed the next year, or eight for 2022. Titans probably didn't want to make that big of a commitment, but we won't know for certain unless those reports come out in some way, but that's what we do know now. So to me, my final takeaway here is I wouldn't have wanted to pay J.J. Watt that much money.

If you pay J.J. Watt $15, $16 million a year, that is the only edge rusher the Titans can get in free agency. I would rather go with Hassan Redick for $10 million and a Tyus Bowser for $5 million or a Ryan Kerrigan and a Jadavion Clowney for $15 million total or $16 million total. I would rather split that money up. And it's not like you just have the $16 million to work with. You know, you can add on four I would rather take 20 million dollars and get two mid-tier edge rushers with potential or a veteran who you can count on who's cheaper than Watt then give Watt that money with

two years of guaranteed I wanted J.J. Watt on the Titans like the next person it definitely would have helped and it definitely made some sense but at that rate and clearly his mind is not about winning a Super Bowl he wanted money folks this was a money grab by J.J. Watt and I don't have a problem with it go get your money man if I had 31 million dollars sitting in front of me right now I don't care what happens I'm taking it whatever it takes but if you're J.J. Watt you've made buku bucks your entire career. I don't want to hear you tell me that you care about winning. That's all.

Because you don't. J.J. Watt does not care about winning. He wanted money. He wanted another big payday. This was a money grab. Pure money grab out of J.J. Watt and nothing more. So that's fine. I don't have anything against a money grab.

But do not come out and say that you care about winning. Because this move clearly indicates J.J. Watt doesn't give a damn about winning football games. He just wanted to get paid, and I don't have a problem with that either. Just don't be dishonest and don't try to tell us something that isn't true, but we are going to jump now into a Rollins rant on a big Twitter Tuesday. We will call it going over what was a hot topic in the sports journalism industry on Monday. So I'm going to dive into that with you guys. Before we do, I do want to tell you about the podcast from the Locked On Podcast Network,

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So go to rockauto.com right now. See all the parts available for your car or truck. And write locked on in the how did you hear about us box right underneath your shipping information so they know that we sent you. Amazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. RockAuto.com Okay guys, we are going to cap off this Tuesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast with a little Roland's rant, but also a little Tyler story time here for you guys. It's going to be a little bit of a conversation. There was a big topic of discussion

on Twitter on Monday within the sports journalism stratosphere, I guess you could say, within the community there on Twitter. And a lot of people chimed in, had a lot of you guys chiming in, because I had some things to say on Twitter and I just want to kind of expand upon those thoughts. So the topic was unpaid internships, especially in sports. In sports journalism, that is one of the most common things that you will see as people try to get into the industry. It's like this in a lot of industries, but especially in sports journalism, there is a major focus on unpaid labor and making people write stories for free, do leg work for

free, not just in sports journalism, but in journalism in general. And somebody tweeted out, I'm not going to talk about who it was or what it was, because I don't really think that it's the most critical to the discussion, but basically somebody tweeted out an unpaid internship opportunity in sports journalism, and it just took off. I mean, I saw hundreds of different people weighing in on the topic. It became a trending topic on Twitter, actually, for the day. So it kind of bled through sports journalism and the sports Twitter segment and into the rest, but here's what I have to say about this.

So just to give you guys background on where my thoughts come from, when I was a sophomore, my summer after my sophomore year in college, I applied and tried out to be the lead journalist for an all-star college baseball team. So there were baseball players from Ohio State. There were baseball players from Michigan, Penn State, you know, a lot of places in the Big Ten, some smaller schools mixed in there as well. I went to Ohio University. So there were a few players from Ohio University as well, but it was a college all-star baseball

team. They had a traveling league where they traveled all around the Midwest and played other college all-star baseball team. They had a traveling league where they traveled all around the Midwest and played other college all-star teams for baseball. So I got the job, or I got the opportunity is the right way to say it. I was selected to be the lead journalist. And at the time, guys, it was the best thing that had ever happened to me. It was the best internship you could get on campus. I'm really covering a team like a beat reporter. But it was unpaid. How can a college kid survive?

