Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Titans Key Dates Ahead, Free Agency Types & Rowland's Rant on Brady v Tannehill

Episode Date: February 9, 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 on the Monday edition of the Locked On Titans podcast, I made a promise to you guys. I promised that this week we would start diving into free agency. Monday edition of the Locked on Titans podcast, I made a promise to you guys.

I promised that this week we would start diving into free agency, begin our free agency preview and look at all of the names and options that the Titans will have on the open market. But there's one other promise that I made in January that I need to pay off first. And one of you asked me on Twitter, at TicTacTitans, if I could go over all of the key dates for the Tennessee Titans offseason. So that's why today is syllabus day on the Locked on Titans podcast. Let's go over all of the key dates and all the key deadlines for the Titans in the coming months. Now, after we go over all of those key dates, talk about the names on the Titans that will be affected by these deadlines,

then I want to cap off today's Tuesday edition by going into a Rollins rant. So I've seen the debate pop up online since the win on Sunday, but everyone going back and forth on Titans Twitter about Tom Brady and Ryan Tannehill. So I'm going to give you a little Roland's rant to end today's show, just summing up my thoughts on this divisive topic that is constantly debated and has been constantly debated not only through the season, but now after Brady brought home a Super Bowl, it's only natural that that debate would pop back up again.

So I'll give you my end-all, be-all thoughts on the Ryan Tannehill vs. Tom Brady discussion. Now, going forward throughout the week, I am keeping that promise. We will begin our free agency preview on Wednesday, starting with the offensive side of the ball. That will continue into Thursday, Friday, and into early next week as well. You don't want to miss any of my free agency preview.

Make sure that you're subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast, whether that be on Apple iTunes, and into early next week as well. You don't want to miss any of my free agency preview. Make sure that you're subscribed to the Locked on Titans podcast, whether that be on Apple iTunes, whether that be Google Podcasts, whether that be Stitcher, whether that be Spotify. Whatever platform you find podcasts, you can find the Locked on Titans podcast there. So make sure that you are subscribed so you don't miss any of the Monday through Friday content that I will be pumping out all off-season long. But speaking of Monday through Friday content, that includes today, and it is syllabus day here

on the Locked on Titans podcast. Let's get it. Ladies and gentlemen of the class, would you please pull out your syllabi so that we can take a look at the key dates that lie ahead for the class. Now, obviously, some of my college experience is bleeding into today's show, but overall, let's go over the Titans offseason schedule now I will admit that once we get to about May or June the NFL hasn't really locked down specific days because obviously there are still some upheaval with the pandemic some unknown variables that could change but all the way up until about the beginning of June we do have a good idea of what the Titans

schedule will look like and when some of these big decisions and big moments will come. So let's dive right into this syllabus and right into the Titans schedule. As we sit here today, it is February the 9th. So about two weeks from now, on February the 23rd, the tag period begins. That would be franchise tags. That would be transition tags. And if you remember last year, the Titans did place the franchise tag on Derrick Henry. Now, by the later deadline in the offseason, they were able to lock down a contract extension

so that Henry did not play on the franchise tag. But that period where the Titans first were allowed to make that decision began right around this time last year as well. So between February the 23rd and March the 9th, the Titans have to decide if they are going to franchise tag or transition tag any player. And let me explain the differences here. So overall, the big difference between a franchise tag and a transition tag any player. And let me explain the differences here. So overall, the big difference between a franchise tag and a transition tag is the amount of money that the team will pay the

player if they utilize that option. So with the franchise tag, you get the average of the top five players at your position. With the transition tag, the big difference is you get the top ten at your position averaged out. So the franchise tag is top five. The transition tag is top ten. Now, as for the options that the Titans would have, you look at their big name in-house free agents. Number one, Corey Davis. their big name in-house free agents. Number one, Corey Davis. If the Titans were to franchise tag Corey Davis, bringing him back on a one-year deal,

they'd be looking at $15 million. I don't think that that's going to happen, folks. Daquan Jones on the defensive line, $13 million would be the franchise tag for him. Jadavion Clowney, $1 million more, $14 million for Clowney, but I do believe that the Titans and Clowney had an agreement there where they would not franchise tag him this offseason, so I wouldn't expect that either. And then Jayon Brown for an interior linebacker, stand-up linebacker, looking at about 14 million dollars as well because some of that is kind of baked into the edge linebackers and they

will inflate that. Now, the last one that I want to talk about here is the only one that I think makes any sense whatsoever, and it's based on the price, guys, and that is at tight end. Jonu Smith. If Jonu Smith were franchise tagged, it would be $8 million on a one-year deal. Now, with Jonu Smith, I get the feeling that he might get around $8 to $9 million on a one-year deal. Now, with Jonu Smith, I get the feeling that he might get around $8 to $9 million on a long-term deal from a different team on the open market.

