Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Titans Connected to Julio Again, #TwitterTuesday Poll Results & a Mailbag!!

Episode Date: June 1, 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, this Tuesday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast is presented by the Peacock and Williamson podcast. NFL analyst Brian Peacock and former NFL scout Matt Williamson host Locked On's Peacock and Williamson every Monday through Friday. Brian and Matt give you a national perspective on all of the latest NFL news.

Make sure you check out the Peacock and Williamson podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, wherever you get your podcast. But on today's Locked On Podcast Network, wherever you get your podcasts. But on today's Locked On Titans podcast, we are going to have ourselves another Twitter Tuesday. And we are going to start off with, of course, more Julio Jones updates. I read an article on Twitter from Albert Breer from Sports Illustrated. It's his Monday morning quarterback article, and it had a lot of good updates on Julio Jones, including some information on the Tennessee Titans. So we're going to break that down to start. And then, of course, as part of our Twitter Tuesday, there has to be a Twitter poll where you guys help me out. And I threw out a scenario where most of us have agreed that a

second round pick has to be part of the Julio Jones trade package. But what else would you be willing to throw in to get the deal done? I'm going to reveal the results of the poll and tell you whether or not I agree with what you all decided. And then we will finish up our Twitter Tuesday, as we always do, with some mailbag questions from you guys. I got a lot of great questions ready to answer those. So we're going over some more Julio Jones updates. We got a Twitter poll about a Julio Jones trade and I got a mailbag full of questions

from you guys to answer. Excited to dive in to a Tuesday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. Let's get it. Titans fans, we are going to kick off a Twitter Tuesday by diving into this Albert Breer article from Sports Illustrated with some Julio Jones and some Tennessee Titans information. But before we do, this is normally the part in the show where I remind you that the Locked On Titans podcast is bringing you daily Monday through Friday content, something no other Tennessee Titans content creator can say.

So make sure you check out the podcast on whatever platform you do stream. And that is still true, but I have to admit the last four or five days, the podcast has been a hit, a little hit or miss. And I want to at least explain. So of course I had a wiring issue at the end of last week, and then I had a shipping delay that kind of threw a wrench in the schedule. And then this podcast is coming out on Tuesday afternoon rather than Tuesday morning because I cut my internet wire yesterday mowing my grass. So just real world problems.

Want to do at least explain up front why the podcast did not drop this morning, but you're most likely listening to this on Wednesday morning. So you will get yourself somewhat of a locked on Titans double up, but just real world problems here, guys. Logistical issues, you know, landscaping issues, all the like, but I'm certain that you guys have all been in similar positions in life where things just don't go right for a few days, but we're living, we're surviving, and I appreciate all of you guys being patient as I get these little issues figured out.

But let's get into this Albert Breer article. The number one thing that I wanted to point out here is Breer says that his guess is that a Julio Jones trade does get done this week. The Falcons want to sign their draft class as soon as possible. It's not something that you really want to wait around and do. They can't get their draft class into the building and can't officially start working with them in certain ways if they don't have pen to paper. So it's not like the type of thing where they can drag this Julio Jones thing into training camp and into August.

They need to get those draft picks signed and get them into the organization. Also, Albert Breer did do a good job of pointing out recent trades for first rounders. So these are players who recently went for first round picks in trades in the NFL. Brandon Cooks, he was 24. Khalil Mack was 27. Amari Cooper was 24. OBJ was 26.

Odell Beckham Jr. Frank Clark was 25. Laramie Tunsell was 25. Minka Fitzpatrick was 22. Jalen Ramsey was 24. DeForest Buckner was 26. Stephon Diggs was 26. And then Jamal Adams was 24. So the oldest player out of that set is Khalil Mack and he was 27. Julio Jones is 32 coming off a year where he played nine games. So basically the moral of

the story is the Falcons aren't getting a first round pick for Julio Jones based on that list that I read to you and the ages of the players who got traded. So that's a good thing for the Titans. We want this trade, at least for us fans of the team. We want the trade to happen as soon as possible. We want the Titans to not have to give up a first round pick. So precedent says that they should not have to do that. And the Falcons situation determines that the trade should go through pretty quickly.

But the biggest part of Albert Breer's article for Titans fans is this little blurb right here. Quote, all of this said, I'd say the Titans make the most sense for Jones. GM John Robinson has been unafraid to trade for veteran players in the past. Jadavion Clowney was a good example. And sidebar here, I know that they didn't trade for Clowney, but he's just saying take a risk on veteran players who you've got to give up a lot, you know, a big contract or a trade. I get what Breer's saying.