I was from three hours away from there. How could a college kid like me travel with a baseball team and be a full-time beat reporter, while also being able to afford an apartment on campus, or afford a house on campus, and everybody else went home for the summer, so it's not like I could live in a house with a bunch of other people who are on campus. It's not a possibility. And you guys, I don't talk about this stuff, but I had a very difficult socioeconomic background

I'm not going to complain too much life is what it is I'm 30 years old I've been able to have enough time to make my life what I want it to be but I did not come from a family background where people could pay for me to live in an apartment so that I could just focus all my time on an unpaid internship that literally was a full-time job where I had to travel to different states and different cities to do it but I had to do that unpaid internship to get a chance. And one of the reasons I got this opportunity right now talking to you guys is because of that experience that I showed David Locke. That was a big part of the experience in my portfolio that I submitted to get this chance. So I had no choice but to go after

unpaid internships. It's the only way to break in in this industry is to work for free. And luckily, I had a rich roommate named Nick from Michigan. Riches all get out. And I admit, I was jealous of, you know, all of the work that I had to put in during school while he got to be laissez-faire and go do whatever he wanted all the time and always had the financial safety net. There's always one phone call away from him getting whatever money he needed. I sold my vehicle for winter quarters books. I sold my car for $500 so I could just have my school books for one quarter my

sophomore year. I did not have the money to do this. Luckily, Nick let me live in his house that he bought on campus. Well, his mom bought or rented on campus. He went home for the summer to go party and have a great time. But he said, hey man, you can stay in my house during the summer while you're doing the internship so that you don't, you know, so you can do it. I literally wouldn't have been able to do it without that. And do you think I had any money for food or to go out and have a beer when I got home or anything like that? No, I got one free hot dog and one free drink at every game. I would eat the hot dog. I would drink a water, and then I would ask somebody else working if I could have their free hot dog. And if not,

then I'd only have a hot dog and a pop for two months during the summer every day. Now this isn't a pity story, but the point is the system that we currently have that set up that the most logical way for you to be able and the most likely way for you to be able to break into sports journalism for real, the most common path is unpaid labor. And what if somebody didn't have a friend or a roommate like Nick to let him live? What would I have done? I would have had to turn down the opportunity and go home. And not do the internship that literally gave me this opportunity.

And that gave me any legitimacy whatsoever at the time. The best internship on campus. That internship, we'll talk about this story later today, if that internship on campus, that internship, if things that we'll talk about this story later today, if that internship and everything else had gone correctly, that internship would have been the biggest moment of my entire collegiate career. And I wouldn't have been able to have done it if not for randomly meeting a rich roommate halfway through my freshman year, because one of my roommates left school and they put in a new transfer and he happened to be a rich kid whose mom had buku

bucks and bought him a house that he didn't even need to use for three months. If not for that, I wouldn't have been able to do that. And if not for that, I'm probably not doing this show. So I'm not saying that kids shouldn't do unpaid internships. I'm saying that if the only realistic way to break into an industry is to do unpaid labor, then you are drastically downsizing the scope of the type of people who will be able to access that opportunity. And it's even worse for minorities. It's even worse for people with less. But I came from a very poor socioeconomic background, which in my opinion is somewhat of a, not a minority of folks, because it's the majority of people in America at this point that are in

poverty circumstances in America maybe not the majority but it's a large enough chunk where I don't feel like calling it a minority but the point is there are so many people out there from backgrounds who do not have a financial safety net and everybody say oh well I had a I had a job I did three unpaid internships a way. Every single person you talk to says that was one phone call away from the financial support they needed. And I wasn't. And there's millions of kids out there who are just as talented as me or even more talented than I could ever hope to be, who will never, ever, ever be able to even think about doing an unpaid internship

because they simply cannot find a way to do that. So my qualm here is not with the person on Twitter offering an unpaid internship or throwing out the opportunity. It's the fact that this system, this sports journalism and journalism in general, this system is built off the fact that you have to put in unpaid labor for multiple years to even have a shot. And it's wrong. Shouldn't be that way. It just shouldn't. So that's my rant. That's my story time. It's the off season, guys. You guys get to learn a little bit more about me. we get to have some discussions about some of these larger topics within the sports world felt like this was a good opportunity

to discuss but remember tomorrow we are coming back we are talking Titans opponents in 2021 we are talking the 17th game that could be added to the schedule and what it means for the Titans who it is where it's going to be all that that different information. So we'll dive in that tomorrow. I will see you guys then. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.