But for the Titans, the Titans simply can't afford to do that. So I do think that if things go awry in free agency for the Titans, they might go ahead and place the franchise tag or they think that things might go awry in free agency planning out what could happen.

The Titans don't have a tight end on the roster right now. So when you consider that, it doesn't seem crazy to bring John U. Smith back for one year. Let's see what John U. Smith can do when he isn't forced the back half of the season to constantly chip and help the offensive line with pass blocking. Let's see what John U. Smith can do as a matchup tight end in Todd Downing's offense. That would be an interesting look at Jonu Smith to see if he's really worth that kind of money long term.

So I think Jonu as a franchise tag is a possibility, although I will say I do think it's very unlikely. And the next thing that we will lead into is free agency itself. And while free agency doesn't start on this day, free agency does begin March 15th for the tampering period. So basically, free agency starts on March the 17th officially. But on March the 15th, there's a two-day window between the 15th and the 17th where teams are allowed to negotiate deals. Like I said, it's a tampering window. The free agency period hasn't started, but you have the ability to negotiate deals with other teams' players. So that's a tampering window for two days. And then at 4 p.m. on March the 17th, free agency opens, and that coincides as well with the beginning

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BetOnline, your online sportsbook experts. we kicked off today's show by talking about some of the big early events that the titans will have on their off-season calendar number one the tag period for franchise tag and transition tag options is between February 23rd to March the 9th. And then March 15th kicks off a two-day free agency tampering period before the official league year and free agency officially opens at 4 p.m. on March the 17th. And of course, that's 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. March the 17th, and of course that's 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. But I want to talk about some of the categories of free agency in regards to the actual schedule.

So with free agency, you have three different kinds of free agency. You have unrestricted free agency. That's just traditional free agency like you would think of normally. The players on the open market, they can choose to go to whatever team they want. And I talked about some of the big names that the Titans have that fit that mold. Corey Davis, Jonu Smith, Daquan Jones, Jadavion Clowney, Jayon Brown. But what's more interesting

is some of the restricted free agent options that the Titans have. So here's how restricted free agency works in the NFL. It's very different from what we see in the NBA. But in the NFL, restricted free agency is essentially for undrafted free agents. If you have had three years of NFL service, think a typical NFL rookie contract is four years long. So if you were an undrafted free agent who came in, got a training camp deal, got signed

to an active roster, then maybe something we'll talk about, you were an exclusive rights free agent after that. But you've played three seasons in the NFL. You're not on a traditional rookie contract because you weren't drafted. You get restricted free agency. So someone who qualifies for that on the Titans would be Anthony Ferkser. That's a perfect example here. Now how this works.

So the Titans basically when free agency opens, they get to decide how much they value a guy like Anthony Ferkser. So what they can do is they can basically assign a round to him, a round value, first round value, second round value, or if you go any lower than that, it's just first refusal. The Titans have the right to say they don't want to match a contract. So what the Titans do is they put one of those three tags on the guy. They say Anthony Ferkser is worth the first round pick, tags on the guy. They say Anthony Ferkser's worth a first round pick, which is $4.7

million. Anthony Ferkser is worth a second round pick. That's $3.3 million. Or it's first refusal. They can say, no, we don't want him. That's $2.1 million. So the way that this works is, let's say the Titans put a first

round tender on Anthony Ferkser. If another team signs him and the Titans don't match that offer, that team has to say the Titans put a first round tender on Anthony Ferkser. If another team signs him and the Titans don't match that offer, that team has to give the Titans a first round pick. But if Anthony Ferkser doesn't get a contract offer from any other team and he doesn't set up a new contract with the Titans, well then the Titans would have to pay him a one-year contract worth $4.7 million. Same thing if the Titans designated him as a second-round tender. If another team signs him, they've got to give the Titans a second-round pick.