Back. And the departure of Corey Davis and Jonu Smith to the AFC East leaves the void that Jones could very easily fill. Also, the Titans are sitting at around $4 million in cap space. Ryan Tannehill has a sizable base for 2021, $24.5 million, over $23 million of which could swiftly be converted into signing bonus to create room for Jones. Here's the other thing.

Tennessee's core is in a window to contend now. Ryan Tannehill turns 33 in July. Taylor LeJuan returning from ACL will be 30 then. Kevin Byard will be 28 on opening day. And Derrick Henry is 27 and piling up mileage on his legs. Coach Mike Vrabel and GM John Robinson have a really good team that's been in the playoffs two years in a row, winning its division last year and going to the AFC title game the year before that.

They had to lop some guys off for cap reasons this offseason. Getting Jones would be a creative way to make up for it and give the current group a better chance to make a title run if you believe you can do it are you willing to mortgage 15 million in cap spending off Tannehill's deal in 2022 and 2023 when you should be cap healthier and fork over what might be the 60th pick in the draft and maybe another mid-round pick for Jones if I'm Robinson and Vrabel the idea would be tempting especially with other AFC contenders. Baltimore and New England. At least coming off as tepid.

On the idea of spending too much for Jones. End quote. So there you have it. That's just a succinct summary. Of exactly the position the Titans are in. And why they should do this deal. So I find that very interesting. Guys in the media are starting to come out.

And kind of hedge that the Titans will end up with Julio. These guys know a little bit of the rumblings behind the scenes. So all of this does make sense and it's all very positive news if you're a Tennessee Titans fan. Now we are going to get into the Twitter poll segment of our Twitter Tuesday. Before we do that, I want to tell you guys about rockauto.com. Rockauto.com is a family business that's been serving auto parts customers online for over 20 years. Rockauto.com's catalog is unique. It's remarkably easy to use, and with a few easy clicks, you can get anything that you need delivered directly to your door.

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asking you guys about a Julio Jones trade package. So it's become conventional wisdom. We've mostly all agreed that a second round pick in the 2022 draft will be the base compensation for a Julio Jones trade. But I don't think that alone gets the job done the Falcons will want another toss in now exactly what would that toss in be well I threw

that question I tossed that question out to you guys and I thought that the results were pretty interesting so winning the poll overall was a fourth round pick in 2022. 36% of you said that's what you would like to throw in with the 2022 pick. So a fourth round pick and a second round pick in next year's draft. But number two, the second highest answer in the poll was Rashawn Evans at 30%. And Rashawn climbed and climbed and climbed throughout the 24 hours that the poll was Rashawn Evans at 30% and Rashawn climbed and climbed and climbed throughout the 24 hours that the poll was up and I was surprised that's something that I've been throwing out a lot because I think it makes a lot of sense not only for the Titans but for the Falcons as well the Falcons are looking to cut salary with the Julio Jones trade so a lot of people are saying

to me well they're not going to take a player back, even though it's only $2 million in salary. But I don't think that the Falcons are done with the Julio Jones trade in terms of carving out more salary. I think a Grady Jarrett extension or restructure will be happening with the Julio Jones trade to create even more space for the Falcons to have wiggle room. And with that space, they could bring in Rashawn Evans so I think that makes a lot of sense and the Titans wouldn't have to give up so much draft capital

Rashawn Evans would almost replace the fourth round pick which I don't think you would get a fourth round pick for Rashawn straight up so you're inflating his value by doing that and I really like that uh third on the poll is 17 and5%, a 2023 third round pick. So to me, picks two years away obviously have less value than a pick in the upcoming draft. So the Titans wouldn't have to sacrifice their 2022 draft capital, but would also give up a mid round pick. I think that would be very advantageous for the Titans, but I think some people don't like the idea of putting that much of your future resources into a move right now. Understandable.

And then with 16% of the vote, the answer was other, and some people are saying nothing. The answer is nothing. You don't put anything else. You give up a 2022 second-round pick, you take all of the salary, and that's all you do. Some people have been arguing in my mentions that because the Titans are going to be taking back the entirety of Julio Jones's money, that that should mean that they don't have to give up anything outside of a second round pick. And while I agree with that thought process, this still is a competition. The Titans aren't just trying to match value to get Julio Jones in a vacuum. There are other teams here too, and because of that, I don't think that

that option is going to work for the Titans. But now, I want to get into some of your mailbag questions. There are a lot of them. There are a lot of good ones as well. So, I'm going to dive into those now. And the first question that I have here comes from Kyle Fulton, the real Kyle Fulton on Twitter, not the fake one. He says, where is Tannehill in your NFL QB rankings and why is he number one? That's really funny, Kyle. What's funny is as part of a project with the Locked On Network, I did a little bit of a quarterback ranking and you guys will know my official

answers to that question very soon, but for the time being, I had Ryan Tannehill ranked as the 7th best quarterback in the NFL, 7th or 8th, I could see that argument either way, but I had him at 7th, and then Kyle also tagged one of his friends I'm guessing and said specifically why is he so far in front of Dak it's not worth discussing listen I have Dak Prescott anywhere from when he's healthy from 9 to 14 somewhere in there so I'm high on Dak Prescott too but yeah I definitely do think that Ryan Tannehill is a better quarterback and then we have another question here from Wesley Surgeon, and he said, Do you see Anthony Ferkser being well-rounded enough at tight end as far as run blocking goes

to play the majority of the offensive snaps at the tight end position? As far as playing style, is Anthony Ferkser a similar enough player to fill the role that Jonu Smith leaves behind? The answer is no. No, I do not think Anthony Ferkser is well-rounded enough at tight end to be the Titans' number one tight end and get the most snaps. No, I think it's going to have to be very cut down the middle with Jeff Swaim. I think Swaim's going to have to play a very important role in the offense because he gives them a little more versatility in terms of not tipping their hand. Ferkser is just simply not

a good enough blocker at this moment in time to be the number one tight end out on the field on like a first down situation where teams will be worried about the run and the pass. He's just simply not. So I think the Titans will have to get somebody else in there that provides versatility to help go along with Swain, to help go along with Ferkser, to help bridge that gap. So I don't, and I don't think that Fergster has a similar enough skill set to Janu either. I think Fergster is more of a big wide receiver. His skill set is more similar to

an Adam Humphreys than it is a Janu Smith. So that's my answer to that. Next, we have a question here about the Titans wide receiver core from my boy Kay says, she says, where would you rank the Titans wide receiver core if Julio was added this was kind of a tough exercise for me I looked at teams like the Bills who definitely have a great wide receiver core the Cowboys who I think have a very good one the Giants now have a very good one the Vikings the Bengals even the Arizona Cardinals the Cleveland Browns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of course have a fantastic wide receiver core. The Broncos, though young, have a very good wide receiver core. I also think the Seattle Seahawks, at least their front two, and then they added Dwayne Eskridge. I think they have a very solid

receiver core, but I would say the Titans, if they added Julio Jones with Julio Jones, A.J. Brown, and Josh Reynolds, I would say that is a top 10 wide receiver core. Don't know the exact number of where I would put them, but definitely a top 10 group if they are able to get Julio Jones. Next, the question comes from Teddy Foth, and he has a two-part question. First, what do you think about the Titans roster and coaching staff? Do you believe that this organization has flipped the roster enough so far to make a playoff run, or what else needs to happen in order to win a Super Bowl?

I think that the coaching staff is a little bit better than league average. I think Mike Vrabel is a top 12 head coach, top 10 head coach right there in that range. I think the Titans roster is a top 10, top 12 roster in the NFL. I think if they do pull off the trade for Julio Jones, then yes, that is a Super Bowl winning roster. And then the second part of Teddy's question is going to come after we talk about some of our sponsors. Number one, we need to talk about Bilt Bar, the best tasting protein bars in the galaxy.

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and use promo code LOCKED15, you'll get 15% off your first order of the best tasting protein bars ever. Once again, use promo code LOCKED15 for 15% off at BuiltBar.com. We are going to cap off this Twitter Tuesday here on the Locked on Titans podcast by finishing off your questions from the mailbag.

Before we do, I want to remind you guys about the Locked on Today podcast. It's all the biggest sports news from all the major sports in under 20 minutes every single weekday. I like having the sports section read to you. Make sure that you check out the Locked on Today podcast from the Locked On Podcast Network wherever you get your podcasts. But part two of Teddy Foth's question was, why do you think the Titans haven't kicked

the tires on Zach Ertz? Okay, first off, Teddy, we don't know that they haven't. As a matter of fact, we got a little bit of a report on Tuesday afternoon about Zach Ertz's trade market, and I'm going to talk more about that in tomorrow's show so in the industry they would call that a tease but let's move on to the next question I have here and it's from Jesse Cooper and Jesse says will Jim Schwartz eventually call defensive plays and personally Jesse, Jesse, I think no. No, I don't think that he will.