If the Titans don't give him a new deal and no team signs him, the Titans would have to give him a one-year deal worth $3.3 million. And then first refusal, that's no draft pick included. Basically, if another team signs Anthony Ferkser the Titans could say hey we don't want him and the team doesn't have to give him anything but if nobody signs Anthony Ferkser and the Titans don't work out a new deal with him

now he gets 2.1 million dollars on a one-year deal from the Titans so other than Anthony Ferkser the other guys who fit in that mold Deontay Foreman, Jameel Douglas, Matt Dickerson, and Joshua Kalou. Now, I don't expect the Titans to put a tender on any of those guys except Anthony Ferkser. And I do expect that the Titans will put a first refusal on Anthony Ferkser, which means that if another team does sign him, they won't have to give the Titans anything. But if nobody offers him a contract

then the Titans only have to pay Anthony Ferkser 2.1 million dollars for the 2021 season and I know that you guys may not think this way but that's more money than Anthony Ferkser is worth so the Titans may not do any of that and if the Titans don't put a tender on Anthony Ferkser then he gets to become an unrestricted free agent entirely. Now, what the Titans could do is they could let Ferkser become an unrestricted free agent and not tender him and then sign him back to a deal lower than $2.1 million. And that's what I expect to happen. Now, outside of regular free agency, restricted free agency, the third kind of free agency is exclusive rights free agency. The third kind of free agency is exclusive rights free agency.

And that's basically, remember I just said, if you have an undrafted free agent who's been in the NFL for three years, they get restricted free agency. Well, if they're an undrafted free agent who's been in the NFL for less than three years, like Anthony Ferkser last off season, then you're an exclusive rights free agent. And that basically means the team that had you on their books has exclusive rights to you. So what happened last year was the Titans put an exclusive rights free agent tender on Anthony Ferkser, on Cam Batson. And what happened there was they got those guys on a one year deal for the amount that

was tendered to them. And no other team is able to negotiate and take them away. So basically those players have no choice whatsoever but to return to the Titans. So the players who qualify for that this year are Kari Blossomgame, Nick Westbrook-Akeem, Wyatt Ray, and Breon Borders. And I fully do expect the Titans to put an exclusive rights free agent tag

on Kari Blossomgame, on Nick Westbrook-Keene, and also on Breon Borders. So those three players I would expect to, at the minimum, be back in Titans training camp. Now that's not a guaranteed deal. They can get cut and the Titans won't be on the hook, but those are three names out of that list that I expect to be back. Now moving forward into the next key dates for the Titans after we explain free agency a little bit more. April the 5th, teams who have hired a new head coach, obviously the Titans don't

qualify here, but teams that have hired a new head coach on April the 5th can get back in the building and start doing workouts with their existing players or anyone who needs to get in the building for treatment. On April the 19th though though, any other team who maybe doesn't have a new head coach can start their in-the-building training. Now, will that go off as scheduled based on the pandemic? We don't know for certain, but that is how the schedule lies. And then, the biggest day of the off-season calendar, will rise and then the biggest day of the offseason calendar April the 29th through May the 1st the NFL draft will take place so obviously a monster day now I do want to say that days that are

normally on the calendar like the combine like pro days like fifth year option deadlines we don't know those days yet well we know that the combine won't be taking place as normal it'll be done virtually but pro days haven't been set because that's obviously done by individual players at individual colleges. And then the fifth year option, along with training camp and OTAs, all of those dates have not been set by the NFL yet, obviously because of the unknown variables due to the pandemic. But as soon as those dates are set, I will bring that information to you and, fifth year option, that's a big deadline day for the Titans

with Rashawn Evans' fifth year option looming large. Now, I personally think that'll be declined, but we do have to wait and see what John Robinson decides to do with the 2019 first rounder, or 2018 first rounder in Rashawn Evans. But let's move into the last portion of our show today. And it will be my Roland's rant about Tom Brady versus Ryan Tannehill.

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But diving into this Rollins rant here, I've seen people, now not everyone outright comes out and says, you know, the Titans should have got Tom Brady, the Titans would have won with Tom Brady, this, that, and the third. It's a debate that wages. And I'm very conflicted here. So one, just overall, Ryan Tannehill and Tom Brady were both excellent this year. And if you had to rank the quarterbacks from one to 32 and how well they played, I would venture to say that Tom Brady and Ryan Tannehill are like six and seven.

One could be six. One could be 6, one could be 7. Just depends on how you feel what you're looking for. Going forward though, outside of the fact that both of them have just played fantastic this year, you look at the difference in the way they play and you have to think about how would that have translated. So clearly Arthur Smith had a system in place that worked to the advantage of all of the Tennessee Titans players. Make no mistake, that wouldn't have been the system that would have been run if Tom Brady would have signed with the Titans.

The Titans can't run boot play action outside zone nonstop with Tom Brady. He just doesn't have the mobility and the athleticism to do that at age 43. He never really had the mobility and athleticism to do that at any point in time during his career. So Ryan Tannehill fit perfectly in the system that the Titans had. So overall, my big point here is the Titans probably wouldn't have been as successful in the regular season with Tom Brady at quarterback. Because one, the weapons that the Buccaneers have are better than the Titans. They have a better offensive line. They have better wide receivers.

They had a better tight end group. Now running back, obviously, Derrick Henry is better. But every other position on the offensive line, the Bucs were better. And we don't even need to talk about the defense. So Tom Brady, there's no way that he would have been able to accomplish what he accomplished in Tampa Bay in Tennessee because the Titans didn't have the roster that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had. Clearly they didn't have it on defense.

And the Titans surely don't have a Todd Bowles coaching their defense either. So if you're Tom Brady, it would have been a colossal mistake to go to Tennessee and saddle yourself up with Mike Vrabel and Shane Bowen on defense, clowns, when it comes to calling defensive football. I mean, they're good coaches overall, but they just can't call defense. So if you're Tom Brady, it wouldn't have made sense for you to do that anyway considering the way things worked out. And Tom Brady would not have been able to get this Tennessee Titans team to a Super Bowl.

He wouldn't have. Ryan Tannehill was better for the Titans in the regular season. Now, I say that, and I know you guys are waiting for, wait a minute, what comes next here. But on the flip side, if you look at the Ravens game, the wild card game, the Titans win that game if Tom Brady's their quarterback. Because what the Ravens did to the Titans to shut them down is what Tom Brady has been able to take advantage of his whole career. Tom Brady's going to get the ball out quick. He's going to be precise.

He's going to put it in the exact spot. Guys, I know that a lot of people think that if you throw the ball to the wide receiver's chest or so that it's an accurate pass. That's not always true. Sometimes you need to throw the ball out in front of your wide receiver. Sometimes it actually makes sense to throw it really, really low and kind of pull your receiver into the ground so that when they catch the ball, they have to go to the ground to catch it to get them away from taking a hit. Sometimes you got to throw it behind the wide receiver.

We actually saw Ryan Tannehill do that with a pretty awesome play against the Houston Texans in that final game to Corey Davis on third down. So while Ryan Tannehill has that in his bag, he's just not as consistently pinpoint accurate as Tom Brady. And he doesn't get the ball out as quick as Tom Brady. He doesn't read defenses as quick as Tom Brady. Now, Tom Brady does that stuff probably as good as it's ever been done in the history of football. So it's not a major knock on Ryan Tannehill to say that he doesn't do that as well. But in the situation that the Titans got put in against the Steelers,

in the situation the Titans got put in against the Ravens, these teams were just lining up and they were blitzing. They were sending the house. They're bringing five or six and telling the Titans to get rid of the ball quickly and play Brady ball. And quite frankly, the Titans really, really struggled in that aspect of their offense. So to me, Ryan Tannehill was the better quarterback for the Titans for the regular season, but the Titans win the game against the Ravens if Tom Brady is their quarterback. And that's

the best way that I can put it. Overall, the Titans made the right decision. There are more regular season games than there are playoff games. And I don't know if Tom Brady gets this Titans team to the playoffs in the regular season last year. I do know that Ryan Tannehill could have done that though. So for me, Ryan Tannehill is the better long-term option for the Tennessee Titans, despite the fact that Tom Brady probably would have won them that playoff game against the Ravens, but I don't think that he would have won them their next game. So one game versus the entire season, give me Ryan Tannehill.

But that's going to do it for today's episode. Did a Roland's rant there on Tannehill versus Tom Brady. Also, it was syllabus day. Went over all of the key dates coming up for the Tennessee Titans. Talked about franchise transition tag. Talked about free agency. Talked about the draft as well. So I will kick off the free agent frenzy tomorrow as we go over quarterback and running back, maybe even a little wide receiver.

Obviously, I have to leave myself room, guys, for any big news, any big cuts, any big things that happen with the Titans going to lead the show there. But after that, we'll dive into all of the big free agency preview information that we have to get into. But that's going to do it for me today, folks. Make sure that you subscribe to the Locked on Titans podcast on whatever platform you do stream. As always, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was Locked on Titans. you