I think he'll ultimately always be a consultant there. I think before Jim Schwartz is calling plays on defense, we'll have Mike Vrabel calling plays on defense, quite honestly. So that's kind of how I see that. The next question that I have here comes from Cody White and Cody says out of all the wide receivers that are in the free agent pool who do you think would be best suited to join the Titans that is not named Golden Tate so I've been pumping for Golden Tate for quite some time but uh uh if it's not Golden Tate to me the easy answer

to that would be D.D. Westbrook. I know that he's coming off of an ACL, but those seem to repair themselves much more quickly than they used to. So D.D. Westbrook could play out of the slot. He adds speed to the Titans wide receiver group as well. So I think that would make a lot of sense out of the free agent pool. Kind of the only player that I would really uh be high enough on to where I think it would make a difference for the Titans Cody sent in a second question thank you Cody and he says are there any Titans players that were not big name but for some reason you just really liked

watching them play for example I really liked Lavelle Hawkins and Justin Gage uh yeah for me I got a few uh a few names three names sprinkled out throughout the years number one I really liked Daquan Jones I made videos about Daquan he retweeted my work um the defensive line and the versatility displayed by Daquan Jones in his later years here here was never truly appreciated and it's hard to truly appreciate trench work like that it's just not what the casual fan will look at so Daquan never really got his roses, in my opinion, for how good he played later in his career on his second contract. Also, he wasn't around for very long,

but I really always liked Dexter McCluster. I really wanted him to work out. It didn't work out, but I don't know. Whenever he did good, it always made my heart feel good. And then Bo Scaife. The old tight end then Bo Scaife the old tight end Bo Scaife I always really enjoyed watching him play um rooted for him anytime he made any play so those are just three that that came to mind got some questions from the reviews as well shout out another one from Fatboy Guar I appreciate all of the answers or all the questions as a

five-star review here. He says, loving the take to Julio with the improvements to the offense, but that's now. Do you really, really trust in J-Rob to pick a QB two, three years from now? I like to think so, but backup QBs in past and draft pick

in the first round have been underwhelming. Okay, so J-Rob has his misses for sure, and especially at quarterback. It would be very rare to find a quarterback that succeeded whatsoever. You have Cole McDonald, didn't work out. You go back and you look at the draft pick of Luke Falk, which also didn't work out. You look at the development of Marcus, which didn't work out, which I don't know if you can really blame J-Rob on that. Wasn't a guy that he selected.

But yeah, it's fair to question whether or not you feel comfortable with John Robinson drafting a rookie QB. But here's what I would say. When John Robinson had to evaluate a high-level quarterback and go find a starting-level quarterback, he was able to identify those traits in Ryan Tlevel quarterback and go find a starting-level quarterback. He was able to identify those traits in Ryan Tannehill and go get him. So we're talking about John Robertson taking late-round quarterbacks.

You know, we're talking about Logan Woodside, Luke Falk, Deshaun Kaiser. We're talking about Kool McDonald. I mean, John Robertson was evaluating low-end quarterbacks and just taking a dart throw on guys so I don't think it's fair to evaluate his quarterback evaluating that way I think the only time John Robinson was asked to go find a high-level quarterback he did that with incredible success so if you have John Robinson knowing that he's going to use a first round pick on a quarterback I trust his judgment in that realm. So that's kind of how I see that. The next question, it's another one that comes from the five star reviews and

it's from Dale Big Sam. And he said, best Titans content out there. Thank you, Dale Big Sam. Love the show. My five month old daughter and I listen every morning when I take her to daycare. Dude, that sort of stuff makes me want to cry, man. Thank you, Dale Big Sam. You're going on a road trip and you can only use three artists slash bands to build your playlist. Who's on there? Well, if you mean like old time, for me, it would be Drake, Young Jeezy, and Linkin Park.

I got to have Drake in there. He's my favorite. He gives me emotion. He gives me, you know, the classic swagger and bravado of hip hop. He gives me everything. It's like R&B and hip hop mixed together. So gotta love that. Uh, Linkin Park is my favorite, like rock band of all time. I know that super like angsty white teen from the Midwest, but Hey, guilty. Uh, and then, uh, Young Jeezy, he, uh, while Drake gives me, gives me you know the the bravado and the macho

that you need and the swagger that you need from rap music he does make more emotional music as well at some point in time I need somebody just to slam out my speakers and get me hyped and I'm gonna go with young Jeezy for that so those aren't my three favorite artists of all time but for riding in a car their catalogs collectively would get me through. Now, I do have to say that if you ask me like right now today, I'm getting in the car right now, it's going to be Drake and Linkin Park for sure. But I'm throwing in Benny the Butcher. I've been really on Benny the Butcher lately. If you're a fan of hip-hop, you like that old school sound,

that late 90s, early 2000s sound, you got to check out Benny the Butcher, BSF, Conway the Machine. Those are my dudes right now whatever getting too deep into uh the hip-hop head stuff but yeah that's that's where I'm at so uh that is the uh final I guess normal mailbag questions my guy Rex my buddy Rex uh always has some difficult questions always has a lot to say, and I do appreciate it. But basically, he asked me to kind of give a scouting report on all of the Titans' wide receivers that they have right now. And I didn't want to go through nine or ten different people

all the way down to Mason Kinsey. I'll go with the people who I think are going to make the roster if things stood the way they stand right now, and this is pre-Julio Jones trade. You have A.J. Brown. Obviously, a lot of you guys know the scouting report on A.J. Brown. Physical, over the middle, yards after catch guy. Good speed, good strength.

Has the ability to go up and make a play on the ball. He's almost a complete wide receiver. Just got to improve his footwork on his releases. Got to improve his timing and staying low out of his breaks on his routes. Just perfecting and refining the craft and all the little nuances of playing wide receiver. That's all that A.J. Brown really has to do from here on out. God, I love watching A.J. Brown play football. Josh Reynolds, very tall guy that allows him to go up and get the ball over top of people.

While he does have good speed, he's not a burner. He's 6'3". So guys that tall are typically not going to be as fast as some of the smaller guys. Because he's that tall, high-hipped, he doesn't have great change of direction, needs to work on sinking in his route, staying low out of his route so he can burst out of his, you know, routes going over the middle, routes breaking to the sideline, comeback routes, curls, things like that. So he just needs to work on the precision of his routes.

Like I said, he's never going to be a burner speed guy. He's never really going to be a guy that you want to throw a bunch of screens to and just get the ball to for yards after the catch. While he can do that, that's not going to be his specialty. Next, you have Cam Batson. Batson is a smaller guy, so really good change of direction, really good agility, but needs to work on contact strength, keeping the ball, keeping his hands on the ball through contact, working through presses at the line of scrimmage, working through physicality with cornerbacks across from him. Those are things he has to get better on.

His timing, right now he's kind of a one-speed player. He needs to work on setting up his routes. Those are nuances of the position that you need to learn through reps. I put speed control as something. Like I said, you've got to learn when to use first gear, second gear, third gear. You can't be in third gear all the time. That's something that Batson needs to work on, but a lot of his problems are he's a smaller guy, and if he's not very refined with his route running, precise with his route running, he's going to have a hard time getting through the physicality of

bigger cornerbacks at the NFL level. Nick Westbrook-Akina, almost the opposite. A very big guy, very strong, 6'3", but he's not very agile, he's not quick, he doesn't burst out, he's not the yards after the catch threat that the Titans are necessarily looking for, again, as a tall guy like Reynolds, he has a hard time staying low out of his breaks and being quick out of his breaks with his routes, so that's something that he'll need to work on, then Des Fitzpatrick, we've talked a lot about his evaluation, doesn't have elite speed evaluation doesn't have elite speed doesn't have elite athleticism has good body control six foot one pretty good size he's not going to go up and

jump over top of people but he's got really good body control really good adjustments to the football to make a catch but he just doesn't have anything elite about his profile he is a solid route runner though he's a guy who does good releases and that's going to help him against press coverage at the NFL level and then Racey McMath he's just a really really fast guy doesn't have much polish doesn't doesn't have much nuance needs work on route running just didn't have a lot of reps in college because he was behind studs non-stop so that's really where things stand right now the Titans need a game breaker with game breaking speed I've been saying that all all season. They do not have that at this moment in time.

While Batson does have really good speed, he's not a good enough wide receiver overall to be able to consistently give that to the Titans offense and be counted on. So a guy like Julio Jones, who may be 32 but still has elite speed, can be an elite deep threat and allow A.J. Brown to be open over the middle to do what he does best. But that is going to do it for today's show. On tomorrow's show, we're going to talk tight ends.

We have some reports there on that front. We're going to talk about some general Tennessee Titans news. Also talk about, like I said, options at tight end for the Titans to go along with the news report that we are going to discuss. But that's going to do it for me today for this Twitter Tuesday. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans.